03/05/06

Saturday marked the five-year anniversary of the death of Eric Suurmeyer.

That's not going to be a name common to all of you; maybe not to any of you, but it's a name that I'm familiar with and it's a name that's important to me. See, Eric was a good friend of mine in college. During my sophomore year, he was a freshman who lived in the dorm room immediately adjacent to mine. We played video games, watched movies, visited the Mall of America and Ikea; we did all of those typical things that college kids who are friends do with each other.

More after the jump.

Revenge of the Earnest: Fighting Snark and Sarcasm in Indie Music Journalism

Some time last week, Chaz Bundwick-- the South Carolinian behind Toro Y Moi-- released a Toro Y Moi remix of Odd Future member, and the recently Racecar Brown reviewed Tyler, the Creator's song "French." That probably shouldn't have been a big deal, but then Chris Weingarten, the man behind 1000 Times Yes who famously reviewed 1000 albums in single Twitter posts, took Bundwick to task, accusing him of bandwagoning.

Chris Cantalini, purveyor of indie blog Gorilla vs. Bear shot back, starting a war of the 140-character tweets that the Daily Swarm covered here. It's interesting, to be sure, but not precisely the point I'm getting to, merely the catalyst behind it.

I get to the point after the jump.

National Enormity, Actually Not About Fat People

I didn't post yesterday because I was traveling (I don't have an excuse for Monday other than bad memory).

I drove from Minnesota to Florida yesterday, a trip that took about 21 hours. Afterward I determined that I had traveled to or through 20 states in my life. A decent number for a person who has only lived in three.

It was about 70 degrees in Florida today, and I spent much of a day in early March laying on the beach, reading my Kindle next to a pool. For a kid who grew up used to seven foot piles of snow on his front lawn, this is kind of like a Big Deal. Capital letters intentional.

See what that got me thinking about after the jump.

Oscars vs. Grammys

The Oscars were last night.

I, like most of America (if Nielson ratings are still to be believed), prefer the Oscars to the Grammys. There are a few relatively obvious reasons for this. The spectacle itself is a bigger event, in terms of scope and spectacle; movie stars are on average more charismatic than musicians; people aren’t afraid to poke fun at the Academy, or each other, or themselves, which makes for more engaging television; and people are more aware of the number of people watching, making them more likely to use their platform in an intriguing way.

But all of that, in my opinion, is ancillary. The biggest reason the Oscars are bigger than the Grammys for people of all demographics is because the Oscars seem to nominate and award the art they’re evaluating based on merit in a more significant manner than the Grammys.

That is to say, Oscar winning movies are typically more respected– by critics, by viewers, by art buffs– than winning Grammy winning songs or albums.

More after the jump.

The Blog as Masturbation

What do people want?

That's a question I've been thinking about lately, for a variety of reasons. Partially because I'm not gainfully employed in a full-time career, partially because I've always felt myself to be capable of creating praise-worthy content, and partially because I watched The Social Network again.

But no, this won't turn into another piece on that movie.

Hit the jump for more.

Demo: "Thirteen Years"

This is a track I wrote relatively recently. It was recorded with some aid from my friend Bennett Selchow and it's called "Thirteen Years."

The Fictions of Reality

I've been watching a lot of movie-length pieces about real people lately. By that I don't mean fictional movies based on real events, I mean documentaries and stand-up comedy specials, mostly. I use the term movie-length because I wouldn't necessarily call stand-up specials "movies," but for the sake of brevity, let's just assume that from here on out when I refer to these pieces of work as "movies," I'm talking about both documentaries and stand-up specials.

I couldn't tell you entirely why I've been feeling this particular kind of movie lately, but I think it has something to do with the tangibleness of it, the almost accidental complexity of real people. So often, our own motivations are so garbled and unintelligible that when we see movie characters whose goals are effortlessly defined it rings less true, no matter how properly unfurled those motivations are.

Basically what I'm saying is that the most well-written fiction doesn't hold a candle to real life.

More after the jump.

Young Hearts Spark Fire

A lot of the things I write about on this blog are capital letter Big Ideas. They look at social politics and sometimes normal politics, they examine art in a big picture way, they poke into portions of modern society that we are beginning to take for granted, they attempt to highlight what I often believe to be intentionally avoided truths so we can continue ignoring their often harmful implications. It's often pretentious, but I try not to present it as such. It's often confrontational, though I try to look at all sides of an argument before I make it. It's often ignored, even if I think it's pretty worthwhile. Sometimes it's just about music or television, though I'm usually examining it critically.

Here's the thing: sometimes all of that Thinking gets in the way of Living.

Hit the jump for more.

(Not Quite) Midweek Music Review - Radiohead: The King of Limbs

Radiohead
The King of Limbs
[self-released]

Rating: 8.0/10
(This review originally was posted on Audiosuede)

Hit the jump for the review.

Midweek Music Review - Tyler the Creator: Bastard

Tyler the Creator
Bastard
[self-released]

Rating: 8.5/10

Hit the jump for the review.