Like Busby Berkeley With Enriched Uranium: The DPRK Mass Games
1. Yesterday I went home to visit my family for a day or two before moving. At dinner, my 14-year-old sister said, after a long pause in the conversation, “Can someone explain to me what is happening in Lebanon?”
2. “One of the reasons I named the band after that city was the fact that it’s seen a lot of conflict. It’s not a political position. I worried about that from the beginning. But it was such a catchy name. I mean, if things go down that are truly horrible, I’ll change it. But not now. It’s still a good analogy for my music. I haven’t been to Beirut, but I imagine it as this chic urban city surrounded by the ancient Muslim world. The place where things collide.” - Zach Condon from (the band) Beirut (hoist a flag, this reference officially makes me a music blogger)
2a. Condon later says “There are three ways I see music used in the modern world. One is for thinkers: They approach it analytically. Then there are people who use music to get a raw attitude out. And then there are people who are simply looking for beauty, for the sentimentality that good music has.” Destroyer Destroyer Destroyer Destroyer Destroyer Destroyer. Destroyer.
3. Music bloggers are people responsible for current musical events. Okay so I went to the Beirut show at McCarren Park in Brooklyn last Sunday and there was a line oh I’d say about 4 to 8,000 kids deep, unless that was the line for the Covetably Adorable Girls with Dumb-looking Boyfriends support group. So I walked up the block and ran into my friend Youri, whose bike had just been set on fire. “I was just watching The Princess Bride at my friend’s house! What the fuck?” And so the sailor turns and says to me, she’s driving me nuts. Girl, I’m shaking the wire just for you:
Israel::Black Dice, Manoman.
You just keep pushing but you kind of have to stop soon.
North Korea::That Mariah Carey episode of Cribs that I watched two years ago and have thought about every month since.
Nobody really knows exactly what is happening on the inside, but it always looks huge and sort of weird from out here.
Joe Lieberman::TV on the Radio
Stop hedging/Keep hedging
China::Animal Collective
Please hurry and take over the world.
Fidel Castro::Tupac Shakur
May many live on to feel drastically confused about the trajectory of your legacy.
***
On the F.B.I.’s “Most Wanted Terrorist”: “But then he’d become this other guy who wanted to hear Van Halen or some B-52’s. To this day, I hear the song ‘Rock Lobster’ in my sleep.” And Kim Jong Il calls all western music “jazz”—the worst, spoiled culture of capitalism.” I hope Nick’s dream finally comes true one day.