death

Rah rah rah, go team.

Okay, the title of this post isn’t accurate or anything. Running isn’t fun. It’s painful and a little bit satisfying but it’s most primal and raw and it makes me even more existential than I usually am. But since I managed to lop about three-and-a-half minutes off my time at a meet yesterday, I decided to include with this post a nice little image of Ra Ra Riot. Nobody smiles like that at the finish line, and I haven’t heard anything from this band beyond a decent cover of Kate Bush’s “Suspended in Gaffa.” You can watch their version at YouTube, and if you’re more into indie rock kids than you are Kate Bush’s middle-aged, neo-Victorian theatricality, then you’ll enjoy it.

So, why am I posting today? Wednesdays are supposed to be holy days of non-posts. Well, I was busy last night. And I felt like posting something here, especially after my classmates (and even my teacher, geesh) were like, “OH MY GOD, YOU NEED TO GET A FACEBOOK. WE’LL HELP YOU GET ONE.”

Huh. So, in the news. It’s okay that a young woman was murdered and that more people are concerned over Taylor Swift. Totally fine. Do I need to put sarcasm tags here? Kanye West is an ass. This is news? Of course, it’s understandable that people gravitate towards celebrities. Unimportant drama is a lot easier to digest than the realization that are very sick people in the world. On the same note, though, people should not be getting all fussed about President Obama’s comment towards Kanye. It was an off-the-record remark—and a totally warranted, correct one at that. The President does not need to be discussing ‘srs bizness’ all of the time, just as we regular folks should not ignore the dark and the real in place of glitzy, ridiculously dressed celebs 24/7.

Well, those are my thoughts for the day. Depressing, pointless, and boring as always, huh? And it’d be nice if you keep Annie Le in mind this week.

Mp3: “Tangent” by Beth Orton
Next album review: The Phoenix Demos by Kate Bush

Read this: “Heat” by H.D.
Watch this: “Hitler Finds out About Kanye West” by icepackz (Nws) (YT)

Daily bargain: Break Up by Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson ($2.99 at Amazon Mp3)
Cool beans: Photobooth.net (an online directory of old-fashioned photobooths)
Sign of the endtimes: Drunk mom fondled on flight

CAN YOU BELIEVE HE'S DEAD???

CAN YOU BELIEVE that this is selling for $8,000? (Bjork will buy it.)

Large version
Oh, and just some trolling in the garden

But oh, what a cruel world. No Jacko. No Billy Mays. No Farrah Fawcett. No Ed McMahon. WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO?

Some Angelo Badalamenti to ail our aching hearts, folks.

Download "Barbershop" (via Drop.io)

Now, aside from that humorous aside in last night’s post about Michael Jackson, I think we I can be mature and write something of a little more ‘serious’ tone on the topic. So, c’mon, guys. Srs bizness here.

A friend IM’ed me with the news, and as soon as I heard this I went to Last.fm. And holy shit, was that shoutbox out of control. Over 1000 shouts were left in 4 hours, and when I checked this morning the stream of tributes and paedophile jokes was still coming strong. Now, there was the diverse mix of people that resulted from the death of the self-dubbed ‘King of Pop’—there were metalheads and other ‘passerbys’, leaving a simple ‘RIP.’ There were the sycophants—“MICHAEL I LOVED YOUUUUUUU”—and those who left some (admittedly) well-crafted troll jokes that were quickly dubbed ‘too soon’, ‘cruel’ et cetera by the sycophants and the moralists. All in all, the shoutbox was interesting to watch. And, hey, according to Shepherd Smith, MJ’s death slowed down the WHOLE INTERWEBS.

Now, I didn’t feel ‘bad’ or ‘reverent’ when I heard this news. Sorry, but I never feel bad when celebrities die. I never knew them personally. I’m sure they were nice people, but I can’t say, so I’m not going to cry a river over some celubtante/dame/pop-princess/teen idol kicking the bucket. Really, even when Björk dies, I won’t be in tears. She makes music, that I enjoy. Sure, her music helped me through some tough times. However, she didn’t drive me to the hospital to see sick relatives. She didn’t give me a loan for my first house or whatever.

And I think that’s what we have to remember when a celebrity dies, especially someone as huge as Michael Jackson. The majority of us won’t have been affected by that person—in life or death—directly. When it comes to writers, for example, I never take the close reading approach—you can’t analyze Virginia Woolf or DH Lawrence without looking at their lives. Yet when a celebrity dies, you’re in a way forced to separate the artist and their work. Yesterday, no one on the news was saying, “That pedo. Glad he’s dead,” even though that was the horse they’d been beating for years. Instead, everyone was intent on calling to mind Jackson’s accomplishments—his number ones, his videos, his white glove.

Let the mourners mourn and everyone else get on with their lives. We don’t ‘have’ Michael Jackson anymore, but we do have his work. Eventually—I assume soon, actually—someone will want to analyze Jackson through a more critical lens, and they’ll have to scrutinize the man and his work. But for now, all we can do is enjoy Jackson’s music on its own term—terms of ferociousness, daring, and not-so-subtle-sensuality.

So let’s remember the King of Pop for what he was—the King of Pop. A closer, probably unnecessary, look will be taken at his life somewhere down the road. As for right now, all we need to worry about is whether our tape decks have enough battery to play Thriller a few more times.

Now, I would’ve liked to post an MJ mp3, but my collection is pretty slim. So instead I’ll post a mix of Björk’s “Alarm Call”, which was originally titled “Jacko” in honor of The Gloved One.

Download "Alarm Call" (Mark Bell Radio Mix) (via Fileden)

Read a fine article over at the New York Times on the passing of yet another American literary great. Updike's death marks yet another strike from the American canon, which seems to be slimming out as of late (David Foster Wallace, Norman Mailer, Kurt Vonnegut) and whose members (Toni Morrison, Philip Roth) are aging as well. In honor of Updike's popular Rabbit series, here's a gorgeously dark Mp3 from My Brightest Diamond's Daytrotter session.

Download "Magic Rabbit" by My Brightest Diamond