McDocumentary

A few months ago I overheard a rather plump suburban woman telling her thinner friend all about the hit documentary “Super Size Me“ and how it told “the truth” about how stupid most people are about food. Well, despite my misgivings I did see the movie earlier this week and I see why it played well to elitist audiences.
The film starts off with a quote from Ray Kroc, referring to him as the founder of McDonalds, which isn’t true. McDonalds was founded by the McDonald’s brothers who created the original restaurant which Kroc franchised and expanded it into it’s current massive corporate form. Beginning a documentary showing us “truth” with a half-truth is a bad start. But that’s not my main problem. Director/star Morgan Spurlock asks where individual responsibility and corporate responsibility begins early on and then goes through great lengths to demonstrate that people are incapable of making rational decisions because of the marketing power of corporations. Even as a Democrat with a leftist outlook this offends me, because this viewpoint assumes that everyone except those who agree with him are too stupid to care for themselves. Then the film demonstrates it, with not one single person outside his friends and his experts ever making a valid point or even given the chance to seem intelligent.
He achieves this mostly by doing “man on the street” interviews where Spurlock quizzes random people about meta-issues involved with lifestyle choices related to fast food. Anyone who’s seen similar set ups by Jay Leno or “Street Smarts” should realize that when you catch someone unprepared and stick a camera in their face while putting them on the spot most people don’t perform very well under the pressure. Particularly frustrating is when Spurlock confuses issues when he captures a mostly overweight family in front of the White House, asks them to do the pledge of allegiance which they attempt several times dropping a couple lines each time, but when he asks them to sing the “Big Mac Song” they all know it. This is a key moment where we see that they don’t have the most basic understanding of citizenship, but instantly recall everything involved with their fattening drug. Right? No, this only shows the power pop culture. The “Big Mac Song” is just a catchy jingle, and people know the jingles for tons of products they never use. Hell, my wife knows jingles for products that were stopped being made before she was born.
As with most films targeting elitists, the movie has a strong anti-American element to it, which would be fine, but since this is who Spurlock is supposedly trying to save with this film it comes across as a little bit demeaning. He finds a French woman, oddly enough one of the largest people in the film, to talk about how she can’t eat fast food in the US, because the portions are far larger than in the liberal utopia of France and according to Spurlock’s argument the portions are why Americans are so fat, but he doesn’t explore other factors of eating habits such as which meal is the main course. In the US, it’s dinner, often eaten late, and in France it’s lunch when people still have plenty of activity throughout the day to burn off the calories. Beyond that Spurlock makes passing references to Bush throughout the film as demonstration of how stupid Americans are, which forgets that Clinton was the big burger eating President just a few years ago and then Spurlock wraps himself into a American flag speedo for his final weigh-in when his all McDonalds diet has turned his now plump belly into the average American.
It’s Spurlock’s distaste for the people he is supposedly educating that undermined the movie and his points for me. He also used a number of other shaky arguments, such as using the same high school as an example of teaching poor eating habits and a great example of running a fitness program that I won’t go into, but it’s leaves the films overall argument on poor ground. Of course if you’re an unquestioning elitist, you’ll love the film and how it proves that you too are better than everyone else.

Matters Of Importance

I really try to avoid talking about the Scott Peterson trial, but the news coverage today was yet another example of going way overboard in the amount of coverage for the story's actual importance. Interestingly, it was the usually tasteful KTVU News that led their hour-long nightly broadcast with nearly ten minutes worth Peterson coverage and then teased their extended take for the later half of the broadcast including a story on how the Peterson coverage has distracted from other news stories. What they didn't say in the teaser that it would be stories of actual importance that lost out, but since KTVU is much closer to a hard news show than most local stations offerings I suspect that final "related story" was something they had wanted to do for a while. Beyond that I think the Peterson story got as much coverage as it did because it's an easy job. There have been virtually no new developments in the story that couldn't be summarized sufficiently in a single newspaper article that have happened in the last year, but yet it has had an enormous amount of time devoted to it. Of course, in all this coverage today who other than Amber Frey’s lawyer/book promoter found even more time to talk to the media and there are now rumors that the jurors who were present were considering book deals of their own. It’s just sickening.

(Entry Pretentiously Left Untitled)

I've only recently (re)discovered Barcode and I've been really impressed by the level of insight they've got going with their reviews (even if they are occasionally wrong). Particularly exceptional is their review of the new Autechre album that is an articulate description of my feelings on the group and to an extent their followers. Maybe it's just because 90% of the Autechre fans I know hate techno. Absolutely think it's trash and don't understand how anyone could stand to listen to any of it...except Autechre. Why? :

Electronic music itself has too often been labelled with the emotionally retarded tag, but as ridiculous as that is, its artists like Autechre that have often provided convincing argument for the cynic.

: If you praise music that confirms your uneducated opinion, once again 90% of Autechre fans I've met are only passingly familiar with only the work of three or four electronic artists, then you've established your superiority because your token acknowledgment of the genre confirms your biases.
Since I'm talking reviews it appears that David Vesel, who had been announced as the official reviewer for Electroculture/Electronode before the site went through an ownership change, will be adding his considerable reviewing powers to synthpop.net. I've been following his complete and insightful criticism since he worked through the Gods Of Music site and I look forward to reading more from him.

Human After All

In the last couple of days I've had a chance to stream the new Daft Punk album (thanks vh1!) and I've got to say that I'm disappointed. Of course meeting expectations I have for a group like DP are incredibly difficult since I credit them with changing the sound of underground dance music with their first record and sounding the call towards traditional song structures on "Discovery." Still, the record isn't without some great moments. "Robot Rock" and "Human After All" are great tunes with a unique quality to them, but not enough of the album has spark. I'm still planning on buying it.
We've reached a critical point that historians will point to as the moment when Old Navy commercials went from campy to just painfully awful with the new shorts commercial sung the theme of "Fame." Of course it doesn't help that the shorts look like the $3 variety from Kmart.

Do Androids Dream Of "Office Space?"

Could this be the best sci-fi film I've seen in ages?

(by way of Voltage)

Hotel Intro

I found an online preview of Moby's new album "Hotel" and on first listen it is amazing. I read on a forum earlier that someone thought "Beautiful" was the worst choice possible as a single, and they aren't too far off. Still the people at V2 turned "Play" into a massive hit by releasing all the least commercial songs as singles first, so I assume they know what their doing.
New Order's "Krafty" got it's digital release today, and it sounds so much better after a couple of weeks getting it slowly stuck in my head. Why not watch the video?

Write A Text, Not Too Complex

Fans of deconstructionist pop must check out this video from Sweden's Pay TV. With lyrics like "getting a hit can be easy/as long as you’re loud and cheap and sleazy" you know it's got something going for it, but once you hit the "tagging in" dance section of the video you'll be sold. I know I was.

(by way of PopJustice)

What I'd Really Like To Hear

A piano roll ragtime version of Blondie's "Heart Of Glass."

Cranky?

Let’s hear it for aging rock stars. Bob Dylan, the man who wins any award that baby boomers can think to give him, apparently isn’t a fan of new music. NME reports his current tour program has the following rant:

I know there are groups at the top of the charts that are hailed as the saviours of rock'n'roll and all that, but they are amateurs. They don't know where the music comes from…

: Damn kinds! I realize he’s just playing to his base of fans who believe any music worth listening to was recorded years ago, but this from the guy who wrote overrated staples like “Lay Lady Lay?” Come on.
Continuing with the aging theme, in one of the better New Order interviews ever (where were these promoting “Get Ready”) The Independent found Bernard talking about Hooky going down to yell at The Libertines about having the tv up too loud while they were at the same residential studio recording their new albums. There’s something to be said for the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle…

Internet Drama

Here I just wanted to have fun with my blog, but internet drama has shown up again and someone has to set the record straight. At this point I haven't posted this to any forums, but due to the amount of sympathy he has been receiving I feel the need to point out Kirlian Blue (aka Mark)’s recent “banning” on slothradio never actually happened. KB has admitted to visiting sloth (logged in oddly enough) since his “banning” took place when someone asked him about it in the EN thread he started, KB went on to say that Sloth was denying that KB was ever banned. Why would Sloth do that? Because KB was never banned.
I did a little time stamp detective work and the way it shows up in my browser Kirlian posted his last sloth message (oddly enough a jab at someone who got banned at bimfactor) at 3:42PST and then announced on bimfactor at 3:42PST that he had been banned from slothradio. I could see the minutes being off by a bit, but given that it was before 5am in Utah I don’t think this final post pushed Sloth over the edge to ban him.
The deleted thread KB is ranting about before his “final” post was a promo (I did see it and was surprised that it made it past the auto censor, which for the record is essentially the same as the one that they used on the late Electrogarden which spawned these forums that are now fighting) for his band which if other recent posts are similar, mentioned their site, "controversially" named album and the song “Date Rape Lovers” which given the fairly strict guidelines at sloth one would expect the post to get deleted (you would think one would get the idea of boundaries after 150 posts or so on a given forum). Given that I have also seen Kirlian complaining on EN about trying to get his band added to the SlothRadio playlist and not having any success, it would make sense for KB to use this fake banning as a launching point for his radio station (that put his band in high rotation) and to further promotion of his band which recently found itself no longer involved with KMA Records. When it comes down to it, KB has received an enormous amount of sympathy over this, and it’s a lie.
Of course I’m probably more on top of this because I was recently stung by KB on the slothforums because I dared question the ability of any one artist (in this case Numan) to be the sole influence of all synthpop and KB launched into an attack on me where he accused me of slandering him. This supposed slander came from one post on bimfactor about how I didn’t think his music was major label quality and I questioned effectiveness of his promotion abilities. Always secure and indifferent to the inferior opinions of others, Kirlian sent me an email (I don’t know where he got my address) where he questioned my “facts” about the number of downloads I believe he claimed to have received. Since this happened after KB had actually been banned from ElectroCulture (for fighting with one of the people who believed he received special treatment from the site's owners and then ended up founding the bimfactor forums) I wasn’t able to back up my point because all his posts had been deleted from that forum, so I publicly and privately apologized for the remark about the number of downloads but never backed down on my opinion of his music. At this point you've probably figured out that I've changed my mind about his promoting powers. He's played everyone like a fiddle.

Worst Headline Ever?

Finally A Grammy For Britney

Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine

Much to my surprise, the new Moby single turned up on itunes this morning. On the first few listens, "Beautiful" isn't the single I was wishing for. I do like Moby's rock stuff when it's got a new wave taste to it, "We Are All Made Of Stars" or "South Side" are about as good as rock gets to my taste, but this is a bit more straight rock and lacking any immediate spark. It could be that I'm missing it, so we'll see what I think in a couple of weeks.
I also noticed the Kylie Minogue song that the Scissor Sister's wrote for her turned up on itunes recently as well. I had heard the song a couple of months ago, and it turns out to sound even better when it's not being streamed. It's not quite as interesting as SS's on their own, but it's still the best song I've heard from the "disco with a string section" school in months.
Aren't videos where the music doesn't start until a third of the way in the best? Take the new J Lo video takes nearly a minute and half to get into the song. Maybe this says something about the music, which isn't bad, but I suspect it's so Jennifer can show off her acting chops (she was taken seriously as an actress not that long ago, believe it or not). The video is fantastic because J Lo gets to play her pop-star-using-the-least-functional-fur-coat-in-years self in the video within the video, a club dj single mom, a dancer, someone else, and a dorky girl getting into the groove (by far the most sexy persona) where all of these women's lives meet in this happening club where the crowd goes nuts for her song. Tell me this isn't acting taken to the next level. Just try it.

We Are All Made Of Free Downloads

Inspired by Bloc Party's contribution to the amazing new Chemical Brothers album I stopped by their site where they have free downloads of three great songs off their EP. Predictably, my favorite is the remix of Banquet which is fantastic dance rock.
I've also recently discovered Tristan Shout, the new project of Bill the former synthman for Moonlife. At the moment TS is primarily making mash-ups and his stuff ranks with the best I've heard. Who would have thought that Moby's "We Are All Made Of Stars" would become permanently confused in my mind with Covenant's "Dead Stars" and I would suddenly start feeling a strong connection between Kraftwerk and Rupaul? Unbelievable stuff, and his originals have that spark that got me hooked on Moonlife. I can’t wait for more.

I Can't Seem To Shake This Feeling

So I'm browsing through audioscrobbler profiles tonight and it occurs to me that I just can't trust people who listen to Weird Al. Don't get me wrong, I owned a couple tapes when I was twelve, but if you are over fifteen and the man's music is a staple in your listening habits I don't trust your judgment.

We Meet Again Dr. Jonze

I just saw the most recent Ludacris video for "Get Back" and it's got to be the best video I've seen in ages. Obviously Ludie has a twisted take on things and working with Spike Jonze was the right move to take. Check out the link and enjoy the fights with dogs, a posse that Public Enemy could love, and the best drink cameo in memory.
Beyond that I got around to updating my live 365 station today and ran into a couple problems with track names. I usual use musicmatchjukebox to create mp3s because it came on the computer and it's easy to adjust to Live 365's standards, but their cd look-up info is just terrible. It misnamed and misspelled tracks off four cds in a row, and it just shouldn't be that stupid. Of course, I went to use one of the tracks Live 365 has set up on their site and it turned Prodigy's "Hot Ride" into "Hor Ride" and I think they get paid to host the file. Go figure.
It's now day two since getting "Push The Button" and I've listened to the album half a dozen times. Great stuff!

The Big Jump

So the new Chemical Brothers album came out yesterday, and like their last three proper albums I went to pick it up the first day, but this time I ran into trouble. Maybe I got their too early, but when I arrived at Tower around 2pm there was only one copy of the album, not with the new releases, and it was marked up at full price ($19!) so I passed on it. I went looking again today and only found two copies of it at Best Buy, but with a good price. It's just a bit odd, since both these places had tons of copies of recent Fatboy Slim. Maybe there was a distribution problem? Well, I am listening to "Push The Button" for the first time, and so far I like it. Someone else is bound to want to buy a copy too.
Just another note about the album, I was doing a search through Live 365 today, and was surprised that SlothRadio had a song from the album added to the playlist. The station is, after all, what Cosmicity called* "the most conservative place for synthpop on the internet," and here Slothdog is playing a song with no vocals.
Dealing a bit more with the exclusive club, which those lucky Chems belong, of musicians who changed my views on music it recently came out that Portishead did not actually break up! NME recently reported that Portishead are "close" to finishing their third album, and Geoff Barrow doesn't understand why people think the group have broken up. Maybe an eight year break since the last album, with a side-project album from Beth Gibbons, might be the reason Geoff. While I look forward to any new material, I'm not going to hold my breath. "Close" within the context of eight years is a long time.
Here's an odd thing. I was reading about Bez, the Happy Mondays' dancer, winning "Celebrity Big Brother" in the UK when I was shocked to discover that the hardest working woman in reality tv came in third. Brigitte Nielsen, who I vaguely remember, but can not recall having seen any of her movies is suddenly the "it girl" of reality tv. She did "The Surreal Life" a couple of months ago, and her relationship with Flavor Flav spawned "Strange Love" and somewhere in there she squeezed in this Brit show. Why? I suppose it's raised her profile, but I have no idea where she would take her career from here. Yet another reason I'm not a Hollywood agent.


*Quote taken from memory, so it might be off by a word, but the sentiment was there.

The Time Has Come To...

The new New Order single has made it's way on to the internet, even officially. The link may become inactive at any time, but for the time being you can click here to listen to "Krafty."

The X Factor

When the news broke that the forever uncomfortable as "Big Brother" host Julie Chen married CBS president Les Moonves, my wife congratulated me on calling that match. Quite honestly I had forgotten my stong conviction that Chen was involved with a network exec after she made it back for a second season of that miserable show but I‘m happy to take credit for it now. Even I couldn't see how deep this went, but the higher up you deal with the corporate ladder the better job security I suppose.
A couple of things that bugged me today. On one of the boards there was complaining about the New York Synthpop Festival that took place last weekend mostly about the headliner not being from NY. Maybe this a version of the whole “school spirit” thing, never really my thing, but I’ve always assumed that when there is a festival with a name in front of it they are usually talking about the place it is happening, Something like the San Francisco Film Festival doesn’t just feature films from San Francisco, but the event takes place in SF. I don’t know, it just seems like such an odd thing to get up in arms about.
Not to get back to my feelings on the whole mess with the guy from Provision disrespecting the synthpop.net reviews, but the revised review that Jason wrote up has one of the most hits on the site. It’s got almost twice as many hits as a high average review so someone must be directing traffic towards it. Is it Breye? It beats the hell out of me, but it’s strange…

I'm Mr. Countdown

Somewhere in my time off blogging I did a countdown of songs played on my radio station in 2004. It took me forever to compile the list, and was a bit bummed out that I didn't find 50 songs to list like I did in 2003, but still some great songs and I tend not to add stuff to my station that I think is getting too much mainstream exposure (well, when I add it). Here's my list, or you can see it with a green background if you prefer...


1. Faithless- Mass Destruction
2. Pet Shop Boys- Flamboyant
3. Scissor Sisters- Comfortably Numb
4. Client- Radio
5. The Faint- I Disappear
6. Prodigy- Girls
7. Kraftwerk- Aerodynamik
8. Erlend Oye- The Black Keys Work
9. Air- Cherry Blossom Girl
10. Ferry Corsten- Whatever!
11. Crystal Method- The American Way
12. Freezepop- Chess King
13. Radio 4- Party Crashers
14. Fatboy Slim- Wonderful Night
15. Phoenix- Everything Is Everything
16. The Killers- Mr. Brightside
17. Richard X- You (Better Love Me x4) Tonight
18. LCD Soundsystem- Yeah
19. Chromeo- Needy Girl
20. Zero 7- Speed Dial No. 2
21. Miss Kittin- Professional Distortion
22. Tiga- Pleasure From The Bass
23. Felix Da Housecat- Rocket Ride
24. Chemical Brothers- Get Yourself High
25. Orbital- Acid Pants
26. Swayzak- Keep It Coming
27. Bjork- Triumph Of A Heart
28. Lamb- Sugar 5
29. I Satellite- Where In The World
30. Gwen Stefani- Serious
31. Scissor Sisters- Music Is The Victim
32. Le Tigre- Nanny Nanny Boo Boo
33. The Lovemakers- Internet Girlfriend
34. Junior Jack f/Robert Smith- Da Hype
35. Client- In It For The Money
36. Tristraum- Shiver
37. Proper Filthy Naughty- Fascination
38. Junior Senior- Shake Your Coconuts
39. I Am X- Your Joy Is My Low
40. Chemical Brothers- Galvanize

Shameless

Alright, it's been awhile and there is something I‘ve got to get off my chest. This whole Amber Frey writing a book about her experience with Scott Peterson. Now, I've seen far too much of the Peterson story over the last couple of years, mostly I thought because it was "local" story with the trial taking place a couple towns over in the same complex I got my marriage license, but I've had the misfortune of watching (flicking past really) more cable news in the past few months where the trial got tons of publicity which is totally disproportionate to the amount "news worthiness" of the story (which I believe initially caught on because it's from the relatively small town of Modesto, big enough for a minor league baseball team and a rodeo grounds, where Chaundra Levy was from a couple of months after that whole situation was all over the press). I've gotten far too sidetracked, but during the trial I saw Frey's attorney commenting every day of the trial, which I found really odd because her client wasn't accused of doing anything by anyone at this point, and I figured something must be up. Maybe a book deal? Sure enough, she ended up doing a tell all book about her relationship just days after the trial sentencing. Classless? Completely. At least someone got some profit out of this murder and the endless parade of publicity surrounding it…