Context Is Everything

I am obsessed with contextualizing random moments in time. I realized that this is somewhat of a problem of mine. Not a problem in the traditional sense that of what a problem is, like, "Mike has a drinking problem." It is mostly just a time suck that I fall in to when I should be in bed. Thanks to the internet one can access news archives and dredge up age old news reports, magazine articles, and basically anything else that is out there.

This goes hand in hand with a minor fascination in placing music in the context of the greater pop culture land scape. I tend to claim that I'm not a music buff. I also typically claim I am not particularly passionate when it comes to music. I don't mind listening to the radio and I guess I could describe my music listening pattern as strongly as, if its catchy than I'll probably like it.

What I do end up doing a lot of though is reading music reviews. Last night I was digging up old reviews of the U2 album War. I was also watching old concert footage of them performing songs like New Years Day. Besides the fact that New Years Day is a great song and probably my favorite U2 song, I had a good bit of fun trying to imagine how exciting it would have been to be the age I am, but listening to this album for the first time. Imagining going to the record shop and picking up this record. I tried to find a review from England or Ireland. Namely because War was the first album from U2 to do significant sales outside of those two countries (Or rather Ireland or the UK). And since this was before U2 literally was one of the biggest rock groups in the world, I think it is worth exploring the idea that Ireland was proud of this group on the basis that they were somehow representing Ireland to the world...in the way Canadians view their exported celebrities as not just famous people but vaguely as heroes.

There does end up being some bizarre conflicts within my own reality though. For example, the election of Obama in 2008 is barely a memory at all. He's only served half his term up to this point and it is really not that long ago that he was elected. Yet, the other night I spent a few hours rereading some of the election time coverage. In particular I spent time reading stories from the days right before and after the November election and a few stories from right before the inauguration. Hyperreality is the wrong word for the way I felt but I'm just going to say it anyways because I can't think of a better way of putting it. I actually remember where I was on the night of the November election. I remember feeling pleased that he was elected and there was what some would call an 'electricity' in the air.

Yet while rereading the news stories about African-Americans who never thought they'd see the day of a black president while growing up in the Jim Crow south or the first hand reporting from a reporter in Chicago somehow made my own memories feel false and even incomplete. And what I'm about to say is not a wholly original idea from my own mind, but when I re-read those stories about the 08 Election, I know how and why this was a big deal and I want to be part of it, and in a way I was, but in a much more real way, I was merely watching this event pass me by. And in a way it passes everyone by. Every moment does. And I suppose that was what these stories from the election are for. They help contextualize what is going on in an election, and put some perspective on the entire event.

This is why I enjoy history so much. I was a history major in college. 1968 was one of the craziest years in world history. And I'd imagine if you were a striker/protester in 1968 in France as a young man or woman it was an exciting and daring time. Or for a more familiar concept, lets say I was a young college student in the United States. I attended UC-Berkley and I was the stereotypical student who protested the war in Vietnam. And in retrospect if you were still alive today, I would guess that I would probably look back at that time and think that maybe I was naive but I was part of something bigger and that it was a whirlwind time where the country truly felt like it could be torn apart...or maybe not. But these notions hold more sway as you get further from them and they can be written about and dramatized until the only real feelings are fleeting nostalgic memories that are probably half false. Which is probably why photographs are so powerful since they capture fleeting moments but freeze them forever.

This is also probably why Vietnam to me is now nothing more than a few movie montages like this:

COMPLETELY REAL ALIEN ATTACK!!

Yeah. The truth is out there.

Interesting

Milli Vanilli

I think I've written about Milli Vanilli before. With that in mind I think one thing that is completely under appreciated about Milli Vanilli, is how if a group was caught today in the same fashion that Vanilli was a couple decades ago, it would be madness.

The rise of the gossip blog, increased coverage of every facet of pop culture, and overall media saturation of such an event would be insane. The fact that they won a Grammy for Best New Artist is the cherry on the top of the insanity of the situation. The VH1 'Behind the Music' episode did a very good job of encapsulating how crazy and simultaneously terrible this story was. In another really fucking weird twist is that several lawsuits were brought forward and it was ultimately decided that anyone who purchased Vanilli concert tickets or albums would be eligible for some sort of monetary refund. The entire situation is kind of hilarious in a weird way. Although the legal grounds for such a lawsuit puzzle me. I suppose the people who went to a concert were being defrauded because they weren't actually being performed for, but in a way they were. Was the entertainment that night any less real for the concert goers? It's a similar argument when people talk about steroid use in baseball. You can't ignore that these games took place when people were taking steroids, so to act as though they never occurred is a bit disingenuous.

Yes Fab and Rob were partially to blame for being complicit in the lie, but the fallout of the entire incident was clearly heaped on them. This of course ignores everyone within the recording industry ladder that was complicit in the lie. Ultimately Rob Pilatus, one half of Milli Vanilli ended up killing himself in what was labeled an accidental overdose.

The First Brilliant Use of 3D

The reality of the situation is that Jackass 3D is the first time that I was genuinely excited that a film was going to be in 3D and I knew I wanted to see it. I'll admit. I still haven't seen Avatar. No, I'm not one of those assholes who purposely avoids things because they've now gotten "too cool 4 school." I just have no desire to. The only 3D movie I've seen in theaters up to this point is Toy Story 3. A film which benefited a bit from the 3D format by using it as a way to layer scenes intelligently, but one that I felt in the end did not need 3D.

There has been some online debate over the merits of Jackass. It's humble origins within the Big Brother magazine. The merging of many great minds. The bottom line is by the time it hit MTV and morphed in to cultural phenomenon, it clearly struck a deep chord. The critical voices would have you believe that this is lowest common denominator television/films. It is at its core the very empty vapid idiot programming that in turn spawns legions of slack jawed morons who will imitate and glorify such stunts.

I strongly disagree. The difference between a program/movie like Jackass and a show like The Real Housewives of New Jersey or a movie like Date Movie, is at the very least Jackass 3D is done without any pretension. If you look beyond the launching of dildos from a cannon or eruptions of fecal matter on the screen, you see people having fun. Masochistic fun, but fun none the less. Jon Stewart described it as in his interview with Johnny Knoxville as, "masochistic vaudeville."

I consider myself a vaguely intelligent person and it actually insults me when people feel that a film like this is offensive because anyone could do this. Anyone couldn't do this, or they would. What the Jackass series has proven is that the very base human emotions and reactions of fear, pain, laughter, and danger are something that excite us. Has Jackass 3D elevated these base feelings to great art? I say yes.

Quatum Quandry

I'm watching an episode of Quantum Leap in which Sam leaps into all-American college jock Knut "Wild Thing" Wileton who must prevent anti-war protests from turning violent and resulting in the destruction of the science block while a student is inside, thus ruining the life of a young woman opposed to the war.

Exciting shit right?

Well in a key scene of revelation, Sam is arguing with a very dickish and radical anti-war protester that ultimately violence is not the answer. He then blurts out that his brother died in Vietnam. Sam's brother died in Vietnam. Did Knut's brother? Does he even have a brother?

So according to wikipedia its stated that when Sam jumps in to someone he physically replaces the body of whoever he leaps in to, but to everyone else it is still that person because of some physical aura bullshit. Hence, when Sam leaps in to a boy he still has the strength of a man. It is also implied that then some of his experiences that Sam participates in while the actual person is not really there are then remembered by the original person once Sam leaps out.

With that in mind, I'd still like to see an aftermath of post leaping. Sam leaps in to a strongly conservative person in a conservative town, completely changes the towns views, becomes hated by some because he is very liberal, then leaps out. The original person leaps back in and now he is wondering what the fuck happened.

In conclusion, Quantum Leap is good...I think.

Secrets

'A Movie Script Ending' is the best Death Cab song.



Nostalgia is a powerful feeling. The truth is you can never go back home. The first time is the most magical. I'm not sure about you, but the emotions that get wrapped up in a holiday like Christmas are always much more idealized than the reality of the situation. Which as my humanities teacher said, "you can only get lost once." Which to explicitly state, you can only get lost in a city once. Enjoy it, because the adventure to find whatever you're looking for is only possible once. Then it all becomes familiar.

On the other hand, nostalgia is false. Things are never as good as you think they were.

Not Good

The Twins that is. They suck. 162 games all for naught.

I've always wondered how you become a writer for a magazine like Esquire or Vanity Fair. Magazines like those often have very good articles about a wide variety of things. The war in Iraq, the guy who 'beat' The Price is Right, inside the mind of Bill Gates, and much much more. I know they take freelance submissions in some form or another, but I doubt I could write something and just mail it to them and hope they publish it.

It does seem like most articles even when they're done by different authors have a weird rhythm to them. You'll get an opening paragraph like this:

As I pulled up to Robert Sanders home I was struck by how absolutely normal it appeared. A white picket fence and a small sunflower garden in the front yard. Was this Mayberry? Where was the paper boy riding his one speed bike down the street tossing papers on to perfectly manicured yards? This row of beautiful suburban houses masked the danger and immediacy that a man like Robert Sanders could bring to his environment.

You also get great closing paragraphs and lines.

It's almost November now. Orange and red colors that dotted the trees are gone now. Brown leaves sit on the yard that was once perfectly manicured. A slight drizzle begins and the sounds of crunching leaves is replaced by a light patter against the windows. You would not know it if you looked now, but Robert Sanders still has a dream. He holds it in his heart and his mind. Against the shortening days, the memories from a lifetime ago fade like another season.


All my hopes and dreams have been transferred on to the Vikings this year. I'm expecting a heart wrenching disaster that will shatter me once again. It's fun to be a sports fan.

Much Like Kenny Powers

RANDY MOSS IS BACK!

I Watch SNL

I still watch this show despite the fact that everyone in America hates the show now and if you say you like it you will be immediately met with a line similar to, "Yeah I liked the show better when it had X, Y, and Z on the cast" or "It hasn't been good since (insert decade)."

I will first say I have the utmost respect for both the performers and writers, but I think there are a lot of things that could be better.

1. No more political cold opens ever. Unless it comes out that Obama was smoking weed and driving drunk and seeing a prostitute on the side, there is no need to have a political open every week. Especially when the premise is as hilarious as, Obama wants to pass a bill but can't because the country is locked up in bipartisan politics!

There was a time when SNL was essentially the only outlet for up to the minute political comedy/commentary. Let's not kid ourselves. The Daily Show and Colbert now offer much more timely and scathing political comedy.

I get the feeling that this is the last year of Armisen's tenure and with it will go his Obama impersonation. I will not be holding a memorial. He gets the cadence and mannerisms in general of Obama but he has really brought very little comedically to Obama. To be fair Obama is still a hard nut to crack but I think its time for a new Obama aka Jay Pharoah.

2. A stronger push for genuine variety. Nearly every sketch in the last few years has been one of three variations. A television/game show, a political based sketch, a reoccurring character sketch.

There really appears to be a strong fear of going even remotely esoteric when approaching the sketches. I've heard a variety of times that some very absurdist and esoteric sketches have run in the dress rehearsals and then get cut (which usually lies on Lorne). The only problem is when I've heard about this happening, a sketch like 'The Kissing Family' in which can be a seven minute sketch where the punch line is that everyone tongue kisses everyone with one guest coming over being freaked out.

I also find that its getting harder and harder to defend the writing when they keep dropping Kristen Wiig in sketches that she has to carry by being a weirdo. She is genuinely good in everything that I've seen of her outside of SNL. She's probably the most talented person on the cast right now, but she's getting pushed in to a reoccuring character funk. Stop making her the woman with one really weird social tick or a funny voice.