Kanye West – Avant Garde?

Usually, I don’t watch the Grammys, but stumbled upon this year’s show. After the Kanye West “incident” at the Grammys, I’ve had this Beck song “Where It’s At” in my head, constantly. And that’s a good thing. Beck is “where it’s at!” A real artist. Original, honest. I feel the truth in his work. I’ve been into him for years.

It makes me want to pull my own teeth out when I hear pop entertainers, who need more than five people to work on one dumbass and hackneyed song, proclaim that they’re artists. While some true artists find their way into the hearts of the masses – Sly Stone, Prince, Stevie Wonder — having a fan base made up solely of the masses makes you nothing more than a commercial product. A writer for ‘Black Voices’ in the Huffington Post spoke of “socially constructed” pop stars, specifically referring to Beyonce: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-lute/dangerously-in-denial_b_6666334.html. But some pop stars do transcend into another strata because of the phenomenon of deification, when the masses turn you into a goddess or a god.

I wonder if Kanye West will ever see the error of his obnoxious ways. I kind of feel sorry for him, because I can see his desperation in trying to be “an artist”. But I don’t see where he actually is an artist. After the thing he pulled on Beck, and after reading about some of his delusional quotes, he just looks like a big baby, pathetically clinging to fame. And I wish people would stop patronizing him saying he’s a madman, implying some kind of genius. He’s someone interested in making a whole bunch of money who started believing in their own hype, and in what the masses were saying to him. Because he does have the support of the commercial industry and of the masses — pop entertainer clout — people who follow trends, and whatever pabulum happens to be marketed to them will be interested, no matter that it’s common bullshit. I don’t have a problem with common bullshit, and I like a lot of pop music. While I appreciate originality more, lying on the floor while performing doesn’t make you avant-garde, if what you’re singing or rapping about is common. Oh well, keep trying.

What do you all think about Kanye West interrupting Beck’s moment at the Grammys?

Now, this Beck song – it’s where it’s at!

Where Else Do I Post Selfies and Shoddy Phone Pictures Since I’m Not On Facebook Anymore (For Now)?

My previous post was about having cooties. This one’s about recovery. It was nothing serious, but I’m still certainly under the weather. Today was the first time I felt motivated to clean my apartment and go for a walk in my neighborhood. It was just the kind of look I liked outside, but colder than I’d thought.

I only just know how to make quinoa for dinner, so while I waited for my quinoa to finish cooking, I thought I’d post the pictures from my walk that I took with my new smartphone that I bought to replace my old-school Nokia. Really, the pictures don’t look much better than those sad ones I used to post with my low-tech phone.

But I like the sidewalk panel one because it reminds me of Gregory Crewdson. You can google image his work with light and panels and that sort of thing. I have a lot of nerve even uttering his name in the same paragraph including a description of a picture I took with a camera phone — haha! Oh, and I do like the one with the frozen river. The first one in the third row I took because I was actually trying capture this tall, thin man walking in front of me — I liked the imagery of his figure on that block — he walked fast and I couldn’t really get him. Don’t pay any mind to the stupid plastic bag in one of my photos of the trees in the park.

And of course since I’m not on Facebook anymore (for now anyway) I had to include selfies — where else am I gonna post selfies now? There’s one happy and one sad, to represent me with cooties and without.

I apologize but boredom brings out my vanities. So, in the end, I do feel better, and I did manage to burn my quinoa. By the way it’s 3am, and I should be crawling into bed soon. Goodnight…

The Cooties

My adorable nephews gave me cooties again. Last week I visited, and here I am a week later still sick. I thought it was a cold, but it could be bacterial. I’m going to my doctor tomorrow.

Though they flipped around like normal three and seven year old boys, I was constantly blowing the three year old’s nose, and the seven year old had the remnants of something from the week before, but he managed the snot better.

During my visit, I couldn’t teach the older nephew to play chess without the three year old flailing his arms at the pieces, with a constant stream of snot coming out of his nose. “Let’s make him ‘King of the Chess Game’,” proclaims my brilliant older nephew, with the idea of sitting his little brother in a chair above us, telling him that as ‘King of the Chess Game’, his job was to move our pieces. It worked for a bit. I counted three times that I had to blow ‘The King’s’ nose. The whole time I’m thinking, “Whatever this is – I’m getting it.”

On the “benefits” of being sick… I got a personal reply from a reputable journal saying “…this isn’t a standard rejection.” They praised my story, but can’t publish it at this time. They said I should send other work. If not for being homebound, and motivated by the “praise,” I might not be bothered to finish this other story that I started last year.

Another “benefit” of being homebound – movies. The first one — Sharknado! I’m a fan of absurdity, and in the movie, there were sharks climbing stairs, sharks on the highway, and of course, sharks in tornado funnels. And the ending – sublime ridiculousness! And I seriously loved Tara Reid and Ian Ziering (Pronounced eye-on – even better!) in this movie.

The second movie that I saw was Shampoo – totally sexy but deeper than that – and Warren Beatty was hot, of course.

I only saw the last half hour of this third movie. I don’t know if I could have handled the whole thing. I saw it in ’89. Glory with Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman, is about the black 54th regiment during the Civil War. While netflix reviewers mostly gave this movie five stars, one person gave it one star saying, “Man’s inhumanity to man was too much for me. I saw only about fifteen minutes of the film.” I relate. The last half hour that I saw included a pre-battle talk that Broderick’s character gave to the men. I’m thinking, “No don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry…” Finally, tears came, but what caused the gusher was the background music slowly infused into the scene – the Harlem Boy’s Choir — that did it! Thinking of my nephew’s sweet little voice didn’t help.

The final battle scene – hard to watch but riveting. Here’s that snippet from the Harlem Boy’s Choir – you’ll see what I mean:

Oh My God, I Kissed A Killer.

You don’t have to watch TV to know what’s actually on television, or what the latest thing in commercial industry happens to be. I knew Katy Perry’d be doing the Super Bowl. I recalled Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl,” a song that I hadn’t heard entirely, but entirely knew at the same time.

It’s standard commercial pop — I think her songs could be nice tampon commercials. They’re generic that way. I’m not a fan of Beyonce either, but I like Rihanna because she has a personality — I’ll just leave it at that.

So I go to youtube to listen to that corny ditty, “I Kissed A Girl,” and oh my god this other song comes up called “I Kissed a Killer” — now we’re talking!

I love this song. It’s old I think because she talks about meeting someone on aol — aw, cute!

I was hoping when I saw the title that it’d follow the pattern of the Perry song and be all like “I kissed a killer and I liked it,” but the lyrics are pre that song so it’s got its own lyrics. Yay! Here’s my new favorite song, “I Kissed a Killer:”