Blue Lines Revisited: Archive

Chasin' a dream

Actually, thinking more about Matthew’s post, what it underlines to me is the sad unfairness of the power-law distribution curve on the internet. Basically, if you started a music blog in 2000-2, and stuck with it, and were even reasonably good at it, you probably now have some kind of income from music criticism - not enough to live on maybe, but something. I owe my current job, my side income, pretty much every element of my middling prosperity to saying “why not?” and starting a music website in 1999.

Whereas if you started a music blog in 2006-8, you have to be really really dedicated and really really good at it and you need to work a LOT harder than I ever did to get anywhere near that kind of position. It’s like the Gladwell Outliers thesis in miniature - accidents of birth and age and timing matter easily as much as talent.

Which isn’t to say I disagree with what Matthew was saying, just that I’m grateful for my own good luck, really.

Feb 28, 2009

perpetua:

Look, it’s really sad when anyone can’t get work. Believe me, I’ve been broke enough lately to have a great deal of empathy about this sort of thing. Even still, when I read The Recessionist, I can’t help but feel a bit of schadenfreude, if just because I am annoyed by the assumption that just because you’re “overeducated” you are entitled to gainful employment. This feeling is especially potent when I read about a recent Yale graduate who abandoned studying physics so that he could get an English degree and chase the dream of becoming a MUSIC JOURNALIST.

Not to be too much of a dick about this, but that’s more or less what I’ve been doing for the past several years, and I know a lot of people working in that field, and guess what? None of us needed a degree to do what we do, just a modicum of talent, discipline, and the guts to start quality blogs and zines and/or submitting pitches to publications. This is where my pride about doing things my own way collides with my contempt for the sort of milquetoast people who think there’s always an orderly path to success. This is especially sad when you realize that, at this guy’s age, the internet music writing scene had been going strong before he probably ever got accepted into the school. So why didn’t he follow the more sensible path of doing music writing on the side while pursuing a more practical degree? Why didn’t he notice that print media was dying, and that dependable, talented veterans were basically getting squeezed out the field?

I don’t mean to rag on this guy — he’s probably a sweet, good-hearted dude, and I hope that he and everyone else on the site finds work sooner than later. I just think more people need to realize that when it comes to creative work of any kind, particularly in the age of the internet, you really don’t need to ask for anyone’s permission. Pay your dues, cultivate your voice, chase excellence, and the money will eventually find you.

Though frankly it still won’t be much money.

Feb 28, 200915 notes

Listen

Nena - “99 Luftballons”: I thought of uploading something else from her 1983 s/t album, but while it’s very good, this remains the one.

Feb 27, 20091 note

Feb 27, 2009

Listen

Prefab Sprout - “Lions In My Own Garden (Exit Someone)”: Cerebral, neurotic, poppy - they never really sounded like this again (more’s the pity).

Feb 26, 2009

I should really put this on Blackbeard Blog but I think pretty much anyone who’s ever been involved in an online community would learn something useful by reading it. A very candid and interesting essay about trying to create and maintain high-quality online conversation. Via Curiouslypersistent.

Feb 26, 2009

“For example, Lundström was linked to a gang of skinheads that attacked Latin American tourists in Stockholm in the mid-1980s. [Expo.se report (Swe) - 2005]. Over the years, Lundström has switched his support from Keep Sweden Swedish to the far-right headbangers party New Democracy - but was thrown out for being too right wing. He’s currently bankrolling 100 candidates for the Swedish equivalent of the BNP.

Lundström owns 40 per cent of The Pirate Bay - the largest share - and gave it servers and bandwidth to get going. As one of the four defendants, been a regular attendee in court. But the presence of this significant national political player hasn’t been worthy of a WiReD mention since the trial kicked off. Or a mention anywhere else. Why would that be?”

Feb 26, 20091 note

Feb 26, 200954 notes

“I confess though: My first reaction to listening to this all the way through was negative. When focusing on what’s not here rather than what is, Dark Was the Night comes off as a gray, monotone look at the current indie landscape and, as a result, works best in small batches. It’s missing not only rhythm and electronics— more hip-hop, anything in the DFA axis, M.I.A., Animal Collective, etc.— but volume and velocity as well. Sure, it’s a charity record not a party soundtrack, but No Alternative was full of actual rock songs. On this evidence, today’s guitar-based indie is primarily folkie tunefulness, baroque lines in which the guitar is subservient to other instruments, or, based on the original Simon Reynolds definition of the word, post-rock: “Using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures rather than riffs and power chords.” —

Dark Was the Night | Pitchfork (via offnotesnotes)

An interesting review, this - praising what the record is and regretting what it isn’t. Good example of how the mark + rvw system can work to nuanced effect - the mark is (properly) a reflection of the quality* of the music, the write-up raises some of the wider questions. It’ll be interesting to see what - if any - conversation this sparks.

*OK, as described I’d rather listen to almost anything else on Earth, but you know what I mean

Feb 26, 20097 notes

Listen

Jo - “Apollo 9”: Jungle built out of 8-bit videogame noises, from 1994, made by an 18 year old Brixton girl. SWOON.

Feb 25, 2009

miketd:

Insightful stuff from Tom Ewing, who revisits some of the received Internet wisdoms of 10 years ago and measures their progress.

A self-reblog - how gauche! Just flagging up that on my other tumblr I’ve been digging into some “web culture” ideas.

Feb 25, 20091 note

Listen

Serge Gainsbourg - “L’Homme A Tete De Chou”: The title track from Gainsbourg’s song-cycle about a man who murders his lover with a fire extinguisher and then goes insane (or the other way around) - the album is mostly notable for Gainsbourg’s riotous rhyming and language-play, which of course is 90% lost if like me you don’t speak French (and slangy French at that!): you can get some idea just from reading the lyrics of how on fire he is. But this title track is a bit of Melody Nelson style melodrama, and very good it is too.

Feb 24, 20091 note

Listen

offnotesnotes:

Kenickie: “I Would Fix You”

i’ve got songs that no one hears

This was in my top 100 etcs of the 90s! I think everyone I know had a crush on at least one of Kenickie, or maybe just a crush on the idea of them.

Feb 24, 20092 notes

Does Twitter Make You Stupid? SCIENCE TRUTH!

The Internet has been in uproar today over this report in journal of record the Daily Mail which argues that Social Networking sites are turning your children (or YOU) into idiots by rewiring your very brains. A top neuroscientist fears that sites such as so-called Twitter are “infantilising the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights”. Man alive!

Can this be true?? I decided to test the story’s findings for myself by applying the power of SCIENCE. Here’s how!

I put the names of ten top philosophers into Twitter Search to discover whether the resulting tweets showed evidence of intelligence or idiocy.

Plato! “Plato’s model is that we are rational charioteers for our emotional chariot. Current paradigm: We are the rider on top of a wild elephant.” An application of ancient thought to modern life, all in under 140 characters! Twitter 1 Mail 0

Socrates! “Socrates is full of shit.” In the absence of context one is forced to question the complexity of this critique. NOES. Twitter 1 Mail 1

Thomas Aquinas! “@thefuckingpope Thomas Aquinas was a light during the “dark ages”.” Use of scare quotes takes a mere 2 characters to encapsulate the revisionist argument on the relative ‘darkness’ of the “dark ages”. Result! Twitter 2 Mail 1

Descartes! ““Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.” Rene Descartes. I don´t agree, specially our thoughts are in our power” On the one hand, an attempt to grapple with metaphysical questions. On the other, a basic misunderstanding of what “except” means. Twitter 2 Mail 2

Hegel! “Hegel: Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis. USAGOV: Republican/Individual Rights, Democratic/No rights/Collectivism, Congress/Traitors all. ???!” There is not enough room in this margin for the proof of his argument. Twitter 3 Mail 2

Marx! “@omjane I’m in the same position as you…. how do you start a paper about Marx…. Starting anything sucks!” Indeed, throughout history few have managed to write much about the obscure and uninfluential Marx. Twitter 3 Mail 3

Wittgenstein! “nothing actually. doing nothing. getting to know Wittgenstein. nice pal, they say. Heidegger is nervous though. Nah, jealousy.” Erm… Twitter 3 Mail 4

Heidegger! “finishing up a paper about Heidegger then brainstorming ideas for one on foreign policy…American fp fascinates me” Infantilising the brain huh? Twitter 4 Mail 4

Lacan! “Lacan, Deleuze, Guattari, Blogging & Psycho-Applications http://ff.im/1cqHk” OMG a hat-trick. NB I have not dared click that link. Twitter 5 Mail 4

Zizek! “Preparing a presentation for next week on Volf in dialogue w/ Zizek and Badiou (w/ a little bit of Shults on top). Wow that sounds kinky!” Yes! Back of the net! Twitter wins it! Twitter 6 Mail 4

There - proof if proof be needed that social media is full of smart people thinking deep thoughts. Mind you I suspect in the Daily Mail’s book continental philosophy is even worse than brain-gobbling social media. The moral? YOU CAN’T BEAT THE MAIL YOU INTERWEB PERVERTS SO DONT TRY.

Feb 24, 20092 notes

Feb 24, 2009246 notes

The Man Don't Give A F**k

If yr press release says “take the subject of love away from the cliches and hackneyed wailing of the mainstream” I expect a better alternative than:

“What is yellow? Yellow. / Pears are yellow. Yellow / Ripe and mellow / What is green? What is green? / The grass is green / With small flowers inbetween.”

Feb 24, 20091 note

Listen

The Dismemberment Plan - “Back And Forth”: One of the things that used to happen a lot on the blogosphere, before we called it a blogosphere, was arguments about this band. They were, at the time, Pitchfork Media’s favourite band, and I listened to them with a wariness born from that cussed position. Like many bands who’ve been Pitchfork’s favourite band (even now I write for that site), they grew on me gradually and I ended up liking them a lot but could never quite love them: on this track I came closest.

Feb 23, 20093 notes

Feb 23, 20091 note

Speed

It’s pretty much accepted that the great footballers (soccer players) of yesterday would find today’s game tough going because it’s much faster - more about reaction times and pace, less about intelligence and technique. This isn’t just in England (where physical football has always been privileged) - there’s been a general increase in pace even if relative differences persist.

This is generally attributed to changes in sports science and training - an improvement in fitness and nutrition which made a high-tempo game easier to sustain over 90 minutes. As such I assumed that all sports would have seen some similar level of quickening - but apparently not so. According to an Yglesias post I read at the weekend, basketball games have got a lot slower since the 60s (when various records were set).

Which other sports have sped up, and which have slowed down? Are there general reasons for each?

Feb 23, 20091 note

maura:

[Fourth-quarter sales] of alcohol for off-premises consumption were down by 9.3 percent from the previous quarter, according to the Commerce Department. This is absolutely unprecedented: the largest previous drop had been just 3.7 percent, between the third and fourth quarters of 1991.

Beer accounts for almost all of the decrease, with revenues off by almost 14 percent. Wine and spirits were much more stable, with sales volumes declining by 1.6 percent and 0.9 percent respectively.

Now, there are several plausible explanations for this. Alcohol sales — but particularly beer — had been on something of a hot streak prior to the 4Q, so perhaps there was some reversion to the mean. Perhaps people are substituting Michelob and Coors for more expensive microbrews like Alpha King and Dogfish Head. (This is unpatriotic, by the way, since all the macrobrews are now owned by foreign-based multinational conglomerates. Stimulate your country — and your tastebuds!).

Perhaps retailers are discounting their prices, or brewers are passing along cost savings to their consumers (there had been a hops shortage for much of 2007-08). All of these are probably factors to some extent or another.

Nevertheless, it’s absolutely startling to see a major consumer staple experience a sales decline like this.

(via)

Is beer really recession-proof anyway? I remember in the 90s recession beer sales here started to really slide: people blamed it on Ecstasy and pronounced that rave had killed the boozer, but they started to rise again with the economy (this is all from memory though! I’ve never done much work on beer). (alas)

Feb 20, 20099 notes