The Return of the Celebrity Hate Extravaganza!

I have this irritation thing going on with people at varying levels of celebrity, in different fields. Two of them were quite similar, and happened around the same time. I did think about writing something then, but I was in the middle of writing other things. Also, there were goodhearted people who were getting kind of down due to these artists whose work they had admired being so ridiculous, and the sniping that was going on, and I didn't want to contribute to that.

Still, more irritation has come on, and also, I looked back. I thought the last time I did this was maybe two or three years ago, but it was in 2006. So, if I only need to vent my spleen every eight years, I think that can be okay. I'm going to allow it.

First blows go to Arthur Chu. They are actually the gentlest blows, but also, he is the least famous.

Arthur Chu is a player who is currently on Jeopardy! and doing pretty well. He is not the most prepossessing person, I suppose, but that's not the problem. His style of play is irritating, and people are paying it disproportionate attention. He jumps around the board hunting for daily doubles. He is not the first person to do that, but it is getting press as a new way of playing, against which those old-fashioned players are helpless.

I don't know how much of that is Arthur's fault, because obviously some people have to think there is a story there to cover the story. As I said, he's not the first person to do it. There may be some advantage to moving around where the other players can't make the mental switch quite as quickly as you, but it doesn't take that long for them to catch up. Also, you are losing the benefit from clues that build on each other in a category. Finding the daily doubles early keeps someone else from having them, but may not benefit you, depending on when you get it and if you'll know it. Really, I think he is doing well because he is fast on the buzzer, which is invaluable.

My beef with him is that it is annoying to watch, and some low wagers on the daily double felt really disrespectful to the game. Reading one of those interviews, it turns out that he is not a fan of the show; he doesn't even have a television. So, that's nice that he can still do well and win some money, and good for him, but this is a great show and he does not appreciate it enough. I am thrilled that they are interspersing his games with weeks of tournament play here and there, and I will be really happy when he is gone.

Moving on! Every now and then I would read something about a certain artist, and find myself perplexed by how clueless she is, and how badly she reads situations, until eventually I started recognizing the name, Amanda Palmer.

No, just because crowdsourcing worked for you does not mean that everyone should do it that way. In fact, you can make some fairly good arguments that those who have other sources of backing available should stick with those, thus leaving crowdsourcing resources available for those without other options.

No, the Boston bombing did not happen because society is too loud and they didn't know how else to react. That's you!

You are doing this thing called projection. You seem to think everything is about you. It is not.

For the most recent thing, it was a tweet: "12 Years a Slave drove the point home. the privileged (whites/straights/menfolk) MUST be allowed to fight for change. not just the oppressed"

Apparently, she was very upset that some people (possibly including Macklemore) thought Kendrick Lamar should have gotten the Grammy.

I will not argue that the privileged should be fighting prejudice too, and I have written about some of the conflicts that have come up. What she is missing is that when, for example, feminists of color criticize white feminists whom I could just as easily call corporate feminists, it is for missing important issues, and having too narrow a viewpoint, and sometimes even for promoting courses of action that will actively make lives worse for women of color. (Also for appropriation.) This criticism is generally then called bullying, or sometimes they will just say "Teach me" when in fact there is a lot of already existing material out there you can use to educate yourself, as opposed to placing a burden on people who are actually doing things.

I believe the reason that these rather obvious thoughts don't make it into her head is because then things are not about her, and it does not compute. And I really don't think that she's evil or has any bad intentions at all, but she needs to get over herself. Please. But I don't think she will, because I think she may actually be a manic pixie dream girl, and there's not a lot you can do with those.

(But if you want to read more about it, try here: http://flavorwire.com/436025/amanda-palmer-compares-macklemore-backlash-to-12-years-a-slave-is-wrong-as-usual/)

Alan Moore, Grant Morrison is not obsessed with you; you are obsessed with him. How do I know this? Because of the inordinate amount of time you spend on his obsession with you. I know he has spoken about you. You were a major force as comics were changing, and so anyone who was paying attention at all during that time frame, or who has looked back later, has to look back and see Moore's influence. But that doesn't mean everyone else is derivative, and that everyone who criticizes is an enemy.

(And I totally agree with the use of the word "sterile" as a criticism. I thought it was something Morrison said about Moore, but trying to find it, a lot of people say it about Moore, and they are right. I suspect it's a result of Moore's view of humanity.)

The actual event that really brought it up was a very long screed from Moore as he says goodbye, ultimately I guess because the industry doesn't deserve him, but it was disjointed. Some of that was his wandering thoughts, but also, I kept throwing my hands up in frustration, then coming back to it. Was it worth coming back to? Perhaps for a sense of completeness, but he is just so wrong, and it is so sad.

So there are plenty of reasons to be irritated with him, but one key one is the unnecessary verbosity. Paranoia and persecutions complexes are really narcissism when you get down to it, and while there are some ways in which being a narcissist might be enjoyable, these forms aren't fun for anyone. If we have to go there, can't we at least be brief? Direct and to the point?

http://sequart.org/magazine/39006/alan-moore-might-be-insane-now/

That of course makes him sound very similar to Alec Baldwin, who spends way too much time convincing us that he is a good person, and that people always tell him how good he is, and the lengths to which he goes to make sure that he is a good person. I'm not saying he's wrong, but the excessive verbiage indicates a sense of grandiosity that undermines the spirited defense.

http://www.vulture.com/2014/02/alec-baldwin-good-bye-public-life.html

Realistically, I don't think a lot of people thought Alec Baldwin was a homophobe. Even if you believe he did call the reporter that word, it would be easy to think that the problem is that word is still used as an insult, even by people who may not literally think of it that way, and that is a separate issue. I think what people really think is that Alec Baldwin is an egomaniac and kind of volatile, and that goes beyond the one incident. Think "Words With Friends" and "little pig".

And that is not to say that paparazzi are good, and that the lack of privacy that comes with celebrity is not a frustration. However, there are a lot of people who have issues with the press who manage to not get in these scuffles. Just off the top of my head, people who handle the press better than you (without necessarily liking them) include George Clooney, Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and kind of Kanye West, who does not handle them well at all.

So, I think your behavior is worth considering there, but also, you know how you make money doing something you love? And people listen to you and will let you put rambling big-headed rants on their sites? Yeah, every life has some problems in it, but yours could be worse.

One thing that was interesting about Alec's rant is that he mentioned Shia Labeouf in it, and said that he seems to have a mindset like he is always in jail. If so, that is very sad. Child actors can have it rough. At the same time, you have money and options and perhaps you should be grateful for that and quit being a douche.

(Shia is the other one, along with Alan Moore, who was making people sad. Basically, by not writing it then, I have added three other people whose names begin with A. That is one reason I did not go with one thought of making the whole thing gentler by only using initials.)

In his case, it is baffling how unnecessary it is. He has been in films with different people did writing and directing and producing. He has been in movies that were adaptations of books, comics, and cartoon shows. Daniel Clowes has had work adapted to film before.

I guess at that point, it is so bizarre to not ask for permission or accredit that it only makes sense to plagiarize an apology, sky write, put a bag over the head, and retire. I mean, what else can you possibly do? Give a writing credit? Pay for the work?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/shia-labeouf-taunts-daniel-clowes-669150

This one is actually the saddest, because it seems like either a nervous breakdown is on the way, or that he just doesn't know how to be a person. Moore may be crabby, but he does seem to have a satisfying family life, and Baldwin, Palmer, and Chu all really seem to be enjoying themselves.

I do wish them all well. That might not sound very hateful, but I do have a certain amount of sympathy for emotional deficiencies, those lacking in self-awareness, and even those who do not realize how amusing television can be. And hey, this is a long rambling rant too, so perhaps I am one of you, as horrifying as that thought is. So, I care, I'm sorry, but you are also all really annoying and should get over yourselves.

Now my spleen should be good until 2022.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2006/08/celebrity-hate-extravaganza.html

Edited to add: One other Arthur thing that bothered me was he talked about his audition being full of a lot of socially awkward, non-telegenic people, which was not experience. I have noticed that some of the contestants don't seem to know as much lately, which may be a sign of harder questions, or that now that after decades of the show, the best people have been burned through already (in which case, I wish I had waited a bit), or that he is more likely to be contemptuous of others. Anyway, it reminded me that I have several posts from my time on the show. They start at http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2011/11/i-lost-on-jeopardy-baby.html.

Album Review: Stand In Line by The Cornerstones

I reviewed The Cornerstones back in August, but they have released a new album since then:

http://www.thecornerstones.co.uk/

One thing I found in doing the review is that they had another album that I missed completely, Begin To End, Volume 1. The sounds that I was listening to for the review were the newer material. So Stand In Line contains "My Mind" and "Smack Me In The Face" and all of the familiar songs, but also much more, with 12 tracks in all.

That balance that I remembered, of the cosmic and the blues, comes through again. I think I feel more of a folk influence as well this time around, but I would never consider them a folk band.

At times it feels like they are going to send you into space, and then you keep getting brought back to earth. The sound is grounded by rich and vivid guitar play, that keeps going to interesting places, but is very much bound to life.

So it's an interesting mix, and worth a listen. I hope it is well received.

There are links for purchasing at the page above, but it specifically lists iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, and 7 Digital.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/08/band-review-cornerstones.html

Band Review: Gone By Daylight

Gone By Daylight was a pleasant surprise. They have beats that are very danceable, but without feeling clubby, and there is an emotional depth beside that. "Someone Better Than You" is poignant, and it's accessible, and "All The Girls" could easily fit into a dance-off situation. "Up In The Air" starts out hypnotic, and the element continues, and yet it is something that a crowd could really respond to. They fit in with rock, but I think they have really good crossover potential.

they have several performances in Austin in about a week due to the SXSW festival, so that will be a good opportunity for exposure.

I have primarily been listening to them via Soundcloud, but there are additional songs available on a CD from their web site, or via Amazon MP3 downloads. It's not a lot to go on, but Facebook indicates that they are in the studio, so perhaps more music will be available soon.

Definitely worth checking out.

http://gonebydaylight.com/

https://soundcloud.com/gonebydaylight

https://www.youtube.com/user/gonebydaylight?feature=results_main

http://www.amazon.com/Gone-By-Daylight/e/B001LGYQ2A/digital/ref=ntt_mp3_rdr?_encoding=UTF8&sn=d

https://www.facebook.com/gonebydaylight

https://twitter.com/gonebydaylight

Poverty shaming

Possibly what I should really do is write something about the concept of shaming in general, because there are some frequent similarities, regardless of what is being attacked. It will probably happen sooner or later.

Today, though, I am going to focus on something that happened around Christmas. I posted the following article on Facebook:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/24/christmas-working-poor_n_4494631.html

Honestly, I did not think it was a particularly controversial piece, but it started off a pretty lengthy discussion about the family's options. Well, that may give the wrong impression.

First of all, let me say that I have decided that I am not going to delete anyone for being ignorant and heartless. If they are willing to be exposed to my posts, I am not going to terminate just because I find their political beliefs repugnant.

The discussion happened because he thought it was the family's own fault. They had accepted low-paying jobs. They should have known better.

One of the more interesting side notes is that he was saying that with the father having gotten welding certification there were fly-in jobs he could take where he could probably still come home on the weekends and there was no excuse. However, another friend, who is familiar with some similar programs pointed out that some of the family stress and safety concerns with that, as well as that for a family already in financial distress, relocating to try and get a job he had just finished his training on, therefore being completely inexperienced, had some potential difficulties.

(Quimby does not need a no-deleting policy.)

On the original article you do have some suggestions that it was a waste for him to study welding. They may have a point, but it's the wrong point. I remember spending two weeks in class, and bus fare, and then a lot of time going in studying and testing, to ultimately only get paid for a few hours of work doing tax preparation. I also remember getting a one-day job that required clothes I didn't own, so I think I spent $30 to make $60, and I missed a friend's mother's funeral for that. Sometimes you may be too desperate to do the best job of evaluating an opportunity.

I think one really important point out of this is that there are not a lot of great opportunities. If it takes capital that you don't have, for relocating or start-up costs, it is not a great opportunity for you. A lot of these chances to better yourself involve risks that someone living that close to the line can't take. If you've got a buffer, great. If you've built up this buffer because of your amazing hard work and frugality, good for you. Not everyone gets the same chances.

Actually, I have heard the line about choosing to take a low-paying job recently.

http://www.upworthy.com/a-senator-asks-a-panel-of-experts-to-defend-walmart-it-gets-awkward?c=reccon1

If they choose to take a low-paying job; try finding a high-paying job! There is no motivation for companies to pay decent wages when they can legally get away with paying the minimum, messing around with hours so that the employees are not considered full-time, and other labor abuses.

It used to be that people had this image of lazy people lying around collecting paychecks and living in the lap of luxury. That was based on a myth. There was a welfare queen, but she had her hands in all kinds of pots, and she worked really hard for it. Still, welfare reform happened, and the qualifications became more stringent. More people had to work.

The family in my original article is working, and they are not easy or pleasant jobs, and it is still not enough. Well, they chose a bad job. He's trying to learn how to do more. Well, he picked a bad field.

One of the more fascinating things about that thread is that everyone who commented was someone whom I knew through church. There should be some compassion there, but for some people all they can see is blame.

I wonder sometimes if it feels like a kind of talisman - if I can identify a way in which all of your problems are your own fault, then clearly it is not something that could ever happen to me. I worry about the reaction when the magical thinking runs out.

We have a world that breaks people. It is not only via the economy, but that one hits hard. Over and over again, you have people working against their own self-interests, and the interests of society, and the interests of human decency, and apparently the way they can do it is feeling comfortable looking down on someone else.

That's where I have the hardest time. It infuriates me, and that's not great for my own compassion. But that's why I don't delete him, or others like him. They have good points with their flaws. They're still human, and I can't stop seeing that. (But I may still blog mean things about them, and I did finally tell that one how condescending he was after he offered to let me shadow his job so I could see how I was wrong.)

Anyway, it may be some of the frustration over this, and things like it, that leads to me bringing back the celebrity hate extravaganza Monday, but then I will write two very sweet and touching things, and this is how I get by.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2012/10/100-wrong-about-47.html

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/09/oh-snap.html

Gun control

I have a loose theme this week, relating to issues where the way we talk about them misses the point.

I am aware of the problem with people thinking that the passing of any gun restrictions at all is automatically equivalent to the government doing a house to house search and confiscating all guns and ammo and you can never get guns again. It does not matter how crazy that sounds, people's minds go there, and it has been very profitable for gun manufacturers as people keep stockpiling waiting for Obama to come for their guns. (He is going to have to hurry if he is really committed to that.)

It's probably hopeless to try and convince the crazy, so I am not going to go there, but there are a few things that get said, even by sensible people, that are wrong, and I would like to hit on that.

There are some things that are offensively stupid. One state senator recently suggested it was a good thing that the Aurora shooter used a large clip because it jammed; if he were using smaller clips he might have killed more people.

http://coloradopols.com/diary/54281/maybe-a-good-thing-that-he-had-a-100-round-magazine

I have heard the large clips jam argument many times. I know I'm going out on a limb here, but I think if they really had that high a failure rate, they wouldn't be so popular. The large clips used at Sandy Hook didn't jam.

Perhaps we need to collect more data on the use of large clips, but that leads to one of the other false statements - "The data is in and gun laws don't work."

No, the data is not in. Not only is the data not it, we can't even do a great job of collecting the data because Congress won't even allow a central database of gun transactions which not only affects what you can figure out statistically, but slows down crime-fighting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/us/legislative-handcuffs-limit-atfs-ability-to-fight-gun-crime.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

We do have data on what Australia did, and that sounds pretty promising, but if you want something more permissible than that, it might make sense to quit pushing so hard against any attempts at gun responsibility, including closing the gun show loophole.

"Well his guns were purchased legally anyway. You couldn't have stopped it."

Some of it comes from this focus that we have on school shootings. The emotions run high when this happens, so maybe that's why it's harder for people to think realistically, and the refrain becomes "If they are really determined, you can't stop them." (Except, of course, with a good guy with a gun.)

This thinking is wrong. First of all, sometimes you can stop a lot. I recently read about a bookkeeper in a Georgia elementary school who talked a gunman into giving himself up. She did this not by threatening him but by showing love.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/21/us/georgia-school-gunshots/

Perhaps he just wasn't that determined, but a lot of people aren't really that determined to kill someone. When two brothers, or an uncle and a cousin, get into a dispute over the holidays, no one came planning on a death. Yes, the alcohol was a factor, but it is easier to take guns away from family gatherings than alcohol.

It is a factor in suicides too. People think that if someone is really bent on taking their life, you can't stop them. Actually, you often can. If you can stop the attempt, or the attempt fails, that is often enough to get them through. Attempts with guns don't fail often enough.

I don't think the popcorn shooter was planning on killing anyone at the theater. I guess you could say he was determined to be macho, and not let anyone push him around, and the natural result of that is that eventually he is going to kill someone. That explains George Zimmerman and Michael Dunn too, but if the natural result of easy access to guns and our current society is additional violence and grieving families, I think we need to reconsider.

I will tell you the natural result of some of my frustrations. Trayvon Martin's death, and Zimmerman's acquittal, hit me hard, and I have written about that, and ALEC, at times. Another thing that has been going on has been the attempt to deny more people their votes. Some of the laws focused on IDs, making many forms of identification that are perfectly reasonable unacceptable, but concealed weapons permits were still going to be okay.

In my angry mind, I was thinking that every person of color, male and female, should line up for concealed weapons permits, and let that put the fear of God (and man) in the minds of the people who think Stand Your Ground is a good idea.

The problem with that is that it will be even more shootings. I have a friend who would always say that "An armed society is a polite society." That sounds good; I see no proof that it's true.

I suppose people could still get the permits and not carry guns, but it is still creating a more fear-ridden, trigger-happy society that perpetuates ugly stereotypes. It's still not the answer.

There totally is a lot that can be said about how our society runs, in terms of the strength of the economy and the safety net, and how that affects how many people are in distress and despair, and how we treat the mentally ill, and racism, and all of those factors.

We can't have good discussions if we get hung up on lies, and we shouldn't get hung up on lies that fall apart so easily.

Related posts:

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2012/12/talking-about-guns.html

http://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2013/07/preparing-to-take-life.html

Art, artists, and us

Seeing chatter about the Oscars, I realized that I am really disconnected from movies right now, which probably does not bode well for me making it as a screenwriter. That is something I am going to have to deal with.

One question that came up recently with Dylan Farrow's open letter is to what extent we consider the personal life of the artist in our appreciation of the art. I am not a huge Woody Allen fan. I loved Midnight in Paris, and I thought Scoop had some good bits but was too loose, but those are all I have seen and that is without a lot of regrets. So, I could boycott Allen pretty easily, but I'm not sure that's the answer.

I have had this conversation with myself before, and I had come to the conclusion that if someone who was a bad person created some beautiful art, then that could be their big contribution and maybe it's really unfair to shun it. Of course, when I had that thought, it was about Romantic composers with messy personal lives. It was something far past, and not quite as repugnant.

One thing about the distance is that some things are more understandable. It is more understandable that George Washington had slaves, and more courageous that William Lloyd Garrison spoke out against slavery, in their respective time periods. In one of the Allen articles someone had mentioned Orff being a Nazi, which is not a great example and it is a complicated story, so we admire his friend Kurt Huber, and the other people in the White Rose movement more, but still, Orff is not automatically a monster, and even if he were definitely a full-fledged Nazi, I might still feel that was a natural result of his time and place, and still listen to Carmina Burana.

My problem, I suppose, is that if prominent director were found to be funding a Skinhead group or keeping slaves now, I believe that would kill the career pretty definitively. If someone proves me wrong, that will be very disappointing. However, we already have a director who definitely did rape a child, and people still work with him and admire him and don't want him in jail.

I read something interesting today. Nicholas Kristof has taken some flack both for publishing the letter, and for putting a disclaimer with it that we can't know that it is true. I was not bothered by the disclaimer, because I believe that is a mark of the paper's legal department. As such it feels reasonable, and it never occurred to me that he didn't believe her or didn't think his readers should believe her.

One of his critics is Janet Maslin, and in addition to a remarkably poorly-reasoned and offensive suggestion that the letter was inspired by sibling rivalry, she refers to Allen going through a dark period and that he "managed to rehabilitate himself through his work".

(I am taking this from a Gawker piece at http://gawker.com/times-critic-blasts-nick-kristof-says-dylan-farrow-wan-1527880499.)

That sounds an awful lot like she believes the abuse happened, but she doesn't think we should be making an issue of it. It might not bother me so much if that wasn't a feeling that I got over and over again. It's not really that the victim isn't believed, but we don't want to have to deal with it. He gets to do what he wants. If we can find a way to make it seem like you deserved it, we will; otherwise you are crazy and confused.

It goes along with something else I had read recently that disturbed me. The original post was an update from the mother of a girl who had been raped, and was being harassed for it, and she had attempted suicide. She was doing better, but was staying offline so she could heal, and that was completely understandable. What stung was that in the comments one woman wrote that this was why she had not reported her rape, and that she was glad she hadn't.

That's the thing we still haven't gotten right. We will still make a rape victim testify even though her rapist is already never getting out of jail because of murder charges. Not let her get her day in court because it's important to her, but make her because it's important to the prosecutor. We will still throw an unstable rape victim into jail when the prosecution finds her unreliable, while the person who set her up to be raped gets reduced charges for his cooperation with the prosecution. A judge will still base his sentencing on the girl looking older. (And her suicide attempt was successful.) And I could go on.

If we were not like that, maybe it wouldn't matter if Woody Allen still had a career. As it is, there is an overwhelming concern about smearing an innocent person. Well, that's fine, except over and over we see that the rate of false reporting on rape is about three percent, the same rate for most crimes. In contrast, the rate of successful prosecution of reported rapes is also about three percent. That's the number we should be concerned about.

I have no memory of the original charges. I think based on the timeline, it happened while I was on my mission, so I wouldn't have heard. When people found Woody Allen creepy, I thought it was just because of Soon-Yi. That was creepy, but even then the creepiness was minimized, because he was not biologically her father, and she didn't have his last name, and I knew nothing about grooming at the time.

I don't think I can watch Woody Allen films anymore.

Concert Review: Dave Hause

Since I already did a band review for Dave Hause back in October, I want to focus on things specific to the show.

I had never been to the Hawthorne Theatre or Lounge before, and I was pretty impressed with the separation of the spaces. There was a very loud T Mills show in the theater, and every now and then someone would open a door and you could kind of hear the beats, but basically their night did not intrude on ours, and that was a good thing.

The lounge was a more intimate space than I was expecting, and I have it on good authority that the PA system sucks, but I felt like the acoustics were good. The music filled the space well,and there was an overall feeling of warmth that was helped by the bands and the venue staff.

It was a pretty stripped down gig. Steve Nobles and Northcote were both one man with a guitar. When Dave Hause took the stage, he took it with his kid brother Tim, doubling the band size, but even so, Tim was only up there for some of the songs.

There was a flexibility and togetherness that worked. Not only did Tim keep getting on and off the stage, but at one point Northcote's John Goud came up and helped on another number, as well as a representative from Dave's label, Rise Records. Dave suddenly took over the keyboard on "The Great Depression", and it was beautiful and poignant and a different way of seeing the song.

It's not that there wouldn't be benefits in a bigger setup, with more crew and stage, but what there was worked really well, and it felt like an amazingly grateful version of "The Shine".  These are people who appreciate each other. Tim at times seemed very much the callow youth, but he did win my heart in the way he wholeheartedly enjoyed Northcote's performance, singing along and not being aloof.

It makes the shows good, but it may also have benefits on the road. Knowing that they have been touring at a fast pace through the frozen North, everyone's energy and spirits seemed really good, and Dave was in great voice. Some of the circumstances may not be ideal, but they are really handling it well.

The set was a good representation of Devour. It was not completely devoid of older material, but I did not get "C'mon Kid" or "Pray For Tucson", which I had wanted. "Bricks" evokes some of the same emotions of "Pray For Tucson" though, and ultimately, it was a good set. This was a good show.

There are still several opportunities to catch them. You can check the schedule at http://www.davehause.com/tour-dates/.

http://www.davehause.com/

https://www.facebook.com/DaveHauseMusic

https://twitter.com/hausedave

Concert Review: Northcote

The Northcote and Dave Hause reviews will probably bleed into each other quite a bit. They were a good match, but the primary difference for me was that I had listened to Dave Hause quite a bit, which is what brought me there, and had never heard of Northcote.

In preparing for the concert I had been listening to Northcote via Spotify this week, and I didn't feel like I had a grasp on it. Between the doors opening and the show starting there was one other performer, Steve Nobles, and he mentioned watching Northcote on Youtube. That is probably a better introduction. While there are not as many songs, you get to hear his voice through the parts of a brief documentary, and see some of his projects, and his personality.

Seeing him live is where everything coalesced. First of all, just that it was him and not them was unexpected, because I really thought I saw a picture of a four man band somewhere. Matt Goud is the "him", and he explained that when playing around Canada he had lineups with different sizes, but it was too expensive to do that for the extended tour, which makes a lot of sense.

Suddenly there was a face and name, but also the personality comes through more in person, and I can't overstate how powerful that is. Initially I was thinking that Goud has a big personality, but that implies some things that weren't exactly right, and then I realized that he reminded me of the Ghost of Christmas Present. Dickens described the ghost as apparently changing size so that he fit quite comfortably whether it was a giant banquet hall or a small hut, and Goud is kind of like that. He seems pretty tall, but it is more the adaptability and the ease. I believe that whatever the size of the hall, he would adapt to fill it, and he would be comfortable doing so.

Having now heard the songs live, they took more distinctive shapes listening again. That's not to say that you should wait to listen until you can hear him live, but I think it's worth checking out the Youtube channel.

Here are some thoughts from the CD I bought last night, Northcote, which has been playing all day.

The intro to "How Can You Turn Around" immediately sounds like you are heading into a good road trip sound track. There are certainly downbeats, and there is a very personal feeling to them. The use of names on "Burn Right Past Them All" and "Speak Freely" feels intensely real. I don't know if it is because of his talking about his small town upbringing last night that the sense of isolation rings through at times, or if it would anyway. For all that, it is not a down album. "Only One Who Knows" ends on a feeling of joyful collaboration. That all being said, I think "Drive Me Home" is my favorite.

Worth checking out. Music is available through iTunes and Amazon.

http://www.northcotemusic.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/northcotemusic?feature=watch

https://www.facebook.com/northcotemusic

https://twitter.com/northcotemusic

Every voice

When things that seem important work on multiple levels or in multiple directions, that resonates with me. It seems hopeful that correcting in one way will fix multiple things. I guess you could call it synergy, but just now I was thinking that maybe life is fractal.

One thing that has been pointed out lately is that we don't seem to believe people with a problem until someone not affected weighs in. People are more likely to accept stories of sexual harassment in the comics world when a male confirms it, beyond the word of those hysterical females. We pay attention when someone who does not have to live on food stamps tries to survive on that budget, though their experience will not take into account factors like food deserts and the sheer exhaustion of living in poverty.

Because I had also been thinking about the issues of minority representation in media and entertainment, my thoughts were working along the lines of how we really need to hear from everyone; every voice needs to speak and be heard.

The posts for December 30th through January 1st kind of went that way, where the problem looked different depending on which side of it you were on, but seemed to require the same solution, which was more speaking up. I mention that mainly because the first post, on authenticity, works as a companion to this week's writing about honesty. We need to get things out for our own sake, but it is necessary for society too.

The other theme I keep coming back to is the need for creativity, to where I was starting to put them together in my head. That kind of works - you can talk about creative self-expression - but they are still not automatically synonymous.

I can have a conversation with a friend where I pour my heart out, and where opinions are expressed, and that is not really creative, unless we broaden the definition so that it includes the creation of memories, or strengthening a friendship is counted as part of the creation of a friendship, or the creation of a healthier, broader mind.

Conversely, I can follow a pattern and knit a sweater that looks just like another sweater that someone else designed, and I have made something, but that is not really self-expression, unless we broaden the definition to say that just my choosing to learn to knit, and put the time in there, and choosing that specific pattern counts as an expression of self.

Regardless, the two work well together. With a lot of the crafts where you are following patterns, you can get kind of meditative during that process, and have many thoughts, and perhaps you will work out some of the things that I do by journal writing.

Also, there is that sense of accomplishment when you are done: I made this. Not everyone can do it. It takes some mastery to be able to do other things. Crafters often turn their output into gifts, and strengthen relationships that way.

At the same time, talking to someone, and getting out your thoughts and feelings, can build confidence, where you may feel more free to try out some art. It may give you ideas of things that you want to convey, where you look for other means of expressing them.

I favor writing as my means of creative self-expression, because it works for me. I have at times used it very deliberately for therapy, and there have been many times when I thought I was just writing but it was therapeutic. However, if I can feel that I need to write, and there are specific things that I need to write, or start feeling like I need to draw or play bass, then it stands to reason that other people can be guided down the paths they need as well.

It's a very easy voice to shut out. There can be work and family responsibilities that wear you out, and then the most passive entertainment sounds like a really good idea. And I watch plenty of television, so I get that, but make room for the other things too. I am constantly finding new levels of how important it is.

See, I have just now slipped into emphasizing the creative side versus the self-expression side, while knowing that they are equally important. That could be due to it being common for people to not feel that they are creative, or can be, while it should always be very natural to speak one's mind. There are a lot of voices out their trying to shout down yours, though, and it can be easy to believe they are right. Don't.

Especially don't believe them if they are wealthier or more popular, more powerful than you. It is entirely possible that their power depends upon your continued silence, which would be very unlikely if they were using their power well.

I know I will be coming back here multiple times, and getting into how it relates to power, and recognition, and many other things. For now, my message is merely that you have value, and there are things inside you that have value. It will benefit you to get them out.

So think, feel, talk, write, draw, paint, dance, and sing. Knit and bake and scrapbook.

Speak. Create. Repeat.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2012/04/creation.html

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/12/authenticity.html

Such a lonely word

As I keep returning to the importance of honesty, I don't want to give an elevated impression of myself. Yes, I am very honest, but it wasn't a deliberate thing.

It's not that I was an inveterate liar either. I suspect my childhood level of honesty was pretty normal, where I would try to avoid admitting things that embarrassed me or would get me in trouble, but not lying just for the sake of it, or doing that many things that would get me in trouble. There are two specific incidents that stick in mind.

One happened about a year after high school, when I called in sick to work because I wanted to go down to a Duck game. I had a ticket and a ride, and I really wanted to go, and the supervisor up to that point had been really spiteful about time off requests.

The problem is that the spiteful one was no longer in charge, so I lied to someone who might have given me the time off, and I felt guilty about deceiving her. I had to confess. I remember this as a turning point, because confessing was really embarrassing. Lying just wasn't worth it, and things that might make me want to lie were probably not worth it.

The other lie that sticks out happened in 5th or 6th grade, when a girl started ragging on me about shopping at K-Mart, and I said we shopped at Sears. One problem with that defense is that Sears really wasn't that cool either. Regardless, while we did shop at Sears sometimes, we shopped at K-Mart a lot more, and sometimes even at Goodwill.

Somewhere between then and now, I learned that it is completely acceptable to say "None of your business!" Deciding to be honest does not mean that everyone gets to know everything about you. Something that is important in there, however, is getting rid of shame. Shame is useful if you are doing something wrong and should change it, but so often we feel it for things that don't really matter, and can't be changed, and then it's destructive.

Her bugging me shouldn't have bugged me. I didn't care about clothes. I was fine with what I wore, and I didn't really think about where I shopped until she brought it up, but I let that make me feel like something less. It's such an arbitrary thing to base your value on what animal you have stitched on your shirt. At some point it became a liberating thing to be okay with not caring. I was not confident enough as an 11 year old to say "So?", but it would have been good for me.

Actually, now I am remembering something else that was not strictly honest. It was in junior high, and another girl, an older one, started bugging me about some way in which I was unattractive. It was probably my weight, but I don't remember, and the reason it didn't sear itself into my soul is because I stood up to her.

Usually I think of this story as an example of how I only internalized the things I pretended to ignore, but technically honesty does play a role. What I said was "I wouldn't talk with that face," which I think I was using to imply that she looked stupid, not that she looked ugly, but either way, that was not true. She would be considered more attractive than me, certainly. However, she took what I said really personally, despite it only being a probably inaccurate response to something she started. If her friend had not pulled her away, it looked like hitting would have followed.

I feel a certain amount of pride in this, even though my behavior was not admirable, because I had found some confidence. I knew I could take her, and I wasn't going to take it from her. Asserting yourself is valuable, and it is one step in being true to yourself.

I may have come by my honesty accidentally, but if I seem a little obsessed with it now, that is not me neurotically protecting myself from guilt, that is learning how valuable honesty is.

Because I have not been comfortable lying, I give my opinions honestly. That asserts that my thoughts and feelings have value; they are not something to be disregarded.

Because I am not comfortable lying, my speech is straightforward. Often when people use words wrong, they are trying to make something sound fancier, when it doesn't even need it (especially with "infer"). Of course, I do get really irritated with people who ask "Only fine?" "Only okay?" Fine is positive, and there are many people who would love to be fine but aren't. Deal with it.

I bring up kind a lot too, but kindness and honesty go together. Most of the people who are being really cruel or at least dismissive of others, are ignoring facts, or twisting them. When you really look at the world, and at people, there is a lot of room for compassion.  

Perhaps the most important aspect for me is that there is nothing left to be afraid of. The blog has been good for that. I am writing about things to work out my thoughts and understand them, but at the same time I am sharing them. There are a lot of things that hurt me when they were locked inside. Out there, you discover there's nothing that can't be faced.

More music writing

If you have been keeping track, you may have expected some music writing anecdotes last week, and that didn't end up happening. What I was trying to get at turned out to be more complex than I thought, or at least my path to it was more complex, and so, I am once again off schedule. This is so normal.

Anyway, I do have some things I can say. It will probably still be pretty disorganized.

I am almost done with this phase of daily songs. That was just going to be a run of Halloween videos, but I was realizing how many great songs there were, and so I started going through the Guitar Sampler play list and the Best Bridges one. While that was going on, Farewell My Love was promoting their music video, and a few bands I had reviewed were coming out with new stuff, and I thought that I should promote them.

I went through my reviewed bands spreadsheet and made a list of bands to use. Not everyone made it, but a lot did. There were some where maybe they are not my favorite, but still, they are doing a good job at what they do, or I have personal affection for them, and so I couldn't leave them out.

That's the amazing thing. I have reviewed 117 bands. There have been two where I felt like they were bad people and it was affecting the music, a few where I felt they had insufficient depth for making their music good, and a few where what they are doing is not really bad but just not my thing. Otherwise, there have been a lot I love or like or can at least appreciate. That's been pretty cool.

Right now, I have two from the reviewed list that have not been done yet, so Torche and Closer to Closure get songs Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday night I will see Northcote and Dave Hause, and they will get the Thursday and Friday songs, which wraps up rather neatly. After that, I feel like I want to get in some of the songs from the Greatest Guitar Songs list and comments that did not make it into the sampler. Specifically, I will probably focus on the things that came out in the Women Rock and You Get A Gold Star posts, but I'll look over all my notes. It was a good project, and I learned a lot, so it bears going back. 

I will be reviewing new bands the whole time, and I hope to have similar luck, and I suspect when the Emo listening is done, there will be a few songs out of that. Also, right as we hit Valentine's Day I started regretting not compiling any love songs, because there were some contenders, and the last time I did that was so fruitful. However, a friend informs me that in Brazil they celebrate it in summertime. Lots of stores do Christmas in July; I can do Valentine's in June. We'll see. There's a lot of music out there.

Something happened last week with my band reviews that relates to my previous points about criticism and future points about honesty. I had one hip hop artist and one hardcore band. I do not love either of these genres.

I have questioned whether it is fair to even review them, because I am not as familiar, and I hate giving negative reviews. Still, only reviewing bands I like seems wrong, and I learn from trying the stuff that I don't expect to like. I find things that work about hardcore, even though I never pull it up for pleasure listening. I have found rap that I like, though it tends to be pretty old school.

So, it feels like for me to be a better writer, and for my writing to have any relevance, I need that stretching. It also means sometimes there are negative reviews, and the rapper got one that was pretty harsh. I debated just not sending it to him, or only doing it via DM, but apparently you can sent links via DM, so I did.

The first response was " well everyone has a right to there opinion, thanks for the review I guess. I'll try to take what constructive and use it". Later he re-tweeted my blog with " WTF moment of the year. Thx for your time tho", following that quickly with " thought I would retweet since you took the time to write about me, even if it is random as all hell and super negative, lol."

Actually, I think that is pretty gracious, and it brings up something that maybe you don't like the negative review, but still having someone write something about you matters. Having someone pay attention to you resonates.

There are basically two kinds of compliments that I get on my music reviews. One is when they compliment my accuracy ("spot on", "nailed it"), which I love. The other is that I will get feedback like "fair" and "honest", and I wasn't sure what to make of the honest at first. Having read some bad music writing, it makes more sense.

There was a bunch of noise recently about snark versus smarm. There is one summary with some links at http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/12/snark-vs-smarm-goes-mainstream-179666.html.

In the referenced Tom Scocca article, he quotes Dave Eggers saying " I wish I could take it all back because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy."

Scocca's criticism of smarm is valid, and his criticism of Eggers. And Eggers has a point as well, because I do not doubt that there was something smelly inside of him that came out in fetid criticisms. I just feel like they are all missing the point.

There is an element of snark that is gleeful about finding fault. It is not hard to slip from that into losing perspective, and valuing the nastiness over the accuracy. Too much emphasis on niceness can end up missing the point too. Maybe instead of an emphasis on whether the review is mean or nice there should be some focus on whether the review is accurate. Is it helpful?

Of course I come back to honesty, because that is my thing and I will write about that more tomorrow. Part of that honestly is knowing that with taste there is more than one truth. Tool fills me with rage but they have fans.

When I review a band, I try and make it helpful. I try and make it helpful to the reader to know whether they are likely to enjoy the band, and how to find the music, and I try and make it helpful to the band if I see areas for improvement. Okay, the one band did seem to do a snarky indirect, but I have also had bands engage with me, and defend things, and I respect that. They should believe in their band and their music. I respect that, but also my attempt to be fair is about respect. There are real people here, who are doing something creative, and I am going to give them a fair shake.

And, given the long lead time in reviews, I am usually kind of fond of them by the time we get to the review. Sometimes it's different. Right now there is one guy - his review is probably about four months out, and everything about him screams "Tool!" When I get there and start listening, it may all seem different, and he could win me over. Or, my instincts may be verified, and it will be a relief to get the review done and never have to listen to him again. But writing a scathing review will not be a relief, because I will feel badly about that, so probably there will be nothing delightfully poisonous, but I hope just an accurate assessment what the music is like, and maybe what could be different.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/11/bad-music-writing.html

Band Review: Closer to Closure

There are some similarities with yesterday's review. I did hold off on this review. There were some scheduling issues, and they got bumped because they had the longer catalog. However, that was a mistake. Spotify lists three albums, but after listening through Rebirth, it switched to something piano-driven and kind of insipid (there was a Michael Buble cover).

Rebirth does have some piano, but this just sounded like a different band. In other information about this band, it refers to Rebirth as their debut album. The other two albums must be someone else with the same name, so that is something to keep in mind.

The other similarity is that I don't love hardcore as a genre. Well, they list themselves as rock, but there is the growling and pounding that I associate with core. Still, I can generally find things to appreciate more easily than I can with hip hop, and that continues to be the case.

The music is executed well, but what I really like is this delicate touches that come in at various points and soften it. It may be two voices joined in harmony or tinkling keyboards, but there is usually more than just the growl. Standouts for that are "New Directions" and "Dead Ringer".

Rebirth is available from iTunes.

https://www.facebook.com/closertoclosureca

https://twitter.com/closertoclosur

http://www.youtube.com/user/closertoclosureCA?feature=watch

http://closertoclosure.bigcartel.com/

Band Review: J-Xile

I've been putting this one off. J-Xile is local, which makes me want to be supportive, but I have a natural aversion to rap, and having clicked a few times, I was quickly turned off.

I decided to quit putting it off, and I thought it was just going to be my most negative review in a while, but as luck would have it, De La Soul recently had a promotion where you could download their music, and I have been listening to them recently, which reminds me that I don't automatically hate rap.

Also, one reason my rule is to listen to the content at least three times is that you don't hear everything the first time, and an appreciation can build up. So, I do hate him less now than I did Monday, but I still do not like him, and in going over why that is I will be writing in general about rap as well as specifically about J-Xile.

One of my first objections was that all of the tracks sounded the same. That is a common first listen issue, and sure enough, I now know that is not exactly true. "Spitten My Game" and "We Out Here" do some different things, and there is some variety. Overall though, the sound is depressed and monotonous. It's like the generic background for some movie or television spot that wants to convey you are in the hood. I think there's some Coolio influence.

I was also put off by the profanity. I usually don't mention this, partly because I know I am rare in caring about it, and it is very common, but also I know that there is often a point to it. For this, it felt repetitive and pointless. My first thought was that the language was lazy.

Then there is the photo. J-Xile is a white guy, and there is a small part of me that unfairly thinks "poser" with that, but that's not fair, and also, I do like the Beastie Boys, and I don't like Eminem, but I know that he raps well (and with a lot of profanity). Knowing all of that, it still wasn't sitting right with me, and I started to focus on the facial expression.

The eyes look dead. There is not an angry snarl, or a cocky sneer, or any expression at all. So I think what eventually go to me was the lack of passion. This is music. There should be something alive to it. And that is just one picture, but it pops up multiple times. If it is not an accurate presentation, get a new one, or at least take down this one.

That's kind of where it all makes sense for me. If there was passionate intensity and commitment to getting it right, then no one should be thinking lazy or monotonous or pointless. So I think the answer in this case is to start caring about something and let that infuse the life and the music.

In terms of the actual performance of the words and beats, there is nothing wrong with them, but they're not doing anything. And I fully admit that this is not my preferred area, so for someone who is really into hip-hop this might sound good. I think it's deficient, but not hopeless.

http://www.j-xile.com/

http://www.reverbnation.com/jxile/songs

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC7c2kjTj8YtsdTHG5F_UNA

https://twitter.com/jxile