Music Matters: Lana Del Ray: Born To Die

Lana Del Ray, Born to Die, Interscope Records, 2012
Download Now: Video Games

Lana Del Ray's debut album, "Born to Die," reminds a jaded, pessimistic generation, acutely aware of its civilizations's harbingers of doom, to relax. The album, at it's core, is a Rorschach test that measures the listener's ability to "stop worrying and love the bomb."

Del Ray has created an album that accepts that the end is nigh but refuses to accept hopelessness. It's true that the laconic orchestration that buttresses each track is more "Requiem" than "He is Risen." An ominous church bell rings out in the opening measures of "Video Games," as a few lonely chords drone out of the piano, but then, like a joke in a eulogy, a few strums from the harp subtlety alter the mood.

The lyrics weave the story of a fantasy women who says things like,

"...this is my idea of fun/ Playing video games/It's you, It's you it's all for you / Everything I do. I tell you all the time/Heaven is a place on earth with you/ Tell me all the things you wanna do..."

When I first heard these lyrics I frantically sent the song to a friend and said, "Finally, a love song for the men of our generation." But Del Ray's vocals suggest that my enthusiasm should have been somewhat tempered. While there are moments of loving lilts in her vocalization the artificial echo effect added to her voice creates a sense of distance and her husky nasal tone sounds more resigned than passionate (for more blatant cues see the video above). When the lyrics are examined under this light they seem to suggest that loving a man who loves video games is more best-available-option than first choice, and a militaristic snare drum rift  toward the end of the track signifies that she will march on content in this reality.

But Del Ray is not merely interested in putting a happy face on a less than desirable situation, she is interested in why we buy into the facade. The violin arrangement at the top of "National Anthem," is reminiscent of The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony," a song that laments, "You're a slave to money then you die." Del Ray reframes the sentiment with the lyric, "Money is the reason we exist / Everybody knows this, kiss, kiss." While the tone echoes The Verve's nihilism, there is an undertone of cheekiness that suggests that although we are all hopelessly consumed by masking our problems with money and things, deep down we all know this does not work. In a track entitled "Carmen" the heroine "...doesn't have a problem/ Lying to herself because her liquor's top-shelf," and neither do we.

"Born to Die" is the soundtrack for Millennials who never expected to receive a Social Security check or find more happiness than unboxing a new iThing. We have a keen sense that our money is going to run out and the comfort afforded to us by our stuff will not last. Del Ray reminds us that, while all of that is true, we can always have our "Pabst Blue Ribbon on ice," and laugh in the face of despair.

YouTube Matters: Heather Traska's A Cappella Disney Song Inspired Masterpiece

Heather Traska is the one-woman a cappella Girl Talk of Disney songs. A star is born.

Predictions: 1) She will get her wish of being on Ellen (Tweet Ellen!); 2) She will be on an episode of Glee and 3) She will be the voice of the next Disney princess (this is obviously the boldness prophecy). My favorite part starts at 2:50 and goes to 4:35 (Let's Get Down to Business, Mulan melting into the greatest Disney song of all time, Reprise to One Jump Ahead, Aladdin). I would have ended the video here, but she's from a younger Disney-movie-watching generation who saw movies like Hercules and Tangled (a movie that brought tears to my 16 year-old brother's eyes because, he said, "Some parts [of Tangled] are just so deep") so she had to pack in more songs.

So, take a trip down memory lane and listen to Heather Traska sing Disney songs like you've never heard them before.

Movie Matters: 10 Things I Hate About You

I just popped in the shiny 10th Anniversary Blu Ray of 10 Things I Hate About You. This is the hands down the best Julie-Stiles-plays-90s-teenager-version-of-a-Shakespearian-heroine movie ever made. 

Couple of great things about the 10th Anniversary edition.

1. Heath Ledger gets a lot of love on the back cover for being the Joker, which is fair because he got the Oscar and he died a glamorous death of a young famous mega star on the top
2. Inflation is a bitch. Two movie tickets cost $15 (with popcorn, $53).Verona does all of his dirt for less than $500.00, the cost of an iPad. 
3. There are so many songs in this movie that I don't remember at all - from the movie, from the radio, from anywhere. 

Quotes that are still really awesome...

"And I'm back in the game"

"Kisses don't keep me elbow deep in placenta."

"Normal? Like those damn Dawson's River kids?"

"And go hear a band that blows by rule?"

Local News Matters: Starburst Dress

I hope KARE 11 ran this story to make fun of people from Wisconsin, but it doesn't really matter because people out East don't know the difference between Minnesota, Wisconsin or any of the other northern midwestern state. As a kid, I used to save Starburst wrappers and I'm not really sure why. Maybe it was because I was living in Minnesota and during the harsh winter months going outside was not an option and we didn't have cable. I kept my wrappers in a box and organized them by color and that was about it. At least this women made something out of her hoard of wrappers. Mine ended up in a pile of stuff I left in Minnesota before I left for warmer climes.

Movie Matters: 2011 Oscars: And the Nominees Are Alright

First thoughts, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush are geniuses but they got in on the coat tails of Colin Firth's tour de force performance in the "King's Speech."

"The Kids Are All Right" is the perfect portrait of the Whole Foods American family and every Obama voter should go see it right now.

"Inception" was the second most fun I had at the theater last year.

"The Social Network," yawn.

Other thoughts, this is the first time in a long time that a number of the films nominated were released all throughout the year.

Snubs include "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" (Best Adapted Screenplay) and "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" (Best Picture Ever and the most fun I had at the theater this year).

For complete coverage go to the source.

Movie Matters: The Warrior's Way and the Catch Phrase of the Year

Warrior's Way looks over stylized, hackneyed and freaking awesome. During the first 10 seconds of the commercial (not the trailer above) I thought it was for the DVD release of Ninja Assassin but then there was the close up of Geoffrey Rush as his character deadpans, "Ninjas. Damn."

Wow. That may be the catch phrase of the year.

Other contenders for catch phrase of the year:

“Alright you c----, let’s see what you can do” – Hit Girl
“Teach me how to Dougie” – Cali Swag District
“I’m puttin’ this whole town in my rear view” – Doug MacRay

What are some others?

Book Matters: Gary Shteyngart @ Politics and Prose

Gary Shteyngart at Politics and Prose in Washington, DC on September 13, 2010

Super Sad True Love Story, Gary Shteyngart, Random House - Buy it wherever (e)books are sold.

After going through all the trouble of hosting Gary Shteyngart, I'm sure Politics and Prose disagrees with that last bit but after my experience there I doubt I'll ever buy a book from their store. Before I get to the reasons behind my personal boycott of Politics and Prose I would like to reiterate my first point; buy Super Sad True Love Story and more importantly read it. The book is funny, dark and smart. It's science fiction meets bitting satire with a dash of romance. Depending on your feelings about Facebook, Twitter, Kindles, iPads and other ways the internet and technology are rotting your brain this book will either terrify you or strike you as proof positive that the post-literate world it describes is far from being a reality. We could be approaching a post-book-store world if they are paralyzed by fear of new technology instead of inspired to adjust their business model to leverage new technology and promote great works of art.

Reading Super True Sad Love Story on my Kindle prompted me to think about how e-readers are changing the way people read. Ron Charles, in his Washington Post review of Super Sad True Love Story wrote, "I hope the e-book version contains a virus that melts your iPad."

Using Mr. Charles comment as a frame, I asked Mr. Sheyngart about his thoughts on how e-readers are a potential benefit or detriment to literature. His answer was conflicted and it seemed to be a mix of nostalgic longing and the cold hard facts of reality. He referred to physical books as sacred objects that are talismans that reveal a person's true self. But he quickly pivoted from this sentiment as he mentioned the fact that his last book, Absurdistan, was the #1 "accessory" book for young men on the "L" train to Williamsburg who would just carry the book, thereby gaining the credibility of having read it, whether or not they had and this didn't bother the author. He then reported that e-book versions account for about 25% of Super Sad True Love Story sales. Finally he conceded that there will most likely come a day when books are like LPs which are loved dearly by their ever dwindling fan base.

It's fitting that he uses advances in music technology as a metaphor for what's happening with books and e-readers. Recorded sound had a profound effect of music (read Mark Katz's Capturing Sound: How Technology Changed Music for more information) the most important being that it widened a musicians audience. More people could hear music than ever before and record companies got rich off the deal.

Music technology advanced in such a way that empowered consumers to make copies of music themselves. At each innovation record companies fought to keep the power to share music out of consumers hands. They built an entire industry on controlling the creation and sale of the physical object the music happened to be on. The artistic value of the music was always secondary to the economic value of controlling how the music was distributed.

When mp3s and P2P file sharing technology emerged the record companies first reaction was to attack the technology. In doing so, they lost billions as the world of music consumers banded together to become the distributors of the music. Had they embraced the technological shifts as a better way to distribute great art they could have figured out innovative ways to create a new business model.

Politics and Prose has not learned from the music industry's mistakes. I took my Kindle to the reading because my copy of the book is on the devise. I toyed with the idea of getting Mr. Shtyngart to sign it and after he said that he'd signed Kindles and iPhones on his book tour I resolved to let him sign mine. There were about 100 people in line to get their books signed and to make this process as efficient as possible, a Politics and Prose employee(?) was going to each person in line, asking for their desired inscription , writing on a post it note and and marking the title page with it. When she got to me she said, "You better hide your Kindle because they are not allowed in this store." I asked if she were kidding and she said, "No," and moved to the next person in line. I was furious and left the store immediately. Banning Kindles from their stores is the same sort of short sighted thinking that plagued record companies in the naughties and lead to stores like Tower Records to go out of business.

Update:

I've sent Politics and Prose an email asking them if this is their actual policy. Their response is below.

While we do not have a policy of banning people from bringing Kindles into our
store, Amazon IS our competitor; the Kindle is their proprietary device, which
does not allow customers to buy books from Politics & Prose – or our
website’s selection of electronic books, which can be read on the Sony Reader,
iPhone, iTouch, and iPad, and Blackberry.

We would prefer that our
displays, recommendations, and author events not be used as a “showroom” for
purchases from Amazon, and we are always happiest when our hard work and efforts
inspire customers to shop with us .

Of course, for us the most
important goal is that customers enjoy our events, and our in-store events
are always free and open to the public.

Thanks for asking, and we
do hope that we will come back and shop with us again

It seems like they have their head in the right place, but I still don't think telling customers they are not welcome is a great business strategy.