Friday, September 5, 2008

The Twilight of an Era

Update. I will be taking some time off from posting – just for a week or two, depending on how relaxed I’m allowed to get – and when I return, my schedule is going to dramatically change. What this means is: I’m not sure what the future holds here at (B)HA(B)F, but you can bet it will be full of unsolicited commentary, timely or not…

Before I go, I wanted to leave you with some good stuff to ponder, but I couldn’t think of anything. So here’s some other stuff to check out:

Rhyme Culture links to a sizable collection of photographs from Iraq. Scary place, intense photography.

The Cool Hunter turned me on to the new RV scene. Forget the Winnebago, check out this thing. Remember, it’s not just a hobby – it’s a lifestyle. If I could only afford the gas…

If you need another reason to laugh at Britney Spears, here is a video of a typical Brit performance. Note: the only audio you will hear is coming directly from her microphone. Consider yourself warned. Thanks to Ladies Love Matt E for the link.

I guess Taipei is the new Tokyo, at least that’s what I gather from reading Transmissions from Wintermute. They do some entertaining blogging from Taiwan. Awhile back, they posted about an all girl band called GoChic!. I had to copy and paste their bio:

Biology: this is go chic (caution!! we're electro-hyphy-chiks hybridized punk-blues-rock psycho-fatherfuckeeeeeers, jump yr feeeets uppppp!!! or we'r gonna ATTACK u!)

I wish jazz bios were more like this.

And now for some bloggy ranting. I find it so cleansing. This time, the target is one of my favorites – to bash. He is a musician so overrated I feel compelled to call attention to any wrongdoing I can. Yes, his career has been long and he has won countless accolades from folks with dubious taste… Sorry, I don’t mean to be off-putting, but I’m talking about Eric Clapton. I really can’t stand his music. I don’t personally know the man, but apparently he’s racist, or was back in the seventies.

I can’t begin to cover whole story, though it’s very interesting. By all means, check out the full narrative. My purpose here to simply pile on the man responsible for so much adult contemporary garbage. And I’ve found a good one.

Here is a direct quote from a 1976 concert where we find Mr. Clapton expressing support for Enoch Powell, who was running for Prime Minister at the time:

“ I think we should send them all back. Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out. Get the wogs out. Get the coons out. Keep Britain white. I used to be into dope, now I'm into racism. It's much heavier, man. Fucking wogs, man. Fucking Saudis taking over London. Bastard wogs. Vote for Enoch, he's our man, he's on our side, he'll look after us. I want all of you here to vote for Enoch, support him, he's on our side. Enoch for Prime Minister! Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!"

I bet that was a fun concert, huh?

Speaking of politics - which I try not to do much of on this blog. But I can’t help it, I’ve been keeping up on things with Darcy James Argue – have you seen the footage from outside the Republican National Convention? Check out this, this and this. Two words: Police State. One more reason why they’re already calling this the “Post-American Era.”

Now that I’ve got that out of my system, I can’t leave you with all this negativity, can I? That’s not how I want to be remembered over the break. So in the interest of goodwill and fellowship, I’m ending this post with a video certain to bring a smile to even the most heartless of bastards. It’s dedicated to the Republican Party. Enjoy…



Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Authenticity for Sale, Part 2


Running the Voodoo Down linked to a recent article in the NY Times discussing the resurgence (again) of vinyl LPs. For all you youngsters, LP stands for LONG PLAYING, as opposed to EP which means EXTENDED PLAYING as opposed to a SINGLE which is… never mind.

It seems that in the ongoing quest for individuality, some have discovered that records are a cool way to say Look at me, I’m unique! While I agree that records are cool, this dependence on stuff for distinctiveness is not. If you’ve read some recent posts, you’d know that this kind of thinking really bothers me. Consumerism should not be a requisite of the counterculture (or any culture).Weren’t we supposed to be getting away from all of this? Haven’t we already agreed that rampant capitalistic behavior, if unchecked, is not healthy? Like, in a planetary sense?

Besides, it’s just so corny. All these quotes are straight from the article:

…As soon as she opened her door his instincts were confirmed: she had a turntable. So did he. They both spoke the language of vinyl… There was this immediate mutual acknowledgment, like “we both totally understood what we define ourselves by (Honestly, if you heard someone talking like this, would you be able to keep a straight face?)

Remember, its all about money. Do not think for a second that this “resurgence” is some precious underground movement…

“Even if the industry doesn’t do all that well going forward, we could really carve this out to be a nice profitable niche,” said Bill Gagnon, a senior vice president at EMI Catalog Marketing, who is in charge of vinyl releases. He said that people who buy vinyl nowadays are charmed by the format’s earthy authenticity. “It’s almost a back-to-nature approach,” Mr. Gagnon said. “It’s the difference between growing your own vegetables and purchasing them frozen in the supermarket.(Whaaa?)

If you’re looking for a conspicuous way to advertise your connoisseur status, I guess vinyl is the new Pabst. Just like the guy says:

When I can have all the music in the world in the palm of my hand, what does it say about me that I spend $15 to $20 for this format that is a pain to store and move and is easily damaged?

Let me take a stab at this. What it says, to me at least, is that we are on the eve of the apocalypse and your place in heaven will entirely depend on how you spent all your monopoly money.

Here’s a much more productive use of your time. This link will take you to a nice blog where you can learn how to:

- record vinyl to digital

- make glasses from old records

- clone a vinyl record

- Make your own vinyl record

I’m not going to get all preachy (too late?) and sum up this post with a plea for common sense or self reliance. Do what you want, by all means. But if you happen to appear in newspaper articles talking about how you attribute your identity to a fucking consumer product, you can expect at least a little bit of backlash. Peace.