Category Archives: Kultcha

As regular readers may have noticed I have great respect for (and even greater fascination with) the views of MIT prof and culture boffin Grant McCracken on most subjects other than Yale.

So of course I pay attention when Prof. McCracken writes of the new OK Go video that You have to see this video,

It’s not like anything I have ever seen before. It is astonishing, in a very low key, very low tech, utterly wacky, entirely brilliant way.

…What new developments in contemporary culture does this portent? It’s kind of like syncronized swimming without the swimming? Rock and roll has always made a near fetish of being more rough than ready, more chaotic than formed. And this most be one of the reasons this video is such arresting (and arrested), so genre busting, so sincere on the one hand, so ridiculous on the other.

Judge for yourself. For me, it’s not the greatest video, although it does look like an impressive exercise routine. Admittedly, the Rockettes and synchronized swimming always left me cold too.

On reflection, I guess I’m impressed they did it in one long take, but only in a dog-on-hind legs kind of a way.

Obligatory disclaimer: My wife, the international finance law professor, wishes it known that Prof. McCracken is right and I’m wrong.

Update: Showing again that the time between ‘net fame and traditional MSM adoption is shrinking quickly, I just read that OK Go performed on the MTV Video Music Awards show last night. So it looks like MTV agrees with McCracken too… (Not that OK Go actually got an award.)

Via Legal Theory Blog: Coming to a Classroom Near You:

Undergraduates this year; law students in Fall 2010.  Here are some their characteristics from Beloit College’s mindset list (following the link for the whole list):

• The Soviet Union has never existed and therefore is about as scary as the student union.
• They have known only two presidents.
• For most of their lives, major U.S. airlines have been bankrupt.
• They are wireless, yet always connected.
• A stained blue dress is as famous to their generation as a third-rate burglary was to their parents’.
• The Moral Majority has never needed an organization.
• DNA fingerprinting has always been admissible evidence in court.
• “Google” has always been a verb.
• Text messaging is their email.
• They have no idea why we needed to ask “…can we all get along?”
• They have always known that “In the criminal justice system the people have been represented by two separate yet equally important groups.”
• They have rarely mailed anything using a stamp.
• Being techno-savvy has always been inversely proportional to age.
• Public school officials have always had the right to censor school newspapers.
• There have always been live organ donors.
• They have never put their money in a “Savings & Loan.”
• Dolphin-free canned tuna has always been on sale.
• “Outing” has always been a threat.
• The U.S. has always been studying global warming to confirm its existence.
• They grew up with virtual pets to feed, water, and play games with, lest they die.

The Guardian, ‘Working with someone is like dating’ describes a Brian Eno collaboration with … Paul Simon? Surprise indeed.

Then they drop the bombshell that Eno recently reunited (in the studio) with Roxy Music for a new album. (But they won’t tour together.) Be still my ’80s heart…

Ann Bartow informs us that the classic Internet idiocy, the Hamster Dance had a so-called sequel, although it doesn’t advance the plot at all and sounds worse without being funny. And now it has a remake. OK, the remake is less bad than the sequel, and even has a funny bit, but even so, why bother?

Are there any remakes in any medium that improve on the originals? All I can think of off the top of my head is Civ II, which I prefer to think of as an upgrade, anyway. (And Civ III was worse…). Please note that I do not count as a remake an adaptation, say of a novel to film, which is a whole different nest of snakes.

The rule for sequels being worse than originals isn’t as absolute as the rule for remakes–especially in literature which has seen many fine series such as the Forsyth Saga and the Aubrey/Maturin books–but it’s pretty strong too, isn’t it?

Coincidence or sign of the times?

Something about the moment is spurring Bush-Beatles mashups.
I am the Decider (Koo-Koo-Ka-Choo) and Imagine. Both recommended.