As Wired has argued for years (example) that we live in a “Remix Culture” - Art and especially music, is now just an endless re-mix of old stuff. Rather than new ideas we merely mix two old ones. In rare occasions something surprising and new can take place. But even in these incredibly rare occasions it has become such standard practice that all observers/consumers/critics of the arts have developed an all-encompassing jaded attitude toward art - especially music. Even this is not new. The Main Stream Media® would have you believe that Gen-Xers, like myself, invented this eternally suspicious ennui, but that’s bullshit - before the Sex Pistols, before Tristan Tzara, even before Socrates there was some cave-man who said: “Been there, done that.” And just like today there were many who respected his opinion (they’re called “Goths” today) and others who thought he should get over himself or be beaten mercilessly (the rest of the population).

I am not that guy - but I have to admit most music gives an overwhelming feeling of “heard it all before.” The good news is that most people have not really listened to that much music so if it was good then it can often be good now and it becomes a victimless crime. Take Ladytron’s newish album Witching Hour (October 2005) and listen to the samples.

Pretty gothy and cool right?

Now listen to Lush’s Spooky (February 1992).

It’s the same.

The 13 ½ years between the albums is only slightly separated by music mixing technology fads that makes Lush sound ever-so-slightly more like the Cocteau Twins. Not necessarily a bad thing by the way. Did Ladytron do this intentionally? Who cares - they’re both good. I liked Spooky a great deal - in fact it helped me get through grad school in 1995 and I like Ladytron. I will discard the expected jaded exterior and merely accept them both as good albums - you must of course do this as well.Also a large number of bands grow and change - it’s all derivative anyway so let’s just accept that and hold out the hope they stay good.

Franz Ferdinand is an example of a band using their powers for the forces of good and becoming a better stronger band. Their self-titled debut (April 2004) was excellent. It reminded me of the best of early Adam & the Ants (before the Ants left, not that abomination that was simply Adam Ant backwards “D”) and Blondie with great punk power chords. It’s fluffy and self-consciously stylish and yet I must listen to it.

The new album You Could Have It So Much Better manages to maintain a very modern progressive sound while the lead singer Alex Kapranos has gone further back in time - instead of the late 70s early 80s punk he has decided to go back to the heyday of Roxy Music and channel Brian Ferry. I would never ever give any time to an album that has three ballads (!) unless it was truly exceptional and that is exactly what this album is.

Regarding the whole “Con” thing.

No no no no no!

Listen up kool kids (including the editor of this site) the ComicCon is still the ComicCon (or ComiCon - I am not bothered). Sorry to out-geek you (sigh) again, but THE Con is in Anaheim, not San Diego, and is known as GEN-CON - 10 D6 Lightening Bolt - No Saving Throw!

[Ach! Too tired to defend myself. - Ed]

Now I need a shower. And it’s your fault.

Courtesy of these duderinoes.

I am supposed to write about music. But I can’t stop thinking about Old Man Joe’s post about Star Trek. Let’s set the record straight! Trek died with Roddenberry and NOT when they resuscitated the show from the dead in 1979 with ST: The Motion Picture. Brandon Braga [spit!] caused the death of Trek more than any other single person. He wrote ONE good episode (”All Good Things” ST:TNG). Just ONE - that’s it. And they hand him the mantle to move forward (and to a lesser extent Rick Berman) and it’s all bullshit! [seeth seeth] Just as much as Chris Clairmont killed the X-Men back in 1983 (NOTE: I am still under a blood oath to decapitate him if I ever meet him in person) Brandon Braga killed Trek. Voyager was heresy - the scripts were poor and the casting was terrible. Genevieve Bujold (originally cast as Captain Janeway) would have added some gravitas to the show but she walked out when she realized Braga was a terrible story teller, the casting was wrong and the show was going to suck.

I won’t go into the myriad of reasons why Voyager and ST as a franchise tanked because of Braga (although here are some good observations). But I will say what was RIGHT about Trek (especially TNG and OS, and to a lesser extent DS9): the chemistry of the cast. With Roddenberry casting he made sure that you had a cast that was dedicated to the cause with overacting and gratuitous camaraderie. Brent Spiner (Lt. Cmdr. Data) and Jonathan Frakes (Cmdr. Riker) really understood this about Trek and embraced this end of their career as cult icon willingly. Braga never understood this and cast actors who were interested in other things and did NOT get along with their fellow cast members in real life. And it showed.

I am still angry and maybe this is the main reason. Oh and the blood oath mentioned above. And that the cool kids on Manchovy won’t invite me to the ComiCon. I am not bitter.

[Dude, nobody calls it “the ComiCon”. It’s just “the Con”, got it? And Cripes! All the rooms got booked in like 20 minutes! WTF?! - Ed]

I went to the panel Star Trek: Is it Dead Jim? hoping to hear if there were any plans for the oft rumored Star Fleet Academy - none they knew about - and I don’t even think they cared. The panel just complained about how Trek had died back in 1969. They all felt that the new series suffered from too many people getting along in the future. Drama shrinks when a space ship has a day care center and they let one of those day care attendees fly the damn ship. And there were far too few steamy exchanges between the crew. The Trip T’Pol fandango was just too little, too late. The model show most of them kept going back to as good scifi TV was the new Battlestar Galactica. [And they all seemed smitten with the idea that the Russel Crowe film Master and Commander was the best Trek they’ve seen in years! - Ed]

The most ironic observation made at the panel was that they felt that Trek was living the same sort of perfect existence it did in the early 70s, thriving mainly under fan support with web based fan fiction and syndicated reruns. And that the worst thing that could happen to Trek was for it to bridge its way back into the networks at the hands of a fan.

They blamed fan wish-fulfillment for many of the worst episodes of the last few times in space. They suggested that it might be time for the series to be revived by a non-fan, something like Aaron Sorkin taking on the world. As I thought about it they might be right. It worked with X-Men. Brian Singer was never a comic book fan and never pretended to be one. He was just a good storyteller. I think part of the problem Trek had the last few times out was because TV now looks at a series of shows as a franchise like a McDonalds, not like a universe like we think of DC and Marvel. Anyway Old Man Joe is tired now. Type at you later.

“Aw, look! They have their own little wee con here in San Francisco! Isn’t that cute?” That was my first reaction to WonderCon, myself a veteran of “The Con” (a.k.a. San Diego’s Comic-Con International). Despite my initial misgivings, at the end of the first day I was pretty pleased. They have plenty of programming and you can walk around the exhibition hall comfortably without struggling through the bottlenecking masses and praying your posters won’t get thrashed.

I picked Gary Sassaman’s brain for a minute, the dude responsible for all the programming at WonderCon. Only a dozen people actually work full-time for WonderCon, Comic-Con International, and APE. The rest are all volunteers! Like this stormtrooper helping with security:

When I tried to go down the escalator this guy was guarding he asked me, “Where are you going?” If I ran into this guy on the street I’d just ignore him, but here I stopped and explained my intentions. I don’t know what was weirder: the fact that fictitious authority figures were given positions of authority; or that people recognized them as such and did what they said!