Archives for September 2000

Ok, so, we’ve established two obsessions on my part. One is my obsession with being #1 at things that aren’t hard to win. The other is my deepfelt hatred of survivor. Actually, as a webpage i find it quite interesting, but as a teevee show its ratings were a testament to how low we have sunk as a society. Combine these two impulses together, and you have my intense desire to blog more often than the 9 remaining survivors do every day. Of course, they currently lead me on links from the power blogger page by 90, but that’s just a small detail

The crux of the matter is that there are quite a number of blogs on the internet, a significant percentage of which are updated regularly. Of those updated daily, there are then some that are updated frequently. And then there are the 50 people active enough to update all day. And i am, for now, one of those people. What bothers me, is that when i randomly click through some of the top10, i don’t find a whole lot that grabs a hold of me.

Of course, i have a history with joining a new genre of page and then trying to dictate what it should be based on my expectations of it. However, weblogs are more familiar ground, and i know the difference between an excuse for portals with fancy layout and someone who is actually writing something. Which is not to say that i’m writing anything. I don’t really have anything to write yet, but i suppose i’m trying to draw an audience in with the promise that i will have something to write about in the fall, which is really only a week and a half away for me.

You might be reading this right now and thinking that it is just a bunch of self assured tripe, and that you could do better. I honestly believe you can. It takes about five days to get listed in the directory at blogger.com. It takes less than an hour to get set up on GeoCities. Start a blog page today. Think about what to do with it for the next four days. On day five, post your intelligent thoughts like a madman. I promise to be there watching.

A total cop-out of an about page is up for now. I really haven’t got the slightest clue what to put on it, so if you have any ideas please run them by me. Otherwise, i think the layouts are beginning to stabilize now that i’ve got them where i want them. Before i work on the cast page i’ll need to work on a map for the rest of the site, since it’s nearly impossible to navigate these days without one. I’m about to start my 10th cd in my random trip through my collection, so i’ll update you on that little adventure in about an hour. If you’re getting bored, feel free to leave me for some other power blogger. Or, if you’re feeling brave, read up on a week of my life. Seeing as how i lived it, i try not to go back over it more than once or twice a day.

This is my response to a little discussion i’ve embroiled myself in.

1. Have you ever seen Aretha Franklin play an instrument?

No, and i don’t like to listen to her (though i respect her muchly). Additionally, you have to admit that her voice (as an instrument, if you care to take that point of view) is much more impressive than any current female pop star’s (*possibly* excepting Mariah and Whitney).

2. Have you seen the Temptations of Four Tops play an instrument?

The Temptations and the Four Tops were a product of the music industry at a time where a pop group doing harmony was in no way expected to write their own songs. Although many early rockers such as Buddy Holly and Little Richard wrote their own music, the advent of the the “singer-songwriter” didn’t come until the Dylan/Joni school. The Mamas and the Papas managed to write excellent vocal material and play guitar as well. I listen to Temps and Tops songs because they are classics and i grew up listening to them. However, i often can’t tell the difference between two groups doing the same song (“Build me up Buttercup,” for example), and if it is a favourite (as that one is) i don’t really care who the artist is as long as they can sing. Which means they are interchangeable in my mind, which is sort of my point.

3. If you don’t like pop why are you on a pop page?

Actually, this is a music for teens page, and being a teenager i am entitled to my opinion, as are others who dislike the so-called Pop Phenomenon. As a teenager i buy many more classic rock and modern rock albums than pop albums.

4. How many lead singers in these bands actually play an instrument?

“These bands” referring to what? Every act that i listen to (with the exception the ubiquitous Madonna) plays an instrument and/or is the main writer in the group. Examples being Garbage, Ani DiFranco, David Bowie, Tori Amos, Peter Mulvey, Alanis Morissette, Billy Joel, Elastica, Weezer, Tracy Bonham, ect…

5. How many rappers play an instrument? (Eminem)

None. Or, at least they do not publicize it, though i assume most of them are at least fluent with synthesizers and drum machines. Rappers who i respect the most are ones whose rhymes go beyond the obvious, and who are excellent arrangers and producers.

>sigh … You’re right, not all legendary people play instruments. However, i think it’s fair to say that the advent of “rock” music (which all of these things are) was with [Elvis / Little Richard / Jerry Lee Lewis], and that it took a long while for expectations from popular music to solidify. Up through as late as 1970 many songs i personally consider “legendary” were handed to their performers in the studio. However, as popular music diversified to include such bands as Queen and Jimi Hendrix Experience, expectations changed.

I don’t think my decision to slightly discount pop performers who were quite obviously picked for their image as much as their talent and who have been around for a mere two or three years is unfair at all. I sincerely hope that all of these acts find their own niches and do what they want. In a recent TV Guide, Aguilera said “If it were up to me i would have gone in a more soul and R&B direction. Also, N’Sync will soon “start work on a new record, with all five members taking a more active part in songwriting and producing.” Alanis Morissette released three trite dance records before she broke through. Obviously if the two pop powers just mentioned started out in their garages and got signed three years later, they would have wound up in a much different place. I am waiting to see where that place is.

We all have a right to like what we like. Some of our opinions are more well reasoned than others. Yours are certainly so. I’m sure you look forward to the next N’Sync record, and in a way i do too.

addendum to previous blog:

it could be that i’m just jealous of their coherent graphical layouts. but i use bigger font sizes. just wait until their eyesight goes.

some of them at least listen to Hanson, who write their own music. and play their own instruments. and have the greatest hair in the world. but i digress…

ps: go here. mindblowing layout, and who doesn’t love a bitch?