Good bad Music for bad, bad Times!

«What strikes me is the fact that in our society, art has become something which is related only to objects and not to individuals, or to life. That art is something which is specialized or which is done by experts who are artists. But couldn't everyone's life become a work of art? Why should the lamp or the house be an art object, but not our life?» (Michel Foucault)

RIP Mike Davis and thanks for kicking out the jams.

«Midnight in Paris» is not only the best Woody Allen movie in quite some time (although I must say that I loved «Matchpoint» for its cold bourgeois-brutality) – it can also be seen as a witty comment on the current retro-trend. And it's pure cinematic joy!

It's a paradox: Blogs like this one disenchant the music that enchants their makers. The obscure, the magic, the mystery that was an integral part of popular music until a few years ago, has now been shattered completely. The internet and all its effect has torn down the boundary that used to separate the past from the present in the cultural production: Everything is only a few mouseclicks away, from music to art, fashion, design - you name it. The downside: Popular culture finally eats itself, is obsessed with its own past and thus creates nothing new. This is one of the main thesis of renowned music journalist Simon Reynolds' in his excellent book «Retromania. Pop culture's addiction to its own past». Reynold goes one step further and makes an interesting point saying that Punk itself was a reactionary cultural movement, dreaming of a world "without the Sgt Peppers album". A sometimes pretty academic, well written, resourceful and very much recommended book!