I’m sorry this is a sad post. I wish things were different.

I believe the “golden age” of Internet search is a thing of the past and it’s utility is suspect. Even the most “we’re not evil” search engine is inferring semantics from search terms. I get it – it’s what most people want: figure out what I’m asking.

That’s mostly fine.

Alas, now if I enclose the search terms in quotes, which was once a sacrosanct feature of using Google et al, wherein I would be shown all of the locations that literal text existed on the Internet – all 90 pages of results, instead I’m now led to believe there’s never been anything anywhere on the internet that ever had those two words concatenated.

I can’t fathom the utility of what Google serves up in their results:

How did we get here? This once immensely powerful and valuable utility is incapable of acting as a tool with explicit constraints and instead beholden to masters unnamed.

Cory Doctorow has a fairly informed notion having kept track for a few decades.

The break-out 1988 single by The La’s, There She Goes , has no verses.

It’s all choruses. Four of them.

It was remixed by Steve Lillywhite in 1990 and Noel Gallagher said it was his favorite song from the 1990s. On “All Songs Considered”, Ben Gibbard picked it as a “perfect” song.

Play the splendid cover by the phenomenal Hazel English.

I hadn’t seen much video of Smashing Pumpkins live, but this little unplugged clip impressed me. Great ensemble playing – so much more than just Billy Corgan.

Nobody has in-ear monitors. Recorded live at Tower Records in 1993. The sound is absolutely gorgeous. I wish there was more of Jimmy Chamberlin in the video.

The last verse and the outro.

And I’m so happy it isn’t.

Industrial streaming of art is choke-point capitalism.

I was only vaguely aware of Joan Didion because of my dearest friend’s infatuation with D. A. Ortberg’s scatalogical YouTube impressions of imagined conversations between Didion and Anna Wintour.

That changed upon hearing Susan Stamberg’s 7 minute eulogy on NPR when Didion passed last month. I was moved to dive into Didion, consuming first her nephew’s summary of her cultural/political acuity.

I’ve come to realize Didion’s “fiction” was only slightly divorced from reality and so many expressions in her work were cultural and political sentries.

She was among a few people acting as a canary in the coal mine throughtout her writing carrier .

Hilton Als noted “She knew that her country was built on exclusion and shame“

585 days since writing here. Sorry about that.

There’s a few of music-related documentaries being released as films or streaming series out now reviewing stuff that happened 50 or more years ago both by interviewing the principals and unearthing new media. The time is right because first hand accounts won’t be around for much longer.

Summer of Soul

First and foremost is Questlove’s filmmaking debut. Over six weeks in the summer of 1969, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park. The footage was never seen and largely forgotten until this project. The list of performers is staggering: Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension, and more.

True story: The first bass line I ever learned was If You Want Me to Stay and not the obvious choice for a stoner in the 70s, Sugarloaf’s Green Eyed Lady.

The Sparks Brothers

I confess to knowing little of these artists works nor knowing of their influence. The trailer kinda floored me.

Didn’t know, but not surprised to know of the Brit art/punk rock connections: Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Smiths. Totally would have expected Bowie and Freddie Mercury to also be included.

Was surprised to know Bjork, Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) and Kurt Cobain all referenced Sparks as an influence.

What tipped the scales in mentioning this documentary was a quote from Millennial pop producer Jack Antonoff:

All pop music is rearranged Sparks

I would have liked to have that spelled out further in the film. Also missing is deeper exploration regards what informed Ron’s compositions.

https://www.ign.com/videos/the-sparks-brothers-official-trailer

Paul McCartney x Rick Rubin

A random walk among both Beatles and Paul’s work, perhaps uncovering some new insights. Rick recites some very specific appreciation from John about Paul. Very much appreciated Paul’s nod to James Jamerson. Rick and Paul fiddle with faders on playback of Beatles masters .. FFS .. even Paul is astonished it happened.

I’d like to know how the guitar lines in “And Your Bird Can Sing” came about. That was an extremely brief studio session. Nobody in the room could write or read any musical notation.