Fuel to the Fire

As per the usual these days, I tend to be a little off on my blogging. The bright side of this is that I am a stone's throw away from finishing my thesis, and therefore actually having free time once again to blog to my little heart's desire. But until then, you'll have to be content with my sub-par ability to keep up with my updates as much as both you and I would like.

So a while back, (370 days ago to be precise! bizarre...) I wrote a post about Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs and how much she bothers me. As some of you might have heard, they have a new album out, and it's really quite good. I give it a thumbs up if you're on the fence. The copy I got has a couple of bonus tracks, and I was reminded of a realization I'd had some time back: Karen O is actually a ridiculously talented singer. She's just such a spastic freak onstage that I think even she forgets it sometimes. See, the YYYs have an acoustic EP out on iTunes, and the bonus tracks have acoustic renditions of a few of the new songs, and every time I hear them, I am really floored at her voice. It's crazy - if she really gave a damn about singing more often and not trying to be that wild unpredictable maniac that everyone can't help but write about, she could go down as one of the better female rock singers of our generation. But unfortunately she's so busy screaming and acting like a weirdo and just generally forgetting everything anyone ever learned in the history of singing that it just doesn't come through. So this begs the question: does "showmanship" (and with her I use the term incredibly loosely) trump talent in our time? Are we willing to settle for someone with real natural talent doing a half-assed job at what they are good at in order to put on a show?

I think overall the same thing can be said for Charles Bukowski after a while. Sadly, later in his career, once the word had spread to the general population about his work and his readings, he bought into the image he tried to put forward. He was a talented writer; not great, not the best of his time, but he expressed things flatly and clearly in a style that was all his own, but half the people who'd show up to his readings were there to see him get shithouse drunk and make an ass of himself. If he didn't it was as if he were not keeping up his end of the bargain. However, on the other hand, it was the casual reader that would show up to his readings to see him get drunk and make threats and talk about women that really paid his bills for a decade or so.

Exhibit C in this little melange is reality television. With the exception of a few random folks here and there on some of the talent-based shows, nobody on reality TV has a single iota of talent. Yet we still flock to the toob to watch it all the time because these people make such a friggin' spectacle of their everyday lives. Is it really entertainment? Hells no. But does it help TV live up to its reputation as the opiate of the masses.

In closing, and I was going to try to tie this in with the Karen O discussion (as I so subtly did right there), I wanted to let you all know that I have registered, though I won't be writing in it for a while, a new blog that will be music-centric. I know some of you out there think I ramble on about music too much sometimes on this blog, and to some extent, I agree. So, with you good folks in mind, I will be writing a second blog just talking about new music, old music, and all sorts of other fun like that. The blog is called Godspeed You! White Blogger and I hope you all enjoy it!