notesintheletterc-blog

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Cuddle sesh with my princess.

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Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking soundbites to support it. “Wouldn’t you say,” she asked, ‘that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?” No, I said, I wouldn’t say that. “But what about ‘The Basketball Diaries’?” she asked. “Doesn’t that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machinegun?” The obscure 1995 Leonardo DiCaprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office and it’s unlikely the Columbine killers saw it. The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. “Events like this,” I said, “if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. Kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn’t have messed with me. I’ll go out in a blaze of glory.” In short, I said, events like Columbine are influenced far less by violent movies than by CNN, “The NBC Nightly News” and other news media, who glorify the killers in the guise of “explaining” them. The reporter thanked me and turned off the camera. Of course the interview was never used. They found plenty of talking heads to condemn violent movies, and everybody was happy.

Roger Ebert  (via albinwonderland)

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C.Me.

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This is a great piece that brings up the subject of apathy towards relationships when we actually do care and how it has become the norm. It's a thought I go back and forth on all the time. Apathy has almost become a natural emotion for me, when in fact, I'm one of the most caring people. Just because someone else may not express themselves the same, what should stop you from being honest with your feelings? The chance you may look crazy? The chance you may get rejected? I feel like there was a time when I didn't care about those things and no one else did either, but  now it's become so much easier to never go there to begin with. How far does that really get us though? On top of all that, how much is technology and media playing into how we interact with in our relationships now?

-C

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I did not know these guys were still making music...

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The Dalai Lama tells his Facebook friends that ‘religion is no longer adequate’

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I think this has some good insight for everyone when it comes to dealing with children and even adults who are more on the shy side. I was painfully shy as a child. And although I grew out of some of the traits described in this article, a lot of them still apply. This might be a good tool for people who have friends who tend to be more introverted than most and its hard to understand. This probably would have been a GREAT read for my mother growing up, she still has a hard time understanding my need for privacy.

-C

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EDM Backlash?

So are we starting to see the backlash of the Electronic Dance Music explosion? Sure, why not. There is always some kind of "real musician" uprising. Whether it's towards disco, pop, or EDM. Music is cyclical, much like fashion. Songs like "Kill The DJ" may be showing us the uprising has started. Not to say people like David Guetta or Deadmau5 aren't musicians (using the term loosely), but music producers rather(as music producers have never been referred to as musicians). We've never had concerts for people not actually playing instruments or singing, or not doing anything at all for that matter. Essentially just making these EDM concerts a laser light show with loud music.

Let's take P. Diddy or Didddy, could be just "D" now for all I know, for example. Back when he and Notorious B.I.G. were taking off, Mr. Diddy was making appearances in videos and even being featured on songs with his oh so famous "uh huh, yeah" or "It's bad boy baby" whispers. And this was at a point when he was just a producer. Other artists and critics displayed a disliking for the song producer being so in your face and not behind the scenes, although he later went on to perform his own music as an actual artist. NOW with the rise of EDM, we celebrate the music producer for being just that. Even building shows and festivals around their, admittedly, pre-recorded and pre-mixed music. We've even gone as far as to actually call them DJ's! That being said, is there a contradiction in the times of Puff Daddy vs. David Guetta? Is there a rampant misuse of music related terms? I would say yes to both of these questions. But then so what if your favorite "artist" doesn't actually sing anything on his songs? And doesn't everyone want to see their favorite artist in concert?

I am in no way taking from the musicality of EDM, nor am I legitimizing it . And I will admit, I'm not a huge fan or as knowledgeable of these artist as others. But as a fan and friend of musicians who play and sing their own music; I am, however, predicting an uprising against this seemingly drug induced culture that has recently saturated the industry. True appreciators of music can respect all that EDM may be but also everything that it is not. In the long run, everything that it is not will far outweigh the other and musicians will get their industry back- they always do. Rock’n'Roll might be dying, but it’s not dead. This uprising could be in the form of rock taking back its reigns, or it could be the indie/singer-songwriter movement that is ever gaining popularity. Either way, musicians will end up back on stage and producers back in the studio... or at the least, behind the musician. I want to see instruments at my concerts, not watching some guy with a bad hair cut updating his twitter while we listen to his CD.

Now, I'm not saying music producers couldn't be the new musician- it has just never been considered before. And I don't know that I necessarily agree with it. That is a whole 'nother topic for me to ponder. I do know the industry well though and what goes into it, which makes it hard to appreciate a music form that anyone can figure out and make as long as they have a computer and good program. Not that it will necessarily be done well, but accomplished none-the-less. I've seen it done on both ends. Actual musicians who have branched out into the electronic world and people who think it would be cool to just consider themselves a "DJ" and say they make music. I will always take a listen to what my friends of the music world are working on, knowing full well what they put into it and that they knew the art better than anyone whether its rock or EDM. The latter, I am far less inclined.

And maybe my mind will change. Who knows. But that is the nature of the music beast- changing, growing, cycling. Which is why it would be ignorant of me to say that it absolutely is not here to stay or couldn't make a comeback if it does go away, OR that it couldn't possibly re-shape music today. It would also be ignorant for anyone else to say that any one of those things wouldn't possibly happen.

-C

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Beginning of the war on EDM and its mis-use of the term "DJ"?

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I find it a wee bit contradicting that as big of a deal as right-wingers have made of religion, they are all the sudden ok with having a Mormon president. I thought the Constitution and this country were founded on God and Christian principle? Guess what... your boy isn't a Christian. So there goes all of your arguments that you base on your God and your religion. Listening to people at the RNC last week say they "don't care what religion he is as long as he fixes this country" is such a bullshit statement. Who are you J-freaks trying to kid? It's so hypocritical.

But then again, that's politics. And the extremes(on both sides) have turned it into such a joke. I think it's safe to say that other countries are laughing at our circus of a political system.

Both parties combined have already spent as much as the entire 2008 election cost.

For the record, I'm not religious and am also registered Independent.

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F. Scott Fitzgerald The Beautiful and Damned 1922

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He wanted to appear suddenly to her in novel and heroic colors. He wanted to stir her from that casualness she showed toward everything except herself.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned