Ugh… please, can we have no more of these celebrity Obama videos? I really have no idea who these are aimed at, aside from the celebrities themselves. And this one isn’t even a halfway decent song, at least the Yes, We Can song was kinda unique. There is just something so sickening to me about smug, self-assured celebrities smiling and nodding at me in black and white – it really makes me want to hide back into my non-voting anarchist hole again. Can they honestly think that swing voters have any interest in seeing a bunch of Gap ad-ass motherfuckers condescendingly inviting viewers to join them in the exalted enlightenment of the Obama team? It’s bullshit, and it’s the kinda bullshit that plays right into this argument:
I was on Fandango looking up movie times and I came across a film whose trailer I wished to watch. I clicked on the ‘Watch Trailer’ link and prepared to watch. I then was subjected to an ad to watch before my trailer, of another trailer. Ummm… a trailer is an ad. I just watched an ad for an ad.
Without knowing anything about the specific album, try and guess whether each album got a high or low rating.
It’s remarkably fun and I’m doing pretty well.
See, Pitchfork is the epitome of the new subjective style of criticism. All reviews are based solely on that reviewers personal reaction to the album. The article is then written in a lively, florid manner in support of that utterly subjective reaction. After reading enough of these you can see the trend. Grittily-produced rap and indie rock = high rating. Grittily-produced rap that the mainstream critical press has been praising recently = low rating. Well-produced complex music, such as modern classical, jazz re-issues, dense rock = low ratings, but not low enough to be dismissive. Re-issues of obscure 70s and 80s rock = stellar reviews.
I also like guessing the rating based on the name of the band (if I’m completely unfamiliar with them). The more ironic, the better the rating.
For some reason addiction has been a reading theme of mine in recent days. I am lucky to not have an addictive personality. It doesn’t really run in my family and I’ve never felt too much of the intense need for a substance/behavior. I often joke with myself that I don’t have the commitment for addiction. If there is one thing that runs in my family it is a commitment to constantly-shifting passions and interests. The men in my family tend to delve intensely into certain hobbies/subjects/ideas for a couple months at a time and then discard them for new ones (anyone who has read this blog for a significant amount of time will recognize this in me).
I often try to feed productive addictions though. Horn is a notoriously difficult addiction for me to sustain. Composing is catching on surprisingly well, but we’ll see how long that lasts. I like the feeling of desperation and loss that comes when I haven’t been creative for a time. The pain of fruitful withdrawals can be productive.
Anyway, here are a few perspectives on addiction I’ve come across in recent days:
From one of my favorite reads, Crispin Sartwell’s site, comes an intensely personal description of addiction:
Hating inanimate objects seems entirely senseless. Mere things have no intentions, make no decisions, commit no crimes. They aren’t guilty of anything. Why or how would you hate elements of the periodic table, clouds, liquids, rocks?
Nevertheless, far more than I hate any person, I hate alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, tobacco, methamphetamine, heroin. These stuffs or substances, these chemicals and vegetables and the fumes they emit when immolated, take away everything I have and everyone I love, every time. They are mindless, worthless, without value. They are empty. Meaningless. But they are the theme of my life. I came here to think, to study, to write. I came here to make love, to make babies, raise children, make a home, a garden, find some quiet joy. And my life has been dedicated to alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and annihilation.
Addiction, I tell you, isn’t an epic tale of redemption, material for your amazing memoir and appearance on Oprah. It isn’t a James Dean movie, a Hemingway story, or a Jimi Hendrix/Kurt Cobain song of suffering, hyper-intense genius. It’s dying by choking on your own vomit. It’s common as excrement and as profound: reeking, valueless, purposeless, pointless, meaningless.
There’s no little essence of wisdom suspended in the whiskey, no sparkling geode crystals inside the rock, no signal in the smoke. There just is nothing there.
Read on. It gets quite personal and very devastating.
And a completely ridiculous take by the awesomely-named Kim Komando on so-called Digital Drugs:
We all know that music can alter your mood. Sad songs can make you cry. Upbeat songs may give you an energy boost. But can music create the same effects as illegal drugs?
This seems like a ridiculous question. But websites are targeting your children with so-called digital drugs. These are audio files designed to induce drug-like effects.
All your child needs is a music player and headphones.
Understanding Binaural Beats
There are different slang terms for digital drugs. They’re often called “idozers” or “idosers.” All rely on the concept of binaural beats.
It is incorrect to call binaural beats music. They’re really ambient sounds designed to affect your brain waves.
For binaural beats to work, you must use headphones. Different sounds are played in each ear. The sounds combine in your brain to create a new frequency. This frequency corresponds to brain wave frequencies.
There are different brain wave frequencies. These frequencies are related to different states like relaxation and alertness.
Digital drugs supposedly synchronize your brain waves with the sound. Hence, they allegedly alter your mental state.
It would be really annoying if it weren’t so hilarious.
I will be performing excerpts from my Post-Christian Nihilist Pop Musical, The Little Death, on the East River Music Project this Saturday. Doors open at 2:30pm and I am opening, best of all it’s free! It is a showcase for New Amsterdam Records, that awesome new label you’ve all been hearing so much about. It should be an awesome show – it is the debut of my Lil Death Band, featuring Mellissa Hughes, Caleb Burhans, James Moore and Pete Wise, four of my favorite people on the planet. I am sharing the bill with some awesome acts as well: itsnotyouitsme, Timberbrit, Mark Dancigers, and Alex Sopp.
I Like Stuff – A gun-to-the-temple smile-fest from start to finish
He Touched Me (new version) – A hyper-sexualized cover of a gospel favorite
All of these songs feature soprano Mellissa Hughes, an amazing singer and my main collaborator on the musical.
I am also interviewed in the latest New Amsterdam Podcast, give it a listen to hear me speak with authority on subjects such as sexual undercurrents in Christian music and the use of Auto-Tune as a method of clearing ones soul free of sin.
Matt Marks Music 