I speaketh not another word!

Call or text me after you see it. I just got my phone turned back on.

Working in the entertainment industry, you really see how much waste there is in this country. The sheer amount of food alone that is trashed is painful to look at.

That song was nice. Not original in any way, shape, or form, but nice. Do people think he's doing something new and exciting or do they appreciate his considerable ability to mimic the sound and vibe of several talented artists before him? I know that sounds like a snobby dig, but I was just expecting something that would, at the very least, offend or disinterest me instead of something that made me say, "Oh, nice." /small smile

/small shrug

EDIT: Holy fuck, this post is long. Sorry...

I've felt a general disconnect from popular music in the main for the last several years (yeah, yeah this guy is "fringe" but he's popular because of it). Perhaps that long-standing malaise is bleeding over into my musings on this artist.

A point by point response:

1. I think it depends on what you see as "original" in music. I think it's a cop out, in any art form, to say "Originality is dead, everything has been done." If we're able to break new ground in every other aspect of humanity, why must the forward momentum in any art, especially music, be termed dead? Every musician I've truly enjoyed was original to me in some way. Hell, Sinatra is still one of my favorites and he's as old as rocks at this point musically. He will never stop being an original though, and I suppose that's where fandom comes in.

2. He looks and sounds like thousands of "hippies" (read: kids who rebel against successful parents by pretending they're homeless) that ask me for change every day. The only thing that excites in me is feeling of disinterest and mild dislike. I know it's bad to judge a book by it cover and all that, but walking the streets of Hollywood has pounded that into me.

3. Sure, revivals are great. I love them too. I was just under the impression that he was supposed to be this true original, someone who tested the bounds of musicality in this day and age. This keeps happening to me with artists of this ilk recently. People are freaking out over them and I'm thinking, "Yeah? It's a great duplicate of music that's come before. Don't you people turn the radio off every once in a while?"

4. I used to do a fair Morrison when I was 17. I aimed for it. Him and Vedder. When I was 17.

5. No, I haven't. I figured you'd give me the best representation of what he has to offer. Does he vary widely from that style? I'm pretty sure he sings in English occasionally right? Actually, I'm not sure at all. Does he?

Bear in mind most of this is typed at least somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Most music these days makes me feel like a crotchedy old man because I just don't understand what is appealing about it. I kind of suck that way, I guess.

Ha! I knew you'd attack my enjoyment of the trifle that is SYTYCD. Comparing music and television is like comparing fine eateries with Denny's in many folks' minds. I'm not quite there, since some of the most musically snobbish people I know love some of the "shittiest" television out there. It's all subjective.

And, as you said, what do you do when you just like something? I like a shitty TV show, you like a shitty recording artist. What is there to be done?

It's all in the packaging. A lot of what is sold as indie these days bores the living fuck out of me, because it seems the major labels are scrambling so hard to counteract and mesh with the internet anyone with some street cred, a bad haircut, and a hot girlfriend can get a record deal. Well, I suppose that's not much different from the way it's always been. It's just that the street cred gets smaller, the bad haircuts get worse, and the hot girlfriends get hotter (that last part boggles my mind).

Then again, it's all cyclical, I suppose. We've been down these roads before, a hundred times over, and we'll be down them again. That's why nothing is new, right? Because the old patterns work so well (caveat to the cop-out)

Which comes down to hating the game over the player. We're on the same side, we just fight different battles.

S'cool. Aspen is in it. That makes me smile.

I don't hear from you FOR MONTHS and now you're pounding away!

I've been busy.

This is a stone cold DISS! I'm still reading but daaaaaaaaaaaaaag

That's why the winky-emoticon is there.

In 5 words what is this reality show about?

Real talent equals good television

I'm disqualifying you

Is that a good or a bad thing?

Remember I'm generally musically retarded these days.

PS- It's hardly a reality show. It's a talent competition show. I think those two genres need to be split up again.

Get the fuck out of here. Come on, we're adults here! TELL ME. Why, are you ashamed ??

I swear to you, I honestly just did. But if you don't like dance that's cool.

Yeah, sadly my music tastes make me look like either 85 year old man or a confused 30 year old. You pick which one you think is correct.

It's so odd to me. I was in a band in high school. I listened to music constantly. It surrounded me. And then, one day, I stopped listening. New music bored me and my old favorites reminded me too much of what I had been and what I had lost.

I reconnected recently with it, but music will never again be what it was to me. As you stated, I apparently have no "indie-cred" and that generally makes my opinions moot. Because only people that listen to albums that were pressed (yes, actually pressed on vinyl) in some emo-haircutted dude's garage and enjoy them or folks that download the newest, baddest, cutting-edgest tune off the tubez and use their iPhones to send it to each other know what real music sounds like these days.

Which makes me glad that I don't really like music anymore. One-upmanship was one thing when it was about proving you knew how many Dwarves albums had tits on them. Now I don't even have the technology to one-up someone. That just makes me go back to my television.

I still love Eddie, even though he and I have taken much different life-paths from what I originally envisioned.

Ah, the old "fake and staged" argument, eh? My taste in music is the equivalent to the boring and old brought by that argument.

These aren't people who cannot dance trying to fake you into thinking they can. These are trained dancers, who have made their lives revolve around the craft, doing everything they can to push themselves to the next level. It's the fucking Olympics of dance for the masses.

I'm really not that negative on myself.

I just don't get music these days. Lots of folks seem to think that is a huge disfunction on my part.

I'm not sure we've discussed your Eddie connection before. It does sound familiar (haunting ) but who knows?

There are multiple reasons why I enjoy interacting with you. This exchange has highlighted several of them.

Yes, I came of age (as it were) during the great grunge revolution. That music spoke to me more than I thought was possible, and perhaps forever ruined me on other forms of the stuff.

I too found a re-interest in groups like the Strokes, but I had been spoiled by bands that were unafraid to break out of the mold they had first become successful in and try new and "dangerous" paths. I supposed when artists keep to the same thing over and over I feel like they are cheating me almost as much as they are cheating themselves. But that gets down to the core of what defines an artist, and I'm not interested in going there. It's way too personal for me to pretend like I have any of the answers. I just know what I like.

And your admission of technical ineptitude makes me feel a bit better indeed. Sometimes I feel like it's me and everyone over 70 that doesn't have time for this new-fangled stuff. To be fair, I own an iPod shuffle, but it was a gift (one that I enjoy) not something I would ever think to buy for myself. It's filled with Sinatra tunes, an old Beastie Boys album, most of Feist's stuff (that's about as recent as it gets for me), a bunch of Brazilian music, and more shit most people never listen to anymore.

I miss Kurt too. It's hard not to think "what if?"

PS- I wish I could feel you on the hip-hip thing but most of that music just makes me get the dork feeling.