Monthly Archives: June 2010

The infection of hate

As Gay Pride day wraps up nationwide, I looked at the online media reports regarding the parades. What saddens me is the spew of hatred and religious dogmatic vomit that people felt inspired to post in response to a day that is designed to represent a movement towards equality.
These days, the hatred seems to spring from all directions, and place the blame of this ‘corruption of morals’ and ‘liberal machinations’. One guy on Yahoo! went as far to say that a day of family is ruined by seeing two gay people holding hands and kissing.
Amazing stuff.
What does this all do? it just causes an infection of hate to spread. What happened to love your fellow man? It seems in our post 9/11 world we have only learned that hate is the best way to treat people from different walks of life, sexual preference, race and religion. Culture is training people to hate Muslims, blame ‘queers’ for pedophilia and accuse a black President of being a socialist.
It’s disgusting. And unfortunately no going anywhere soon.
People often wonder why I can’t keep my mouth shut when I feel angered or annoyed by the stupidity and hatred of others. It’s because I’m tired of being treated as a pariah, as the one who doesn’t have his head on straight. I don’t hate people… I hate their ignorance. I hate that they misuse religion or politics to further an agenda that is hateful towards other humans. It’s encouraging rage and destruction. What I do here isn’t destructive, it’s voicing my opinion. And the argument can be made that these other people have a right to their opinion, but I have to ask, when an opinion is so vicious and driven by violence, is it a right or freedom? Or is it just dangerous?
For example, Innocent Bystander, a Yahoo! member since: 06/19/2010, posted this online:
now that these gay freaks are in one place
this would be the perfect time to nuke them
and wipe the off the face of the earth
the less we see their pervert face
the better for humanity
This kind of commentary and language only furthers an agenda of hate, and pretty much insinuates murder as a solution. Genocide. How nice. How far we have evolved in the past 70 years.
I get so angry, and I really want to hate this person. But obviously they are too stupid to realize that they just condemned a group of people that may include a friend, a teacher or a relative. They are so insecure and ignorant that they have to feel superior by tearing someone else down.
The saddest thing is that most people feel this way about one group or another, and if everyone had their wish come true, no one would be left standing.

Happy Pride!

I’m taking it easy from Pride this year. In fact, while I had initially planned to walk in the parade here in Chicago with my company, the threat of being literally struck by lightening due to severe thunderstorms in the area, and due to the fact that Rick just returned home yesterday, made me want to lay low.
To all of those out there, enjoy Gay Pride, and remember why we have it. Not just to get wasted in the streets and party like it’s Carnival.
Anyway, here’s some new Kylie to get everyone in the mood, and in continuation of my summer music series.

Why LCD Soundsystem rocks and critics don't

While this may not be the most timely of post, the fact that people have terrible taste in things and critics see fit to rip music and movies to shreds to satisfy their ego brings me to my latest rant.

A few weeks back, Time Out Chicago ran a review on the new LCD Soundsystem disc, This Is Happening. It’s the third and supposedly final release from mastermind James Murphy and his Brooklyn, NY outfit, and it’s amazing. 95% of music reviews out there have deemed it an excellent release. Of course, not everyone loved it, like The New York Post, who thought that while it was musically impeccable, it lacked lyrically substance. So you can’t please everyone.
Then there’s Brent DiCrescenzo of Time Out Chicago.
First a little information on this guy. He used to be a music reviewer for Pitchfork.com before segueing into Time Out. He’s also insanely pretentious. His reviews are artistic babble of the intrinsic metaphysical bullshit blah blah blah that music is. There are websites out there that laugh at how pretentious his writing is (my favorite… his review of Kid A by Radiohead, check it here). But I have always found him slightly annoying, dating back to his early reviews in the late 90’s. They all seemed holier than thou, and at some point I think I sent a nasty letter railing against him to Pitchfork, which was disregarded but whatever. That was over a decade ago. It just always annoyed me that someone thought he would be a good critic.
The Time Out/LCD Soundsystem review published in issue 273 (and linked here) was, to say the least, unpleasant and mean spirited. Instead of talking about the music, he criticized how Murphy seemed to be ripping off Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and for goodness sake, Spoon. “Audacious and larcenous” are directly used to describe the album. And here lies my issue with this review. How is this a description of the quality of music? It’s not. I find it arrogant and downright infuriating that because a group is inspired by or has a sound that is reminiscent of another group, it’s thievery.
It’s absurd: what music group or artist has not been compared or been written as sounding like someone else before them? Nirvana being compared to the Pixies, Oasis to the Beatles… I mean, no one can say their sound isn’t derivative of someone who came before them. Immediate, it makes his accusation of larceny moot.

Then there’s the point of how the disc lacks ‘jaded wit’ and comes off as snarky. So what? The point of that (which is evidently lost of Brent) is that some of the tracks are supposed to be. I find the snark towards critics especially evident in ‘Pow Pow’ (featuring a killer diss to the Village Voice critic: “Eat it Michael Musto, you’re no Bruce Vilanch”) and in one of the tracks DiCrescenzo took particular offense to, ‘You Wanted A Hit’. The music on This Is Happening isn’t about hits and #1 songs. If it were, we’d have a disc of Katy Perry tunes. Blech. James Murphy is doing what he wants, and running his freak flag high. He’s also flaunting his influences. And it’s not cookie cutter. It’s also not being a thief. I can only imagine that Murphy, anticipating the haters, basically wrote some of the tracks as a big ‘fuck you, I don’t care about your indulgent opinion’ to them. I love it. It’s clever, it’s empowing, and it’s what makes the disc even more freeing.

Which brings me to my biggest beef with DiCrescenzo’s piece. He really didn’t listen to the album. I’m sure he ‘listened’, and shucked out that piece of shit two star article in a matter of hours. But he didn’t listen to the lyrics, the sound, the groove, the vibe. He picked apart what he found displeasing and made that the basis for the review. Never once did he grasp the excitement, the joy, the emotional aspect the disc brings. Sure there’s a bit of thumping energy and balls out dance tracks. But the disc, from start to finish, is a story, of heading out, finding the groove, making fun of the drunk girls, making out with someone, wishing for more, promising change, hanging with your friends and making fun of the scene, and heading home at the end of it all. At least that’s what I get out of it. I identify with most of it. I relish it. I guess Brent just didn’t get it.

So I wrote Time Out, expressing my displeasure, for which they graced my letter a spot in the Speak Up page of the June 3-9 issue last week.
I had my say, called Brent on what I though was a low class diss, and got published. As I’ve seen from some of the comments that are linked to the online review, I’m obviously not alone in my thoughts. Even his colleagues who wrote glowing things about LCD’s live show seem to reference a bit of embarrassment about the thrashing the album was given.
What many people didn’t see, and really irked me, was that Brent replied to my letter personally. At first, I thought, wow, this may be a ‘Sorry we had a difference of opinions on the same work’ kind of note, but what I got just astounded me and reinforced how lacking of awareness of the world around him he really is. And it said VOLUMES about what he thinks of people who don’t like his writing. Just an FYI, this is an honest to goodness unedited email I received from him:

From Brent DiCrescenzo to me more 3 weeks ago

JV,

I’m used to petulant hate mail, but it never ceases to amaze me when
people of differing opinion assume a critic didn’t listen to the album.
I’ll assume you CC’d the New York Times on that email, as they said
essentially the same thing. I guess universal acclaim isn’t enough for
some fans.

Thanks for reading,
BD

Brent DiCrescenzo, Music Editor
Time Out Chicago
247 South State Street, 17th Floor
Chicago, IL 60604
bdicrescenzo@timeoutchicago.com
312.924.9378 direct line
312.924.9350 fax
http://www.timeout.com/chicago

Yes, folks, like James Murphy’s music is larcenous, my opinion of Brent DiCrecenzo’s writing is petulant. It just shows that he uses his words to tear people down, and when clueless of what something means, to spin a load of bullshit that means, in the end, nothing of relevance.

So to Brent, I say thank you for showing me what a gracious and talented writer you are. Keep writing that fiction, it should sell tons.

Me, I’m not buying.

Update 6/24/10 I’m adding the Soulwax mix of “You Wanted a Hit” as part of my music series…

Shut UP!!!

I’ve been gone a while. I’ve had a bit to deal with and sort out, so sorry. But I have a small rant I must get off my chest.
I get on the bus on Monday to go to my friends house, and the woman who boarded right in front of me struck up a conversation with the driver. A loud conversation. About how great her 30 day CTA pass was. And why the $20 pass would leave her stranded. And that’s why the 30 day pass was so great. And that it expired at 2:44pm that afternoon. And how she was so glad her friend told her about the 30 day pass. And so on. It was riding with a loud, obnoxious and completely socially unaware Miss Daisy.
Okay, great you found some convenience in your sad life lady, but telling the bus driver and everyone else on the bus about it at the top of your lungs is not necessary, nor welcome. For that matter, you are not even supposed to talk to the driver protractedly, as it could risk an accident. On she went, from the moment she boarded at Elmdale all the way down Broadway. The best part: the driver was encouraging the conversation, and kept talking to the lady.
Finally as the bus approached Foster, and after a brief moment when we thought she had nothing more to say, she kicked right back in to the 30 day pass love fest. I had sat silent for 15 minutes, but frustrated and annoyed, I let loose a very loud ‘eeeeNOUGH! SHUT UP!’ And yet, the only acknowledgment I received from this woman was her outstretched hand, as if she was saying ‘oh no, I’m not done, be quiet now’. She gave me the hand. And she finished her ramble to the bus driver! The bitch!
After she finished, the bus driver asked if there was a problem, and Miss Daisy herself turned around and asked the same thing. I simply said that the loud conversation was distracting, inappropriate in volume and I didn’t like that it was interfering with my bus ride. Then the guy sitting one seat behind me, who was also quite annoyed at the woman and her loud talking, chimed in “And you’re not supposed to talk to the driver for safety reasons. So stop talking.”
The woman looks at both of us, and then simply stated, ‘I’m sorry you two are having a bad day, but I can talk to whomever I want.”
At this moment I was losing it. I blurted back, “Not when it’s distracting to the rest of the riders. I don’t care about your 30 day pass, I don’t want to listen to you go on about it anymore!”
“Are you done?” she haughtily remarked back.
“Are YOU done?” was my snappish retort.
“Are you done?” was her reply.
I was. I stood up, as we finally reached Foster and had stopped, spat sharply “Fuck you, I’ve had it, I’ll walk,” and stomped my way off the bus. As I looked to the driver, who seemed completely oblivious about why there may be some angry passengers, I stopped and asked “What is your number?”, pointing to her shoulder where her driver’s number was. She looked at me, turned her shoulder away from me, and pointed to the front of the bus with a curt ‘it’s there.’ All the while, Miss Daisy was now screeching unintelligibly, loud enough I could hear her half a block down as I walked away.
So to miss loud and obnoxious on the 36 Broadway bus on Monday, May 31 at 1:04pm heading southbound, with driver number R285 egging you on, I say shut the hell up. And to the CTA, who after I left a message to voice my complaint about this whole fiasco, and they never called back, I say fuck you. You don’t care that some screeching crazy was distracting one of your drivers, causing a commotion, and annoyed other passengers. The driver didn’t care that she was violating CTA safety guidelines designed to protect the rest of us. And you obviously can’t be bothered to contact a customer who voiced a concern and complaint because it would look too much like you actually cared about what the rider/customer thinks.
Oh yeah, and you owe me $30 for new sandals since I ruined mine having to walk in the rain because of this whole fiasco. I’ll be expecting the check in the mail.