Wednesday, September 21, 2011

I can't stop thinking about Goddam America.

I've lived in America my entire life and I still don't know what the hell I think about this country. I grew up mired in ignorance only really understanding America through the snippets of history I knew from school. Revolution - Civil War - World War II - Cold War. That's all that really stuck for me. I still barely know anything about the War of 1812, not even why it started.

With World War II being the big focus for me, I threw myself into researching the Pacific Conflict, devouring books, and drinking in the carnage and bravery of it all like only a young adolescent mind can. I grew a sort of adulation of the military and often fantasized about a new war to be brave in. The whole thing existed in the context of a Time magazine cover; a stolid marine (usually me) was carrying a wounded comrade fireman style as an artillery shell goes off behind him. For some reason Time Magazine was like my portal into this adult realm of world politics, which I tried to be interested in but I usually ended up flipping to the Arts & Film section.

Anyway, the irony was that I often imagined this war in a middle eastern dessert setting. Not hard to believe because even before 9/11 the middle east was being painted to be our next Russia; a new boogie man to wave our cannons at, but I still can't believe how much my attitude about patriotism and war changed after 9/11.

9/11 changed everything and that's what I hate about it more than anything. The loss of human life is tragic but is quadrupled weekly in the third world. What really set me off is how that a time of peace was hijacked by cowards both foreign and domestic. Right as that sense of "We're America! Stand as one!" was wearing off we were somehow marched into Iraq and though I was only in 8th grade I already could tell that this was complete and utter bullshit.

The first thing I turned on that March night we started bombing the hell out of Mesopotamia was the Daily Show, but being a pre-recorded show they urge I turn to the real news. So I did and there was a fuzzy green video of us blowing up shit in another country.

It was so fuzzy and abstract. Deep inside the idealistic patriot leftover from all those books on Iwo Jima had been expecting heroic marines carrying eachother away from danger in a grand display of bravado. Nope. Just white hot flashes of green that signified someone's apartment being shelled or a man's livelihood converted to rubble.

Honestly everything that's come after Iraq has felt like bullshit to me. I relished in my hatred of Bush and would get in furious arguments around his election year. I still had hope in politicians, just not those who were in office. Somehow John Kerry, a vietnam veteran, stirred a little of that Iwo Jima Patritotism in me and I thought if we could just get him in everything would get better.

7 years later and Obama did what I hoped Kerry would. He got elected. Then he proceeded to do jack shit about Iraq and everything else that 9/11 fucked up in this country. Politics died for me the day Bush won his second term but it struggled back when Obama was campaigning only to fade away about a year after his election. Apathy and dissapointment caused me to try and swear off politics though I never can. I'm too addicted to the show. It's better than reality TV.

Bickering, whining, lying and all the other games make politics so infuriating also make it kind of addictive. I'll probably keep paying attention to it on and off like I did in college but the one thing I got from my ride with politics is an understanding of two Americas, the politics and the populace. Next time, I'll talk about how I learned to love the heartland more than any place on earth.

Friday, September 9, 2011

America's Funniest Videos Part 1: You put the cat in the tub

I've never understood why America's Funniest Home Videos (AFV) doesn't get very much attention for how trailblazing it really was. I believe it is sometimes penalized for it's lowest common denominator humor, where babies falling down and people ripping their pants are the norm, but at it's core it was really a very democratic and diverse program that paved the way for other forms of media in the future.

Clip shows weren't invented by AFV, they were popular throughout the history of tv as an easy way for tv producers to block up time on their schedule easily. What makes AFV, and what helped it's longevity with the show going 20+ years strong, but it's the everyman style of the show. The show is based on a japanese show "Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan," where japanese people posted videos of their goofy japanese pranks, and America producers saw an easy way to fill time. Little did they know that American's had thousands upon thousands of ridiculous home videos.

The show was like an analog version of youtube where the videos you see were vetted by a group of writers, but there still was a tournament style every episode with thre videos competed for the audience's approval culminating in a Caesar-esque thumbs-up/thumbs-down situation with the audience voting on who is the winner and who the loser.

But usually the funniest videos come in 5 minute themed burst and that is where the true beauty of AFV shines out, blocks of American's at their happiest, most vulnerable and simply unguarded. The act of peaking into hundreds of people's home videos in an hour block is like flipping through the channels of peoples lives. Mostly at times of leisure where you just see families lounging on a living room floor, working on their roof, or sledding. There's always sledding clips, even in july.

Next time I'll go more in depth on the content and it's significance as well as the Legacy of AFV.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Magnolia Electric Co and the live thunder

Magnolia Electric Co. is one of those bands that I love to death but I completely understand why others don't. There songs are dense with mood and sparse sonically. Lead by the haunting voice of Jason Molina who plays the wounded angle better than any other singer out there. He bleats the music in a smooth croon that evokes Sun Records era country.

In the Beginning MEC wore it's influences on it's sleeve and played satanic interpretations of the Neil Young & Crazy Horse method of tearing the roof off of clubs. There first official release, 'Trials and Errors' is a live album that shreds freely with out ever really bending down to rock staples. Many of the songs are formless, ambling along dangerously without a normal song structure (like verse-bridge-chorus) slowly mutating with the arhythmic permeation of Molina and lead guitarist Jason Groths intertwined guitar playing.

This is really an aquired taste. In the wrong mood, or with only half your attention diverted, MEC can sound kind of like a fat hog, lumbering drunkenly but they control this beast and when they pull on the reigns and let it whail the results are spine tingling.

The Last 3 Human Words is a perfect example. The lyrics themselves are worthy of a whole different post but the song has a very simple structure, based around returning to a heavy, pounding chorus after etheral interchanges between sparse guitar notes and a dark trumpet. Listen



Live. Real. Thunder.