blog riley

This week's Republican convention will be full of overt and subliminal references to all of last week's Democratic catchphrases, and the pundits will congratulate themselves on how many they can point out. Expect Rove to write glib rejoinders to Clinton's "example of our power..." line, and watch for a clever spin on Mark Warner's "Four more months..."

But what about the soundtrack? The Dems have a lot to answer for, starting with how Michael McDonald's overwrought gospel "America" FOLLOWED Stevie Wonder's uncrunked funk. Here was the measure of the party's timidity at nominating a black man: position the weak blue-eyed fascsimile of soul as the musical climax. This tacky aestheticism typified the way Dems sweat to the oldies, a place where Joe Biden's new theme song becomes Three Dog Night's "Joy to the World." Yeah, in exactly no other context, bubba. Our favorite was the way "Born in the USA" followed military testimonials and segued into "Power to the People" to set up Obama's entrance. "Only in America" by Brooks and Dunn didn't cap his speech so much as deflate it. I mean, you can't disqualify the man for his taste in music, but that song alone was a trap door negating all the spine-tingles of his soaring, BIBLICAL finale. (What -- no Charley Pride)?

This was a symbolic answer to RNC's use of the song after Bush's 2000 inaugural, and Cheney's convention speech in 2004. Watch the Reps pull out "Elvira" by Alabama just to get even. But the Republicans have only themselves to top: Rush pretends to be hip daily to the sound of "Ohio," by the Pretenders. And Ray Charles proved his craven psychotic allegiance for his "America" at more than one Republican convention. And that man was born with one leg.

Five Essential Music Ebooks from Hypebot, via Music Press Report

and don't forget New Music Strategies manifesto:

'Convergence' is an example of a way of discussing new online technologies by reducing them to a single idea without understanding them in any depth at all. In fact, convergence is the least common effect of digital technologies. A moment's reflection will come up with examples of new technologies that are neither interoperable nor the equal meeting of several older technologies. Video broadcasts on mobile devices are not similar experiences to watching television, and nor are they in any way connected with what we understand as the social practice of telephone use. Take a step back and consider new technologies for what they really are -- and then you'll be able to have useful and applicable insights.

Live Coltrane was wasted on patrons like Don Draper.

...Other institutions do far better jobs at issuing social currency these days. What is Facebook but the Federal Reserve Bank of social currency? And it's all social currency you can use! Like cocktail chatter, a Facebook posting--be it a link, a list, a photo, or travel plans--conveys the message, I am here. Listen to me. A well-executed Facebook presence, like a superb pontification at the bar or a great phone-in to sports talk radio, demonstrates one's status within one's existing social network. If skillfully wielded, a Facebook page can increase a person's status by attracting "cooler" or more influential friends. These days, you can't raise your status more than a bump by carrying the Wall Street Journal under your arm. --Jack Shafer in Slate. More here, and here.

...The real turning point was Sexy Beast. For in that inspired, delirious film, we went from asking ourselves what on earth Ben Kingsley was doing, to praying that he would not stop. It's as if his director, Jonathan Glazer, whispered to him: "Take the film over, inhale it, and roar like its demons." It was a moment of self-assertion and identification, like Malkovich in Being John Malkovich. Even the Queen got it - the next year she called him up and made him Sir Kingsley. David Thomson in the Guardian.

See also: John Dahl's You Kill Me, a Téa Leone production.

"Snagged by a sour, pinched guitar riff, the song has an acerbic tinge...and Dylan sings the title rejoinders in mock self-pity. It's less an indictment of the system than a coil of imagery that spells out how the system hangs itself with the rope it's so proud of."... (How did this ever get by copy-editing?)

In other blogs,

Honkymagic has this:

MacDonald is also a bit more technical in his analysis of the songs, emphasizing, especially, the critical role of harmony in Lennon's numbers and melody in those of McCartney. When Riley does get technical, though, he tends to do so to push a particular interpretation, something that MacDonald avoids. When Riley does this well, or when his analysis (the intersection of style and theme, right?) seems justified, he's enjoyable (claiming, for example, that in "She Said, She Said," "phrases are extended from eighth notes into triplets to intensify the rhythmic stress, the thin line between confidence and anxiety"). But when the point is less apt, it can feel like he's flailing for something to say, as in this claim about the out-of-tune piano that wanders through the end of "Tomorrow Never Knows" as the song fades: "This is less a self-parody of the message than it is one more random sound tagged on to emphasize the lack of rational hierarchies in the altered state."

"I asked him once," said Mr. Thurman, the filmmaker, " 'What do you want written on your tombstone, Jerry?' He said, 'Two words: More bass.' "

Scott Woods shouts it out.

From Harper's Index: "The House Judiciary Committee cited Karl
Rove for contempt, and members of the Ute Mountain Ute and
Southern Ute tribes performed a Native American blessing
near the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, site of the
upcoming Democratic Convention..."