Take a look at this. Occasionally I'll joke about a book being heavy enough that you could kill someone with it, I think you actually could if this one was thrown with enough force. Certainly the book itself -- or perhaps once you see your bill -- would be enough to knock you out.
Mind you, the above is just the right hand punch from a southpaw. Here's the left.
2003 in Music: Disappointment of the Year
Emissit 12/11/2003 12:19:00 AM 0 comments
Is This How it Ends?
When it comes to disappointments, like many years, 2003 was full of them. Jewel going further into a "pop" persona, taking on more and more aspects of her current female "counterparts" like Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera is disappointing, but I can't say I care too much about it. Resident-Select Bush continually lets down his country every minute he sits in office -- or sits on his ass anywhere else since he doesn't seem to be in office that much. Comic books can be downright depressing many weeks.
Given my bias when it comes to music, you might expect that I'd list one of the teenybopper crowd or the latest rap "sensation", but you have to have certain expectations if you're going to be disappointed. I expect a Justin Timberlake album to be mindless, bubblegum pop that I'm not going to like. Kind of hard for me to be disappointed by it. Likewise, when it comes to pure shit released in shiny plastic form that's not even fit to be used as a coaster, this year saw a doozy in Metallica's St. Anger album. Yet, there too, I expected it to be crap and it dutifully lived up to those expectations. Had it instead been something comparable to ...and justice for all, it would have been a pleasant surprise.
No, what disappoints me is when an artist/musician that I generally enjoy, produces something that is not necessarily downright awful, but something that fails to challenge me. Something that fails to grab my attention. Something that I perceive to be beneath the artist's ability. Something that I expected to be good, but is merely...okay.
In those terms, the greatest contributor to a disappointment is:
The Strokes -- Room on Fire
Don't get me wrong. I did enjoy the album, but after Is this It?, Room on Fire sets nothing of the sort and is certainly not IT. Basically, they took the safe route that too many pre-packaged (and I'm not calling The Strokes "pre-packaged", just comparing them to such "artists") bands do and essentially produced Is this It? 2. It's treading water and not breaking any new ground. Sure it sounds good, but we've already heard it a couple of years ago. A band can surely survive for years doing this, just look at The Ramones or Bruce Springsteen, creating the same album over and again. It justs gets stale after awhile.
There are many things to like about the album, many of the songs are nice, concise radio-friendly lo-fi gems, but they're all essentially patterned the same as Is this It? Particularly something like "I Can't Win" which seems to bear almost identical structure and phrasings as "Last Nite". It's still a good song, but you've pretty much heard it before.
There is some promise in the slightly different sounds of "12:51" and "Under Control" that hint at something new to come, but again, I say that Room on Fire is The Strokes treading water. I expect broader and greater things from them.
There are of course other albums that I was disappointed by and liked considerably less than Room on Fire, but it's the one I expected more from. Two other albums that stick out as disappointments that ultimately I decided I could write off without paying much more attention are as below:
Finger Eleven -- self-titled
This fourth release from the band (stop screaming already, I know that this is the third "Finger Eleven" album, but they did release an album previously when they were known as the "Rainbow Butt Monkeys") furthered them into a "kinder, gentler" nu-metal trappings and further away from their initial influences of Our Lady Peace and Tool. Maybe it's just the constant playings of "One Thing" these days, but it seems to me that they abandoned giving the music their own sound and just decided to blatantly follow Staind into nu-metal balladeering oblivion.
Linkin Park -- Meteora
Like The Strokes' sophomore album, Linkin Park too essentially repeats themselves from Hybrid Theory to make Meteora. The only difference is that I can't say that I've listened to this album again after the first week or so, and don't even remotely miss listening to it. That, and I still consider most of their lyrics trite and distant. Maybe angry, angsty music just doesn't have its edge with me that it used to. I also think that they ruined the kickass intro from "Somewhere I Belong" by attaching a song to it.
When it comes to disappointments, like many years, 2003 was full of them. Jewel going further into a "pop" persona, taking on more and more aspects of her current female "counterparts" like Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera is disappointing, but I can't say I care too much about it. Resident-Select Bush continually lets down his country every minute he sits in office -- or sits on his ass anywhere else since he doesn't seem to be in office that much. Comic books can be downright depressing many weeks.
Given my bias when it comes to music, you might expect that I'd list one of the teenybopper crowd or the latest rap "sensation", but you have to have certain expectations if you're going to be disappointed. I expect a Justin Timberlake album to be mindless, bubblegum pop that I'm not going to like. Kind of hard for me to be disappointed by it. Likewise, when it comes to pure shit released in shiny plastic form that's not even fit to be used as a coaster, this year saw a doozy in Metallica's St. Anger album. Yet, there too, I expected it to be crap and it dutifully lived up to those expectations. Had it instead been something comparable to ...and justice for all, it would have been a pleasant surprise.
No, what disappoints me is when an artist/musician that I generally enjoy, produces something that is not necessarily downright awful, but something that fails to challenge me. Something that fails to grab my attention. Something that I perceive to be beneath the artist's ability. Something that I expected to be good, but is merely...okay.
In those terms, the greatest contributor to a disappointment is:
The Strokes -- Room on Fire
Don't get me wrong. I did enjoy the album, but after Is this It?, Room on Fire sets nothing of the sort and is certainly not IT. Basically, they took the safe route that too many pre-packaged (and I'm not calling The Strokes "pre-packaged", just comparing them to such "artists") bands do and essentially produced Is this It? 2. It's treading water and not breaking any new ground. Sure it sounds good, but we've already heard it a couple of years ago. A band can surely survive for years doing this, just look at The Ramones or Bruce Springsteen, creating the same album over and again. It justs gets stale after awhile.
There are many things to like about the album, many of the songs are nice, concise radio-friendly lo-fi gems, but they're all essentially patterned the same as Is this It? Particularly something like "I Can't Win" which seems to bear almost identical structure and phrasings as "Last Nite". It's still a good song, but you've pretty much heard it before.
There is some promise in the slightly different sounds of "12:51" and "Under Control" that hint at something new to come, but again, I say that Room on Fire is The Strokes treading water. I expect broader and greater things from them.
There are of course other albums that I was disappointed by and liked considerably less than Room on Fire, but it's the one I expected more from. Two other albums that stick out as disappointments that ultimately I decided I could write off without paying much more attention are as below:
Finger Eleven -- self-titled
This fourth release from the band (stop screaming already, I know that this is the third "Finger Eleven" album, but they did release an album previously when they were known as the "Rainbow Butt Monkeys") furthered them into a "kinder, gentler" nu-metal trappings and further away from their initial influences of Our Lady Peace and Tool. Maybe it's just the constant playings of "One Thing" these days, but it seems to me that they abandoned giving the music their own sound and just decided to blatantly follow Staind into nu-metal balladeering oblivion.
Linkin Park -- Meteora
Like The Strokes' sophomore album, Linkin Park too essentially repeats themselves from Hybrid Theory to make Meteora. The only difference is that I can't say that I've listened to this album again after the first week or so, and don't even remotely miss listening to it. That, and I still consider most of their lyrics trite and distant. Maybe angry, angsty music just doesn't have its edge with me that it used to. I also think that they ruined the kickass intro from "Somewhere I Belong" by attaching a song to it.
2003 in Music: Preamble
Emissit 12/10/2003 11:06:00 PM 0 comments
These Precious Things
Instead of waiting until January, I've decided to start posting entries about this year's volley of albums now, and dole them out over the coming days and weeks at no regular interval. As you should know by now, if you've been reading my ramblings with any regularity, I generally gravitate toward alternative, rock, metal. Those sorts of things in nice broad strokes, so if you're expecting some sort of retrospective on what's come out this year in good jazz, or country, or hip hop, you'll have to look somewhere else. Everything I'll be sticking up here will be things that I usually bought myself since I happen to like the artist in question -- or unlike many people these days, bought it for "that song" regardless of whether or not I liked the band.
My only criterion -- which is purely subjective -- is that I had some sort of experience, emotional or otherwise, with it, and do not purport in any way, shape, or form that any lists contained herein are the complete and objective truth, and that if you don't agree with me, you're an absolutely brainless, mouth-breathing heathen. Well, maybe you are anyway, but it's not necessarily because you disagree with me.
Okay, yes, it is because you don't agree with me. You mouth-breathing heathen. No, it isn't. Er...maybe.
Instead of waiting until January, I've decided to start posting entries about this year's volley of albums now, and dole them out over the coming days and weeks at no regular interval. As you should know by now, if you've been reading my ramblings with any regularity, I generally gravitate toward alternative, rock, metal. Those sorts of things in nice broad strokes, so if you're expecting some sort of retrospective on what's come out this year in good jazz, or country, or hip hop, you'll have to look somewhere else. Everything I'll be sticking up here will be things that I usually bought myself since I happen to like the artist in question -- or unlike many people these days, bought it for "that song" regardless of whether or not I liked the band.
My only criterion -- which is purely subjective -- is that I had some sort of experience, emotional or otherwise, with it, and do not purport in any way, shape, or form that any lists contained herein are the complete and objective truth, and that if you don't agree with me, you're an absolutely brainless, mouth-breathing heathen. Well, maybe you are anyway, but it's not necessarily because you disagree with me.
Okay, yes, it is because you don't agree with me. You mouth-breathing heathen. No, it isn't. Er...maybe.
Feel No Shame For What You Are
Emissit 12/09/2003 03:10:00 AM 0 comments
There is no objective qualification for what passes as the "best" in art -- even in capital "A" art that hangs on walls in museums -- despite what may near universally be accepted as some of the greatest. After all, there's probably someone out there who thinks the Mona Lisa is a piece of trash. In similar terms, for the life of me I can't figure out why people like Michael Bay are continually allowed to make films or why everyone isn't humming a Jeff Buckley tune, yet Bad Boys II is likely to do some large sales this holiday season on DVD and it's highly unlikely that Sketches for my Sweetheart the Drunk is going to somehow topple whatever happens to be #1 on this week's Billboard chart -- especially considering that it was released more than a few years ago.
I will agree that it can be argued that some piece of music, or painting, or architecture, can be more proficiently produced than others -- that there is a "right" way and a "wrong" way, as it were, to do say an Impressionistic painting. Even there, though, the likes and dislikes of a particular technique is still purely subjective. Something could be line perfect Art Deco, but that doesn't matter a whit if the person viewing it doesn't happen to like the style. Just try convincing a teenybopper that Otis Redding was a genius.
Recently, amongst the comics blogsphere, a "discussion" erupted over the "best" superhero cover of the past decade, starting with Alan David Doane, bouncing to Laura Gjovaag, back to Doane, then to the Johnny Bacardi show, up to Doane, Gjovaag again, then with John Jakala chiming in.
Basically, their propositions for "best" cover are as follows:
Besides, nothing can beat Dave McKean (even if technically, Sandman isn't a superhero title), Chris Bachalo, Bill Sienkiewicz, or John Totleben. Okay, yes, I'm being facetious, but they sure look good, don't they?
I will agree that it can be argued that some piece of music, or painting, or architecture, can be more proficiently produced than others -- that there is a "right" way and a "wrong" way, as it were, to do say an Impressionistic painting. Even there, though, the likes and dislikes of a particular technique is still purely subjective. Something could be line perfect Art Deco, but that doesn't matter a whit if the person viewing it doesn't happen to like the style. Just try convincing a teenybopper that Otis Redding was a genius.
Recently, amongst the comics blogsphere, a "discussion" erupted over the "best" superhero cover of the past decade, starting with Alan David Doane, bouncing to Laura Gjovaag, back to Doane, then to the Johnny Bacardi show, up to Doane, Gjovaag again, then with John Jakala chiming in.
Basically, their propositions for "best" cover are as follows:
- Alan David Doane initially proposed that Seth's cover to the "Marvel Benefit Issue" of Coober Skeeber was the "best".
- Laura Gjovaag then countered, initially assuming that the Coober Skeeber cover was a joke, and threw out the idea that her two covers of Aquaman with fish were better.
- Johnny Bacardi didn't offer up anything for what he thought was "best", but did say that Doane's offering wasn't it.
- Finally, John Jakala countered Doane's proposition as well. Then, tongue firmly planted in cheek, offered that the Liefeld pin-up was better than everything.
Besides, nothing can beat Dave McKean (even if technically, Sandman isn't a superhero title), Chris Bachalo, Bill Sienkiewicz, or John Totleben. Okay, yes, I'm being facetious, but they sure look good, don't they?
I Am The Walrus
Emissit 12/08/2003 02:55:00 PM 0 comments
Much to Jason Marcy's dismay and the befuddlement of comics readers across North America, Ron Rege, Jr. can publish material. I know, it shocks me too, given how awful his artwork looks and how ridiculous his stories usually are -- I mean, at least Tom Hart and many of his Hutch Owen strips are funny -- that people continue to publish his work, but there it is. I meant to post this weeks ago when the actual magazine came out, but in the second issue of the new Canadian magazine, The Walrus -- think a cross between Harper's and The New Yorker only produced by Canadians -- the back page sports an incomprehensible piece of crap from Rege.
The magazine itself can be perused here, although thankfully Rege's contribution, Parallel Universe is not.
The magazine itself can be perused here, although thankfully Rege's contribution, Parallel Universe is not.
Not Just For Comic Geeks Anymore
Emissit 12/08/2003 02:43:00 PM 0 comments
Apparently the 80's nostalgia craze has gone beyond just retro music and the boy's toys adapted for comic book use -- i.e. properties like Transformers or GI Joe, in case you happen to be dense -- and has embraced updating the "girly" stuff as well. You can read an article on it here. Now the female and gay demographics won't have to feel left out when buying completely inconsequential dusted off crap.
The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers
Emissit 12/08/2003 10:54:00 AM 0 comments
From Dirk Deppey's indictment of the direct market:
"It may well be obvious to outside observers that the Direct Market has crawled so far up its own ass you can see its head coming out its own mouth..."
"It may well be obvious to outside observers that the Direct Market has crawled so far up its own ass you can see its head coming out its own mouth..."
out on my feet
Emissit 12/07/2003 03:16:00 AM 0 comments
Is it me, or does it seem like every December I pull up my stakes and disappear until January? It seems as though every year December marks the beginning of a kind of fugue state where I'm operating primarily for work or school, and everything else kind of just falls by the wayside. There's little time for extraneous thought and diversion.
Anyway, after seeing all this ads in recent comics for the "Spider-Man ISP", I decided to check out the browser. It's a skin that operates using a browser called Phaseout -- another freeware, open source browser like Mozilla, only this time operating in a Flash environment. It's pretty neat, actually, with some increased functionality over Mozilla, although ease-of-use the first time isn't exactly 100%. It's fairly small as well, although it looks like it uses up more system resources than any of the Mozilla-based browsers. You can check it out yourself here.
Anyway, after seeing all this ads in recent comics for the "Spider-Man ISP", I decided to check out the browser. It's a skin that operates using a browser called Phaseout -- another freeware, open source browser like Mozilla, only this time operating in a Flash environment. It's pretty neat, actually, with some increased functionality over Mozilla, although ease-of-use the first time isn't exactly 100%. It's fairly small as well, although it looks like it uses up more system resources than any of the Mozilla-based browsers. You can check it out yourself here.
Burn You Up, Burn You Down
Emissit 11/13/2003 03:18:00 AM 0 comments
I've been listening to the new Peter Gabriel Hit collection -- and to say it's one of the better hits compilation albums out there would be an understatement, aside from the noticeable omission of music from Passion, almost all the hits are here (sadly, it's lacking "Mercy Street", "Intruder", "Secret World", and "I Have the Touch", but he still crammed as much as he could onto these two disc).
The highlight, though, has to be the new song, "Burn You Up, Burn You Down", which was sadly pulled at the last minute from Up. Listening to it, you can understand why it was pulled, but not for the reason you'd probably think. The song is fucking great, a great upbeat rhythm piece more akin to Gabriel's "pop" hits than the measured introspection that was found on Up. It's even downright funky. Although it wouldn't have fit there, here it's gold amongst the other great tracks, relieving that we get to hear this rather than have it buried in his vault of unreleased material.
"Lovetown" is also on the second disc, if you didn't happen to have the Philadelphia soundtrack.
The highlight, though, has to be the new song, "Burn You Up, Burn You Down", which was sadly pulled at the last minute from Up. Listening to it, you can understand why it was pulled, but not for the reason you'd probably think. The song is fucking great, a great upbeat rhythm piece more akin to Gabriel's "pop" hits than the measured introspection that was found on Up. It's even downright funky. Although it wouldn't have fit there, here it's gold amongst the other great tracks, relieving that we get to hear this rather than have it buried in his vault of unreleased material.
"Lovetown" is also on the second disc, if you didn't happen to have the Philadelphia soundtrack.
A Voice in the Wilderness
Emissit 11/08/2003 03:19:00 AM 0 comments
The comments blurb bit should now be fixed. Previously, occasionally when you clicked on the "comments" link or even when opening the individual archives, the page would apparently be blank. I'm not exactly sure what the problem with the script was, but deleting the "remember me?" code seemed to do the trick for the individual archives pages, and placing the comments field within the
tag seemed to do it for the comments pop-ups.
Signal to Noise
Emissit 11/06/2003 03:19:00 AM 0 comments
When you think about it, in the context of an infinitely possible universe, with the possible existence of any manner of sentient life across it, we're all relatively insignificant. What does one voice matter in the cacophony of thousands, of millions? In this universe, hell, just on this planet, there are several billion other people with thoughts, hopes, dreams, and so on and so forth that might be like yours, might be completely different, might have thoughts significantly more profound, more intelligent, more eloquent than yours. So, what's the point? In this world of ants marching, with someone who's going to be better, faster, more efficient, more intelligent, more insightful than you, what the fuck are you still doing here? You're nothing, just another insignificant speck on a tiny blue marble in a vast black sea.
Kind of harsh, don't you think? If the world really were like that, that one voice didn't matter, you may as well just consign yourself to oblivion right now. I mean, you don't matter, you shouldn't be heard, we need the fucking space for another Starbucks.
I give in to too much drama, granted, but this is essentially the argument held by one Matt Brady, of Newsarama fame -- a site devoted to the egregious amount of comics "journalism" which usually amounts to so much regurgitated press release pap, in case you didn't know what it was or what I thought of it --, as he said on the Brian Wood Forum:
The key point, the one where this becomes a reductio ad absurdum argument -- despite the obvious self-defeating qualities of the 'who gives a shit?' question in the first place, with a reflexive view back on the query -- is that in the world painted above, in the world where one voice doesn't matter, there would be a silence. There would be no art, no literature, no joy of creativity. Quiet little sheep. Head down. Go to sleep. No one cares what you think.
Endless fields of white, an existentialist's dream. Yet, if no voice mattered, and we were all essentially "shamed" into silence, there'd be no thought of those blank pages, because the necessity for the pages themselves ceases to exist. Electronic bandwidth ceases to exist. Communication becomes perfunctory, utilitarian, and sterile.
The counterargument is simple: every thought matters. Every voice. Every single ounce of any idea. Good or bad. Maybe it doesn't matter to me, maybe it doesn't matter to you, but it certainly matters to someone, even if just for the cathartic release of getting something out of your head. Basically, in some way, fashion, or form, the blog entries -- even if on endless trivialities of what you ate for breakfast or that neat thing your kitten can do with a bowl of milk -- it matters to the person posting it. Possibly a lot, possibly just as a passing notion, but it matters. It's communication. It's information. Without it, human beings, as social animals, cease being human beings and become some other. Some form of automata.
The trick is finding those similar souls, talking about things that matter to you.
Kind of harsh, don't you think? If the world really were like that, that one voice didn't matter, you may as well just consign yourself to oblivion right now. I mean, you don't matter, you shouldn't be heard, we need the fucking space for another Starbucks.
I give in to too much drama, granted, but this is essentially the argument held by one Matt Brady, of Newsarama fame -- a site devoted to the egregious amount of comics "journalism" which usually amounts to so much regurgitated press release pap, in case you didn't know what it was or what I thought of it --, as he said on the Brian Wood Forum:
That should be a question in the EULA agreement on EVERY blog host:His argument is largely levelled at the "blogs", which for some reason or another seems to have raised his ire. Mayhap because we don't kowtow to his bandwagon, or -- in context of the thread itself -- don't all bow down and worship in the house of the pimp or some other febrile nonsense. ...and, of course, anyone who doesn't agree with you should be silenced. What a fair and balanced outlook from a surprisingly conservative media standpoint. (Everyone rush out and buy some more Marvel and DC shit right now so Matt can go to bed happy, thinking he's done a good job being a shill "journalist") ...but I get away from myself.
"Do you really, honestly - and we mean honestly, not that 'honestly' you use when you ask yourself whether or not you look good in that pair of jeans - think anyone gives a shit about what you think?"
If they did that, and people were 100% honest, there would be no "blog culutre."
The key point, the one where this becomes a reductio ad absurdum argument -- despite the obvious self-defeating qualities of the 'who gives a shit?' question in the first place, with a reflexive view back on the query -- is that in the world painted above, in the world where one voice doesn't matter, there would be a silence. There would be no art, no literature, no joy of creativity. Quiet little sheep. Head down. Go to sleep. No one cares what you think.
Endless fields of white, an existentialist's dream. Yet, if no voice mattered, and we were all essentially "shamed" into silence, there'd be no thought of those blank pages, because the necessity for the pages themselves ceases to exist. Electronic bandwidth ceases to exist. Communication becomes perfunctory, utilitarian, and sterile.
The counterargument is simple: every thought matters. Every voice. Every single ounce of any idea. Good or bad. Maybe it doesn't matter to me, maybe it doesn't matter to you, but it certainly matters to someone, even if just for the cathartic release of getting something out of your head. Basically, in some way, fashion, or form, the blog entries -- even if on endless trivialities of what you ate for breakfast or that neat thing your kitten can do with a bowl of milk -- it matters to the person posting it. Possibly a lot, possibly just as a passing notion, but it matters. It's communication. It's information. Without it, human beings, as social animals, cease being human beings and become some other. Some form of automata.
The trick is finding those similar souls, talking about things that matter to you.
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