Friday, August 27, 2004 11:58 AM | Matthew Jeanes Did you ever have to swish with Fluoride in school? I'm learning that maybe this was a DoDDS thing that affected kids in schools on foreign US Military bases more than average kids here in the States. I remember that fluoride treatment like it happened this morning: the squirt bottle with the blueish liquid; the small paper or plastic cups all lined up on a media cart, the 30 seconds we had to keep the vile juice in our mouths. It was all torture and there's a movement now to get fluoride out of the water due to possible cancerous side-effects. And of course, who could forget the crazy Colonel from Dr. Strangelove who warned us all that fluoridated water was a trick by the communists to steal a man's essence?! The local burrito bar that I've been going to ever since I moved to Atlanta (El Myr-recommended!) serves shots and shooters in Fluoride cups and I swear that just looking at them stacked up behind the bar elicits a strong enough taste memory to cause me to feel nauseous. That fluoride was so repulsive that even though I haven't been around it in nearly 20 years, I can still taste it on the tip of my tongue. That's weird, right? {0} Comments Thursday, August 26, 2004 5:11 PM | Matthew Jeanes Can someone please explain to me what the fork is the deal with New York City? I had this discussion with Mad EP on the way to Providence over the weekend and he just described the draw as a kind of energy or vibe and pace. I'm wondering how necessary that is, though, and to whom? I think all of us who live outside of New York (with the exception of those prissy bastards in LA :) ) have this romanticized view of the Big Apple, and it's easy to see why. New York has a mystique to it that's built up in movies and music and events and terrorist attacks--it has a lot of stuff that you just don't get anywhere else. However, how much of that stuff is the stuff people want? New Yorkers will rave about their pizza, and surely there is some of the US's finest pizza SOMEWHERE in New York, but all the pizza I've had there is about on par with Felini's here in Atlanta. We got a recommendation to check out Rosario's a couple blocks from Tonic and while it was okay, it was certainly nothing that I'm really even distinctly remembering right now. Was it salty? Was the sauce thick? Acidic? Was it sour at the crust? I have no idea, it just didn't leave an impression. So New Yorkers, you can strike pizza off your list of things you have to offer the world that people can't get elsewhere--I'll stick to Oz in Decatur. The starving artist thing is certainly a big draw there, as everyone we met or talked to who lived there lived in the kind of place that in Atlanta would probably be torn down to build something trendier. Not that these places were necessarily bad, but they were certainly rough and for the price, I just don't understand it. It's not like you make more money on account of living in New York. A $30,000 a year job here is a $30,000 a year job there, but there it'll get you tunafish and a 6x9 foot broom closet for a room. I make some sacrifices here to save money: I live in a building with DJs and skate kids who like to smoke out and party until 3 am most nights. But I also have a room all for my studio, air conditioning, and an entire spare bedroom I don't even use--and I pay less than what some people in New York pay to split a place four ways! The cost of living factor alone really just makes the place seem wholly undesirable. It's like if you wanted to buy a car that you knew was worth $12,000 but the dealer would only sell it to you for $28,000 and you'd pay it cause, eh, it's THE CAR. Transportation is a nightmare. No one seems to drive and while I like the idea of public transportation, the horror stories of carrying groceries, computers, and the like on the train are enough to let me know that I'll always probably need a car or access to one. Not to mention, the pace that some people thrive on in New York just seems so completely unneccessary to me. Where is everyone going that they are in such a hurry? Why is everyone racing and what are they really accomplishing? I was just confused by it. I would think that New York would have cultural amenities that far exceed what we have here, and to an extent, it probably does. On any given night in New York, there's probably something somewhere worth going out to. But you know, for all that, there is only so much a person can go out and do if they also want to create. The balance here is great because there is usually one thing a week that I really want to get out of the house to see or do, and the rest of the time I can sit at home making tunes knowing that I'm not missing something amazing. I guess New York has that over Atlanta, but I also wonder how many of those things are a 'must-see' and how many of them take the fact that they are happening in NY a little too seriously. All in all, I'm happy not to live there, and I've now been there a couple times and have seen really all I think I need to see. If someone can convince me otherwise--show me where the unbelievable pizza is, or explain what the weird omni-present shower of unknown liquid mist is, or list the accomplishments that couldn't have been achieved elsewhere, or just solidify that 'vibe' for me a little to the point where I understand it, I'd appreciate it. Enough people that I respect are willing to sacrifice A LOT to live there, so there must be something to it, but I'm not seeing exactly what. {0} Comments Wednesday, August 18, 2004 1:28 PM | Matthew Jeanes This is going to be a geeky and more or less useless entry here, so feel free to skip it if you don't need to know the finer points of action figure articulation. While ToyBiz has finally caught up to McFarlane in terms of detail on their figures, they are now suffering from the same problem the McFarlane figures always gave me: none of the damn things can stand up on their own! Okay, that's not true. I've got a shelf of guys who stand pretty much okay, with a few notable exceptions. The problem is in the over articulation of the legs. I guess if you want to 'pose' these figures, you have lots of options, but getting them to stand in that pose without losing out to the maniacal villainous force of the evil Professor Gravity is almost impossible. For some reason, ToyBiz is now articulating the feet, the ankles, the lower leg, the knee, the upper leg, and the hip (and sometimes a few places inbetween.) All those joints are what a ninja would call 'weak points' where the figure's weight is likely to cause enough strain to topple him over. They look great, by and large, but they are getting too complicated for their own good. The McFarlane figures are practically worthless in any position other than in the package because the joints are almost always loose, stretching, or breaking. Frankly, I just don't understand this rush to articulate. For kids playing with these figures, the articulation doesn't add that much. If you are PLAYING with something, you likely have it in your hand and you are making it kick something else and making grunts and 'woosh' sounds to accompany the action. For one thing, you're far too busy with all that to worry about if the rotatation of the hero's leg is really anatomically correct, or if his ankle bends properly on impact. On the other hand, if you are a collector, all you really want is to stand the damn thing up somewhere (if you even took it out of the package) so that you can display it. You don't need to pose it creeping around a corner with a gun in one hand and a knife between the teeth. So please, ToyBiz, can we scale back some on this articulation? {0} Comments Thursday, August 05, 2004 3:54 PM | Matthew Jeanes A great lesson to learn (that I'm always re-learning) is this: Different people think about music in very different ways. This point was illustrated for me in a couple of different, almost equally annoying and sobering ways last week. The first: My girlfriend got invited by some co-workers to see the Sarah McLachlan show at Philips Arena, so of course, we went. When I saw that McLachlan was coming to town, I was vaguely interested, but I immediately shut that off when I saw the words Philips Arena thrown in. Add to that a ticket that was, at best, going to set us back $40 a seat and the idea of seeing the show seemed all but lost. Then, we were invited to see it for free, in a corporate luxury box no less, with some folks who had actually come out to see the Enduser/Larvae show at eyedrum and were certainly hipper and more open to new things than most would give them credit for on first sight. They actually liked the Larvae show, and stayed through the Enduser set cause they were intrigued, so that's massive points in my book. Hundreds of supposedly in-the-know hip young people in ironic t-shirts don't have as adventurous a spirit! So we sent to see McLachlan at the basketball/ice hockey arena and it was as awkward and stiff as you would imagine. The sound is absolutely terrible, especially in the luxury boxes that are situated high up and out of direct line of fire from the stage. The fact that you have access to 'decent' food instead of hotdogs and popcorn is little comfort when the vocals sound like someone is singing from the batcave. The crowd was dominated by post-Lilith Fair, feminist-light, female fans, which I half expected. You have to understand, I saw Sarah McLachlan in a club that was 2/3rds empty in 1993 and I was in love with her album Fumbling Towards Ecstacy for at least a couple years in college where it literally never left rotation in my car stereo, so Sarah and I... we have a history! I knew that the big, lavish production in the sports arena wouldn't hold a candle to the show where she seemed to thank all 250 of us personaly after each song, but nevertheless, I was interested to see where this went. Now, aside from the Lilith Zombies who unfortunately got sold on the 'feminism as a lifestyle brand' message by the VH1's of the world, the audience was populated by a large number of soccer moms and their husbands, people in their late 30's to mid 40's, successful downtown socialites, and people going out for some entertainment on the company dime (those luxury boxes!) It was all a bit of a culture shock to see a performer I had grown up with in a way, in such a strangely alienating and overwhelmingly grown-up environment. What I realized though, was that not everyone approaches music in the same way. Not everyone has the fetishistic 'finder's mentality' of those of us who are avid fans of lesser-known artists. Most people probably don't own an artists' whole discography, or in fact even know what the term "discography" means, because for most people, a greatest hits or token album by their favorite artists is really enough. A lot of folks seem to dive into music in college as they experiment with things, but then jump back out of that culture pool later, sticking with a solid collection of essentials: Beatles, Dave Matthews, Eagles, Nora Jones, maybe some classical--the kind of 30-50 disc cd collection that offers variety, if not depth. So, when I go to a show like Sarah McLachlan at Philips Arena, you have to expect that not everyone is going to approach the show, the music, or the artist the way I do. Not everyone is going to remember the drummer's name, or recognize that there's a new backup singer! Not everyone's going to be thinking about calling out "Into the Fire" and "Dear God" at the top of his/her lungs, but that doesn't make them... bad. The second event that drove this point home was a little more distressing, because it reinforced that "30 disc collection" mentality. We went to a party of collegey people (read: grad students, professors, spouses and the like) that was set up as a CD Swap. It was a cool idea: you wrap up 2 cds that you are willing to part with then everyone exchanges them in a kind of Dirty Santa type game where inevitably, someone gets stuck with "Christmas Guitar Classics" while everyone else keeps stealing "Live from the Mountain" because, well, I don't know why. And THAT was the irritating part. The most clamored after cds of said cd swap were some random album by Jimmy Buffet, the "well-known but politely boring MOR artists doing covers of O' Brother Where Art Thou songs" compilation, and the soundtrack to Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion. I'll be the first to admit that there wasn't really a lot in the swap to get excited about. Old copies of Belly, Tool, The Band, and karaoke CDs aren't really worth popping into a player. But, we tried to make it interesting by bringing things people would never have heard of, but that were nonetheless, quality. You would have thought we brought CDs laced with the ebola virus. The obvious and cartoonish disdain for things like Ryuichi Sakamoto's BTTB CD (which was dismissed as "some sort of Japanese electronica", even though it's modern classical and released on Sony Classics!) and Scanner + Tonne's excellent found sound compositions, "Sound Polaroids" was astonishing. I mean, these people acted like they had just been fucked by the meanest CD Swappers in the history of CD swapping who wanted to play a cruel joke by brining things that must obviously suck because they have never been on the radio. So, the tolerance I learned at the McLachlan show was being tested. Here were well-educted, nay, ivory-tower dwelling souls who had not the least bit of interest in expanding their appreciation and view of music beyond Jimmy Buffet, Flamenco Guitar, and cheesy movie soundtracks. "Suicide Machines, what is that? Sounds gloomy" (uh, actually it's bouncy ska-punk, if you want to know). "What is this, I can't even say it, Basquiat?" (only a great soundtrack from a movie about an important contemporary artist that drew a roomful of blanks.) And on and on it went. It was funny to watch how disrespectful people were of music they hadn't heard of, issuing defacto insults to whomever had brought those discs to the party by insinuating that the music must be awful, and that whoever owned it must lack taste. Watching that room gravitate in such a conservative way towards the things they were comfortable with reminded me that I never want to be in that place. Okay, so the Mo' Money soundtrack we ended up with was a piece of shit--at least I gave it a chance and looked at the liner notes and said "hmmm, Public Enemy and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis--this might be okay." So yeah, different people approach music in different ways. I can respect people who are casual about music and who don't venture deep into the recessed catacombs of obsessive fandom and indie-thrill seeking newness. But I can't get down with people who think that everything they don't already like must be crap. {0} Comments

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