I did not get the opportunity to go hear any jazz or new jazz or fusion or new music at any bar within walking distance of my home this weekend; instead, I was captured by aliens and forced to go to an Iowa-Illinois football game among other bizarre things. Those aliens would actually be my various parents, aunts, and uncles who love me quite dearly, but, oh my, do we have to work hard at overcoming our mutual incomprehension of each other.
This is what has become to the house next door to my Aunt Jan’s in Iowa City, Iowa. One evening four fires were started on four blocks within 8 minutes by someone launching molotov cocktails onto couches sitting on porches. Apparently, the cushions readily absorb the cocktail part. The Vyacheslav Mikhailovich part signs some sort of non-aggression pact with the house and then it all goes up into flames anyway.
Lest one would make the mistake of believing Iowa to be devoid of art and culture, the photo above is Steven Holl’s contribution to the University of Iowa’s School of Art and Art History. If I were a student today, I would reevaluate my life, drop out of whatever curriculum at whatever university I was enrolled, and become an art student here. The building is that good. I’m not sure if they will ever fully appreciate what they have. Move over Falling Water.
This is a view along I-80, a fantastic freeway that stretches from San Francisco, through Salt Lake City, Wyoming, Des Moines, Iowa City, the south side of Chicago, all the way to New York. I think it was DD who pointed out how grateful he was for the national highway system (which was funded by the Defenese Department- more on that and related conspiracy theories about the destruction of our inner cities and the rise of the suburb later). I remain extremely grateful and indebted to American Airlines flight 4821 for getting me back to my crappy apartment in Brooklyn before I went insane.
7 Comments:
I would go so far as to say I am grateful for the national highway system except for I-80, at least the part between Chicago and New York and especially what lies in Ohio. Flat, toll ridden, and heavily patrolled through the extreme lengths that have a maximum speed of 65.
I would be grateful for that flight too.
Your last sentiment reminds me of a Saul Steinberg cover.
The backstory: I went to what I refer to as "libertarian summer camp" in 1994, and considered myself a hard-core libertarian for about two years later. Then in October 1996, driving around the American southwest listening to the Dirty Three's HORSE STORIES, I remember having the very non-libertarian thought, "You know, I really like the national highway system."
Of course, there's no toll roads in the southwest, or at least there weren't back then, so my feelings were less complicated.
This sort of reminds me of my story about taking acid, but I'll save that for a later time.
Four fires in eight minutes? That sounds like the work of Al Qaeda to me. Did they shake down the mosques?
I have mixed feelings about the national highway system. I think it's hard to ignore the fact that much of the homogenization of regional cultures and the rise of the franchise chain are due to the highway system. McDonalds would've never gotten where it was today if Ray Kroc weren't all buying up land near highways. Then again, we would've lost a lot as a nation without such an efficient means of getting around it. It's a mixed blessing, for sure...
w/r/t last week's post, here's a review of arcade fire in this week's new yorker by sasha frere-jones. actually, its subheading "how indie rock lost its soul" addresses a few other issues i think some of you have mentioned in the past.
also, i should state for the record that i had an excellent time at the football game and that iowa won. my aunt and uncle have a big group of friends who are season ticketholders and we all start drinking spirits at 11am. no alcohol is allowed in the stadium. my mother and aunt, who are practically blue-haired old ladies, snuck in a bottle of rum last year to mix in with their cokes. a woman and her husband were annoyed at my aunt's loud, enthusiastic cheering for the hawkeyes and reported to security that my mother and aunt were consuming tainted beverages. they were summarily escorted out of the stadium. (can you imagine the scene??!) as karma would have it, that woman's husband was thrown in jail at the next game because he tried entering without his student i.d. and got into an altercation with the police.
man, heids, iowa sure is crunk! developers clearing forest with molotov cocktails, old folx gettin' their drank on, at 11am...dang!
thank you for mentioning steven holl. i haven't heard that name in so long. i forgot how much i dug his stuff.
That New Yorker piece is good. Though Mr. Jones can sometimes put too much emphasis on the influence of hip hop:
You could argue that Dr. Dre and Snoop were the most important pop musicians since Bob Dylan and the Beatles.
That's a ridiculous statement. Unless music audiences somehow become less fragmented, it's likely that nobody will ever be as important as Dylan or the Beatles. The trend has for a long time been that "important" artists appeal to their respective niches and less weighty (think Britney) acts apeal to a mass audience. This is limiting for actual importance and the internet will surely only intensify this effect. Nevertheless, Jones' bias serves him well in this article.
He's right (in my opinion) that aping styles just makes the artist seem a little silly, whether that's in cadence or in lyric (the latter of which we discussed last week). On the other hand, the new Radiohead album is easily the funkiest of their offerings and they are both very white and very indie. They even manage to pull off some musical allusions, that Jones says aren't happening anymore. Note the end of the track that I included on the current NAPCast. Sure they are ripping off Wings, but it's something.
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