Some things about homosexuals in Jack Chick Comics (esp. The Gay Blade)
1. In the Gay Blade, from the mid 70s, the cover combines three prominent signifiers of queer desire; two common and one not. (Lambda, Mauve, Sissy Prancing.) To know the Lambda is to spend enough time w. queer texts to get the cult.
2. The first three panels of Gay Blade actually make the married gay couple look as normal as possible; his strange over the top (camp?) phisiognomy is absent here.
3. The fourth panel is the most famous depiction of Chick and Homosexuality, and requires a closer reading.
a. Two Queer Radicals vs. Mother and Child.
b. It was a stated goal for glbtq folx when written to scare children, to antagonistically oppose the mother and child as an example of middle class sentiment
c. The men look like radical faeries, they have the genderfuck costume down pat, one large and bearded, with a brocade vest, a gay revolution t shirt, and be crowned with a v. fine bouffant—which seems to directly quote this foto: http://www.crazyfunnypictures.com/items/1619.jpg (Though it is a
radical queer picture, I find this mostly on funny picture now sites,
and not on places like gay.com or even the more pseudo-academic history sites.) taken about the same time… was it possible, living just north of SF, that he saw this, that he saw what was in the water?
i. The weird thing about the foto, is that it doesn't say faggot, he never actually engages in directed hate speech—it cannot be debated that the text is noxious, but he avoids saying things like faggot, queer, or any of the other more famous ones. His use of the word sodomite is explicitly biblical.
4. He footnotes the Lambda, talking about its presence as one of unity against oppression—which is true, and accurate, but does not note its classical and martial roots. Does he know it, is one of the reasons that jack chick hate fags, is that they are pagan, is that they oppose Christ and Christians, is their sin one of unbiblical decadence.
5. The sixth panel has the authority of the state is behind us, it faces the mob of radical queers, yelling and waving placards for gay revolution and gay power—there is only one cop for dozens of angry fags, they do not look pathetic, or angry, they look almost like they could win.
6. The text of this panel, talks about being defiant, it adds, almost half heartedly discussion of us being pathetic, miserable, etc—but the big thing for chick in the gay blade (and if that isn't a camp title I don't know what is) is that radical queer discourse provides an opposition to the order of both the state and god.
7. He then goes thru the standard, leftist gay is everywhere shit—literally the next three panels could be cribbed from something like Is It a Choice, or any of the don't feel bad about wanting to fuck men manuals that came after the militancy, the third panel in this sequence has two clones holding hands under an American flag, and the next panel has a butch dyke holding court at a school meeting, but she isn't the stone butch prison rapist that is so common in xian shit from this time…these two panels are actually fairly tolerant.
a. Chick is a skillful propagandist, he knows his Market, he has not gone over the top, he verges on journalism and he hasn't said anything that doesn't have correspondence in the queer communities…until about half way thru the comic.
8. Here he inserts the story of Sodom, and here he becomes the most vitriolic, the most revolted…in every anti-gay comic since the publication of the gay blade, chick inserts Sodom, and in Doom Town, his latest on the subject, he includes refutations of leftist hermeneutics about hospitality and social codes; Sodom is the key to this text.
9. The weird thing is that even biblically centered homophobic preachers don't really deal w. Sodom anymore, in many ways it is out of fashion (because of the wrath of YHWH is out of fashion, because we do not want to believe that someone is capable of such destruction (Pat Robertson is the exception here, with his recent comments on Hurricane Katrina.)
10. His Sodom sequence is drawn in the same style as bible illustrations from the 50s, before the good news bible:
a. Two archeologists sees images printed on the sides of caves indicating great and lasting evil, images so grotesque, that one immediately vomits (compare this to Doom Town: with its panel of a giant, yeti of a man, looking over a large eyed innocent child, saying "its that time again"—not saying that pedophiles are homosexuals, but saying allowing one sexual other lets the barn door open for everything else, an impt difference…)
b. It is from now on, biblical reportage: Abraham, Lot, The Two Angels, the great evil in the city, until we get about half way through the tour of Sodom
11. He then uses the line that Homosexuals surrounded the house of Lot, later calling them gay—this is the important part of the whole thing, he has moved between polemic and reportage, between theological point and moral one, between being fairly fair and being an asshole, between conservative but ethically consistent readings and cracked out misreading—the instability of the tract means that no grip can be held on it—there was same sex activity at that time and that place—b/w the Hittites mostly, and mostly related to foreign gods—there was a conflation b/w idolatry and adultery, w. Chick there still is.
12. The rest of the scene, 4 panels (including an oversize one) dealing with the evil of the homosexual men, two dealing with the angels who blinded the men, and one dealing with Lots Daughters a. Lot offered rape and murder as an option against anal penetration, in the most conservative reading of this text, and though Chick alludes to this, the phallocentric violence against women that grounds this story, that really does make it about men's violence against each other and women (Lot and His Daughters, YHWH and Lots Wife, etc)…there is a subtext here, mentioned previously, about order and the state, that the whole city, the government, the state, was corrupt, that corruption oozed into Lot, and Lot was in danger.
13. Then, nearing the end, we see the destruction of Sodom, ranking with Basil Woverton's illustrations of the apocalypse, this fire storm is so apocalyptic, and so modern—the desert, some people, and balls of flame, like Dresden, like Hiroshima, the left of the image looks like airplane fuselage and the right of the image looks like railway tracks.
a. This modernization of the fear of god, in the destruction of the modern world, comes in the this small picture, sandwiched with text, the top being the biblical verse, and the bottom being a footnote from an archeologist named DR MG Kyle, one of the ones who got sick I am assuming, the quote from Kyle (in 1924!) is one of salt plains, sulfur, and a "massively populated city" that is destroyed overnight.
b. The most powerful terror that permeates this entire comic, is that Chick is almost convinced that this slippage of gender and sex will destroy the world again, he is not looking forward to the apocalypse, not one of those rapture optimists—he surely has taken Christ into his heart, but even then, the fear of god is permeable.
14. The last 5 panels tell us that god hates fags, that they are coming to take over good Christians, has a few text panels added post AIDS with the same lying stats that have been bandied about forever, talks about recruiting, its so banal, so bog standard, it reminds us that homosexuality is one of many sins that can send us to hell, and that we have to pray and be forgiven. It rather ruins the enterprise.
15. This comic is the only one that still convinces me that I am going to hell, it is the only one that keeps terror in me, it is such a brilliantly executed piece of polemic, and there is nothing cute, nothing ironic, nothing amusing about it, it is a piece of religious fury, if best can be said to be a synonym for most effective, the homosexuals in Jack Chick Comics are one of the great villains—pathetic, dangerous, deluded, subversive, and able to be turned.
for tom at freaky trigger
Sunday, October 30, 2005
anthony hernadez does the banal super abstraction point and clicks that are hip today--hes from LA and rather good.
uber xians from the agape press think that wal green drugs are sponsoring the gay games, because gay folx get aids, and need lots of expensive drugs, so they will profit ffrom the deaths of these folks...another far right attempt at co opting far left rhetoric, but crazier
other homophobic nonese from the austin pro fag marriage site
what i dont understand about this, is that repeats gays wanting marriage as arrogant and greedy--can someone do the deconstruction for me, it seems really quite strange.
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today made public an analysis of new and previously released autopsy and death reports of detainees held in U.S. facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom died while being interrogated. The documents show that detainees were hooded, gagged, strangled, beaten with blunt objects, subjected to sleep deprivation and to hot and cold environmental conditions
From the ACLU: press release here
Afghan Femminist publisher is sentenced to two years in prision for his work...welcome to the wonderful paradise post tailban...
IHT article explaining the difficulty of copy right.
NY TImes article on bobby bare and his new album, which ilm seems to like and which i havent heard.
nazi chic hits hong kong
LA Painter, DRawer, Printmaker and Digital Artist Huegen--do i like this?
Can we lop off the heads of exxon execs, they do seem to be war proifteers
45 million an hour and they are going farther
greg tate on rosa parks nessc. and anger polemic.
other small things
rachel, d:
look at the videos, see the images--contempary folk arts in post modern britian, one of the most brilliant currated programs ive seen this year
westmoreland wrestling, tarbarrell racing, guy fawkes stuff, protest banners, and more!
i dont know anything about lacy shultz--but she is dirty:
http://www.fencemag.com/current/text/schutz.html
uber xians from the agape press think that wal green drugs are sponsoring the gay games, because gay folx get aids, and need lots of expensive drugs, so they will profit ffrom the deaths of these folks...another far right attempt at co opting far left rhetoric, but crazier
other homophobic nonese from the austin pro fag marriage site
what i dont understand about this, is that repeats gays wanting marriage as arrogant and greedy--can someone do the deconstruction for me, it seems really quite strange.
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today made public an analysis of new and previously released autopsy and death reports of detainees held in U.S. facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom died while being interrogated. The documents show that detainees were hooded, gagged, strangled, beaten with blunt objects, subjected to sleep deprivation and to hot and cold environmental conditions
From the ACLU: press release here
Afghan Femminist publisher is sentenced to two years in prision for his work...welcome to the wonderful paradise post tailban...
IHT article explaining the difficulty of copy right.
NY TImes article on bobby bare and his new album, which ilm seems to like and which i havent heard.
nazi chic hits hong kong
LA Painter, DRawer, Printmaker and Digital Artist Huegen--do i like this?
Can we lop off the heads of exxon execs, they do seem to be war proifteers
45 million an hour and they are going farther
greg tate on rosa parks nessc. and anger polemic.
other small things
rachel, d:
look at the videos, see the images--contempary folk arts in post modern britian, one of the most brilliant currated programs ive seen this year
westmoreland wrestling, tarbarrell racing, guy fawkes stuff, protest banners, and more!
i dont know anything about lacy shultz--but she is dirty:
http://www.fencemag.com/current/text/schutz.html
Saturday, October 29, 2005
First things first: I forgot to send out a mailing on Monday from The Beguiling mentioning that we have two signings this weekend. Tonight (Friday the 28th), Charles Burns and Chip Kidd are at the store from 8-9pm, free event. Tommorow night (Saturday the 29th) Chris Ware is signing from 8-9pm. If you're going to be in the city anyway (nudge nudge) I'd like to make sure we get the warm bodies out. This is a pretty rare event? Rare events? So, if you could come out, that'd be cool.
from chris's blog
from chris's blog
Are Cowboys Secretly Fond of Each Other? Country, Queerdom, and
Geographic Centers.
For a radical queer male, country music is disputed territory. The assumption among hip critics is that any desire for the sounds is a barely hidden dodge concerning my love for cowboys. However, country music itself is not a guilty pleasure for me, because I grew up on the prairies; it is my heritage, the music of my parents and my grandparents. It has taught me about honour, devotion, god and desire. Moreover, I have learnt about tragedy, surrender, and survival.
The shame that comes from listening to country is it is implicit and sometimes explicit homophobic and hetero-normative frameworks. Its history works in conjunction with those who colonize; even the virtues mentioned have something negative to them. The shame then is one of having to choose a side, making excuses for the patriarchy, and burying all of the difficulties in a flood of cheap nostalgia and fake psycho-geography.
To emerge from that flood, to put the dikes up, is to examine disputed territory. So I want to speak of a history, some personal and some not, of queerness and country music. The songs that can be about sex between men, the drag queens dressed as Reba and Dolly, the violence that occurs with distressing regularity, the seismic interruptions when cowboys love each other, what the fag rumors about Kenny Chesney mean, masturbating to CMT as subversive practice and how far Toby Keith's libertines antics might go.
Geographic Centers.
For a radical queer male, country music is disputed territory. The assumption among hip critics is that any desire for the sounds is a barely hidden dodge concerning my love for cowboys. However, country music itself is not a guilty pleasure for me, because I grew up on the prairies; it is my heritage, the music of my parents and my grandparents. It has taught me about honour, devotion, god and desire. Moreover, I have learnt about tragedy, surrender, and survival.
The shame that comes from listening to country is it is implicit and sometimes explicit homophobic and hetero-normative frameworks. Its history works in conjunction with those who colonize; even the virtues mentioned have something negative to them. The shame then is one of having to choose a side, making excuses for the patriarchy, and burying all of the difficulties in a flood of cheap nostalgia and fake psycho-geography.
To emerge from that flood, to put the dikes up, is to examine disputed territory. So I want to speak of a history, some personal and some not, of queerness and country music. The songs that can be about sex between men, the drag queens dressed as Reba and Dolly, the violence that occurs with distressing regularity, the seismic interruptions when cowboys love each other, what the fag rumors about Kenny Chesney mean, masturbating to CMT as subversive practice and how far Toby Keith's libertines antics might go.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Novembers goals
(the book is the only one thing i didnt complete at all--i worry its dead, im not even doing much research on it anymore)
EMP
Abstract, Bio, Contact Info
Contium
Book Proposal for 33 1/3 volume
Show Proposal (about preversity and change in some current art)
Find Artists
Write Statement
Get Slides
etc
Harcourt
get in the whole package by the 30th
Dazibo (montreal)
15 colour fields Photos (Slides/CD)
Clear Description
artist statement
CV
SASE
Independent Polaroid Guild
Scan and send images
Library
Posters Out
Handbills at places
Install on the 4th
Goodies
Bonnie
Nov. 12
AISH neuro-pysch thing
Dr Gross
21st (wait for AISH to be finished before we figure that)
Kim
Call for AISH and Tutoring
ACT
Study (test in mid dec.)
Wal Mart
Look for a job you fucker
(the book is the only one thing i didnt complete at all--i worry its dead, im not even doing much research on it anymore)
EMP
Abstract, Bio, Contact Info
Contium
Book Proposal for 33 1/3 volume
Show Proposal (about preversity and change in some current art)
Find Artists
Write Statement
Get Slides
etc
Harcourt
get in the whole package by the 30th
Dazibo (montreal)
15 colour fields Photos (Slides/CD)
Clear Description
artist statement
CV
SASE
Independent Polaroid Guild
Scan and send images
Library
Posters Out
Handbills at places
Install on the 4th
Goodies
Bonnie
Nov. 12
AISH neuro-pysch thing
Dr Gross
21st (wait for AISH to be finished before we figure that)
Kim
Call for AISH and Tutoring
ACT
Study (test in mid dec.)
Wal Mart
Look for a job you fucker
Thursday, October 27, 2005
i saw art today. and i have some other things to talk about.
paul freeman at the fab gallery
well crafted, with extrodianry material control, but filthy and degenerate--where to start. the large, exquiste pastelsof rotting corpses, looking at them closer you see fetuses, dinasour skeltons, human faces, and rats--or the recreated sculptures, the little red riding hood, her basket filled with the severed heads of the holy family, or the pretty boys and girls topped by plaster casts of breasts, testicles, and the like (chapman, koons and preacher) or the animals with human parts, including with a swan faced by a v, v, v, realistic cunt, (interperesed with fruit--the cunt had a strawberry clitoris, for example) my favourite were a seires of 3 sculptuers, of two porpises, two squirells and two of small children--each with long, pink flesh tubes, twisting and arching, finally fused, like lampreys...worth seeing.
graham peacock
two things i wanted to note about graham--
he has a series of paintings from the mid 90s called the glitter paintings, made from the same shit you use in kindercrafts--these 8 foot amorhpus blobs, with pools of gold, silver, blue or red...how the fuck does he do this w/o being camp. he also had about 70 images, only 2 of them in private collections, none in public.
also at the eag, a pretty useless french drawing show (i cannot actually talk, i have no critical vocab for french drawing for about 200 years (1680-1780 or so) --its the only one i hate w. v. few exceptions (early david&ingres), i thot the drawings would be better, i tend to like works on paper when i dont like sculpture or paintings)...mostly it was that seafoam and cream overly populated, slightly naughty, tits and ass fake mythology that we have come to expect...but there was a small, strange, dark crucifixion by delacroix--it was spare, just jesus in a black landscape, his cross conflated with his temptation in the desert, one of the lonliest things ive seen--and at his feet, a serpent, not actually that unusual but the serpent is not crushed under the heel of the divine...the wall plaque talks about how when a serpernt is in crucifxion scenes, it means christ triumphing over evil...but in this one, the snake is risen up, and looks ready to strike on the heel--the implication being that christs attempt at vanquishing evil is ineffective--but it isnt anti clerical either, its the mark of a humanist who doesnt know how to love god.
alex janviers new work (at 70!) is of patterns of the boreal forrest, either in the sky or in lichen encrusted rocks--circular, and lightly patterned, with ink and water colour is a depature from his ubquitous style---and the forrest he did the paintings in have been unpopulated for 40 yrs, b/c of cold lake military installation (or as the gallerist says"they were pure except for the bombing ranges")
slyvie vanier does the same paintings of aspens and canola which bore to tears, and are dishonest (IF YOU ARE DOING SEMI ABTRACTIONS OF NATURE, MOSTLY ABOUT COLOUR REALIZE THAT ASPENS AND CANOLA ARENT THE SAME FUCKING COLOUR) but she has one called rosa matta, which i think is a cherry blossom, superforshoretend, with cerulan and bubble gum tones, that is pure candy.
donated two of my photographs (short bookshelf 1, my room ft sask) and (your flowers 123rd st Edmonton) to the Visual ARts Alberta event and have two free tickets--numbered one and two--so the first two tickets for a gala in two weeks, doesnt sound like good news--the gala has the cbc, psudeo famous people decorating plates, and silly things that arent worth picking up, and the woman who was there didnt seem fond to see my work, but shrug...
reading butler, undoing gender, which is really good--long book report to come, but really appreciated the practical core of advice in dealing with the everyday negotaions that she once only considered theortical, she doesnt provide answers, but do you really expect her too? (and lisa, i am reading raymond chandler as well, so i do have fiction going)
say ashley, got a big hug, kibbitzed a bit, gave him his work back, getting slides from a series he is doing of non leather guns...and blair is putting shit in too, but they are booking shows (TWO) years ahead...
dad drama again, huge dad drama, same shit, same refusing to take responsibilty, same blaming me, same super high expectations, same shit over and over again, and i cant do it any more.
paul freeman at the fab gallery
well crafted, with extrodianry material control, but filthy and degenerate--where to start. the large, exquiste pastelsof rotting corpses, looking at them closer you see fetuses, dinasour skeltons, human faces, and rats--or the recreated sculptures, the little red riding hood, her basket filled with the severed heads of the holy family, or the pretty boys and girls topped by plaster casts of breasts, testicles, and the like (chapman, koons and preacher) or the animals with human parts, including with a swan faced by a v, v, v, realistic cunt, (interperesed with fruit--the cunt had a strawberry clitoris, for example) my favourite were a seires of 3 sculptuers, of two porpises, two squirells and two of small children--each with long, pink flesh tubes, twisting and arching, finally fused, like lampreys...worth seeing.
graham peacock
two things i wanted to note about graham--
he has a series of paintings from the mid 90s called the glitter paintings, made from the same shit you use in kindercrafts--these 8 foot amorhpus blobs, with pools of gold, silver, blue or red...how the fuck does he do this w/o being camp. he also had about 70 images, only 2 of them in private collections, none in public.
also at the eag, a pretty useless french drawing show (i cannot actually talk, i have no critical vocab for french drawing for about 200 years (1680-1780 or so) --its the only one i hate w. v. few exceptions (early david&ingres), i thot the drawings would be better, i tend to like works on paper when i dont like sculpture or paintings)...mostly it was that seafoam and cream overly populated, slightly naughty, tits and ass fake mythology that we have come to expect...but there was a small, strange, dark crucifixion by delacroix--it was spare, just jesus in a black landscape, his cross conflated with his temptation in the desert, one of the lonliest things ive seen--and at his feet, a serpent, not actually that unusual but the serpent is not crushed under the heel of the divine...the wall plaque talks about how when a serpernt is in crucifxion scenes, it means christ triumphing over evil...but in this one, the snake is risen up, and looks ready to strike on the heel--the implication being that christs attempt at vanquishing evil is ineffective--but it isnt anti clerical either, its the mark of a humanist who doesnt know how to love god.
alex janviers new work (at 70!) is of patterns of the boreal forrest, either in the sky or in lichen encrusted rocks--circular, and lightly patterned, with ink and water colour is a depature from his ubquitous style---and the forrest he did the paintings in have been unpopulated for 40 yrs, b/c of cold lake military installation (or as the gallerist says"they were pure except for the bombing ranges")
slyvie vanier does the same paintings of aspens and canola which bore to tears, and are dishonest (IF YOU ARE DOING SEMI ABTRACTIONS OF NATURE, MOSTLY ABOUT COLOUR REALIZE THAT ASPENS AND CANOLA ARENT THE SAME FUCKING COLOUR) but she has one called rosa matta, which i think is a cherry blossom, superforshoretend, with cerulan and bubble gum tones, that is pure candy.
donated two of my photographs (short bookshelf 1, my room ft sask) and (your flowers 123rd st Edmonton) to the Visual ARts Alberta event and have two free tickets--numbered one and two--so the first two tickets for a gala in two weeks, doesnt sound like good news--the gala has the cbc, psudeo famous people decorating plates, and silly things that arent worth picking up, and the woman who was there didnt seem fond to see my work, but shrug...
reading butler, undoing gender, which is really good--long book report to come, but really appreciated the practical core of advice in dealing with the everyday negotaions that she once only considered theortical, she doesnt provide answers, but do you really expect her too? (and lisa, i am reading raymond chandler as well, so i do have fiction going)
say ashley, got a big hug, kibbitzed a bit, gave him his work back, getting slides from a series he is doing of non leather guns...and blair is putting shit in too, but they are booking shows (TWO) years ahead...
dad drama again, huge dad drama, same shit, same refusing to take responsibilty, same blaming me, same super high expectations, same shit over and over again, and i cant do it any more.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
the frame is all wrong, so ignore it. things i love about the painting
its small (1x3)
its intimate
the colours are all of the same vague shades
its like cezannes st victorie with out trying to be obsessive and epic
i can imagine him having a window this small, on the top floor of his house in provence
it is so self contained ,so intimate, so interorly(sp) directed.
its calming and beautiful, and restful--and its skilful, if i can make a late push towards craft
reading reviews about MIA, thinking about googol bordello--i wonder, the sections on chechneya, i cant read them, im monolingual, i depend on translations, which means i cannot tell if he is in favour or not, and also, i think something that i implied in my review but didnt say directly, was that pluralism, interzone, poco, etc does not mean that it is peaceful, or w/o conflict, or utopia--one of the things that needs to be remembered about WSB's view of it all (and the theoritical baggage of the letterists/situtationists etc) is that none of this is nice or polite or done with permission, and the radical chic of the whole enterprise needs to be
simon reyonalds calls it ghetto house in his review of the MIA and maybe b/c of where i am living now, or family history or something in how european they are or the length of their presence in america makes it more acceptable, less the favela or reggaetron (though gb incorprates both of those) then kleezmer or something already kitschified by the boho borgies...he is dragging himself out of that though, but to what?
the album is great, like MIA's album is great, but perhaps great b/c of its ambguity ?
simon reyonalds calls it ghetto house in his review of the MIA and maybe b/c of where i am living now, or family history or something in how european they are or the length of their presence in america makes it more acceptable, less the favela or reggaetron (though gb incorprates both of those) then kleezmer or something already kitschified by the boho borgies...he is dragging himself out of that though, but to what?
the album is great, like MIA's album is great, but perhaps great b/c of its ambguity ?
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Top Twenty (Billboard Country)
Better Life--Keith Urban
I dont get Urban, i think hes boring, and doesnt have a fantastic voice, and everything out his mouth that isnt a cliche is absurd. This one has the old lover lost, summer fling dead in the fall vibe with out self aware irony, nosatligc sentiment or any real emotion...
Red Neck Yacht Club
Going higher and higher, still seems a half assed rip off from old Alan Jackson
Somebody's Hero--Jamie O'Neal
Mawkish. Politically Suspect. About the Glory of motherhead. Of course, it moves me deep inside, sometimes to tears.
Something to Be Proud of--Montgomrery Church.
The reason why Chuck Eddy thinks these motherfuckers are fascist is that almost every single they release has the triple pillars of kinder, kirche, kuche--often attacked, and often combined with flagwaving and other patrotism. This is really not much different. (There is a strange verse about trading his GTO for a foriegn cars, and being stuck in a deadend town "north of LA) In fact I think this is the only track I have heard of them that suggests that ambiguity and shame may be some of the results of the American Dream--its an (unintended?) implied subtext that is submerged in talk of flags flying and new born babys crying, but it isnt a hack job like Bumper of my SUV.
Brass Bed--Josh Gracin
I love this song, on the short list of my nashville list. the subtle, sad, steel guitars, the platinve voice, a man being weak, (there is no use in hiding how I feel right now...Girl you are wearing me out) seeking help, his subtly accented voice, its erotic of course--but also despearte in his desires. It also mentions how wonderful it is to cuddle in the middle of winter, and that of course, one would fall apart if the fortress was breached.
Proably Wouldnt Be This Way--Lee Anne Rhimes
Great words, great production, but i still think (no matter how old she seems) the song needs to be sung be someone in her mid50s, the theme of lost youth sort of escapes w/o power when the singer is in the middle of her golden years.
Who'd ya be Today--Kenny Chesney
Hurtin' songs seem to dominate, and this one should bother me as much as Urban--but I believe Chesney, and the line: "I wear my sadness like a heavy coat" I think hes acting here, the song is too early for RZ and it has a pallor of death about it in places, plus his work isnt really autobiographical, he is v. controlling with his personal life--but i do find myself moved by this, but Chesney usually does pull the strings nessc. for that.
Skin(Sarabeth)--Rascall Flatts
Cant seem to find it.
Proably Wouldnt Be--Leanne Rhimes
Wonderfully written, with flannery o connor details, and a strong production, its a song about death, loss, and youth--and i still think she is too golden, vibrant and alive to sing it well, Tanya Tucker was about the same time when she sang Lay With Me in A field of Stone, a song with similar content, but Tucker has always been much darker then Rhimes is cabable of.
You're Like Coming Home
A cliched mess, with derritave sound, not really worth much.
Come a Little Closer--Deirks Bentley
Its louder then it should be, shinier. It is similar to the themes of Gracin, but Bentley is incapable of giving up himself, and believes that making love is the same as solving problems, that fucking fixes everything wrong in a realtionship--or at least the songwriter does, but this is deeply problematic (plus the line come a little closer, i feel like laying you down(letting go) places himself first--its a deeply selfish song, (and lets face it, too fucking cheesy to be beleived)
HickTown--Jason Aldean
The best thing about this isnt how hard it rocks (but it does), or how raw Aldeans voice is (but it is) or how much fun everyone is having (and its the most entertaining single of the year) or how ramped up the production is (thats Big and Richs doing) but how authentic the cultural singnifers seem to be (a small list: White Rain, Pall Malls, Bingo, Mudding, Buying Beer at Amaco)
Tequilla Makes Her Clothes Come off_Joe Nichols
Its the best ode to date rape, ever! (Thats not fair) The details are great, the song pivots on a dirty chorus, you never sure wether Nichols is excited or overly protective, but it almost doesnt matter. The only thing that really bothers me is the rampant product placement.
Good Ride Cowboy--Garth Brooks
Memorial Tribute to Chris LeDoux and really interesting for a few reasons
1) Second reference to chewing tobacco among the recent chart (Skoal Ring), that and the ny times qouting Bobby Bare about it...which needs to be forgiven, because of documentary details (not that there is anything that needs to be forgiven here)
2) The theme of the song is really about how cowboy music is different from country, or to put it a different way, how what is played ar rodeos is not the same as what is on the radio--the question of purity, or what is really country (ie the western swing here and what Brooks calls here: "the western underground") is often argued b/w the americana crowd and the radio crowd--and i mean Brooks can be nothing but a radio populist, but here he does hint at that difference, and I dont think it has been talked about before...
3) He has for a long time had a really heavy hand for extended metaphor--this time, its a few words, and subtle ones at that--but defiens the western ethos as one not of independence or bullying, but of tenacity "whe she starts to twist, hold on tight"
4) he says good ride cowboy--and reading Jane Dark;s blog, she points out that this sentiment needs to be uncoded by people who have spent time at rodeos:" though the loveliest part of this song is how the titular compliment stores its rodeo admiration not in the praise (you gotta say "good ride" to everybody, after all) but in the honorific. Not everyone gets to be a cowboy"
5) II'm glad that he is back.
Big Blue Note--Toby Keith
I realised what I dont like about it--i dont belive him. I dont believe that Toby Keith would let himself have his heart brokenb, and if he did, i am not sure that his response would be a shrinks office and a rosach test. It doesnt go with his personae. He also doesnt do cute well.
Best I Ever Had-Gary Allen
He undersings a bit, and it might grow on me, but he does seem to be the kind of person who weeps openly into his beer and begs for someone to take him home come closing time.
Billy's got his Beer Goggles On--Neil McCoy
Anthoer contuiuion of the theme of disordered drinking, which seems to be the theme of the week, talks about ten beers, eand drinking ot get over a realtionship, would work better with another singer, maccoy always struck as more conserative then his material.
She Left Herself Go--George Strait.
I like this one, because a divorice does not result in sadness, or anhillation of self, or anything else, but freedom and liberty--she let herself go not apart, but away, on a first date, as a single mother, the idea that marriage is not the core goal for some people, and the joy of being alone.
Like We never Loved at All Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
i think they are trying for a tammy/george thing but its weird--i find her voice grating, too high and too overpowering, and tim mcgraw has more passion with nelly then he does w. his wife.
Boondocks--Big Small Town
Havent gotten it.
USA Today--Alan Jackson
one of his weaker tracks.
Better Life--Keith Urban
I dont get Urban, i think hes boring, and doesnt have a fantastic voice, and everything out his mouth that isnt a cliche is absurd. This one has the old lover lost, summer fling dead in the fall vibe with out self aware irony, nosatligc sentiment or any real emotion...
Red Neck Yacht Club
Going higher and higher, still seems a half assed rip off from old Alan Jackson
Somebody's Hero--Jamie O'Neal
Mawkish. Politically Suspect. About the Glory of motherhead. Of course, it moves me deep inside, sometimes to tears.
Something to Be Proud of--Montgomrery Church.
The reason why Chuck Eddy thinks these motherfuckers are fascist is that almost every single they release has the triple pillars of kinder, kirche, kuche--often attacked, and often combined with flagwaving and other patrotism. This is really not much different. (There is a strange verse about trading his GTO for a foriegn cars, and being stuck in a deadend town "north of LA) In fact I think this is the only track I have heard of them that suggests that ambiguity and shame may be some of the results of the American Dream--its an (unintended?) implied subtext that is submerged in talk of flags flying and new born babys crying, but it isnt a hack job like Bumper of my SUV.
Brass Bed--Josh Gracin
I love this song, on the short list of my nashville list. the subtle, sad, steel guitars, the platinve voice, a man being weak, (there is no use in hiding how I feel right now...Girl you are wearing me out) seeking help, his subtly accented voice, its erotic of course--but also despearte in his desires. It also mentions how wonderful it is to cuddle in the middle of winter, and that of course, one would fall apart if the fortress was breached.
Proably Wouldnt Be This Way--Lee Anne Rhimes
Great words, great production, but i still think (no matter how old she seems) the song needs to be sung be someone in her mid50s, the theme of lost youth sort of escapes w/o power when the singer is in the middle of her golden years.
Who'd ya be Today--Kenny Chesney
Hurtin' songs seem to dominate, and this one should bother me as much as Urban--but I believe Chesney, and the line: "I wear my sadness like a heavy coat" I think hes acting here, the song is too early for RZ and it has a pallor of death about it in places, plus his work isnt really autobiographical, he is v. controlling with his personal life--but i do find myself moved by this, but Chesney usually does pull the strings nessc. for that.
Skin(Sarabeth)--Rascall Flatts
Cant seem to find it.
Proably Wouldnt Be--Leanne Rhimes
Wonderfully written, with flannery o connor details, and a strong production, its a song about death, loss, and youth--and i still think she is too golden, vibrant and alive to sing it well, Tanya Tucker was about the same time when she sang Lay With Me in A field of Stone, a song with similar content, but Tucker has always been much darker then Rhimes is cabable of.
You're Like Coming Home
A cliched mess, with derritave sound, not really worth much.
Come a Little Closer--Deirks Bentley
Its louder then it should be, shinier. It is similar to the themes of Gracin, but Bentley is incapable of giving up himself, and believes that making love is the same as solving problems, that fucking fixes everything wrong in a realtionship--or at least the songwriter does, but this is deeply problematic (plus the line come a little closer, i feel like laying you down(letting go) places himself first--its a deeply selfish song, (and lets face it, too fucking cheesy to be beleived)
HickTown--Jason Aldean
The best thing about this isnt how hard it rocks (but it does), or how raw Aldeans voice is (but it is) or how much fun everyone is having (and its the most entertaining single of the year) or how ramped up the production is (thats Big and Richs doing) but how authentic the cultural singnifers seem to be (a small list: White Rain, Pall Malls, Bingo, Mudding, Buying Beer at Amaco)
Tequilla Makes Her Clothes Come off_Joe Nichols
Its the best ode to date rape, ever! (Thats not fair) The details are great, the song pivots on a dirty chorus, you never sure wether Nichols is excited or overly protective, but it almost doesnt matter. The only thing that really bothers me is the rampant product placement.
Good Ride Cowboy--Garth Brooks
Memorial Tribute to Chris LeDoux and really interesting for a few reasons
1) Second reference to chewing tobacco among the recent chart (Skoal Ring), that and the ny times qouting Bobby Bare about it...which needs to be forgiven, because of documentary details (not that there is anything that needs to be forgiven here)
2) The theme of the song is really about how cowboy music is different from country, or to put it a different way, how what is played ar rodeos is not the same as what is on the radio--the question of purity, or what is really country (ie the western swing here and what Brooks calls here: "the western underground") is often argued b/w the americana crowd and the radio crowd--and i mean Brooks can be nothing but a radio populist, but here he does hint at that difference, and I dont think it has been talked about before...
3) He has for a long time had a really heavy hand for extended metaphor--this time, its a few words, and subtle ones at that--but defiens the western ethos as one not of independence or bullying, but of tenacity "whe she starts to twist, hold on tight"
4) he says good ride cowboy--and reading Jane Dark;s blog, she points out that this sentiment needs to be uncoded by people who have spent time at rodeos:" though the loveliest part of this song is how the titular compliment stores its rodeo admiration not in the praise (you gotta say "good ride" to everybody, after all) but in the honorific. Not everyone gets to be a cowboy"
5) II'm glad that he is back.
Big Blue Note--Toby Keith
I realised what I dont like about it--i dont belive him. I dont believe that Toby Keith would let himself have his heart brokenb, and if he did, i am not sure that his response would be a shrinks office and a rosach test. It doesnt go with his personae. He also doesnt do cute well.
Best I Ever Had-Gary Allen
He undersings a bit, and it might grow on me, but he does seem to be the kind of person who weeps openly into his beer and begs for someone to take him home come closing time.
Billy's got his Beer Goggles On--Neil McCoy
Anthoer contuiuion of the theme of disordered drinking, which seems to be the theme of the week, talks about ten beers, eand drinking ot get over a realtionship, would work better with another singer, maccoy always struck as more conserative then his material.
She Left Herself Go--George Strait.
I like this one, because a divorice does not result in sadness, or anhillation of self, or anything else, but freedom and liberty--she let herself go not apart, but away, on a first date, as a single mother, the idea that marriage is not the core goal for some people, and the joy of being alone.
Like We never Loved at All Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
i think they are trying for a tammy/george thing but its weird--i find her voice grating, too high and too overpowering, and tim mcgraw has more passion with nelly then he does w. his wife.
Boondocks--Big Small Town
Havent gotten it.
USA Today--Alan Jackson
one of his weaker tracks.
Monday, October 24, 2005
pieces of random shit
act exams, did the first practice--69 on english and 70 on reading, which is about 10 too low. 32 on science, which is abou 50 too low. 15 on math, with is about 65 too low. lots of the math is geometry, which i fucking suck at.
revising and reodering the show for harcourt, deadline of nov. but i dont remember when (26th comes to mind), so i need to get stuff from people, blair, ashley, etc.
trying to decide which foto i want to send to VAA for one of their auction, and if its worth it askign for half, or if i just want to say fuck it, and let them all keep it.
pat saw zadie smith yesterday, and didnt stalk her for me (talented, modest, sexy, smart and a brilliant writer, lifes not fair)
raghubir singh is a v. exciting, massivly cool photg, who died 5 years ago at the age of 45--imagine him as the william eggleston of india, except that you can do geographic isolation as ennui a lot easier in missouri then you can do in mumbai--i have only seen maybe a dozen so far, but i want to get 3 of his 14 books realyl quickly (namely two apt. volumes--bombay and the grand trunk railroad+the retrospective river of colour put out by phiadion) (other interesting thing, he died at a little over 50, in nyc)
here is a large gallery of his work from the national musuem of fotos, film, etc--since its an english musuem, alot of it is of anglo-indians, and therefore are really moving in their examanation of coloinal ebb and flow...
my favourites from that exhibit are this one of a sikh bride in brighton
and this one of a young salmon rushdie...
speaking of fotogs
this dude has several sets of first person fotos that will blow you out of the water, w. their scale and strangeness (like How to Kill a Whale, or Fishermen in the Bering Strait)--you see hes a norwegian fisherman, there is something ancient and mad about them. (it helps that most of them are first person--that he is a fisherman from norway...)
ryan jacob smith is a bit of an indie fuck, but his use of antomical drawings and bird illustration tickles an inch
some other stuff, i will push thru qwickly cause blogger fucked half an hour of work on this.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20051019/a_miersinside19.art.htm
bush really didnt consult with anyone wrt The Lonely Spinster
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10454
article about the central left, humanitarian intervention and the war in iraq...v. much worth reading.
http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2005_10_01_wedge_archive.html#112920392143364637
this is sinkah on subversion, a pain in the ass to read, but solidifies and extends my thinking of politics and public (hi/lo) art--the usually brilliance...
act exams, did the first practice--69 on english and 70 on reading, which is about 10 too low. 32 on science, which is abou 50 too low. 15 on math, with is about 65 too low. lots of the math is geometry, which i fucking suck at.
revising and reodering the show for harcourt, deadline of nov. but i dont remember when (26th comes to mind), so i need to get stuff from people, blair, ashley, etc.
trying to decide which foto i want to send to VAA for one of their auction, and if its worth it askign for half, or if i just want to say fuck it, and let them all keep it.
pat saw zadie smith yesterday, and didnt stalk her for me (talented, modest, sexy, smart and a brilliant writer, lifes not fair)
raghubir singh is a v. exciting, massivly cool photg, who died 5 years ago at the age of 45--imagine him as the william eggleston of india, except that you can do geographic isolation as ennui a lot easier in missouri then you can do in mumbai--i have only seen maybe a dozen so far, but i want to get 3 of his 14 books realyl quickly (namely two apt. volumes--bombay and the grand trunk railroad+the retrospective river of colour put out by phiadion) (other interesting thing, he died at a little over 50, in nyc)
here is a large gallery of his work from the national musuem of fotos, film, etc--since its an english musuem, alot of it is of anglo-indians, and therefore are really moving in their examanation of coloinal ebb and flow...
my favourites from that exhibit are this one of a sikh bride in brighton
and this one of a young salmon rushdie...
speaking of fotogs
this dude has several sets of first person fotos that will blow you out of the water, w. their scale and strangeness (like How to Kill a Whale, or Fishermen in the Bering Strait)--you see hes a norwegian fisherman, there is something ancient and mad about them. (it helps that most of them are first person--that he is a fisherman from norway...)
ryan jacob smith is a bit of an indie fuck, but his use of antomical drawings and bird illustration tickles an inch
some other stuff, i will push thru qwickly cause blogger fucked half an hour of work on this.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20051019/a_miersinside19.art.htm
bush really didnt consult with anyone wrt The Lonely Spinster
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10454
article about the central left, humanitarian intervention and the war in iraq...v. much worth reading.
http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2005_10_01_wedge_archive.html#112920392143364637
this is sinkah on subversion, a pain in the ass to read, but solidifies and extends my thinking of politics and public (hi/lo) art--the usually brilliance...
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Friday, October 21, 2005
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