YEAR END LISTS ARE A DRAG

  A phenomenon I've found distressing is over-celebration by indie labels about year end publicity via list.  Here's something to consider: EVERY LABEL GETS YEAR END LIST PUBLICITY.  I'm not saying that I ain't privately and occasionally keeping score, far from it.  However I am not bugging people to do numerous facebook posts, tweets or website blog posts from an "official label" perspective.  

 I will simply observe that the sales boost that you can observe from Artist who receives some of the year-end list attention is quantifiable.   Due to a quirk of supply on Amazon, I've been able to actually watch a specific Record sell 15 physical copies in a little over 24 hours.  That may not sound like a lot, but trust me... at the levels I'm working at- it's a lot.

  HOWEVER I did want to point out the Les Indockuptiblies 2011 year end best albums list because I have a fondness from this French, mostly Music oriented magazine.  My wife would get copies sent to her from France, and I even though I can't read French, I simply admired the Magazine as a music Magazine- with a sophisticated understanding of the indie music world.   I think their top 50 Albums of 2011  is my favorite year-end list thus far this year.

Artists and the Market

  The linguistic turn was a phenomenon of twentieth century philosophy.  A main premise of the linguistic turn is that philosophical problems are caused by misunderstanding language.

  This is especially true when there are conflicts between two competing philosophical "truths."  Existing truths include Religion, Science, Law, Economics & Beauty.  Thus, the linguistic turn becomes useful when you try to talk about two different existing truths.  Talking about competing philosophical truths requires that you accurately describe the truth as understood by believers of that truth and that you not specifically advocate for one truth above another truth.

    Moderns tend to think as Science and Economics as the two dominant truths but that's probably just because  the last century has featured an unprecedented collaboration between the two.  You would only have to go back a couple centuries to find neither truth criterion "in existence"  let alone possessing a systematic accompanying philosophy.   Before that time you're talking Religion, a little Law and a little Beauty as representing potential truths.
 
  If you are going to advocate for Beauty as Truth, you need to be prepared to encounter a variety of non-believers.  These range from people who actively disagree with the proposition that Beauty is Truth, to the great majority of people who don't have an opinion on the subject and don't give a shit.

  Primary advocates for Beauty as Truth are often Artists- though one has to think of a specific Artist to evaluate whether that subject is important to them or whether they might perhaps believe in the primacy of Economics.  The primary manifestation in the "truth" of Economics is the idea of the Market.  At the same time the actual market- owing to the tremendous success the real world counterpart of the philosophy of Economics- requires the Beauty as Truth advocate to negotiate the real world Market Institutions- whatever they may be.

   The danger for the Artist/Beauty as Truth advocate is that he will lack the ability to distinguish appropriate responses to Economics/the Market on both the abstract and concrete levels.

  It's quite easy to imagine a scenario where an Artist's experience with Market Institutions compromises his ability to produce "authentic" Art- something a "true" Artist is presumably obsessed with maintaining.  I would argue that Authenticity is derived from the sustained pursuit of Beauty as Truth by the Artist, so anything that interrupts the elaboration of that process interrupts the ability of the Artist to function.

  Thus, to  Artists I would counsel active, private engagement with the ideas underlying the Market (and its tremendous success vis a vis the role of Beauty in society) and a more passive but public engagement with the Institutions of the Market- recognizing their importance, but not embracing the mechanics, so as to avoid philosophical "taint" in future Artistic product.

PSYCHIC DANCEHALL OFFICIAL BAND PHOTO

     Psychic Dancehall is Charles Rowland of the Crocodiles and Hollie Cook of the Slits.  Their debut live performance is on January 11th, 2012. (LAST FM EVENT LISTING.)  So many reasons to go I briefly considered purchasing a plane ticket.  I know there are at least two regular readers of this blog in the UK- and I implore you, personally, although your identity is unknown to me, to go see the first live Psychic Dancehall show in London.   THEY WILL DELIVER THE GOODS.

LA EXODUS: JEWISH SOULSTICE WEEKEND IN THE DESERT

EVENT PREVIEW
December 23rd-25th
LA Exodus
Jewish Soulstice
Weekend in the Desert
Ace Hotel & Swim Club
PALM SPRINGS CALIFORNIA

WITH  RABBINICAL STYLE LECTURES WITH
David Kasher
Sharon Brous
& Susan Goldberg

AND STAND UP COMEDY WITH
Moshe Kasher
Morgan Murphy
& Jason Nash

w/  Hikes, Jewish yoga (?), Talmudic riddles, Chinese Food, Xmas Dinner & acoustic sets.

Sponsored by the Ace Hotel, East Side Jews, REBOOT, and the mother fucking Jewish Federation.

BOOK HOTEL RESERVATION


Rabbinical style lectures? Talmudic riddles? WHERE DO I SIGN UP.

Dum Dum Girls/Crocodiles Acoustic Xmas THURSDAY(BROOKLYN NY)

EVENT PREVIEW
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011
Dum Dum Girls (solo, acoustic.)
Crocodiles (solo, acoustic)
Reading Rainbow AKA Bleeding Rainbow (acoustic)
Cassie Ramone
GLASSLANDS GALLERY
BROOKLYN NY
(BUY TICKETS 10 USD)  21+

   I like how Dee Dee & Brandon are working NYC like they are local artists- playing a show + a month- just for shits and gigs.  Certainly makes sense if you have the Audience to support it- why not- keep in the public eye, etc.  It's nice to be able to bounce back and forth between the "solo" act and the "full" band if you can.  So that's this Thursday in Brooklyn at the ole Glasslands Gallery.

KIM BY RUDYARD KIPLING

BOOK REVIEW
Kim
by Rudyard Kilpling
p. 1901
Penguin Classics Edition
this edition 2011

  Now we're talking classic literature!  After over three years of 18th century and early 19th century novels I can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.  By "light at the end of the tunnel" I mean relieve from the strictures of the 19th century European Realist novel.  Soooo tedious.  I don't read novels to learn about the well observed rituals of life among the lower bourgeois of 19th century France.  And while I appreciate the technical accomplishments of the 19th century realists, I don't fetishize the technique.   I certainly don't care to wallow in the morass of Victorian family novels.  If I want to learn about the 19th century European bourgeois I'll  read non-fiction.

  KIM is what you call a Bildungsroman or "coming of age story."  It's also a foundation block of any body of "colonial literature," perhaps the progenitor of the genre.  KIM is also an enduring classic that maintains an audience among children and adult.  The Puffin Classics version of the book I read was published in 2011- the cover shows a sophisticated graphic sensibility and the kind of additional materials you expect from an Oxford Classics Edition- but pitched for high school kids, not college students or adults.

   I think it's a testament to the strength of this book that it appeals equally to professors of literature and children all over the world.  That is what you call a classic work of art: Appealing to different Audiences over a long time period.  Late twentieth century PC derived concerns aside, KIM is a superb example of a top 100 novel- a clear way station on the path between the Novel as mostly European Art Form and it's emergence into the great wide world.  I think you could argue that the story of the Novel in the 20th century is the emergence of great novels from countries outside of UK, US, France & Germany.  Particularly important are the bodies of work that came from South Asia, Africa & Latin America.

  This transition begins with the literature of colonialism and imperialism because it developed an Audience for novels about those locations.   It was the desire of people from those places to develop their own stories in the colonizing format that created the explosion of diversity in the novel during the 20th century.

STREAM BEATERS FISHAGE LP NOW!!!

 Beaters--Fishage LP by Volar Records

BEATERS FISHAGE LP OUT NOW ON VOLAR RECORDS.


After having toured with the likes of the Soft Pack, the Obits, and Disappears, the long-awaited debut LP by Beaters, 'Fishage,' is finally here. Past releases include the "Fishage" 7" on Volar (our first-ever release!)/Single Screen Records and a 7" on Zoo Music. Purchase the LP here--www.volarrecords.blogspot.com.


BEATERS ARE WHAT COOL PEOPLE LISTEN TO HERE.