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interesting kuspit essay on youth culture but ultimately begs the point and terminally implodes in the final paragraphs :

I am arguing, along with theorists who view creativity in terms of evolution, that there is no significant creativity without a foundation in tradition, which symbolizes all that is memorable, mature, and of demonstrable value in a society, implying that tradition can never lose meaning and will always reward reflection; and iconoclasm that questions the finality and values of tradition and challenges traditional modes of understanding, but that remains valueless unless it achieves its own finality by becoming part of and holding its own in tradition, thus gaining lasting meaning and proving its continuing value to society.

I happen to think that avant-garde art has not unequivocally done so, however representative it is of modern society, with its cult of youth, indeed, its fetishization of youth, and can never convincingly do so, because to be avant-garde means to be incorrigibly adolescent in attitude and thus unable to relate to and respect tradition, which does not mean to blindly conform to it. Adolescence can express itself but not reflect on itself, which is why avant-garde art cannot become seriously traditional, that is, a civilizing force.



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rip queen of mean


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I feel enough time has passed that I can make a rather shocking confession. Who it would shock I am not sure. I've been living a Beware of the Blog lie for the past several months. Back on April 29th I posted the most elaborate item ever written about the psychedelic hippie (or hippy) flick You Are What You Eat (1968). If you missed it, you can still read it here. Now despite having given the history of this weird and often headache-inducing film, offering my opinions about its best and worst parts (and its absolutely fantastic soundtrack LP that you can listen to here), I need to come clean.

I never saw the movie.

As I stated in the original piece, You Are What You Eat is rather obscure - and nearly impossible to find. I owned the great soundtrack featuring The Electric Flag, Tiny Tim, Peter Yarrow, Rosko, The Band, and of course John Simon's My Name Is Jack, and had always wondered about the movie. I figured many other WFMU listeners did too.

I confess this now because my local Cinematheque had a (bootleg DVD) screening of the picture this past week. I was one of only five people in the audience - and the soundtrack remains superior. If you follow the link to that old article it has now been revised - as you might expect. I wonder if anyone noticed I was talking out of my ass back in April? It also makes me wonder how many film critics out there review movies without even bothering to watch them (Leonard Maltin - a measly two stars for Taxi Driver!?).

Can you ever trust me again?

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#232 - The Tijuana Brass Sound (Box Set) (mp3s)

The day is titled "The Tijuana Brass Sound", with an emphasis on "sound". Some of the songs may be direct covers or adaptations of Herb Alpert and the TB Sound and others just have that T-Brass magic.

I believe all of the songs featured are out of print but I could be wrong in some cases. I left out notable songs by Bob Moore, Henry Mancini, Herb's early cuts as Dore Albert and Perrey & Kingsley (because the music is available on CD), and a whole ton of boring copycat versions of Herb and the Brass' hits. Tracks by Johnny Mandel, Claude Bolling, Killer Watts and The Unocal Song came from sites online, but I'm not sure where (I completely forget), so thanks to the site/blog owners for sharing these songs, they helped to make this collection to share with others. Thanks to Pea Hix for Optiganally Yours and Derrick Bostrom for The Going Thing.

The majority of cuts are from vinyl I've picked up in various thrifts, shops and gutters over the years. Listen to that Tijuana Brass Pop, Crackle and Hiss! Embrace it. And then there are songs I have no clue how they landed at my pad, and why, and from whom, and at this point... I just stop questioning and keep listening as drowning ones self in hours upon hours of that brass sound, well, I'm not going nuts if that's what you are thinking. I'm actually loving it and I find myself extremely happy listening to this music.

There are so many songs out there that a 20+ CD box set could be compiled. Here my friends are 100 tracks to burn on 4 discs to play at your next social gathering.

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Le Corbusier: Art and Architecture
A Life of Creativity
Mori Art Museum
Tokyo, Japan

Architectural giant, the founder of modernism, the greatest architect of the 20th Century - just some of the accolades that have been attached to Swiss born Frenchman Le Corbusier (1887-1965). It is little known that Le Corbusier devoted his mornings to painting and sculpture; architecture only started in the afternoons when he went to his office.

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vinalhaven in the news


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john schwarz after calder mobile no.5


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It may strike many as strange that fashion design is not already covered by copyright law. Many creative industries argue, quite persuasively, that their success requires a certain level of intellectual property protection. Without it, innovation would grind to a halt; creators will not engage in creation if they fear others will steal their work.

But fashion designs never have been protected by intellectual property law and, as it turns out, for good reason. Unlike in the music, film, or publishing industries, copying of fashion designs has never emerged as a threat to the survival of the fashion industry. Indeed, growth and creativity in the fashion industry depend on copying

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