Posts by Ken Double
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In the midst of panicking about this I've nurtured a theory that this is a generational issue. Boomers have piled onto social media in recent years without the curatorial education kids get at school these days, or indeed the native understanding of how the internet works that comes with being born to it. They're not accustomed to seeing complete horseshit in published form. It certainly seems that it's older people falling prey to this stuff.
Remember the old FMCG TV commercials with Madge and Mrs Marsh and phony diagrams making ridiculous claims about shampoo efficacy? There's research showing it worked on a certain generation who were accustomed to taking information at face value while TV literate GenX saw through it. That's why it's not around anymore. Pick up a copy of People's Friend (seriously, pick up a copy of People's Friend. It's awesome!) and it's chock full of hyperbolic claims with pseudo-scientific long copy arguments no 35 year old could stay awake for.
My guess is this crap will work briefly until the susceptible die off and the survivors readjust their signal to noise ratio detection equipment.
It always helps to go browse an old copy of the Hidden Persuaders. It's full of panic about subliminal advertising and bleeding edge mind rotting techniques that seem quaint now. I think it'll be all right in the long run. Subs to the New York Times are up substantially thanks to Sunbed Mussolini.
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Went to the first night of the McGlashan/Carter tour last night. By jingo those two are good for each other. Shayne brings the toughness to Don's lyricism and vice versa. Also they chose each other's set list so there was no complacent pandering to the hits. Not sure Don was accustomed to being upstaged in the banter department though. Highly recommended to one and all anyway.
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Hard News: Friday Music: After the…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
It never hurts to let the classics out of the concert hall. Anything to dial down the formality. A while back I went to a brilliant Orchestra Wellington performance of Strauss's Last Songs and Marc Taddei chatted to the audience as if it were an actual gig. It's like a conversation with strangers and you can't relax until someone swears.
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Hard News: Friday Music: After the…, in reply to Sacha,
He's the kind of guy people describe as a journeyman, which they mean as a compliment. His song is a piece of artistic gap filler drained of insight, nuance, vitality, tension and release. And it's tuneless. Like his equally dull template, Jack Johnson, his sheer competence is decadent and offensive. Or is that too harsh?
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There have been many times while packed into some crumbling holding pen with awful sound and terrible sight lines I've pondered why it is that classical music is accorded public funding for specialist venues while beat music (for want of a better term) puts up with whatever dive someone can sell enough beer to earn a crust from.
The Powerstation is probably the closest thing to a proper venue we have and here in Wellington we're thoroughly envious of it. Why can't decent rock and jazz venues catch a break from the arts establishment? Money spent on good performance and rehearsal spaces is probably the best use of arts funding you could imagine.
On the small matter of the Silver Scrolls, are we to discuss the Thomas Oliver room elephant? Are they serious? I know the Scrolls are a bit of a group hug but if banal professionalism is the only bar that needs clearing people need to ask some questions.
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I’m not all that big on the song frankly but if people really want a groove marked out in highlighter for them they could do worse than this .
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Augustus Pablo! It's not even spelled properly on the sticker. Awesome. (Never gonna quibble about that apostrophe.) I think people cherish this stuff because slickness is so easy to come by these days.
In further news, anyone who watched Spray Tan Mussolini give his conquest speech this arvo needs to watch this immediately afterwards. God I pray this woman sticks around.
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My eldest and his girlfriend are calf deep in the Somerset mud right now. Being a bit of a festival-phobe I'm not that jealous. But then I'm not getting to see Grimes or Mbongwana Star either.
On a more sober matter, I had a look this week at the music of Amjad Sabri, the qawwali singer that was offed by Taliban headbangers in Karachi on Wednesday. He's not as crossover-friendly as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan but man he was a force. While these joy-killing Salafist pricks get headlines by destroying culture wherever they find it we forget that Islam is also a fountainhead of art. And Pakistani sufi mysticism is a big part of that. Sabri sang about God. That's what he did. The same God in whose name he was allegedly killed. For singing about God. R.I.P.
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I always nursed a liberal atheist soft spot for the Sallies. They behaved like Christians rather than just talked like them. But the whole petition episode soured me and others on them for years. I hope they're suitably embarrassed about their role in enabling that kind of intolerance. I'd be interested to know what they think these days.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Got Knox?, in reply to Alfie,
God I love her. She and Charlie Brooker haven't really made it to the telly here for some reason. Too pommy possibly? Thank Jeebus for the internet.
Best of luck to all concerned with Opportunity Knox. It's yeoman work and needs to be done.