2011

Interesting, the songs of 2011 celebrated the unique, the polymorphous perverse, interstellar/interracial relationships, unacceptable sexual practices, rise of the nerds, divorce, and the apocalytpic.

DJ Earworm, from the German 'ohrwurm', a song that sticks in your mind, made a coherent narrative out of this. But if you are like several people I know who 'don't listen to pop or the radio' you may be mystified. So herewith are the songs and videos chosen by DJ Earworm (who has been plying his craft for many years now).

DJ earworm

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2011/12/26/best_singles_2011_dj_earworm_gives_the_year_in_pop_in_5_minutes.html

Katy Perry "Firework" a song even Markus the avowed NPR listener shamefacedly admitted to liking, as that ;'boom boom boom song."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGJuMBdaqIw

Katy Perry ET with Kanye West, the song about which Io9 suggested she had spent 'way too much time thinking about sex with aliens.' Though why is she using the now four year old video of dead things used on True Blood?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5Sd5c4o9UM

Britney channelled end of the world paranoia, and also some bravado about her place in music history, term 'loosely used'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzU9OrZlKb8

Enrique had one of the dirtiest, catchiest songs, a big one in Second Life, where the whole 'bleeping' concept fails utterly

sadly, the only one with a 'video' I can find is with the stupid "I'm lovin' you"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UecPqm2Dbes

Foster the People actually had Americans using the term earworm -- go LA! In fact this song embodies two trends for me -- I first heard it on Second Life, and it has a very LA "yeah we know this is the end of the world' cheery sensibility. Cheerful nihilism, kinda my brand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDTZ7iX4vTQ

LMFAO is another band so LA it hurts - they get followed around by TMZ camera-men for kicks and invite them home. Do I even have to mention the post apocalyptic vibe? How can you be black and a ginger (nerd) at the same time? Welcome to SoCal.

Shit, they got that Jesus gardner dude to break dance!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ6zr6kCPj8&feature=artistob&playnext=1&list=TLuYH6nVQP064

Hmmm, Rihanna had a huge year, so did Pink, and Adele. Did I mention the blending of identities, sexualities, ethnicities, nationalities, musical categories? Rihanna does that better than anyone:

drugs and young love - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg00YEETFzg

S and M http://www.vevo.com/watch/rihanna/sm/USUV71002981 - pretty fucking amazng considering she went from being a star who was abused by her boyfriend to (IMHO, sorry little monsters) the biggest pop-star in the world.

Whatever this is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa14VNsdSYM

Nothing to say about this one, except I think I heard it 30 times crossing the Bay Bridge this past October...

Oh and Pitbull is from Miami, which might as well be LA ;-) Also, I like Neyo, there I said it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPo5wWmKEaI

Can I not discuss Bruno Mars? Thank you.

Back to Lady Gaga, this year she became a 'national treasure' like Liza Minelli or something:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV1FrqwZyKw

I think that was the first time I ever watched/listened to that - um, theological statement, much?

Hey, look, pink wigs! Is one of those a dude? Likely. Also, sci fi. And private jets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JipHEz53sU

I don't think I knew this was a song

http://www.directlyrics.com/maroon-5--moves-like-jagger-music-video-news.html

I mean I heard it....Xtina is on that one.

Another theme, almost all of them are genuinely good dancers.

OMG this one defined ubiquitous

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjVNlG5cZyQ&ob=av3e

I mean, I get it, most musicians are not exactly normal, but by definition most people are, so why the love for the outcast, the misfit this year in particular?

Maybe because Katy Perry (socal again) made it adorbs?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlyXNRrsk4A

Was that Kenny G or was I hallucinating? Oops not hallucinating.

I think that does it...

Dawn of the Dead References Will Soon Grow Stale

Yes, Virginia, retail real estate is deadsville. It is not just because of the econoclipse (my preferred term, since recession/depression have precise values, and we can all agree that while we might not meet them, things are baaaaaad) but because of the vast restructuring of the global economy, much of which is to do with technology.

I laughed to read Best Buy described as Big Blue Amazon Showroom, and I may have linked to it before, but it is so true. The best intentions to shop local in the world aside, I cannot justify spending an extra $40.00 at a lighting store when I can get the same exact thing on Amazon. So retail spaces that want to keep their local/brick-and-mortar presence alive need to do one of the following:

Offer an amazing customer experience. I mean 'happy ending' amazing.

Offer products you cannot find online. Aaaaannnnndd good luck with that.

Curate products such that the stories they tell enhance customer's personal narratives

Create a cradle to grave suite of services built AROUND the product/consumer relationship

Learn to adopt and deploy technologies rapidly that can squeeze the juicy information from what customers you do have. "Welcome to my parlor, said the spider to the fly..."

Or, on the opposite end, go so low tech that costs are minimal. Become flexible, pop-up, portable, flash-mobby, resilient.

Meanwhile, I think one of the commenters on Consumerist pointed out the death-spiral commercial landlords enter upon when they engage in a game of chicken with their tenants. Right now, there is nowhere to go but down.

Advertisers: This is how we watch today

Ah summer, it used to be the season of a television drought. Then came counter-programming on USA like Burn Notice and Royal Pains (so beloved by Grant McCracken, hey there Grant!), or on SyFy like Warehouse 13. Thank you television gods, even if you have made the Fall new show season less of a festive holiday than it used to be (oh the memories of gathering around a flickering tube to watch premiere episodes of shows like 'Manimal' or 'Cop Rock' and gleefully predict their demise!)

But I digress.

Old habits die hard, and new technologies form a bridge. I have had a busy spring, and what with nine classes and a full Second Life, I have hardly had time to spend with my old friend. I miss you, television! But that is okay, since thanks to my DVR I can stockpile shows (Bones! Vampire Diaries! Supernatural!) for what will certainly be the dog days (and nights) of deep July and hot August, when all one is capable of doing is lying on the floor, panting.

And so, last week, I opened the valve on Supernatural. Doing laundry, other house-y projects, I greedily watched one episode, two, three at a time. In a row. And it occurred to me that advertisers are really not taking advantage of this change of behavior -- 'cause seriously, am I the only person who does this? No. Not only do I know of other people who do this, but wouldn't it be statistically unlikely for me to be a sole outlier here? What are the odds? Not to mention the fact that for the past 25 years or so I have been a reliable bell-weather for mainstream tastes. Merlot in the 1990s? You are welcome.

So, if I am watching several weeks worth of eps chained together, shouldn't advertisers almost be back to their roots with soap operas? Creating serial, narrative vehicles that promote their products in a sequence, offering some new tidbit on a weekly basis, rather than the same blah blah that I skipped through after the first three accidental viewings? Because I DO pause and I DO remember what I paused on (love that Ford Focus commercial by the way, I even called in my parkour obsessed son to watch it). It wouldn't hurt, as well, if you could go back to explaining what the ACTUAL benefits of your product were, but that is grist for another blog.

It doesn't even have to cost much more than exercising your brain to offer some minimally engaging intellectual tidbit, a game, a puzzle to solve, a mystery? Nothing elaborate, just something for me to hang my attention on for 30 seconds. As opposed to product placements, which, are almost always intrusive and laughable, even to grade schoolers. Though, again, Twizzlers took this quality and amped it up past the point of ridiculousness to almost genius.

Now if you would just do something about Christmastime, another season of television dearth and dreck.

Did I predict the uptick in repairs?

From Consumerist:

"Now that the economic downturn has well set in and there's no booming recovery around the corner, it's a good moment to take stock of the little things that have changed. Ed, a dry cleaner in Brooklyn, says, "I'm seeing a lot more repairs, a lot more patches.""

Why lookee here, December 2008, I posted, "The New Frugality is Here to Stay." That was three years ago, and about a year and a half into the downturn. Why do people keep being surprised that things are not getting any better? There are huge structural deficits in terms of labor and employment, production and consumption, that fueled 25 years of growth (give or take). All if that, ALL OF IT, was illusory, and no one is doing anything to fix the things that caused it to go awry. We will be LUCKY at this point if it only takes 25 years to get back to something like 'normal.'

Lunchtime focus group: Kids and Chips

Yesterday at the table I sat down with my ten year old son and quizzed him about his friends' chip eating habits. The conversation started because I had made a salad with chicken, corn, and crunched up some Nacho Cheese Doritos as a garnish:

"Did these come from the small bags?" he demanded.

"Yes, I noticed no one ever eats this flavor so I thought it was safe to use them up. By the way, what flavors do you think go the fastest? What flavors do people get into wrangles over?" I offered the suggestion that it might be the Barbeque flavored that disappear most quickly from the Lays flavor pack - see link for image.

He thought about it, "The blue Doritos...Cheetos....and Chili Cheese Fritos. Wait, no, not the blue Doritos...BBQ"

I offered that there might be more of the Doritos in general than of the other kind, but looking at the bag, I see that there are equal amounts of Doritos, BBQ and Cheetos. (I had thought maybe the bags were used to get rid of overage, I am not sure why it comes in a pack of 22, when 24 is more easily divisable. Or 28, if you wanted days of the week. Or a 32 pack would cover a month. Or 20 would be four work week lunches for one person/)

"Which one, if you had to pick one, do you think is the favorite among the most kids?"

He thought for a minute, "Cheetos. You know, there is a lot more advertising for Cheetos than there is for Fritos. I never see ANY advertising for Fritos."

He has a point, there used to be the Frito Bandito guy, but I am sure he was phased out as super offensive to Hispanics.

"You know, the company is called Frito-Lay, so that should suggest that Fritos are extremely important to them as part of their identity."

"Lays, Mom, they are called Lays."

"No, the company, not the chips, Frito-Lay. Makes you wonder why they are not pushing Fritos. Which have a long history, there is Frito Pie..."

I have noticed, Cheetos advertising success aside, that when kids FIRST begin to identify a preference, around 5 or so, they like the Lays BBQ. I am guessing it is the sweetness of the seasoning they are responding to. Cool Ranch IS definitely preferred by kids, over the Nacho Cheese, easily 2:1, holding steady after a quarter century (God I feel old now, those came out when I was 18). Poor Nacho Cheese....

People tether you in place

in the most literal way possible. Other people determine where you can and will go, even virtually.

I have long been aware of the simultaneously alienating and liberating aspect of travel, wherein on any given trip there is a moment where no one knows where you are (and what you are up to). This moment is always brought home to me in a mundane fashion, usually doing something like walking through Schiphol airport, or stopping to get gas on the 5 before the Grapevine. I look around and think, "Now. Right now. No one knows where I am." The concept of Foursquare has very little appeal to me for this reason, like putting and electronic leash on one of the last wild moments possible in an increasingly domesticated life.

At the same time, the more one travels, the more circumscribed one's travels become -- this is something I have noticed since I first left Germany at 18, the implication would be that I would return. As I accumulated friends, lovers, a husband, and a child, the loop, the noose, between me and Germany has tightened like the leash on a falconer's wrist. How can I ever go to Europe without at least stopping in at my mother in law's? C'est impossible! I am also snapped back to the Bay Area, thanks to myriad friends, just the weight of having grown up there, will likely continue to drag me back, for the rest of my life, whether I will it or no. The death of both grandparents released me from my Tulsa loop, flinging me away from that circuit at top velocity. I cannot imagine what business will ever bring me back to a place where I once spent so much time...

And now, I notice, the same phenomenon occurring in Second Life. Despite the fact that the entire experience is virtual, and my body is located in California. Regardless of the ability to converse in IMs with as much immediacy and emotional content as one can 'face to face' (in fact, due to the fact that they are private sometimes much more) people congregate together in 'places' and one's presence or absence is an important aspect of the social process. This need for virtual attendance has meant that I am increasingly tethered to one or two sims, with short expeditions allowed for shopping or specific socializing.

Much the same way that, IRL, my residence comes freighted with work, friends, civic engagements, my child's needs, relationships with merchants, suppliers, banks, doctors....To contemplate a move thirty or fifty miles away is about as realistic as a move to the moon. This is not to say it cannot be done, but it would be a wrench. The library card is a filament, holding me down like Gulliver in Lilliput, with gossamer strength, each one a snap to break, but the cumulative weight pins me down. Same in SL, the relationship with one other person/avie may be easy enough to break, but soon one is as enmeshed in community as IRL.

Bitch

In which I sleepily ponder the many meanings and uses of the word.

I have been talking about the concept of being a bitch with my two best friends on SL, Cat and Toni. It has always been striking to me that, like 'fuck' the word 'bitch' is protean in its uses, functions, and meanings. Maybe, in itself this is something to consider, since men do not have an equivalent word.

Women and men use 'bitch' quite differently as well, in fact I am starting to believe there is almost no overlap in the terms. This is likely due to the specific function it has in very different systems of social relations. When women use it, they may mean themselves, for it is quite common for a woman to label herself a 'bitch' and this label has a dual function -- it announces and recognizes positive qualities such as forthrightness and stubbornness, while simultaneously recognizing how little those qualities are typically valued in a woman. "I know, I'm a bitch, what can you do?" said with a shrug.

When a woman labels another woman a bitch, she usually is referring to that other woman's linguistic capacity. Someone is a bitch when they trounce you in a war of words, making a cutting remark that leaves you only armed with l'esprit d'escalier. This can be a recognition ranging from the humorous to the bitter: "You, bitch!" being the only rejoinder possible in a given situation.

When men label a woman a bitch however, it seems to refer to her not being mean, not being cutting, not even perhaps being an obstacle. A 'bitch' to a man is a woman who simply, for whatever reason, does not care about their feelings. Since men are socialized to believe that women care about emotions, and particularly their emotions, perhaps it is as shocking as a dousing of cold water to encounter a woman who does not, in fact, give a damn.

I do not mean that the woman in question is being problematic in any way, except for a refusal to invest emotionally in the exchange. "Not my problem," from a man, will be a lot less loaded than from a woman.

Discuss.