A list of bands and artists that I think would appeal to robots:
Animal Collective, Daft Punk, Battles, Merzbow, Meshuggah, Born of Osiris, Brian Eno, Mozart
Yesterday morning I was awoken at 6:00 in the morning by a sound that I was pretty sure was either an air raid or an alien invasion. But I was tired so I ignored it and went back to sleep. Then an hour later, the noise was back, as well as a few messages on my phone about avoiding the beach today, and hey, there’s a tsunami coming to Hawai’i by the way.
The fact that this tsunami turned out to be something of a dud didn’t keep the entire morning from being bizarre in a way similar to so many days in the aftermath or foreboding of some horrible thing. Watching the same simple images, being given the same limited facts, for hours on end; waiting for something more informative, more interesting to happen; eventually giving up and putting on the Olympics.
It’s slightly disturbing that I, that we are so easily distracted from situations that could potentially become serious disasters. It’s very disturbing that this is obviously the doing of the inane and sensationalist news media. And also I will have the image of shifting waters in Hilo Bay burned into my eyes for a long time.
(image via)
Tosin Abasi and his 8-string Guitar
Animals as Leaders is one of my new favorite bands in the world. Very cool, ethereal shred rock. Pretty much what Steve Vai wishes he could be. One of the really cool things is it’s the first time I’ve heard something really worthwhile being done with the eighth string on a guitar.
Meshuggah play 8-strings, but they really only do that for the sake of having a really low string. They’d do better to just play sevens tuned down a fifth. Ihsahn has started playing an 8 recently, and his new album is totally fantastic. Abasi, on the other hand, is a serious guitar player using every single one of those strings.
I demoed an 8-string once myself. Really, good on anyone who can comfortably play one at all, says I.
Superbowl Ads
Preface: Woo all right, go Saints.
Now, moving on, as you may have heard, CBS turned down a totally PG gay dating ad as being inappropriate to air during the Super Bowl. This was of course total nonsense in and of itself; there was nothing inappropriate for public consumption going on there, especially considering some of the other ads that did make it on the air, and the fact that the much more controversial, and manifestly hateful group Focus on the Family did get their pro-life ad aired. That said, a couple factors make the situation less of a clear-cut discrimination case.
Firstly, the Focus on the Family ad was so bland and vague as to be barely worth noting. The only problem with it is that Focus on the Family exist at all and have the money to spend on a Super Bowl ad. If you weren’t paying attention, you would have no idea that the ad was for anything controversial at all.
Second, there was other distinctly gay content on other ads, specifically in those by GoDaddy.com. So the problem here is not that CBS doesn’t want to have gay stuff on their network, it’s that they’re a little picky about it. However, it happens that there’s still a couple issues with the gay stuff they were for, as opposed to the stuff they were against.
In two GoDaddy ads, hot women were all about starting some “too hot for TV” makeouts with Danica Patrick. On the one hand, not bad because hey, they’re saying sometimes women make out and that’s cool. On the other, the fact that this was okay (even though it was implied rather than shown) while light-petting by two fully dressed guys was not feeds the girl-girl is okay because men find it sexy, boy-boy is bad because men find it gross standard.
In another, Danica ponders what the effect of a sexy picture of her on the internet would be, and one of the effects is two clearly gay men annoyed at each other - read: both members of this gay couple are both checking out the hot lady and they are as such jealous. This shares a problem with the movie Chasing Amy in that it implies that gayness can always be overcome by the right opposite sex person, but it does have the potentially redeeming factor of showing gay people distinctly and without (overt) judgment of any kind, but not as the central point of anything, something that is generally missing from most media.
All in all, GoDaddy.com and CBS both come off as needing a distinct adjustment in their gay-o-meter, but at least we’ve come a little ways since some average dudes were grossed out by their own Snickers-inspired gayness during the Super Bowl.
Now, sexism in the ads, that’s a whole other story that makes me too mad to even start on. So I’ll just leave on the note of the Budweiser commercial that made me tear up with happiness
“Rainbow Connection” with Kermit and Debbie Harry
Based on my observations, I’d say there are an adequate number of songs regarding rainbows.
— Matt HaugheyIt may not be the prettiest version, but at least A) it doesn’t leave me in a puddle of tears and snot and B) it’s got Debbie Harry lookin’ all cute and Michelle Pfeiffery but way cooler and C) a Muppet Show audience loves to laugh.
This is my birthday present.
