his hand upon his leather belt now/ like it was the wheel of some big ocean liner

[wordasobject]

Nashville has a publicly owned Low-Power Broadcasting station, WRFN (I suggest a wikipedia skim if you're unaware of the uniqueness of this situation). Their website strongly encourages programming applications and I’m seriously considering sending one. My pitch would be this: Nashville’s local college radio lacks insightful discussion of music.

Comments

[roofwalking]

i just reread this for the first time after discussing all of it at length with you via emails and calls, and it is funny to me just how serious you sound in your post and comments here. it seems so unlike you! "reflection," you say, and that the "(lack of) division between art and entertainment these days is frightening," and it all seems to point toward some stodgy sense of High vs. Low cultures, which i think themselves are corporate manufactured distinctions (but that's another story). and that seems so antithetical to your music and the music to which you listen and the music both you and i love! i mean, man, we like punk rock, and you like old blues!

also, you speak of art vs. entertainment as though it's some given dichotomy. maybe i'm misunderstanding that one sentence, but i don't think it's that simple. why a clean division? are the two opposite ends of the spectrum? if so, what else is on the spectrum? what is so terrible about blending art with entertainment? is compartmentalization or limitation any better? especially when it means one has to quarantine some shit that gets arbitrarily designated "art" from what entertains others? and doesn't the establishment of a division between art and entertainment easily widen the rift between the stuff a casual radio listener might deem "challenging, demanding music" and the stuff he might deem enjoyable? and doesn't it thereby undermine your project? i thought the goal here was accessibility...?

actually, what i was really trying to get at is: what about emotional expression? especially within the music you like, which seems almost always emotionally engaged (certainly more so than my favorite music)? don't you think plenty of the bands and musicians you like made their music or intended for it to be approached not as art or entertainment but rather as emotional solvent?

[wordasobject]

I might like punk rock but I’m no libertarian, especially when it comes to music; it’s a communal activity and innocuous consumerism (ie commercial radio) is harmful to that activity by marginalizing thoughtfulness. I suppose my language in the post did make me out as wanting to further separate art from entertainment but I’m only interested in emphasizing art in entertainment. cause rock music can be really damn great and entertaining.
What’s more, I think “your favorite kind of music” marginalizes simple emotional music, which is why you’re so callous to the old country blues. I’m not interested in making anyone think one way about music; hegemony, in any sense, is limiting and boring and innocuous. I think all genres from all eras deserve a patient, thoughtful ear.

[roofwalking]

what does punk rock have to do with being libertarian? punk rock may be populist, at least sometimes, but i certainly think it's too community-oriented to be 'libertarian.'

that interest you express here of "emphasizing art in entertainment" sounds a lot lot lot more like the tj i know. refreshingly so. i'd advise stressing that consciously on your show or in whatever other venues, since the way you talk about this stuff lapses into elitism like it does.

are you saying that my favorite kind of music marginalizes simple emotional music or that the very phrase "your favorite kind of music" does? if the former, well, i'm not purporting to like The Best or The Most Genuine or anything. i tend to like slightly abstract but also very physically galvanizing stuff; often emotion comes into it, yes, but not always (cf. mission of burma, sonic youth, public enemy - basically the more abrasive end of what i like -- or maybe that's just because abrasiveness to my sadsack ears isn't emotional, ha). if the latter, well, i don't really know what you mean. please explain?

and i am not callous to old country blues! man, you want to think i hate the stuff. i don't. i mean, lord, i just don't get into it like you do. BUT i keep asking you to make me a mixtape to get me into it. (please do.) how is that callous? if there's anything i'm callous to it's wanky jazz. i will admit, though -- i don't think there's any inherent value to emotion, if that's what you're getting at. emotion has been a shitty excuse for a lot of shitty records, i think.

and i think i disagree with you about your last sentence. "all genres from all eras deserve a patient, thoughtful ear." fuck no, man. i'm not going to sit and think about, say, genesis or xtina any longer than i have to. nor most 50s bubblegum. that's not to say somebody else shouldn't. but therein lies the problem with a lot of your discussion: it assumes universality, which when it comes to music seems like bullshit because it's so personal. unless you're one of those people who think art should bespeak some universal. also, i think words like "deserve" are just the sort that'll get you into trouble -- i.e., who exactly is calling the shots, and why do you get to deem what deserves what?

i love you lots. also i now have that cohen song your title's from stuck in my head. lord, i love the way he delivers those lines, the way he draws out all the words that fall the way "now" does.

god, i'd been on a stop-analyzing-the-shit-outta-everything kick til now. sure didn't last too long. it feels weird to do this again, though.