So today I made a rather glib and tasteless status update on Facebook regarding a single vehicle car accident in Melbourne on Saturday night that killed 5 teenagers. I made judgements based on their names, assumptions regarding their socio-economic status and gross generalisations as to the overall "worth" from a social-Darwinism perspective (I understand that thanks to the Third Reich social-Darwinism can be a truly horrific construct) to our community. Nonetheless the reactions to this post were to be expected, a mix of back slapping, noble condemnation and quiet opposition. I am very much appreciative that outright hostility has not been sighted as of yet, I guess my friends are well aware that everything a say should well be digested with a good solid swig from the Dead Sea. But as the commentators argued amongst each other, I felt obliged to elaborate not only on the incident that created this debate, but my personal perception of the societal and political influence that results in such an incident, that varied responses that are created from such, and the wider ramifications of these attitudes on a larger scale.
One argument raised in the post was that indeed these kids were as much a victim of environment as well as their own dangerous behaviour. Taking a holistic approach to this argument, it is first necessary to identify the "environment" in question, what defines this environment from other environments that can exist within a whole societal structure, and what are the factors that influence and create these variations across a community.
The second argument discussed primarily dealt with the philosophical question as to the "value" of the lives lost. As a supposed egalitarian society, as is often purported to be the case in Australian society, how can some lives be indeed more "valuable" than others? Is the unemployed vagrant who dies of pneumonia as valuable as the Brain Surgeon who dies in a yachting accident? How about the environmental activist versus the corporate lawyer? The famous Racing Car Driver versus the highly praised visual artist? If these analogies were presented across society, what would one make of the varied responses? How many of these people would approach this question from the perspective of firstly acknowledging the impact on these losses on the actual direct relations of these people? Or would it primarily just be from a total societal view? Then of course, what can be made of the value of whole societies from a global perspective? Are those lives lost in Haiti just last week as valuable as those whom perished from the 9/11 incident? It certainly raises a very great deal of questions.
Instead of answering these questions myself, I would love to see this blogpost become an open debate, as an example of democratic process in play. I will be happy to elaborate my point of view along with others, lets just hope we don't get all 18th Century Germanic Philosophical and prove that it is all indeed pointless, that reality is indeed a false construct and we are all hopelessly redundant within our own existence.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Democracy is for Suckers
Hottest 100 time, the perfect opportunity every year to measure exactly how far I have drifted away from public opinion. And this year was real tough. Maybe I spent too much time listening to Jon Faine on 774, cos I really struggled to even find 10 songs to vote for this year.
So here is, in no particular order, my votes for 2010.
! - The Decemberists - The Rake Song
The album The Hazards of Love was disappointing, and this song didn't even really fit into the concept structure Colin and the rest tried to create. However, on it's own, it's creepier than finding Alan Jones naked in your pantry lathering himself in olive oil. Those "All Right" parts send shivers down my spine. If there has ever been a better song dedicated to infanticide, I'm yet to hear it.
@ - Flight of the Conchords - Hurt Feelings
Cos it's funny, and the world needs laughter. There always has to be a 'novelty' song that rates well every year, so this will do I suppose.
# - Jordie Lane - Fell into me
OK, I have got to be honest, I haven't even heard this song. But the other Jordie Lane songs I've heard are damn good, and considering they weren't on the list figured I'd vote for this one. That's pretty much how Democracy in Politics works anyway.
$ - Kram - Silk Suits
Well, this song is pretty good, pretty fun. It's essentially Spiderbait without Whit playing around with his Gizmo's. And I spent Christmas last year with Kram and his family back in Finley, and it was a lovely time. So I figured I may as well vote for him out of extended family loyalty.
% - Matt and Kim - Daylight
I'm voting for this just to flip the bird at Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero's. Cos this is essentially the same kind of thing, but it came out beforehand and is nowhere near as cheesy.
^ - Mumford and Sons - Little Lion Man
Duh.
& - Paul Dempsey - Ramona was a Waitress
I love tall sexy men. And Tex Perkins or Nick Cave doesn't have a song this year to pinch this vote.
* - Paul Dempsey - Out the Airlock
See Above
( - Sugar Army - No need for lovers
Any band that can write a song based on the real life case of lesbian teenage vampire goths who murder a friend and then dismember the body and have sex in all the blood and guts over the course of several days before attempting to hide the corpse, without resorting to Doom/Death Metal cliche deserves a big tick in the box I reckon.
) - Whitley - Head, First, Down
Pop song of the year. Makes you wonder what the fuck is going on when dudes like Whitley can make great music and remain relatively anonymous, and yet dudes like Lady Fuckin Gaga can make tripe filled with excrement and make gazillions of $$$.
So there it is. Yay, my contribution to 12 more months of loathing and resentment when practically none of the songs that I tolerated are appreciated by anybody. But then, how else am I supposed to measure my decent into becoming a bitter old man?
So here is, in no particular order, my votes for 2010.
! - The Decemberists - The Rake Song
The album The Hazards of Love was disappointing, and this song didn't even really fit into the concept structure Colin and the rest tried to create. However, on it's own, it's creepier than finding Alan Jones naked in your pantry lathering himself in olive oil. Those "All Right" parts send shivers down my spine. If there has ever been a better song dedicated to infanticide, I'm yet to hear it.
@ - Flight of the Conchords - Hurt Feelings
Cos it's funny, and the world needs laughter. There always has to be a 'novelty' song that rates well every year, so this will do I suppose.
# - Jordie Lane - Fell into me
OK, I have got to be honest, I haven't even heard this song. But the other Jordie Lane songs I've heard are damn good, and considering they weren't on the list figured I'd vote for this one. That's pretty much how Democracy in Politics works anyway.
$ - Kram - Silk Suits
Well, this song is pretty good, pretty fun. It's essentially Spiderbait without Whit playing around with his Gizmo's. And I spent Christmas last year with Kram and his family back in Finley, and it was a lovely time. So I figured I may as well vote for him out of extended family loyalty.
% - Matt and Kim - Daylight
I'm voting for this just to flip the bird at Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero's. Cos this is essentially the same kind of thing, but it came out beforehand and is nowhere near as cheesy.
^ - Mumford and Sons - Little Lion Man
Duh.
& - Paul Dempsey - Ramona was a Waitress
I love tall sexy men. And Tex Perkins or Nick Cave doesn't have a song this year to pinch this vote.
* - Paul Dempsey - Out the Airlock
See Above
( - Sugar Army - No need for lovers
Any band that can write a song based on the real life case of lesbian teenage vampire goths who murder a friend and then dismember the body and have sex in all the blood and guts over the course of several days before attempting to hide the corpse, without resorting to Doom/Death Metal cliche deserves a big tick in the box I reckon.
) - Whitley - Head, First, Down
Pop song of the year. Makes you wonder what the fuck is going on when dudes like Whitley can make great music and remain relatively anonymous, and yet dudes like Lady Fuckin Gaga can make tripe filled with excrement and make gazillions of $$$.
So there it is. Yay, my contribution to 12 more months of loathing and resentment when practically none of the songs that I tolerated are appreciated by anybody. But then, how else am I supposed to measure my decent into becoming a bitter old man?
Monday, December 14, 2009
He smells like Bed Man!
Life, unlike pager technology, seems to be rather cyclical at times. This weekend just passed could very well have been one of many of the last ten years, and certainly one of the finest. All the occurrence's had some kind of retro-charm, as I indulged with some of my finest friends the typical shenanigans we know so well. Firstly, there was house moving with my top mate Bryan, which went as flawlessly as anyone can hope. Of course I did cop a nasty blow to the ol' testes, and Bryan did leave the door open to the vacating house in Camberwell, but compared to some moves (hi Jon!), this was as smooth as a Westpac rates analogy.
Then of course I was blessed with the delightful presence of two of my oldest and dearest chums, Dallas and Jon, otherwise known collectively as Craig Turley. These last few years I haven't been around the boys as much as I would like, but saturday night felt like a winding back of the clock. I can only hope that evenings as such will become more common again. Not forgetting of course Chan and Tris and Jessie and Squire and Annie and Damian by phone correspondence, each and all wonderful company, but there was something a little bit special about having a laugh with those two dingus' again.
And then the ultimate barometer of such things nostalgic and sentimental, Bryan hurt himself in an astonishingly spectacular fashion, and yet was able to hold his head high, the pain deep deep inside and his dignity well and truly intact! As is his way.
So one and all, thank you for the last few days, and three cheers to many more!
Then of course I was blessed with the delightful presence of two of my oldest and dearest chums, Dallas and Jon, otherwise known collectively as Craig Turley. These last few years I haven't been around the boys as much as I would like, but saturday night felt like a winding back of the clock. I can only hope that evenings as such will become more common again. Not forgetting of course Chan and Tris and Jessie and Squire and Annie and Damian by phone correspondence, each and all wonderful company, but there was something a little bit special about having a laugh with those two dingus' again.
And then the ultimate barometer of such things nostalgic and sentimental, Bryan hurt himself in an astonishingly spectacular fashion, and yet was able to hold his head high, the pain deep deep inside and his dignity well and truly intact! As is his way.
So one and all, thank you for the last few days, and three cheers to many more!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
The division between apathy and exhaustion
I've realised I haven't been very prompt in using this new fandangled internet contraption. I understand that the point of setting up a blog is to indeed, use it. And I will. Soon. Once I have something to say.
But until then, meh.
But until then, meh.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
rolodex propaganda
Anyone who knows me will know that music has been a fairly intense topic for as long as they have probably known me. And whilst I may share my musical knowledge ad nauseum, I do like to think that it is somewhat appreciated, maybe as a learning device, maybe as a tool that reaffirms to everybody that maybe I'm just a knob who thinks he knows far too much about far too little. Regardless of your ignorant posturings, or wise appreciation (as the previous sentence dictates) I have decided to reflect on the music that has meant the most to me over these passing ten years. Whilst few of these bands may make the critics list, all I know is that each of these albums has managed to reach inside my (atheist) soul, and become a part of me, much like Akira becoming a giant ameobeotic destroyer of Tokyo (or something). So I will post over the next few weeks in a particular order to please the people who are into that kind of thing, my most significant 25 Albums of the waning decade that is 2000-2009. Today - 25 to 21.
25 - The Dresden Dolls - Self Titled (2003)
This album was not the kind of music I would usually go looking for at that particular time of my life, and in fact it found me. Around this time I was persevering in a band that just couldn't seem to find the right sound, and that was pretty indicative of how the rest of my life was going. I was swapping from job to job I didn't care about, went through several relationships with girls that, despite how great they each were, were not really my kind of girl, and I was moving from place to place for god knows why. I was also disenchanted with music too, so-cal punk was dead, emo had evolved into this grotesque pantomime of absurd hair, ridiculous piercings and empty teenage angst, and hardcore was infiltrated with metal guitar riffs and double kicks. Everything was changing, and I was drifting to nowhere. So when I heard Girl Anachronism on the J's, it hit me like the proverbial between the eyes. In everything was changing, here was something I could grab onto to drag me forward with the changing world that was accelerating ahead. The album had a punk DIY ethic that was so raw and powerful (a purely percussional band that makes rock music), and emo sensibility in Amanda's disjointed lyrics. By realising I could find new music from outside my cloistered reality, maybe I could find new life in other facets of my life too.
key track - half jack
24 - Milemarker - the Satanic Versus (2002)
Via my brothers Punk Planet subscription I had been made aware of this band (as several members of milemarker were columnists for the influential and now defunct publication) , and I had enjoyed the album frigid form sells for what it was, a furious blend of electro-punk. But when the hipster doofus at the local Movies Plus in Vermont South noted my badges on my backpack, insisted that this was THE milemarker album. So a trip to Missing Link was warranted, and damn was he right. This album bursts with an intensity I have seldom seen since, punk rock you can dance to, to rejoice in, to cower from. The full gamut of emotions could be released from 6 tracks inside 33 minutes, and changed the way punk was made in my head.
key track - Idle Hands
23 - The Decemberists - The Crane Wife (2006)
At the end of 2006, racked with depression, I decided to throw away much of who I thought I was and decided to do what I wanted to do when I was 17, and tried to start again. And with that I quit my job (again) and enrolled for uni. So come early 2007, I'm trekking via the public trolley from Cheltenham to Frankston almost daily in an attempt to become a primary school teacher. Whilst the uni experiment didn't last, it did allow me to become very well acquainted with this album on those tedious rides (and in those tedious lectures, and during those tedious study sessions in the library etc). As far as indie bands are concerned the Decemberists aren't high up in the hipster crowd, but for the art and craft of constructing songs this album remains a pinnacle in my mind. Each song has it's own true mood, yet the album still flows as one, which is an astonishing achievement. If I could make music, this is a flag bearer to look up to.
key track - The Crane Wife 1 & 2
22 - Sleater-Kinney - The Woods (2005)
Sleater-Kinney have always been a band I admired, listening to the burnt copy of the album Call The Doctor whilst studying for my HSC was a standard. But when 2005 rolled around Janet, Carrie and Corinne turned around everything that I thought about this band. More in common with Fugazi than anything done previously, Sleater-Kinney took their angular twin guitar play to a new level with sharp solo's, voices that sounded like they had been summoned from some dark apex of the soul, and some of the best drumming on any album ever, bar none. Whilst the album split the opinion of the fans more harshly than maybe any album since the Bee Gee's went disco (ahem), in my opinion it opened up to me the idea that you can make an album that is more than just a collection of songs, but an entire statement of who you are.
key track - Jumpers
21 - Bad Religion - New Maps of Hell (2007)
If one band defined what I thought was the pinnacle of perfection when it come to music when I was a teenager it was Bad Religion. However, it never really twigged to me that the stuff that I really loved was already a decade old (or more) when I discovered it in the mid nineties, and that the albums being made in the then and now were rather rubbish. So when Mr Brett rejoined the band in 2002 to produce and play on the Process of Belief, suddenly Bad Religion were not just an encyclopedia of kick ass so-cal punk, but a current day band worth paying attention to. 5 years later and this album ends up in my record player, and after 28 years as a band Bad Religion prove they are as powerful, relevant and brilliant as anytime in my life. The previous two albums had built to this masterpiece, with Greg's and Brett's lyrics as angry as ever, Baker and Hetson (with the help of Brett) finally getting those guitars synching together after 12 odd years, and Brooks Wackerman bringing an energy to the drums probably not heard since No Control. I can listen to this album alongside Suffer or Against the Grain and it holds it's own, and shows that even if you are getting old, you can still make it matter.
key track - Before You Die
Albums 20-16 when I damn well feel like it!
Don't forget to tell your mum you love her,
d
25 - The Dresden Dolls - Self Titled (2003)
This album was not the kind of music I would usually go looking for at that particular time of my life, and in fact it found me. Around this time I was persevering in a band that just couldn't seem to find the right sound, and that was pretty indicative of how the rest of my life was going. I was swapping from job to job I didn't care about, went through several relationships with girls that, despite how great they each were, were not really my kind of girl, and I was moving from place to place for god knows why. I was also disenchanted with music too, so-cal punk was dead, emo had evolved into this grotesque pantomime of absurd hair, ridiculous piercings and empty teenage angst, and hardcore was infiltrated with metal guitar riffs and double kicks. Everything was changing, and I was drifting to nowhere. So when I heard Girl Anachronism on the J's, it hit me like the proverbial between the eyes. In everything was changing, here was something I could grab onto to drag me forward with the changing world that was accelerating ahead. The album had a punk DIY ethic that was so raw and powerful (a purely percussional band that makes rock music), and emo sensibility in Amanda's disjointed lyrics. By realising I could find new music from outside my cloistered reality, maybe I could find new life in other facets of my life too.
key track - half jack
24 - Milemarker - the Satanic Versus (2002)
Via my brothers Punk Planet subscription I had been made aware of this band (as several members of milemarker were columnists for the influential and now defunct publication) , and I had enjoyed the album frigid form sells for what it was, a furious blend of electro-punk. But when the hipster doofus at the local Movies Plus in Vermont South noted my badges on my backpack, insisted that this was THE milemarker album. So a trip to Missing Link was warranted, and damn was he right. This album bursts with an intensity I have seldom seen since, punk rock you can dance to, to rejoice in, to cower from. The full gamut of emotions could be released from 6 tracks inside 33 minutes, and changed the way punk was made in my head.
key track - Idle Hands
23 - The Decemberists - The Crane Wife (2006)
At the end of 2006, racked with depression, I decided to throw away much of who I thought I was and decided to do what I wanted to do when I was 17, and tried to start again. And with that I quit my job (again) and enrolled for uni. So come early 2007, I'm trekking via the public trolley from Cheltenham to Frankston almost daily in an attempt to become a primary school teacher. Whilst the uni experiment didn't last, it did allow me to become very well acquainted with this album on those tedious rides (and in those tedious lectures, and during those tedious study sessions in the library etc). As far as indie bands are concerned the Decemberists aren't high up in the hipster crowd, but for the art and craft of constructing songs this album remains a pinnacle in my mind. Each song has it's own true mood, yet the album still flows as one, which is an astonishing achievement. If I could make music, this is a flag bearer to look up to.
key track - The Crane Wife 1 & 2
22 - Sleater-Kinney - The Woods (2005)
Sleater-Kinney have always been a band I admired, listening to the burnt copy of the album Call The Doctor whilst studying for my HSC was a standard. But when 2005 rolled around Janet, Carrie and Corinne turned around everything that I thought about this band. More in common with Fugazi than anything done previously, Sleater-Kinney took their angular twin guitar play to a new level with sharp solo's, voices that sounded like they had been summoned from some dark apex of the soul, and some of the best drumming on any album ever, bar none. Whilst the album split the opinion of the fans more harshly than maybe any album since the Bee Gee's went disco (ahem), in my opinion it opened up to me the idea that you can make an album that is more than just a collection of songs, but an entire statement of who you are.
key track - Jumpers
21 - Bad Religion - New Maps of Hell (2007)
If one band defined what I thought was the pinnacle of perfection when it come to music when I was a teenager it was Bad Religion. However, it never really twigged to me that the stuff that I really loved was already a decade old (or more) when I discovered it in the mid nineties, and that the albums being made in the then and now were rather rubbish. So when Mr Brett rejoined the band in 2002 to produce and play on the Process of Belief, suddenly Bad Religion were not just an encyclopedia of kick ass so-cal punk, but a current day band worth paying attention to. 5 years later and this album ends up in my record player, and after 28 years as a band Bad Religion prove they are as powerful, relevant and brilliant as anytime in my life. The previous two albums had built to this masterpiece, with Greg's and Brett's lyrics as angry as ever, Baker and Hetson (with the help of Brett) finally getting those guitars synching together after 12 odd years, and Brooks Wackerman bringing an energy to the drums probably not heard since No Control. I can listen to this album alongside Suffer or Against the Grain and it holds it's own, and shows that even if you are getting old, you can still make it matter.
key track - Before You Die
Albums 20-16 when I damn well feel like it!
Don't forget to tell your mum you love her,
d
...burn alive you useless mites...
as this decade winds down* i have been increasingly aware of the fact that as the days and weeks and months and years slip past into antiquity, one indeed grows older. and the fact that this decade has bordered my years of 17-27, i realise that no other decade has nor will ever frame who i am much like the one about to disappear. so as i reflect on what as passed in these 10 years (15 different houses, several different girlfriends, swapping from one crappy corporation to another and back no less than 4 times, many fantastic new friendships, a handful lost) i will use this blog to look back on all the things that mattered to me to be read by probably non other than myself. **
*i am well aware that the decade actually runs from 2001-2010, but i really can't be bothered with such pedantry. the astrologers be damned!
**this will probably last about, say, maybe three months? until i get bored and just rant about the banalities of my world in the manner that has earned me the worthy title of Old Man Dan.
*i am well aware that the decade actually runs from 2001-2010, but i really can't be bothered with such pedantry. the astrologers be damned!
**this will probably last about, say, maybe three months? until i get bored and just rant about the banalities of my world in the manner that has earned me the worthy title of Old Man Dan.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)