Stuff I've been writing: Ape School profile, Origivation Magazine 2/10

The primary interview for this joint took place at sunset in a grass patch behind the North Star Bar in Fairmount last July, but due to technical difficulties (publications folding, my procrastination), it wasn't published till now. It's by far one of the chillest, friendliest interviews I've ever done (another candidate for that, my chat with Reading Rainbow, will appear in the March issue), and I still think Ape School is criminally underrated in Philly and elsewhere.

In other exciting news, Origivation has a new editor with a lot of new ideas, so expect something more than long-ass profiles (not that there's anything wrong with that; I've written enough of them) in the future.

The return of Mad Men news-blogging!

But it might be bad news: Bryan Batt, who plays Salvatore Romano (closeted gay former Sterling Cooper art director and one of the most compelling characters on the show), hasn't been notified as to whether or not he'll be returning for the new season.

The fourth season begins filming in March, and there's already a Facebook group dedicated to making sure Batt and his character are back in the show. As Mad Men fans know,


[spoiler alert if you haven't seen the third season]


SCDP took SC's biggest client -- Lucky Strike -- when they broke off to create their own firm. And the reason Sal was fired in the first place is because of Lucky Strike bigwig Lee Garner Jr.'s drunken, unsuccessful pass at our dear Sal.

Stuff I wrote in fall

The December issue of Origivation -- in which I interview North Jersey punk powerhouse Screaming Females -- will be out very soon. In the meantime, check out their video for "Buried in the Nude."



Also, I never posted my November feature on intergenerational Philly duo Saudi Arabia, plus reviews of albums by Ola Podrida and Junk Culture. Caleb's take on the recent Feelies reissues is there, too! Behold:

Two skeins of Cascade 220 "Sand" arrived two days ago. Progress report:



I have 16 days to knit another 9' or so; in the past two hours, I've done almost 6". I'm not worried.

New Origivation writings

The October issue of Origivation is so, so out right now. I've got features in there on These United States and the Independent Music Awards. Read away.

The Wire and Doctor Who, together at last

Sort of, anyway.

Clarke Peters (aka The Wire's Lester Freamon) will voice a character in a new animated Doctor Who spinoff. I have pretty much zero intention of watching this, but we came awfully close to a fave TV show 'splosion for me. Get Ian McShane as the voice of K-9 Mark XII or whatever and we'll see.

In which I appear in the paper

The first time I was ever in a newspaper, I was 10 years old and wearing a black-and-red flannel shirt and a purple bike helmet. My similarly Angela Chase-ly-clad elementary school friends and I were walking our bikes across Six Forks Road on our way home from elementary school, probably about to go to the Taco Bell and get cups for water and then fill them with all the different horrible sodas. In the caption, my name was "Alex Taylor." Fact checking!

Fast forward 10 years and I have a sheaf of college newspaper blathering and a healthy sprinkle of my own electronic opinion strewn about the web. So it's kind of weird for me to be like "Look, I'm in the paper!" but here I am, an expert witness to tabloid feuds and contemporary ladymade music. My mom called me at the ungodly hour of 11:30 this morning to ask if I was "Philadelphia-based, feminist music writer (and former Raleigh resident) Alexandra Jones" -- "That couldn't be a coincidence, right?"

Wanna take bets on long before The Rachel Maddow Show comes callin'?

WOOOOOOO!

The third season of Mad Men finally has a debut date: August 16. Only 67 days to go!

PBR never raped anybody

So the American Psychological Association publishes a journal called Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, which recently published the results of a study on college women's drinking habits. Specifically, the study asked hetero female students how many drinks they thought their male peers preferred them to drink in social situations. Hetero male students were asked how many drinks they wanted female friends, potential sex partners, and dates to drink. (Prior studies have determined that college students in general overestimate how much their peers drink/find acceptable for others to drink, and that female students may be more susceptible to the influence of their peer groups' normative behaviors.)

The study found that women greatly overestimated how many drinks they thought their male peers wanted them to have. The journal article concludes that this discrepancy between what women think men want them to do and what men actually want can be exploited to get female students to drink less.

Here's what's fucked up: That alcohol abuse educators, however well-intentioned, still base efforts to curb binge drinking among women by invoking what men will think of them. I remember a pretty offensive anti-drinking ad campaign at Michigan that strongly implied that getting drunk would lead to women -- only women -- to (regrettable, of course) whorish behavior. If they're not invoking the spectre of sexual assault (which the APA article does in a section of statistics on women and drinking), they're warning you about stepping outside the bounds of male-defined femininity. Never mind trying to educate men on the consequences of binge drinking, and god forbid we recognize and address that what causes rape and sexual assault is the action of the rapist or attacker, period.

I can't judge the women in the study for the reasons they decide to drink, but it's really fucking depressing that this kind of thing still factors into the thinking of so many women in just about any area of life from clothes to careers to everyday behaviors like this.

Grrr. The super-short version of the study's findings is here. The 6-page peer-reviewed article is here.

YAY Lionsgate has finally acquiesced to Mad Men creator dude Matthew Weiner's probably outlandish (and totally deserved) contract demands for TWO more seasons.

Let us celebrate:

My Origivation debut and such

Heyo, my first reviews for Origivation, a Philly-based music mag, are out in print and pdf form! I reviewed Sexcop's new EP (witty and spry pop ballads, rather 69 Love Songs-y) and did the mini-blurb for TVOTR's Dear Science in the Top 10 of '08 list. Read them here (I'm on pages 35 and 38).

More nooz: I'm currently in the throes of reviewing a bundle of discs for Beyond Race magazine's blog, woohoo. Be on the lookout for my thoughts on Femi Kuti, Chairlift, Rio En Medio, Max Tundra, and the new Danielson 2-disc set.

NEWSFLASH

Pitchfork.tv is showing Michael Tully's 2007 documentary Silver Jew THIS WEEK ONLY. Get on that, won't you?

There's also this video of Dave Berman's Top 10 Redneck Moments reading and a performance of "Strange Victory, Strange Defeat."

The bread from the sandwich of my dreams

Update!

The illustrious Michelle, freshly relocated to Pittsburgh, will soon be guest/co-blogging in this space. So GET READY.

Coming attractions/intent to distribute/Philly klezmer

So I'm still gonna post a recap of some of the badass concerts I've seen lately -- especially since Zoilus has had a debate about Destroyer's relationship to rock, and I have a few thoughts on the issue after seeing them (most recently) in Philly. Also, my photos of some of the more intimate (ie, in the Hazel basement) performances!

Inbetweentimes, an update on my favorite corporate tool shenanigans of late. There are stirrings in the university community in the face of a recent inundation of complaints from record companies, who are still targeting college students and their sinister high-speed internet connections.

University officials suspect that record companies are working from a newly expanded criteria that includes what's basically "intent to distribute." Although this regulation has been struck down in some court cases, the record industry is still pushing their desperate allegation that the mere act of putting mp3s in a shared folder is tantamount to sharing, regardless of whether anyone downloaded from you or not. Odious. [via Machinist]

In ethnomusicological news, I'm volunteering at the Philadelphia Folklore Project's mother-daughter Ukrainian klezmer performance on Sunday, May 11. 6 p.m. at World Cafe!

Post-absentee ballot Obama rationalizing

The way this woman seems to feel toward Obama, I think, mirrors how I think about him: He hasn't won me over the way he has most of his supporters, and I'm pretty tough on him. Then again, the thought that he really could restore dignity to the White House while simultaneously repairing our fucked-up policy situations is really freaking exciting, and I'm actually counting on him to pull it out.



[via Wonkette]

The second half perfectly showcases the Obama charm -- easy banter, loudly enthusiastic supporters, jokes, a sliver of youthful edge. He can hype my mom into writing "Yes We Can!" in the margins of letters to me.

Still, I guess I'm cautiously optimistic. 2004 was devastating; 2006 was awesome and I honestly celebrated -- congressional scales slightly tipped in our favor, Macaca, Rahm Emmanuel, Rumsfeld resigning -- but that hasn't lived up to the hype. And now it's hard to trust even the politicians we like with our hopes.

Status report

The last time I posted, I lived in North Carolina.

Now I live in Philadelphia.

Before, I was self-exiled from real adult life (or what passes for it at age 23, anyway). Never did I picture myself moving back in with my parents for any reason, ever. In school, I loved running my own damn life, cooking, catching buses. Even the detestable act of paying a bill would bring on a little surge of pride. I stayed on top of that shit this month. For a time, I was schoolin', cohabiting with what I thought (with increasing doubts) was a pretty decent boyfriend, enjoying not fast-tracking myself to grad school. I was in Ann Arbor, and if you don't think about it too much and the weather is nice, Ann Arbor is just the right size to make you feel like you're in control and getting stuff done while the big shit, like money and self-worth and the future, nuzzle up on the edges of your easy, yuppie-lite life.

I knew I was not okay when I found myself crying uncontrollably in the middle of my course on Dada & Surrealism. And walking home from the student newspaper. And any time I'd visit a favorite teacher at office hours, trying to get some kind of affirmation that I wasn't going crazy or throwing my life away.

But I kind of did, and I kind of was.

I went on antidepressants, started counseling (I've had three great counselors and one awful one since), and broke up with my live-in boyfriend right after graduation. He smashed a guitar when I told him, but we rode out the rest of the summer together. (Now he's engaged to some girl four years his junior and working in a chicken restaurant outside Detroit.)

I moved back home and spend most of my time in my pjs or working at either of two mediocre part-time jobs, blowing my money on CDs and student loan payments and generally moping. I got more and more miserable over the summer, saw the opportunity to move away to Philly (a 4-month lease; it's a start) and spent September through January anxious as hell about the move and completely head-in-the-sand about job prospects. I managed to save a few months rent, packed a few bags, got on the train, and now I'm here.

It's kind of scary and very intimidating and I like the city but it can make you feel, well, transparent. Still trying to find jobs, hoping to find some more freelance work, ready to leave behind the aftermath of the mindfuck that was my last relationship and that rudderless post-graduation feeling.

Okay, so that's what's going on. Now maybe I can post something deeper and more interesting than personal life bullshit without making excuses to myself.

14 NC Central University sousaphones stolen

From this morning's News & Observer:
Thieves steal band's thunder

That's some shameful shit.

What kind of master criminal made off with 14 sousaphones without their cases? Seriously, this would require significant preparation and sleight of hand. If someone sees a sousaphone occupying the entire backseat of your car, you can't just be like "Um, cashed in some Best Buy giftcards" the way you could for fancy electronics or something. And, you know, times 14. Christ.

At the same time, I can't imagine these assholes won't get far -- fencing that stuff has got to be difficult. Then again, the article states that the thefts occurred on at least two incidents at least through December. Lame that we're only hearing about it now. I can only imagine how Central's bassline must feel. Boo.

This guy might have more details. Updates TK!

Film execs, take note: Who needs screenwriters when Drumline II pretty much just wrote itself?

The RIAA: Still obfuscatory jerks

Forgot to post about this last week. My fave newsy NPR show, Talk of the Nation, hosted Washington Post writer Marc Fisher, who authored the article on the most recent audacity in the RIAA's file-sharing lawsuits, and RIAA president Cary Sherman to discuss the whole crazy thing.

Sherman refuses to firmly state whether or not the RIAA considers simple uploading to a computer or music player legal, but he calls Fisher out for misquoting the section of the brief upon which the article hinged. At the end of the segment, the RIAA's policy remains murky as ever, but it turns out that Sherman was right: The RIAA maintains in the brief that the mp3s in this case were located in a shared folder and therefore illegal -- not just because they were uploaded in the first place. The Post has since copped to the mistake and corrected the story.

But Ryan Singel at Wired's Threat Level blog makes the case that the RIAA's legal campaign against file-sharers has presumed uploading to be illegal since their ultimately victorious case against Jammie Thomas this past year.

...the RIAA's lawyer used that argument -- that individuals don't even have the right to make MP3s - to persuade a jury to levy exorbitant fines on file sharer Jammie Thomas. The judge told the jury to consider that simply offering files for download constituted copyright infringement -- the RIAA didn't have to prove anyone actually downloaded the files.

But it wasn't clear until after the testimony whether the judge would require proof that someone actually downloaded the songs she made available on Kazaa. So the RIAA''s lawyer engaged in a scorched earth campaign, argumentatively asking Thomas if she had gotten permission to simply rip the songs.

Before knowing whether the judge would enforce a burden of proof the RIAA couldn't meet -- they had no proof anyone actually downloaded songs from Thomas, the RIAA's lawyer was building a case to have Thomas found liable for simply ripping songs without permission. That's why the Sony executive said ripping a song was the same as stealing one, though now the RIAA finds it convenient to say she didn't understand the question.

Same as it ever was (ineffective and preposterous, that is).

Really, It's Absolutely Asinine

In another one of its spurious litigations against file-sharers, the RIAA has shown just how extraordinary backwards it really is. Not that doubts existed before, but this shit is just too much.

From the Washington Post :

In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

The industry's lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are "unauthorized copies" of copyrighted recordings.

Baffling. This strategy was out of date when I was in middle school ten years ago -- hell, individuals making copies of copyrighted material like this has existed since effing cassette tapes.

I pay for all my music nowadays, but I'm definitely not above burning mix CDs for friends -- and I'm more scrupulous than most of the listeners I know. As if going after individual downloaders as a deterrent wasn't already an exercise in futility -- there's no way in hell this can possibly work. An attempt to restrict uploading onto personal computers without fine sharing -- something anyone with an mp3 player has to do -- has zero chance of effectively reducing file sharing. If people are in danger of being prosecuted for uploading music they've paid for, why not Soulseek that stuff for free?

The Washington Post article pretty much sums it up:

The RIAA's legal crusade against its customers is a classic example of an old media company clinging to a business model that has collapsed. Four years of a failed strategy has only "created a whole market of people who specifically look to buy independent goods so as not to deal with the big record companies," Beckerman says. "Every problem they're trying to solve is worse now than when they started."