An ongoing chronicle...

Today at work, while trying to make it through a mind-numbingly-
boring day (the usual), I got an idea for an extended series of posts.

These posts will chronicle my musical progress through the years,
from the earliest times that I can remember music being around,
all the way to the present.

Several facts and considerations prompted this:

1. I'm an amateur musician.

2. There's nothing better to do.

3. What can it hurt?

4. It's not an exercise in egotism, I assure you; I ain't
that good, as you'll discover.

5. I just think it might be interesting.

6. I've always been fascinated by famous musicians talking
about their early days, before the big fame and the big gigs
and the big bucks (and the big divorces, and the big drug
busts, and the big headaches, etc.).

7. You might look at #6 and say, "Aha! 'Famous musicians'!
You are an egotist!"

8. I promise you, I'm not.

9. You might find some of it interesting.

10. Even if you don't, I'll keep doing it anyway.

11. In one of my classes at University of West Georgia---Introduction
to Archives---we've been talking about archival theory: how
materials are selected, how they're preserved, and what the
upshot of all that is for popular culture and "memory".

12. I'm not talking about "memory" as in "Where did I put my car keys?"

13. I'm talking about "memory" in a historical sense.

14. "Memory" is a big thing nowadays in academia. Basically, it's the
study of how people's remembrances of events change over time.
People consciously preserve some things (and discard others) in
order to "remember" the past in a certain way.

15. You may as, "What does that have to do with
this series of posts?"

16. Well...I dunno....other than I might someday be asked to share
the details of my musical journeys with an aspiring historian...and it
would be good to remember what they were.

17. "The odds of that happening are of so slight," you may
comment, "that even Vegas doesn't want a part of it.

18. Well then, my children (if any) might want to know...and it would
be good to remember for them.

19. You may look bemused, sigh, and say, "They'll probably run
away screaming the minute you open your mouth."

20. Bottom line, I'm just bored and stubborn.

So, here we go, with "Picker's Progress"!

21. (I know; it's a lame, deritative title. Get over it.)

"Ye shall Know the Truth...

...and the Truth shall take ye to court."

As a grad student in history, I find this absolutely fascinating. It seems that history is being drawn and quartered by two forces: academia and pop culture. Academia says, "Get the facts right, even if it's boring, disappointing, or confusing! Otherwise it's not history!" Pop culture says, "Make it appealing, colorful, and scandalous, even if it's not 100% acurate! Otherwise why should people want to know about it?"

Personally, I think there's enough interesting and accurate stuff out there, without the need to inflate, deflate, revise, amend, spin or fabricate for the sake of popular consumption.

Yet some people do prefer the inflations, deflations, revisions, amendments, spins and fabrications over the real deal. Go figure.

The Betsy Ross thing is especially poignant. While the educated adult in you is approving of "setting the record straight" about who actually did (and didn't) sow the first American flag, the little ten-year-old kid in you is sniffling in despair because his fourth-grade American History teacher was putting him on. It's sad and necessary at the same time.

Right now in class we're reading Lee Considered, a controversial book that blows great holes in the mythology of Robert E. Lee (whether he was really anti-slavery, whether he was all that great a general, etc.) I think the author makes some good points and misses a few others, but I can understand why people cherish the "traditional" Lee. It's painful to let go of your idols...

21st-Century String-band music...

...is alive and doing very well, thank you.

These guys have been coming through my earphones at work a lot nowadays.

Nice video work, too; kinda reminiscent of the 1960's folk festivals. Even the film
color suggests an older time.

And a great closing line, although I can't tell if it's meant to be ignorance or sarcasm
(either way, it's pretty freakin' hilarious).

Irritating "Greenies", one day at a time...

In truth I didn't care one way or the other about the Earth Day "lights out" thing; I wasn't at home between 8:30 and 9:30 pm last night anway (I was sitting in a music shop in Roswell listening to several accoustic performers).

Still, if for no other reason than to be contrarian, and to puncture the elitist, self-righteous pretensions of eco-conscious people everywhere, I humbly present the following video.

Enjoy.

...Or don't enjoy; makes no difference to me.

More prozac, please...I live in Atlanta.

MSNRealEstate periodically runs these rankings of cities, in order to show where one ought to live. This time, the ranking is "unhappiness" or "depression", based on a combination of factors such as unemployment rate, divorce rate, suicide rate, crime rate, and even "cloudy day rate".

And for some reason, the capital of the Peach State (formerly known as the Empire State of the South, which I think is a far better nickname) comes in at #10. I think that's pretty hilarious, considering how few depressed people I know around here. There's no way you can tell me that New York (or at least one of its five boroughs) isn't on this list, and if we're using a city's "cloudy day rate" as an indicator of depression, then I ask you: where is Seattle?

Just writing this has brought on a certain amount of melancholy. I must leave you, gentle reader, for now, while I go and lie down and hope for the pain to go away...

EDIT (03/09/09): Turns out Seattle is on the list...at #20. Complete BS; it should be much higher than that.

Also, for some of my friends: Nicole, Louisville is #17.

Thomas, Memphis is #14, tied with Pittsburgh, PA.

A video response...

A friend of mine recently posted a link to a rather trippy Beach Boys home video, for the song "Wouldn't It Be Nice?"

In that spirit, here's another trippy video, from the same time period, for a band and a song that I've always thought highly of.

Update (05/02/09): Found another one to replace the one that was removed. Enjoy!

The next Mickey Rourke...

"I be stuck up in Folsom Prison...Fo' shizzle..."

This has got to be one of the stranger pieces of news in the entertainment biz, at least to me. We all knew the Phoenix clan was a little off-center (it's hard to have those kinda first names and not wind up a little messed up), but...what...?!?

Apparently Mr. Walk-een intends to quit films and change careers. Mr. Joaquin is going to be DJ Wiggity-Wiggity-Joaquin.


Wow...


Ok...


The sad thing is that now, I'm going to feel like I need to take a shower every time I watch Walk The Line.


Let's hope that, in the end, for Mr. Phoenix, the title of a certain Johnny Cash album proves to be prophetic: The Man Comes Around.