the pop culture ramblings of a lunatic.
Music
The Top 50 Albums of the Decade (Part One)
Dec 23rd
my friends & i had an argument the other night. drunkenly slouched into the cushions of my couch I rambled about how stand up comedy, aside from zach galifinakis, is more or less dead. It was then that I was presented with an interesting question, “well dan, who is your favorite stand up comedian?” i hesitated for a moment, racked my brain, & spat out “Bill Cosby.”
it seemed too easy, pretentious even, to simply say “bill cosby.” after all, the man is a legend. i was stumped by my own psyche for a few moments. what compelled me to say “bill cosby?” it took a few minutes & another beer before I realized: bill cosby has a frame of reference. his material stands the test of time.
i think that’s an important concept when related to these bullshit “best of the 00’s” list. especially the ones that have albums from THIS FUCKING YEAR. but alas, i fuckin’ digress, y’know? because for some reason, when i couldn’t sleep last night, i opened notepad on my computer and began to frantically assemble a top ten albums of the 00’s list. i don’t know why. maybe it was the sleep deprivation. or maybe subconsciously, at the end of this decade, as the loose ends are being pulled together tight, i feel a reason to take the mosaic mish-mash of albums that i love & adore & assemble them into an organized manner that makes sense to me.
nah, fuck that. it wasn’t that at all. in fact, my top 10 list soon expanded into a top 150 list. & i found myself thinkin’ “wow, there was a lot of real good shit this decade.” it seems obvious when i prompt myself to talk about it, but so many cats these days whine and moan about the decline of modern music. those cats are just too dumb & lazy to think or look & therefore, don’t deserve good music to begin with.
this list is a gigantic middle finger to those people.
so, what lies below is a labyrinth of text explaining why these albums are important. maybe you’ll see one that you dig, if you do, leave a comment because i’d love to talk about it. maybe you’ll see something you should check out, if you do, let me know and i’ll burn you a CD. or, maybe you’ll see a mess of narcissistic, self-referential bullshit. maybe you won’t read it at all, & after a little while, after it’s forgotten, it will cease to exist. i dunno. i’m not a fucking mind reader.
so, if you do indulge, enjoy. these are the best albums of the 00’s
dan luke.
On Elvis Presley, Television & Socialized Healthcare.
Dec 19th
Sometimes when I get really stoned I like to think about the universe. You know, the standard stuff: space time continuum’s vacuumed through a black hole, string theory, alternate universes, parallel dimensions. But that stuff is so far away and gigantic that when I get sober (which, I personally believe that sobriety is less a state of normalcy and more a state of bitter apathy) it seems stupid.
So, maybe that’s how I’m wired: I get stoned I think about the universe. When I’m sober, I bitch about people on this planet. A lot of times I feel like my life is just one big arm wrestling match, it seems like regular society is trying to push me out, and I’m trying to push my way in, to dominate. I can’t relate to most people, so I obsess about people. Which leads me to my next point: Sociology, I know this seems like rambling, but just stick with me here. The way I view the world is that it’s just this clusterfucked stew of opinions, phobias, ideologies, impulses, and various other terms that a psychiatrist will spit at you, as you lay on a couch, murmuring “mmhmm’s,” and “yeah’s,” even though you don’t have any particular clue to what the fuck that psychiatrist may or may not be talking about.
In America, the world is split into republicans and democrats. The republicans being these right wing lunatics that get offended when Elvis wiggles his hips on stage, or freak out when Barrack Obama presents a public health care option, and the democrats being these beatnik, over-regulatory assholes. Look at both Elvis and Health care, how television has created this huge snowball of publicity for both: with Elvis there was the birth of a new social standard, a new culture of leather jackets, jive talking, pink cardigan wearing bimbos, and basically every other caricature from grease. Yet people couldn’t handle the future-shock, or the fact that this was something, that whether they liked it or not, would eventually become their culture.
Fuck the RIAA.
May 21st
I remember watching an interview with Harvey Diamond. He was speaking on behalf of animal rights. Harvey argued,
“Put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit. If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I’ll buy you a new car.”
But I always found that argument to be unfair. I mean, the apple is ready to go, but I’d probably want to slice the rabbit to apart with a machete and then skin, smoke, and salt it (and then drape the intestines over myself as some sort of coat to keep warm). I figure then I’d have a delicious smoked rabbit as well as an apple.
I hate black and white thinkers like that. People that don’t consider the alternatives for each one of the problems we face every day and the willingness to adapt, try new things, and eventually (if we don’t shelter ourselves enough) evolve. The reason I bring this up is because of this: Fuck the RIAA.
New Nine Inch Nails Album
May 5th
Just so you all know: After weeks of teasing Trent Reznor just dropped his new NIN album today for free. I’m in the process of checking it out now!
If you’re into the cool new experimental style that the group is embracing you should really check it out. I’ll have a full write up on it Thursday.
Head over to http://theslip.nin.com to download it.
Give My Reguards to the Dead Hippies in the Trunk of My Car.
Aug 2nd
Indie kids are a rare breed . The scene is like the perfect balance of scummy skaters and dirty, chi-balancing, tree-fucking hippies. Personally I love it to death, but it leaves me with so many questions. Why do all Indie girls dress like teenage victims from 1970’s slasher movies? Why do we all have to wear Thurston Moore sunglasses? Why does Kim Gordon look like Iggy Pop with tits? And why is there a mass Indie Kid exodus to Pitchfork Music Festival every single year?
These questions are hard. But every single year I find myself amidst LSD guzzling hippies listening to music no one has ever heard of, smoking too much pot, and drinking too much malt liquor.
It’s a nice experience. There’s good music and there’s terrible music. There are hulking gangster rap stars performing in front of 15,000 gangly, dreadfully pale and skinny Indie kids. Gleefully playing along as if they aren’t gangly, dreadfully pale, skinny Indie kids.
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