Scary music, from the worst years of my life, but somehow part of the growing and thinking process.
I'll just cry.
― Frank Kogan, Friday, 24 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
Brad Luen, 22. Another NZer. Thought I was part-Mongol until a few weeks ago. Grew up in working-class Mangere, surrounded by minorities less fashionable than mine. Got a scholarship to the most expensive private school (UK=public school) in the country and stopped listening to hip-hop for seven years. Got to university and tried to make up for lost time. Currently doing a Masters in Statistics, which at the best of times is more rewarding than even the Pet Shop Boys. Write for Craccum magazine, where 28000 Auckland University students are regularly subjected to my four page essays on why Britney is better than Britpop. My one great idea is that since youth (say under 18) lack spokespeople who are articulate in adult forms of discourse, their culture is trivialised by society's tastemakers; which it shouldn't be, as anyone who's watched both The Fast and the Furious and A Beautiful Mind knows.
Sorry about that last sentence; imagine how much worse it would've been if I'd done an Arts degree. If anyone knows of a good forum for publishing Kross-Kultural Kriticism (w/jokes about trance fans) on this sort of stuff, please tell me. Anyway, music. If Michaelangelo Matos claims his tastes are "a mutant offspring of Robert Christgau's and Simon Reynolds's", that makes mine a mutant offspring of Robert Christgau's and Michaelangelo Matos's. Which I think makes me MOR by rockcrit standards and downright conservative around here. But I like pop, obviously. And rap-metal, but not nu-metal.
Partially connected thoughts - Greatest artist of the last millennium: Jean Renoir. Greatest artwork: The Simpsons, mostly for the second season. Greatest artwork of this millennium: Ian McEwan's Atonement, mostly for Part One. Greatest artist: Eminem (not solely on artistic ability, but largely so). In my spare time I think of ways to overhaul our crap excuse for an education system. I can understand why so many people are unhappy, but I still think they shouldn't be. I was National Universities Public Speaking champion once, but I got booed off stage the only time I did stand-up, possibly because I didn't have any jokes. I'm an activist by default, because most of my best friends are oppressed. Anyone who emails me and guesses both ethnic groups that I belong to wins a prize.
― B-Rad, Sunday, 26 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
Magnum P.I. better than the Simpsons. King Lear and The Searchers possibly better than either.
Em could do it. We'll know more in a couple days.
Statistics fans: I'm the guy who invented the controversy rating.
― Frank Kogan, Sunday, 26 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
More seriously, welcome to Brad. I'll have to quibble with you regarding Eminem, though (heavens, man, the new album -- a couple of diamonds surrounded by dogshit, for a start).
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 26 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
but frank, we know now! in fact, i've had to listen to ethan blather about it all night!
(the record is out, in case you didn't know. pre-release to beat the bootleggers.)
― jess, Sunday, 26 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Josh, Monday, 27 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
Thanks for your kind words, especially the extremist ones. My great idea applies more to mainstream thought than crit theory, and less to rock (a medium created for the youth audience) than movies or TV or whatever. But even though many pop writers know that youth in itself is worth celebrating, the geezers generally only study their own reactions, and I don't think they correlate sufficiently with the actual experiences the kids have. Though I might change my mind in a decade, just like I hope I will about John Ford...
Anyway, in this great country of mine, I think (I'll have to check) that I still have to wait till June 4 for the Eminem album, and I don't know if I'll have time to steal it before them. And since it's not an Osama concept album, I'm already disappointed. Still, E gets my millennium nod for a whole array of diamonds, bound together in a lattice to form a mega-meta-diamond, even if what binds them is shit.
― B-Rad, Monday, 27 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― ethan, Monday, 27 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
JUST because I think "Stan" is the single most unfunniest single since "We Are the World"...
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 27 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― geeta, Monday, 27 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ron, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
Name is Julio. I am 22 years old and I live in London, UK (as I write I am in Toronto though). I am currently doing a PhD in chemistry at University College, London.
I was Born in Brazil but I moved to England 10 years ago. Watching Ian Curtis on the telly did stir up an initial interest in music. Started buying rock/indie records but then watched a captain beefheart doc on the telly that led me to him. This completely changed my musical inetrests and led me to more marginalised musical forms such as free-improvisation and also some free-jazz. From the classical standpoint I seem to like things that are 'anti-classical' like morton feldman and Xenakis' electronic pieces but have maintained an interest in the walking corpse that is 'popular music'.
― Julio Desouza, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― commonswings, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Mr Swygart, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Shaky Mo Collier, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― nathalie, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jess, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ron, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
Obtained 'Kylie' by Kylie Minogue on cassette at age of 7 (1988), have not looked back since. Favourite album ever would be 'Different Class'. Will say no more, as will feel obliged to namecheck about 200 bands'n'artists, and this would be bit gratuitous.
― Alex Linsdell, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jel --, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― nathalie, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
Now doing cut-and-paste/irritainment music like everyone else. I go by DJ Veal, until I'm sure that lame Canadian band by the name of Veal is dead-and-gone.
For the record, I like hearing everything once; after that I'm a lot more discerning! Also for the record, I LIKE hip-hop. And my personal goal is never to get stuck, temporally, in any music (as in, let's say, my wife: stopped listening to new music in the 70s so only music up to the 70s is of any worth)(perhaps I'm being a little harsh on her). I think we, now as always, live in the times of the best music ever.
― Matt Riedl (veal), Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Johanna, Thursday, 4 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Julio Desouza, Thursday, 4 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― nathalie, Thursday, 4 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Celeste, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Jack Cole, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Julio Desouza, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Josh, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
in reality I run a record label by myself and the PRL with several others, a fledgling and incomplete website that's been up a scant 2 and half months (the board part being around for a year). I also buy, research and sell rare books for a living.
turn ons include the Los Angeles Free Music Society, Dock Boggs, outsider music, Cleveland 70's punk and Tropicalia (to name a few).
turns offs include Stephen Malkmus, Britpop, reggae (though not dub or 60's ska), and "pop."
now I AM a phd student in philosophy, focusing on aesthetics, in particular philosophy of music. I study and work as a graduate assistant slave at the lovely u of minnesota, twin cities. if I'm fast I might graduate in, uh, 2006. or 2007.
I wrote about anything related to music on my blog.
― Adorno, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Dingbod Kesterson, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nicole, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Julio Desouza, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Christine "Green Leafy Dragon" Indigo, Monday, 15 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
Julio, being a movie, 101 does have a disproportionally large number of beautiful people in it, but I think I can say with certainty that if you were to come to Reykjavík to check out the party scene, you would find a satisfying number of beautiful blondes… Nathalie – I did say chances are… ;-)
― Johanna, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Julio Desouza, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
i am currently listening to fink! by the swamp zombies, in the last few weeks: scratch, the nits, shig & buzz, johnny cash, dj red alert, happy mondays, momus, zoobombs, boredoms, 5.6.7.8's, jack drag, beatles, eels, peter tosh, misfits, willie nelson, at the drive-in, hard rain vol.1 (dylan tribute), michael franti, william s. burroughs, steven jesse bernstein, blue meanies, sonic youth, digable planets, a lot of lounge music, laptop, shitloads of reggae, the cure, violent femmes, speech, weezer, etc... also a little website updating: www.soapbubblebox.isgreat.net a blogger page: www.soapbubblebox.blogspot.com yeah, thats about it for me
ps- i also burn cds and trade them, wink wink, nudge nudge...
― benjamin stewart, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Sean Carruthers, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
A DJ and a DIY musicmaker.
play turntables delayed and guitars and impacts in Interferents, a Brooklyn-based improvised recomposing sound unit.
I'm proud to be playing round records on the WFMU Listener hour Saturday morning, August 31st. check out the shows archive at wfmu.org, they are and have been the best ever at free-form.
it's all about This Heat, Can, Devo, Plagal Grind, electric Miles Davis, Turbo Blender Man, Timbaland, Messthetics, Laddio Bolocko, Lightning Bolt, Deerhoof, Volcano the Bear, Vibracathedral Orchestra, no wave, brutal prog, schmoozecore, file sharing, and mix tapes.
bim
― autovac, Saturday, 24 August 2002 19:25 (twenty-one years ago) link
― autovac, Saturday, 24 August 2002 19:37 (twenty-one years ago) link