Recent content by timellison

<i>Aerial</i> is a very "domestic" album, and indeed, if one wished to put a negative spin on it, an album for which it would be just as easy to claim "self-indulgence" and "self-absorption." I've argued previously that I don't find the vulnerability on <i>Ys</i> to be particularly gendered. I...

Honestly, "helplessness" strikes me, for the most part, as a red herring with regard to <i>Ys</i>, anyway. If someone wanted to make an argument about the specifics of Newsom's alleged helplessness and how it is indeed feeding into female stereotypes, I would be interested in seeing it.

LSD is like pornography - this sort of forced unveiling. Life is a play and surfaces and depths and it's often good to respect that.

It's my understanding that the effect of psychedelic drugs <i>is</i> comparable to schizophrenia in terms of brain chemistry.

OK, I was remembering it wrong - the bear's name is Ursala. I think it's about Ursala being used, though!

I have not heard this. I think it is quite a complex text. Interestingly, "Monkey and Bear" does seem kind of gendered, and perhaps in a kind of stereotypical way, but one that I would characterize as more sort of myth/fable. In any case, the seemingly male-gendered bear is the one who gets the...

I don't think the album deals with helplessness to fate in a particularly gendered way - more as a generally human phenomenon.

Well, how would a woman present the idea of cosmic helpless/helplessness to fate, then, without being criticized in terms of gender politics?

I think if there's anything "helpless" about the album, it is a sort of cosmic helplessness - helplessness to fate, which is not a gender issue.

Looking over the post I was initially responding to again, it seems to me the "strawman" red flag (semantic debate about the term aside) came via this: <i>latched onto by indie fans who hope that the whitebread flavor indie rock has been exuding has been spiced up by the presence of a female...

Nice strawmen. You know, the first Champs (later known as the Fucking Champs) record CAME OUT IN 1995. It was a little ironic, I suppose (or perhaps it was just a curious development) but pretty genuine even then. (I mention the time frame just to point out the strangeness of the phenomenon...

Please don't put words in my mouth. When I say "undervalue the emotional resonance," it is in reference to this seeming desire to write the album off as a "Renaissance Fair" trifle when I would have to believe that anyone truly giving the work a fair shake would at least admit to it having some...

Yes, I think Matthew Friedberger's compositions on the Fiery Furnaces' <i>Blueberry Boat</i> album are an example. If that album had been as fully realized as <i>Ys</i>, there's no reason why it wouldn't have been as successful. Had a decent crossover as it was. (And I don't think the fact that...

I think Meltzer was fairly into punk/post-punk until about '82 or '83.

Thinking more of ways to avoid cognitive involvement in the creative process. Surrealist techniques like automatism.