Are we there yet?

Lately I've been reading Simon Reynolds's latest book of rock commentary, Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past. Its thesis is that we have become so caught up in a kind of nostalgia for the very recent past that we've almost stopped innovating entirely, concerning ourselves instead with reusing, recycling, and remixing "the good old days" of popular culture. Sometimes the revisiting is ironic, sometimes reverent, but his worry is that, regardless, we may soon run out of raw material to rehash, as no one is making anything that looks toward the future anymore.

I don't necessarily buy all of his arguments, and in fact the author himself could be accused of the very nostalgia he denounces, painting the beloved post-punk of his youth as pop music's last attempt at creating something truly new. But he does make some very interesting historical connections, as well as tell some great stories. Plus, I got to find out about this incredible video from the chapter "Total Recall: Music and Memory in the Time of YouTube."



And here's another heartbreaker from the same guy — Daniel Lopatin aka KGB Man aka Sunsetcorp aka Oneohtrix Point Never — this one unfortunately unembeddable.

If that book hasn't been enough to get me all worked up, I've also been reading The Guardian Weekly for a few weeks now, in an attempt to reduce my criminal ignorance of world events. It wasn't a conscious decision, but I think ever since 9/11 I have paid absolutely no attention to the news whatsoever. I guess even before that, it seemed to me a distraction from one's own life — something to talk about with your coworkers, get angry about, and eventually become embittered by, as it's all terrible and there's ultimately nothing you can do about 99% of it.

But lately that point of view has started to seem overly self-centred to me, and I've felt guilty that I haven't been fulfilling my duties as a witness to the time I live in. So I subscribed to The Guardian. I'm not sure it was such a good idea, though. This news stuff is REALLY upsetting! How long have things been this bad? Do people really read this stuff every day? It makes me feel awful about my species and at the same time completely paralysed, like most of the people in the world are going around with points of view that I think are just terrible, and whatever I do with my life is an insulting joke in the context of the enormous atrocities they're generating.

I do enjoy the "Comment & Debate" section, though, especially some of the analyses of the impending worldwide economic collapse. But even that enjoyment is just the consolation of an ego-stroking told-you-so in the face of my culture's demise. Still, there is definitely some entertainment to be had from these "think pieces." Here are a few of my faves from the past month.