Kevin Marshall's America
Chango’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes by William Kennedy, not that this cat gives a shit.
I’m truly and sincerely putting forth an honest effort to spend more time reading. But life, or at least 21st Century post-print life, is wrought with distractions that are pleasing at the time but unbearably frustrating after the fact.
Drastic times call for drastic measures. I’m turning this computer off and it’s not coming back on until Monday. At least, that’s the idea. Don’t hold me to it, but don’t be surprised either to see me maintain a healthy radio silence the next few days.
While perusing blogs for some background on a post I’m working on for Mixed Marshall Arts, I came across this gem from photographer Tracy Lee:
(source)
The facial reaction of the guy in the upper left-hand corner is priceless.
Please provide your own captions (other than the obvious “F’real, son?”).
Albany has cancelled its annual Columbus Day Parade, which began in 1992. From Jorden Carleo-Evangelist:
For the first time in two decades, there will be no Columbus Day parade in the city — a casualty, some organizers said, of dwindling crowds and younger people not as closely linked to their cultural roots.
The full-scale parade — replaced in the past two years by a shorter one in Washington Park — gives way this year to a Columbus Festival on Saturday and Sunday in Cook Park in Colonie.
The article’s an interesting read, as it touches on the various pushbacks over the years against Columbus due to what some say is an insensitive celebration of the eradication of Native culture in the Americas. It also examines the use of the holiday as a celebration of Italian-Americans, but being so many generations removed from the last major influx of immigration, relevance and interest in that angle has diminished. Aspects of other cultures have bled into new generations while older generations hold onto their shared experience through community organizations. Now, all we are left with is a Monday off in October to reflect on a very complicated and sometimes distressing history.
But if you’re really hard up for a parade celebrating white people with STDs, there’s always North Pearl on any given Saturday.
Something about the Saratoga Lip Dub seemed vaguely reminiscent. It wasn’t the content of the video so much as what it was trying to do. But I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
Then, earlier this afternoon, someone posted a rap video on their Facebook Wall and it hit me.
SAT analogy time!
SARATOGA LIP DUB : VIRAL VIDEOS :: RAP THE MUSICAL : RAP
<3 Mr. Show.
Earlier we touched on Hank Williams, Jr.’s clumsy, drunken comparison of Barack Obama and Hitler vis a vis a golf game. If you don’t know the story, it’s as stupid as it sounds.
One of the things that really struck me, though, was how familiar the rant sounded. In particular, towards the end of the clip on YouTube he rebukes attempts by the achors of Fox & Friends to get him to take back his comment by saying “hey, I’m just telling you like it is.”
You always hear this said by the loudest person in the room
“I’m just telling it like it is.”
“I’m a straight shooter.”
“Calling a spade a spade”
“only God can judge me”
“I really don’t care what other people think”
The Saratoga Lip Dub was a thing that happened, and boy is it tough to watch.
I’m only providing the video for my masochistic friends out there who get joy and satisfaction out of putting themselves through pain. Here you go, you sick fucks.
All Over Albany is a lot kinder and simply reports on the disappointing number – only 35,500 views thus far. The goal was to try to match the high water mark set by Grand Rapids, which sits at over 4,000,000 views and counting. Not gonna happen.
So why didn’t this work?
1. CHOICE OF MUSIC
Emerson College used Lady Gaga, arguably the most famous female pop star of the 21st Century whose music has legitimately catchy hooks. Grand Rapids used a live recording (which I think is strange but whatever) of Don McLean’s “American Pie,” which is one of the most famous and beloved songs of all times. Saratoga used fucking Train and kicked it off with the petulant “Hey Soul Sister.” Yes, I know the drummer’s from Saratoga. If Karen Carpenter The Captain from “The Captain and Tennille” was from Saratoga, would the dub have been to “Muskrat Love?” Probably.
2. REASONING / BEEN THERE, DONE THAT
The motivation for Emerson was to promote the college in a fun way. The Grand Rapids dub was a bit more heartwarming and defiant: they were responding to a Newsweek article that called them a “dying city.” Saratoga did a lip dub because a media company convinced them this would be a good idea to copy something that’s already been done to death on YouTube. By the by, if anyone from the city of Troy is reading, I have a brilliant marketing campaign for you: it’s called LOLTroy, and it’s pictures of cats enjoying Troy in internet cat speak. “I CAN HAZ ANTEEK DISTRIK?!!1″ Actually, that’s fucking brilliant. See? This lip dub was a total waste.
3. A BAFFLING SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT CONVEYED IN THE VIDEO
Come out and celebrate Saratoga! Our video will get ten million views! Why? Because WE DESERVE IT. No, we’re not struggling or in need of a boost, and we’re not plucky underdogs or charismatic undergrads. We just think we’re special. Look how fancy we are, too!
4. AMATEUR HOUR
Whereas the other lip dubs were a bit adventerous in their shooting and their scenarios, the Saratoga Lip Dub simply goes through the city and has boring people holding up signs and cheering while stuff like horses occasionally run out. Nothing that really entices you to GO to Saratoga, just to tell you what’s already there. This was like the viral video equivalent of a brochure from a small town’s tourism board that leans heavily on boring historical facts and thinks someone other than your grandfather will care. Also, the only impressive aspect of the video is the bodies present. The video looks like it was shot on my phone for God’s sake. Also, guys, you’re supposed to have someone front and center lip-synching to draw the viewer’s eye towards a central location and to take attention away from the fact that the people in the crowd aren’t really lip synching.
5. IT’S BORING AND LAME
This could simply summarize all of the above, but it still bears its own mention. Not to beat a dead horse (SEE WHAT I DID THERE), but where’s the connect for this? Am I supposed to care just because it’s Saratoga? AND WHY ARE YOU FORCING ME TO LISTEN TO THESE AWFUL SONGS BY TRAIN
Now that this experiment has failed, let’s agree that it was always annoying to begin with and never waste your city’s money and my time with this stupid bullshit ever again.
For comparison’s sake, the Emerson College and Grand Rapids “lip dubs”:
Hank Williams, Jr. has a message for people who want to play golf with John Boehner: YOU’RE HITLER!
(speaking on John Boehner playing golf with Obama, starting at 1:10)
Gretchen Carlson: “You mean when John Boehner played golf with President Obama?”
Hank Jr: “OHHHHHHHHHHH YEAH! And Biden, and [Ohio Governor John] Kasich…yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah.”
Gretchen Carlson: “What did you not like about it? It seems to be a really pivotal moment for you.”
Hank Jr.: “C’MON, C’MON! It’d be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu, okay? In the country this shape is in—in the shape this country is in?!”
[Panel sits in stunned silence]
Brian Kilmeade: “…I don’t understand that analogy, actually.”
Hank, Jr.: “Well I’m glad you don’t, brother, because a lot of people do.You know, they’re the enemy. They’re the enemy!”
Kilmeade: “Who’s the enemy?”
Hank, Jr.: “Uh…OBAMA!!! And Biden! Are you kiddin’? The Three Stooges!”
Steve Doocy: “It’s only two…”
Hank, Jr.: “The one that makes sense is Herman Cain. Herman Cain…”
…
Gretchen Carlson: “You used the name of one of the most hated people in all of the world to describe, I think, the President?”
Hank Jr.: “Well, that is true. But I’m telling you like it is.”
Hank Jr. is a straight shooter who will tell you like it is! So ESPN told him like it is and pulled his stalwart “All My Rowdy Friends” intro from their Monday Night Football telecast, which has been a part of Monday Nights in the Fall since Monday Night Football was still the NFL’s flagship program and aired on parent network ABC.
I think I get where he’s coming from, though. Remember when Hitler tried to pass health care in Israel?
…uh, yeah. I always preferred his father and son (Hank III) anyway. But, in honor of Hank Jr., let’s sing it one more time.
ARE YA READY FOR SOME GOLFIN’?
IT’S A BIG NAZI PARTY!
WE’VE GOT OBAMA AND JOE BIDEN
BOEHNER, GET IT KICK STARTED
GONNA MAKE A BAD ANALOGY AND INSIST THAT I’M RIGHT,
ALL MY NAZI FRIENDS ARE PLAYIN’ GOLF TONIGHT!
Note – my ratings, which are as arbitrary as any other and as such should probably not be obsessed over, are done on a scale of one to five stars.
“MONEYBALL”
****1/2
Director: Bennett Miller
Starring: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Chris Pratt
“DRIVE”
****
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Ron Perlman, Bryan Cranston, and Albert Brooks
On the surface, the two films I saw this weekend bore little resemblance to each other. In fact, one wouldn’t even place them in the same genre. “Moneyball,” based on the best-seller from financial reporter and non-fiction writer Michael Lewis, tells the story of baseball general manager Billy Beane and his revolutionary approach to scouting and player evaluation that made a ball club with one of the lowest payrolls in Major League Baseball into perennial contenders. “Drive,” based on a 2005 novel by James Sallis, is a heist film based around an assuming, anonymous character (we never do learn his name).
Yet they mirror each other in many other ways. Both focus on male protagonists engaged in pursuit of redemption. They maintain a cool and calm veneer for others, but explode in acts of rage and violence. With Billy Beane, the outbursts don’t cost someone the use of their hands or their head, but they do include him destroying a clubhouse with a baseball bat and terminating the employment of players, scouts, and coaches when they don’t follow the plan he’s laid out for them.
The films also carry thematic similarities. Both are character studies that explore the ethical murkiness of the respective protagonists. Beane is ultimately doing the right thing for baseball and the Athletics organization in particular, dragging baseball kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century and making a small team with a loyal fanbase competitive with teams like the Yankees and the Red Sox. Yet we learn early on that there is a concession that must be made with this approach: if players are numbers, one must be able to remove them from the equation without hesitation if they don’t fit. The Driver (as he is noted in the film’s credits) resides in a world where crime is both a profession and a past-time. He’s attempting to better himself and helps his new neighbor out of affection for her and her child. But they, too, are caught up in a world where knives and guns are as common as forks and knives, they just don’t realize it until it’s thrust in front of them in violent fashion.
As such, “Moneyball” and “Drive” rely heavily on moral relativism to sustain empathy for the protagonists. Their destructive actions permanently injure lives and end them (career-wise and literally, respectively). These aren’t concessions that are made along the journey; they are requisites in order to fix the situations both have found themselves entrenched in.
They’re also remarkably quiet movies. The best moments for Brad Pitt (Beane in “Moneyball”) and Ryan Gosling (the Driver in “Drive”) come when they don’t say a word and barely move. The camera makes us sit with them and think, and through their performances they guide us through their respective thought processes. The directors (Bennett Miller of “Moneyball” and Nicolas Nicolas Winding Renf of “Drive”) have made reflective and simply gorgeous films. Their education and experience are separated by an ocean: Miller is an American filmmaker, Refn is Danish. Yet they share the same Danish sensibilities that perfectly meld art and escapism, like romantic poetry with a club beat behind it.
I haven’t seen two films this year more different than “Moneyball” and “Drive,” nor have I seen two films that share such remarkable similarities. More importantly, though, I also haven’t seen two films better than either. Both deserve your attention and transcend their genres to give us something that’s engaging, thoughtful, and beautiful, in spite of all the baseball and head-bashing.
Earlier today on his Keyboard Krumbs blog, Rob Madeo tells the story of a frivolous sports opinion piece that has exploded in controversy due to internet reaction and the harassment and threats its author received.
Before the Buffalo Bills’ big test against the New England Patriots last week – one which they passed – Times Union Sports and Features writer Jennifer Gish wrote an article that was published in print and online titled “Bills fans need help keeping it real.” The article was intended to be tongue in cheek, but took a very sardonic, cruel, and mean tone that is unfortunately what passes for satire with those who have the unfortunate task of attracting eyeballs and traffic, particularly in that newsroom. She quoted Bills fans and painted them to look ridiculous and foolish. Which in hindsight was a bad idea, particularly with the inclusion of an elderly woman.
Then came the backlash. It being sports, the assholes and anti-social media gurus came out in full force on Twitter, through e-mail, and on blog comments to issue veiled threats, sexist remarks, and downright crude insults towards Gish. It’s ugly stuff and one of the many reasons why I steer clear of sports culture on the whole. (I’ll use this opportunity to note that you would be absolutely floored at how much more civil and respectful MMA blog comments and forums are compared to team sports, and I encourage you to check out my MMA blog Mixed Marshall Arts.)
Gish definitely did not deserve those comments. Even the stuff “suitable” for print was abhorrent.
There’s another issue here, though, which has gone largely ignored but has created quite a stir in certain circles in Albany, including many that I cross with.
Gish told Bryon McKim, one of the fans she quoted in the article, that she was doing a piece on the Bills 2-0 start to the season and their (then) forthcoming game against perennial contenders the New England Patriots. The following is the e-mail sent to him, which he posted on the Bills Backers website along with his response to the article:
“Hi Bryon,
I write a sports column for the TU, and am looking to talk to some Bills fans this week in light of the big test against the Patriots coming up. Can I interview you for it? If you can send me a number and best time to reach you I could call you tonight or tomorrow. I’ll also be reaching out to some of the other ABB. Thanks!
Jennifer”
According to Bryon, the tone of the interview was light and he was given the impression that an entirely different piece was being constructed than what was eventually published. Which, as Lydia Kulbida pointed out on her blog, sometimes happens. What isn’t acceptable is that she took his quotes out of context to make him look foolish, shoving him into a media pillory and embarrassing him on a grand scale. She never gave the impression that she would use anything resembling the tone and slant she ended up with, and when confronted about it, she replied to him and said that she told him that the article was going to be about the fans needing a reality check. Which is flat out not true: the only reference to a “reality check” was when she asked him if the game against the Patriots was going to be one for Bills fans.
In short, Gish intentionally misrepresented her intentions. Which, regardless of the unnecessary vitriol she received after it was printed, was wrong. Sometimes, in the thick of working on a piece of investigative journalism, some fenagling has to be done in order to get the information you need. But this was a fluff feature piece intended as humor (though woefully lacking in the finer points that separate satire from straight-up ridicule).
Again, you can read Bryon’s full response at the Albany Bills Backers’ official site. As a follow-up, fellow Bills Backer Ed Lass (disclosure: we’re BFFs) touched on one of the many problems with local media and their relationship with readers:
Newspapers are in a tough place. A Pew Research Center study earlier this year tells us that only 31% of Americans consider a newspaper to be a main source of news in their life. This is down from 45% in 2001. The internet provides news to 41% of Americans while TV still dominates with a 66% share. (Before all you math whizzes point out that this is greater than 100%, I’ll just say that Pew allowed people to choose more than one main source of news. Less than a third still chose the newspaper.)
Agreed, and what occurred here is one of the many reasons why this shift has occurred. Newspapers are getting desperate. Desperation brings attention, but it rarely brings anything resembling trust or admiration.
Ed also (rightly) chastises those comments and urges any of those reading to retract them. But he also touches on a salient point that I myself have been grappling with since this whole thing exploded:
On Twitter, Ms. Gish’s colleague Kristi Gustafson Barlette reports that Jennifer has been the target of “classless name-calling and physical threats.” I haven’t independently verified this, but I don’t condone it, and I hope it’s not coming from Albany Bills Backers who read Bryon’s call to action. If you’ve ever read the comments sections of the Times Union blogs, you’ll learn that TU readers are some of the most crass and vile people you’ll never meet. Apparently some of them are also the same Bills fans that I explained have moved here. I regret that. If anyone reading this has had a hand particularly in threats but also in name-calling, I would ask you to please retract the comments. An eye for an eye makes the world blind.
The emphasis in bold is mine, not Ed’s. He’s not making the following point, but I will.
For far too long the Times Union, in its attempt to circumvent shrinking circulation and growing pains associated with the transition to 21st century media, has perpetuated and condoned the sort of ugliness that led to what happened with Gish. This is not to say she or other individuals are culpable for the inexcusable behavior of others, but it does make it more likely for people to jump over that line when a major newspaper blurs it by allowing comments to see the light of day that contain personal attacks and blogs from staff members that openly ridicule people a la “People of Wal-mart.”
I don’t mind telling you right now that I tried my damndest to deep-six all of that, and if I did let it through I made it a point to let them know that it wasn’t welcome or condoned on my space. But that’s because I want a better, not bigger, audience. The Times Union, unfortunately, doesn’t feel it has the luxury of that choice. Which is a shame for everyone. Especially the readers, who whether they are cognizant of it or not are the ones that suffer the most when local media takes the low road and compromises its value and integrity for the sake of SEO.
The bottom line, though, is that nothing before or after that article was written justified tricking regular people into making fools of themselves at the highest level of local media (and vice-versa lest anyone accuse me of condoning the attacks). What occurred with that article only encourages skepticism and distrust towards the press. Which is probably why Mike Huber’s well-intentioned offer to host a Bills Backers blog on the TU site will likely go ignored.
They’ve already been burned and seen others burned too. Last thing they want is to climb into the oven.
“The undeniable injustice of the response to the late 2000s recession that gave Wall Street (the responsible party) massive handouts at the expense of the taxpayers (the victims) led many left wing activists, frustrated by their powerlessness, to feel that they MUST at least do SOMETHING. The ‘Occupy Wall Street’ demonstration is the most grand, coordinated left wing activist response to this point. To the best of my knowledge, it was initiated by Adbusters (the online and print magazine and whatever else it aspires to be). While I (and pretty much everyone else in the working class) share the frustration that inspired this protest, I think the only thing it’s doing is something for the sake of doing something. At best, it’ll come to nothing. At worst, it practically invites the political law of unintended consequences (haven’t these clever hipsters any sense of historical irony?).”
– S. Connick at Indie Albany on why he’s not enamored with “Occupy Wall Street”
Agreed and while I caught some flack on Twitter for calling it bullshit two weeks ago, I stand by it.
Of course that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t police brutality and an abuse of power that only served to strengthen the resolve and give people more to rally around. Yet from the beginning this stunk of empty, angry rhetoric. It’s a Tea Party for the left – Billed Enough Already (BEA Party!).
It’s great to see the left mobilized, but if it’s just anger at the vague idea of an institution, then I’m sorry, but it’s not worth a good goddamn. It takes more than us screaming “the banks are bad!” to make a dent in what passes for political discourse in this country.
And I’d be careful about comparing this to the Arab Spring. Do you know what those people go through? You’re not being oppressed and disappeared for your beliefs. This isn’t me saying you don’t have a right to complain, it’s me saying you should tread carefully in comparing our financial situation to their life and death struggle.
I’ll stop there and just urge you to go read Mr. Connick’s appraisal, because it hits on every point that’s bugged me about this whole thing from the beginning.
Also, yes, I too like to pretend that this is really Harry Connick, Jr. writing under a pseudonym. I can confirm that it isn’t. But we can dream.
STALK ME
