Vanity Fair

Thackeray's classic slice of mid-nineteenth century English life, which was, at the time, flush with the color of its colonies in India & China has been beautifully fleshed out by one of the few females entrusted with a major studio film. The producers, star & most of the crew were also female. I'm not aware of another film of this size so predominantly female.

So, of course the film's about Vanity, right? Interestingly, the dictionary defines vanity primarily in terms of uselessness, as opposed to self-absorption. From what I understand, the vanity examined in the story is that of the times, at least as much as the protagonist, Becky Sharpe.

She lives in interesting, colorful times and rises from nothing to a life filled with interest, excitement and comparative wealth. I guess some interpret her strictly as a social climber, interested in nothing more than money. I see her as someone guided by a strong will and inner direction that propels her forward and those around her are drawn to that. Maybe I'm coloring her with my own brush here but I see her as motivated by a desire to enjoy her life experience, not a desire for stature.

I think people interested in stature make very different choices, they choose their friends on the basis of the type of connections provided, rather than how interesting they are. They choose stuff on the basis of what it says to others as opposed to what it actually looks & feels like. The vain may make empty choices, but not in vain, they are filled with purpose. The purpose is to get to that next rung on the social ladder.

Apparently, Becky Sharpe was the inspiration for one of my favorite literary characters, Scarlett O'Hara, another feisty girl with, as they say, "pluck". I read Gone With the Wind as a young woman, long before seeing the film, and was impressed with Scarlett's passion, determination, originality, loyalty & honesty. I saw the film recently and this time was struck by the vanity of Scarlett. Not her conceit, which is probably more of a well-deserved confidence anyway, but the vanity of her love for Ashley (as in "loved in vain").

She loved him fully, honestly and passionately, never wavering, her whole life, even though she was attractive to almost every other man but him. He seems so strong and fine to her and she can't, for the life of her, understand what he sees in the milquetoast cousin he's been arranged to marry. She attributes it to duty for decades, only to find out, at the end, that although he admires Scarlett's strength, he sure as hell doesn't share it.

That's a lot of time and energy and love to waste, and served as a bit of a wake-up call for me. In the end, maybe Scarlett was undone by the very loyalty and inner direction, I, and others, find so appealing. After all, Ashley rejected her a number of times. But, it was like she just wouldn't hear it, couldn't believe it, too attuned to her own voice, which was attracted to him. Lesson: Listen!.. especially when people tell you who they are.

Maybe she just couldn't comprehend why someone she perceived as so dynamic would be attracted to someone so passive. And, that combo has always mystified me, even though I've actually spent far more time than I should have in a relationship with a passive man. In my case, I had a really in your face mother and I guess I felt life would be a lot easier with someone with a mellower style. But, in the end, I respect inner strength, and when you really get to know someone, you start to distinguish what's real strength and what's adherence to outer rules or religious phrasing.

So, yes, I admire and relate to Becky and Scarlett. I think one of the DVD commentators summed it up best, saying something to the effect of, there are mavericks and adventurers in every society who figure out how to sort of ride the wave and make the society work for them. Social surfers....not social climbers. The climbers get to their little peak, which is lonely (it's lonely at the top). The surfers are far more connected to the wave, they ride it out, not getting overtaken but not directing either. You can't direct the wave, just enjoy the ride.

Sell You Are

Cellular is a good example of movie much enhanced by its DVD. It's a thriller, not a particularly good one... sort of a single lane plot like Speed. It doesn't even rise to the level of psychological thriller, which at least indicates some mental activity by someone in the film.

But, one of the bonus features went into this whole concept of what the cellular phone is doing to our society. It's been around a while now and I guess I never gave it that much thought because I keep the phone very much at bay in my own life. I'm sure this will clarify a lot for many of you who haven't already figured that out.

But, I do notice more and more people mindlessly blathering on cell phones while in public, restaurants, stores... almost no place is safe, even airlines are now talking about allowing them en route. They already are on board, just at those jacked up rates, but those phones came in pretty handy for those on hijacked flights on 9/11.

There's a huge trade off. We're never going back to the past. Those phones have saved many lives. But, a generation of kids is growing up with a very limited sense of privacy or downtime, and that's a shame. With VoIP, we'll be constantly at the umbilical line off some cell. It will be up to each of us to create our own limits.

Marshall McLuhan called the phone a hot medium, and it's becoming less so. Hot means condensed, your cues are all coming into your ears. I guess that's why I avoid it. I really like to see the facial expressions & body language to get a read on someone. I was a communications major in college, the first one my school ever had and we learned about meta-language... all the communication that goes on besides the actual words. The words themselves are like 2% of the total message

So, now we have cells everywhere, phones omnipresent, yet the more conversation takes place, the less is actually said. A guy on the DVD gave an example of a woman (always a woman, right?) who was actually narrating a walk down the street, "now I'm in the bank, now I'm in the deli", fascinating stuff huh? Don't you wish you were the lucky hubby on the other end of that call?

In the film, the lovely and spirited Kim Basinger has been kidnapped by crooked cops looking for hubby's tape of their killing fun. She gets some hottie on his cell & he proceeds to do every maneuver taught in stunt driving school all over LA. I would have glossed right over this angle had it not been for the highly informative bonus feature on the real life scandal in LA Ramparts Division which ultimately resulted in the conviction of many detectives.

These guys practice justice on the roughest gang terrain around and they live by their own set of rules. They mete out justice with almost no oversight from the community or LAPD, which parsed them out to their own little fiefdom. They were selling mucho drugs on the street and pocketing the cash, lots of it. The killed and framed at will.

This is the background of Mark Furman, OJ framer. As OJ said, "You can believe they framed a guilty man or an innocent man, one or the other". I believe they framed a guilty man, the guy should have fried. But, that's what happens when you have a city with out of control cops who get videotaped beating a black guy and then get cleared by Simi Valley socialites... fear of payback.

The shmucky Brentwood cops got overruled by LA who wanted the trial to be brought downtown to avoid another nasty riot. Bowing to social pressure they ended up with a predominantly black jury, who, as we found out so clearly, after the trial, live in a very different world from white Americans, and know all to well that yes, dozens of police will lie.

It's a code cultivated the same way in fraternities, businesses, PTA, partnerships, social clubs in Stepford, Survivor Island, DC.... if you want in, you say the right things to the right people, you play the game and you play it well and you get in on the special group that has all the nicest homes and coolest jokes and handshakes. And once you're in, that's your family, your homies... you don't turn on your own, right? The end justifies the means, right?

Napster

Current Napster Prognosis: Poor
2/20 Update: The latest ironic turn of the saga happens when Napster 180 files an amicus against it's former incarnation in the Grokkster case.
___________________________________________________________
Let's get real. When the story of the 21st century is told, it's gonna get down to one word... Napster. So, tune into the Superbowl tomorrow for the latest installment. Disposable razors, disposable society, disposable music....that's ok, I'll hold onto my Napster T-shirt, from the original company, I'm sure it'll be worth a lot of money someday.

Over $83M went into the company that helped people find and trade music over the internet and they got nothing back from the millions and millions of people that used and enjoyed that service. Not that they didn't want to profit, they were forced into bankruptcy by an injunction.

The new incarnation wants a dollar a song, though now the song will self-destruct, probably at your party. Gee, I hope there's some price cut here. I mean really, give me one fucking reason I should pay anything for some song I don't even own, when I can easily get full ownership for free. Morals? Come on, anyone who understands the structure would see that the money they are forking over goes primarily toward people who are hindering, not helping, the cause of seeing music accessible and inspirational in our society. BTW, if you want the real scoop, check out the industry insider sites like NARIP. It was there I got the iTune breakdown: $.33 to Apple, $.55 to the label & $.10 for the artist.

You know, music has had a feature role in my life. I couldn't imagine my life without music. It's not only been there for some of the highest highs, but has been responsible for many of them. I love music. I look around me and see many people so immersed in jobs, kids, money, or sometimes not even that much, who have no real connection to music or art anymore, that was left on some kindergarten desk somewhere.

I have bags of my son's artwork in a closet. Thank god I have it because he'll probably never paint like that again in his whole life. God willing, he'll go out there and make great films with great messages someday, but that's probably only because his mom loves art so much.

What about all these other people who lead lives like mushrooms, satisfied only by notions that they have played by the rules, but without true connection, inspiration, joy, freedom? I was pausing by some Tony Robbins infomercial the other day and they were saying something like, "You have to understand what really drives you, not what motivates you." I guess what that means is we have to look deep into our beliefs to understand how to make the best choices for ourselves in life.

Of course I'm motivated by money and power and prestige, like everyone else. Want to try power? Try directing a play or film... your job is telling people what to do and where to go and they do it and go there... all to enact your vision, inter or otherwise. Want power? Try having kids. The most powerful influence in anyone's life is their mother. Money is nice, but it costs so much life, and that external power seems so superficial, at least to me.

All of these powers can be really attractive but, to me, they pale beside the power that comes from being connected with god. What drives me is the desire to help others experience that connection in their own way. All of you who asked me what I'm looking for, what I want... there you go. That's why I liked Napster, it helped people get in touch with music, which helps people get in touch with god.

I'd also love to have a relationship with a man who is my total equal, who has his own inner core, who is passionate about some of the things I am passionate about, who understands me, who loves me. And, of course, who turns me on. Doesn't everyone want that? Don't we all want to be loved and understood? How many of us actually have that? How many of us settle for so much less than we could have or be in life?

I was just watching Good Morning America and they had women on there talking about infidelity and how few good marriages there are. This woman said she once had a really good opportunity with a man, she stayed out of it at the time but now, I guess some years down the road, she's separated anyway & really regrets missing the opportunity. So, Diane Sawyer goes, "If you'd had the affair, would it have ended your marriage?" and she goes, "Probably, but the marriage ended anyway and now I don't have the opportunity I had before."

Perspectives, perceptions, focus... it's all a matter of choice. A director can't do a close-up and a wide shot at the same time. That woman couldn't deal with the daily realities and limited perspective to see the consequences of her choice in the long term. I also couldn't face the idea that my marriage was, yes, that bad, because I was looking at the structure all around me and not into my heart, at least at first.

But, the past year has changed my perspective immeasurably as I've seen what the world looks like outside those strictures and spoken to many others who have expanded my perspective. So, let's see how Napster looks in retrospect... Vincent Van Gogh sold two paintings in his life, for a pittance. Now they go for $43M. He tried to show the beauty of the world, tried to make them understand. He changed the way we see the world. Napster was just a little failed company. But, the world will never be the same again. Maybe in some ways the story of Napster is the story about the 21st Century.

The century is unfolding just as Toffler predicted 30 years ago, as we shift from an industrial economy to an information economy. Yes, economics is premised on limited supply and unlimited demand, but the reality is that the standard of living in this country has ceased to grow in any meaningful way. As we gentrify, like Europe, I believe we will see far more growth in intellectual property than durables.

If we keep the price of good, uplifting entertainment low, we can do a lot to raise our society and progress to a culture more like what we see in Europe today: a slightly lower standard of living but more opportunity for human connection, growth and learning. We see longer vacations, human work schedules, an intellectual culture, open-minded, accepting... people take time to explore each other and savor life.. it's much better.

Grammy Picks

NARIP
The Grammy's are the big claim to fame of NARAS. I enjoyed watching their prez Neil Portnow squirm like a worm on a hook when he was here a few months back, hosted by the Churchill Club. The guy was so pathetically overmatched he barely said a word, leaving it to Tom Dolby to offer something like... "Well, I'd like to get paid for Blinded Me With Science, but, yes, I would have written it even without getting paid."

Halfway through the evening I had an odd nostalgia for Mike Greene. The aptly named predecessor was at least funny. His rant at the '01 show was hysterical, I was in stitches, and so mortifying, even for his own organization that they moved the Grammy's out of LA, where they had been for a number of years, and ousted the money colored Mike in favor of the phlegmatic Portnow.

Last year, at the Awards, Portnow got up there to tout their propaganda site, What's the Download?. As you'll see, if you click the link, like the tobacco and gun companies, they try to hide their sponsorship, making it seem like some type of legitimate public interest group. They had some artists' comments on there so I read those of two of my favorites, Joss Stone & Black Eyed Peas.

Joss said the only reason she doesn't illegally download herself is that she doesn't know how and the Peas tried to sell their album notes & better fidelity. Fortunately there aren't too many Lars Ulrich's out there, willing to slap their fans in the face. And BTW, I agree with those cute little Peas. A nice little book with lots of art and lyrics, accompanied by some high fidelity music. I have no problem, if folks want to buy that. I just wish the publication values were higher.

Anyway, last year Portnow reassured a public out of their minds with fear, that recorded music would indeed survive the horror of the internet. This year, their publicity dept. is on top of things, donating some profits to tsunami aid. So, what will Portnow report this year? "Well, the year started off well cause we convinced the public they would be sued, but when they realized the propaganda was bogus, they went back to getting music the easy way. So, please buy a song for $.99 even though you can get it for free and it costs us nothing to get it to you. It's just pure profit for us, so please, please, please, give us some of your money because otherwise you'll have no good music and all our millionaire artists will be sad."

I know I'm constantly referring my readers to previous posts (ok, so I'm repetitive, that doesn't mean I want to write it all again, after all, this blog started cause people got so mad about my concise emails) but, this time I really mean it. Check out my AMA post (11/23/04) & Billboards (12/9/04). But, if it it's too much to click the fucking button, I can sum it up for you in one word. Usher.

The guy sold over 8M units this year. That's huge. The industry hasn't seen a number like that for many years, certainly not this century. He'll win everything. These are my picks, who I think deserves it on the basis of the music alone, not who I think will win, not the most popular artist, or the sentimental favorite.

Record of the Year
Heaven (Check these brothers out 2/15 at the Masonic Temple, they bring a tex-mex/country/pop blend that is so fresh, remember Pure Prairie League, Poco, Los Lobos?)

Album of the Year
American Idiot (should be Songs About Jane, which wasn't even nominated, Mind Body & Soul should have been nominated, Ray deserves a nod, American Idiot reminded us all what punk music is about and why we need to keep it alive, Confessions...8M, Kanye is innovative but doesn't belong there)

Song of the Year
The Reason (best song of this year was This Love, which wasn't even nominated)

Best New Artist
Maroon 5

Female Pop
You Had Me (Some Kind of Wonderful & Super Duper Love were better)

Male Pop
Love's Divine (how long has this song been around anyway?, If they had put the song Musicology up I would have gone with that, or Lenny Kravitz who put out Where Are We Runnin? this year.)

Pop Group/single
She Will Be Loved ( This Love & Harder to Breathe were both better, Keane's Somewhere Only We Go should have been nominated)

Pop Collaboration/single
Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word

Pop Vocal Album
Mind Body & Soul

Dance/single
Comfortably Numb

Traditional
Stardust

Solo Rock/single
Breathe

Rock Group/single
Take Me Out

Hard Rock/single
Slither

Rock Instrumental/single
Mrs. O'Leary's Cow

Rock Song
Float On (this was a close one, with Fall to Pieces)

Rock Album
The Reason

Alternative Album
Good News for People Who Love Bad News (though I'd also love to see A Ghost is Born win)

Female R&B/single
If I Ain't Got You (did Beyonce miss a deadline or something?)

Male R&B/single
Burn

R&B Duo/single
My Boo

Traditional R&B/single
Musicology

Urban/single
Are You Experienced?

R&B Song
You Don't Know My Name

R&B Album
Diary of Alicia Keys

Contemporary R&B Album
Confessions

Rap Solo/single
Through the Wire

Rap Group/single
Let's Get it Started

Rap/Sung Collaboration/single
Yeah

Rap Song
Let's Get it Started

Rap Album
The Black Album

Female Country/single
Gretchen Wilson

Male Country/single
In My Own Mind

Country Group/single
Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)


Collaboration w/ Vocals/single
Portland Oregon

Country Song
Redneck Woman ( though I'd really like to see It's Hard to Kiss The Lips At Night That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long win... for obvious reasons)

Death Benefits

Bush is asking for death benefits to the families of dead soldiers to be raised from $12k to over $100k. Sounds like such a nice, thoughtful, sensitive, patriotic guy. That's some 800% increase.

It's hard getting anyone to sign up for the military these days. That happens when leaders abuse their power to make war. Bush doesn't dare draft, though he probably suspects he'll need to, in order to "win" this war and expand his oil holdings.

Do you know how they get these young men and women to become suicide bombers? That's right, they offer money, big amounts, to their families.... in the event of their death.... death benefits.

The Record Memorial

Alright, here's my idea for a little (Grammy?) Groskter Spring Theatre. Please, feel free to infringe on my ideas. In fact, I repeat, feel FREE.

When people die, people who are loved, flowers are left, mementos are left. I will never forget the memorials for John Lennon, Princess Diana or Jerry Garcia. To see that absolute sea of flowers for someone so poorly treated by a prince, pretty staggering.

Records have often suffered a less illustrious end. Disco deservedly died many deaths, but my favorite was the trashing of a mountain of records by some steamroller. They declared the death of rock 'n roll in the 50's the same way, though the Sun did anything but set. In '69 after the Summer of Love soured from excess, the Pranksters held a death of the Hippie procession through the Haight to try to stem the flux of unloved suburban kids. It marked the end of an idealistic but unsustainable era.

So, what do you think? The record album... is it dead yet? Not even Monty Python would call this one "not quite dead yet". Yes, plenty of trendy shops sell records. I'll keep my classics forever. Turntabulism is now a major at the esteemed Berklee School of Music... everyone will be scratching soon. Ok, maybe vinyl lives on... as an instrument or memorabilia. I do know audiophiles who swear by analog & tubes, some like vinyl too. There's something about the control of a turntable I enjoy...

But, when the 21st century rose, something died. This concept of having to go out and buy some object to store an hours worth of music...IT'S OVER! Yeah, it's sad for the record companies. Tough shit. You had your day, like trains and steel. So..... it's dead, final act, finis, finito, the death to end all death, the death from which RIAA will never rise... am I coming through? And, after mourning your sad death, after a long and profitable life, we shall rejoice as word, and music shall be spread far and wide through nice thick cables which need to be laid in red states.

So, to show our feelings....let's see a sea of records, say on the steps of the Supreme Court.... because, we don't need the records any more. They were nice, but, here, you and your paid politicians can have them back now. Orrin can use them to build Mount Hatchmore in Utah.

Or make a nice memorial in DC, maybe next to the Lincoln memorial. He liked freedom and hated slavery. DC is full of memorials.... maybe it's time for another.

Uptown Polly

Uptown Polly
Originally uploaded by Intervisions.

Uptown Polly

Uptown Polly she's so fab
Uptown Polly loves to gab
Drivin to the kiddie store
Honey can I have some more?

Uptown Polly it's in the bag
Uptown Polly you're such a drag
Toys & boys, they're runnin wild
Talkin bout your uptown style

What's it gonna be?
Who ya gonna see?

Understated underrated
Educated sublimated
Stations rations flyin high
Face the changes when you cry