the truth of rock and roll

This week on SNL the new teen sensation Justin Bieber is set to take stage.   He's been prepping all week by doing Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, the Today show, et.  Al.,  in promotion of his new album “2.0”.   

Although, I can hardly imagine what 2.0 might be referring to, I’m trying hard to take this kid seriously.    He’s only 16 years old and to be working on the 2^nd version of something at his young age is hardly imaginable, unless you’re talking about a 2^nd ‘stand’ of facial hair.   I love rock music of most varieties.    I like hip hop, rap, pop, indie, dance and even pop bubble gum – so my geriatric mind is trying to make sense of this for some reason. 

I recall when the preteen band from OK, Hanson, premiered in 1996, there was an insightful interview about the state of rock & roll.   The thesis was that, while it was clear that this album was pop bubble gum, it was clearly marketed, designed and CREATED by 16 year olds for the consumption by other 16 year olds.   Therefore any discussion about being derived or handed down were hardly news.

Rock and Roll was never really been PROG-ROCK or Alt. Country or any other distilled variant.   It’s hardly ever been some High Art creation by 35 y. o. audio engineers to impress the other engineer that didn’t get the good job at the local AMI studio or get there “one hit”.    At its core, Rock has always been essentially made for/to/by 15 year olds about getting into the pants of other 15 year olds.     I’m ok with that.   That’s how it should be.

“I wanna hold your hand” was never supposed to be the “Dark Side of the Moon” .     Justin Bieber’s music has a lot more in common with pre-Tommy, WHO than it does with the last 5 Wilco Albums.   I get it.   This music isn’t created as an evolution. 

Each teen generation is not supposed to arrive with the ‘knowledge of the father ‘ prior to creating their next big thing.   The 16 y.o. Debbie Gibson that I watched in 1986 was not signed by her  label to produce a subsequent “PET SOUNDS”.   Instead, she was signed to sell as many units as she could; which was only supposed to be more than her competitor: “Tiffany”.  

So, with the understanding that this music is not meant for me, all I can say is that this little “beetle” really needs on work writing/buying more catchy tunes.   Because, quite frankly – he’s putting me to sleep, but then again at 38 and married, maybe it’s suppose to.

Just for giggles, try reading the lyrics to one of his latest hits. The similarity between his stuff and the 50's drippy stuff is uncanny.  

 Lyrics – Justin Bieber – One less lonely Girl

 Lyrics - Richie Valens – Donna

I suppose my point is - get over it or maybe, when do I get to have my turn hosting SNL?

You can't give an idiot £1,000,000.00

If you haven't seen the "Mitchell & Webb Look" you should give it a go.  I know that not everyone gets the BBC network but if you get the chance order it.   It's almost my favorite network by a factor of almost 2:1.

Check out their take on "Reality Shows".
 

Homeopathic Medicine


and of course "Rocket Scientists". 

Go figure - oops somebody did

I find this fascinateing and easily digestible.   UMMMMM, digestible.

Be careful

I lost 1/2 an hour looking at this and the associated videos

What it is to be Prolithic.

I found this article interesting at least in terms of the Classic Producers of Modern Rock & Roll.

READ HEAR

I suppose that when I could go into my home studio and producing something as technologically complex as anything produced in the 70-80's then there's going to be a lot more music out there by those who like to make music.  Couple that with the record companies complete lack of control and you have pure chaos.  

Lack of editing does not a music genius make.

Parrot Sketch

Excerpts from my neighborhood association blog, re: Lost Parrot.

Anybody out there lose a parrot?  One moved into my workshop last night.  I don't know much about parrots.  I'd describe this as one of the types that a pirate would enjoy having on his shoulder.   It can say "hello" and seems to have an east coast accent. 

 

Rich

Has the lost parrot found its owner? Here is someone on Craigslist who lost a parrot in Travis Heights:   http://austin.craigslist.org/pet/1637574926.html

Says it answers to the name of Mexi! There are pictures.

I am looking for my lost parrot. She has been missing since noon on March 9th. She was last seen flying south or southwest of Academy in Travis Heights.

She is a Mexican Red Headed Amazon with bright green feathers on her body and a crown of red feathers on her head, about 6 inches tall, very shy around strangers. She will respond to the name Mexi or whistling.

Please contact me if you or someone you know may have seen her.

__._,_.___

 

 

 

 Maxie and Adam are back together.  Thanks to all who quickly replied with info helping us reunite owner with bird.  Both parties looked relieved to see each other. 

 

Turns out Maxie has quite a vocabulary.  Upon seeing her owner, her first words were "Hello cowboy!"  No joke.  

 

Maxie even knows a little Mandarin Chinese, which would make her particularly valuable to pirates travelling the East Indies.  Maybe that's why I thought I detected an east coast accent.

 

There is a flock of, I suppose you would call them, "feral" parrots that can sometimes be seen around Town Lake. Although sightings are rare for me, I usually only see 2 or 3 at a time, but one sunny afternoon not too long ago, I saw at least 8 perched in a tree along the path. 

Small Spud

What's the smallest potato you can think of? Fingerling, Russet, Yukon Gold? I'm not sure. But even though this was no "small potatoes", this is one tiny "new pot".    This will have to do until I can get her a real nickname.

Let me be one of the first to introduce you to A.E.C.

K-town's New Door

I finally found a 2nd hand door on CL and spent a fair amount of time this weekend installing it. It has three strips in the film as 'peep-holes'. We really lucked out with this find as it even has the dead-bolt mounted really tall, out of the reach of little fingers.

Now we just need to get matching door knobs instead of having three separate keys.

The Bar is finally finished.

Top Five of 2009

On this NYE, I thought I'd post my standard top 5 of 2009......

For me it's been a slow year. Between living in Galveston, remodeling the house, getting married and such, I've been pretty busy and haven't been buying as much music as in years past. Excuses aside and with no further adieu:

1. Kings of Leon – Only by the Night
2. Deer Hunter – Microcastle
3. Raphael Saadiq – The Way I see it
4. Decembrist – Hazards of Love
5. Neko Case- Middle Cyclone

Images of my white Christmas

I gift I couldn't agree with more.

AHH! The wisdom of a magnet is not always as wrong as once proposed.

Back from X-mas

A nice Storm took out an older tree while we were away for X-mas. I'm glad it didn't fall on the wooden fence in the background or I would be paying to replace the neighbors high dollar fence.

Progress to date - paint/art/furniture

Wow, that was a lot of work.

We've been meaning to finish our living room but were having a motivation problem. So my good friend Mark, decided he'd help us with it as a wedding present. So this project, that began as a 4 person two day task - turned into a 6 day headache and the rest of the guys went back to their day jobs. We all sanded, floated, primed, taped and climbed the ladders a MILLION Times, but it's back to being livable.

We still haven't put the chosen color up, but ACL is starting and we just needed to stop living out of one room with 3-dogs.

Fox News in Cleveland

Looks like someone is hoping to get a Peabody.

We got a new door

$50 on Craiglist and now we have a door that lets more light in and is easier to break into. So, we got that going for us.

Don't know how I feel about him

But, he's no longer with us. I don't want people to starve but we sure don't need any more people. He may ultimately be responsible for the dominance of India and China for the last 1/2 of this century.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/business/energy-environment/14borlaug.html?adxnnl=1&ref=obituaries&adxnnlx=1253239341-ZAJJv3wFbqGm8upuGW/Vbg

All but done

painted and ready for action. i still need to finish the doors and make the shelves adjustable,errr... I mean the adjustable shelves.....the shelves you see are FIXED

Take a Look

IT'S LIKE A CAR CRASH, You can't look away

Sure, not as funny as mulletsgalore.com but still good viewing