I have begun to think that natural phenomena and eras have representation

[Magpel]

I am not quite a bonko conspiracy guy--not quite...yet...but two very recent experiences have got me thinking...

 

1. I saw the film Across The Universe. OK, whatever. I enjoyed parts of it and found others downright embarrassing...but that's besides the point.

 

The 1960s myth repackaged for yet another generation! This is so predictable, and so incessant and insistent, that I've have come to believe that the '60s is nothing less than a Brand with marketing strategists, branding experts, and detailed business plans to extend its cultural and commercial relevance well into the new millenium. "The 500 year plan," I like to believe it might be called.

 

Now before anyone hits me with, "but dude the 60s was a time of unprecedented upheaval, liberation, change and the most awesomest music"--dude, you don't I have to tell me! I was there! The '60s had a profound influence on me. I mean, it wasn't until '64 (or late '63) that I learned how to WALK!. Talk about liberation and rejecting the authority of the estabalishment!

 

Plus, I grew up in a college town that STILL can't shake its reputation as an eastern seaboard capital of '60s hedonism and sporting radicalism.

 

And if the '20s--with the expats and the roaring decadence giving way to the depression and prohibition, had HALF the marketing savvy of the '60s team, we might see more Edward Norton as F. Scott Fitzgerald and less Bono as Ken Kesey.

 

Point being, every decade is a decade of change violence and transformation--the persistence of the '60s myth is such that it simply must have representation--an active, concerted, coordinated effort to advance and promote it, to keep it current.

 

Of course the '60s myth doesn't go unchallenged in hip academic circles--check out Thomas Frank's first book, The Conquest of Cool for a really cool analysis of the '60s and the counterculture through the world of advertising at the time. But in Hollywood, the romanticized '60s still rules, and this is not an accident.

 

2. I am convinced that the "Earthquake" brand has recently launched an aggressive campaign to remind us that it is not a Californian and Asian product and/or service only. Earthquake headlines, mostly targeting midwest customers, are ubiquitous. I am not sure what the point or "desired action" of these "ads" is--

 

but it just seems transparent to me that the "news moment" is always for sale, and the "Earthquake" brand has just splurged on a major national campaign, maybe to try to regain some of the free-floating fear market from "terrorism" or, more likely, to seize back share from the innovative "man-abetted environmental disaster" brand.

 

Back to my real work...

[alcohol]

I saw the movie, and it got a lot of the sixties right, for better or worse; but, even better, it brilliantly married the lyrics of Beatles' songs to a plot and dramatic representation.

 

While every decade has it's character, there are epochs that change the world. The sixties were a decade of dramatic cultural change, like the 20s. It wasn't a myth. The sixties launched a style of music, art and attitude that was very different from everything that preceded, and is still very much with us now. Yes, we've evolved culturally from the sixties, but we haven't revolted from the sixties except in the mildest and essentially insignificant manners.

 

Nevertheless, if you thought that Across the Universe was a merely a cynical repackaging of an epoch for sale, then I believe you have some aesthetic filters and idiosyncrasies that are preventing you from simply enjoying an a worthy piece of entertainment and maybe art.

 

De Gustibus non disputatum est

[Magpel]

I should clarify that by myth, I meant "defining cultural narrative," not lie. And I certainly do "buy" it's importance on some levels--included the level of, like, my own life--very touched, very much formed by '60s ideologies, fashions, musics, and chemicals.

 

I guess my point is that the '60s is the most self-interpreting decade we've ever seen, and while you might argue that it was about liberation, some others might say it was more about the popularization and commodification of the liberation that has always (and only) lived on the fringes. I mean, history is a long time. There was nothing truly novel about the '60s, nothing more radical than the Albigensians or the gnostics, that's for sure!

 

That said, you're right, I didn't really dig the film. I found it full of unearned gravity and pretty faces, not that I have anything againts pretty faces.

 

But that much talent is bound to turn in some excellent segments, and there were, Eddie Izzard as Mr. Kite being the highlight for me! I liked Bono and a few of the other numbers. I can't remember what Beatles tune underscored Max's conscription scene with the c-GIs (hey, not bad!) but I liked that one too.

 

 

I saw the movie, and it got a lot of the sixties right, for better or worse; but, even better, it brilliantly married the lyrics of Beatles' songs to a plot and dramatic representation. While every decade has it's character, there are epochs that change the world. The sixties were a decade of dramatic cultural change, like the 20s. It wasn't a myth. The sixties launched a style of music, art and attitude that was very different from everything that preceded, and is still very much with us now. Yes, we've evolved culturally from the sixties, but we haven't revolted from the sixties except in the mildest and essentially insignificant manners. Nevertheless, if you thought that Across the Universe was a merely a cynical repackaging of an epoch for sale, then I believe you have some aesthetic filters and idiosyncrasies that are preventing you from simply enjoying an a worthy piece of entertainment and maybe art. De Gustibus non disputatum est

 

[n4vgm]

Having been born in 1955, I missed some of the involvement of the 60's but was influenced greatly by what was going on (as anyone would have). The 70's also were a time of great social and artistic change and I had direct input into that.

 

I did not see this movie, but the reason you see the packaging of the 60's (and the 70's) is pure dollars. Hippies and freaks now are solid citizens with home equity and IRA's. They also are begining to see grandchildren and since they often raised their children using the idiotic notions their hippie gurus came up with, they feel they had better make sure the grandchildren have some real values.

 

Just my $.02

 

Peace baby...

[alcohol]

Pure dollars. Cynicism is too easy an attitude to wear. Some of us liked the Beatles. They were a sixities band and helped define the decade. Reviewing the era has it's pleasures.

[Lee Knight]

I felt a lot of my cynicism creeping up as I watched Universe. That and my AutoTune-O-Meter's gauge wore out from overuse. Did they slam those voices or what?

 

But yeah, Bono leading the charge for mind expansion... it all felt very packaged to me. And really, when you take my off the cuff remark about Auto Tune into account, it's not just a flippant aside. It puts a spotlight on the Wizard behind the curtain. "PAY NO ATTENTION... etc." This was, to me, a very silly reselling of the decade. A "Targetization" if you will. I was expecting the CD to only be available at Target with your purchase of any 2 pieces of clothing from their new Across the Universe line. Oooo. I love the leather fringe vest and matching high rise moccasins. They're adorable!

 

But hey, that's just me.

[Magpel]

You wouldn't have to hang around her long top know that The Beatles are my favorite band ever. I have in fact been accused of believing in Liverpudlian Infalibility.

[Lee Knight]

And I should point out, I love the Beatles, and I completely enjoyed hearing those songs in a rock opera setting. But I feel Ras's point. The movie got my back up a little. Hippies = $$$!

[blue2blue]

Dirty little secret... most of the droids in the media don't have a thing in thought of their own in their whole lives.

 

So they tend to self-organize around other people's takes on things and repackage them and then their buddies repackage that and then...

 

 

 

One thing that keeps the 60s alive is that it was the era when the biggest lump of us boomers came of age.

 

If you think learning to walk in the 60s was something, you should have hit high school smack in the middle of that decade...

 

Of course, the decade where the mainstream glommed onto big chunks of 60s zeitgeist -- mostly the most trivial or superficial aspects of it -- was the seventies... When all the used car salesmen and junior execs and cops grew their hair long, started wearing silly fake-hippie clothes and snorting the very un-hippie drug, cocaine.

 

 

PS... What's All Across the Universe? (I know the Beatles song, of course, not a fave.)

[Magpel]

 

PS... What's All Across the Universe ? (I know the Beatles song, of course, not a fave.)

 

 

Blue, u gotsa be kidding.

[Magpel]

OK. OK. But what about Earthquakes?

[Lee Knight]

Earthquakes? I thought it was "Local politicians being found drunk in public, getting a DUI or masturbating in their cars week".

 

No wait... that was last week. It's little blonde girl abduction week.

[3red]

Billy was a car crash - all he ever knew was pain. Lived a milli-milli-

Milli-second; never born again. Though no one saw him coming, plenty

Witnessed his remains - laid a wreath yet they never knew him... Me? I'm

Just the rain, laid poor Billy to eternal rest, eternal rust. I soaked the

Dust that covers him, I wait for all the others. They all have names...

Red Harry was a bright young spark that flew and burned old London Town in

'66. He flew to bits. He tore it down (bubonic bliss!). And me? I'm just

The kiss our maker blew to put him out. To eternal rest. Eternal rust. To

Dust, to ash. I cover up and wait for all the others. We all have names...

Georgie was cut on Hitler's knee. He ran for weeks, turned shades

Of green... They kidnapped me and made him clean... On Winter nights, I

Still hear him scream. I cover up. I wait for all the others. Jane? Her

Mother was a hurricane who swept the plains and sneezed away a continent

With me (the sea). The team that made a myth by hiding it. Became a hit on

Broadway but it wasn't quite the same - they all FORGOT our names. We ALL

Have names.

[Magpel]

ooops

[blue2blue]

 

Blue, u gotsa be kidding.

 

 

 

Well, I suppose I should have just googled it. I see it's "The music of the Beatles and the Vietnam War form the backdrop for the romance between an upper-class American girl and a poor Liverpudlian artist," according to IMDB.

 

Frankly, I don't watch very many current movies. I've seen a few good ones. But so many new movies are just garbage. I love a good adventure yarn but I almost never bother with them because the soundtracks are so hyped I have to reconfigure my EQ just to keep the house from shaking with all the bombastic music, the editing sucks, the continuity sucks, the plots suck, and the special effects just seem to get stupider. [Finally caught up with a few minutes of the 'new' King Kong from the LotR guy. That was one flexible monkey... I thought I was watching one of those insipid comic super hero movies -- it's Rubber Kong -- the Incredible Elastic Ape... utterly woeful animation of the sequence I saw... the monkey's body stretched about 25-30% in one movement and its arms also were extraordinarily unrealistic in their changing lengths. What were they thinking?]

 

Little movies -- and I'm figuring this one is dressed up like a little movie -- are better and if you guys say it's cool I might add it to my list of someday-see movies.

 

But I recently realized my current personal must-see-queue of movies [about which I will read nothing about the plot or any reviews, since I already know I want to see them and don't care what some hack says about them] stretches back to "Closely Watched Trains" -- which, after carrying around in my head for, well, some time thinking of it as a 'recent' movie -- I now realize has been on my must-see list since 1968...

 

 

Anyhow, my contempt for pop culture is deep and wide. This should come as no surprise to those who follow my long, rambling, nonsequitor-larded posts [and that's probably no one including me... I know I was surprised to find my must-see-soon list stretches back 40 years. THAT is one long-ass to-do list...]

[Magpel]

 

Little movies -- and I'm figuring this one is dressed up like a little movie -- are better and if you guys say it's cool I might add it to my list of someday-see movies.

 

 

Nope, this one is BIG BIG BIG from the git go. It's a weird mash up of Hair, Rent, Fame, Jesus Christ Superstar, Quadrophenia, Apocalypse Now, and an IBM training video circa 1983, Flux Removal Safety for Clark Board Technicians. If it weren't for the overtness of the last reference, I'd be almost completely unsympathetic to Across The Universe.

[blue2blue]

Blue, u gotsa be kidding.

 

 

Ah... you know, maybe you were asking if I was kidding about the song... as in not one of my favorites.

 

I was actually thinking of some other song and had to look it up -- hence my post-post edit to remove the 'not one' reference. I actually came to like that song... there's something really evocative about the "nothing's going to change my world" refrain. But when it came out, I did not dig it. Really, it's only the refrain that works for me but it really works.

 

For me, the Beatles kind of peaked in the era of Rubber Soul -- unfortunately, I didn't really start listening to them until Sgt Pepper's... so what I would ultimately feel was their best work was already in the past. But I loved Peppers and Magical Mystery Tour. I was considerably less enthralled by Abbey Road (and got awesomely sick of it, it was played to death on the radio and at parties, everywhere you went). I thought the writing was really spiraling down. I was decidedly ho hum about the White Album. Some pretty good stuff, for sure, but a lot of stuff I found instantly irritating and still do. But I do own all the Beatles records (mostly used that I bought at swap meets and second hand stores but it seemed important to have).

 

And the great songs they wrote are great songs.

[Magpel]

No, I meant the film. The song isn't one of my favorite either, nor one of my least favorites.

[Lee Knight]

So back to your point. Eras and natural disaster have representation. I think you're right. As do political scandal (though that's usually subsidized by the opponent), health scares due to items we use everyday, abominable acts by crazy people (abductions, incest, mass public shootings, cult sex procreation and death).

 

They all have PR firms pushing their latest work. I agree.

[kurfu]

I liked the basic idea of the movie, but as others have already said, the robo-voiced treatment on every single vocal track was just too damn much. At times, the harmonies reminded me of a car horn.

 

...and... WTF was Eddie Izzard thinking?!? His performance was so horribly wrong that the only just punishment would be to force him to wear men's clothing for a year.

[blue2blue]

 

I liked the basic idea of the movie, but as others have already said, the robo-voiced treatment on every single vocal track was just too damn much. At times, the harmonies reminded me of a car horn. ...and... WTF was Eddie Izzard thinking?!? His performance was so horribly wrong that the only just punishment would be to force him to wear men's clothing for a year.

[bold added]

 

I'm going to get in dutch with LK for further distraction but I gotta ask -- robo-voiced treatment? Was this 'soundalike' type recordings of Beatles tracks or something? And the robo-voice treatment -- was that the cancer that's eating through pop music: Auto-Tune?

[kurdy]

I think the brainstorming session for the movie went like this:

 

"The Beatles are the most universally recognizable band in the history of popular music. Their brand still continues to sell.

 

Hey here's an idea--let's put all those familiar Beatles hits everyone knows into a movie. Get a few current big names to do cameos.

 

Wait a minute, remember the Sgt Pepper movie? Maybe we should give half a thought to developing a storyline this time around.

 

The Beatles were a sixties band, right? Let's set the movie in the sixties."

 

 

...And the rest is (recent) history.

[Lee Knight]

 

I'm going to get in dutch with LK for further distraction but I gotta ask -- robo-voiced treatment? Was this 'soundalike' type recordings of Beatles tracks or something? And the robo-voice treatment -- was that the cancer that's eating through pop music: Auto-Tune?

 

 

No problems from me...

 

These were actors singing. The Auto Tune was set to flat line. At first, "Hey, sounds pretty cool. Nice modern interpretation of the old Beatles. After 30 minutes though, you're dieing for someone to sing out of key. Ringo where are you?

[blue2blue]

I was just jokingly referring to your "back to your point" above...

 

 

It doesn't take any 30 minutes for me to want to rip my ears off my head and mail them to 1957 or so when I'm subjected to the kind of AT abuse that's common in pop/rock these days. 30 seconds is enough to get my stabbing the next button.

 

It makes me almost physically ill. I kid you not. It is all I can do to get through some of the song demos I've heard. One micro-indie artist who is a heck of a pop craftsman, writes really catchy songs, and has, as they say, great pop sensibilities, also has a tendency to use noticeable AT on almost everything he does -- I mentioned it a few times in comments to him but it was clear it was something that he actually likes. To me, it is one of the most repellant sounds in pop music. It is only through force of will that I can get through this artist's otherwise fine songs.

 

This is no kind of moral stance on my part -- if I don't notice (or can ignore) the AT on something, I figure that's fine.

 

I've used the vocal pitch correction software that comes with Sonar Pro a few times (well, I've experimented a fair bit but only used it a few times) and, when used sparingly -- and not in full auto mode -- I think it's a useful tool. Certainly it is no panacea. (I think I need a plug that virtually removes adnoids... that would be worth a couple hun to me. )

[Kendrix]

All I want to know is what effect this may have on the $ value of my original "3 days of peace love and music" button.

 

Yeah- Most all retro-examinations of these various eras are plagued by stupidly narrow and simple perspectives:

 

the 60's was all hippies: Nevermind that we also had some guy singing the green Beret song and that James Brown, Sinatra and bubble gum were also thriving.

 

the 70's: was all disco: Hey I was in my college prime in the 70's and I dont even know anyone that ever went to a disco. I was content to play "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" all through the decade and never realized that rock music had officially died. All that 70's classic Pink Floyd music- it was all disco I suppose. Why even mention disco when this was the decade in which S. Dan created most of its classic material?

 

the 80's: all about electronic drums and pretencious hair bands. Why in the world does that horrible Flock of Seagulls video refuse to die?

Oh yeah wasnt there some punk stuff goin on as well? I'll never understand radical piercings. (Elizabeth Reed still sounded good to me in the 80's)

 

the 90's: Was the grunge thing anything really new at all? I had many of those flannel shirts and old jeans & sneakers way back in the 70's. Was it ever anything more than a niche- a Seattle/Starbucks conspiracy?

 

About the movie, i generally HATE musicals because they are soo fake and forced and over-acted. However, while recognizing some of the criticisms above, i must say I simply enjoyed watching this flick. I took it lightly - but i liked it. The ability to set thse songs to this plot ( or visa versa) was very well done. Since the songs already have such prominant place in my mind the fresh perspectives that this movie brought to them was very engertaining. Some of the shots of the village in the 60's took me down memory lane. - YMMV.