Dr Frank Weakly Reader for 6.14.2010
“1995 Again” edition
Hello and welcome to another iteration of the Dr Frank Weakly Reader, wherein I produce an annotated and expanded index of the goings-on in the Dr Frank web for the past week. So it may be found, should anyone ever want to find it. As for the “1995 Again” in the sub-head, it’s basically because of the shirt depicted in the banner (and discussed directly below.) I didn’t realize it at the time, but I had a pretty good ’90s. You?
FRONT BURNER
— Ministry of Casual Wear and Insignia: The quick Sounds Radical pop-up MTX Nein Danke shirt + pin + etc. package offer popped up and went and are being shipped. (See below.)
Now, continuing the “Old Is the New New” theme, there’s a new offer, for Summer, featuring the 1995 Lookout tour poster design (from the tour with the Riverdales and Boris the Sprinker) by the celebrated Chris Appelgren. Do you wish it could be 1995 again? Maybe this will help, somehow. Details to follow, but pre-orders are set to start on June 24.
MTX FOLLIES
— The Mr T Experience — “Love American Style” live at the Joiners Arms, Southampton UK, July 8 1992. Video on Youtube. The Song for Odin™ write-up for this one is rather extensive and rambling, encompassing an assessment of the song and anecdotes about MTX down and out in the Pyrenees and London. This is the final song of the 18 song set to be posted. Here’s a playlist comprising each individual song plus the entire, unedited show as well. I believe I have mined this material to the limit of its utility. There’s more to come, though, so stay tuned.
— Sounds Rad’s limited edition Nein Danke items were all pre-ordered and are basically all spoken for in advance but some of the product is just coming in and going out and the pin looks pretty great. [UPDATE: looks like there are still a few white shirt packages left, if you still want in.]
— The 100 Best Pop Punk Bands, from Consequence of Sound. I don’t really have a comment beyond this. It is slightly unusual to be noted on such lists. No one knows what “pop punk” means, least of all me, and of course it doesn’t matter all that much anyway.
— …and you Friday morning “Deep Deep Down,” from a guy on the internet, video on YouTube. I’ve always felt this to be one of my most “coverable” songs, but I’ve rarely heard anybody do it, and maybe, in fact, only this single time. More such covers may be found on this playlist, btw.
THEY CALL ME DR FRANK
— Maybe I should have seen it sooner, but the realization hit me rather suddenly that the reason the social media version of information management never quite worked for me might simply be that I recoil from social interaction full stop. All that “engagement” and social interaction stuff is just embarrassing when it’s not terrifying, and, as in real life, I tend to avoid it and resent being subjected to it. I almost never even look at “the feed.” I just want to post things where they can be seen, and that’s it. No quizzes. No mob attacks on vulnerable tribal cast-outs. No hashtag games. I don’t even like “liking” things. I don’t find any of that stuff fun, or useful in any way. And the fact that it is basically impossible to access any information without wading through a vast swamp of inane “socializing,” clickbait, virtual stonings, and other nonsense makes me want to swear off information itself, like it’s just not worth it. Most people seem to like all that stuff, in real life and on line, a fact which will always mystify me. I’m a weirdo, but surely I can’t be the only one such.
BIKINI CORNER
— A bikini theme spontaneously conjured itself on the Dr Frank web in the early week. And just as quickly, it was gone.
It began with this photo of an Italian bikini police officer writing a citation to a bikini-clad scofflaw ca. 1957 (because, yes, bikinis were illegal at most of Mediterranean beaches at the time.) That made me think of the Gang of Four song “I Found that Essence Rare”:
And then came the June Wilkinson / Mamie van Doren novelty tune “Bikini with No Top on the Top”.
And finally, there came a girl in a bikini kneeling inside a bottle of Gilbey’s gin.
OTHER OTHER PEOPLE’S MUSIC
— Good morning, world: an amazing solo guitar arrangement and rendition of Tom Jobim’s “Waters of March,” from Jake Reichbart.
PICTURE BOOK
— Behold: we’ll make an example of that nudist; snail snuggles; it’s Sunday!; you can have anything you want if you’re in league with the devil; heatwave; screwballs in skirts;
— Oh so mature and not safe for work: now that’s art…
— and finally… Marcus Gloger’s Psylocke in space 2. Lana says we have the same taste in girls, which is good to know, somehow.
IN THE NEWS
— The Day the Music Burned: a great many master tapes were destroyed in a 2008 fire at Universal, a fact that was very successfully covered up till now. (I’d never heard of it.) I complain about this or that missing tape, but I’m grateful nothing like that ever happened to Lookout.
— On Medieval Book curses, from the British Library’s blog. (My link here.)
— If this John Michael Colón essay didn’t manage to convert me to Socialism, it did give me some food for thought. Were I a Socialist, I suppose this is the sort of Socialist I’d be, world-weary, bookish, tentative, hedging, defeated, nostalgic, and thoroughly nice and kind and reasonable. (Though the “meetings” would be a deal-breaker.) My Monty Python-invoking initial reaction here. I don’t think the essay answers the question set: why did Socialism come back from the dead, as it apparently has, to live again among the young, as it apparently does? It’s not just because they love meetings, that can’t be it. (Poor and/or malfeasant education is still my guess.)
— A twitter policy proposal, seen on twitter: “There should just be a simple checkbox in twitter for ‘Are words violence?’ The people who say ‘yes’ only see tweets from people who agree.” This is, I know, a mere witticism, but it wouldn’t work to appease the “words are violence” people, of course, because they don’t only wish to protect themselves from the alleged logo-violence but also to silence the people who indulge in it. Plus, all the “agree” people would wind up accusing and attacking each other in fairly short order. You can’t write a policy to cover all the shades of grievance within such a subjective standard. Any enforcement is bound to be inconsistent and arbitrary. There isn’t a solution, that I can imagine — well, my preferred solution is “anything legal goes” but that wouldn’t resolve the conflict because everyone would still want to shut everybody else up.
— Yet another culture war “cancellation,” in a field of which you probably were not aware: the feminist menstrual lycanthropy comic genre. (My link here.)
— This one’s quite a yarn: the latest on the Instagram “Fiber Community” and its descent into savagery. (Previously, here.) Are all online “communities” the Lord of Flies these days?
— The cruelty is the point: David French gets to the heart of social media’s destructive dynamic. (My link here.)
— Academic philosophy seems to have got woken and gone broken. My link, with a quote, here.
— Who could have possibly predicted? YouTube’s bungled crackdown on Steven Crowder only made him stronger…
— Bushwick Bill (of the Geto Boys) died.
And, that’s a wrap. See you next week, and for those who have scrolled this far, here’s an animated gif of a girl looking through a record sleeve hole:
