Party Off!

Zeitgeisters,

I just looked under the Party Shuffle section of my iTunes – as locations go it’s a place like my local public library – I know it exists, but I rarely bother to visit. I don’t know what algorithmic wonder-formula it employs to extract certain songs from the play list and use ‘em to get this theoretical party started, but I think there’s a glitch in the system

It’s got all of the Hill Top Hoods songs, of which there are but a handful, but only one of ACDC songs, of which there are many. Cliff Richard (Wired For Sound) is in, but no Arctic Monkeys and no Aretha Franklin.

If iTunes Party Shuffle really knew what an introvert I am, then my Radiohead and Smiths songs would be in the Shuffle and not flippin’ Butterfingers and Nik Kershaw – not that you thought I was cool, but that really tears it.

The omissions go on, no Basement Jaxx, no Stereo MCs, but ALL of The Waifs. What kind of party are we having here?

Right, Party Shuffle. You clearly have no more idea of how to have a good time than I do. From now on, we’re splitsville.

Elevate the Insignificant,

Mr Trivia

Everything's Fine...Really!

Zeitgeisters,

Just like you get the politicians you deserve, it appears you get the protest songs you deserve.

I keep hearing John Mayer's WAITING ON THE WORLD TO
CHANGE (2006) and have been constantly annoyed by the blandness and absolute gutlessness of its content.

Musically it sounds good, it cribs effectively from the 1960s Soul/R&B songbook, but lyrically it’s bereft of anything approaching a message.

Me and all my friends
We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There's no way we ever could

Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

It's hard to beat the system
When we're standing at a distance
So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change

Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door
And when you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want

That's why we're waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

It's not that we don't care,
We just know that the fight ain't fair
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

And we're still waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting waiting on the world to change
One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

At best, you could argue for some kind of irony – “Its hard to beat the system when you’re standing at a distance” might be seen as a way of saying get involved and do something. But if so, it’s a bit oblique. “We just feel like we don’t have the means to rise above it and beat it?” Oh, come on!

This is not so much a protest song, as a whiny piece of middle-class nonsense, which apparently says: “things are terrible aren’t they? if only we could do something.” How about writing some bang-on lyrics, which involve a call to action?

Sorry John Mayer, you live in a democracy – one that prides itself on being the greatest in the world - so your self-imposed powerlessness is infantile and your abdication of responsibility is frustrating. “One day our generation is going to rule the population?” That’s a scary proposition.

So, once again, I naively look towards popular culture to provide some reflection of what is actually going on. No wonder I keep being disappointed. Yes, there are plenty of people who have sung anti-war protest songs in the last few years, but they’re not easy to find in the mainstream, which is where it counts. Edwin Starr’s 1970 anti-war song WAR was a Billboard charting hit.

So let’s do a quick compare and contrast:

Edwin Starr (1970) - “Life is much too short and precious, to spend fighting wars these days, War can't give life, it can only take it away.”
John Mayer (2006) - “Now if we had the power to bring our neighbors home from war, they would have never missed a Christmas, no more ribbons on their door.”

Pathetic. Ribbons. A sad, poetic visual image. Also a fait accompli. John Mayer, if you aren’t being some kind of fifth-dan black-belt Sensei of Irony, then your song is deeply pointless. Waiting for stuff to get better doesn’t really cut it.

Nerina Pallot, a UK artist gave it a shake with her pop song EVERYBODY'S GONE TO WAR.

I've got a friend, he's a pure-bred killing machine,
He says he's waited his whole damn life for this,
I knew him well when he was seventeen,
Now he's a man; he'll be dead by Christmas.

And so...
Everybody's going to war,
But we don't know what we're fighting for,
Don't tell me it's a worthy cause,
No cause could be so worthy.

If love is a drug, then I guess we're all sober,
If hope is a song then I guess it's all over,
How to have faith, when faith is a crime?
I don't want to die...

If God's on our side, then God is a joker,
Asleep on the job, his children fall over,
Running out through the door and straight to the sky,
I don't want to die...

For every man who wants to rule the world,
There'll be a man who just wants to be free,
What do we learn but what should not be learnt?
Too late to find a cure for this disease.

It charted in UK and in Australia, but apparently not in the US.

Better words, songwriters.

Say something.

Gah!

Mr Trivia

Tupper Nuff

Zeitgeisters,
here’s an idea whose time is still coming . Posted in Boing Boing today was this photograph of an old CD spindle holding a bagel lunch. Someone obviously thought this was clever, though I'm not sure why. When you click through from Boing Boing, you end up on Flick’r where the above image is revealed as "bagel to go" by Rodrigo Piwonka.

It’s an okay concept, if you're concerned that the hole of your bagel might become obstructed by the bagel's filling during transportation. I guess its that fear - mobifillingaphobia - that would persuade someone to employ this method of food storage rather than say just putting your bagel into - I dunno - Tupperware?

Taken further, one might choose to bring ricecakes to work in a DVD cover or maybe use an old casette tape box as a kind of raincoat for a packet of Tic-Tacs. Then again, one might use ... Tupperware, people.

This idea is geek-sexy, tops. Which is why its on Boing-Boing.

Elevate the Insignificant,

Mr Trivia

Losing Face

Zeitgeisters, time for the confession. I watch CSI once a week. Any of the CSI's. It doesn't matter which one. I don't really care if it's Miami, New York or Original Recipe. Although I know the Original Recipe crew by name. And I am even prepared to diss their hair when necessary.

I watch CSI Miami because I love things shot in an orangey palette. I also love the way that Horatio Kane (David Caruso) does that dog-with-head-tilted look. Unfortunately this look stands in for a number of emotions, "I'm trying to work out if you're telling the truth"; "I know you're not telling the truth and this head-tilt is intended to psych you out" and "If I weren't in such deep emotional pain maybe you and I could have a shot at the big brass ring". Like Roger Moore's eyebrow and Bruce Willis's smirk, the gesture doesn't multi-task as well as the actor imagines.

I watch CSI New York because Gary Sinise's character (Mac Taylor) is clearly ready to rip out the big one any moment; he is on the verge of going postal 24/7. But doesn't. And there's the unspoken chemistry between him and Melina Kanakaredes’ character (Stella Bonasera) which reminds me of the unspoken chemistry between me and Helen Koliopoulos in Year 8 Domestic Science class.

However I've seen most of the original CSI because William Petersen's Grissom is the most annoying television sleuth bar none. He is cockier than Law and Order's Goren, more scientifically adept than the eponymous Quincy and more self-righteous than Five O's McGarret. He even has McGarret's trademark quips. I may be misremembering this, but I believe in one ep. after a tsunami, a surfer was found dead at the top of an electricity pole, to which Grissom responded, "Surf's up." Y'gotta love that.

However, I am admitting this guilty pleasure by way of getting over my shock at last night's ep. I suppose it was a repeat in Australia, anyway it's from the fifth season show called "King Baby". There's a scene near the end where Gil Grissom and Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) are celebrating Ground Hog Day in a fancy restaurant… or somethin'. The dialogue is as follows.

Gil: I've enjoyed working with you.
Catherine: Which part? The part where I got in your face or the part where I, uh, lost evidence, or uh, maybe you just miss me?
Gil: I did miss you. I missed your passion and your tenacity. I even missed your tush.
Catherine: Really. Thank you.

Now as far as I know, Grissom has always had a really half-baked thing for the character of Sara (Jorja Fox) which was very nicely explained by Television Without Pity’s CSI recapper Sobell. She went into some detail about their off-again, off-again non-relationship. So what’s with the tush comment, re Catherine, Gil? Trying to spice up your Vegas comedy routine ? Feel that a little inappropriate workplace banter would be a great way to bond with your female colleague? They were drinking champagne. Maybe Grissom is a cheap drunk? I really need this explained because I don’t believe it is referenced later and CSI is currently at Season 7.

It is as disturbingly out of character as the Fonz putting the moves on Mrs C in HAPPY DAYS. Its just plain wrong.

Could have been worse. Grissom could have regressed futher and used the terms, heinie or keaster.

Elevate the Insignificant.

Mr Trivia

Art For Art's Sake

Zeitgeisters,

I watched a rather good doco on SBS yesterday, made by Peter Rosen, called Who Get's To Call It Art?(2006) I could attempt to recap it, but someone at great expense bothered to write the following:

A wild ride through the New York City art scene of the '60s, through the eyes of Henry Geldzahler, the first curator of contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Geldzahler was an unusual curator who lived among the artists, spending all his time in galleries and studios. Geldzahler possessed a rare eye for beauty and an even rarer willingness to discover it in out-of-the-way places. A cornucopia of archival and contemporary footage - featuring a veritable who's who of painters and sculptors, from Jasper Johns to Frank Stella, John Chamberlain, James Rosenquist and Francesco Clemente - traces Geldzahler's intersections with the changing New York art scene.

Interviews included Mark Di Suvero, John Chamberlain, David Hockney, Jasper Johns, Ivan Karp, Ellsworth Kelly and Calvin Tompkins.

Archival footage was well chosen and plentiful. It included lots of Geldzahler himself as well as material showing Roy Lichtenstein, Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock. Naturally there was plenty of Andy Warhol; his penchant for self-documentation turned out to be very useful for projects like this one.

It’s a Warhol moment that provides one of the highlights of the film. If you haven’t seen it before, this segment is a gem. Warhol appears in a commercial for Braniff Airlines with former world heavyweight boxing champ, Sonny Liston. It’s a cleverly done, one shot ad which begins with Warhol talking to Liston about the beauty of soup cans, something which in his opinion, Michelangelo couldn’t have even imagined. A voiceover intones that Warhol and Liston always fly Braniff, because they “like our girls, they like our food, they like our style.”

There’s a little bit more to it but I’ll leave you to suss it out for yourself here or here.

Elevate the Insignificant!

M. Le Triv