What other films do we have, besides this one, that really capture the exhilarating rush—and the decadent come-down—of the 60s culture-revolution? We have a number of fine literary portrayals, such as Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test , and shading out of the . . . . Continue Reading »
So right after mentioning her new book in the post below, I noticed that NRO has posted a fine interview with Mary Eberstadt , in which she implies that, just as the medical facts about cigarettes’ harm eventually came to be undeniable, so will the sociological facts about the sexual . . . . Continue Reading »
This is the conclusion of the long series of Songbook posts kicked off by my simple observation that many bands championed as representative of new music , such as Crystal Castles, really aren’t . While many themes have been touched upon, overall, Songbook posts #36-51 have been about 1) . . . . Continue Reading »
There are many mysterious things about the modern world, but the biggest mystery of all is how “the sexual revolution” is viewed as some sort of feminist triumph, when the objective truth is that if the most despicable, cretinous, woman-loathing men of a century ago had outlined their . . . . Continue Reading »
The Songbook inevitably has to analyze modernity, precisely because it is interested more in what rock reveals about our overall sociological and spiritual situation than it is in rock itself. So what follows are two organizing posts concerning this. Here, I’ll quickly lay out my . . . . Continue Reading »
Jeffrey Polet kicks back on his rocker, and proceeds to shred a whiny-but-poignant-sounding Atlantic article, about motherhood refused and about the true consequences of the sexual revolution denied, to pieces. In a gentlemanly way, of course. Not to be missed. . . . . Continue Reading »
For never are the ways of music moved without the greatest political laws being moved. Plato, The Republic, 242c And so they say, this the golden age . . . U2, “New Year’s Day” At this point one might well wonder why I am bothering with rock, having abundant reasons to dislike the . . . . Continue Reading »
The Poetic Wisdom Paradox, which I abbreviate as the PWP, works as follows. A wise poet, let us say Homer, wants to convey wisdom in his poetic creation. Unlike the bohemian model of the underground poet satisfied with a tiny audience, we assume he begins with the poet’s traditional desire to . . . . Continue Reading »
“Friends of Mine” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON-F0i69_8k is a song in which the narrator has an appreciative yet ultimately ambivalent attitude towards marriage, and towards “pairing off” more generally. Officially, that is, judged by the meaning of the lyrics alone, it is a . . . . Continue Reading »
The songs that make up Odyssey and Oracle could be analyzed in two ways. First, we could interpret them as distinct songs only superficially or incidentally linked in lyrical content—and then we’d say a lot more about which of the two Zombie songwriters, Rod Argent or Chris White, penned . . . . Continue Reading »
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