Geek Diatribe

As always, thanks for visiting “Raging Against the Dying Light,” all dozen of you. ( : I have a lot of loose threads in this one, my main articles for November and December are in formation and so now’s the time to spew out what I refer to as a “Geek Diatribe” to touch on all the incomplete facets of interest I write about on this site. This time it’s all light too, no politics or religion!

First off, the 2009 Baseball season is over. I find it a very depressing of an end at that…I’m not a vehement Yankee hater, I have extreme love for the history of the team and readily admit the talents and watchability of most of the current Yank roster, but I always have a bit of anger over the unrestrained budget the team has to work with and the idea that they can “buy’ the championship…and the fact that A-Rod alone earns a higher salary than several combined teams. So, there’s always the hope that they will be shutdown and it will be proven that money can’t suppress the drive to overcome that thrives in the underdog teams; the Phillies would have been a much more satisfying win. But the whole thing got me thinking about the structure of the current season; it’s November, and Baseball is just now wrapping up. It’s cold, grey over much of the country and well on the way to winter. Now, I never thought I’d specify that the season should be shorter since Baseball is really the only sport for me, but the season should be shorter! It’s a spring and summer game, and the now extended season length drags it into competing too heavily with football broadcasts and ticket sales, and the game just doesn’t seem appropriate this time of year for whatever reasons. I say, start it in early spring as is done now, start the post-season in September and have the World Series the first week of October. Anyway, as many people thrive for the play-off season when things heat up, as fun as that can be I prefer two other key baseball phases—the opening game through the first two weeks of the season and the events of and games leading up to July’s all-star game and home-run derby. A lot of this ties in with many of the teams still having a shot, but just as much at factor is the time of the year and the way it perfectly fits with the game. I imagine football fanatics feel the same way about fall and February.

Item two on the geek docket is the best music of the 2000s. I’ve pretty much got the 50 picked out for albums and almost for songs, I just have to properly rank them which requires listening to them and making the call on order. It’s a compulsive geek trait for any type of list like this, but you can’t just arbitrarily throw them together. There’s a distinctive reason why item A is at 17 and item B is at 16…or at least there should be. As I was working on my list I noticed that “Paste” magazine already has their “50 albums of the 2000s” on their site. I really like “Paste” and they’ve turned me on to a lot of good music over the years, but their list was off (in my mind) on several accounts—for one thing, it’s early November, there’s still 2 months of music yet to be released. Related to that, their “Best of ‘09” list isn’t up yet—it seems fairly backward to sum up a decade before the last year of the decade. As to the selections, there’s the obvious nerd-centric private idols that the publication adores and will rank highly and mention continuously even if no one else does as highly—everyone does this, my lists are guilty of it as well. “Paste” is very noticeable for adoring a core 5 bands that can never do wrong, as is Rolling Stone and AMG and it’s interesting because these core 5 never overlap in the same regard between these publications. That’s a very signifying factor that when it comes to art and pop criticism, there is no great science. There may be general critical consensus that something new and groundbreaking is “excellent” but it often differs from group to group and certain styles and personalities latch on to certain sounds. I won’t ruin the article for you, but the #1 album of the decade for “Paste” sums up their stance and personality as a publication, and that’s not a bad thing. I’m pretty sure my “1 choice does the same thing for me, as will RS and AMG’s. Another observation on “Pastes” selections is that they was heavily eschewed towards music made by bands established in the ‘00s, with a few ‘90s bands new work thrown in but very little attention paid to career artists releasing very notable work in the decade. No mention of critically acclaimed and massively entertaining work by Dylan, Young, Springsteen, U2, etc. Jazz, Hip Hop and Blues were almost completely overlooked as well, and although Indie is a major focus for “Paste,” they’re an eclectic publication so I expected more variety. The 2000s, looking at them as a whole, may very well have produced the bulk of music that will stay with me the longest. I was a junior in High school at the beginning of the decade and as it draws to a close I’m a first year grad student working on a Masters. In between there was college, work, marriage. I’ve moved several times and grown a lot, and the music I’ve heard that’s stuck with me from each phase of this decade is formative and memorable. Granted, most of my all time favorite albums were made long before this time, but there’s something to be said for what was new and vibrant amidst the average, waiting just to be found.

On to the next one; I always cap up the year’s best in graphic art and prose– comics and graphic novels—with a top ten list at the end of each year as well. This year has been phenomenal with trend breaking literate work in Graphic Novels- – “Asterios Polyp” by David Mazuchelli, The illustrated book of Genesis by R. Crumb, pretty much the entire Vertigo monthly catalogue, creator owned and controlled titles by Jeff Smith and Terry Moore (“RASL” and “Echo,” respectively) and notable work from indie publishing houses IDW (“Locke and Keye“), Boom Studios (“The Unknown: The Devil Made Flesh“), etc. As far as mainstream work, generally meaning the “big two” (Marvel and DC), it’s become clear that despite cornering 65 percent of the market and being host to millions of loyal fans who refuse to read books published by anyone else, Marvel is far inferior to almost every other publishing company, especially DC. It just hasn’t been Marvel’s year. They sell out to Disney for a big paycheck. They opt for raising the majority of their titles to a higher price point– an entire dollar more, making most of their mainstream titles 3.99, a price DC reserves for special events and “important” stories. Unlike Marvel, when DC charges 3.99 they provide ten additional pages of story as well as better paper and ink quality. Marvel heads (here’s looking at you, Joe Quesada—by the way, stay retired from penciling, your art is atrocious) originally stated that this was the result of a tighter economy and to combat mounting paper costs but later Quesada admitted in an interview that it was really because “this is a business” and they wanted to see how much profit they could make if the cost of the titles continued to go up and sales didn’t dip accordingly. To make matters worse for Marvel, their output hasn’t been good enough to justify such tactics anyway. The only really smart move they’ve done recently is re-tool “Amazing Spider Man” last year, shedding the excess titles, hiring a great staff of rotating writers and artists for it, releasing it thrice monthly and generally making it the best popcorn, fun-for-everyone-over-13 book as possible. They have even (thus far) kept it price-pointed at 2.99 and the stories from it all year have been great escapist fun. Other than that, they’ve consistently dropped the ball. Big tie-in events and mini-series? DC’s “Blackest Night” is far better than Marvel’s “The List” or whatever they’re calling it now (since it’s an ever continuing fall-out tale from last summers “Secret Invasion” which was far inferior to DC’s “Final Crisis” at that). Thor? An Eisner-winning surprisingly smart book by Stracinzski is now moving on without Stracinzki and staying at 3.99 (without the extra ten pages). Then there’s the it-just-won’t-die slew of “Marvel Zombies” mini’s that get worse with each sequel. Or dumb ideas like “Marvel Apes” or “X-Babies.” There’s the never-reveal-the-ending-to-the-mystery compost-heap “Hulk,” which gets ever more ridiculous and stopped being fun half a year ago. They were building up steam with “Uncanny X Men” each issue after 500 then lost it having each issue be part of an asinine tie in to an asinine concept series. The only other worthwhile Marvel title right now is “Fantastic 4,” while DC has been on a run with their mainstream work as well. Geoff Johns and Gary Frank are producing the best Superman mini in years, “Secret Origin,” and their entire run on “Action Comics” was terrific last year. Since Batman’s death, every tie-in Bat title has been excellent., notably, “Batman and Robin,” with Grant Morrison and initially Frank Quietely but “Detective Comics” as well if only for J.H. Williams III’ impressionistic and unconventional art. “Green Lantern” and every “Blackest Night” tie in has been great sci-fi and “Wednesday Comics” was a truly original and successful idea. Of course, “JSA” has fallen off and “JLA” seems to never work, but the point is that much of their mainstream work is great and most of it is approachable and more affordable than their competitions. Most importantly, where DC has it’s “Vertigo” imprint which puts out a lot of great, intelligent adult-geared work and DC utilizes that imprint heavily, Marvel’s “Icon” imprint which allows creator funded work to be released doesn’t get nearly enough emphasis. “Criminal” by Brubaker and Phillips is back again with another miniseries, and it’s great. “Kick Ass,” is always fun whenever Mark Millar bothers to get it out (he’s late on everything lately), but what else does Icon have? And why no funding from Marvel? Why not more emphasis?

Okay, last up (and briefly) is “The Wire.” Harvard recently announced a college course that will utilize “The Wire” in its curriculum. If any show has ever been worthy of this, it’s this one. The smartest, most important and best produced television show of all time. Five seasons, so check them all out. That’s all for now.

Celebrating Mediocrity

My brother commented on one of my articles recently suggesting I make a list of hit films, books and songs that, although very popular, are not good in the artistic or critical sense; in other words, what’s my top ten hit media items that I feel are really just crap?

Well, this isn’t really that. This isn’t a countdown of what’s the worst popular junk in systematic dissection, this is more an article about the enthusiasm for mediocrity as a whole.

There’s a recent TV commercial for McDonald’s, a company I loathe almost as much as Wal Mart. In the commercial two young guys are in a traditionally “trendy” looking coffee shop. Both are wearing glasses, one is reading a book. Both speak in low, stereotypical “pretentious” voices. One says to the other “did you know McDonald’s sells coffee now?” The other says “well what are we doing here then?” He whips his glasses off saying he doesn’t really need them. He says he’s tired of sitting in coffee shops and talking about “films” and that he really just enjoys “sitting and watching football.” The other agrees but concedes he actually does need his glasses.

So really, this commercial is showing that there is no need to go to a trendy independent coffee shop where poetry readings and acoustic open mic sessions are  held and where people discuss art, film and philosophy. No, now you can go to McDonald’s and get a dollar cappuccino and take it home to sit on your couch and watch football till your brain drips out your ear from the numbness of average, ordinary mediocrity.

I’m not going to get into a criticism of football. I’ve written about baseball often on this site, if you click on “baseball” at the bottom of the page and read back at all of my baseball articles from last year you’ll even see at least two that comment on why I feel baseball is a superior sport to football on various levels. That’s not something to get into yet again here. I don’t loath football, I’m just not a fan. Perhaps it’s somewhat silly for me to equate baseball as a symbol of positive American values and football as a symbol of negative American values, but it’s mainly just for fun in my case. No, I’ve been known to watch a super bowl occasionally (I’ll definitely tune in to the halftime show this year because Bruce Springsteen is my favorite musician of all time). Not everyone who watches football is a symbol of mediocrity, but the idea that there’s nothing better for the average guy than to sit on his couch and watch football all day, possibly eating fast-food, is a bit of mediocrity celebration.

On a smaller scale, much of what is incredibly popular is insanely mediocre. Your typical active rock radio station plays the most uninspiring new rock imaginable (Nickleback anyone?). Hip Hop stations play the same club jam and pop rap hit like “Live Your Live,” “Apple Bottom Jeans” (Re-Remix), or a mash up between Justin Timberlake, Akon and Bow Wow. Country stations wallow in mediocrity. Alt-country, classic country or even slightly edgy country will not be on the radio–instead get ready for Toby Keith, Big & Rich or any number of other brain numbing works. A slew of mediocre books were turned into mediocre films over the past months ( Marley and Me, He’s Just Not That Into You, Confessions of a Shopaholic). I’ve mentioned authors that churn out sub-par work on a regular basis that manage to sell truckloads worth of books (James Patterson post-the first five Cross novels, Nicholas Sparks, many would say “Twilight” ).

The point is, quite often very unintelligent, unoriginal, and utterly crappy material becomes very successful, be it music, movie or book. I can list a lot but there’s really no point. Why do such things appeal to so many people? Many would say that they are safe, middle of the road affairs that appeal to the lowest common denominator so that they can reach the widest group of people. Typically such things don’t require too much thought, too much absorption and concentration or any measure of taste cultivation. Really, the best of any medium quite often requires the reader, listener or viewer to participate in the process a bit by thinking, involving themselves in the field to better understand the author or artist. So what makes this troublesome is not that people like “crap.” People are different, they can like anything they want to. What’s problematic is that the better work is too often buried underneath mediocrity, pushed out of stores to make room for the top selling garbage, and ignored by the radio stations, TV stations and book stores.

DBT, Palin Politics and “Six Feet Under”

Drive By Truckers

This post is going to be a bit scatter-shot, but there are three unrelated topics I’d like to write a little about.

First of all, if you scroll back about ten posts or so, you’ll see a blog in which I encourage anyone reading to check out a few musicians that I feel are making the best modern popular music. I was very excited to find out a few days ago that two of the bands mentioned in that article are now on tour together–The Drive By Truckers and The Hold Steady. It’s actually very suprising for me to hear this, because I would never have imagined these two bands would ever headline together. They both write excellent lyrics, play music that just sounds incredible, are raved about for their live shows and each band released a contender for album of the year this year—DBT with Brighter Than Creation’s Dark back at the beginning of the year, The Hold Steady with Stay Positive about a month or two ago. But stylistically they don’t have a lot in common–DBT makes a mixture of hard southern rock, folk and alt.country, Hold Steady is a mash up of classic rock and eighties post punk–think early Springsteen (The Wild,The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle era) meets late Clash and The Replacements. I’ve been able to see DBT once but never Hold Steady and I could not be more excited. They’re hitting several small to mid venues across the country, and tickets are priced around 20 bucks which is almost unheard of these days, so don’t miss out.

Okay, next up I want to briefly weigh in on the whole Sarah Palin debacle. I know that by this point every journalist, pundit, talk show host, blogger and citizen on the street has voiced a loud opinion but I had to just vent a few points. See, what’s obvious is that McCain was running out of gas campagining with nothing but his POW and military experience to rant about, the fumes were almost out on his supposed “Maverick” reputation (that Rolling Stone cover was almost a decade ago and his “radical Republican politics” were now just “status quo Republican politics). So what did he do? Well, McCain is well known to be an avid fan of playing craps, so he threw the dice and picked a VP candidate that he had met only once. People have been arguing relentlessly whether or not she was qualified to be VP or (in the case of something happening to 72 year old McCain) even President herself–does a term as mayor in a small town followed by the beginning of a Governor term in a sparsely populated rich state match up or surpass Obama’s experience as a Community Organizer, lawyer and senator? I’m not going to debate that at this point, I’m just going to point out a few issues she’s taken that in my opinion prove her “unfit to run” status much better than any lack of experience could. Even if she’d been Governor for 2 terms and senator for 3 I’d feel that her position on these issues are much more damning:

1) The Banned Books case: Palin once tried to user her leadership postion to get dozens of books banned and removed from public libraries in Alaska–that’s right, not school libraries, but public libraries. Palin didn’t feel adults had the right to choose what they should or should not read. Though several magazines and online sites have argued over what all was on that list (and the librarian that was aghast when Palin contacted her about the legalites of such a move has refused to comment), most lists have included classics such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, Shakespeare’s Twelve Night, modern novels by Stephen King and Dean Koontz and children’s books like How to Eat Fried Worms and Hey God! It’s Me, Margaret. OKAY, I LEFT THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH AS ORIGINALLY POSTED SO THAT I WOULDN’T BE BACKPEDALING HERE: IT IS INNACURATE; MY LATEST RESEARCH INTO THIS ISSUE REVEALTED THAT NO LIST OF ANY BOOKS SUPPOSEDLY BANNED BY PALIN IS ACCURATE; ON RECORD SHE NEVER BANNED ANY BOOKS FROM ANY PUBLIC LIBRARIES DURING HER TENURE AS MAYOR. SHE DID CONTACT THE LOCAL LIBRARIAN AND ASKED HER HOW ONE WOULD “THEORETICALLY” GO ABOUT REMOVING CERTAIN “OBJECTIONABLE” MATERIALS FROM PUBLIC LIBRARIES. THE LIRBRARIAN WAS AGHAST AND STATED THAT ALL BOOKS IN ALASKA’S PUBLIC LIBRARIES WERE TYPICAL, ACCEPTABLE AND CREDIBLE LIBRARY FARE. THE SPECIFIC BOOKS PALIN “THEORETICALLY” WANTED REMOVED ARE UNKNOWN. THANKS.

2)Palin opposes stem cell research. She also is a staunch abortion foe, and has stated that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose even in cases of incest and rape. When she was recently inundated with questions about her seventeen year old daughter’s pregnancy she has stated that Bristol, her daughter, has made her decision to have the child and to marry the father. Okay, as Jon Stewart tried to hammer home on a recent episode of The Today Show Bristol and her family have been able to make the decision that Palin would deny other women to make for themselves if she had her way. She would take the decision away from the individual and the family and place it in the hands of the government; the government would deny single working women in much worse economic shape than the Palin family the right to make their own decision concerning such a difficult matter.

3) Alaska makes most of it’s money in gas and oil–would a Palin run White House really be concerned with alternative fuels? Also, Palin has stated before that she feels humans have no impact on global warming, so environmental laws would in no safe hands with her and McCain.

4)She’s willing to run with McCain, a man who has voted against equal pay for an equal day’s work for women–Obama voted for it, and Obama has consistently worked for policies that help working class women much more than Palin. What’s better for American women–a female vice president or economic policies that have women’s best interests at heart? If you think the latter, you have to vote Obama.

5)Palin voted for the bridge to nowhere, then said she didn’t.

Okay, I could go on for pages but you get my drift.

Last of all I wanted to briefly discuss the TV show Six Feet Under. I’m going to write a longer piece, “An Appreciation of Six Feet Under,” which you can find at:

http://dmhamby2.wordpress.com/an-appreciation-of-six-feet-under/

I tend to watch most TV shows by DVD from either netflix or the library, and when I moved to a new town I noticed my local library had every disc of Six Feet Under. Now, 4 months later I’ve seen every episode and feel the need to write a piece discussing the show. Although I’ve had several other favorite shows over the years that I like more, I feel that maybe the best in quality and importance very well may be Six Feet Under. Sure, in many ways shows like The Simpsons or Buffy the Vampire Slayer are higher on my personal list for being enjoyable, intelligent and re-watchable, but for sheer acting skills, direction, depth of subject matter and pure emotional investment, Six Feet Under does what no other show has done. You’ll be able to read why I say this soon.

Well, those are my three topics for the day–hopefully my next article will be more contained.