Archive for the 'Top 10' Category
Top 10 thing to keep my brain busy this week
Ok Ok! I’ll try not to bang on about it!
This time last year podcasting was all I talked about and that was a good time to be be into it. It’s all different now of course, the industry has changed completely and I for one got a little burnt. Youtube poop, without doubt fills the gap - the personal need to explore possibilities and permutations offered by a niche driven by creativity. This time though I’m both the Gary LeLand and the Rob Walsh figure! Building a site (or - dare I say - a social network) and now moderating a forum is so satisfying as realise now that I had very little interaction with my audience in the podcast days and beyond a bit of troll work on Britcaster, very little understanding of the nature on online communities. The whole thing is satisfying and tremendously good fun.
2. Gradulation
I get the results on Tuesday. My parents arrive on Thursday for the big square hat ceremony on Friday. I’m assured that should I fail to pass my degree (likely) I will be able to claim a refund on the price of coach tickets and cloak hire. I will not be able to claim back the £30000 the Jersey’s education service paid for nor the three years of my life I pissed up the wall but what worries me most is what to put on job application letters. I’m so expecting to be able to say “I’m a recent graduate…” on them that I can’t think of any clever spin on “I’ve been at collage for three years - but I failed”.
It’s funny how in times of enormous stress it’s the most mundane things like that which unsettles one the most.
3. Employment
I’m subscribed to the Gumtree rss feed of ALL jobs available in London. About 100 new adverts appear every couple of hours. I look at them carefully - at the phrases like “Maximise your earnings - Become a Nanny” or “This fantastic opportunity is a non paid position” or even “Must be able to travel to America within the next weeks at your own expense”. All I see is exploitation, naivety, dreams being shat on, soul destroying number crunching, hard selling, uniform wearing, plastic smiling crime and PAIN. (So I watch some youtube poops and life is ok again ;).
4. Rome
Another great distraction of life is of course American TV serials. Somewhere along the line the crown television drama was whipped away from under the noses of the BBC and smuggled over to the US where it was given to a cable company called HBO. Thanks to the joy of bit-torrent I’ve been enjoying the entire first season of Rome which is without doubt the I, Claudius of this decade. Utterly superb - so I’m pretty pissed off that it’s been axed.
5. This blog
Now and then I get little nods and winks from people about this thing. Everyone know that doesn’t serve much real purpose beyond being a place for me to practice writing - which is so important - but it’s the sort of thing that gets mentioned in passing or gets googled by someone. I never really fell in love with blogging or the idea of blogging so it’s just something I do rather than something that Must be done. I just enjoy it because it’s a step up from a notebook; I don’t even worry about doing it properly.
7. Doctor Who
With the finale coming up next Saturday it pretty much now a ‘dead-cert’ that this has been my favourite season to date. Everything i expected David Tennant to be has been delivered, he is as magical to me now, (me being as cynical old hack) as he would have been were I 10 years old. And despite knowing how horrible it must be to work on the series - like most television, and even knowing how it is constructed on the page it still has been - more so this series than ever before something that is for me.
Another joy from demonoid and no I’m not talking about the CGI films. This anime from a few years ago is based on the series of video games of the same name. I don’t watch much anime as I am too lazy to read subtitles but I’ve so enjoyed this little series that whilst I sit here and write this I smile whilst thinking about it. Despite having downloaded the 24 part series in it’s entirety I kind of feel as if I’m watching a daily show which other watch too. Hey, did you see the moogle in last night’s episode? Had they made a ton more it would be great to watch them every day as a 15 minute podcast - I’d even pay for it!
I’m also left wondering why they didn’t make the CGI films more like this.
I’m going to write about this properly later in the week - after I’ve graduated (or not) in order to properly contextualise things but Steve posted the TOA finale this week and it was not only was a historic episode but a really compelling one too. Listening to it made me understand a little better why I liked it - no - why it was so important for me to listen to over the last few years. In a funny way that podcast (rather than it’s author) was more of a friend to me than any of the flesh friends I’ve been at college with. So saying goodbye to it - at this time of my life has the same sadness of saying goodbye to all the suit wearing employees one works with in crappy office job. But that’s not to say I can’t wait to see what kind of media Dupont creates next.
10. Spainful Films
What? I still think about some sad old podcast thing? Well, as it happens yes - but not the podcast thing as such. Let’s not forget that Spainful Films has been going in one form or another since 2002; created when I was unemployed and staving to death in a house in Croydon. The podcast may be over - because lets face facts podcasting is over - but Spainful Films will live on - grow stronger - and take it’s rightful place as the supreme power of the UNIVERSE. Sound familiar?
The top 10 spoils of Pop Goes Lethal part 2 (5-10)
Last time, I was talking about ‘rare’ Mr. Strauss recordings and my enjoyment of finding and listening to them. So instead for this, the second part of a very special top 10, I’m going to concentrate on the other stuff, the stories pictures and other text. If Justin Turner were writing this he’d call it the non-dynamaic-media.
Eyes up front please - Eyes up front…
5. The Mr Strauss Bespoke Essay Writing service.
A seemingly innocent page so easy to dismiss that I ignored it for a good while until I came across other text that reminded me of its existance.
Put simply we are talking the prostitution of writers, and this is the glass window in which Strauss is bent over with a large dildo in hand to demonstrate that he can accept pretty much anything into his well worn writer’s rectum.
Now based upon the system of morals that I subscribe to I’m left thinking, after reading this advert, that this alone is enough to guarantee him a place in hell. Not art hell (which as you know is bad joke version of a cross between Disneyland and Dante’s Inferno) but actual hell. The hell that’s pretty difficult to believe in because it includes the notion of infinity which our brains aren’t big enough to properly process.
Cost varies by assignment. But to give you a sense of approximate range, a five page English paper on a given short story would cost around 40 dollars. The factors involved include how much reading/research I have to do, how much time before the due date I am given the assignment, and how much custom “shaping” is required. By this I mean imitation of voice,etc
For a good while I refused to accept this at face value. It was a joke, the low cost of the service alone proved to me that this was in some way an exercise in situationalism. That he would somehow encode into a rich kid’s essay good reason for that student to be expelled or perhaps even sectioned. (The work as he puts it, of a meaningsmith) A real life excercise in the power of langauage which apart from testing out his subtextual sword (rather than his pork one) on a live subject, would also be cathartic because had he ever employed the services of a writer in this way his own life may have taken a different path.
Getting Paid to Write puts the whole issue into perspective. That rather than being a ’stunt’ it is in fact a living. And that somehow - in my own head at least, getting paid well and regularly to write people’s homework for them is in fact sad a truth of modern life rather than a crime. And I think it’s this that has shaken me the most - that because it goes on rather a lot - and is well paid that makes it ok. That I’m cast as being rather naive (all too common) and should calm myslef down with some hot and sexy hard class A drugs - which as we know everyone takes these days.
6. An image folder that goes on forever
I’ve only managed to skim the surface of this one. But there is enough here to keep anyone busy. A lot of it seems to be the component parts of html home pages experiments gone by, but seen here - bit by bit, is all rather rewarding. 5 minutes worth of clicking to see bits of corners of web pages and suddenly one comes across this.
Perhaps this entire “website being free for all to see” incident is in fact an artistic retrospective. There is also a hell of a lot of rubbish though.
Those of you enjoyed my story about podcasting Speakers Corner will probably enjoy this even more because it’s written by someone who, as we’ve established, is a fair bit more talented in the field of writing than I am.
Just read it.
8. I believe that certain authority-type figures want to kill me.
A truly amazing document that serves to effectivly demostrate a damaged sense of reason brought about by drug use but with a clever twist - it’s not he drugs that bring about the paranoia but those that police them. What’s super clever here is it reads like an anti-suicide note.
I am not now nor have I ever been suicidal.
I am extremely cautious in my driving and as a pedestrian.
“So, if I die mysteriously, call bullshit, alright?”
And much like the bespoke homework writing service we are left wondering how true this is document is. Hardly any examples of dishonesty are evident anywhere else on the site (that I could find) so once again I’m left shocked into believing that this is as is.
And then, in a final stamp of ’sample’ it ends “God Bless America, Daniel Cohron Osborne.” A reassurance that all is well and it’s all been a work of fiction, if not a fiction on page then at the very least a fiction in the head of it’s author.
I sounds all very cliché, I know, but it succeeds for me as a piece of art because the only way to prove if it actually art of not is by the death of its author. It’s also quicker to get through than the film ‘A Beautiful Mind’ and seems far less compromised or contrived.
In a similar vein to 8 - but reworked for audio, this recording plays like a confessional diary piece that mutates into a political school lecture. It’s a compelling piece of media because it’s truthful to the subject matter, analytical and but yet it successfully invites the listener to come to their own conclusions and think things through for themselves.
When dealing with the subjects of drugs and civil liberties it’s far too easy to be either preachy or allow personal experience to contaminate rather than inform an argument. This piece only just gets a way with it…
” When I look at the that constitution I don’t see anything in there that suggests that it’s ok for the government to be telling me what plants I can and can’t grow in my garden”
Most importantly, and to place it back into the context of where it came from (i.e. - this audio recording was probably recorded as material for the pop goes lethal podcast and was not recorded in order that it be hung in a gallery.) this effectively demonstrates what media, or podcasts, or art could and should be about if they taught integrity in schools rather than whatever the fuck it is they teach in schools - especially poignant given that the kids homework is being written by Strauss himself. Do they even read what it is they are handing in and their rich daddy paid for?
Have you seen this? It’s fucking ‘orrid.
Now as you know I love the music Mr. Strauss and Komputadora but not all at once!
This webpage is so bad it deserve commendation. I don’t understand what’s going on here at all. I can’t believe this was ever a properly functioning webpage so full that it is of html nonsense it really is something of a miracle that it loads anything at all.
It’s worth bearing in mind that I’m looking at it in safari and if you take a look at it in firefox it’s not quite as bad as all that but it’s still demostrates some of the most evil things (including FRAMES) that I thought had been outlawed after the 2.0 purge of bad internet practice.
So this page reminds us that stuff like this still goes on and you don’t need to look to geocities to find it.
It doesn’t seem right to leave it at that. Website Nazi-ism is very unbecoming so let’s cleanse our palettes with a far nicer page.
Here’s a page my dad would like.
And so as I carry the beach goods and the postcard stand back inside the shop before closing let’s go over what we’ve just experienced and try to understand why it’s news worthy in my little world.
I’ve now spent more time writing this now any other blog post and have enjoyed every minute because it has allowed me to, or rather necessitated me to dwell on a ton of media created by a fellow artist.
I’d argue - I think it’s a very srong argument, that one of the criteria of good art is that it encourages the beholder to make art for themselves. I didn’t sit down to this blog 24 hours ago in order to create some art but rather just to write about something which I thought was important. (I think we’ve already established the relationship that I have with you the reader - that I’d much rather be writing about what I want to say rather than what you want to hear, so I won’t go over all that again). Important to me and therefore important to you if you are anything like me, or interested in the same things that I am into.
And that simple premise of intent to just do something that needs to be done because it feels right or may be good fun is exactly what I’ve been consuming on the pop goes lethal website. It’s the same reason why they build cameras into mobile phones - not for the owners to become a professional photographer or great artists through the medium of digital photography but because it’s fun to take to take some ’snaps’.
So I have written about something with as much depth as I am currently capable of and I have made excuses to myslef as to why I am researching something with far more vigour than anything I were writing for someone else. (Even if paid) . In short this text as not an attempt to create some art, though that may be at some point a by-product of what is instead demonstration of some kind of addiction.
It’s not something I’m worried about because it’s the kind of addiction that promotes that creation of art, or at the very least more blog pages that no one actually reads because they’re reading blogs about the new iphone.
No commentsAll hyperlinks to work on Pop Goes Lethal is copyright 2004 popgoeslethal.com, Eric Strauss and/or Straussoholics Anonymous.
Eric Strauss Reveals Pop Goes Lethal’s Innards
Chances are I’m the only person in the world to be blogging about this but as far as I’m concerned this is far more news worthy than speculation about the latest device to be released by Apple, or whatever other banal nonsense that bloggers blog about when they aspire to bring down Fox news.
Put simply - there is a website, made by an artist (and his friends) which has been locked off to the public for quite some time. A website with contains five years worth of media. And media which dare I say has a lot of artistic merit. Text, songs, audio recordings, pictures, stories…stuff that actually says something to me. Stuff that I can really connect with and that I have learnt from. Stuff that has been hidden away and is now, with no reason given suddenly more available than it ever was before.
The locked off front door has vanished to reveal what’s more like an online hard drive. A jumble sale treasure trove that I at first I couldn’t even comprehend. Who would put all of this stuff on a web server. Thankfully for me Eric Strauss is just the sort of man who would, a Renaissance man who despite his talent - and despite me actually writing to him to tell him that his website’s innards were on display - probably won’t even batter and eye lid. For unlike Podshow’s site being hacked earlier his week it’s far more likely that Strauss actually deleted the popgoeslethal index page himself - either because he didn’t like it any more or perhaps even just to amuse himself.
So as in this very special top ten list I’m going to run off the top ten things that either made me smile, made me scream with joy or made me stop and really think. I think I’ve managed to survey about 40% of the content but this should serve as a reasonable road map to those who may be come across Strauss for the first time.
I should also to point out, as something of a disclaimer - having spent three years of misery in arts institute that not only did I learn more about art from listening and reading Strauss’ work (plus actually thinking about it for myself) but that it was also something of a lifeline. Much like the work of his new publishing partner Steve Dupont, these bits of diversion served as embodiment of hope and reminders of the actual life necessity of fun, which I maintain too many people loose sight of in the REAL world.
Perhaps the best primer for this article is an interview Strauss took part in back in early 2006 for a podcast called Crankfarm. It gives a lot of insight it how Strauss’ working methods, motives and other useful information that relates to the site and his music.
1. Palm Fronds
Without doubt my favourite Mr. Strauss track from his album mr strauss learns to rock. The song is revealed to have not only a second ‘ adventure’ version (which I’d previously discovered on garageband) but also a number of alternate takes that seem to take it right back to it’s bare bones. Much like the 4 versions of Strawberry Field Forever on the Beatles’ Anthology Album, each none of them really can be considered definitive but each is successful in different ways.
(My own naming scheme is used here)
Alternate Adventure version (not garageband version)
This last one, which as a demo is technincally the first one demostrates the energy, fury and humour of what the song turns out to be. What made it stand out for me was the middle eight in which he stops singing, takes a drag from his cigarette and seems to be about to lapse into Rapping Eric before jumping straight into the final verse and seemingly not missing a beat. It’s really an absolute diamond recording.
My joy in finding these recordings was sadly undermined by a folder called palmmusicvideo which contained nothing of the sort. Even if it had it been true it would have no doubt been a disapointment for nothing could have match the images that this track brings to my head. Perhaps the only person who can make this video is me - even though in all honesty it NEEDS footage of anal penetration.
2. An Interruption
From the greatest success to the greatest failure this track has always stood out for me as something special but a version of it here proves how something so beautiful can so easily be utterly ruined.
As you can hear, and as the story goes; a recording session of this beautiful song was interrupted by Corey’s girlfriend (or is it wife?). Despite this, and despite the violence that is in evidence as the interuption continued, Strauss continued with his performance knowing full well that the recording was probably runied. But when he played it back he realised that interuption itself consummated the song and renamed as such.
Having heard this track now too many times to mention I though it would be nice to hear a version that didn’t have the interruption so that I could re-evaluate it.
My God! See what I mean about ruining something so beautiful? It’s AWFUL. I like to think that this abomination was part of his voyage of discovery but much rather blame heavy drug use and sheer bloody mindedness. Even Wonder Woman gets period now and then.
3. The Ghost of Vox Monitor
I don’t know which podcast this segment of a podcast review relates to but it serves to remind me how I never really cared that much when Vox Monitor was going. All that mattered, and the reason why the Vox Monitor archive is still enjoyable to listen to now, was that Eric and Corhy really enjoyed anaysis of art and media as much as they enjoyed each others company and insights.
Hearing this brings back how much fun I had listening to it when it was just a podcast rather than something greatly missed.
4. The Bespoke Pop Goes Lethal Song Review Service.
Apparently before Vox Monitor came along the idea of recording reviews was appealing and this recording suggests that this is the moment it all started. Eric begins recording a song review whilst listening it to it on headphones. Cohry then seems to blunder in and much like ‘Interruption’ accidently makes some art by asking ‘what are you doing - listening whilst recording?’.
One can only hope that in this romanisicsed version of events a conversation later ensued in which Cohry suggested the music review service be made into a podcast. Strauss in fit what seemed like genius thought that an extra element of meta was required and thought it far more funnier to make a review podcast that reviewed podcasts themselves!
