A Brooklyn Culture Mafia

[Leo]

went to a big blockbuster multi-channel video installation at the park avenue armory. class set up, a massive hanger with a massive central screen, then five other screens around the walls, and then one continuous screen looping round the whole room lower down. there was a load of people sitting in the middle for hours, it's a two hour video loop. it was really cheesy though. it was mostly like a bad hollywood film, the same kind of visual and acting sensibility as big unsublte hollywood films, and for the whole two hours it was various vignettes of people reading (I think) extracts from weighty left-wing tomes. five of the screens showed drummers and every now and then they'd start playing.

there were some amazing bits though, loads of drone footage of nyc, and one five minute drone shot of someone skateboarding under the JMZ to the food bazar in brooklyn. there was also some interpretive dance sequence about money set in a bank that was class as well.

must have been very big budget for video art. it would be great if they did something less shit with the money but it was a nice thing to see anyway. i am a bit surprised that anyone in the art world thing would make something as cheesy as it was.

seen a few pretty great things there in the past, William Kentridge's "The Head & the Load" comes to mind. Paul McCarthy also had his wild "WS" show there.

Paul McCarthy’s WS at the Park Avenue Armory

Paul McCarthy, WS, 2013, mixed media. Installation view. Photo: James Ewing. FOR MANY, Paul McCarthy’s WS, 2013, seems to have said too much. Routinely described as disturbing, oversize, and overwhelming,…

www.artforum.com

 

[IdleRich]

I get all the McCarthys mixed up... who was the one did George Bush fucking a pig? And who wrote Remainder, and who is speaker of the house?

 

[shakahislop]

seen a few pretty great things there in the past, William Kentridge's "The Head & the Load" comes to mind. Paul McCarthy also had his wild "WS" show there.

Paul McCarthy’s WS at the Park Avenue Armory

Paul McCarthy, WS, 2013, mixed media. Installation view. Photo: James Ewing. FOR MANY, Paul McCarthy’s WS, 2013, seems to have said too much. Routinely described as disturbing, oversize, and overwhelming,…

www.artforum.com

its a really nice space. weird that they mostly do new opera there at the moment, i think the whole rest of the season is opera. which i hate.

 

[Leo]

@suspended gonna have a sad today,

'Gossip Girl' reboot canceled by HBO Max after 2 seasons

XOXO: HBO Max has canceled the 'Gossip Girl' reboot after two seasons. Showrunner Joshua Safran says the show is currently looking for another home but acknowledges it's an uphill battle.

ew.com

 

[sus]

I didn't like the reboot it was pretty bad stopped after a couple eps. The original was amazing though

 

[shakahislop]

watched meet me in the bathroom today, which i suppose is BCM related. i quite like some of the music they talk about, i was the right age when it came out etc etc. was interesting to think a bit more about karen o and what was going on there, though the film doesn't really dig into it very much. also that whole early 00s nyc rock thing looks like a death rattle now, a kind of copy of things that came before and the last in the lineage of a series of US rock scenes and i kind of think the last moment that the rock and roll lifestyle, all the booze and drugs and the self-destruction, was something aspirational.

probably the most noticeable thing though was that for all the attempts at building a myth, there was just nothing there, they had a whole film to fill and really nothing at all happened as a consequence of those bands and that scene. zero politics and zero cultural impact. absolutely nothing. all that happened is those bands all went into the music biz and rinsed it for all it was worth.

although i suppose they did form part of the hipster thing, come to think of it, and that was very influential for a long time, really shaped how a lot of middle class people in the west live. i think i've said before on here that i think the best way to think about hipsterdom is as an equivalent to punk or the hippy thing, in that it contained a whole load of elements which were really about how to live, rather than just being clothes and music. i don't think the meet me in the bathroom bands were that integral to it though, but they were around.

americans really have a thing for having sex in toilets, it really seems to be a thing, i watched a couple go into the disabled toilet at le pain quotidian the other day at lunchtime, and people talk about it all the time.

 

[IdleRich]

I suppose they did form part of the hipster thing, come to think of it, and that was very influential for a long time, really shaped how a lot of middle class people in the west live. i think i've said before on here that i think the best way to think about hipsterdom is as an equivalent to punk or the hippy thing, in that it contained a whole load of elements which were really about how to live, rather than just being clothes and music. i don't think the meet me in the bathroom bands were that integral to it though, but they were around..

Who are/were the meet me in the bathroom bands? Whoever they were I find it hard to believe that they were a cause rather than a symptom of hipsterdim (misspelled by accident but I like it so it stays)

probably the most noticeable thing though was that for all the attempts at building a myth, there was just nothing there, they had a whole film to fill and really nothing at all happened as a consequence of those bands and that scene. zero politics and zero cultural impact. absolutely nothing. all that happened is those bands all went into the music biz and rinsed it for all it was worth

Whoever they are you've given them one of the most brutal critical kickings I've ever read - all the more so cos it's done so dispassionately, totally untainted by any personal animus. Just a matter of fact dismissal of the whole scene as being utterly without depth or real value.

was interesting to think a bit more about karen o and what was going on there

What was going on there?

 

[shakahislop]

Who are/were the meet me in the bathroom bands? Whoever they were I find it hard to believe that they were a cause rather than a symptom of hipsterdim (misspelled by accident but I like it so it stays)

in the film they cover lcd soundsystem, the rapture, the yeah yeah yeahs, the strokes, the moldy peaches, ryan adams. so them. i suppose those bands being around and playing are one reason why the early 00s williamsburg thing would have been exciting to be around. but obviously something else was going on with hipsterdim.

What was going on there?

i'd never heard her speak before. she seemed really shy. i don't know if you know their music but particularly in the stuff that made them famous, a couple of EPs and an album, one thing that's going on is that she's putting herself forward as someone wild and sexy. on stage as well she'd deep throat the mic every now and then. you kind of take it for granted at the time. but in retrospect it feels a bit grottier. just because it probably wasn't great for her and the film shows a bit of that. i've said it a milllion times before on here, some people came out the other side of the 90s/ 00s music biz in one piece and with a load of cash (karen o seems fine), but the more i know about it the rougher an experience it looks.

 

[IdleRich]

in the film they cover lcd soundsystem, the rapture, the yeah yeah yeahs, the strokes, the moldy peaches, ryan adams. so them. i suppose those bands being around and playing are one reason why the early 00s williamsburg thing would have been exciting to be around. but obviously something else was going on with hipsterdim.

Ah ok got you. Meet me in the bathroom, I assumed it was a drugs thing but are saying in the previous post that it was a sex thing?

i'd never heard her speak before. she seemed really shy. i don't know if you know their music but particularly in the stuff that made them famous, a couple of EPs and an album, one thing that's going on is that she's putting herself forward as someone wild and sexy. on stage as well she'd deep throat the mic every now and then. you kind of take it for granted at the time. but in retrospect it feels a bit grottier. just because it probably wasn't great for her and the film shows a bit of that. i've said it a milllion times before on here, some people came out the other side of the 90s/ 00s music biz in one piece and with a load of cash (karen o seems fine), but the more i know about it the rougher an experience it looks.

I guess she wouldn't be the first to have an onstage persona that differed from the real person. I guess you're saying that it was maybe foisted on her or at least it became something she felt she had to live up to - which... she still wouldn't be the first, but that doesn't make it any the less unpleasant. It's one of the classic rockstar traps I suppose.

 

[The King of Pussy Gettin]

watched meet me in the bathroom today, which i suppose is BCM related. i quite like some of the music they talk about, i was the right age when it came out etc etc. was interesting to think a bit more about karen o and what was going on there, though the film doesn't really dig into it very much. also that whole early 00s nyc rock thing looks like a death rattle now, a kind of copy of things that came before and the last in the lineage of a series of US rock scenes and i kind of think the last moment that the rock and roll lifestyle, all the booze and drugs and the self-destruction, was something aspirational.

probably the most noticeable thing though was that for all the attempts at building a myth, there was just nothing there, they had a whole film to fill and really nothing at all happened as a consequence of those bands and that scene. zero politics and zero cultural impact. absolutely nothing. all that happened is those bands all went into the music biz and rinsed it for all it was worth.

although i suppose they did form part of the hipster thing, come to think of it, and that was very influential for a long time, really shaped how a lot of middle class people in the west live. i think i've said before on here that i think the best way to think about hipsterdom is as an equivalent to punk or the hippy thing, in that it contained a whole load of elements which were really about how to live, rather than just being clothes and music. i don't think the meet me in the bathroom bands were that integral to it though, but they were around.

americans really have a thing for having sex in toilets, it really seems to be a thing, i watched a couple go into the disabled toilet at le pain quotidian the other day at lunchtime, and people talk about it all the time.

that whole indie dance/williamsburg/vice magazine/american apparel thing was fucking terrible. without question,
the worst music scene i've had the misfortune of experiencing. straight edge hardcore and goa trance were profound
and innovative in comparison. all of it revolved around middle and upper class jackasses getting wasted
in thrifted 80s clothes while some tryhard retro bullshit played in the background. cannot describe how shocked i was to
find that this was what folks my age were into upon returning to the states after half a decade of doing dance music
nonsense abroad. so overjoyed to see that the revival some folks seem to be promoting doesn't seem to be catching on.

 

[version]

That stuff filtered over here and was big when I was in school for a few years, but yeah, doesn't seem to have made much of a dent, likewise the homegrown stuff like The Libertines. A brief, intense flash that left next to no trace.

 

[Leo]

that whole indie dance/williamsburg/vice magazine/american apparel thing was fucking terrible. without question,
the worst music scene i've had the misfortune of experiencing. straight edge hardcore and goa trance were profound
and innovative in comparison. all of it revolved around middle and upper class jackasses getting wasted
in thrifted 80s clothes while some tryhard retro bullshit played in the background. cannot describe how shocked i was to
find that this was what folks my age were into upon returning to the states after half a decade of doing dance music
nonsense abroad. so overjoyed to see that the revival some folks seem to be promoting doesn't seem to be catching on.

nail on the head, happy, with one exception in my mind: Liars. their first couple of records were great post punk without trying too hard or sounding too derivative (both of which were the case with most bands from that scene), then they ended up changing their sound pretty radically in each subsequent album. haven't heard their last couple of records but still like the earlier ones.

but agree otherwise. I fucking hate everything about LCD Soundsystem, they are my idea of cringe.

 

[Clinamenic]

nail on the head, happy, with one exception in my mind: Liars. their first couple of records were great post punk without trying too hard or sounding too derivative (both of which were the case with most bands from that scene), then they ended up changing their sound pretty radically in each subsequent album. haven't heard their last couple of records but still like the earlier ones.

but agree otherwise. I fucking hate everything about LCD Soundsystem, they are my idea of cringe.

I like Drum's Not Dead

 

[version]

... great post punk without trying too hard or sounding too derivative (both of which were the case with most bands from that scene) ...

When I first heard PiL's 'Memories' I suddenly realised where The Rapture lifted everything from.

 

[IdleRich]

I bought Losing My Edge when it came out but very quickly got tired of them. The Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs (and White Stripes for that matter) I think I was old enough to see as the nth reheated iterations of their sound and I couldn't get excited about it no matter how well it was done.

 

[IdleRich]

I saw Liars one time in this weird sketchy bunker in Berlin. It was a fucking great gig though possibly a lot of that was cos of this dirty bombed out Christiane F vibe.

 

[version]

Baumbach's White Noise adaptation ends with a naff LCD Soundsystem song and everyone dancing in the supermarket. An odd move.

 

[shakahislop]

one thing about the BCM (as defined by suspended) is that they don't seem very interested in music at all. they're way more interested in what's going on on the internet and socials than they are in tunes.

 

[Clinamenic]

Baumbach's White Noise adaptation ends with a naff LCD Soundsystem song and everyone dancing in the supermarket. An odd move.

You ever see Fantastic Mr Fox? Very similar supermarket dance scene for end credits, only it was to Let Her Dance by the Bobby Fuller Four.

 

[Leo]

I bought Losing My Edge when it came out but very quickly got tired of them. The Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs (and White Stripes for that matter) I think I was old enough to see as the nth reheated iterations of their sound and I couldn't get excited about it no matter how well it was done.

haha, so did I (think I still have it). it was a great novelty record at the time, their first record before anyone knew anything about them. now I'm totally biased, but I'd still play it if it was by anyone else.