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Saturday, October 22. 2016Almost Saturday Night
Almost Saturday Night is a Dave Edmunds song. I know you're going to tell me in the comments that John Fogerty wrote it. I also know that you're going to tell me in the comments that John Fogerty wrote it, but you're going to spell it Fogarty. I know you pretty good, don't I? I know you pretty well, too. It's a Dave Edmunds song to me because he did it best, or at least made it first to my ear at the appropriate time. He was the first with the most, as they say. That's how the world keeps score. Once you make a recording, it's an artifact. Artifacts don't change. They can be replayed, and judged. The music industry got really big when it began to produce artifacts that could be made on a relative shoestring and then sold on a mass scale. There's a limited amount of performances you can make money from. Records made lots of people rich for the same reason Bill Gates got rich. Once you've made your one thing, you can sell it as many times as you like. The Beatles are the first musicians I can recall who produced artifacts that were substantially more than captured noises from a performance. That turned the music business into an artifact horserace. In this race, I say Edmunds won. You're going to disagree with me in the comments, I know it. And I also know you're going to spell Edmunds, Edmonds, and Fogerty, Fogarty. All music is entirely artificial now. Nothing of it has much to do with the performer. They're just nailed to the prow of the artifact ship. There's a navy of men and robots manning the ProTools oars. People won't have it any other way at this point. They prefer the artificial over the real, because that's all they know. There's a word for people who know real from ersatz, and deliberately choose ersatz. I don't have time to call people names, though. It's almost Saturday night.
People don't buy newspapers to make money. They buy newspapers to wield power. The destruction of the revenue at the New York Times bothers the Pinchy family not one whit. The employees suffer. The people who own the paper get to decide who will get the blame for all the layoffs. Hint: it's not them. Experts believe mysterious aluminium object dating back 250,000 years 'could be part of ancient UFO' Via the Instapundit, who no doubt filed this one under "Too good to check." It's a tooth from an old excavator bucket.
I like reading the Z Man, and Zero Hedge, too. Great fun. They're like prophets standing on the corner averring that the world will end yesterday. Hackers Used New Weapons to Disrupt Major Websites Across U.S. Nothing economically productive has happened in the last ten years. Those who ended up in charge can't produce anything of value, and they can't even keep the lights on. “Most serious” Linux privilege-escalation bug ever is under active exploit In case you're thinking about chortling at tubby guys with neckbeards and trilbys over a Linux exploit, think again. Linux is the OS on lots and lots of servers. Lots. Well, Saturdays are slow around the internet, and busy around the farm, so that's all the links you get. Don't despair; it's almost Saturday Night.
Posted by Roger de Hauteville
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You write good, Roger.
Experts believe mysterious aluminium object dating back 250,000 years 'could be part of ancient UFO' Via the Instapundit, who no doubt filed this one under "Too good to check." It's a tooth from an old excavator bucket. In their new-found race to the bottom, the Instapundits don't check anything they insist you read the whole thing thereof. It's headliner clickbait, all of it. Regardless, for obvious reasons bucket teeth are steel. I Bring Bad Tidings
I like reading the Z Man, and Zero Hedge, too. Great fun. They're like prophets standing on the corner averring that the world will end yesterday. The right's single greatest failure is trivializing the greatest fraud in history. That is if they're not defending it outright by relabeling it "commerce" or "free markets" or the less popular but simply lunatic "service economy". They shall - and have - be brought bad tidings in an greatly unfunny way. Forgery, Fogarty! Edmunds, Edmonds! We all celebrate the return of Ro-jhzay Day-Vee.
The Beatles are the first musicians I can recall who produced artifacts that were substantially more than captured noises from a performance. That turned the music business into an artifact horserace.
All music is entirely artificial now. Nothing of it has much to do with the performer. They're just nailed to the prow of the artifact ship. There's a navy of men and robots manning the ProTools oars. People won't have it any other way at this point. They prefer the artificial over the real, because that's all they know. There's a word for people who know real from ersatz, and deliberately choose ersatz. I don't have time to call people names, though. It's almost Saturday night. Artifacts created an entire classic radio genre, Roger, and artifact in popular song can be no more intrinsically defective than considering Edmunds, The Beatles, or Fogerty high enough art to warrant a nice protective shelf high above 2016 is. That's like having a considered evaluation about the grade of choice USDA Grade A all American prime corn-fed hoof-slaughtered flash-never-frozen beefs in your 2-for-$.99 McDouble. Like anything, it depends on how it's done, who's doing it, and what it's audience or market is. Today's pop music is shit, but that's because it's shit along the Edmunds, The Beatles, and Fogerty pop trajectory, not because its studio work is. Not all music is entirely artificial now. For example, music isn't. But- but - that dopey folksinger got a Nobel! Isn't music sposed to be its own reward?
PS- Roger, I knew it was you when I read the opener and there was no painful lecture on self-improvement. They prefer the artificial over the real, because that's all they know. I wonder if the rarity of composing, singing and playing talent has anything to do with that preference.
That aluminum thingy is obviously man made and just as obviously created in the last 100 years or so. The mystery is how did it get where it was and not how was it made 250,000 years ago. I am not sure that any sane person believes it was made 250,000 years ago but if they do I question their sanity. Occam's razor!
I don't know Mr. Edmonds or Mr. Fogerty. I was 20 when the Beatles first broke into the popular music scene. IMHO their music was OK to mediocre and sometimes 'odd'. Elvis was nothing short of great although in his latter years he seemed to be skating. Roy Orbison may have been the best male singer and Joan Baez the best female singer. What they lacked was the promoter and the silly haircut that seemed to appeal to the 13 year olds. John Denver was always good his music was never mediocre or sometimes odd. Marty Robbins was one of a kind, Ray Charles was classic, Simon and Garfunkel was, well I dunno but I enjoyed them. Hank Williams Sr was awesome and Jr isn't bad. Les Flatt and Earl Scruggs were talented. Willie Nelson is an Icon. Roy Rogers and Gene Autry were talented and really good people. Johnny Cash was great although his singing ability tapered off as he aged. I could go on and on. Good singers, good music (not always the same thing you know).
Not just any steel, but hardened and tempered, 4140 or 4130 alloy steel. Plane old cold or hot rolled (1018) would most likely bend, possibly brake, definitely wear out, after a few scrapes of the bucket. Aluminum wouldn't stand a chance. The whole alien story just doesn't make sense, on so many levels.
Atleast, "Almost Saturday Night" is marginally better than Bob Dylan. Difficult to account for other's taste in music; as with all things subjective.
If it was some sort of machine excavator tooth, it would belong to a machine at least twice as big as the one pictured above. Also as mentioned above those type of teeth are not made of aluminum. Even the special steel they are made of wears out.
My dad and I are currently in Austin, TX, for the USGP Formula 1 race and last night, Taylor Swift headlined the evening musical performance with her one and only show for the entire year.
As an early twenty-something young woman, I felt like she was the kind of artist I would need to see sometime and my dad (surprisingly!) was open to going with me. We navigated the insane traffic and eventually got there about 20 minutes late-- and she still hadn't gone on stage yet. When she did finally come on, the sound engineering and video stream were both totally out of whack. We left after 3 songs. As I was telling my dad last night, T-swift broke my bullshitometer. She was all platinum blonde hair, legs, and six inch heels doing her power walk, mic in hand, and doing the winking, sexy-pouting thing that blonde leggy musicians do when they think they're queen of the world. I have never seen a performance so plastic, manufactured, and utterly swallowed whole by the 80,000 people in that audience- 40% of whom were girls under 18. It got me thinking a lot about how pop culture is like spiritual candy. You can't get any soul nutrition or build any character muscle from it because it's pure sugar and empty calories. I think there's a great correlation between the vapidity (if that's not a word, it should be) of the masses and what kind of art/culture they expose themselves to. I'm going to leave Taylor swift where she belongs now-- on the radio when there's nothing else good to listen to. rick(y) nelson did a nice cover of "almost saturday night" back in '81 or so. always loved that song, whether done by edmunds, fogerty, or nelson. yay edmunds - rockpile - nick lowe (edmunds got a little too synth-y in the 90s). you must've had the "twangin'" album - that first introduced me to "the race is on" & other songs with a rich country history that i hadn't known previously. fogerty's "rockin' all over the world" was almost equally catchy on his album of the time. album? what's an album?
jolizbish,
I was born in Austin and grew up here. T-Swift is not unusual for almost all music these days, especially in Austin, whose music reputation is greatly exaggerated. As I think Yogi once said "the good ole days ain't what they used to be." There still is good music there, if you ever go back and want to see some let me know, also what you like and maybe I can help you. |
Tracked: Oct 23, 09:33