nevermind the bricolage

Tempest in a Media Teacup

Yesterday, George Bush held a press conference to address public consumers about the economy--in light of the mortgage and banking crisis, escalating fuel prices and a general sense of malaise and downturn. In contrast to the rather widespread sense of gloom that seems to pervade the air these days, Mr. Bush was upbeat, optimistic and seemed somewhat disconnected from reality, perhaps that is my bias, but I found it a bit disturbing--maybe he knows stuff the rest of us don't, you hope so I suppose. Anyway, you'd think that a speech like this would garner an immense amount of commentary and perhaps even debate, but no, what do we get spread across virtually every media platform?

The Picture in Question

"Paint, like life itself, moves from wetness, fluidity, and flexibility to dryness, stiffness, and rigidity.  Creative activity has to work with the entropic propensity of time. One must, in other words, learn to figure while the paint is drying."
I have been doing a lot of reading, thinking, and talking, for myself, and with a number of students, with the works of Derrida and Zizek, a couple of European post-something thinkers, both of whom seem to be exerting some influence on theological reflection, at least in a few circles. Pete Rollins of course, has been playing with Derrida for a while with some great results (The Fidelity of Betrayal, his latest book, being a prime example of how Derrida has affected his theology), as has John Caputo. Along with my reading and thinking I always try to make image-based connections, I find art so helpful in pretty much all my conceptul thinking. All that to say, I have been greatly encouraged and helped in my thinking by the work of New York artist Mark Tansey, and further inspired by the reflections of Mark C. Taylor, on Tansey's work, particulalry in his book, The Picture in Question.

The Great Reversal

In this time when the U.S economy is reeling from high petrol prices, real estate slumps, and a general economic malaise, it should come as no surprise that the effects of a negative wave in the economy affect everyone. The announcement this week that Starbucks, is set to close 600 of its U.S. stores, is not a big shock. There has been so much talk of people cutting back on luxuries, competition from McDonald's in the espresso market etc., but I think it might be a little more than simple economics in the case of the rapidly changing Starbucks world. It seems to me that virtually every major entity that becomes iconic and part of the cultural landscape experiences about a decade of unprecedented growth and then the novelty wears off, negative energy starts to flow, and decline sets in.

Strange Trinity

I'm not sure what this statue is meant to represent-Lenin, Mickey and Jesus, a strange triumvirate of cultural influences. Mickey Mouse is in the middle, holding hands with both figures... I'll have to give this a little more thought.

Thinking Gender

In Northern Albania, when a family experiences a lack of a male heir, through death, accident, or some other circumstance, some of the women take a vow pledging to remain virginal, not to marry, or have children. They then cut their hair, dress as males and assume a patriarchal role in family and social life, trading gender roles and they are fully accepted as males from thenceforth in the community.

Tuesday June 17th

Tom Judd creates intricate visual records of his daily life. I really like artists who take 'doodling'and sketching to whole new levels of depth and complexity. Tom Judd Everyday (tomjudd.co.uk/) offers a glimpse into one man's world at a very organic and base level.

Democratizing History

One of the driving forces of contemporary digital culture seems to be a move towards the democratizing of all thing. People power is driving the engines of the digital era. Cheaper, faster, and accessible technologies have transformed the marketplace, and virtually every artifact in it, from books to business, marketing and music, and pretty much everything else (whether or not this is a good thing overall has been the subject of much debate, an essay called Digital Maoism byJaron Lanier , set many people debating when it came out a while ago). History is not exempt from this process either. Increasingly history is being told 'from below' by everyday people. Ode magazine recently featured an article about a new museum inSao Paulo, Brazil, called Museu Da Pessoa (Museum of the Person), which is attempting to chronicle history through the eyes of ordinary human beings.

32K

32,000 breast augmentation surgeries every month in the U.S. Photographer Chris Jordan (chrisjordan.com), captures the madness of this form of elective surgery by creating a shot of the anatomy in question made up of 32,000 Barbie Dolls.

94.3%

Apparently 94.3% of Japanese women in their 20s own a Louis Vuittton bag What does this mean? I don't know but I thought it was quite interesting--that is quite a level of brand domination.

Groove Armada

To say that the recording industry is in a state of transition would be an understatement. There has been so much press about declining sales, the closing of stores like Tower Records and Virgin, the collapse of major labels, etc. etc. But there is another conversation to be had, the one about the incredible level of creativity that is going on in terms of recording and releasing new music. From the big ticket, multi-level deals that Madonna, U2 and the like are signing with Livenation, to the Wal-Mart exclusives that The Eagles signed (tapping in to their fan-base--who still purchase CDs--to the tune of over 3 million in the U.S., and about the same worldwide),to the free or pay-option download phenomenon pioneered by former major label acts like Radiohead and NIN. More recently came the news that Groove Armada signed a deal directly with Bacardi, committing to record and perform on behalf of the Bacardi brand, quite remarkable that a band linked themselves exclusively to a single product. Beyond that there are others who are pioneering new technologies that will offer better quality MP3 formats. The forthcoming T-Bone Burnett produced, John Mellencamp release, will apparently come in regular CD format and a new DVD format that will raise the sound quality (it is called Code and aims to do for music what THX did for cinema)--there are more releases scheduled that will explore other digital formats that offer higher grade results to the listener--Blu-Ray recording is a candidate apparently. Effectively, we are seeing an explosion of creativity in both the record making and distribution end of things--I can't think of a time when there has been so much de-centralized activity in a creative domain like the recording business--out of the ashes of one model and approach comes a plethora of ideas and options. T-Bone has said that it is time to get over the 35 year-old CD technology, "nobody knew they wanted high-definition television until they saw it," he said in a Rolling Stone interview, "We need musicians to stand up for pure sound. It's unthinkable that we're still hung up on this 35 year-old technology." Yeah, who needs 35 year-old technology?! That's so old! But, in our rapidly developing digital world, it is old, really old.
    Not that long ago, people were wondering what the future of the music industry would look like, I can't say that it has become that much clearer yet, other than, it will be more reliant on live performance, smaller niche audiences and a variety of listening and collecting options--that sounds pretty good to me.