I am glad that our local NYC oldies station, WCBS-FM, returned a few months back, but man, oh man, is there ever a lack of Seventies one-hit wonders on the station. I revel in this kind of pure-pop Tin Pan tunesmithing for "the rock era," as it was when I first started indulging heavily in the drug that was then AM radio. Some of the most superb music of the '70s never made the Top 40 (including genius singer-songwriters and nearly all punk/new wave), but in amongst the stuff that did, there were some severely catchy, hook-ridden melodies, and those are what I bow in homage to for this short series of posts.
Some of the songs have very straightforward presentations on YT because the copyright owners of whatever TV-rockshow footage that exists have removed the best TV performances of the songs. Thus we have these poster-created vids for these two seminal one-hits:
Oh yes, the mellow rock sounds of the Sanford Townsend Band, and their catchy-as-fuck hook "Your Eyes Had a Mist/From the Smoke/of a Distant Fire" (1977). This video is just some random STB images and nature stuff, but it's the song that holds the attention (truly, YT can function like the radio we should be gettin' for free sometimes—just let it run as you do other things):
The KILLER "The Rapper" by The Jaggerz, 1970 one-hit bliss. The lead singer on this track went on to sing on "Play That Funky Music" by Wild Cherry. I have absolutely no interest in the visual here (from some stupid-ass horror teen comedy), but dig that chorus.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
The limits of free speech: joking about Presidential assassination
YouTube has become a clearing house for just about every public statement people want to make — witness the ”YouTube divorce woman” who recently posted a video complaining about her mondo-rich husband kicking her out of their Park Avenue apartment.
There are limits, however, to free speech — ones that dwell somewhere in the “yelling fire in a crowded theater” area (or the “every single joke about the head of state is investigated, especially under a Republican presidency”). Some enterprising soul decided to do a video featuring a kid threatening to kill the President. The vid went down from YouTube, but can be found below. The kid makes his best bid to make the threat sound serious, and it is a particularly damaged bit of play-acting (one commenter in the comments field on the original website notes that the kid has “played too much Grand Theft Auto”). It also gets to be both creepy and boring, as the kid rambles on and on, saying he will kill himself after offing Bush, plus will take out the First Family.
It’s the most extreme form of political humor, and not funny, but interesting to note that it can indeed exist at least in one corner of the Internet. I can’t conceive of a single newspaper (and that includes the “alternative press”), radio station, or television paper that would let this kind of stuff through the filter.
In no way do I advocate what this kid is saying (okay, watchdogs?), but I am certainly interested to observe its appearance (and most likely imminent disappearance) in the public eye:
UPDATE: The video has indeed been taken down, and probably won't be posted anywhere soon, unless the videographer wants to put it on his own website. Here are some blog items about the video. They seem to take the opinion that Bush is generally an okay guy. I think he's an apathetic and genuinely repellent war criminal, but I think the kid's solution is rather grim: since the Pres seems to still be connected to his past drug/alcohol use (either by current "slips" or just the brain-damage they caused), maybe a nice straitjacket would fit the bill.
There are limits, however, to free speech — ones that dwell somewhere in the “yelling fire in a crowded theater” area (or the “every single joke about the head of state is investigated, especially under a Republican presidency”). Some enterprising soul decided to do a video featuring a kid threatening to kill the President. The vid went down from YouTube, but can be found below. The kid makes his best bid to make the threat sound serious, and it is a particularly damaged bit of play-acting (one commenter in the comments field on the original website notes that the kid has “played too much Grand Theft Auto”). It also gets to be both creepy and boring, as the kid rambles on and on, saying he will kill himself after offing Bush, plus will take out the First Family.
It’s the most extreme form of political humor, and not funny, but interesting to note that it can indeed exist at least in one corner of the Internet. I can’t conceive of a single newspaper (and that includes the “alternative press”), radio station, or television paper that would let this kind of stuff through the filter.
In no way do I advocate what this kid is saying (okay, watchdogs?), but I am certainly interested to observe its appearance (and most likely imminent disappearance) in the public eye:
UPDATE: The video has indeed been taken down, and probably won't be posted anywhere soon, unless the videographer wants to put it on his own website. Here are some blog items about the video. They seem to take the opinion that Bush is generally an okay guy. I think he's an apathetic and genuinely repellent war criminal, but I think the kid's solution is rather grim: since the Pres seems to still be connected to his past drug/alcohol use (either by current "slips" or just the brain-damage they caused), maybe a nice straitjacket would fit the bill.
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