Why Are You On My Lawn Again?
I'm in a bad mood today so I'm going to get back to talking about what I hate. So with that in mind I'd like to offer a counterpoint to one of Ramon's points this week: Scenes suck. Oh yes they do. Scenes are not a group of artists exchanging ideas, they are groups of people making minor variations of the same idea; often not even a very good idea. Scenes happen because their adherents are either not creative enough to deviate from the formula or they are too worried about their friends' opinions. Scenes are cultural groupthink.
Ramon was right about one thing, though. Scenes support themselves. Wherever there's a group of half-assed musicians making half-assed music, there is a crowd of hangers on to tell them how great that are. Or at least to stand around insecurely nodding in agreement. Encouraged, the half-assed musician will then go on to create things with no ass whatsoever.
"At least I have created!" the scenester will say, confused about the difference between merely creating something and creating something good. Anybody can create. Just because somebody creates something doesn't mean that they should be celebrated. It doesn't even mean that they should be noticed. Look around you--every object you see was created by somebody. Do you celebrate the designer of that fork you're using to shovel food into your gullet? Or the person that actually forged the fork? No, you don't. It, along with most things you use, is just an anonymous object. To scenesters I say: Get over yourselves. You are not important and neither is your scene.
Now to belie my apparent reputation as the enemy of fun, I give you Sergio Mendes doing Witchita Lineman.
After you watch that, you might be tempted to watch one of the related videos in the sidebar. Whatever you do, don't watch Mendes playing with the Blackeyed Peas on Leno. Watching Fergie shake her pointless ass will fill you with a deep hatred.*
*Or maybe that's just me, since many things fill me with a deep hatred. Like this chair--I hate it so much. And this keyboard. And this pile of CDs. And this fork. Who designed this thing anyway?
Ramon was right about one thing, though. Scenes support themselves. Wherever there's a group of half-assed musicians making half-assed music, there is a crowd of hangers on to tell them how great that are. Or at least to stand around insecurely nodding in agreement. Encouraged, the half-assed musician will then go on to create things with no ass whatsoever.
"At least I have created!" the scenester will say, confused about the difference between merely creating something and creating something good. Anybody can create. Just because somebody creates something doesn't mean that they should be celebrated. It doesn't even mean that they should be noticed. Look around you--every object you see was created by somebody. Do you celebrate the designer of that fork you're using to shovel food into your gullet? Or the person that actually forged the fork? No, you don't. It, along with most things you use, is just an anonymous object. To scenesters I say: Get over yourselves. You are not important and neither is your scene.
Now to belie my apparent reputation as the enemy of fun, I give you Sergio Mendes doing Witchita Lineman.
After you watch that, you might be tempted to watch one of the related videos in the sidebar. Whatever you do, don't watch Mendes playing with the Blackeyed Peas on Leno. Watching Fergie shake her pointless ass will fill you with a deep hatred.*
*Or maybe that's just me, since many things fill me with a deep hatred. Like this chair--I hate it so much. And this keyboard. And this pile of CDs. And this fork. Who designed this thing anyway?
7 Comments:
While the various extant members of NWA concern themselves with who is and who is not "OG", I concern myself with who is "OGOM"... "Original Grumpy Old Man". I believe my search is at long last over.
I think I speak for everyone when I say "We love you Justin." <3:)
PS - what'd ya think of the Sound Ex show last night with Hearts of Animals and the Dimes? Missed the Dimes but HOA was awesome!
Well, I kept waiting to hear about what lame show or scene touched off this particular rant and I was left disappointed. I want dirt! This vague and ambiguous ranting apropos of nothing is a big tease. How can I go "yeah, totally" or "no way" if I don't know who the hell we are talking about.
By the way, I find "At least I have created!" to be a pretty powerful argument. You can rag on the scenesters for celebrating crap, but even creating total crap at a local scene level takes a little bit of effort and a little bit of guts. That's a good combination that should be applauded even if it's only on the way out the door to get away from that godawful shitstream they are trying to foist off as music.
PS - what'd ya think of the Sound Ex show last night with Hearts of Animals and the Dimes? Missed the Dimes but HOA was awesome!
Awesome? I didn't think she was anywhere close to awesome. I didn't hate it, but I'm not going to go out of my way to see her again.
I thought Sunset was also pretty mediocre. At least it wasn't as bad as the last time I saw Bill Baird play, which was opening for Sparklehorse in Austin. That time he got onstage with a dozen or so other acoustic guitarists and made a horrible racket that just went on and on. Also, somebody needs to tell "Blonde Bill" that "Blonde" with an "e" is the feminine form of the word.
I didn't stay for the Dimes. I didn't even stay for the whole Sunset show.
How can I go "yeah, totally" or "no way" if I don't know who the hell we are talking about.
That's just it. It's not specific. I'm not talking anybody in particular; I just disagree with attention seeking and mutual congratulation.
but even creating total crap at a local scene level takes a little bit of effort and a little bit of guts.
Fine, but I don't want to hear people saying what they are doing is great if they aren't even paying attention to what's going on behind the microphone. For instance, a solid majority of the people at the Sound Ex show last night didn't even watch the show. Instead, they stood around in the parking lot. Which is fine as long as they don't later talk about how awesome the show was.
I would say you are mostly right about your assessment of scenes, and i dont think anyone would disagree with you that within individual scenes there is not a great variety of ideas being exchanged.
I'm a half-assed musician, creating half-ass music with lots of delusions, but not many illusions. I create the crap I create purely for selfish reasons, principally because otherwise I would be terribly bored and at this point I pretty much feel like i have to do something. I know, doing nothing would probably be the more enlightened thing to do, but i'm not that enlightened yet.
So scenes are great for people like me because they allow me to interact with other half-assed musicians so that i dont have to entertain myself all by myself. I'm not really trying to write any great masterpiece, i'm just working on getting a little better at what i do and trying to learn a few things along the way, and in a scene i might not learn the mysteries of the universe, but i might learn a better way to place my amp on stage, or a better way to eq a vocal mike.
And really, one never really knows when something groundbreaking is going to take place, so it's like a lottery, one has to play a lot of losing tickets before anyone wins, but you have to enjoy playing the game cause odds are no one in your vicinity is ever going to win, and if you are doing it for the win, then you might as well stay home.
I think that's the part you are missing in your assessment is that if people only created when they were sure their creation was going to be something of note, then we probably wouldn't have much to show for humanity (which might not necessarily be bad considering the state of things). But I would venture to say that the genius of many creations went mostly unnoticed by their creators, and that those creators had to fumble through a lot of crappy creations before coming up with the good idea. Of course there are exceptions but i'd say those are in the minority, and many of those also relied on imput and exchanges with the half-assed creators around them.
I'm a half-assed musician, creating half-ass music with lots of delusions, but not many illusions.
This is where you are different. I have no problem with people creating things even if they aren't any good. I do have a problem with mediocre stuff being celebrated or worse being celebrated because it's mediocre.
I like that scene where he said "rosebud".
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