filthy lucre

Hasta la Victoria Siempre!

2008-10-30T11:22:00.000-07:00

Live At Carnegie Hall
Buena Vista Social Club
Nonesuch Records

It’s one of those albums that everyone absolutely must listen to, right alongside Pink Floyd’s The Wall and The Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks, a quintessential rite of passage for all music lovers. Originally a social club instituted in the 1940’s in Havana, Buena Vista Social Club revisits the warmth of Cuban rhythm in a way that’s both fresh and nostalgic. Songs dating from the 1920’s from the heart of Cuba were revived by Ry Cooder, who got these guys out of retirement to perform together at Carnegie Hall. What we get in the end is almost two dozen talented musicians performing exotic tunes from pre-Revolutionary times, like some sort of time capsule. Ibrahim Ferrer, legendary artist fronts the 22-member arrangement, giving the entire set a gorgeous, historical, organic texture while he sings about the innocence of pre-communist Cuba.

Oasis will Shake Your Ragdoll, Baby

2008-10-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

Dig Out Your Soul
Oasis
Reprise Records

After a three-year hiatus, Oasis has released their seventh studio album, Dig Out Your Soul, which is arguably their best work in the last decade. While the Manchester quintet has grown up a bit, their boyish wit and juvenile charms still ring strong. The album opens with “Bag it Up,” a catchy alternative anthem that carries through while Liam sings about the “heebie jeebies.” The album takes a more melodic detour in later tracks such as “The Shock of the Lightning” and the ultra-aggressive, self-deprecating tune “Ain’t Got Nothing.” So far it seems that the break has proved to be a good choice for the band, who suffered from a major decline in popularity during the early 2000’s when Britpop wasn’t favored too strongly. Fronted by two egomaniacal Gallagher brothers, Dig Out Your Soul shows some kind of soulful growth that fans like to see, even when a band’s charm was previously defined by being an asshole.

2008-10-29T18:55:00.001-07:00

Environment is doomed, sustainability experts say
By Miné Salkin

Guest speaker Stephen Lewis told students that “this planet is doomed” at a conference advocating Students for Sustainability this afternoon at the University of British Columbia.

The Nobel-Prize winning diplomat, politician, and broadcaster said that all international and other government actions towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions, such as the 1992 World Summit Conference were ways of “getting away with the appearance of movement” in regards to the environmental crisis.

Lewis capitalized on the ineffectuality of the current Conservative government in Canada, and the capitalist framework that developed nations strive to adhere to while ignoring the tell-tale apocalyptic signs of a world in peril. He said the Harper government is one whose “agenda for the future abandoned the environment,” and that it focuses attention on propping up oil and gas companies who further the environmental decline by protecting corporate interests.

Created by the Sierra Youth Coalition and the David Suzuki Foundation, The Students for Sustainability Tour began last month to educate post-secondary students across the country on how to decrease their carbon footprint. Their message is a tough one: some of the environmental damage that has already been done is irreversible.

Quoting from George Monbiot’s book Heat, Lewis said that something must be done for the environment, otherwise we are doomed to an apocalyptic reality of irrevocable environmental and social damage that will happen within the next 40 years. “We have already seen 150,000 excess deaths due to climate change alone,” he said.

Two sides of the same coin

Motivational speaker Severin Suzuki said that the current global economic crisis is indicative of an old-world capitalist mentality that reflects its own failings, and that the reality of climate change is an impetus for both environmental and economic action.

“This crisis is an opportunity to understand how our economic system of deregulation and globalization is unsustainable. This economic system has evolved in a way that has resulted in the exploitation and destruction of the environment,” she said.

Suzuki says that we must think of new ways to create an environmentally-friendly economic system that favors the sustainability niche in the 21st century. “The environmental momentum should not be broken by an economic crisis,” she said.

Cow problem

Unsustainable industries are a large culprit in both the economic crisis and the intensification of climate change, triathlete and author of The Thrive Diet Brendan Brazier explained.

Brazier points to statistics that indicate that the cattle industry is highly unsustainable. While it takes anywhere from 2,000 to 8,000 gallons of water to produce 1 lb of beef, other protein-rich plants such as hemp only require 100 gallons to produce 1 lb of hemp seed, and are resistant to disease and don’t require pesticides.

The UN published a report in 2006 claiming that livestock animals contribute 38% more greenhouse gasses than all of our transportation combined, and are dooming us all in the environmental and economic sense.

According to Brazier, 70% of the food grown around the world is for animal feed, and it requires 9-16 lbs of grain to get 1 lb of beef. “We are creating more CO2 than we drive,” Brazier said.

Lewis ended the conference with a fearful, motivational tone. “If we don’t move with supernatural rapidity, I think there’s going to be some kind of cataclysm between 2030 and 2050,” he said.

bad religion creates harmonious anarchy

2008-09-27T00:16:00.000-07:00

Bad Religion
September 14 2008
Commodore Ballroom

It’s hard to imagine a 15 year-old frontman Greg Graffin and his school friends deciding to form Bad Religion, the most epic, accomplished and inspiring punk rock bands. How could one envision such libertarian punk fantasies, or such immaculate hardcore harmony at such a tender and suggestible age?

The night kicked off with two nondescript screamo bands that sucked so badly that no more mention shall be made of them. It was a Sunday night, and the angry punks in the crowd kept chugging back more beer, checking the time, and impatiently pushing up closer to the front, waiting for the show to start. There was a definite sense of growing frustration; the Commodore’s decision to downsize drinks from bottles to plastic cups coupled with the fact that it was they worst night of the week in which to hammered was on everyone’s mind. Finally the legendary sextet walked onto the stage, and the body of the crowd converged to a dense square-shaped mass of excitement.

They started the show with a highly energized performance of “21st Century Digital Boy” originally recorded for their fifth album Against the Grain (1990). It’s likely one of the best songs to start out with, not just because it’s infectious and catchy, but we can all relate to Graffin’ lament that “I don’t know how to live/ But I got a lot of toys.” It also brings to mind all of our mothers strung out on valium, an sad image that is surprisingly “effectual.” Selecting from a wide range of singles, and some not-so-common tracks like “Anesthesia,” BR gave a fantastic set list that sampled from the whole 28-year span of their discography.

Three of the six band members on stage were the original founding members, and they were easily spotted. Graffin delivered a vibrant, defiant performance: his iconic finger-pointing and unrelenting stare gave him an edge to his philosophical rants. Arguing for a rejection of consumerist culture and social conformity, usually guys this age come across as being pedantic or just full of it. Even those more sensitive of loud, distorted music should venture into the lyrical world of BR. Songwriter Graffin holds a Ph.D., and his understanding of politics, injustice, and individual suffering is delivered with poetic integrity, and reinvents the idea of social responsibility through critical thinking and non-conformity.

Bass guitarist Jay Bentley seemed to have the most fun on our Vancouver stage. He jumped around and sweated the most profusely, smiling demonically like some intense, disturbing fat kid eyeing your DQ Parfait on the bus. Speaking of which, lead guitarist Brian Baker looked terribly overheated, unfit, and generally sagged instead of rising to the occasion. While performing the quintessential punk song “Come Join Us” off the 1996 album The Gray Race, Baker hogged the one fan the entire time. Come on, Brian.

Overall the show was pretty fantastic. They may be getting older, but better in the same way as a wine slowly ages to perfection. A punk wine.

some freaky ass shit

2008-09-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

Yolk of the Golden Egg
Dandi Wind
Summer Lovers Unlimited

Dandi Wind’s new album Yolk of the Golden Egg is a sonic journey that challenges every spectrum of electronica. Caught somewhere between a surreal utopic musical vision, and something that could only have been spawned from a ritualistic love orgy between Kate Bush, Bjork and Aphex Twin’s Richard D. James, the record shows no weaknesses. It opens with “The Battle of Verdun,” aptly catching the industrial bustle of its Quebec recording locale, and moves through what seems like a futuristic, cacophonic scene of torture. Raw, edgy and highly textured, the sounds take detours through the complexity of the psyche in a way that could be likened to the spiritual despair and disillusionment of Trent Reznor, but with more emphasis on a clear articulation of ugliness. Never failing to surprise, the song “Johatsu” sounds like a cracked-out late 80’s dance exercise tape, while suggesting the theme that would should all “surrender to the machine.” The album climaxes with the final track entitled “Dance of the Paralytic,” whose bass-rich beat is juxtaposed against an ineffable wet thumping noise that brings amniotic fluid to mind. While overtly corporeal, the album points at an introspective notion in quoting Dostoevsky and the parable of the old dreamer rummaging through his dreams in vain. While its message is not always accessible, Yolk of the Golden Egg is a worthwhile musical venture for those who want something a little more violent in spirit.

malkin bowl, salkin scowl

2008-09-24T10:26:00.000-07:00

Stanley Park Singing Exhibition
August 31, 2008
Day One

It was one of those lazy late summer afternoons that you could eat with a spoon. While most music festivals tend to have an anxious, apprehensive tension amongst the crowd, the grounds were covered by hippies, young parents, and even the occasional punk who were all sitting comfortably on the warm grass.

The Evaporators came on sharply, and started to stir up the crowd with their bare chested antics. Clad in white jumpsuits with red and blue stripes, Nardwar the Human Serviette entreated us to a good larf, exposing his wooly chest, screaming lyrics about homelessness, and countless other acts of unconventional behavior. While the set list focused on their last album Gassy Jack & Other Tales, one could argue that what the band lacks in actual musical talent, they make up for in hilariously eccentric body play. Running through the crowd with maracas and a demented grin on his face, or climbing onto the audience to create a human piano stand, The Evaporators impressed us all with their relentless anarchist spirit.

After the thrash, Deerhoof of San Francisco changed the atmosphere with their quirky alt-rock sound delicately coupled with the little-girl voice of singer Satomi Matzuaki. Rocky but sultry, the quartet rocked out with classic songs such as “Twin Killers” and other tunes from The Runners Four. Their aural quirkiness was matched by their physical gestures, as Greg Saunier and John Dietrich plucked and played in what seemed like borderline seizure-type motion.

Destroyer’s performance was weird and cacophonic, but not in the way that most people enjoy that musical experiment. Dan Bejar’s lyrics of love lost and spiritual confusion were cryptic and challenging, but his voice brings to mind a love-sick, drunken hobo. Coupled with the guitarist’s unreasonable use of tremolo, this act left much to be desired.

While the fest had its share of eccentricity, Andrew Bird and Neko Case had an altruistic soothing effect to counteract it. Bird, the singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist from Chicago Illinois was intoxicating as the twilight began to set in. Singing beautiful things about intuition amidst a backdrop of cello strings and pizzicato violin, Bird was one of the best acts of the night.

Following him was Neko Case, who played songs from her upcoming album due out in March 09. While she belts it out with The New Pornographers, Neko’s performance was humbling and sweet, a familiar country feeling where the singer croons softly and laughs at herself between songs. She sang “I wish I was the Moon tonight” in a way that brought to mind a modern day Patsy Cline. Sad but spirited, Neko’s voice was endearing and humble to the core, and her lyrical component was touching as it revealed the wisdom of an old soul caught in the commercialism of the 21st century.

it was about time...

2008-08-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

radiohead
august 19 2008
thunderbird stadium

After about 4 years of worshipping the entire career of my holy grail of favorite bands, I finally caught them live, in the rain, at Thunderbird Stadium. While some 25 000 people may have been disillusioned by the ultimately shitty weather elements of the show, I will argue with anyone who stands in my way and says that it impeded the quality of their performance. On the contrary, the humid and warm summer rain gave Thom Yorke's vocals a wet, throaty texture to his usual characteristic papery delivery. Further, and perhaps I should have mentioned this first, it reinforced the dreary nature of their music, which ultimately suggests an incurable optimism that things will and have the potential to be better. To quote Voltaire, "All is for the best in this best of all possible worlds," and fuck I don't care that I got drenched because the show was bloody cathartic as hell.

The set list was perfect; while heavily weighted by songs from their latest album In Rainbows, the quartet played a range from The Bends, OK Computer, the jazzier Amnesiac and surprisingly even from their contributions to the Baz Lurhman film Romeo and Juliet.

While it may seem trivial, I would be remiss if I didn't comment on the lighting engineering of the set. Brilliant lateral lighting sequences flashed almost mathematically, emphasizing the plurality of sounds from In Rainbows, encompassing the multiple realizability of the universe.

I really can't say anything bad about this show. Who gives a fuck that the rain shat down on us all?

girls, girls, girls!

2008-08-14T19:14:00.000-07:00

Common Reaction
Uh Huh Her
Nettwerk Records

Uh Huh Her’s debut full-length album Common Reaction is a melodic hybrid of powerful electro and indie-inspired sounds. The group consists of the musical talents of Leisha Hayley and multi-instrumentalist Camila Grey, whose female vocal pairings gives the album a sultry, organic texture. While the initial sound of the album seems merely stylish and elite, the songs move through more introspective topics that elevates them from nothing more than club music - songs such as “Explode” explore the dark sides of female sexuality, abandonment, and the pursuit of love in a superficial demographic. In fact, Hailey and Grey use this ironic notion and push it further, motioning towards a kind of glamorized version of Tegan and Sara, but through sad lyrical gestures which are camouflaged by upbeat, catchy electronic anthems. The track “Away From Here” epitomizes this world of pain glossed over by outward beauty, as they sing “What if I could change the world one day at a time/ I’d go back and stay/ Too much is gone/ Shallow in depth/ So I see everything clear.” Inspired by a PJ Harvey B-Side, offended by the notion of a love song, Uh Huh Huh moves beyond the dance scene through a shimmery, aurally pleasing display of the female persuasion.

pemberton 2008: another one bites the dust

2008-08-03T18:26:00.000-07:00

In many ways, this year's Pemberton festival turned all of us concert-goers into experimental subjects for how a festival should be organized. During the past week, I've read several reviews in many of the local papers, but none of which captured the entire sentiment of the three-day gongshow than the headline for the 24hrs magazine which read: "traffic, dust, fun," succinctly describing the order of the weekend's most memorable elements.

After waiting in line for about 14 hours in a hot, inland dustbowl, I finally caught the Metric show on Friday afternoon. Emily Haines was decked out in a shimmery, almost space-age sliver minidress that reminded me of a futuristic Kubrickian vision. Later on that evening I enjoyed Wolfmother's metallic rampage as the band ravaged Zeppelin's hits and left the crowd begging for more distorted violence. Come nightfall, the Mount Currie stage ushered in Nine Inch Nails, the day's headliners, and the shit hit the fan. I was about 40 feet away from the mosh pit but still got tossed about and burned by rogue cigarettes as the show peaked at "Closer."

On Saturday morning we had a lovely omelette breakfast at the campsite and went back to see Black Mountain, The Tragically Hip and of course, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. During the show, Gordon Downie during entreated the crowd to his iconic shifty-eyed, but strangely friendly smiles while pretending to be an ape who didn't comprehend the electronic capacities of his own microphone. Tom Petty at twilight was smooth and enchanting as the crowd metamorphosed into middle-aged rock veterans who didn't have the heart to block your view of the stage. The Flaming Lips showed up with these big fucking balloon things full of confetti that complimented the band's eccentric lyrical component. To add to the confusion, they had a chorus of Teletubbies on the left side dancing and singing, a bizarre combination of weird music and even more strange scenery to make a fantastic show. The verdict? Black Mountain offered far more energy live and attracted an exodus of smelly but chill hippies and modern bohemians. Man I just love that stuff way too much.

The downside of this all is that I had to leave and miss the entire last day due to complications and major pooning out by some of my companions. I don't have anything else left to say except that getting to and from the show was a fucking nightmare, but the music was fabulous and a remedy for it all. If Pemberton hopes to be an annual event it better shape up its over-idealistic view of checking 10,000 people's personal bags to see if they snuck in booze after they've been waiting around for hours. You just can't treat people like that.

2008-06-26T18:06:00.000-07:00

The Notwist
The Devil, You + Me
Domino Records

Despite their woodland Bavarian roots, The Notwist’s new album The Devil, You + Me encompasses a huge range of warm euphoric tones not unlike a soft plume of opium smoke. The debut track entitled “Good Lies” discusses the good life, one full of sweet lies, in a style that bridges the gap between the sounds of Death Cab and Interpol, but with less hesitation and insecurity. Smooth and delicately crafted, the album weaves together soulful string arrangements throughout the work, showing a progressive movement from their original sonic metal experimentations from the late 1980’s. As the album moves along, electronic rhythms and loops are explored, adding tremendous musical textures and varieties ranging from rhythmically-charged to familiar and melancholic. The track “Where in This World” brings Thom Yorke’s haunting voice to mind as Markus Archer’s strained crooning voice gives an eerie touch to these more introspective songs. The lyrical themes of the album are equally profound in complexity and density, as notions of spiritual restlessness, the decay of the material world and other compelling existential questions are challenged. The Notwist’s droning themes and dark lyrical content suggest that they’re plagued by a Prufrockian 21st century paralysis, but the polarity of their sound gives the optimistic edge that they’re striving for purposive movement which gets countered again in never ending continuance. On the whole, The Devil, You + Me is a microcosm of unending spiritual disparity that renews itself yet again for the next divergent sound.

the dandy warhols at richard's on richards

2008-06-23T09:10:00.001-07:00

the dandy warhols
richard's on richards
june 18.08

Yes! Everytime the Dandy Warhols come to the city there's a definitive buzz of excitment amongst the local hedonists and Vancouver hipster bohemians. Announced less than two weeks before the show, The Dandys decided to play four additional shows as a prelude to their world tour which begins in less than a month from now. Come September they're releasing their seventh studio album Earth to the Dandy Warhols, which every rock-alternative music fan desperately needs to acquire.

Prior to the show, there was a bit of disappointment as the venue was changed last minute from the opulent setting of the Vogue theatre to Richard's on Richards, however this proved to be a massive improvement in the end considering the intimacy that was produced by the bar's compact space. Four rows away from Courtney Taylor-Taylor's feet could feel the hot sweat and breath of the Oregon quartet as they ripped the stage with new unreleased songs. The show started up with an energetically charged performance of "Wasp in the Lotus," a new Dandy's classic with their trademark bubble-gummy completely enveloping guitar-heavy chorus. Amongst a set list of new songs, the band also rocked out to their older tunes, such as "You Were the Last High," "Country Leaver" and of course, "Bohemian Like You."

Aside from their infectiously energetic musical performances, the attitude of the quartet is a cornerstone of their image as mid-90's veteran alt-rockers who are still going strong. Courtney's pouty lips and sultry swagger give the frontman an heroin-chic edge and a hard-to get attitude that leaves everyone wanting more. Lead guitarist Peter Holmstrom always starts out looking dark, sharp and shifty and ends up with mascara sweat all over his eyes.

The bottom line: The Dandy Warhols are fucking cool. They always leave us wanting more and they know it.

2008-06-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

Kurt Cobain Journals

[Riverhead Books, 2002]

Don’t read my diary when I’m gone.

OK, I’m going to work now, when you wake up this morning, please read my diary. Look through my things, and figure me out.

Perhaps it is a bit unusual to be seeing a reactionary review of Kurt Cobain’s Journals these days, but the lingering pain and sadness of Nirvana’s front man resonates strongly yet. Written in the author’s childish, chicken-scratch hand, Cobain’s honesty shines through as he narrates the course of the band’s history, their rise to fame, discussions of love and sex, and other deeply personal avenues of introspection. Spiritual and sprawling, Journals is an intimate posthumous look into the complicated balance between rock and roll, the personal alienation of fame, and the dark world of drug addiction.

The everlasting image of Cobain is that of a man tortured by the conflicted personalities he had to endure: the depressed, social outcast and the epitome of the new rock star, the dawning of the age of the grunge.

Aside from reading his first-hand accounts of living the life of a terminally-depressed heroin addict, Journals show Kurt’s struggle between the massive dichotomies he sets up in his own mind. Caught between right and wrong, fleeting happiness and self-induced torture, the rock star and the junkie, Cobain struggles to identify himself through these polar opposites. This theme is even prefaced on the first page of the diary as he writes:

"Don’t read my diary when I’m gone.

OK, I’m going to work now, when you wake up this morning, please read my diary. Look through my things, and figure me out."

Terrible, but poignant. It’s conceivable that most musicians become somewhat troubled by the cost of fame, but Kurt’s radical split makes the whole of Journals so incredibly fascinating as it samples from the multiply realizable extremes of his psychological states. Cobain’s need to be validated in some other way which seems unintelligible even to himself is something worthy of an Aronofsky film; beguilingly contradictory and amazing too.

Dancing between ideals of nihilism and an utopic Buddhist vision of the world, Kurt writes openly about other more personal matters in a way that simultaneously repulses and attracts. In one particularly gruesome entry he writes about a girl whom in junior high attempts to have intercourse with him. When he asks if she’s done it before she replies “many times, mainly with my cousin” which causes a frightened yet sexually curious adolescent boy to develop an unusual obsession with the female reproductive system and images of fetuses. Upon returning to school, he classmates call him the “retard f*cker,” and Cobain’s persona of the social reject is quickly adopted. It’s not hard to imagine how the lower-middle class Aberdeen youth who grew up in such a rural logging community could have become the beacon of tormented youth of America’s early 90’s era. This honesty pervades the entirety of Journals; Cobain’s poetic sensitivity is but a glimmer of optimism amongst a backdrop of the corporate American music industry, backed up with scribbles of recipes for fried chicken and french toast.

Cobain’s Journals, in view of his music creates the overall impression of a neglected, insecure musician becoming increasingly uneasy with his fame. The tattered journal entries parallel the conflict and confusion voiced in his music, a scrawny yet soulful individual who somehow represented the impotence of his own generation through the strained throaty textures of his punk-metal rock hybrid.

one's not enough

2008-05-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

One’s Not Enough
Femme Fatality
Stickfigure Recordings

Without explicitly promoting a drug lifestyle, One’s Not Enough is indeed enough to make anyone want to begin leading an alternative, counter-culture mode de vie. The album opens powerfully with “Lucky Lover,” a modern-day disco anthem that sounds like a toss-up between NIN and Daft Punk. While heavily influenced by electro-pop sounds, Femme Fatale is fully endowed with other musical textures and flavors. The track “Come On, Come Out” has a late 80’s new wave sound coupled with a lyrical base not unlike Strummer’s protesting voice in The Clash.

Another impressive feature of this group is their incomparable energy which is diffused through the entire album in catchy, upbeat and tweaked-out electronic rhythms. The title track explodes with hyped-up musical fervor that would intimidate the faint of heart.

The album takes a darker turn near the end of the album; the song “Don’t Kill for Me” contemplates murder, death, and the unmistakeable moment where a life fades away. The final track talks about the pain of fame and the price of notoriety in a way that is honest and lyrically insightful.

2008-05-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

Eye Contact
E.S.L

E.S.L’s debut album Eye Contact is a fantastical, muscial-theatrical type hybrid that seems to bridge together the innocence of black and white films with modern day anxieties.

The album opens with a rhythmically-driven track which is backed up by earthy cellos chanting in a catchy gusto melody. Following this sound, the album takes a more soulful, heartfelt turn at “Side by Side” where singer Marta Jacubek-McKeever’s vocal ache resonates alongside the melancholic violin arrangement. However, this album possesses more than just a simple juxtaposition between innocence and heartache, as it ventures into musical dramas and swing melodies. Duffy Driediger of Ladyhawk samples his lyrical talent in “Like a Hurricane,” giving the album a sweet touch of masculinity amongst a plethora of lush strings. Marta indulges her Polish ancestry with “Czarne Oczy,” creating a campy, foreign-like sound that makes you want to dance around a campfire and howl at the moon. Still not random enough? The quartet completes the album with all-girl cover of Beastie Boy’s classic song “Girls.” This fact alone should inspire immediate respect for the Vancouver group.

Retrospectively, Eye Contact seems like the kind of albumv that would have existed if transcendental musicians Bjork and Elsiane combined with the 90’s swing band the Squirrel Nut Zippers would have sounded like, but in a black and white film from the 30’s.

la réjection culturelle

2008-04-25T15:36:00.000-07:00

Culture Reject
Culture Reject
White Whale Records

Twangy and eclectic, Culture Reject is but a antidote for Belle and Sebastian fans, and others who are looking something less mainstream than Broken Social Scene. Singer and multi-instrumentalist Michael O’Connell samples from his well versed musical training, using pretty much any instrument that can create noise, adding to his knowledge of african beats which he acquired from his own personal travels. Lyrics such as “I wanna go home/ and get myself stoned” instill that honest, bohemian attitude that a lot of Canadian music these days seems to be lacking. His whispery thin vocal delivery is particularly noticeable in tracks such as “Museums” and “Oh Remain,” giving it a soft jazzy feel at times. This album as a whole is appropriate at all times and for all occasions: it encompasses pretty much the scope from jazz to random rhythmical melodies, and O’Connell’s lyrics are evocative and humble. In the track “Overflow,” he croons softly about a cruel, spontaneous woman, bewailing his unrequited love in a way that gets into your heart - a melodic and soulful musical base with that biting taste of rejection. On the whole, Culture Reject is an album designed with the sensitive of heart in mind living in a cruel, cruel world.

final art project

2008-04-15T18:26:00.000-07:00

By graphically manipulating an existing set of images, it is possible to achieve a new meaning or significance to the image itself, once confronted by an oblique or surprising relation to another object.

This concept was the impetus for my own exploration of space and socialization, and the idea that the landscape which we have created is no longer our own, but rather an entity which shapes human beings and our motivations.

The specific inquiry of my project delves into questions of urbanization and its relation to nationhood - the use of urban decay as the dominant imagery emphasizes the decadence of consumerism and the lack of moral conscience in such issues. Each image is a flag, consisting in a collage of various images of iconoclastic culture heroes, counter-culture vagabonds, and synthetic consumer products.

The first image deals with this concept, but in a mocking, ridiculous way. The black and white figures of Laurel and Hardy and the iconographic Big Bird are contrasted against an aged brick building. Perhaps this is the way one should view the contents or materials of nationhood.

The second image is composed almost entirely of primary and complementary colors. The simplicity of the human figure on the left contrasted with the byzantine map of London on the right illustrates the artificiality of urban life and its lack of connect with nature and human nature.

The third image is a mock-advertisement for recycling, with a strong red wavelength throughout, giving it an oxidized aesthetic which makes it more earthy. Rather than viewing a path carved out in a forest, it is a path cut through a massive heap of oily, rubber tires. It accompanies the fourth image, which takes this idea to an absurd extreme. Both are intended to elucidate the need for moralistic, rather than capitalist or utilitarian needs for our landscape.

The fifth composition denotes the pitfalls of urbanization in terms of the lack of connect, or communication with the landscape. Jaws break off from atrophy while sheep are being genetically cloned, and the Mississippi is equally industrial.
The sixth and final image relates notions of nationhood and how this dwindling, unsafe manufactured landscape is becoming unlivable.

“The City in Man” - an idea that anything, even a map, can be an advertisement. Indeed, so many of the landscapes we view as mundane are in actuality manufactured, human constructs with utilitarian and capitalistic features.

there will be blood

2008-04-06T18:19:00.001-07:00

Paul Thomas Anderson's newest film is a gritty tale of jealousy, greed and revenge, set at the turn of the twentieth century when the American oil industry was just beginning.

Daniel Day-Lewis plays Daniel Plainview, a self-made man who starts his own drilling company and eventually attains God-like status in the infancy of American capitalism. Plainview is a loosely based adaptation of oil tycoon Edward Doheny, and this oil man is extremely reminiscent of Count Dracula. Anderson creates a character with his heart set on a misanthropic vision - to escape the falsity of other human beings who only exist to stand in his way.

Indeed, Day-Lewis' character has an Iago-like moral imperative and only seeks to gratify his selfish designs, abandoning his adopted son in pursuit of wealth. It recalls to mind the kind of men who make up the world; only with more blood and oil saturating this industrial, harsh aesthetic.

Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine) plays Eli Sunday, an evangelist priest whose family's land is sold in order to facilitate more oil drilling and greedy profits. Dano represents the naive, predictable idealism of the most flamboyant sect of Christianity which ultimately fails in its pursuit to offer salvation to the ravenous souls lost in the oily abyss of the drilling plains. It's a classic tale of gluttony and human vice versus the powers of the good; and predictably enough, the thirst for oil conquers all.

Some other of Anderson's films include Magnolia (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002) and Boogie Nights (1997), and share the same compelling insights on the darker sides of human nature.

some other artistic samples

2008-04-02T11:26:00.001-07:00

so for the final visual arts project i've decided to do mine on how geography is a human invention - a kind of urban decay thing... my only concern is that what i'll come up with is obviously moralistic or didactic, which isn't what i'm going for. instead, i just want to take the piss out of human beings in a lightly comedic, borderline commercial way.

that's a painting of rotting bodies and an aerial topographic map of minneapolis. i think the colors are sick!

this is a collage-type pastiche of a bunch of images i found on the web. i like how it's completely synthetic but composed of purely organic textures and colors. sweet.

visa 110 project

2008-03-25T11:29:00.000-07:00

i'm taking this extremely remedial art class in the hopes of learning the specialized craft of graphic computing and digital manipulation. at the same time, i'm taking the piss out of the course, seriously. here's my digital mockery triptych with equally pretentious artistic statement.

In many ways I wanted to emulate a pseudo-Dadaist, Pop Art piece in order to illustrate the irony of how the most mundane, common objects can simultaneously invoke repulsion and reverence. Indeed, the fleshy background of the first image was manipulated to increase the contrast of the red to green ratio, giving the impression of over-ripeness. Further, the tree impression made with the fat reserves in the meat is designed to illustrate how the grotesquely overfed have become a natural variety of their own.

The second image is designed to show the meat in another way - overmedicated and wistful. The pills diffuse lightly over the fatty flesh to create dream-like clouds to represent the psychoanalytic connotations of chemical medications. The third and final image in the set takes this idea to its most absurd end: a bubble-gum poppy image of multicolored pill bottles designed to cure every visceral and emotional ailment. The cyan appearance of the meat signifies the over-ripeness and necrotic effects of this kind of self-medication - the privilege of the North American tradition. Lastly, the number of pills reinforces the message of mass production and the mechanization of these products which have now become absorbed by the bodies of the consumers.

best musical religious-satire of 2008... so far

2008-03-24T21:03:00.000-07:00

Plunder, Beg and Curse
Colour Revolt
Fat Possum Records

Plunder, Beg and Curse is fantastic. Based out of Mississippi, the quintet's new album rocks out softly and sadly with a satirical, seven deadly sins theme, complete with messy, blemished illustrations on the jacket cover.

The opening track sounds eerily like early Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but then gets way more hypnotic. Singer Jimmy Cajoleas croons “I’m still swinging from the liquor tree” imitating God’s image, the fall of man, and the garden of Eden which is later described as “a hell of a place.”

The album peaks at “Ageless Everytime,” a pained song about rejection and unrequited love, not to mention the absurdity of carnal, animal attraction. Utlimately depressing, this track is like an ugly version of Kevin Drew’s prettyboy music, but the gritty aesthetic is completely satisfying on a different level.

Altogether abysmal and dreary, Plunder Beg and Curse is a cycle of sin and redemption that we can’t help but fall into over and over again. The album as a whole seems to feel like 2005 new music sampler, caught somewhere between alternative rock and indie-pop, and with surprisingly insightful lyrical sensitivity. Colour Revolt sounds much like Franz Ferdinand imitating Death Cab, but with a holier-than thou, pretentious, never-ending quality that emphasizes the fall from grace and man’s descent into a world of pain.

a proof of love?

2008-03-24T20:18:00.001-07:00

Proof of Love
Old Man Luedecke
Black Hen Music

A follow-up from the critically acclaimed album Hinterland, Old Man Luedecke’s new album captures the ad lib words and feelings of the tender hearted. Recorded in two days flat, Old Man sums up the spirit of the ages and the search for a proof of love in under three minutes each.

Beautifully simple and stripped down, the album glosses over the beauty of the world, nature, and under it all is the theme of individual self-determination. Lyrics such as “I’ve been to the bottom of fear and self-loathing/but this is my home” show both the problems of introspection and the brimming optimism that things invariably get better. “Send my Troubles Away” is a song that bridges the gap between rural life and death by urban streets, complimented by soft female backup singers who have that delicate sing-song quality that makes you want to stretch out on the grass on a warm summer afternoon. Songs like “Sad as a Forest” and “Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier” have the same poetical integrity as Iron and Wine, but with the banjo twang adds sharp pep to their otherwise mellow sound. It’s definitely the childlike honesty and simplicity that makes Proof of Love the quintessential, ‘cheery’ kind of album you’d need on these rainy Vancouver days.

2008-03-16T15:58:00.000-07:00

SHAFTED (an anti-climatic end)

all i had

was thirty seconds in a darkened doorway

to teach another mind,

another heart,

what i had learned and burned to say.

justice is impossible for those

who drown in darkness

with a heart too full for words.

house of doc/ the pickups

2008-02-21T22:06:00.001-08:00

East of West
House of Doc
Pacific Music

Hailing from Winnipeg, House of Doc’s third album East of West celebrates love, life, and Canadian sensibilities in a light, amusing way.

Upbeat, folksy, and altogether jovial, this album provokes the lighter side of everything mundane and shifts the emphasis to family life, escaping the plight of urban noise and reverting to a frugal, simple sound. This is furthered by the altogether familial relation between the members - the group is made up of Matthew Harder, his wife Rebecca and her brother Dan Wiebe. At the first listen, one cannot help but draw parallels to the score of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” but a version more preoccupied by the Canadian landscape.

Tracks such as “Summerstone” and “Milk and Cookies” are brimming with an optimism that can only be fully backed up by harmonicas and banjos. However, the album as a whole is more profound; in particular, “Simple Times” is a song recorded by one single and immaculate take. Flanked by stripped down, harmonic tunes, East of West has that honest, human quality about it that is only truly appreciated by the humble.

Rebecca Harder croons hypnotically in “Lullaby,” giving it a soulful and melodic contrast to some of their more upbeat, bluegrass tracks. Also, the final track brings the album full circle with a secret song - when was the last time anybody did that?

Country Houses, City Street
The Pickups
Beautifully Misguided Records

Finally! A band so incredibly emo, but not a single pretentious member with that awful, downward bent head gesture and shaggy hair covering one eye. Described as “flaneur-pop,” The Pickups are lovely in a minimalist, micro-pop, fuzzy soft drink sort of way. Touching on ideas like random childhood memories, first loves, and nostalgic neighborhoods, songs such as “Augusta” and “Country Houses” truly capture those fleeting memories that bring up the sentimentality of youthful idealism.

The track “Compromise” immediately brings to mind a casual walk in a park, or a moment of unbridled honesty - the modest sound of Country Houses, City Streets seems to invoke a feeling of unguarded lightheartedness. In particular, “Country Houses” brings the whole introspective sentimentality to the forefront, not unlike a marriage between Belle and Sebastian and Apples in Stereo, discussing notions of lost loves and regret.

The lyrical component to The Pickups adds to their appeal tremendously. Lines such as “There are those hard to love hard to leave/ and the people I love keep on loving me back” spur this overwhelming sympathy and universal understanding that living in a city isn’t easy.

Ultimately, The Pickups illustrate the most common human interactions, but in a modest, poetically minimalist way; it’s their honesty and non-reactionary apathy that will make its way into your heart.

Dadaism (As opposed to Mamaism)

2008-01-24T12:07:00.000-08:00

2008 presents itself as the year of Dadaism, a universal cultural revolution where human beings everywhere have decided that maternal-styled urinals should be placed upside down in order to increase efficiency.

First introduced in Zurich in the 1920’s, these customized reversed urinals have been scientifically proven to decrease splashback, reduce user anxiety, and increase the feelings of artistic merit when faced with the incredibly existential task of purging liquid waste.

Moreover, it has been suggested by biological scientific findings that users feel a tremendous surge of “self worth” after participating in a new method of urination which encourages pretentious, avant-garde, and surrealist artistic possibilities. It is believed by neurologists that these Dadaist receptacles exercise the imagination of human beings, revealing a fantastical, subconscious world of spirituality not typically found in reality, but in a deep dream state.

Inventor, pretentious artist, and senior marketer of the Dadaist toilet, Marcel Duchamp, openly spoke of the benefits of his toilet: “I love myself!” he told the press at the Dadaist New Urinal Conference last Wednesday. When asked about rival Max Ernst’s experimentations in collage media, he muttered that no amount of paste or glue could protect the artworks themselves from the corrosive effects of human urine.

Despite its mostly universal appeal, there are still resisters who disprove of the Dadaist New Urinal, namely the Cubists and Impressionists who insist that urination should remain an “imprecise” or “uncalculated” form of artistic expression. Jackson Pollock advocated at a conference last week that messy drips affirm the instability of the human psyche, and its difficulties of self-validation and affirmations of identity. The Cubists’ main argument is that the new Dadaist Urinal compromises the 90 degree angle necessary between the organ of urination and the receptacle, resulting in an obtuse angle which is wholly dissatisfying on every aesthetic level.

Regardless of these minor complains, the Dadaist urinals will be installed in every public bathroom within the next two weeks. It is rumored that Stalin will be autographing the ones in Russia, posthumously.

mongrels' oshawa: deliberating a metal revival?

2008-01-21T13:07:00.000-08:00

The Mongrels’ debut album Oshawa presents itself to the indie music scene as a beacon of hope for the revival of heavy metal bands who… died out in the late 80’s. But fear not! This album as a whole is a solid effort by singer Amy Dyamite who can rail like a freight train.

Named after a rather industrial and noxious sounding Ontario city, Oshawa brings out a kind of raw humor that only one could overhear while working at a car wrecking lot. However, there’s far more to that, as the sextet borrows from Zeppelin’s mystical epic rock themes in songs such as “Contemplating the Wizard” which bring out that fantastical, metalesque sense of humor.

The album opens with "Bongo," a quasi-cacophonic guitar sludge of a song not unlike Iron Maiden trying to imitate The Darkness. Angry sounding, but actually fiercely hilarious lyrics surface in their songs “City Living” and “All In My Head,” where they break out the gang chorus riffs in innocuous synchrony. Tacky but somehow cool, they manage to include cowbell in the heart of the album, in “Needs Got Needs,” which was a complete surprise.

Coming full circle on this album, The Mongrels actually sound eerily like Heart. It’s a toss up between late 70’s, 80’s metal-rock that occasions electro synthetics, fronted by a hardcore female vocalist and five guys who probably have distastefully large hairstyles.

cool disco, but lyrical no-go

2007-11-18T15:05:00.000-08:00

mood swings
small sins
boompa records

The Small Sins recently released their second album, Mood Swings as a follow-up from their debut eponymous work from 2006. Based out of Toronto, the quintet rocks out with groovy, contemplative electro-typical songs not unlike a marriage between Death Cab and Grandaddy. In fact, several tracks such as "I Need a Friend" and "On the Run" sound something fresh off a Postally-Serviced musical venture into popular synth mash-ups. This whole album seems to capture that trend, blending together the unlikely wishy-washy complaints of unrequited love and catchy, upbeat synth-pop. In fact, Mood Swings seems to unravel the cool veneer of the aloof, dance-mystique, with lyrics such as "I'm thirsty like a diabetic," showing that altogether draining feeling of ineptitude and personal emotional incompetence. At the same time though, the lyrical component is certainly lacking in Mood Swings - peaking at "On a Mission," the tunes deliver that plurality of emotions in being feeling utterly rejected, but the lyrics don't back it up at with the same integrity. On the whole, this album moves in one direction only - a euphonic but mindless expression of the broken hearted. But maybe that's the point; love reduces the rejected into a droning, monotonous verbal plane. Indeed, just like how frontman Thomas D'arcy lethargically relates, "we're all tired all the time."

- Miné

you, you're a history in rust...

2007-11-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

do make say think
monday october 29
commodore ballroom

By hearing their ambient music, this seemingly nonsensical phrase can only be fully illuminated.

Despite shiny discoballs and incessant smoke machines perforating their otherwise introspective sound, Do Make Say Think delivered some of the most beautiful and transcendental sounds over the hollowed out venue.

Maybe it was the haze from the smoke generator, or perhaps it was the atmospheric red lighting that coated the walls and surfaces, but honestly this was the unlikiest spiritual experience in the middle of Vancouver downtown.

Despite their downtown Toronto urban origins, Do Make Say Think can reduce everything down to a gorgeous organic texture that makes you believe that music is a naturally occuring substance. Although their live shows have evolved into more calculated, tight arrangements and sets, Charles Spearin and Ohad Benchetrit entreated us to godlike euphonic improvisation between classic songs such as "The Landlord is Dead," and "Auberge the Mouton Noir." Indeed, with a concept so abstract, this group defies almost all typical musical conventions by seeming natural and uncalculated, but perfect in all the ways of beauty that are too incomprehensible to articulate. (Even their name reduces all of life in four words...)

Well, I dunno. Maybe I'm just a sucker for vintage Gretsch guitars and strings and saxophones, but when you hear them all in perfect relation and proportion to another like that you've got to appreciate the fact that something far more significant is going on.

I didn't take acid before doing this show, but in all honesty it felt like it. I still don't really know what happened that night, but the new album creates synesthetic euphoria. Tracks like "The Universe!" and "Executionary Blues" point to that unusual, yet mundane beauty in the minute details of life that is often overlooked.

2007-10-28T16:17:00.000-07:00

broken social scene
thursday october 25
@ commodore ballroom

Arts&Crafts veterans Broken Social Scene paid a little visit to Vancouver and played some beautiful music that night.

The last time I had seen them was a couple of years ago, and the two experiences to me proved the total dynamic and originality of sound that only the 19-person Toronto-based group can shape.

Kicking off their North American tour that night, the show was testosterone-charged set which only could have been induced by Kevin Drew setting up a competition for who could go the longest without taking a bath. Well, actually that was a direct stab at Justin Peroff, who was sweaty beyond belief and spraying it around by shaking his beard all over the place.
Playing a set list of their most recent album, Justin Peroff, Brenden Canning and James Shaw from Metric blasted their tunes distortedly charged and ultra-masculine sounding. There was also some fun sampling with a 30 second stab at "Love and Mathematics," but Canning didn't remember the bass part for it so they stopped and played "cause = time" in a way that couldn't be larger or louder. Even Andrew Kenny from The American Analog set tagged along and treated everyone with the soft Texas-indie sounds of "Hard to Find."

I felt bad for Kevin, who was hopped up on Sudafed and suffering from copious amounts of phlegm, but he gave it his all and wailed through a rocked-out version of "Lovers' Spit," and gave a supersexy throaty texture to the highest frequencies of "Superconnected." I also particularly enjoyed James’ frantic gyrations; for some reason he’s the only person I’ve ever seen who can make those range of movements look good.

Actually, I'd venture to make the claim that Broken Social Scene can make anything look good, even influenza. But who am I to say?

faust arp!

2007-10-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

Radiohead
In Rainbows

After a near five-year wait, Radiohead released its groundbreaking album to fans - unsigned by EMI, and free to those who can afford it.

This album is addictive, but also incredibly short. Comparing the lengths of their collective discography is petty and inconsiderate though. This album is but another feather in their caps, and the new holy grail for fellow Radiohead junkies.

The album starts with “15 Step,” a catchy anthem backed by electronic drum loops reminiscient of the Amnesiac and Hail to the Thief eras, and follows through with “Bodysnatchers,” a distorted and rhythmically charged track.
After that point the album takes a much more intimate turn, when Thom Yorke’s sedating voice glosses over the slow jazzier likes of “Nude” and “House of Cards,”
and tender glockenspiel noises in “All I Need.”

On the whole, this album is incongruent with the rest of Radiohead’s discography. Unlike OK Computer and their earlier albums, In Rainbows seems to be missing that metamorphic theme that resonates through each album individually. To me that’s even more impressive for a band to come out with such a cool and detached collection of songs after essentially conquering the whole spectrum of rock. Let’s just hope there isn’t another 5 year wait for the next one.

Water Closet Etiquette At The University of British Columbia

2007-10-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

According to the history of water closet technologies, the modern-day toilet has been nearly perfected after almost 250 years of experimentation with valves, flushy tanks and water jets. One could argue that this kind of scientific development is not only an admittedly fine invention, but has also progressed hand-in-hand with equally compelling social revolutions.

This may seem to be an irrelevant comparison, but I’m going to try to bring it all to a point: 150 years ago, toilets (archaic term, water closet) and women’s rights were pretty crappy. Before the reality universal suffrage and the current pleasures of flushing away all excrement in one fell swoop, things were quite abysmal for oppressed and misrepresented communities.

Think about it: if there were no proper technologies for bathrooms, there wouldn’t have been public bathrooms (imagine the horror!), and if there weren’t public bathrooms, then public washroom graffiti would never have existed. How we would have known that we were only a phone call away from Carole, who would ultimately provide us with a “real good time?” And where else could the broken hearted confess to but a blank wall in a public bathroom?

So I’m not sure exactly how many people are aware of its existence, but the second floor of Buchanan B plays host to the most infamous and notable bathroom stalls: the Stall of Impenetrable Feminist Hurt. You know which one that is, the third from the right hand side, two down from the handicap stall.

I stumbled upon this little treasure about two years ago, and have since then seen many new comments and rants made. I envision these angry, perhaps angsty women with too-short hair and Doc Marten boots, their pants around their ankles, the pen gripped and furiously scribbling away. Although I admire the passion and conviction of some of the arguments made in defense of women’s rights and the plight of the urban, educated female, I don’t quite understand the point of it all, as hard as I try.

Surely, don’t we have better things to do between classes? More importantly, ladies, where does all this anger come from? Are there really grounds for such declarations of socially institutionalized, sexist abuse? Or is this just the influence of the setting; you know, wanting to “get it all out” of your system. It’s just ironic that women go there to shit and have to read shit.

I suppose this sounds a little confused, and to be honest I really don’t know how I feel about the Stall of Impenetrable Feminist Hurt. A part of me wishes it to be wiped off the face of the earth simply for its in-your-face, aesthetically displeasing effects, but at the same time I can’t help but chuckle at it.

I therefore have a proposition to all: either write something intelligent or don’t write anything at all. Clearly this stall isn’t going away, and neither is the hurt behind that angry, mean lettering. Even snappy comebacks and refutations are acceptable, such as one defense on the tin door that “You can still be a feminist and fuck men with zeal + love it.” That’s what I came to university for.

there can't be a god; another ontological disaster

2007-10-04T15:59:00.000-07:00

Although the question of God’s existence is a highly dubious one, J.L Mackie’s criticism of Anselm provides very a convincing counter-argument against the ontological assumptions he makes regarding the nature of existence and the ability to conceive the existence of a being which can or cannot exist.

Similarly to Gaunilo’s complaint that God is something which nothing greater can be conceived (according to Anselm’s argument from Proslogion 3) from its concept, Mackie argues that the existence of a being cannot be argued from the conceptual aspect of that being. Even if the supposition that God exists from a conceptual perspective, it does not follow necessarily that the existence (or existential realization) of such a being applies to the great-making properties which it conceptually possesses. In other words, if the supposition that existence was a greatness-making quality was accepted, the existence of such a being cannot be dually applied to the conception.

From this perspective it can be seen that Mackie is quite convincing. He illustrates the ontological weakness of Anselm’s argumentation: it cannot escape its own futility because it depends on “the impossibility of establishing some concrete reality on the basis of a mere definition or concept.” There is no such thing that falls under the concept of a not-really-existing being than which nothing greater can be conceived, because the existence of this concept is not realized. Even if the ‘fool’ can accept the greatness premise which is ingrained in the argument, it still fails because it is logically incoherent to claim that a being does not exist, while it still can be conceived in a conceptual fashion as a being which no greater can exist.

Lastly, it would be useful in mentioning that Anselm’s argument would be improved if the claim that God’s existence as a being which no greater being exists was not considered a self-evident one. Alternatively, the premise of greatness could be replaced with a stronger statement that the necessary existence of such a being would contribute to its perfection or greatness.

how much for a little new radiohead?

2007-10-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

Much to my surprise, I discovered this morning that Radiohead's seventh album (which will be downloadable or purchasable come October 10) doesn't have a price tag attached to it.

Thom Yorke and the rest of the band have decided that it is "up to the fans," and that they ultimately will decide how much to pay for the new album.

This is Radiohead's first album unbound by any record label. They terminated their contract with EMI after their smash hit record Hail To The Theif, which sold millions of copies on either side of the Atlantic.

Just looking back on Radiohead's discography and past critical acclaim, In Rainbows has big musical expectations to fulfill.
As a music fanatic myself, I have dedicated hours to my daily worship to Radiohead. One of the greatest joys of this group is their mastery of the cornocopia of musical genres and political themes that they have explored.

In the beginning, Radiohead had the archetypical "grungey" noise that many bands of the early 90's also explored, with several iconic and timeless hits such as "High and Dry," "Just" and "Creep."

But Radiohead shocked their fans with their progression to jazzier, more technical albums such as Amnesiac, evolving to a sophicated hybrid of electronica and totalitarian political undertones between the OK Computer and Hail To The Theif eras. For the last 16 years, Radiohead has been astonishing the auricular caverns of Western ears by defying musical boundaries and maintaining critical acclaim.

My biggest question right now is, what is the new album going to sound like?

Shit

2007-09-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

I just found out that a 20-year old male died at the Smashing Pumpkins show. He was carried out after being found unconcious, and there is no information on what exactly was the cause of his death.
Shit.

Neverlost: The Smashing Pumpkins Blaze the PNE Forum

2007-09-25T12:20:00.000-07:00

After a close friend described the current state of the Smashing Pumpkins as "washed out," I was ready to defend the quartet despite their ostensibly lengthy, experimental, and not always well-received musical ventures.

Why does everyone always make fun of Billy Corgan? Outside of his mass of supporters, I've heard people describe him as "that awkward bald guy", with his "whiny sad voice," who takes himself way too seriously. But let's face it, there's a reason why the Pumpkins have been around since they formed in Chicago 1988. Aside from his musical talent, Billy Corgan represents the most unlikeliest celebrity in the same spirit as Trent Reznor defiles the machine of commercialized music; he may be a musical God, but at least he tries to overcome it by staying humble.

The show ultimately proved that - the set was a well-balanced blend of all the best aspects of their career. Starting off with an explosively energized performance of "Doomsday Clock," the debut track from their latest album Zeitgeist, the band rocked out with "Zero" and "Bullet With Butterfly Wings," among other quintessential Pumpkins tunes. It was the best of the past and the present, from "Down" and other Rotten Apples songs, and surprisingly enough, "To Sheila" and "Ava Adore" from their most radically experimental album Adore. While Corgan was missing his iconic Zero shirt, his long-sleeved stripes made us all remember the heavy psychadelic roots of the band. In humble appreciation, the band dedicated "1979" to Canada for being the world's #1 fan - a sweet touch indeed. I also particarly liked the fact that James Iha and D'arcy were replaced by but another female bassist and asian guitarist. Did he think nobody would notice?

Now for something a little more substantial. Zeitgeist as an album explores many conceptions of nationality - particularly in reference to the band's good old homeland, the United States, and the alienation that surrounds an individual when being attached to certain values and meanings simply based on their locality. It's for this reason that the album in and of itself is so monumental: at all points in history there is indeed a "spirit of the time." Hegel described this as a single historical figure who represents all aspects and values of that time, and eventually when such meanings are overturned, another Zeitgeist comes to be. Tracks such as "For God and Country" look at this phenomenological dialectic and describes how everything - including music is a subject to this temporality. At the end of the set, Corgan came out by himself and quite candidly laid bare his appreciation for the fans in Canada, who kept the Pumpkins at #1 on the charts when they were #2 in their own country. This is all making sense.

For more information on the Zeitgeist tour, check out the official Smashing Pumpkins website at http://www.smashingpumpkins.com

the brian jonestown massacre: you look great when i'm high

2007-09-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

I am deeply apologetic to everyone who couldn't make it to see the Brian Jonestown Massacre show at the Commodore Ballroom on September 8th. Even if you aren't a fan, or have ever heard of their music, that night will forever go down in history as possibly the last group's venture above the border.

For those who haven't heard of the BJM, they are the lesser-known musical rivals and lovers of the Dandy Warhols, who altogether pick apart social mores and fashion bubble-gum tunes to reflect modern-day trendy, social indoctrination. Being an existential pessimist I was hyped up on seeing the quintet rock out only two months after seeing the Dandy Warhols in the flesh.

Needless to say, the set was doomed from the very beginning. I have to say a word or two about how Icaught the end tail of the second opening band, The Hugs, only to find them to be a group of 18 year-old boys with peach fuzz and shitty guitars (never buy an Epiphone) that wouldn't hold a tune. To be honest their set was a cacophony of angsty unsophisticated, and technically defunct tunes.

At that point I wasn't too upset though, considering that the BJM was finally going to come on. But no. Those arrogant, but brilliant agents of musical genius didn't come on until nearly half past 11, at this point causing mutinous stirrings in the crowd. One guy behind me yelled obscenities at the band, causing me to spill my beer all over another girl's ankles. Shit. They finally started playing, opening up with a transcendent, psychedelic jam which bled into "Who?" from their album Take It From The Man! Even though the music started flowing gorgeously, lead singer Anton's back to the audience was an ominous foreshadowing of the aggression soon to come.

Contrary to what you, dear readers, may imagine to mediate the crowd's tension, the music only exacerbated the feeling of getting ripped off at this show. Anton kept stepping backstage,leaving the rest of the band to hold down the situation by playing the same bleeding four chords for ten minute intervals. Anton, I love you, but why do you love the heroin so much? Anton comes back onstage and declares what a beautiful place Vancouver is, clearly getting increasingly fucked up as the night goes on.

At about ten minutes to one, some guy in the crowd threw a beer bottle at Anton's back, causing him to scream death threats into the microphone, his middle fingers flying around. At this point the band left the stage, most likely the last time to present themselves on the Canadian concert scene indefinitely. But shit, you could taste the hatred and Anton's wounded ego, who screamed at us all that we should all "humble ourselves." Don't misconstrue this, but this show was so bad that it paradoxically was so good; just don't do heroin, OK kids?

katrina dunn presents julius caesar

2007-07-18T23:38:00.000-07:00

My third venture to this year's Bard on the Beach at Vanier Park was a much different experience from the last two. Not to slag off the creative and innovative world of directorial interpretation, but The Shrew's Western reality still captures that awful taste in my mouth. In other words, Julius Caesar is minimalist, Roman attitude with no modern interpretive angles - Caesar (Allan Morgan) is old, and raging (just the way he's supposed to be). Fuck, I thought his ghostly white hallucinating stare was going to make my eyes bleed. So bitingly cold...

The best part is Dunn's slight Elizabethan, Renaissance undertones - making the story of betrayal and political injustice imparted as a shared value between the Elizabethans and the classical era of the Roman Republic. In fact, this bears more significance as Brutus (Scott Bellis) spirals into despair and self-perpetuated guilt over his betrayal, which is a classical tenet of Shakespeare's tragic heroes. Ultimately, Brutus' hamartia of excessive ambition has a more lasting effect, that paradox of something being so good that it eventually defeats itself and turns to damage that otherwise perfect world. Some may call it shit disturbing, but this kind of stuff is really what makes Shakespeare worth reading or seeing in the flesh. It's that delicate boundary where potency becomes decadent, and then unstable to implosive. I ate muffins in the audience and soaked this all in while Brutus suffered in soliloquial turmoil.

Overall, this play was the most impressive thus far, despite the fact that nearly three-quarters of the cast was made up of balding men, their cul-de-sacs more distinct against the shinyness of the skin underneath. Although there was much baldness tonight, the perfomances were grade A (I particularly marvelled at Gerry Mackay, who played the revolutionary zealot Cassius all too well), and had the intimacy which only the studio stage can capture.

Maybe this is really fucking petty but I can't help but add that Craig Erickson (who played Marc Antony) did not look anything like his headshots from the programme. I felt like I'd been duped. Someone should tell him that it's not honest to deceive others with uncharacteristically good photographs of himself.

bard round two: romeo and juliet

2007-07-12T00:08:00.000-07:00

After my last visit to the Bard, I was desperately hoping for Dean Paul Gibson's production of Romeo and Juliet to compensate for my earlier disappointments. Luckily, the performance tonight has redeemed the Festival after the last Western-styled desecration of Shakespeare, and had fucking style. With Kyle Rideout playing a love-struck, mascara-eyed, melancholy emo Romeo, I felt like I was in one of those engrossing GAP commercials. Tight black pants and collared white shirts, perfectly synchronised uniformity - the Apothecary's sole grey shirt attracts both metaphoric and literal neutrality. Could this get any sweeter? There's a naked ass in this play, restoring the Vancouverite liberalism we all thought was lost.

taming of the shrew: elizabethan, western 21st century interpretations

2007-06-20T23:31:00.000-07:00

I'm about as confused on this one as ever. Bard on the Beach presents Taming of the Shrew, but in a mish-mash of genres that don't seem to fit very well together. Flamboyant suede chaps, Mexicans incognito, and deliberately awkward staging to reflect the current apathetical comedic modes... not to mention Katharina's (Colleen Wheeler) breaking of the will, which essentailly violates every aspect of the great feminist movement.

While Petruchio (Bob Frazer) translates well into his macho, Marlboro man persona, series host Christopher Gaze's british accent doesn't bode well for someone trying to come off as a Mexican. Don't get me wrong, as far as the theme of fiesty women and power and oppression reign, this play was in its right, but would have Shakespeare turning in his grave - to be honest I was actually thinking about how similar The Shrew is to that angsty late-90's flick "10 Things I Hate About You." Director James Fagan Tait begs "Kiss me, Kate!" But this isn't what I learned in my Shakespeare class.... The ending was a familiar philosophical tangent reflecting on the power of the will, but the soft weaknesses of the body; a quintessential, Shakespearean mindfuck paradox.

Katharina throws away the entire reputation of women in a single swooping motion, to chuck off a hair decoration that her husband disproves of, but only says so in pursuit to win a bet. I wasn't feeling the love tonight.

If you don't like Shakespeare that much, or don't understand him, GO SEE THIS PLAY. Mostly slapstick, anti-feminine sovereignty gags that don't require the use of too many braincells... yeah.

"To Decapitate = To Castrate"

2007-06-11T22:28:00.000-07:00

I just read the most fucked up thing that Freud wrote, about the sexual metaphoristic qualities of the myth of Medusa's head. Pretty far-fetched stuff...

In the selection “Medusa’s Head,” psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud fleshes out his interpretation of the mythological image as a deep-seated sexual issue, stemming from the human fear of their mother’s genitals devouring their own. In his analysis of the metaphorical representation of female genitalia, Freud sheds light onto the paradox of heterosexual male desire - a force which is both terrifying and undeniably attractive. Despite the comical effects and his persuasive argumentation, Freud’s assertions ultimately fail to explain the complexities of human sexual relations, as they gravitate around an ignorant male view of women’s sexuality.

For Freud, sex is attached to an unspoken, irrational fear of castration, where the vagina represents a vortex of simultaneous pleasure and horror. In the style of third person narrative, Freud creates a situation where the “other” is identified - in this case, the body of the female, represented by Medusa’s decapitated head is the center of alterity through the mystification of female sensuality. Instead of exploring the idea of its multiple possibilities, Freud articulates one, monolithic, uniform kind of female sexuality. From this position, Freud is failing to substantiate his arguments, as they are clearly seen to stem from impossible fears, and a blatant lack of understanding the fairer sex.

Mystifying the organs of female sexuality have both an amusing and a maddening effect - Freud attaches the fear of castration in sex to a boy’s glimpse of his own mother’s vagina. Yet where does this fear originate? Freud lacks an explanation for how anyone would even associate sexual pleasure with the possibility of losing one’s penis. Perhaps the most absurd tenet of his interpretation of Medusa is the idea that the snakes in her hair are “a confirmation of of the technical rule according to which a multiplication of penis symbols signifies castration.” The only technical rule which could be applied to Freud’s argumentation is that he defies every epistemological convention.

In short, Freud lacks understanding in the issue of sex - particularly of the female persuasion. However, his interpretation of the myth of Medusa and her sexual evaluations brings another, more philosophical issue to the surface. It is the displacement of social values which creates a dichotomy of sensuality: the ignorance towards the female body and its responses to sexual desire in turn becomes a symbol of both desire and fear, and even possibly hatred. According to Freud, the sight of Medusa’s head (and therefore the sapphic images associated with it) makes the man “stiff with terror...” yet at the same time “offers consolations... he is still in possession of a penis, and the stiffening reassures him of the fact.” This line is particularly absurd, since the spectator has an erection, how could he have ever feared for the loss of his member?

Ergo, Freud’s exploration of female sexuality through the literal and figurative interpretations of power in the myth of Medusa creates more ignorance on the topic instead of clarifying it. Even in this short selection, an envious, fearful misogyny resonates in this analysis. It is perhaps due to the social repression of women at this time in history that causes them to be “othered” to the point of being recognized as either a symbol of sexual desire, fear of castration, or both.

Capitalism is the New Christianity

2007-06-04T11:59:00.001-07:00

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of cultural theory which is both evident and underlying in its nature is the investment which people create in their social spaces. According to both Foucault and Bhabha in their critical essays, human beings are made subjects of their sociocultural spaces and are inevitably constructed by these specific communities, which they perpetuate through various mediums. By looking further into Bhabha’s analysis of this social phenomenon, the difficulty of transgression is made painfully clear - since so many cultural practices become ingrained into the construction of communities, the perpetuation of these standards become overlooked themselves. On a more philosophical level, Capitalism as a global community, has created the ultimate generative existential crisis of the modern age.

One of Bhabha’s most resonating lines from her essay “On the Use and Abuse of Culture” is the perpetuation alterity and otherness across nations: “their cultural identity have become contestants in the public sphere of capitalist democracies and are embroiled in characteristic struggles for redistribution and recognition.” In this way, a new crisis of the modern age is the assimilation of cultural with economic institutions, as capitalism and the free market have paved their way as the new, dominant religion.

Clearly, the imposition of an economic infrastructure upon a cultural history does not seem at first to be an acceptable correlation, yet this coalescence of societies and capitalism has created the most fundamental existential pitfall. Similarly to Zizek’s assertion of capitalism being the seductive, yet empty promise, Bhabha articulates the “promesse du bonheur that advanced capitalism always holds... but never quite delivers.” It is merely the false idea of capitalism which lures participation, a sort of community created by the discursive address that functions in the name of “the people,” creating an ideological position for itself and enforcing those values everywhere.

This is exactly what Friedrich Nietzsche contested against in his philosophical works - that guilt and bad conscience stem from creditor and debtor relations, and that human beings fail to analyze the system which they perpetuate through their participation. It creates an undeniable monolithic binary between the creditors and the debtors, those who have, and those who do not.

The process of othering which becomes apparent in Bhabha’s analysis is the distinction between capitalist and non-capitalist nations, creating another system of binaries which human beings seem unable to resist. The problem of this is rooted in the false and highly ironical nature of capitalism - that choice is an ephemeral, illusory concept - a replacement for the Christian afterlife in a time of declining religious faith, and increasing participation in the institution of global capitalism. In this way, the Nietzschean “death of God” has an equally negative replacement: the worship of financial giants in the modern world.

the commodore ballroom presents: the dandy warhols

2007-06-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

As a huge Dandys fan, this show, in one word - rad. The thing about the Dandy Warhols that blows my mind is the apathetical, casual bohemian attitude, paired with the unmatched all-round musical genius they possess. Opening with a pseudo-Pink Floydian experimental montage, the Dandys rocked their sugary-sweet tunes, sided by video screens that flashed images from the mundane to the obscene. The set was both a nostalgic reliving of their older, quintessential hits - You Were the Last High, Heroine is so Passé, and of course, Bohemian Like you. Yet at the same time they switched it up with unreleased songs from their upcoming album, and made up for missing instruments on the stage with interesting results! Courtney Taylor-Taylor flouted his "da na na naaa" vocal talents en lieu of missing trumpeteers in their performance of "Godless." It was difficult after seeing Ondi Timonder's 2004 Documentary DiG! on the drug-riddled habits of the band to actually imagine that Zia McCabe's child is currently touring with them. Despite the difficulties of motherhood, the quartet maintained their cool narcissism in an impressive way. So fucking catchy it hurts. "See what looking pretty cool gets ya?" - I swear I have never seen so many artsy looking dandies in the audience. For some reason the show attracted throngs of young hipsters alternating with matching mullets on middle-aged couples. So much for social commentary... bottom line is the Dandy Warhols entertain on all fronts.

For more info on Ondi Timoner's DiG! check out http://www.jam.canoe.ca/Music/Artists/D/Dandy_Warhols/2007/05/30/4219475.html

Awake and Dreaming - The existentialist exploration of sleep in Fight Club and Waking Life

2007-05-21T20:46:00.001-07:00

By watching the young, confused, and tired character from Richard Linklater’s Waking Life, I realized how fortunate I was to be able to rouse myself from my dreams. Perhaps too fortunate? I’m not sure. It would be rather intriguing to be able to exercise the concept of a “lucid dream,” which the film explores, in that we are able to realize we are dreaming, and manipulate our thoughts to the point where we cannot distinguish reality from what is actually a dream. That means we can fashion a reality in our sleep which would never be socially acceptable in our own lives, we can toss aside all taboos and social mores and construct an experience for ourselves, and let the plot unfold such
as we desire.

Waking Life: far more philosophical merit, deals with a plethora of existentialist philosophers, such as Sartre and Nietzsche.

Yet our poor protagonist cannot awake from these fantasies, and reawakens time and time again, only to find himself in the midst of another dream. It begs with the question regarding the nature of reality; do we truly have experiences in a realm of supposed consciousness, or do they really manifest themselves in our sleep, disguising themselves as a mere shared hallucination?

Another film which tackles this question is Fight Club, starring Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham-Carter. Directed by David Fincher, Norton plays a character who suffers from severe insomnia, and becomes an existential madman in many senses. As a result, he undergoes a personal transformation and creates a secondary personality who embodies all the characteristics that he lacks himself (Tyler). Just like the bizarre experiences of our confused hero in Waking Life, Tyler has no bounds; he is powerful, persuasive, and strange. In this film, the main character’s experiences are split between his ‘true’ identity, and the second personality he creates as a result of sleep condition.

Both films provide a fascinating commentary on the role which sleep plays in our lives. One individual is frustrated by their inability to wake, and another’s anguish is derived from his inability to sleep. Yet both characters create and experience their environments - challenging themselves and questioning their purpose, bewildered by the world around them. Despite Pitt’s chiseled abs, the movie deserves 3 stars out of 5, for its sheer mainstream quality. I would give Waking Life 4.5 starts out of 5, as this film relies on its direct philosophical content.
*
Ed and Helena: have on-screen chemistry, but less philosophy to back it up.

Morality and The Slave: An Analysis of Institutionalized Morality and its Consequences in The Phenomenology and On the Genealogy of Morals

2007-05-21T20:40:00.000-07:00

The emergence and development of morality is perhaps one of the most elusive and intriguing areas of philosophy, since it is inexorably bound to sociopolitical variables. In Nietzsche’s work On The Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche describes the historical conditions converging with general human anxiety in the formation of social life and organized political systems. From this methodological account, moral systems were developed to internalize the destructive animal instincts, although they surface inevitably in accordance to varying social positions. On the other hand, Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit accounts for master-slave morality through the inescapable dialectical structures which consciousness embodies. Although each writer strives for a different account for morality, offering different versions of the lord and bondsman relations, both Nietzsche and Hegel impart a fundamental idea: the necessity of the reversal of perspectives.

In On The Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche describes the development of moral systems as institutionalized and unnatural constructions used to secure communities under constitutional parameters. Social responsibility, he claims, is an exercise in conformity: “the task of breeding an animal with the right to make promises.... first makes men to a certain degree necessary, uniform, like among like, regular, and consequently calculable.”1 Although he is arguing from a nihilistic perspective, the socialization of man is arguably the singularly most traumatic experience in human history, since it depends on favoring social justice rather than entertaining personal desires and needs.

At this point it would be integral to our investigation to mention Hegel’s phenomenological account of the master-slave dialectic, since its causes and underlying forces are closely related to those which propagate Nietzsche’s own formulation of morality. For Hegel, the constant shifting and power dynamics between the master and the slave are both inevitable and necessary, with an outcome that is a “recognition that is one-sided and unequal.”2 Like most dialectical structures, the existence of opposites creates the hostile platform from which conflict arises, namely through the master constantly trying to overcome the slave. The most fundamental similarity between the Nietzsche and Hegel’s accounts of slave-master relations is also an opinion also shared by Sartre, in that the relation is not unilateral, but rather that it is “envisaged within the perspective of conflict.”3 In other words, it is arguable to claim that such conflict arises from the instinctual desire to assert domination over another as an evolutionary defense, and is not necessarily a moral judgment. For Nietzsche, the development of any relation involving an inferior and a superior is directly linked to the realm of socialized moral development, since social groups inevitably form in complicated social, political and economic hierarchies, which are essentially artificial constructs of the challenges posed in nature.

On the other hand, Hegel’s emphasis on such challenges are not only socially constructed, but are innately contained within individual cognitive abilities. In The Phenomenology he writes that “consciousness itself is the absolute dialectical unrest,” illustrating that the plurality of the sensible world, in contrast with its intellectual representations, are “the dizziness of a perpetually self-engendered disorder.”4 In this way, Hegel views the slave-master dialectic not in terms of morality necessarily, but a reaction to the fuzzy area of reconciling the sensuous world with intellectual articulation of it. In other words, Hegel is reacting to the difficulties of language based on the impossibility of sense-certainty, and the subject of recognition between the master and the slave.

To add more complexity to this dialectical structure, Hegel asserts that the relationship between the lord and the bondsman, like many opposites, has a twofold significance. In this way, the mutual recognition of the master and the slave is a process that must “supersede the other as the essential being... in so doing it proceeds to supersede its own self, for this other is itself,”5 which succinctly describes the necessity involved in such a relation. In other words, although the master, by definition, dictates the activities of the slave, the only way in which the master’s existence is acknowledged is through “his recognition through another consciousness.”6 Thus, for Hegel, the dependence and independence of both the slave and the master form an organic unity, once they have overcome the duality, to discover the unity beyond separation.7

Rather than this organic interpretation of the lord and the bondsman, Nietzsche’s emphasis on cruelty as festival also holds very cogent bearing on the topic of master-slave morality, since much of the interplay of power takes place between debtor and creditor. When man is removed from his primitive environment of hunting and asserting his dominance for
animalistic purposes, these instincts must play out in the realm of civil society as well. According to Nietzsche, the historical event of human moralization induces the existential stress
because mankind no longer depends on animal instincts, but is conditioned to rely on the faculty of consciousness, a weaker guide. Rather than outwardly discharging these violent anxieties, human beings have conditioned to internalize these forces, creating “hostility, joy in persecuting, in attaching, in change, in destruction.”8 Since man has been removed from a physically hostile environment, such hostilities must be acted out in another realm - the moral. Morality thus appears to be the language for controlling and minimizing the impacts of this internalization, and through this hostility, master-slave relations become inevitable undertones of social structures.

While Nietzsche emphasizes bad conscience and guilt as the motivating drives for mastery and submission to authority, Sartre defends Hegel’s assertions that the propensity to fall within the dialectic is inevitable. He uses a powerful analogy of lovers, and claims that “with Hegel the Master demands the Slave’s freedom only laterally... while the lover wants the beloved’s freedom first and foremost.”9 Although the actual dynamics of master-slave relations differ in cases of love, Hegel suggests that the inclination to either submit or dominate another’s will is an inherent, ostensibly natural desire contained within the subconscious of any individual.

According to Elliot L. Jurist, the master-slave dialectic is an exercise of the consciousness which is performed in order to actualize itself. The existence of another consciousness recognizing the other is a fundamental necessity in achieving mutual recognition. The necessity of outward forms in order to realize conscious recognition is carried into the moral realm as well, as Jurist argues that the development depends both on the self, as well as the universal in the self:
“moral consciousness attempts to unite the antithesis.... the actualization of morality leads
consciousness to confront itself as aspiring to perfection, just as it must acknowledge its own imperfections.”10 From this point, it is clear where the problems of morality are derived. since the act of conscious recognition involves not only the self, but a community of values. It thus appears to be a battle between altruistic morality and egoism: the exponents of the master emphasize self-regulation over abandonment while the exponents of domination emphasize self-abandonment over regulation.

Rather than this complex psychological compulsion to comply in master-slave relations, Nietzsche illustrates this morality as a raw, animalistic power play. Since human beings are no longer vexed by the issues of securing food and shelter, these territorial instincts must transpose themselves onto the echelon of social rank and position. For instance, in debtor and creditor relations, the pleasure of punishing the debtor increases with the rank of the creditor. More succinctly, Nietzsche affirms that “the creditor participates in a right of the masters: at last he, too, may experience for once the exalted sensation of being allowed to despise and mistreat someone as “beneath him.””12 In other words, the desire for the creditor to punish the debtor who is socially inferior to him does not necessarily involve itself in any moral imperatives, but rather is the result of the internalization of animal instincts.

Similarly, the festive results of this grand internalization of animal instincts, according to
Nietzsche, occurred historically partly for the “festival plays for the gods.”13 Tracing back to the emergence of Greek morality plays, Nietzsche begins to flesh out the most ironic and futile creditor/debtor relationship through the paradox of Christianity. In order to alleviate the strains of the confines of society, God is a figure who discharges guilt and the overwhelming bad conscience which drives many individuals to submit themselves entirely. Wolfgang Müller-Lauter succinctly describes Nietzsche’s attitude the history of religions is but “a systematic case history of sickness employing religious-moral nomenclature,”14 without any positive, philosophical results. Furthermore, the debtor/creditor relation between the Christian God and the christian is a failure, a self-perpetuating paradox of irredeemable penance: “God as the only being who can redeem man from what has become unredeemable for man himself.”15 In this sense, religion as a mediator for bad conscience is the ultimate failed cause - instead it pontificates artificial moral codes and envelops consciousness with an even more futile straightjacket. Thus Nietzsche holds religion largely accountable for the most self-destructive form of master-slave morality, since the mechanisms of Christianity function predominantly to solidify bad conscience and institutionalized guilt.

Even Hegel believes that Christianity is one of the greatest sources of unhappiness. In many ways, The Phenomenology articulates that an unhappy conscience is exacerbated not only through the desire to reconcile life and the spirit, but also because of the problem of overcoming the impossibilities of sense-certainty. Judith Butler incorporates this duality in terms of the master and the slave, where “unhappy conscience seeks to overcome this duality by finding a body which embodies the purity of its unchangeable part.”16 For Butler, the physical body bondsman belongs to the lord, but it is a kind of belonging that is both irreconcilable and based on a vicarious notion of existential substitution. Butler’s reading of Hegel then makes a fundamental connection to the Nietzschean analysis of the Christian paradox: “ the minister reformulates the
dialectical reversal and establishes the inversion of values as an absolute principle... pleasure is temporally removed from pain, figured as its future compensation.”17 The philosophical crux of this analysis is that the promise of such compensation only furthers the sense of guilt through debt - Nietzsche’s Christian paradox lends itself invariably to the master-slave dialectic.

Although Nietzsche, in principle, tends to gravitate towards a critique of how Western political and social spheres operate, it is difficult to see any other alternative other than the ones presented to us. The account of the internalization of man undoubtedly causes some profound psychological effects on the human being, but these innate hostilities and anxieties are already hardwired into the biological system of each individual. Regardless of what situation an individual may find himself in, Nietzsche imparts the idea that the reversal and shifting of such mores is imperative. In her essay entitled “Genealogy, the Will to Power, and the Problem of a Past,” Tracy B. Strong asserts that “slave morality is thus not just the noble morality stood on its head - a reversal of the structures of domination. It is structured in a different manner and thus is a different way of being in the world.”18 In this way, a kind of rational sovereignty is attainable, despite the pressures of social expectations. This reversal of perspectives is the most optimistic idea which Nietzsche suggests - the overturning and questioning of existing social and political ideals to create an individual space, despite the inevitable anxieties of existence. Hegel, to a certain extent, also accomplishes a similar goal in his evaluation of the spirit. Cognition and its conscious awareness enables the individual to be perpetually seeking new avenues of thought, through the constant turning over and recollection of new information. The consequences of perpetually accepting institutionalized moral codes could make “consciousness in its full abjection like shit, lost in a self-referrential anality,”19 a frightful mess in its own way.

Thus the two accounts of morality and the master slave dialectic appear to be more similar, or compatible than they seem initially. Through the concept of guilt and bad conscience, and the internalization of animal instincts into the form of social mores, the paradox of Christianity becomes as apparent as the realities of the relations between the lord and the bondsman. Despite the complexities of socialized groups, and the systems of morality that develop, Nietzsche and Hegel assert that the reversal of perspectives is the fundamental shift necessary to overcome the burden of the dialectic. In this way, both writers attempt to reconcile the universal and the self in accordance with the self-generating complexities of moral life - a unique component of the human condition.

Bibliography:
Butler, Judith (1995) Stubborn Attachment, Bodily Subjection: Rereading Hegel on the Unhappy Consciousness. In Dennis King Keenan (Ed,) Hegel and Contemporary Continental Philosophy. New York: State University of New York Press, 2004

Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. Trans. A.V Miller. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977. (coursepack)

Hyppolite, Jean.Genesis and Structure of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1974.

Jurist, Elliott L. Beyond Hegel and Nietzsche: Philosophy, Culture, and Agency. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000.

Müller-Lauter, Wolfgang. Nietzsche: His Philosophy of Contradictions and the Contradictions of His Philosophy. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1971

Nietzsche, Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morals, from Basic Writings of Existentialism. ed Gordon Munro. New York: Random House, 2004. (coursepack)

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness. New York: Washington State Press, 1943.

Strong, Tracy B. Genealogy, the Will to Power, and the Problems of a Past. In Christa Davis Acampora (Ed,) Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals: Critical Essays. United States: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2006

notes on a scandal: ultimate ethical crisis

2007-05-17T18:59:00.000-07:00

In a nutshell, Richard Eyre's new film is a disturbing glimpse into the lives of two devastatingly lonely women. Judi Dench plays an embittered school teacher, an authoritarian whose depressingly vacant social life drives her to manipulate the deadly secret of the new art teacher. Sheeba Hart (Cate Blanchett) stars as the sexy, bohemian teacher who seduces the likes of a fifteen year-old student as a reaction to her fading youth and failed life aspirations. This film represents the worst taboos known to the cinematic tradition: as the cataclysmic intentions become revealed, Judi Dench's portrayal of a desperate ageing lesbian surfaces to a longing obsession. "To be so chronically untouched that the slightest brush of the bus conductor's hand sends a jolt of longing - straight to your groin..." Could this be any more titilating?

disavowal, or, the impetus for Queer Theory

2007-05-16T21:31:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading a very interesting essay called "Is There a Queer Pedagogy? Or, Stop Reading Straight" by Deborah P. Britzman. Modern Critical Theory has never been so good...

The concept of disavowing is traditionally viewed as an internalized, yet conscious denial of responsibility or weighing the value of an idea or concept. Indeed, the essence of disavowal lies within the paradoxical idea that although certain thoughts and situations are widely accepted as “being wrong” in political, social or moral senses, the act of disavowal itself is a silent confirmation of the socially constructed axioms.

For Deborah Britzman, the concept of disavowal in Queer Pedagogy is an extremely complicated issue due to its social, historical, and philosophic integrity. In her essay, Briztman fleshes out the discontinuity of pedagogy in relation to the “crucial cultural and historical changes that concern the constitution of bodies of knowledge and knowledge of bodies.”1 According to her argument, Queer Theory acts against the altruistic human inclination to disavow certain kinds of knowledge simply because they defy the social and cultural conventions, which are perpetually changing.

Namely, the act of disavowal attempts to deconstruct the definitive binaries which social institutions gravitate towards. As listed in the essay, “categories like masculinity, femininity, sexuality”2 form the basis of education and the pedagogical canon which become accepted due to varying sociopolitical and cultural variables. Furthermore, the pedagogical account of knowledge fails to unify, and instead becomes divisive in its assertions of normalcy and the articulation of what the majority of society believes is “heterosexual.” Although Queer Theory is not an exploration in deviant sexuality, the example of the binaries established by defining sexuality are extremely significant in the analysis of disavowal, since these binaries are essentially universally accepted on an ontological basis.

Going beyond the theoretical significance of disavowal, the object of Queer Theory becomes self-refuting immediately after it has been put into motion. In order for the disavowal of present binaries and cultural misconceptions, the object of defying such socially relevant issues becomes a living paradox when taken to absurd lengths. For example, to break the cycle of disavowing or becoming complacent with present social mores, Queer Theory demands a constant, perpetual turning over of new ideals. In this sense, the goal of Queer Theory reduces itself to a theoretical absurdity: it requires the constant shifting of new values within the pedagogical system, yet where exactly does the significance lie in creating new perspectives?

Thus the goal of Queer Theory is an ironic one - it merely preserves the Nietzschean “reversal of perspectives” to the point where it becomes a foil to nihilism. As Queer Theory rejects preexisting binaries, it invents another one by defining itself on the fringes of what is culturally accepted - thus being inherently paradoxical.

technological difficulties

2007-04-19T11:49:00.000-07:00

ok, so somehow i got trapped in the internet "communications cesspool," and it totally blew up in my face. fucking html...

all my writing has disappeared on my website, and i can't access it anymore because the site seems to have imploded.

see what happens when you come to depend on a computer? the whole universe comes crashing down.

entry #7 - a bout of realistic cynicism

2007-03-22T12:49:00.000-07:00

ok... so i haven't written on this blog since my existentialism class required me to do so. but i looked on my first blog and realized that i was really wrong about everything.

i think happiness is possible, but it is a fundamentally naive idea. so many people i know are in this life-long pursuit of "happiness," and i don't really think they understand the futility of this romantic ideal.

instead of thinking about happiness as a lasting idea, i view it as something that arises on the fly; there are moments surely when you can be ecstatically happy, but after a while everything has the capacity to go sour. this happens in almost every situation in life. when you achieve something, or realize something, or acquire something new, you don't tend to be bothered by the negative aspects of that thing. think of relationships, for example. the first kiss from a new lover is maybe one of the most exciting, euphoric experiences possible, but this doesn't last when you start to pick apart the imperfections and points of tension in your relationship. even a new job - i have snatched up jobs without even thinking about them, but after a while you realize that maybe the office asshole outweighs the benefits of the otherwise beneficial opportunites.

so i suppose this seems really bitter and perhaps even cynical, but after studying such an ostensibly bleak arena of philosophy i have realized that existentialism addresses the core issue of this fundamental crisis of desire and the fleeting nature of happiness. i have realised that all you can truly pursue is some kind of satisfaction in what you've done, and how you have been the self-creator of your own individuality. but please, don't get off on the possibility of actually being happy and staying happy because you've overcome a great achievement... because it isn't going to last. the human soul is constantly at odds with itself, consciousness is a perpetual dialectic that struggles with its opposing forces and desires.

entry #6: bad faith

2005-11-24T20:13:00.000-08:00

Sartre mentions "bad faith" as the disillusioned idea that one can appropriate, or assign a sense of their own self. In 'Being and Nothingness,' he explores this idea further by pointing out that we can never truly glimpse ourselves the way others do, or, that we cannot view what we project onto others. To some extent I believe this is true, as I have found myself desperately trying to be validated as a human being by other people in my life. However, it is possible to exude a sense of self that you are aware of. In other words, it is possible to have an accurate self-image, and to feel at one in your own skin. This does not necessitate the existence of another to recognize it.

entry #5: gender construction

2005-11-24T19:04:00.000-08:00

in The Data of Biology, Simone de Beauvoir examines the biological differences between the two sexes, which are rooted largely by environmental, social constructions. She uses the example of insects, in that their social and physical environments determine, to a great extent, their sexual identities. Similarly, men and women of the human race are deemed "feminine" or "masculine," not necessarily based on anything biological, but on how society views them. I think this applies to many instances of human interaction, such as stereotyping. Many characteristics are frowned upon when the "wrong sex" exhibits them, such as an ambitious, cut-throat business woman, or a man who weeps uncontrollably at the opera. I find that gender and its associated roles arise purely from these social constructions, where the sex plays a smaller role.

entry #4: Feenberg on technology

2005-10-25T06:57:00.000-07:00

Perhaps Feenberg, Heidegger and others who study the philosophy of science have an interest in this realm because it is a phenomena which appears to be progressing and inflitrating itself exponentially in our lives. As Heidegger asserts in his inquiry, the development of technology alongside our acceptance and participation within it requires the process of "preparing a free relationship to technology." As Feenberg drew from Heidegger, the instrumentality of technology raises issues of how we can justify using the planet's natural reserves for developing technologies which will eventually be impossible to live without. As a university student, I was forced to purchase a computer in order to keep up with the accelerated flow of information, and cannot fathom writing an essay out by hand or not using the internet for research. Heidegger claims that we need to be aware of our responsibility in this newfound area of human activity, and to realize our indebtedness as a result of our endeavors. In some ways this is reminiscient of Nietzschean form of guilt, in that we take from the earth and "re-order the world" in such a way that we need to break away from our dependencies and form a free relationship with technology, as Feenberg discussed.

entry #3: Nietzsche's joyful pessimism

2005-10-25T06:23:00.000-07:00

As a child, I was constantly railed on by my parents and friends that my pessimism wasn't going to take me anywhere in life. Yet I like being pessimistic! I cling to those who are pessimistic around me, for we perpetually challenge ourselves and refuse to simply accept any form of indoctrination. Pessimism is thus integral my own personal philosophy. The acceptance of one's existence, according to Nietzsche, depends on our will to "grasp the nature of the world" around us. In this sense, I can subscribe to his "joyful pessimism" because pessimism is the act which prevents the ready acceptance of unchallenged beliefs. Coming to terms with one's own existence, or affirming existence in general, necessitates a critical outlook on the world in accordance to perspectivism. Furthermore, the pessimism required to affirm existence is an objective endeavor in the sense that we should not get 'too attached' to this self-reflection of our own existence, because it becomes enshrouded by bias. This is somewhat reminiscient of Kierkegaard's conception of the existing spirit, in that coming to terms with human existence transforms it into an indifference.

entry #2: what is life?

2005-09-20T23:06:00.000-07:00

Attempting to define 'life' lends itself to some problems. Generally a 'life' describes the progression, or the stages of maturity which all living organisms are subject to, regardless of species. As Hegel asserted, life carries the germ of death with it; the two are inexorably bound in that they define each other as opposite entities. The fear of death for human beings may be, in my opinion, attributed to the unknowns once we die, thus we continue living with our miseries and diverting them until our time to "shuffle off this mortal coil" has come. I cannot say that fear is an underlying emotion I harbor; I hate the predictability of the situations I often find myself in, and ultimately would desire to lead a random life in which I would be continually surprised. However, I can say that I fear anguish, and not fear itself, much like people confuse the fear of falling from great heights with the pain of landing on the ground.

entry #1: what is happiness?

2005-09-14T17:46:00.001-07:00

I do not believe that 'happiness' is defined or characterized by having no misery present in one's life, although misery is critical in conceptualizing the notion of 'happiness' by juxtaposition. Perhaps it is a little morbid, but in my own personal experiences I have found more misery in having no challenges, no difficulties to overcome. There is a certain comfort I find in pining and wasting away for someone, rather than suffering through some big, dumb, static happiness. I suppose that this relates to Kierkegaard's conception of human beings as a "process," in that I search for ways to change myself. Pure, unadulterated happiness cannot be sustained because people lend themselves to their own problems and consequences. However, I will not succumb to bitterness and cynicism completely; happiness to me is like a kind of satisfaction that is possible, even though it is scattered and ephemeral by nature. It is a temporary diversion from our anxieties, a form of ecstatic relief. Yet its fleeting nature is significant because only then is it as intense and in that it shows its contrast to other, more indifferent human emotions.