The Tartar Sauce

Don't Believe The Hype: A Criticism of Criticisms of Rap

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:00:00 +0000

"Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it." – George Orwell

"Although American rap music has been used as a vehicle for the creation of novel indigenous musical styles (in South Africa), it has come under heavy criticism from the older generation of South African musicians, some of whom have dismissed indigenous rap as hopelessly imitative of the worst excesses of American culture…. South African jazz musician Hugh Masekela complained that 'our children walk with a hip hop walk and they think they are Americans….' Ironically, the jazz music Masekela… pioneered owed an equal debt to American jazz artists as kwaito does to American rap. Furthermore, Black jazz musicians of the 1950s were subject to similar criticisms by the cultural elite." – Zine Magubane, "Globalization and Gangster Rap."

"The Arabic hip hop genre has faced strong resistance from various cultural forces. Abbas, who traces the development of this genre across the Arab world, argues that this resistance was not necessarily the result of musical evaluation, but rather a natural reaction to anything that sounds western as well as the response of people who feel directly implicated and threatened by hip hop's criticism of their way of life." – Usama Kahf, "Arabic Hip Hop"

"Those interested in black music and black politics should check out studies on the racial uplift ideology literature of the late 19th Century through 1950s, which reveals, among other things, “New Negro” discomfort with black folk culture (demonstrative church music, blues, jazz, narratives depicting uneducated black folk.). This literature features recurring questions such as “How does popular black art affect the moral training of black children?” and “How will this art make us look to white people?” If you replace all of the “negro”s with “black”s or “African American”s,” you’d swear that these things were written today." – Gordon Gartrelle "The Problem With These Rap Critics Today"

"No question. Rap is the repetition of the minstrel show." – Wynton Marsalis

I know I'm just listing quotes, but that's because the quotes speak for themselves.

If you can't tell already, the aim of this post is to examine some of the most prominent criticisms of rap music. In some ways, these quotes contradict the points that I made in my earlier post about de-politicization. In that post, I discussed how white cultural critics have often criticized black musical forms because of their political aspects. But, as I noted, white critics have never been the only ones to criticize new black (or) political musical forms. As you can see, South African jazz musicians have criticized South African rap, Arabic hip hop has faced criticism in local communities, and Wynton Marsalis, a prominent black jazz musician, has been an incredibly vocal critic of hip hop.

What really amazes me is how almost universal these criticisms are. It seems that no matter what context hip hop is created in, there are always vocal critics of it who attack it using countless different arguments. A lot of these criticisms are valid; lots of feminist thinkers, for example, have rightly noted that a lot of hip hop contains deeply misogynist lyrics. But I think the key phrase in statements like this that makes them valid is "a lot of hip hop." The problem I have with criticisms such those of Marsalis is that they are sweeping generalizations that don't allow any room for exceptions. To label an entire musical form as "the repetition of the minstrel show" is a deeply problematic easy way out. Plus, a lot of these criticisms seem to be representative of an unwillingness to accept new musical forms.

One common thread that seems to lie behind all these criticisms of rap is a desire to hold on to tradition. This ties in to Kahf's quote about how many people "feel directly implicated and threatened by hip hop's criticism of their way of life." This argument can even be applied to my discussion of musical de-politicization (sorry to reference myself, but I do think it's relevant). The fact that lots of white cultural critics have criticized political black musical forms can easily be read as a desire to hold on to a tradition of power, since these critics feel threatened by hip hop. The critics discussed in the pieces by Magubane and Kahf can also be seen as feeling threatened by other political aspects of hip hop. Globalization is a powerful force, and the United States are one of the most influential countries globally; I observed this first hand while traveling this summer. While hip hop can be used in local communities as a tool of resistance, it still has ties to America, since it is historically an American musical form. This is another way in which people probably feel threatened by hip hop; American media can be seen in lots of different countries, and people who have this media imposed on them may understandably reject American musical forms that can even be used subversively. We can even read Wynton Marsalis's criticism as being a reaction to the threat that Jazz has faced from hip hop, which is a far more popular genre among young people today.

I'd like to discuss Marsalis's statement a little bit more, and why I feel it is so deeply problematic. Lots of people have proposed the "hip hop is minstrelsy" argument before, but some people, such as Jeffrey Ogbar, author of the book Hip-Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap, have taken a better approach to it. The problem I have with Marsalis's argument as opposed to Ogbar's is that while Marsalis condemns the entire form of hip hop, Ogbar makes a clear distinction between hip hop he sees as being a reprisal of the minstrel show, and hip hop that he views otherwise. In addition, he also provides historical context on both minstrelsy and hip hop. I don't have a problem with criticizing hip hop, as long as you don't dismiss the entire form, and as long as you back up your ideas without making sweeping claims.

I'll also add that the issue of holding on to tradition vs. accepting globalized music is a really complicated one, and I'm not trying to make it seem like the people who criticize hip hop in a global setting are wrong, since I really don't know enough about the specific contexts. I'm just pointing out that a lot of criticisms of hip hop come out of the same desire to hold on to tradition.

Awesome Song of The Week! "Nature Anthem" by Grandaddy

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:23:00 +0000

It's time for

AWESOME SONG OF THE WEEK!!!

My goal for this series is to introduce people to a lot of new bands, so I was hesitant about posting a Grandaddy song this week, since I've already featured them here. But this song is just too awesome to pass up. This was the song that got me through my all-nighter on Monday. Every time I felt too stressed, or like I wanted to go to sleep, I just listened to this silly song and watched a bunch of animals dancing, and then I was ready to work again.

It's very rare that something this simple is this amazing. The song only consists of three chords and one verse, and it's so repetitive, but that's just what makes it so catchy and infectious. And it's such a happy song. I know I've been posting some more depressing stuff, but I guess this shows you that I'm not a completely morbid guy. This song just makes me want to walk up the side of a mountain, and then probably walk down the other side of the mountain. Truly awesome.

Samurai Spirit: Orientalist Images of Japan in Contemporary Film

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:51:00 +0000

In her piece "Black Bodies/Yellow Masks," Deborah Elizabeth Whaley identifies four different Orientalist images that are commonly found in popular culture:

"(1) the sexualized, yet virginal Japanese geisha; (2) the South Asian Indo-chic; (3) the Chinese kung fu warrior; and (4) the use of Asian languages as an iconographic fashion statement detached from specificity of meaning and etymological usage."

While these images are important to recognize in popular culture, I also think that Whaley's list comes dangerously close to equating Japan with femininity and China with masculinity. That's why I want to concentrate on #3 in this post, specifically because "the Chinese kung fu warrior" definitely has a Japanese counterpart: the Samurai.

Many people have noted the Orientalist aestheics in the music and imagery of the Wu-Tang Clan. When looking at Whaley's list, it's obvious that the primary image used by the Wu-Tang Clan is #3. This is one reason why I'm using the image of the samurai as a parallel to the "kung fu warrior." The RZA, a member of the Wu-Tang Clan, has composed the score for two movies that I must admit I'm fond of, but that I also must admit show very orientalist images of samurai: Afro Samurai and Ghost Dog. These movies are also good reference points for discussing the same relationships between African American culture and Asian culture that Whaley discussed in her piece.

For this post, I'm going to specifically focus on Ghost Dog, since I've seen it way more times. This movie features Forrest Whitaker (one of a few famous alums of my high school), as a hit man whose entire personal philosophy is based on Hagakure, an 18th century book by Yamamoto Tsunetomo that outlines the code of the samurai. The one thing I will say in the film's defense is that it's based on an actual book, and it would've been way easier for the writers to just make stuff up. Still, the fact that the movie derives almost all of its imagery from this book is problematic. While Whaley is very positive about the use of Asian imagery in African American art, and while the issue is undoubtedly a very complex one, images like these can still be used to produce an essentiallized image of Asia.

It's nothing new for images of samurai to be used in Orientalist ways. Much like the belly dancing discussed in Susaina Maira's piece entitled "Belly Dancing: Arab-Face, Orientalist Feminism, and U.S. Empire," representations of a "samurai code" can be a way to profess an interest in Japan while avoiding discussions of contemporary issues that Japanese people actually face. I spent last semester in Japan, and the only time I was ever involved in a discussion that had anything to do with samurai philosophy was in an art history course, and even then it was only as a small part of one class. But there are still American songs, films, and people that base all their knowledge of Japan on romanticized ideas of the samurai.

I'm reminded of a scene in a movie I just watched called "Kamome Shokudo," which is about three Japanese women who work in a Japanese restaurant in Finland. In the movie, there is a young male Finnish character named Tommi who starts coming to the restaurant because, like many young white males including myself, he has an interest in Japanese culture. In almost every scene that this character is in, he is wearing a shirt that has some representation of Japanese culture, most of which are from contemporary Japanese popular culture (this description might sound eerily familiar for people who know me). Most of the time, the women who work in the restaurant either make some friendly comment about his shirt or don't make a comment about it at all. The only scene in which any of the women have a noticeably different reaction to one of his shirts is when he is wearing one that has the kanji for "samurai spirit" on it. In the beginning of the movie, he wears a shirt with a Japanese cartoon character, and one of the women in the restaurant is able to relate to it. But the woman who comments on the "samurai spirit" shirt is portrayed as being unable to relate to it. I think these scenes are pretty good representations for a number of reasons. Tommi's character is not really portrayed as being Orientalist, and his shirts display a wide range of Japanese cultural artifacts. But the only shirt he wears that is portrayed as being Orientalist is the one that conveys a dated, romanticized notion that doesn't have as much relevance in contemporary Japanese society. This also ties in to #4 on Whaley's list: " the use of Asian languages as an iconographic fashion statement detached from specificity of meaning and etymological usage."

One more thing that I'll comment on is the fact that Chinese and Japanese cultures can be (sometimes inadvertently) portrayed as interchangeable in popular culture. I'm not going to get into this in too much detail, but I do find it interesting that the RZA, a producer who derives much of his aesthetics from Chinese popular culture, did the score for two movies that derive much of their imagery from Japanese culture. This is just one reason why I think that the image of the samurai can be viewed as a counterpart to "the Chinese kung fu warrior."

Awesome Song of Last Week! "Just A Thought" by Gnarls Barkley

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:59:00 +0000

You know the drill. It's time for:

AWESOME SONG OF THE WEEK!!!

This week's awesome song is "Just A Thought" by Gnarls Barkley

(It was so hard for me to choose which image of Gnarls Barkley to post, since there are so many good ones.)

You're definitely familiar with Gnarls Barkley already. If you were alive during the summer of 2006, you constantly heard their hit single "Crazy." Now, that song is awesome. But you've heard it before. My goal is to show you stuff you might not have heard before.

As with previous songs I've done, this one is really depressing. But it still has a great melody and beat. There's not really a whole lot more for me to say.

In case you've never listened to the radio or watched TV, I'll just tell you that Gnarls Barkley is the collaboration of rapper Cee-Lo and producer Danger Mouse. They had that one hit "Crazy" and a few other popular songs, but my guess is that, while both of their albums are good, the colossal success of that one song will probably make them destined to be "1 hit wonders." Not that that's a bad thing. Gnarls Barkley is really just a side project for both artists, so having even just one hit is an accomplishment.

Lego Blur, Lego Bowie, and Legofication

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:01:00 +0000

It's time for me to reference Coilhouse again. Specifically, a blog post they did a while back in which they coined a term I fell in love with: "Legofication." According to Coilhouse, legofication refers to the way in which pop songs have started being stacked up against each other in mash-ups, just like legos. It refers to the fact that right now it is common for pop songs to not be viewed as complete wholes, but as pieces that can be put together to make something cooler. I love this idea so much that I'd like to apply it to not just pop music, but pop culture in general.

Originally, I was planning to write a lengthy post about the postmodern aspects of music games like Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, and Rock Band, but then I realized that I didn't have enough time/will-power/intellect to do that, and that it would be way too boring/pretentious. So instead I'm doing a much simpler version of that original idea by specifically focusing on one of the newest music games, Lego Rock Band. I think it's entirely appropriate that a game so heavily constructed around legofication uses legos themselves as part of these pop culture building blocks.

In the Coilhouse piece about legofication, they mention how songs are basically starting to be used as building blocks for mash-ups. I'd like to extend this idea, arguing that in the case of Lego Rock Band pop culture icons are being used as building blocks. While Legos themselves are literally building blocks, the entire lego franchise can definitely be viewed as a pop culture icon as well. This pop culture icon is one building block in the construction of Lego Rock Band; so are the images of Blur, David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Queen. (I have to say I'm impressed with the Lego rendering of Bowie, since they actually gave him two different eye colors.) Bands and singers that are obviously viewed as entire wholes are again being used as building blocks in a larger pop-culture artifact, in a slightly different way from how Coilhouse discusses this idea. These pop-culture entities are rendered using the style of another pop culture entity, and then put inside a third pop culture entity, namely the Rock Band series. It's one thing to make Lego renderings of famous musicians. It's another thing to put images of famous musicians in a video game. And it's another thing to put Legos inside a video game. These have all been done before. But Lego Rock Band is simply taking Legofication to entirely new levels (although this does remind me of the Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones series).

One question I've been wondering is whether or not anyone actually expects Lego Rock Band to be good. While people might be excited about their favorite musicians appearing together in a video game, too much legofication might not be a good thing. I'm reminded of The Good, The Bad, and The Queen, a supergroup featuring Damon Albarn of Blur, Paul Simonon of the Clash, the guitarist from The Verve (I don't remember his name), and Tony Allen, Fela Kuti's drummer. To top off this list of talent, their album was produced by Dangermouse. And it was really disappointing. Sure the album is fairly good, but considering all the names that went into it, it could've been way better. Now, I don't have high hopes for Lego Rock Band, and I'm sure a lot of people feel the same way as me. The only point that I'm trying to make is that in a lot of cases, Legofication could possibly lead to huge disappointment.

Another question that people have raised about Lego Rock Band is whether or not you'll be able to have Blur play songs by Queen, or whether David Bowie will be able to sing Iggy Pop songs. People have raised this question because there was a lot of controversy over the appearances of Johnny Cash and Kurt Cobain in Guitar Hero 5. In that game, both musicians were able to play songs by other artists, and lots of people had intense reactions to that, since they felt it was disrespectful to the musicians. Now, personally, I think having Kurt Cobain play songs by other artists sounds awesome. But I'm not here to argue about whether or not the inclusion of that feature was a good thing. The point that I do want to make, that comes from the post I was originally planning on writing, is that this feature is one of the most postmodern aspects of these games. One defining element of postmodernism as a movement is pastiche, which throws different cultural artifacts together and either strips them of their meaning or gives them new meaning. (If you think about it, legofication is really just another way of describing pastiche.) Having Johnny Cash playing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is without a doubt a form of pastiche that dramatically changes the meanings of the cultural artifacts involved. Which is why people got so upset over this.

We can see postmodernism, pastiche, and legofication in DJ Hero as well, a music game that revolves around mash-ups. Again, in this example we essentially have two pastiches put together: the game involves musicians being represented in a video game, and these musicians play songs made up of other songs. In this case, pop songs that have already been legofied are put into another pop culture artifact for further legofication.

Now, I'm not arguing whether or not these games are good. I personally enjoyed Guitar Hero II, and I've also enjoyed playing Rock Band at parties, but I was really disappointed by Guitar Hero III, and I haven't had much interest in these types of games otherwise, although I've read a lot about them on video game and music blogs. But from my experience with these types of games, they are perfect examples of the legofication of popular culture.

Musical De-Politicization, Nostalgia, and Moral Outrage

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:41:00 +0000

I'd like to continue and elaborate on some of the points I made in my piece about canonization.

In Kevin Phinney's piece "Souled American" there was a quote that really caught my attention:

"African Americans are more interested in discovering the Next Big Thing than in riding a fad past its relevance to daily life. Certainly there's no reason for black Americans to romanticize their experience here. This country hasn't provided any good old days for people of color."

Phinney then went on to discuss how white people "perceive black derived culture as threatening their status quo," and compared "white music" to "an old lamp," referring to its sentimentality and nostalgia. While I do think this is a bit of an over-generalization, I also think there is some truth to it. To understand why, it is important to discuss the ways in which black musical forms have political origins.

Many, many historically black musical forms have been political in some way. Rap is an obvious example, and it's also very easy to hear political sentiment expressed in reggae, soul, and even largely instrumental musical forms like jazz. And in all of the musical forms listed above, race plays a hugely important role in the musical politics. From Louis Armstong's "Black and Blue" to Curtis Mayfield's "Don't Worry (If There's a Hell Below)" to The Abbyssinians' "Black Man's Strain" to Public Enemy's "Fight The Power," countless black musicians have used music as a way to challenge racism and oppression. And these musicians have often received incredibly harsh criticism for doing so.

Many articles about pop music discuss the initial reaction of many white people to black musical forms. Nick Bromell, in his piece "The Blues and the Veil," discussed the negative reaction to early rock music, and Phinney does as well, in addition to discussing the reactions many whites have had to rap music. Many white cultural critics have dismissed rock as well as rap in the name of "morals," condemning these musical forms as being too sexual and immoral. It is completely possible to read these criticisms as being reflective of stereotypes that equate blackness with sexuality, and while I definitely think that argument is true, I also don't think it's the only factor involved. I would like to argue that these negative, racist responses are also a reaction to the political aspects of these musical forms, whether they are explicit or implicit.

I'd like to go back to the Phinney quote about how white people can "perceive black derived culture as threatening their status quo." Both rock and rap have threatened the status quo of white political power. With rap it's easy to see why; many of the most popular and influential rap songs have lyrics that are directly, explicitly critical of white hegemony. While the lyrics of early rock songs were in no way as explicitly political, there was still a political aspect to the popularity of rock music. Like jazz before it, rock was an originally black musical form that became popular among white people, which in itself threatened the white status quo (even though white people combated this by elevating Elvis to his popularity). It makes sense that the conservative (and sometimes liberal) white people who criticize(d) these musical forms would do so as a reaction to their threatened status quo, even if they used other reasons to justify their criticism. To phrase it differently, many of the white cultural critics who condemn black musical forms are afraid of the popularity of these forms and want to hold on to their power.

But where does nostalgia fit in to this discussion? Phinney also discussed how there has been a historical pattern of black people innovating a musical form and white people profiting off of it. While many black musical forms have had political origins, these forms have often lost their explicitly political meaning in the eyes of white America when they have been appropriated and turned mainstream. When music challenges whiteness it is obviously hard for white people to listen to it, and many white people have intense reactions to it. But when it is appropriated, transformed, and marketed to a new audience, it loses much of its political potency. Jazz and rock were originally condemned by the mainstream media, but are now part of it. And this is where I feel nostalgia plays a role.

Many people who have condemned rap music have also referenced the "good old days" of jazz or rock, completely unaware of their hypocrisy. I'd like to argue that the reason many white people are fixated on the "good old days" has everything to do with power. When rap started to come under fire from the mainstream media, rock and jazz had already been de-politicized. The "good old days" were referenced because there was a desire to hold on to music that had less political power than it used to, and less political power than more contemporary musical forms that had not been de-politicized. Again, we can see history repeat itself. When looking at music from a historical perspective, we can see a pattern that goes something like this:

Innovative and sometimes explicitly political black music becomes popular

A lot of white people condemn this new music (although white people are not always the only ones who do so)

This music is appropriated, commercialized, and de-politicized by other white people (as in the case of Elvis or Clapton)

Said music becomes mainstream

A new form of music appears, and the process repeats itself, with people lamenting the waning popularity of the music that used to be political and hated

To quote Stuart Hall, "This year's radical symbol or slogan will be neutralised into next year's fashion; the year after, it will be the object of a profound cultural nostalgia." You could also add "then it will be referenced in opposition to a new radical form."

Album Review: Journal For Plague Lovers by the Manic Street Preachers

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:38:00 +0000

When I was in my senior year of high school, one of my favorite things to do after school was to take the bus to Tower Records and go shopping for new music. As I've said before, I loved Tower because, although it was a chain, it was one of those places where music fans congregated to judge each other. There was always a sense of hostility in the air, and a constant feeling that you had to be ready to defend your purchases, but that was what I loved about it. It was a place where you could debate and hear different perspectives, even if they were expressed rudely.

One of my most memorable experiences there happened when I bought The Holy Bible by the Manic Street Preachers. First of all, its album art is very... interesting, so I was a little nervous about showing it to the guy at the counter. When he picked it up to scan it he took a good long look at it, and all he said was "I liked the book better."

Ever since then, I have loved that album. It's one of my favorites of all time, not only because the songs are incredible, but also because it has one of the most interesting back-stories of any album ever. MSP consisted of four musicians, one of whom, a guitarist, was named Richey Edwards. Richey always displayed signs of mental instability, such as when he mutilated his arm during an interview. His grand philosophy involved making a spectacularly good album and following it with a spectacularly good tour, and then disappearing from the public eye forever.

The band released two albums and an EP before working on The Holy Bible. At that time, Richey suffered from severe anorexia and depression and was confined to a mental hospital, where he wrote most of the lyrics for the album. Because of this, The Holy Bible is what I like to call an unintentional concept album; it was a window into the mind of Richey. The album received enourmous praise from critics who were also terrified of it, and Richey came with the band on tour. Towards the end of the tour, Richey checked out of his hotel and was never seen again.

The Holy Bible is, to put it lightly, a deeply disturbing album. But you can't tell that if you just listen to it passively. The band's lead singer, James Dean Bradfield, wrote all of the music, which is much more pop-friendly than the lyrics. (I also think that the songwriting process of this album was really cool, since it was the opposite of what most bands do - the guitarist wrote the lyrics and the singer wrote the music.) The Holy Bible is one of those albums that sneaks up on you. The first time you listen to it, you'll probably think "this is a nice album." The second time, certain lyrics such as "I don't know what I'm scared of, or what I even enjoy," "I wanna be so skinny that I rot from view," and "I am an architect, they call me a butcher" will jump out at you, and by the third time you listen to the album you will be petrified with fear and depression. The Holy Bible is like a good Hitchcock movie; it scares you, but you still appreciate it and enjoy it.

Anyway, after that album the band acquired a poppier sound and a more positive outlook and released Everything Must Go, a solid but fairly straightforward album. Since then most of their material has been pretty boring, but they just released a new album called Journal for Plague Lovers that was hyped up to be the next Holy Bible, complete with lost Richey lyrics.

One look at the album cover and it's obvious that this album was at least an attempt to re-create The Holy Bible. The album cover's font is even the same. But did this album succeed at re-creating The Holy Bible? That's what I aim to answer in this album review.

Let's look at the first song on the album, "Peeled Apples." The first thing you'll notice (if you're familiar with The Holy Bible) is that the opening bassline is insanely reminiscent of the opening bassline to "Archives of Pain." We're only 5 seconds into the album and it already sounds similar to The Holy Bible. To answer whether or not this is a "classic" MSP song, let's look at the following checklist:

Does the song have a jagged-yet-hooky guitar riff?      Check

Is the production minimal?     Check

Reference to Noam Chomsky?    Check

So far, this looks like a solid MSP album.

On to the next song. This one is immediately noticeably different from "Peeled Apples." Namely, it's obviously supposed to be the really poppy single. But what's that lyric? Something about a married man fucking a Catholic? Yeah, this is definitely still Holy Bible-style Manics.

As for the rest of the album, the one thing I will say in it's favor is that it has WAY more variety than The Holy Bible. Probably the biggest complaint I've heard about that album is that it gets really, really samey and kinda boring towards the end. I don't think that can be said as much about Journal. "This Joke Sport Severed," with it's strummed acoustic guitar and string arrangements, sounds like stuff from Everything Must Go, while "Marlon JD," with it's electronic drums, doesn't even sound like any Manics song I've ever heard before. Basically, you won't get bored while listening to this album.

I do have one minor complaint, though, and I'll phrase it as a question: where are all the quotes? On The Holy Bible almost every song either started or ended with a quote that had something to do with the song's lyrical content. For example, "Yes," a song about prostitution, opened with a quote from a documentary about prostitiution; likewise, "4st7lb," which was about anorexia, had a quote from an anorexic person, "If White America Told The Truth..." had a quote about Ronald Reagen, and "Faster," which was probably the climax and the most nihilistic song of the album, had an insanely memorable quote from 1984. But there are no quotes to be found on Journal! What happened? Sure, the quotes on The Holy Bible were a little pretentious and gimmicky, but they really tied together all the songs on the album and made it more cohesive. Still, that's just a minor complaint.

I think what you can gather from the last two paragraphs is that while The Holy Bible was meant to be a grand statement taken as a whole, Journal For Plague Lovers is more like a simple collection of songs. Which isn't a bad thing. If anything, it makes the album a little more unpredictable and exciting. And believe me, all that nihilism and despair from The Holy Bible is still there. Journal For Plague Lovers was meant to be the spiritual successor to The Holy Bible, and that's definitely what it is. While it isn't The Holy Bible, it sounds more like that album than any other Manics album. It is easily my second favorite Manics album. So if you prefer the scary depressing Manics to the happy pop-friendly Manics, you'll definitely like their new album.

Awesome Song of The Week! "Reggae From The Ghetto" by John Holt

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:17:00 +0000

Alright, I'm finally back on schedule. So you know what that means: it's time for

AWESOME SONG OF THE WEEK!!!

This week's awesome song is the wonderfully titled "Reggae From The Ghetto" by John Holt:

Now I know some of you out there might not like reggae because you think it all sounds the same (which it doesn't), but if you listen to this song and don't like it... I'll leave it up to you to fill in this part.

John Holt is without a doubt one of the most underrated reggae singers out there. His voice is superb, and he has some other incredible reggae songs ("Ali Baba" is another personal favorite of mine, and it really deserves its own week). Most of his songs are as hooky as this one, and he has experimented with a lot of different styles of reggae as well (because there are different styles of reggae), working with lots of different producers as well as collaborating with other artists, such as U-Roy. Basically, John Holt is awesome. You can find a lot of his stuff on Trojan Records box sets, and there are a few best-ofs as well, which would be good purchases, since a lot of his songs were released as singles.

Hope you enjoyed this week's awesome song. Stay alert for some more posts about music coming up.

Awesome Song of Last Week! "Alice"

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:31:00 +0000

Sup everyone! I was really busy last week, and then I was gone for the weekend, so here's a belated

AWESOME SONG OF THE WEEK!!!

For this week's awesome song, I have to link to the youtube video, since the visuals complement the song so well:

There's one word that really comes to mind when listening to this song: trippy. I love this song because it's fucking trippy.

The really cool thing about it though is that it was made entirely using sound clips from Alice in Wonderland. The main melody is especially cool, since it's made of Alice's speech, but there aren't any complete words in it. It's just melodic gibberish, which is actually a really cool use of the human voice.

I have to thank my friend Dan for showing me this song. The person who made it has a lot of similar videos on youtube of electronic music made of clips from children's movies. Listen to them all. My other favorite is the Harry Potter one.

Road to Acceptance: Authenticity and Punk Rock

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:47:00 +0000

"You may think you’re the punkest sonofabitch in the state, but you’ve probably never even seen a real punk in the wild."

-Field Guide To North American Hipsters

When I was in 9th grade, like many other kids my age, I considered myself to be a punk rocker, even though, looking back, I knew next to nothing about punk at the time. I followed the path that a lot of my friends took, listening to blink-182 while I was in middle school until I heard the Ramones and immediately rejected "pop-punk" in favor of "real" punk rock (even though the Ramones' music is basically just 50s bubblegum pop with distorted guitars, and even though I never really gave up listening to Green Day). I remember one time I was on the bus and an older punk kid saw the Ramones shirt I was wearing and asked me "Do you even know who the Ramones are?" I said something along the lines of "Yeah, they're a punk rock band." Not satisfied with my response, still continuing to size me up, he asked me "What's your favorite song by them?" I immediately named some random Ramones song (I don't remember which one), and, seeing that I wasn't completely full of shit, he left me alone. Right afterwards, one of my friends whispered to me "Dude, he thought you were a poseur."

For its entire history, punk has always had a fixation on the "authentic," and I can't even count the number of discussions I've had where people have debated whether or not a band is "real" punk rock. Scholar Allan Moore noted this in his article "Authenticity as Authentication," saying, "In its direct opposition to the growth of disco, [punk] was read as an authentic expression." Moore barely begins to scratch the surface of this idea in his article, so I would like to examine it a bit further, using arguments about "authenticity" that Moore makes elsewhere in his piece.

First of all, Moore notes that "authentic" music is defined "by its ability to articulate for its listeners a place of belonging, in opposition to mere entertainment or those belonging to hegemonic groupings." While this quote comes from much later in the article than his quote about punk, I feel that the two quotes basically go hand in hand. We've all heard the punk rock narrative before: a teenager feels rejected by mainstream society, but discovers punk and soon finds an accepting community. I admit that as an angsty teenager I thought of myself as living out this narrative, even though I'm incredibly privileged, and even though I've never been anything more than a peripheral member of the punk community at my school or in my city. But the fact is that punk is viewed as a "place of belonging" by many people; that's why one of the main criticisms of punk is that the "non-conformist" punk movement is in many ways insanely conformist. In relation to Moore's comment about "mere entertainment" or "hegemonic groupings," I've also been in lots of discussions where I've condemned people who shop at Hot Topic or listen to Good Charlotte, because they're not part of the punk community and don't actually care about punk rock, they just listen to it for "mere entertainment" and belong to "hegemonic groupings." By condemning "inauthentic" punk rock, punks authenticate their lifestyle and separate "real" punks who belong to the community from poseurs who appropriate the style.

Moore also mentions how music is often viewed as "authentic" if it is "essential" to a specific subculture. This quote also directly applies to punk rock, which is a musical form that both grew out of and created an enormous subculture. This is one reason why people are attracted to punk in the first place: listening to punk allows people to become part of a subculture. This again relates to the idea of "authentic" music conveying a sense of belonging. And if we are to argue that "authentic" music is essential to a subculture, then punk may be one of the most "authentic" forms of music around. The word "punk" refers not only to a type of music, but also to a type of identity.

In addition, Moore argues that music viewed as "authentic" conveys "private but common desires," feelings that are personal to people, but that are also common. Again, the sense of alienation that is expressed in punk is without a doubt a "private but common" feeling, which, along and in conjunction with the previous two factors, allows punk to be referred to as "authentic" music.

Is this why there is a difference between "real" punk and "pop punk?" If we are to use Moore's arguments, pop punk is not viewed as being "in opposition to mere entertainment" or especially "hegemonic groupings;" it is not as "essential" to a specific subculture if it is produced by major labels and marketed to people outside of a subculture; and although it does convey "private but common desires," this may not be enough to make up for the other two factors, if we are to talk about perceived authenticity in these terms. This factor could also be why most pop punk bands are still given a little credibility, and are still allowed to be called "punk," even though it's with a prefix.

When viewing punk rock through Moore's arguments about "authenticity," it can be made clearer why some punk bands are viewed as "authentic" and other bands are not. This is one factor that draws so many people to punk, and one reason why people get into arguments about what is "real" punk.

Immigrant Punk: Gogol Bordello and Sonic Diasporas

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:40:00 +0000

"I'll meet you 10:45 on the Broadway Canal/In a disco radical transglobal/comanja cooking up the original mixtura/s ulitzy do ulitzy the brilliant bassura/Mama---Diaspora!!!"

The above lyrics are taken from the song "Dogs Were Barking" by Gogol Bordello, and the multiplicity of languages in them, as well as the reference to "a disco radical transglobal," accurately reflects the incredibly diverse influences on that band. Perhaps because the chorus of this song prominently features the word "diaspora," I was completely unable to get my mind off of Gogol Bordello while reading about diaspora and immigrant communities this week. But there's definitely more to it than that: Gogol Bordello is a band that can easily be brought up in discussions about many topics, such as transnationalism, sonic communities, and masculinity, just to name a few.

To give some background information, Gogol Bordello is a band frequently labeled as "Gypsy punk," although that classification barely begins to describe their sound or identity; their music is a mixture of folk, punk, EDM, and reggae; their lyrics are sung in English, Spanish, and multiple Eastern European languages; and the band contains musicians from Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Ethiopia, the United States, Scotland, and Ecuador, three of whom have Roma, Chinese, and Japanese ancestry, respectively. If we are to talk about music that crosses and contests ideas of nationhood, then Gogol Bordello must be brought up. Not only does their sound and membership reflect international hybridity, but many of their songs deal directly with issues of immigration and diaspora, as their primary songwriter, Eugene Hutz, is a Ukranian descendent of the Roma people who emigrated to the United States after spending seven years in Eastern European refugee camps.

The arguments that scholar George Lipsitz applies to the Fugees in his article "Crossing Over: The Hidden Histor of Diaspora" can in some ways also be applied to Gogol Bordello, since both groups have songwriters whose immigrant identity influences and informs their music. Hutz has written songs that reference refugee camps ("Oh No"), differences and connections between generations ("My Strange Uncles From Abroad"), and immigrant communities ("Immigrant Punk," "Underdog World Strike," and lots of other songs). These songs are all drawn from Hutz's own experiences, as he came from an oppressed ethnic group in Europe and immigrated to the United States as a refugee. While many of these songs are specific to Hutz's experience, many of them also deal with larger immigrant communities, as many of the other musicians in Gogol Bordello are first or second generation immigrants. The ways in which Gogol Bordello incorporate their influences and constantly changing identities into their music and lyrics is similar to the way in which Lipsitz describes the music of the Fugees. While both groups create very different music and have very different identities, one similarity between them is the way in which their music is influenced by their respective cultures, both in their countries of origin and in the United States as immigrants. Gogol Bordello's Eastern European folk music influence represents the countries where many of its band members are from, and the lyrics of many Gogol Bordello songs are about the experiences of immigrants in the United States. In a similar way, the Fugees cover of "No Woman No Cry" from their album The Score is a tribute to the Caribbean music that influenced the group, while the lyrics of many of their songs reflect the problems that Caribbean immigrants face in the United States.

As scholar Gayatri Gopinath notes, however, in reference to South Asian music in England, many songs that reflect an immigrant experience specifically reflect the experiences of immigrant men, and this argument could also be applied to Gogol Bordello. While there are women in the band, they do take a background role to some of the other musicians. I've seen Gogol Bordello live twice, and I remember distinctly that the first time I saw them the two women in the band didn't come onstage until about halfway through the show, and they played a very different role from the men. While the men in the band were wearing street clothes (except maybe for Hutz, who was wearing some pretty crazy fashion, although I think he wears really crazy fashion all the time), the women were wearing matching tight revealing clothing. And while the men in the band were, again, except for Hutz, largely just standing there and playing their instruments, the women were dancing around and making a huge spectacle. In addition, if you go on Gogol Bordello's wikipedia page, you'll see that the two women in the band are listed as "dancers," while none of the men are. Basically, you can interpret this however you want, I'm just pointing out that the women in Gogol Bordello play a very different, largely more physical role from most of the men in the band.

I say "most," because their role in the band's live shows is actually very similar to Hutz's. During the shows, Hutz plays the guitar and sings, but like the women (who also play percussion), Hutz also does crazy stuff onstage (my favorite part of the show was when he crowdsurfed on top of a bass drum). While the two women in Gogol Bordello are largely there to put on a show, so is Hutz. Quite frankly, all of the other musicians in the band are better than Hutz. So while the gender distinctions in Gogol Bordello's live shows aren't completely clear-cut, we still have the issue that Hutz is largely the face of Gogol Bordello. He writes and sings all of the songs and is the center of the band's shows. As a result, the lyrics of many Gogol Bordello songs do specifically reflect male immigrant experiences ("60 Revolutions" is the first song I can think of that is definitely from a male perspective). While the diversity of the musicians in Gogol Bordello does reflect the fact that many Gogol Bordello songs are about the experiences of people in diasporas, we still have the fact that Gogol Bordello's primary songwriter is a man, and all of the men in Gogol Bordello are considered to be just musicians, while the two women in the band are given the status of dancers.

This blog post is really long, and I'm kind of rambling at this point. I really don't have any huge central argument, but I just wanted to point out that that there are many parallels between Gogol Bordello's Eastern European diasporic music and the Caribbean and South Asian diasporic music that Lipsitz and Gopinath discussed, both in terms of musical and lyrical influence and representation, and in terms of gender issues.

Below are videos of some of the songs mentioned above:

Awesome Song of The Week! "Care of Cell 44" by The Zombies

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:10:00 +0000

Who can guess what it's time for?

No, not that. Or that. Fine, I'll just tell you.

AWESOME SONG OF THE WEEK!!!

For this week's awesome song I have prepared a wonderful psychedelic pop classic for you.

I absolutely love songs that sound really happy but actually have really depressing lyrics. This is one of them. While the bouncy pop melody will make anyone happy, once they listen to the lyrics they'll realize that this song is about someone who's lover is in jail. Sorry if I ruined your happiness.

But you should still be happy, because this song is still awesome. The melody is so catchy, the bassline is so mellow, the drums are so crisp, and the semi-chorus ("Feeeeeeels sooooooo goooooood you're coming hooooooooooome sooooooooooon") is about as epic as 5 seconds of music can possibly be.

You might be thinking it's a little hypocritical of me to be posting a 60s psychedelic song this week after shitting all over classic rock last week, but the Zombies were never part of the canon. They made a fucking great album called Odessey and Oracle (the misspelling isn't intentional, the album cover designer just spelled it wrong by accident and it stuck) which was ignored by pretty much everyone, but had one hit single called "Time of the Season" which you've heard in every movie about hippies. However, the band put so much effort into making this album and had so many disputes over it that when the album went nowhere, they called it quits. It's a shame that this album went nowhere and the band broke up, because Odessey and Oracle is even better than some Beatles albums. And come on, how fucking awesome is that album cover? Really fucking awesome.

So there's your awesome song of the week. Hope you're feeling awesome now.

The Problems of Canonization

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:27:00 +0000

In 1994, scholar Harold Bloom proposed the idea of a literary "Western Canon," a collection of works that he deemed to be under fire by a so-called "school of resentment" represented by scholars who criticized the hegemony of classical European literature. Bloom's selection of works were ones that he considered to be important solely for their aesthetic qualities, rather than their social aspects. Bloom's ideas are what Taylor would likely describe as representative of modernist ideas of aesthetics; namely, that art should exist for art's sake, for nothing else other than beauty. The fact that Bloom chose to only label western works as being beautiful is on the surface entirely antithetical to the idea that social factors have nothing to do with aesthetics, but, as scholar Timothy D. Taylor shows, the viewing of western works as the most beautiful and aesthetically perfect is entirely consistent with the modernist view of aesthetics, which Taylor argues "strips everything of history, culture, and the social." Indeed, Bloom's views that European art forms are under attack are views that entirely ignore the history of colonialism, which put said western works on a pedestal in the first place.

It is not at all surprising that Bloom is an incredibly controversial figure, and that he is viewed as an elitist by many. But even if Bloom had never materialized his reactionary views into words, the idea of a literary canon has undoubtedly existed as long as the study of western literature has. I am certainly not the first person to notice similarities between academic ideas of literary canons and contemporary ideas of musical canons. For example, music critic Jim DeRogatis made a comparison between Bloom's western canon and contemporary music canons in his book Kill Your Idols, which is largely a criticism of commonly accepted musical canons. DeRogatis notes the connection between canons and nostalgia, arguing that the negative effects of nostalgia are often what inspire the creation of canons (this argument could be applied to Bloom's canon as well). However, rather than using this argument to attack canons of traditional "European music," as many other authors have, DeRogatis applies this argument to canons of rock music, which he sees as entirely antithetical to a musical form that was originally rebellious. DeRogatis argues in Kill Your Idols that nostalgia for the 60s among baby boomers has led to the creation of a rock music canon, which includes artists such as The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Rolling Stones, and that such a canon is just as elitist as Bloom's western canon or other scholars' notions of a European music canon.

Just to provide some more context, DeRogatis's argument is basically that the unofficial rock music canon as viewed by many people consists of "classic rock" bands from the 60s and 70s who were involved in some way in the hippie movement (indeed, the very term "classic rock" itself conveys the idea of a canon). When analyzing both the "European music" canon and the aforementioned rock music canon we can see many similarities. In fact, the rock music canon that DeRogatis describes and attacks is largely a European music canon, as bands such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Led Zeppelin are generally viewed as the most "aesthetically perfect" bands of this canon. Furthermore, in both examples of canons we can see how hegemonic these notions truly are, and how canons are used to serve dominant social groups. With some notable exceptions (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Carlos Santana), members of the classic rock canon are generally white men, as are members of the traditional "European music" canon. It could even be argued that the rock music canon is even more problematic, since much of its repertoire is derived from African American musical forms, especially in the case of Led Zeppelin, who actually covered songs by African American musicians on their albums and credited themselves as the songwriters (I'll save my rants on Led Zeppelin for another time though). But on the other hand, as Taylor notes, many romantic composers derived their works from Other musical styles as well. So the European music canon and the rock music canon really aren't a whole lot different.

I'd like to apply this argument to a quote from scholar Philip Tagg that references Jimi Hendrix. Specifically, Tagg mentions the idea of how many music scholars would "laugh when you propose a Jimi Hendrix memorial guitar scholarship or suggest a series of workshops on the accordion… or try to start a course in Country and Western ensemble playing," but then goes on to say that "quite a few white European fans of ‘Afro-American music’ reading these lines would probably approve of the Jimi Hendrix scholarship but feel less sympathy for the accordion or C&W ideas…. [This] means that the most ironical effect of the twisted view of European music has been to perpetuate the rules of a ‘better-than-thou’ game in the field of musical aesthetics, so that even those of us trying to beat the ancien [sic] regime actually end up by playing the same game as our rivals, instead of changing the rules or moving to another sport altogether." While Hendrix does stand in contrast to the mostly white rock music canon, this quote still illustrates how "classic rock" has been canonized and how this is just as hegemonic as canonizing classical or romantic music. While many people who do canonize rock music probably think that they are rebelling against hegemony, in the process they are simply creating a new form of it. This is especially true since, as stated before, members of the rock music canon are largely white. True, the canon does include Jimi Hendrix, but he is definitely an exception. Can anyone think of any other black musicians who are frequently labeled "classic rock?" None of my friends could when I asked them, and I can think of way more examples of white people who are.

There is one point of disagreement I have with the above quote, but I also think that if Tagg wrote this article today instead of in 1989 he would have written it differently. Specifically, I would like to argue that while Tagg puts country music in opposition to classical music and classic rock, recently a canon of country music has been emerging. Many contemporary musical elitists are beginning to put country music onto a pedestal, just like people did with rock music before. In fact, the people who are currently creating a country music canon probably think they are doing so as a rebellious act as well. If you don't believe my argument about country music, I'll just mention that I work as a monitor in the music building at my school and one of the genres I hear the most is bluegrass, played by students presumably because of its perceived authenticity. While the creators of this country music canon may have rebellious intentions, just as the baby boomers did before them, we can see from the latter example that canons are inherently un-rebellious, since instead of dismantling cultural norms they simply change them slightly.

Awesome Song Of The Week! "Walk The World Away" by Teddy Brown

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:39:00 +0000

It's Thursday afternoon. You're probably done with classes/work by now and ready to kick back with some awesome music. That's why it's time for

AWESOME SONG OF THE WEEK!!!

This week's awesome song is "Walk The World Away" by Teddy Brown. A terrific example of Jamaican R&B, this is a song that catches you by surprise, starting out with just some mellow acoustic guitar and eventually transforming into a spectacle of choral vocals, horns, and bombastic drums. This song is as epic as it is beautiful, and while the production is over-the-top to say the least, the melody is exquisitely simple. It's probably the only song out there that reminds me of both energetic Motown singles and chill campfire songs. The lyrics are also great; while a lot of them don't really make sense, they're beautiful in their ambiguity. I've never really been able to understand what exactly this song is about, but this is one song that I've truly been able to relate to more than any other.

Want some background information on Teddy Brown? Me too. I don't know much about Teddy Brown, since I discovered this song on a compilation that didn't give any background information about him. A google search turned up this myspace page for a Jamaican singer named Teddy Brown, who might be the same guy, since the vocal style is pretty similar. But I'm not positive, since "Walk The World Away" appears nowhere on the myspace page, the compilation I found it on didn't have a picture of Teddy Brown, the songs on the myspace page are a really different style then "Walk The World Away," and the biography says Teddy Brown got his start in 1980, even though I think "Walk The World Away" was released before then. Who knows. Just enjoy the song.

Asian Appropriation Alert: The Weapon

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:46:00 +0000

Found out from Angry Asian Man that up-and-coming Shia LeBouf-esque Disney channel star David Henrie will be playing an Asian guy in a movie of comic book The Weapon. To quote Angry Asian Man:

"I am not familiar with The Weapon, but from what I've read about it, Tommy Zhou is indeed an Asian character. David Henrie, who I had never even heard of before reading this news item, is not an Asian person. Hooray for Hollywood, you've done it again. That's racist!"

I also have to add that this is another case of something like Keanu Reeves in Cowboy Bebop or that guy from Across the Universe in 21. Even if we're not talking about representation, how could someone who's been compared to Shia LeBouf (is that how you spell his name? I really don't care) truly be the best actor for this part, regardless of race? Especially when the character is written to be a specific race?

Anyway, I'm still amazed by how often this is happening. And it seems like this movie is gonna suck anyway.

Awesome Song Of The Week! "Everything Beautiful is Far Away" by Grandaddy

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:51:00 +0000

Sup everyone! It's time for:

AWESOME SONG OF THE WEEK!!!

This week's awesome song is by California indie band Grandaddy and is entitled "Everything Beautiful is Far Away." Yes, the title is absolutely terrible. But give the song a second chance.

When you first start listening to this song, it seems rather unremarkable. The first seven seconds of random electronic noise are probably enough to make most people skip to the next track, and even people who make it a little farther in will probably be unimpressed by the generic indie guitar chords, nasal vocals, and angsty lyrics about an astronaut stranded on a distant planet (because there's never been a song about that before). If you haven't listened to the song yet, or if you only listened to the beginning of it, you may be asking "Jake, how could this possibly be the awesome song of the week?" Keep listening, readers. Keep listening.

Things start to pick up around the end of the second verse (around 0:30), where we have a really hooky melody with some really tight harmony. The second verse is very similar to the first, but with the addition of little electronic flourishes that, in my opinion, add so much to the song. At the end of this verse we have some tight harmonies again, and things are starting to look up.

Around 1:20 you'll realize why this is the awesome song of the week. This song lacks a chorus and instead features a beautiful instrumental part played on the synth that's incredibly layered and beautiful, blending wonderfully with the texture of the drums. Once you've made it to this point, just lay back and let the music wash over you. It's synthesized perfection.

Just for some background info, Grandaddy were an indie rock band from northern California that blended geek rock, synth pop, new wave, and electronic noise into really dense, textured, and incredibly catchy songs. If you've seen 28 Days Later or the TV show Screenwipe, you've heard their most famous song. Grandaddy broke up a few years ago, but released a few awesome albums (Under the Western Freeway and The Sophtware Slump are my favorites), and their lead singer and songwriter Jason Lytle is releasing some solo stuff (which isn't quite as good).

What will the next awesome song be? Check in next week to find out.

Cool Thing Of The Week: Windows 7

noreply@blogger.com (Bobbicus) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:59:00 +0000

So yea, I migrated from XP to Windows 7 (64 bit) today. It took about 2 hours, and so far I have to say that I'm pretty impressed. It's damn snappy, boots up faster than XP ever did, and is full of little touches that become second nature very quickly.

I've also got to say that I have had some compatibility issues with some older hardware (an ancient pci ethernet card that stopped being supported in 2006) but a suprisingly pleasant time otherwise. So far I've yet to run into any hiccups or really any issues at all.

I'm sure a lot of this has to do with the hardware upgrade - I got 4 GB of ram super cheap over labor day weekend, bringing me to a total of 6 GB. I also installed it on a 10,000 RPM HDD, so you could attribute some of the speed increases to hardware.

You could, that is, until I told you that I'm dual booting XP and 7, and that they're both playing nice. For anyone that's ever used a Microsoft OS, that will be a bit of a shock. MS never really liked supporting dual booting all that much, but the 7 installer make it extremely simple.

So basically, 7 shows Microsoft doing a lot of things right - a focus on performance, finally accepting that some people might want more than one OS on their system, and far fewer resources consumed than Vista. It's the 98SE/ME/XP saga all over again.

The Atlas of North American English

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:13:00 +0000

This is something for all the language nerds out there. It's called the Atlas of North American English, and the coolest feature on it is a map of the United States and Canada that highlights different dialects of English. To view it, click on the link above, then click on "The Dialects of North America," then click "Mapping Features." On this map, North America (excluding Mexico, since it doesn't apply nearly as much, although it still could be interesting), is divided into regions based on the primary dialect spoken in that region. You can click on these regions and then listen to recordings of people from those regions speaking to actually hear these dialectic differences. It's a great way to waste time on the internet (although, admittedly, not everyone will enjoy it).

But there's one major issue I have with this map. Can anyone guess what it is after looking at the map? I'll give you a huge hint: I'm from California.

For some reason, the linguists who designed this map, two of whom are from Pennsylvania, gave New York City its own dialect but only assigned one dialect to THE ENTIRE WESTERN HALF OF THE UNITED STATES. I can tell you that people from Northern California speak differently than people from Southern California. Shit, people from some parts of LA speak differently than people from other parts of LA. Entire studies have been done on the dialects of California and it's a fact that AT LEAST four different dialects exist within California (anyone from there can tell you there are way more). But apparently that's bullshit; I didn't realize that everyone from the western half of the United States speaks exactly the same.

Not to make too big a deal out of it, even though I already am, but this map has a huge bias in favor of the east coast, which is annoying but not all that surprising. Probably the three best linguistics departments in the country (MIT, Harvard, and UMass) are in Massachusetts (which, as a linguistics student, I can say I'm proud to go to school in). But an affect of this is obviously that more attention is going to be paid to east coast dialects in the most prominent studies. And of course the reverse happens as well; the study I cited above was done at UC Santa Barbara, in California. It seems that people only pay attention to the dialects near them, which again makes sense if you think about it; they're the easiest ones to find native speakers for.

Also, I'm over-exaggerating a bit. If you actually listen to the recordings you'll hear tons of different dialects within every region. Still, that map is just a little lazy.

Awesome Song Of The Week! Peace by The Sparta Locals

noreply@blogger.com (Jake) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:33:00 +0000

So I'm back from Japan now and getting back into more of a regular schedule that doesn't involve failing to write a travel blog, so I'm incredibly happy to announce that I'll be starting a new series for The Tartar Sauce!

It's called Awesome Song of the Week! (The exclamation point is part of the title.) Every Thursday I'll be posting a link to a really really awesome song and giving a short writeup about it. Basically, this is a way for readers to hopefully get into some cool new music, and a way for me to flaunt my infinite knowledge of pop music. Wait, did I say "infinite knowledge of pop music"? Because I meant to say "ego." Anyway, these songs are obviously gonna reflect my personal taste, and if you consistently read this then you'll get some idea of what kinds of music I like, but hopefully you'll like some of it too. Also, I'm gonna try and keep the songs on the obscure side, not because I want to brag about how I listen to experimental Japanese new wave, but because I want people who've never heard experimental Japanese new wave to get into it.

Anyway, here's the first installment! Let's see how it goes.

This week's song is "Peace" by the Sparta Locals. The reason I picked this song for the first installment is because it is, without question, my favorite song of all time. It is a perfect song. Just listen to it:

"Peace" contains everything that makes a good song good: it's upbeat; it's powerful; it's epic; it's got an outstanding melody and a driving rhythm; and it's insanely difficult to play. Seriously, listen to the guitar part after the first chanting part (around 1:30). You hear those really fast notes followed by those descending notes? Notice how there are two guitarists in the band? Well, both guitarists are playing those really fast notes. In fact, they ALTERNATE EACH FUCKING NOTE. The Sparta Locals are SUCH A TIGHT BAND. And the final section of the song that starts at 2:30... what more can I say than that it's absolutely brilliant. That section sounds like all hell is breaking loose and all the music is just exploding into an all consuming abyss. And yet it's still incredibly tight. That's just one thing that makes this song amazing. Also, I'm assuming the lyrics to "Peace" are really good too, because the singer is obviously really passionate about them.

Now just for some background info, the Sparta Locals are a recent Japanese indie/post-punk band who are hugely influenced by Gang of Four. Their overall sound is basically a faster, tighter version of Gang of Four that uses Asian pentatonic scales a lot of the time. They're from Fukuoka originally, but moved to Tokyo to become part of the music scene there. Sadly, the Sparta Locals recently announced that they will be breaking up. But at least they quit while they were ahead. Seriously, all their albums are good.

Now, I know what you may be thinking. "Oh, the pretentious music kid went for the obscure choice first." Yeah, it's true that the Sparta Locals are really fucking obscure. In fact, they're still basically underground in Japan. I only met one person there who had heard of them. But that's not why I picked this song first. As I said, this is my favorite song ever. It's my most played song in iTunes. Listen to it. Like, 500 times.

On an unrelated note, I'm also planning on starting another series, but it won't be for at least a couple weeks. Until then, it's a secret. Also, I'll probably start doing web clippings too, whenever I have some good ones.

Web Clips for 9/6/09

BackDoorAngel@gmail.com (BackDoorAngel) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 08:09:00 +0000

Well, I thought I wouldn't do web clips anymore, but there's just so many clippy things and snippets I need to share. I suppose I wont make it a daily thing, but weekly or so shouldn't be too intrusive.

I'll be moving back into college so the next couple of days could get busy. Just fyi.

People can be politically silly on craigslist.

This is flying around, it's pretty awesome:

I added social media links to posts on our feed. Should I add them to the site posts as well? They would look similarly unobtrusive. Would people use them? Let me know in the comments, thanks.

Do you suck at TF2? Get a tutor for free at the TF2 mentor project.

A recent Wikipedia survey found that, of the people who edit Wikipedia, only 13% are women. Though troublesome, I'd attribute a lot of it to the geekiness of editing Wikipedia. The survey also found that of Wikipedia readers, 69% are men and 31% are women, which probably also has a lot to do with it.

Hire the voice of Serious Sam, for just a dollar a word. Be sure to click on the samples on the right there. Badass answering machine, anyone?

Man Vs. Door.

Don't Miss Out: GOG.com 1-Year Anniversary Promo

BackDoorAngel@gmail.com (BackDoorAngel) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:07:00 +0000

Yea, so I guess we have ourselves a newborn section here what with all of the deals that have been floating around lately (and all of the post titles including the words "don't miss out").

This one is BIG, and fairly well known already, but if you miss it you'll probably feel such powerful regret that you'll kill yourself. So to prevent mass suicide, I feel I must warn as many as possible.

It's pretty simple: GOG.com, the awesome, awesome, awesome digital distribution site for old PC classics, is 1 year old. They're celebrating by making every game in their Interplay catalog buy one, get one free.

For serious guys, simply check any number of games in the catalog they have here (make sure it's an even number) and get them for half price. Thinking about picking up Fallout for just $6? Get Fallout 2 for free. Thinking of diving into the awesome Descent series? Get the entire series for just $6. Already have those games, no worry, there's 33 games on the list. Surely there's at least 2 fantastic games there that you haven't played.

Let's do some math here. That's 4 games for $12, 6 games for $18, 10 games for $30. 10 for $30 is the same as the amazing Steam sale that happened a few weeks ago.

Or just think, for the price of one crappy AAA title ($60) you could have 20 PC classics.

"BUT Backdoorangel!!!11!!!11!11!!! how do I know if these games are good?"

Seriously? did you read Bobbicus' testimonial? The games are also rated by the community, so you can know that these are some of the best games for the best price. Ever.

There's only about 4 days left to grab these games for this price. If you're going back to school, this is your next 2 months of procrastination. If you're not, well, the point is go and buy some sweet games.

My (geeky) Dream Girl

BackDoorAngel@gmail.com (BackDoorAngel) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 05:09:00 +0000

When I meet my dream girl, this is the EXACT conversation we're going to have, told here in the form of a theatrical scene:

(Lights up. ME is on a computer playing StarCraft, WOMAN enters, intruiged)

DREAM GIRL: Hey, what'cha doing?

ME: (Alt+Tabs) Oh it's nothing, nothing.

DREAM GIRL: Oh no no, I'm actually interested in whatever geeky thing you're doing right there.

ME: Oh, um, well, I was, I was playing StarCraft. Trying to, build up resources.

DREAM GIRL: Oh oh, I like StarCraft.

ME: (mumbles) Huh, I'll bet you do.

DREAM GIRL: What was that?

ME: Nothing, nothing. You like StarCraft?

DREAM GIRL: Yea totally! I play it all the time. Looked like you were Protoss. If you've been AFK this long you've probably been nuked or rushed by now.

ME: Crap! (returnes playing) hey yea, thanks.

DREAM GIRL: (pause) Yea. Hey, do you want a Mountain Dew? I have an extra one here.

ME: Hey thanks! I love Mountain Dew!

DREAM GIRL: No problem. Hey, I was wondering, do you want to maybe, play StarCraft with me?

ME: (stops game) Um, yea. Absolutely!

DREAM GIRL: Great! Except, I play a slightly different version if that's OK?

ME: Um , sure, what's different?

DREAM GIRL: Well, I don't want to spoil the details, but it involves (whispers) S-E-X.

ME: S-s-sex? Really?

DREAM GIRL: I can't hold it in any longer! I love you and I want to get married and have sex and play magic and video games and go to E3 and Comic-Con and have more sex all day for the rest of our lives!

ME: Let's do it. (they kiss)

(blackout)

Wiki of the Week: LyricWiki

BackDoorAngel@gmail.com (BackDoorAngel) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:37:00 +0000

So you search the internet for such-and-such a song lyrics because you're just not sure whether that singer said "continental grape" or "oriental rape." You click the first link that comes along entitled, "such-and-such a song lyrics" and BAM! You're in one of the sketchiest places on the internet.

HTML banners flash around you, icons blink with links to "download "such-and-such" to your phone as the ringtone!" "Get unlimited access to over 450,000 songs to burn for you happy time!" "Link to this page and make money!" Firefox notifies you that it has just blocked 7...8..9..23 pop-up windows, and prevented the site from installing an add-on.

You glance at the URL bar only to notice the site's domain ends in ".ru." This is bad, very bad.

You panic, quickly select the text that looks like it might be lyrics, and run to your nearest word processor to safely past and read unharmed.

A quick keyword search reveals that it was, in fact, "oriental rape."

It shouldn't be this way, and it doesn't have to be.

LyricWiki is a wiki devoted entirely to song lyrics. They check all of their articles, and they are the most comprehensive lyrics site on the web with over 880,000 pages, so you don't have to worry about them not having what you're looking for. All kidding aside, it's a truly great resource.

LyricWiki actually made headlines a little while ago, when the big music industry publishers forced LyricWiki to shut down its API. What a bunch of fuckers, right? Well, at least the site is still up and useful.

LyricWiki.

Play God with Earth Editor!

BackDoorAngel@gmail.com (BackDoorAngel) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:36:00 +0000

Everyone's wanted to play god, right? Well, now you can with Earth Editor!

Earth Editor is another simulation toy from Dan-Ball.jp, the website of this one gifted Japanese Java programmer, full of fun toys and games. The most popular being probably the powder game.

Earth Editor is simply delightful. It's a lot like the powder game, except there is a gravitational pull in the center of the screen, making it easy to create worlds. You can also create other gravitational pulls and repels. There's a few elements from the powder game that you can use to create a world, and a "meteor" element, that gravitate toward the world, and explodes on impact.

I'm probably not a good judge of this, as I'm pretty easily amused, But I've spent hours creating and destroying worlds, creating moons, seeing how many worlds I can create in the space at once. It's a load of fun. Really, just check it out.

Earth Editor.

I'm back, with some Synthosaurus

BackDoorAngel@gmail.com (BackDoorAngel) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 04:53:00 +0000

I'm ending my little break from the blogging, and plan on returning to a schedule of some sort (coincidentally, the next couple of days might be busy for me.... but other than that....).

This is "Teens in Love, in Space" by The Synthosaurus, aka Brendan McGuigan, who does a lot of different synth-dance/awesome stuff. He's on MeFiMusic, if you'd like to keep up with his work.

I'm not sure if I want to continue doing my daily web clips. They're maybe too easy, and seem to be polluting the site. They give me the opportunity to say, "Hey Me, do you maybe want to do a substantive post today?" "Well, I already did web clips, I think that'll be fine." Maybe I'll make it a weekly thing and figure out something else to do daily, though I'm willing to keep them daily if people like them. Let me know what you think.

Anyway, I come back with more experience and some new ideas for posts, that I'll be getting out there soon.