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animaltobacco11

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Everything posted by animaltobacco11

  1. Weird how the student ID cards haven't changed in 20+ years. I like that. Timeless.
  2. My contribution is the one hit wonder from 4 non blondes, but the meme version, which was deftly woven into the new TMNT movie:
  3. From the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/a-close-listen-to-rich-men-north-of-richmond Anthony may very well be an industry plant sent to our social-media feeds to promote a nativist vision of this country, but, if a collection of right-wing Twitter accounts could boost any song to the top of the charts, Jack Posobiec would be the most powerful record executive in the country. There’s something else going on here that can’t be explained through some silly game in which you match the desires of a population with the words that appear in a song and then declare that a people—in this case the white working class—has found their anthem. Anthony might not be some “authentic” sensation, but that doesn’t mean he’s talentless. More than anything, he reminds me of the type of country singer who sings old songs to great acclaim on “American Idol,” but who may ultimately struggle when it comes time to cut a modern album. For the viewer, the delight comes in seeing someone make it but also in the reassurance that there are talented people all over this country who sing in anonymity and who do not bend themselves to fit every musical trend. Much like “Idol” contestants, such as Bo Bice or Scotty McCreery, Anthony can really sing. His voice isn’t quite as smooth and virtuosic as the country star Chris Stapleton’s, but it carries a similar depth of tone and his screamy rasp never feels like the affectation of an amateur who is trying too hard, but rather does what it’s supposed to do: communicate emotion. What words are put to that voice are far less important than the nostalgia the music evokes, and, in Anthony’s case, the image of the authentic singer-songwriter. “Authentic” is a loaded word in music, especially when it comes to country and the blues. It’s one of those things that you supposedly just know when you hear, but there’s a lot of image-making that goes into all that honesty. We commonly see it as a lone man with his guitar, preferably a strange one, standing in a field surrounded by the comforts of rural life. This vision is not only restricted to country. Les Blank’s short documentary, “The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins,” frames its titular subject in junk yards, on front porches, and in humble living rooms. When Blank’s camera is at its best, all this scenery gets blurred down into a pleasant, saturated bokeh. The video of Anthony performing “Rich Men North of Richmond” trades in these same motifs. We see Anthony standing at a microphone with a resonator guitar. There are three dogs of ambiguous breeds lying in the grass at his feet and, in the background, softly out of focus, we see the greenery of the rural South. I should say here that I am not immune to these charms. When I first heard Townes Van Zandt, I felt that some truth had been revealed about how life can break and drag, but in a glamorous way. Lyrics like, “Well I used to wake and run with the moon / I lived like a rake and a young man” seemed to gesture toward some truth that sat deeper than most. The documentary “Heartworn Highways” captured Van Zandt in a kitchen with a beautiful woman and an old Black man in a cowboy hat who is reduced to tears when Van Zandt plays “Waitin’ Around to Die.” The markers of authenticity—the wood-panelled kitchen, the woman who alternates between cleaning dishes and smoking a cigarette, the grizzled Black man who, himself, also stands in for authenticity—could be pulled apart and declared problematic by any freshman in a critical-studies class. But they also work. There are certainly better versions of the revanchist ethos found in “Rich Men North of Richmond,” but Anthony is neither the worst nor the most reactionary artist to sing about the plight of the common man. The pundits who may be trying to turn country music into gangster rap by fixating on a few, and in Anthony’s case, occasionally silly lyrics are vastly underestimating just how many country songs are about old-time feelings while also overestimating just how long a viral trend can last. In a year or two, Oliver Anthony may very well be playing to decent crowds and trying his best to distance himself from “Rich Men North of Richmond” so that he can play the types of folksy, “authentic” country songs that he seems to actually enjoy. I imagine this, ultimately, is what he might actually want. ♦
  4. It's amazing how Rich Men North of Richmond is still culturally relevant and uniting people of all walks and demographics in feeling seen and heard. Good for him, I wish him much success.
  5. Speaking of, Wolf of Wall Street is another vanity piece.
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