spectrum

The next battleground: Amazon.com?

So I was looking at the reviews for the new R.E.M. 'Best of' CD on Amazon.com and was suprised to see the following reviews:

Left-Wing R.E.M. Tarnishes Brilliant Career , October 4, 2004
Reviewer: Tom Sileo "wiseguyrunj" (Arlington, VA, USA)
It's sad that Michael Stipe has thrown away a brilliant career by making R.E.M. about HIM instead of the music. He unnecessarily informed people of his homosexuality, which believe it or not, some people weren't enamored with, and then embarked on a left-wing concert tour intent on bashing a sitting president in a time of war.
Mike and the rest of R.E.M.: you are entertainers, not politicians. Your career has winded down over the past decade, and the little influence you have on the music world is evaporating with each fan you alienate with your radical, left-wing politics.
I bought this album a while ago and liked it. Sadly, it was thrown in the trash can the second I learned that R.E.M. joined a tour sponsored by the Hitler ad-producing MoveOn.org. Shame on this band.

In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003, September 26, 2004
Reviewer: B. Viberg (Atlanta, GA United States)
In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003~ R.E.M. is a band that I have never really liked. I have always found their music to be boring and very predictable. Their lyrics to be pretentious and poorly written. Michael Stipes is a weirdo and his leftist views are as passe as having a statue of Stalin and Lenin in your living room.

Hitler, Stalin, and Lenin--Oh my!

It seems not even Amazon.com is safe in an election year. The online marketplace has been annexed by the blogosphere and become yet another battelground to win the hearts and minds of voters. And, if that doesn't work, you can always just slam artists and authors for fun!

R.E.M. wasn't the only group targeted in this way. Green Day, Pearl Jam, and Bruce Springsteen were also attacked. Here are two of the reviews for The Boss:

Good music , bad values, October 18, 2004
Reviewer: Robert J. Christenson "bobbbythec" (Rogers, Mn United States)
Yes good music Bruce but its going in the garbage.Everything you sing about seems to stand for family and american values, so why are you a liberal? I will never buy a springsteen product again. I hope our soldiers don't have to hear the garbage your spewing Bruce.

Shut up and sing, October 4, 2004
Reviewer: Tom Sileo "wiseguyrunj" (Arlington, VA, USA)
I threw this fantastic album in the trash as soon as I heard Bruce Springsteen was participating in a concert tour sponsored by the Hitler ad-producing MoveOn.org group. Bashing a sitting president in a time of war has been promoted as an art form by Bruce Springsteen, who's recently taken a hard turn to the radical sect of American politics. What's sad is, Mr. Springsteen is an uneducated man who's never been on a battlefield, yet he feels he's an authority on politics and war. I will never buy a Bruce Springsteen album again. Shame on this man!

The question is: How effectual are these types of reviews? Does it really do anything other than allow people to blow off political steam? By looking at the number of people who found these reviews 'helpful', the answer is a resounding 'no'.

Try to analyze the situation occurred

This is a safety card from AirTajikistan that was sent to me by my friend Katherine Brouhard. It's pretty clear that the Tajiks are taking this terrorism thing seriously. Unfortunately, the translation into English leaves a bit to be desired. Man, if I ever get hijacked by glowing red radioactive men, I'll now know what to do. (Click the picture to enlarge it.)

Here's a detailed analysis of the card, provided by a frequent flyer on TajikAir:

Yeah, I'm very confused by the illustrations. Took me a while to figure out that the green aliens are "good" (no doubt employees of Tajikistan's equivalent to the Dept. of Homeland Security) and the red aliens are "terrorists."

In line 1 of the pictures, the message seems to be, "If terrorists, hijack your plane, hit them with a stick and make sure your child is on the aisle seat."

In line 2, let's ignore that from the color of the clothing, there are 5 different individuals in the three frames, which indicates no progressive scenario whatsoever. The only thing I can make out is, "Keep them calm by offering them cigarettes."

Line 3: No clue! What IS that yellow thing, an oxygen mask!?

Line 4: (WHY do the passengers keep changing their outfits?): Might as well see if the terrorists are willing to play flight attendant!

Line 5: But don't order alcohol, and head chaotically to the cargo hold with all your stuff if they start shooting. Be sure to leave some personal items lying on the floor.

For political-ad junkies

Check out this new site: http://p2p-politics.com/. It allows people to post political ads and comment on their veracity, tone, aims, etc. Right now it has only ads for Democrats, so it's not near as fun as it could be. I can't wait for someone to post a Tom Delay or Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ad--then the sparks will really fly!

Don't want to be an American Idiot

In anticipation of seeing Green Day tomorrow at Reliant Stadium, I decided to sit down and listen to my sister's copy of their new album, American Idiot. The buzz around this album has been pretty substantial, and deservedly so. It's a bit of an experiment for the band that brought punk to the mainstream and led the way for all those 'word-and-number' bands: blink 182, Eve 6, Sum 41, and so on. While some may debate whether or not it constitutes a rock-opera, there is no doubt that there is a definite concept here. Each song fits together with the others, tied together by the relationships between three characters--Jesus of Suburbia, St. Jimmy, and a girl known only as Whatsername.

I must say I was pleasantly suprised by how blunt some of the lyrics are. Lines like "Zieg heil to the president gasman/Bombs away is your punishment/Pulverize the Eiffel Towers/Who criticize your government" leave little room for interpretation and really capture the political moment. Most of the record, however, is not the direct assault on the president that the above lyrics and the title song would lead you to believe. Most of the tracks instead deal with the depression and lonliness of the three characters as they try to deal with today's society. This was a bit disappointing for me, as I was hoping for something a bit more, well, anti-Bush. The disk is definitely political, just not the political I was hoping for.

The album is pretty front-heavy. The catchiest tunes--American Idiot, Holiday, and Are We the Waiting-- are all at the beginning of the record. The lyrics, however, are fairly tight throughout and you'll definitely want to read along the first few times you listen.

The band has 'threatened' to play the whole album straight through while on tour. I don't think they're doing it, but I almost wish they would. I'd like to hear Billie Joe's comments between songs, perhaps giving us a little more insight into why he wrote the piece and give us some more info to flesh out the rather enigmatic characters.

Overall, American Idiot is a solid concept album. It will be interesting to see how the band is able to take the album apart and select certain sections of the piece for the concert. I'm curious to see if they will keep all the songs from this album together and play them in sequence, or if they will mix them up and insert older songs between them.