Questions from poptasticuk

[koganbot]

1. Why do you look so serious in your photo?
Because I've got a beard. Everyone looks serious in a beard unless he's Santa Claus.

2. Do your friends think it's weird that you like teenpop?
My online friends don't, since they take it for granted that good music can come from anywhere. Of my here-in-person friends, not all of them know much about my music tastes, the ones who do might well think teenpop is just another in a long train of Frank weirdness but they tend not to say so, but most feel so out of it in relation to current music that they're judging neither it nor me. And then a few are grateful that I'm feeding them some incredible music.

3. Have you only done music journalism or other kinds?
Well, I don't consider what I do to be journalism. In journalism, the model is that the writer imparts information or gives opinions or recounts his experience, whereas what I try to do is raise questions, primarily about where taste comes from and what's going on when people justify and explain their taste in the way they do. I'm more interested in the why than the what. Of course, in raising questions I often am imparting information and giving opinions and recounting personal experience, and as for what I get paid to write, since most mags have an anti-intellectual bigot somewhere up the chain of command, I'm usually forced into only writing record reviews, but the questions are always buried inside those reviews. Basically, I'm an agitational poet and anthropologist. I've written a little bit about film, and I did a think piece about high school social categories the week after the Columbine massacre. And I've engaged in some "philosophical" discussions over on ilX, though "philosophical" is in quotes because as I said what I'm really trying to do is get people to take stock of their social behavior.

4. Have you ever lived outside the USA?
In Rome for a year when I was three (1957) and again when I was ten; was there 'cause my dad's a political scientist who specializes in Italian government and history and international relations.

5. Do you have the same approach to films and books as you do to music?
Yeah, basically, in that I think good movies and good writing can come from anywhere, just as music can. But I don't use books and movies - that is, my ideas and opinions about books and movies - as social currency to nearly the extent I use music as my currency. By the way, believe it or not, I'd say my approach is "auteurist," except that I'm not obsessed with the question "Who is the author of the song or film?" (other than when I'm trying to figure out whether it's Kara or Ashlee I should fall in love with). I told Dave here a couple months ago that I'm willing to credit collectives and corporations and zeitgeists and audiences with authorship, if I feel like it. "Mise en scène" - which basically is about "musical or cinematic choices" - is the crucial concept, the auteurists' crucial idea, not "author." (But not necessarily the phrase "mise en scène," given that Otis Ferguson had the basic ideas in the '30s before the Cahierists were writing.) Where a Cahiers guy like Jacques Rivette would have called mise en scène the "artist's vision," I'm talking about "social relations," but it's still basically the same thing. And of course I like to bring audiences and critics into the game (their social relations/visions), so I'm as interested in your and my and poptimists' social activities/mise en scènes as I am in John's and Kara's and Ashlee's and Geffen's and TRL's.

Comments

[mooxyjoo.livejournal.com]

re #2: i tend to think of it more in terms of what your neighbors must think when they can hear your stereo through the wall.

[mcatzilut.livejournal.com]

Frank, I quoted you last week in my course on Kafka. We were talking about Adorno - and about how he uses Kafka instead of discussing Kafka. He basically takes a Kafka quote and then launches into his own creative expression - which is disguised as criticism. I quoted your answer to the question: Are there more great songs than writing about songs? And you said yes, but not for an essential reason. Then you explained that there aren't more great songs than conversations around songs, or dances to songs, or jokes about songs. And essentially, Adorno is using that with Kafka. He's dancing to Kafka - or joking about Kafka. For my last Kafka essay, I included a couple paragraphs about why I wanted to really write about DMX's use of dogs (instead of Kafka) and how my decision not to use DMX speaks to our prejudices around Kafka. (Ie: That DMX isn't on par with Kafka. Or that Kafka is a genius and DMX is a 'rapper' as though they are mutually exclusive. or that Kafka was writing intentionally using dogs and DMX's use of dogs are accidental. All premises I feel you'd reject.) Anyway, I felt that talking about why I wanted to do DMX on Kafka is a lot like making a joke about a song. It isn't inferior just because it isn't recognized in academia (and I remember your quote in the book about Meltzer - whether rock can save philosophy or not and the question of whether philosophy is worth saving).

Anyway - this brief interview above reminded me to ask you: where are the great jokes/writing/etc about music happening right now? ILX seems slow/tired and Poptomists is filled with polls and the names of participants - and it's more Hit Parade in terms of music, which is good in terms what it's trying to do, but isn't speaking to me. Where to look?

[mcatzilut.livejournal.com]

Have you seen this thread? http://www.ilxor.com:8080/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=42658#unread

I wondered how you think it relates to your writing about highschools. (Ie: Cool kids picking on uncool kid. Trying to find the bounds of music criticism, etc.)