Dubstep Theory

Here is a disturbing artifact, not so far removed from the Freire Death Metal below. Dubstep theory may be the next leap forward: the sublation of philosophy and a danceable beat.

Similarly when it is said: "the real is the universal", the real, qua subject, passes away in its predicate. The universal is not only meant to have the significance of a predicate, as if the proposition stated that the real is universal: the universal is meant to express the essential nature of the real. Thinking therefore loses that fixed objective basis which it had in the subject, just as much as in the predicate it is thrown back on the subject, and therein returns not into itself but into the subject underlying the content. – from the Preface of Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind.

Paulo Feire Death Metal

This now exists. It was created and performed by one of my students as a final project this semester and features lyrics culled from Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed (aka POO). Listen and Die.

 

Weekend Grading Again

It's Sunday and I'm grading again. Looking back at past posts, I see that I've been here before.

This one and this one stand out for me in particular. I seem to be in much the same place today. Spinning wheels, circle of life, etc.

 

I will survive.

Last Laugh

"The Laughing Song" of George W. Johnson is one of the very earliest hit records. Joshua Gunn discusses it in his intriguing talk below. There's a great deal to be said about the psychoanalytic meaning of recorded laughter, but one oddity mentioned by Gunn in passing is that laughing songs were very popular early on and perhaps constitute one of the first genres of recorded music.

Here is a twisted and perverse repetition of Johnson's laughter by Hasil Adkins, however, I had no idea that this song was part of venerable and historic musical genre. It certainly resonates for me, though, as a return of the repressed. Hasil Adkins as a symptom of the hauntological moment in pop music is all too plausible to me. Adkins certainly haunts me.

The full talk by Gunn is here and is also well worth a listen. Or two.

Best. Show. Ever.

The Lumpen Prof was here! Last Sunday was an amazing night. The Dave Rawlings Machine from left to right in the video above are John Paul Jones on mandolin (yes, that John Paul Jones, from Led Zeppelin), David Rawlings on his vintage Epiphone guitar, Gillian Welch on guitar, in the back on bass is Paul Kowert of the Punch Brothers, and on the right on guitar is Willie Watson formerly of the Old Crow Medicine Show.

The show began with a gorgeous rendition of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," and included a medley of "I Hear Them All / This Land is Your Land" (with all the best subversive verses included). The high point of the show for me, though, was a truly mesmerizing version of Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer." A close second was their version of Led Zeppelin's "Going to California" performed in what Rawlings described as a "special Dark Lord tuning." Hearing Gillian Welch sing Zeppelin was a strange and wonderful experience.

Setlist.

Remembering Hubert Sumlin

Hubert Sumlin passed away this week. Best known for his guitar work with Howlin' Wolf, I have very fond memories of hearing this man play during my college years in Austin, Texas. He was a frequent guest on stage at Antone's and always a joy to hear. He'll be missed.

Floydian Slip

I Read Some Marx And I Liked It

This is brilliant! I will be using this on this first day of class in the Fall.

Happy May Day!

Waiting for the great leap forward...

Pure Poppycock

Auto-Tune the News:



Good Charlotte singer Joel Madden and Matt Drudge. Separated at birth?

"I do it all the time. Making up shit is so sublime." Evidently, this line when sung by a man in a fedora means that you must be doing a Matt Drudge impersonation. Even the Drudge Report thinks so. And they would never make shit up. This is despite the fact that Madden wears a fedora in public almost as frequently as Drudge. I love how this "news" story resonates with the Auto-Tune lyrics about being pulled under by the "riptide of lies" online. Life imitates art.

In other news, Matt Drudge and Nicole Richey are now engaged:

Music Roulette

This is by far the best use of ChatRoulette I've seen...

We're #37

Rip: Remix, Chapters 1-3

Buddy Guy

Nostalgia. I was at this show way back when.

Very Modern Times

This isn't new, but it's new to me. It's an updated version of Chaplin's wonderful nonsense song from Modern Times. I like it.



This video has inspired me to show Modern Times in my Marx class in the Fall. The feeding machine scene, the red flag march, the infamous prison cocaine scene, as well as the classic assembly line breakdown scene are all good grist for taking about capital. In the past, I've shown just pieces from this film, but I plan to indulge myself this time time around and watch the entire movie in class.

As a side note, the dark haired woman in the video with the flower in her hair is evidently Dolores Chaplin, Charlie's granddaughter. Nice touch.

Girl Talk

Via. I'm looking forward to watching this open-source documentary, RiP: A remix manifesto, from Brett Gaylor. Alas, my bandwidth is not up for the task while I'm on the road. I do plan on finding some way to use this in class next year though. Here's the blurb from the website:

In RiP: A remix manifesto, Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers.

The film’s central protagonist is Girl Talk, a mash-up musician topping the charts with his sample-based songs. But is Girl Talk a paragon of people power or the Pied Piper of piracy? Creative Commons founder, Lawrence Lessig, Brazil’s Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil and pop culture critic Cory Doctorow are also along for the ride.

A participatory media experiment, from day one, Brett shares his raw footage at opensourcecinema.org, for anyone to remix. This movie-as-mash-up method allows these remixes to become an integral part of the film. With RiP: A remix manifesto, Gaylor and Girl Talk sound an urgent alarm and draw the lines of battle.

Which side of the ideas war are you on?

Hey, Hey!

While searching YouTube for inaugural music for the post below, I ran across this wonderful video of Big Bill Broonzy playing "Hey, Hey." I had no idea that film existed of Big Bill playing. Take a look.

Songs for the Next Eight Years

Limited, Inc. sent a new meme my way: "10 Songs to scare away the evil spirits of the past eight years, and welcome the new spirits of the next eight." I love this meme. Anyone else want to play along? Here's my playlist:

Get Happy (Judy Garland's version)
This Land Is Your Land (Woody Gutherie version not owned by HBO)
Bourgeois Blues (a song about DC which is now no longer true)
The Great Leap Forward (Billy Bragg)
Dancing In The Streets (Martha & the Vandellas)
What a Wonderful World (The Ramones' version)
Ain't Gonna Study War No More (Sister Rosetta Tharpe)
Exaltation (Matisyahu)
Black, Brown and White (inspired by Joseph Lowery's benediction)
Wang Dang Doodle (Koko Taylor)

Highlights

Two highlights from the pre-inaugural festivities yesterday. Pete Seeger and the Boss singing Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" complete with its most subversive verse; and the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, giving the invocation at the opening inaugural event at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., January 18, 2009:

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn't say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will...

Bless us with tears -- for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger -- at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort -- at the easy, simplistic "answers" we've preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience -- and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be "fixed" anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility -- open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance -- replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity -- remembering that every religion's God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln's reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy's ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King's dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters' childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we're asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand -- that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN.

More Lemon Demon

Ortho seemed to enjoy last month's Lemon Demon song about Barack Obama and Pokemon and asked what else my littlest lumpkin listens to. I finally got a chance to quiz her over the holidays and her answer seems to be that Lemon Demon rules.

Lemon Demon is a muscial group formed by Neil Cicierega of Potter Puppet Pals fame and I confess a weakness for them too. Their hit single seems to be "The Ultimate Showdown," but for your New Year's Eve enjoyment I'm also including "Dance Like an Idiot" for your listening and dancing pleasure.

Happy New Year!!