(no subject)

These are sentiments I've shared on tumblr before but since I sort of fell out of love with U2 lately, I haven't been blogging about them on this site... however, I'm on a low-key 90's U2 kick and I just wanted to share this.

I understand Zoo TV. I do not understand PopMart. U2's Zoo TV Tour was the first time that the band had turned their "concerts" into "shows," utilizing cutting edge technology to create a spectacle instead of just presenting their music onstage and letting it speak for itself. They were outfitted with massive TV screens, which played (depending on the song) either pre-recorded footage of words flashing across a screen or visuals to complement the song better, as well as whatever was floating around on TV at the time. It was meant to resemble the experience of watching TV and how it can desensitize the viewer to reality- the inspiration came to Bono when watching coverage of the Gulf War, and noticing how if you changed the channel, the war might as well not exist. The theme was held up by the structure of the set, and Bono's performance of each song. The set opened with several rockers, with Bono clad in black leather and shades, swaggering around the stage and making witty remarks like a typical rock singer (he called this persona "The Fly" after U2's song of the same name, and the fly-eye shades he wore). Then the ballad "One" came along and Bono dropped the persona, allowing some vulnerable sentiment to be felt. Part of their tour of Europe also involved broadcasts from Bosnia, where those suffering in the Bosnian wars were given a mouthpiece and spoke out about the horrors they were facing. U2 caught a lot of flack for this, calling it tone-deaf, with a lot of concertgoers saying they felt so sick to just move on from such a message and enjoy the show. But that was intended to be the point. They were lured into the good times and rock and roll, seduced by the TV screens, only to be reminded of the very real problems outside themselves, in "reality." Point is, I understand what U2 were doing and I think it's easy to spot where the irony began and ended.

However, PopMart was supposed to be a spoof on consumerism, and while I vaguely "get" the concept, I think the execution was weak. Because you can't have four filthy rich rock stars proclaiming that consumerism is bad while also spending exorbitant amounts of money on stage props and TV screens, and selling out venues every night. The statement was just so unclear and felt disingenuous. Coupled with that, the album Pop which the tour was supporting was full of heavy, buried emotions, and it just didn't fit well with the concept. I dunno. I sometimes think I would accept this tour more if there was a book written about it, like Bill Flanagan's U2 at the End of the World about Zoo TV. But then again... maybe it was just a bad move on U2's part.

While we're on the subject of Wondermints...

(okay, I just broke it up with a U2 post, but never mind)

This song:

Watch on YouTube

Is better than it has any right to be, but that's not what I came here to say. I came here to say that it is a TRAVESTY that this song was written specifically as the theme for a movie, and then in the movie, it only plays for five seconds at the very end. There is NO REASON why they couldn't have played the entire thing over the end credits. It would have been great exposure for Wondermints, and hey, there still would have been enough time to play the song that does play over the credits, too. Also, the fact that songwriter Darian Sahanaja's name is misspelled in the credits as "Darien Shanaja" personally offends me.

anyway, I listened to Wondermints' album Bali today, for which I had heard high praise, and I liked it (even better than their album Mind If We Make Love To You), but I feel like both albums have the problem of being too long. After a while, it all sounds a bit samey. Bali is much more diverse though, so that's why I preferred it. I also found it tedious to sit through seven minutes to get to the first hidden track, and then six more minutes to get to the next. But I certainly liked it- much better than Pitchfork did, their negative review of it still sticks in my head. But then again, I just read yesterday that they had reviewed Lou Reed's metal Machine Music (an album consisting entirely of guitar feedback) as 8.5 out of 10, so if they're THAT pretentious I can't expect them to be appreciative of anything good. (Though I thought it was funny that they reviewed Bali as "too clever for its own good" when like, I'd say praising an album of guitar feedback is just another way of saying "I'm an intellectual and you're not," so...)

(no subject)

Mild TW for a mention of rape and rape apologism in this post.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Okay, I'd be lying if I said that I don't occasionally dip my toe into celebrity gossip/drama, but I'd also be lying if I said that I believe the personal relationships of celebrities are my business, but then again when celebrities make their personal lives public, it starts feeling like they WANT it to be my business, but...

I'm just saying, I saw that Amanda Palmer was trending on twitter and since she's a musician I vaguely know about, I went to look at what people were saying, and now I see that she's done a lot of shady things that don't sit well with me.

And of course, because everything in my head revolves around Live from Here, I am now thinking about what this means that Chris Thile is such an admirer of her and had her as a guest on the show. And, extending that, what it means that Chris Thile celebrated the birthday of a well-known abuser/generally scummy guy in the music world on his show. And I'm remembering the "liberals are so sensitive" jokes from that one sketch last season that pissed me off, and just...

I don't know. I feel I've really been let down with some of the public figures I have chosen to be a fan of, not because they themselves have actively done anything bad, but because they've remained in close contact with people who HAVE done bad things. Like when a member of Brian Wilson's band was arrested and kicked off the tour because he had supposedly raped a woman, he then set up an online fundraiser to help cover his legal fees and, while I was just gagging at the thought of anyone contributing, several members of Brian's band actually contributed and wrote public "stay strong" messages on the page. Like, even if he was innocent, that is just wrong on all levels. Or, in a less insidious but still disheartening turn of events, I was listening to what I didn't know was a conservative podcast because a celebrity I was interested in was being interviewed on it, and even though this celebrity has expressed differing opinions, they were laughing and joking around with the host who was praising T**p and all that. Fortunately this was just a person I was mildly interested in and wanted to know more about, not a Fave or anything, but... I find it really upsetting to think that Chris Thile might be like that too. I mean, I know as well as anyone how difficult it is to "break up" a friendship, and I know that as a straight white man, Thile is privileged and probably never had to think about things like this before, but I seriously held him up in high regard for the way that he handled the scandal that resulted in Live from Here's rebranding and the way his topical Songs of the Week addressed the world's issues in the show's first couple seasons, and I really don't want to think that all of that was just empty words. (Although the more I think about them, some of the Songs of the Week on his album Thanks For Listening rub me the wrong way because they kind of smack of centrism... "This land is as much yours as mine?" No it's not, we don't want fucking racists and sexists to run this country, thank you VERY MUCH. And I know you don't either so I don't know why you won't indite them any further, expect of course you benefit from your privilege and therefore have the ability to turn a blind eye when you see fit.)