Ubiquitous Reciprocal Affinity

Today I’m heading over to my parents house for a birhday party for one of my aunts. She is the oldest of my mother’s siblings and has never been married; for these reasons I feel a certain affinity for her. And I doubt that we share much in common philosophically I have a lot of respect for the choices she’s made and the life she built.

This morning I have been wondering if my niece/s and nephews will think of me in the same way. I hope to be as big a part of their lives as this aunt ha been in mine. I likely won’t buy them trinkety figurines (Hummels for a 9 year old? What’s that about?) but I know the time I spend with them now will be a positive part of their growing up.

While writing out her card and wanting to express my appreciation for all she’s done, I went looking for a looking for a gender neutral term for aunt/uncle - she can’t really show what it means to be a unclen nor would she want to. I was not able to find one in english and the resources all seemed to point out that even foreign languages seem to lack this term. I am now looking for help to identify an appropriate word leaf suggestions in the comments.

Gran Torino After writing yesterday’s rant on the vagaries of culture,  I decided Clint Eastwood’s racially charged revenge drama might be just the thing to snap me back to the realities of my all to segregated city.  Not so much.

The deftly hard-edged yet unashamdely ”bittersweet”  screeplay, written by a native Minnesotan was what the local press had been spinning. (How awesome if two MN’er won an Oscar back to back.) And I was not disappointed by this story, the attention to cultural details, and the epithet filled script - from which I appalled by more  racial insults in an hour than I had forgotten in the last 10 years. The story of cultural and generational tensions in an old neighborhood being repopulated by Hmong immigrants is one that I have been witness to. I was delighted to see that some of my own experiences with multiculturalism were getting their due on the big screen. (more…)

Suggestion for the next stuff white people like entry: An afternoon reading the Atlantic in a coffee shop. I would like to have this amusing contradiction of my dying culture documented before it goes the way of the dodo. Because lord knows I’m not having any white kids to pass my mores along to — I’ll leave that to my brother and his wife. I’m one of those deck-chairs on the Titanic people I suppose, facing the inevitable with a sense of calm dignity rather than running around like a Huhn ohne Kopf. 

Of course this is absurd - anything defined as “white culture” is. The cover article is intriguing in that it points out that the demographics, they are a changing, and that by the time my niece and nephews (however many of them there turn out to be) are running the world, America will likely not be THE dominant actor on the world stage. But what that means for American culture is not by any means easily predicted. (more…)

5. David Byrne & Brian Eno: Everything that Happens Will Happen Today. Some People say that David’s voice is an acquired taste. My reaction has always been that I’m glad I acquired it, because with so many more things to express and with such a dense evocative way of expressing it who could  resist. And quite frankly I couldn’t care less if these beats are over 20 years old. 

4. Adele: 19. Why is it that whenever a singer makes an album in the style of last year’s “bright new thing” she’s called a “copy cat”? In most things it’s called an improvement. And lord help me if this grammy-nom is ever hospitalized for exhaustion. And if you need a thought experiment some night try imagining Back to Black without the Dap Horns.

3. Fleet Foxes. Is it wierd to admit that I bought this disc because I remembered the cover art from a visit to the German National Gallery. The Target Bargain Wall is a good place to grab the “up and commers”  In 2008 facial hair made a comeback and this bunch amazing harmonizing bearded guys brought musicality front and center. I want to bring them for a personal concert to Holden Village — wouldnt the Koinanea firepit room be the best place?

2. Erykah Badu: New Amerikah (Pt. 1 4th World War). She’s always pushed hip-hop into new territory - first it was into feminist inspired soul revival. Then it was moved into experimental noise rock and then into world-music samples. With almost 5 years since her last release and a lot having happened in the intervening political landscape I found that she had not been taking any sort of break. She’s been surveying the land and this music captured the mood of the country better than anything else I’ve heard. I’ve been grooving to the album in its entirety since its release in February; and I look forward to Part 2 (Return of the Ankh), which I will (I hope) capture the hope that arrives with the New Administration. 

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Just finished watching the tenth to last episode of BSG (dece-tultimate?) and I will sum it all up: I was blown away. The most distubing/hopeful reveletion was perhapse Dee’s decision to end it. Was the revelation if the 12th worth the wait? Yes! How was Cara’s arrival on earth predictive of the future/past? The “slash” betrays my resistance to that uderstanding.

I just had a chance to listen to a pre-christmas This American Life episode. And like Sedaris’ Santaland Diarys this story gets behind the holiday that so many of us love (and some of us are just annoyed by). 

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1276

The hilarity begins about minuet 24. And don’t forget to tip your host on the way out.

The Countdown begins.

10. Vampire Weekend. As anyone in finance and market analysis will tell you, the best first step to success is to manage expectations. With a sound like nobody else - likened to a The Strokes, if Hammond had been total-recalled with the music of Johanesburg. And Cassablancas had gotten that graduate degree — the hype almost did these guys in. Fluffy anyone? I can’t help but smile everytime one of these comes up in the shuffle. 

9. Kate Nash: Made of Bricks. With the release of Lilly Allen’s follow-up delayed indefinitely I was wondering where I would get my sassy bird quota.  (My cable package doesn’t include BBC America.) Then I picked this up. The best piano sing-a-longs with attitude enough to keep me going for 45 treadmill min. And the best use of a non-family-friendly insult in a song title.

8. Cut//Copy: In Ghost Colours. The best New Order cover band that never was. Theses Aussies were moving me even before I realized that they could, by themselves, redeem an entire country from the disaster of these other guys. It takes quite a bunch of talents to make a sound so familiar sound so new. 

7. Hercules and Love Affair. Just when you thought that there were no other tricks in Disco’s bag of tricks - the pairing of one of the most unique voices in music (& Mercury Music Prize winner) with backing of a hot red-bear DJ - that bag just got much bigger. And if you were to take to heart the Easy lyrics it would be worth a few month’s worth of sermons. 

6. Jenny Lewis: Acid Tongue. By far the best of recent slew of actresses turning to music in an attempt to prove they have brains as well as good looks. (Sorry Scarlett, Good try Zooey) With the year’s best humanist torch song and the ability to inspire the best performance from rock veteran since 1983; this collection bodes well for a budding career.

I love taking the train. It makes me feel like Minneapolis is starting to become a “real city”. Like most public transit In MN a large number of people are reading.

I should be reading! The last book I read was Spinoza’s Ethics good but not as light hearted as I feel I need right now. Maybe instead of reading I’ll write on the train. the only problem is that because the “Radio” is IP I can’t listen and blog at the same time.

Typing of Apple - they still haven’t Anounced an IPod/IPhone with an FM tuner.

This years CD compilation was a debate between singles and albums. Titled “The Single is Dead, Long Live the Album is Dead, Long Live the Single” because I was caught up the ongoing debate between the two camps (it was begun long ago, and looks like it won’t be decided any time soon) as a tectonic shift in the music recording industry drives sales down to 60% of it’s peak in 2005. What do you buy? What do you look for in musical purchases? 

I can see both sides of the debate: “if Albums were uniformly good, there would be no need to pick and choose singles” vs. “not everything an artist produces will appeal to everybody”. And while I have a sympathy for the latter argument, my deeper feelings are such that I hold a single awesome album over the course of a career in higher regard than a 10 great singles in as many years. That’s why my list of favorite singles is up first:

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Now publishing from my iPhone!