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August 16, 2006
Poor Boy George
Normally the picture du jour is one that I take, not one that I steal from the Associated Press (thank you, Louis Lanzano). But how about this poignant shot of bald, portly Boy George sweeping up trash under the watchful eye of New York City’s finest?
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August 7, 2006
We can't rewind, we've gone too far
Put the blame on Duran Duran.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the 80s lately. The recent 25th birthday of MTV was for me a bittersweet occasion, and not just because it marks those of us who can remember life before MTV as officially Old. It’s also because I feel about those days of the early 80s the way some people feel about the 60s: It was an era when things were changing, the old rules no longer applied, and anything seemed possible. And looking back now with the right set of eyes, you can definitely see the high-water mark—the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
The mid-70s had been the era of disco and progressive rock, twin blights that threatened to extinguish music as we know it. (I am grossly oversimplifying, of course. There was a lot of great music in the mid-70s—consider the work of David Bowie, Kraftwerk, and Lee Perry just for starters—but I’m making a point here.) Then just when things were at their bleakest, along came punk and new wave. Never mind the Sex Pistols, how about heroes of the revolution like Devo, Wire, Gang of Four, X, the Clash, the Cure…well, it’s a long list…anyway, this new generation of artists overthrew the status quo and suddenly the future looked bright again. Well, exciting anyway, if not always bright. (Bauhaus, I’m talking to you.)
Then MTV came along, and partly because it was marketed to kids my age, and partly because it had 24 hours to fill every day, it gave exposure to a lot of these new artists. By 1981 we were already well into the second stage of the revolution, where some of the originators had fizzled out and been replaced by a deluge of bandwagon-jumpers. Even so, MTV gave airplay to people who never made it on radio or had been pigeonholed as one-hit wonders. Sure, “Whip It” had been a big hit for Devo, but only MTV played “Beautiful World.” Rock radio paid lip service to the Clash, but never played them aside from “Train in Vain” and the songs from Combat Rock. Did you ever hear “Radio Clash” on an AOR station? I don’t think so, but you saw it on MTV.
Back in those days, when MTV actually played music videos, it was a good place to discover new bands. I’d never heard of X before I saw the video for “The Hungry Wolf” on 120 Minutes. My first prolonged Bowie exposure came from the videos from Scary Monsters. And if, as an MTV viewer, you tended to end up with records by people like Naked Eyes, Classix Nouveaux, and EBN-OZN in your collection, was that so bad?
So where did it all go wrong? I blame Duran Duran. Not that they were the worst band around—they had some good songs, in fact—but the videos featuring the Durannies, pretty young men in pastel 80s fashions, were the beginning of MTV’s slide from innovation to mere trendiness. It was inevitable anyway; given the power of the medium, it was only a matter of time until the agents of the Long Plastic Hallway were going to swoop in and take over. Pretty soon mainstream artists dominated MTV, then it started doing half-hour shows instead of playing videos, and so on until it became the all-day crapfest it is today.
Too bad. For a minute there it looked like quality music and mainstream music were going to become, if not one and the same, at least agreeably overlapping. I know that sounds naïve today, like thinking that everyone’s going to start practicing peace and love and wearing flowers in their hair, but it was a different time. Maybe this generation coming up now, the MySpace kids, will finally dislodge the Plastic Mafia from its dominant position in the music industry. Probably not, but it doesn’t hurt to dream.
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August 5, 2006
Area Man Nurses Grudge Against The Onion
Those bastards at The Onion have done it again: Reached into my brain and plucked out something that’s been rattling around in there unused, then exploited it for their own comedy purposes. I’ve been saying for years that bacon is a condiment, so imagine my surprise this week upon sitting down at the coffee shop and opening up the print version to this story:
Report: Meat Now America’s No. 2 Condiment
Am I saying that The Onion owes me something for this, like a staff job or at least a large cash payment? Absolutely I am saying that. That’s exactly what I’m saying. Those bastards.
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August 2, 2006
A few basic instructions
What is efficacy? It is effectiveness in submission to what is right, most effective in abiding in faithfulness to rectitude. Only thus is it an auspicious path that is sound in the beginning and sound at the end. One aims for the submission of unruliness, the rectification of error, cultivating oneself and controlling the mind, getting rid of all seeds of vicious circles, not letting any pollution remain in the mind; being utterly empty, serene and sincere, the human mentality does not arise and the mind of Tao comes into being. After rectitude comes creativity, and while flexible is firm, and while receptive one can be strong: Whatever one creates grows, and whatever grows bears fruit, and the fruits are all good. So the submission and receptivity of abiding in rectitude is no small matter.
—The Taoist I Ching
translated by Thomas Cleary
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