Pacificapocalypse

The American Dream has run out of gas. The car has stopped. It no longer supplies the world with its images, its dreams, its fantasies. No more. It’s over. It supplies the world with its nightmares now: the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, Vietnam.

J.G Ballard has died.

While not unexpected, it still saddens me greatly.
I discovered Ballard by reading about Burroughs in an old RE/Search pub ‘Industrial Culture Handbook’. Jeez that was in 1983… wow. Anyway I was heavy into science fiction so I started reading ‘High Rise‘ then ‘Terminal Beach‘ and finally ‘Crash‘. From the first couple of chapters into ‘High Rise’ I knew this wasn’t the Sci Fi I was used to. By the time I finished ‘Crash’ I was deeply aware that this, perhaps, wasn’t the standard recommended reading material for ‘young adults’ (If you saw the movie version of ‘Crash‘ I can tell you quite truthfully.. they prettied it up. The book is… explicit.)
Ballard was the master of ‘dystopian fiction’ which after a steady diet of shiny plastic futures in so many previous books, fit nicely into my world view of the mid/late 1980’s. Punk/Industrial/Goth all were hitting their stride; I was ending high school with a big fuck you to ‘normal society’. I had blue hair and a leather jacket. I was mad at the world. What the hell did I know?
Ballard was perfect.

I thought ‘Empire of the Sun‘ was magnificent even before I knew it was an autobiographical account of Ballard as a boy in Japanese occupied China; after wards I sought out the book and was again floored by Ballard’s words.

“Death always presents the face of surprised recognition,” William S. Burroughs.

V.Vale who chronicled both Ballard and Burroughs said “I expected Ballard to live at least as long as Burroughs, who reached the age of 83, even after having been “a junkie” for years of his life. By a strange logic, I felt that since Ballard hadn’t been a junkie, he should live even longer than 83.”

Unreasonable of course, but yeah, I know what he means.

We Watch Movies: Watchmen

You know what? There’s millions of reviews out there for this film, literally. And some (most?) of them are by people who’s skills far exceed my own, so I’m not going to even try. It was epic. I was entertained. It hit all the right notes re: the source material. And it earned it’s hard R rating and didn’t puss out where it counted.

So if you liked the original graphic novel, you’ll probably enjoy this too. But please please please, don’t go not having read the original AND thinking it’s a costumed super hero movie. And leave the kids at home.

I’m phenomenally pissed and depressed right now.

Lux Interior died last night.

I can’t even begin to explain how I feel right now. The Cramps were such a part of me when I was a teenage snot bag trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I never quiet figured it out, but Lux and Ivy made the not-knowing better. Then came the annual pilgrimage to Wolfgangs in the city, every Halloween, to see them play live. I don’t think I missed a show for like, five years running. This sucks.

An ex-co-worker and aspiring writer friend of mine, Chelsea Lin, stated this morning on her Facebook status that:

Liz Phair will make your eardrums bleed. Is ‘eardrums’ one word or two?

Which of course provoked me into the following exchange:

Me: Liz Phair topped out with “Exile in Guyville”… but what do I know? I was only there when the album (black, vinyl, lots of little lines – hole in the middle) was released.
You should listen to a little Polly Jane Harvey or Cat Power.
And get off my lawn you damn kids!

Chelsea: so she was performing only “exile in guyville” last night at the fillmore (i was covering it for spin.com) and i was not impressed… sacrilege, i know.

Me: “Not impressed”
Bah. Your prematurely jaded opinion is tiresome.
Next thing you’ll deny that the 80’s were, without a doubt, the crowning decade of human existence and the pinnacle of cultural and societal achievement.

And so Court and I got to talking; what exactly DID happen to Liz Phair?
“Guyville” was brilliant. Where did that brilliance go and why?
Court opines:

I don’t think (Chris) is talking about “exile in guyville” as being her best material, it’s more along the line of, Liz Phair was at her best at the time she wrote the album and her overall presences at that time. When that album debuted in 93′ she was willing to fully embrace her sound. I would say her second album, Whip-smart she maintained a similar sound but the influence from her Matador label-mates was far to obvious. With the move to Capital Records and her decent into commercial music success, the new glamorized shiny Liz’s sound comes off as vapid and indistinct. Now while she may, as you say make your eardrums bleed, it’s not because of raw passion or even a desire to perform… more likely its a production assistant turning a mic on to an obligatory 11. In short Liz Phair is dead. Lets hope for a resurgence of music not first filtered the digitized, then synthesized into catchy tunes for automobile, energy drink or tampon advertisements.

Brutal. I love it.