Preview for the Arcade Fire in the LA Record – not online at the moment. I also wrote a preview for them of the Tussle gig, but they ended up running an interview of said band instead. Can’t say I’m dissapointed – the more press for a band like Tussle the better.
Review of the Avey Tare/Kria Brekken album for the new Long Beach (currently on-line only) magazine District. Edited by all around good dude, Chris from the OC Weekly and LA Record, I’ve got high hopes for this publication.
I’m about 50 pages into the new Haruki Murakami book and, like most of Murakami’s work, I’m drawn to the small bits of Americana and western culture that permeates his writing. Despite having read a bunch of his translated work, I’ve yet to pinpoint what it is that gives his work that Murikami-ness that is so pleasant to read – and no, I’m not talking about his fantastical plot elements and science fiction wackiness, since that’s only working for him some of the time.
I do like that one of the characters in the book plays the trombone, which seems like a motif cropping up in his work (not simply American jazz, but the trombone itself). I flip-flop regularly, but I’m pretty sure my favorite short story of all time is “Tony Takitani” for it’s startling simplicity. In it, Tony’s father is also a jazz trombonist. Hmmm….
In any case, I was drawn to the current novel’s explanation of why this character plays the trombone:
“When I was in middle school, I happened to buy a jazz record called Blues-ette at a used record store. An old LP. I can’t remember why I bought it at the time. I had never heard jazz before. But anyway, the first tune on Side A was ‘Five Spot After Dark,’ and it was great. A guy named Curtis Fuller played the trombone on it. The first time I heard it, I felt the scales fall from my eyes. That’s it, I thought. That’s the instrument for me. The trombone and me: it was a meeting arranged by destiny.”
It blew my mind reading this namely because I finally bought Blues-ette while in Chicago last month. My visit to the Jazz Record Mart led me to an oversized vinyl bag filled with jazz gems that were long overdue in my personal collection. Fuller is truly astounding on this, and when Murakmi’s two characters hum the opening bars of “Five Spot After Dark,” I’m right there with them. One of the moodiest, instantaneously catchy songs you’re going to find. I’ve been playing this album continuously in my class the last few weeks; it’s likely that many students’ impressions of “jazz” will be made primarily by the magic of Blues-ette.
The book’s other references so far are also telling, aforementioned trombonist wants to be in a band like Tower of Power (awesome), female protagonist questions the naming of a love hotel “Alphaville” (Godard references always make me tingle) and Ben Webster is innocuously playing on a stereo in a bar. Did I mention the opening of the book takes place in a Denny’s? I realize that there are several critics that have questioned Murakami’s fetishization of western culture; is this why hipster kids like Murakami so much? Though such a discussion is one for a lengthier debate I will say that Murakami’s style is iconic and one that cannot be trivialized by his occasional use of culture signals for the pop enthusiast.
Previews of Lily Allen and DJ Z-Trip for the LA Record.
Yawn.
I really wanted to like Cora Daniels’s latest book, Ghettonation. I wanted to, but I didn’t. And when I condemn the book’s stabs at humor, meandering footnotes, and unnecessary glossary of ghetto-isms it’s not a wry attack on a book I didn’t enjoy. On the contrary, I wanted this book to succeed and found these wearisome attributes to continue to cloud or overcast any relevance I could attain from the text.
Picking up the book for a top-secret project I am partially involved in, I’ll say I had an invested interest in gaining any insight into the concept of “ghetto” from the text. Teaching in South Central, growing up in the past two decades, and simply being immersed in hyper-media youth culture, I felt like I understood what “ghetto” means, but was hoping for a more dynamic, nuanced explanation to phenomena of society’s embrace of all things “ghetto.” After all, this is something I see my students embodying (or at least trying to embody) daily. The gigantic white t-shirt, jeans, and white sneakers is the ghetto uniform 101, with varying accessories optional. This kind of self-reflective paragraph that you, the reader, are currently scanning is exactly the kind of text that makes Ghettonation so frustrating. The personal narrative that Daniels employs is not the best for a universal examination of “ghetto.” The frame is too limited, even through the author’s knowing eyes. Though claiming that “ghetto” is not rooted in a specific class or race, Daniels’ anecdotes and analysis end up legitimizing “ghetto” as predominantly lower class and African American-centric (her examples of Paris Hilton and stomach stapling surgeries not withstanding).
Daniels’ fickle attempts at academic analysis are befuddled and deracinated by attempts at jocularity through “ghetto” vernacular. After lambasting examples of ghetto behavior, Daniels frequently goes for the quick joke by demonstrating her own, occasional (or is that frequent?) ghetto behavior. Nearly every one of these examples is followed by a parenthetical note that, “(I be ghetto).” Cute. Well, it’s cute at least the first time, but the trite utterance is found on nearly every page and, instead of utilizing the juxtaposition as something to build towards an argument, it merely siphons out any heat or momentum an argument may have been gaining.
And then there was the discussion of education. I’ll give credit to Daniels for properly enunciating that “ghetto” is an embracement of low expectations; this is something that frustrates my curriculum daily. I have numerous students wanting nothing more than a “D” in my class so they can graduate – no other aspirations. But what about the hegemonic, class-ist structures that bar our students from success like … oh, say, No Child Left Behind? Daniels has exactly this much to say on the legislation:
“The federal law requires schools to publicly report their performance data for the first time by race and ethnicity. Schools that do not produce acceptable text scores for all students are punished with a variety of economic sanctions.”
That’s it.
In fact, 150 pages into the book (which itself is just shy of 200 pages in length) I was ready to finally give up. But the latest chapter’s title was “School Me” and I knew – I knew – that this was going to be filled with intellectual gems. And what did I learn here? I learned that, according to Daniels, the problem with our educational system can be summed up by the fact that our students are “living for the moment” and not worried about their futures (see, low expectations). But is that it?? Why isn’t the past invoked here? What about the fact that our students have had probably a decade’s worth of shoddy teachers by the time they graduate? That the school system – at least in an urban “high poverty, high minority” area (as official district data likes to call it) – deliberately frustrates and breaks our students. That the bridge from schools to prisons is seen daily as I watch student after student handcuffed in front of the school for laws like jaywalking and truancy?
I realize I’m ranting here (it’s a blog, after all), but it’s frustrating to see NCLB reduced to a sentence that doesn’t at all encapsulate what this fiasco is all about. It’s also frustrating to see Daniels’ reductionism about why are kids are failing.
Finally, my biggest qualm about Ghettonation is its lack of really adding anything to “the discourse” as the phrase has been thrown around. In page 192 in the book, Daniels writes, “The time has come for the death of ghetto.” However, Daniels never really convinced the reader that ghetto was “bad” or something that can even be signaled easily and exterminated (“I be ghetto,” remember?). Daniels begins and ends her book with the same aphorism: “I am ghetto. I am not ghetto. I am you.” I don’t get it. I realize this is supposed to be the profound, oh snap, there is no spoon, cut the red wire or blue wire, it was Col. Mustard in the Library with the Candlestick reveal, but it doesn’t mean anything. Daniels conveniently dances around any reasonable challenges, explanations, or critique by figuratively shrugging her shoulders and saying that ghetto is everywhere and nowhere. Slick. If you’re going to write a book called Ghettonation and, at the end of it, you are going to call for “the death of ghetto,” why wouldn’t you actually explain what “ghetto” means, why it is bad, and how to “kill” it? I ask these questions out of frustration. As I said, I really wanted for this book to give me answers – I’ve been grappling with the “ghetto” issue as well.
Ultimately, I’m inclined to think that “ghetto” is class and race based. Even when Daniels pointed to celebs acting ghetto, you have to remember the romantic allure of the lower class. Jarvis Cocker of Brit pop band Pulp sang it best:
“Sing along with the common people,
sing along and it might just get you through,
laugh along with the common people,
laugh along even though they’re laughing at you,
and the stupid things that you do.
Because you think that poor is cool.”
With a week and half of being back on track and a flu like no other (the “El Nino” or Flu weather systems, if you will), I haven’t been up for the usual blogging insight to which you, dear reader, have become accustomed.
In any case, a while ago an editor of mine sent out a query for hip-hop story pitches. Seeing as to how my email was never returned, it looks like my stories aren’t being picked up, which – based on the magazine and my ideas – isn’t unsurprising or even very disappointing. At the same time, I’m still interested in these topics for future writing, if I ever get around to it, though I see little room for the kind of long-form journalism that is of interest to me these days. Removing any pertinent publication names, I’m pasting my original email to my editor for the sake of posterity and for tracking of rejected article topics. Bon appetite.
[Editor],
I hope you are doing well. I have a couple of hip-hop ideas for stories that would be longer than a typical profile:
Hip-Hop and the State of the Aging Artist: Basically, I’m interested in looking at how “the rap game” has changed. Hip-hop is legitimately old at this point, and Jeff Chang’s review of Jay-Z’s last album (for the Nation of all publications!) highlighted the way that Jigga has become an aging business mogul, out of touch with his listening audience. Granted, hip-hop is full of artificial bravado and grandstanding, Jay-Z’s lyrical content is about being well past his 20s and enjoying the life of a middle-aged man. Looking at other artists that are still working through popular hip-hop outlets (Common, De La Soul, Ghostface, god knows how many other artists), maybe now is the time for a reanalysis of hip-hop and what “the game” is all about. Is this a genre maturing or merely a few artists getting out of touch with the lyrical conventions that are required to hook an audience? [Editor], I realize this sounds academic, but I was hoping to write this as a roundtable with a couple of writers (Hopefully Jeff Chang since he talks about this issue directly) and a handful of artists and kind of see if a new definition of what hip-hop is comes out of the discussion.
Another idea I was interested in was the role of the guest spot on hip-hop albums these days. Look at El-P’s guests, they’re ridiculous (as much as I love the album): Cat Power? Yo La Tengo? Mars Volta?? Common is recording a song with Lily Allen? Saul Williams’ next record is produced by Trent Reznor? Timbaland with Fall Out Boy? I feel like the guest artist has become the equivalent of the iTunes celebrity playlist. These guests help define who the artists is more so than chosen beats or lyrical content. I’m thinking an article talking to a few artists (El-P, Common, maybe someone like MIA?) and a few sidebars illustrating how guest spots have changed over time?
Lastly, could we look at hip-hop’s political relevance today? 15 years ago (give or take) Ice Cube called rap Black America’s CNN. And though Dead Prez and the Coup still do the Dead Prez and Coup thing, who else is advocating for social and political change? Is anyone even listening? Again, a roundtable format seems most appropriate with sidebars looking at the history of social critique in hip-hop (Hell, Grandmaster Flash just got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and they started this whole thing with “The Message”).
I realize these articles sound conceptual, but I’d be happy to make them specific, if you’re interested. I’ve been trying to actively avoid the pitch yr favorite artist thing, and these are ideas I’m genuinely interested in at the moment.Hope everything’s going well,
Etc…
If you thought all teachers have it bad, take a look at the ridiculousness that is Physical Education. The current P.E. teacher for my Small Learning Community has classes exponentially larger than his indoor peers. Just try providing a meaningful learning experience to a class that is 108 students large (actual class size for a current P.E. class). On top of this, be aware of the other P.E. classes of equal size congregating in one of the dilapidated gyms or on the asphalt or field. Arm this overwhelmingly large body of 9th and 10th graders with soccer and basketballs and imagine the ensuing chaos.
Sounds bad? That’s not even the half of it. The real problem right now is the number of ditchers. Because there are so many kids in the P.E. area it’s prime ditching real estate – most teachers don’t know who their students are (their rosters are several pages long) and it’s an all too easy task of simply blending in. On a random day our P.E. teacher did a count of students that were ditching and acting as a part of his class. Final count? 66! We’re now talking about upwards of 200 students per teacher (ten times the size of a freshman English class)! Additionally, though I don’t understand the reasons (probably under the auspices of “campus safety”) our school locks the P.E. area once classes are in session each day. You have this gigantic mob of students not getting exercise done, you have the ditching riff raff (usually a mish mash of honeymoon couples looking for a place to make out, taggers, crew members, and generally disenfranchised members of our campus), a few burnt out teachers, and a couple of shifty-eyed security guards clutching radios for backup at a moment’s notice. The situation seems not only like a waste of time (considering that students are required to take two years of P.E. – we are concerned about the student’s health, after all), but a situation full of dangerous potential.
This isn’t physical education. This is a holding pen for our youth.
I feel like there is some journalistic flotsam out there somewhere that’s I’m forgetting about, but for now current issue of the LA Record has a review of Lavender Diamond’s show last week and a preview of the Walkmen’s show for which the Ol’ Lady and I head out for momentarily.
Went down to SD to see the Arcade Fire on Thursday, though I’m pretty sure I only went so I could raucously sing along to “Wake Up.”
Wanted to make a couple of links easily accessible for when/if I teach the Tipping Point next year.
Actually, if you are interested in the state of public art and Banksy, this link might be interesting.
If you’re curious to hear Gladwell’s take on Freakonomics, then look no further.
And if you are going to be a student in my Expository Composition course next year, I can only imagine how lucky you must feel.
Looks like the LA Record is slowing down on uploading their issues (it’s only one page people!), but I believe I have a Dios Malos preview in the current issue. Head on down to Amoeba and grab a copy … new Bill Callahan and Joanna Newsom albums out today!
Also, I have a few CD reviews in the current (Coachella) issue of Urb. I believe they include the Shout Out Out Out Outs, Mother Mother, and Cornelius. Maybe it’s time for an Urb break?