glen campbell blog: music

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Furnaceface: "Just Buy It"

To the Best of Our Knowledge: Authenticity

Authenticity
To the Best of Our Knowledge

There's no question – we crave authenticity. You want "real" Chinese or Mexican food? Then make sure you find a restaurant that makes food the way it's made in the old country. Music lovers are also obsessed with authenticity - from folk and blues to rap...just consider the mantra of hip hop - "keeping it real." It's no different in politics. Think about our insatiable hunger for politicians who are genuine, not packaged. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll explore authenticity.

SEGMENT 1:

Cultural Critic Richard Todd looked at modern life and saw others telling what is and isn't real. He wrote a book called "The Thing Itself: On the Search for Authenticity." He tells Anne Strainchamps that authenticity is less a condition in itself than a desire. Sherman Alexie is a celebrated fiction writer who is also Spokane and strong opinions about what it means to be a real Indian. Steve Paulson asked him to read an excerpt from his story "The Search Engine." And, music critic Yuval Taylor tells Steve Paulson that authenticity in music is a complicated business. Taylor is the co-author (with Hugh Barker) of "Faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music." And we hear examples, from Leadbelly to Punk.

SEGMENT 2:

Vikram Chandra touched off a bidding war among New York publishers for his new novel, "Sacred Games." But he writes in English, the language of the colonizer, and faces accusations that he's not really an Indian writer. Chandra talks with Jim Fleming about his personal history and sense of identity as a writer. And don't look for authenticity on your plate, either! That's the message of Barry Glassner's book, "The Gospel of Food." He talks with Steve Paulson about so-called "authentic" Chinese and Mexican food.

SEGMENT 3:

Alan Doyle, Bob Hallet and Sean McCann are the founding members of the band Great Big Sea. Their music has its roots in Newfoundland traditional folk music, but it rocks! They tells Jim Fleming why they combine folk and rock and how they approach their music. And we hear lots of it. The band's new album is called "The Hard and the Easy."

To Listen to the Episode

To the Best of Our Knowledge: Espirit de Corps

Espirit de Corps
To the Best of Our Knowledge (Wisconsin Public Radio)

SEGMENT 1:

Toby Nunn was a Sergeant First Class who served two tours in Iraq. Home now, he's finding it hard to adjust to civilian life, but as he told Steve Paulson, he's still taking care of the men in his platoon. Nunn currently works for the nonprofit group Soldiers' Angels. Also, Tyler Boudreau is a twelve year veteran on the Marine Corps. He resigned his commission over reservations about the legitimacy of the Iraq War. He's the author of "Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine." He discusses his experiences and his decision with Anne Strainchamps. And, John Wrobleski, Sr. Tells Anne Strainchamps about the day he got the news that his son, Marine 2nd Lt. John "JT" Wrobleski, Jr. Was killed in Iraq.

SEGMENT 2:

We hear a bit of the band Drowning Pool, typical of the music favored by troops in Iraq. Jonathon Pieslak, author of "Sound Targets: American Soldiers and the Music in the Iraq War," talks with Jim Fleming about how U.S. forces use music and who they listen to. Helen Benedict is the author of "The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq." The words of Air Force Sergeant Marti Ribeiro as quoted in the book are voiced by actress Carrie Coon. Benedict tells Anne Strainchamps the shocking truth about the heavy toll sexual harassment and abuse take on our female warriors.

SEGMENT 3:

Brian Turner was an average young American who volunteered for military service in Iraq. At night he wrote poetry by flashlight. When his tour ended, he collected his poems into a book called "Here, Bullet." Turner talked about his work, especially the title poem, with Anne Strainchamps.

To Listen to the the Episode

The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger: Shroedinger's Cat

Project Song: Moby and Kelli Scar -- One Song, Two Days, Three Versions

Moby: One Song, Two Days, Three Versions
by Bob Boilen
Project Song (NPR)

Watch The Making Of 'Gone To Sleep'

It takes weeks, even years, to write a song. NPR Music's Project Song challenges musicians to do it in just two days. And every Project Song participant has worked right up to the last minute — that is, until Moby.

He and collaborator Kelli Scarr finished their song in a little more than a single day. In fact, they had so much time left over, they recorded a second version of the song. And after that, they gave a small concert for the staff at NPR.

Moby has carved out a career making electronic dance music. He knocked everyone out in 1999 with a record called Play, which sold more than 10 million copies.

Moby generally works alone in his New York apartment, but for Project Song, we asked him to bring along a collaborator. He picked Kelli Scarr, a Brooklyn-based singer and songwriter with a breathtaking voice. They arrived at NPR, a bit nervous and eager.

I kicked off the songwriting process by showing them a series of photographs and words. The surreal images came from New York artist Phil Toledano; you can see more of his work at NPR's Picture Show blog. Moby and Scarr are both drawn to an image of a man in the woods wearing a trenchcoat. There's a brown briefcase on the earthen floor beside him, and his head looks like a glowing storm cloud.

Next, I gave them a series of words to chose from. Moby picked the word "flight." Scarr chose "Sunday," which Moby calls "the most depressing day of the week."

Not too long after, Moby puts the card with the word "Sunday" printed on it, along with the photograph, on a nearby chair. He picks up a bass guitar and immediately starts playing a riff in the key of E. Turns out, this hastily played bass line would become the bedrock for their new song.

To Read the Rest and Watch the Video

Peter Rothberg: Wisconsin Revolts -- Matthew Wisniewiski Stirring Video Chronicle

[Please watch this video and share it with as many people as you can -- these are the American workers that Wisconsin governor Scott Walker threatened to brutally suppress with the National Guard if they protested against his measures. Song is Arcade Fire's "Rebellion" -- via The Nation]

Ethics and politics look at both how we should regard and accomodate each other and what kind of things make it possible to, for example, treat each other with respect and what kinds of things don't. That I might view you as "weird" or even "inhuman" (politics) may very much dictate how I then treat you (ethics). When we examine more closely how we think about the world, it turns out that ethics and politics are inseperable.

(Pin-Fat, 23)

Ethics and Politics

Joseph Rotblat: "Ethics and Politics"

Duncan Bell: "Ethics and World Politics"

Language is Public

Michael Benton: Notes on H.L. Goodall: Writing the New Ethnography; Allan Irving/Ken Moffatt: "Carnival Classrooms"; Gary Snyder: The Etiquette of Freedom

Martin Irvine: "Semiotics, Communication, and Cultural Theory: Basic Assumptions."

We formulate and communicate ideas and thoughts by means of language. Language is public. It consists of shared rules and vocabularies... .
The thoughts we have about the world reveal a number of things: the types of things that we believe are in the world, the kinds of people that we think we live amongst, what we think is important, what we think is possible, and even how we believe we should think about the world. These thoughts are all attempts to make sense of the world and our place in it. So, the questions that we are going to look at here are:

1 How do we begin to think about the world and make sense of it?
2 Does the world exist independently of any thoughts we might have about it?
3 Is the way we think about the world simply a representation of what is?

... what we are going to explore in this chapter is how what we think about the world actually impacts on the world: it changes the world. We also examine how, if we ignore the impact our ways of thinking have on the world, we can find ourselves complicit in what happens in ways we might not wish to be.