Big Brother isn't watching

A few more thoughts on Big Brother 10 as it draws to a close (the inevitable cancelling of the show is another matter whose inevitability renders it redundant - not many shows last as long, not many shows endure so much malicious publicity and still (relatively) thrive - they've been writing it off since what, the second series?).

First off Marcus, who has definitely outlived his usefulness. The key moment for Marcus came several weeks ago when he noted that everyone in the house had their roles and his was the role of "rebel," consequently he just had behave the way he did - he had no choice. I couldn't agree with him more in that. I often write on the structure of the house and the way roles are assigned despite, rather than because, of the housemates personalities (check the tags for Big Brother, save me searching for links... laziness on my part...). Since then the mistake Marcus seems to have made is in believing in his autonomy, or rather, believing his autonomy is his to simply declare, instead of being a constant work. In such a situation the only actual rebellious thing to do would be to not rebel. By simply going along with his assigned rebelliousness, he becomes a pawn. So, having seemingly forgotten his declaration he now seems to believe that he is special, different to the other "mugs" in the house. He really doesn't give a fuck you know. Has he mentioned that? Everyone else does, but not Marcus, he is special. Like everyone who goes into the house doesn't have this conceited view of themselves... His "rebellion is now simply boring. How many times can one see him in the diary room slagging off Big Brother before it becomes just as dull as the platitudes of other housemates on this being the greatest achievement of their lives? Of course there's people who'll say, "but he's being ironic, he's joking." Well yes. He is. But it makes it no less dull and it makes it worse. He's a rebel at one remove, a rebel whose rebellion has no effect, a rebel designed to make the system work: a joke.
Leading on from that I have a problem with the standard formulation that such and such a housemate is bad because they so obviously only want to win the money. So? It's a gameshow, they've spent 12 weeks in there. Let them have the freaking money and enjoy it. Why not wanting to be in the game when you've gone in there to play a game is a virtue is absolutely beyond. The desire to win some money does not preclude the ability act as a decent human being. Isn't that the defenders of capitalism's basic position?
Lastly. Rodrigo. With all the rule breaking, "rebellions," in the house isn't Rodrigo's position the only correct position. And I include Big Brother "himself" in that. When Big Brother announced that it was changing the rules to allow nominations talk, Rodrigo went in there and pointed out to Big Brother that this was a fundamental rule and how could they consider changing it. Brilliant and totally right. The rule change simply showed the lack of power of Big Brother. They could no longer find ways to make people abide by the rules, so they changed them. Rodrigo, by taking the rule literally - for Rodrigo it was divine ordinance, not some ironic rule to be changed on a whim - becomes a subversive figure that Marcus could only dream of. Everyone else was in the trap of irony, business as usual, not realising the shift in power. Rodrigo, having identified the lack of power, should have overthrown the rule of Big Brother and instituted his own revolutionary rule.
Now that would have been worth watching.

Surf Solar

New Fuck Buttons video "Surf Solar", really whetting my appetite for their new album Tarot Sport (out Oct 12th). Not so much the video, which is pretty cool, but just comes down, more so than most videos which take on a life/meaning of their own, to visuals to complement the track, allowing the music to take over. And it really does take over.

House of Flying Daggers

Raekwon, new video, "House of Flying Daggers"



Off of Only Built For Cuban Linx II, out early September. If this track is anything to go by should be a classic. The video is kick ass as well, gory animation, severed heads, blood, detached backbone, and more. Quality stuff.

Big Brother and Groucho Marx

Been thinking about the Rodrigo/Charlie "relationship" and remembered a Groucho Marx quote that Slavoj Zizek is fond of using:

"This man looks like an idiot and acts like an idiot - but this should in no way deceive you: he IS an idiot."

Which applied to Charlie/Rodrigo would go something like this, "They look like they hate each other and act like they hate each other - but this should in no way deceive you: they DO hate each other." (Of course it can also be applied in its original form to David...)
Being so used to finding hidden meanings everywhere, ulterior motives and with a certain mass market psychoanalysis behind us, it is too easy to just say, "ah yes, their arguments are a classic case of repressed love." Why is it not possible for the opposite to be the case: that the moments of tenderness serve to disguise the truth of the moments of absolute hatred towards each other? In this version, Charlie and Rodrigo are trying to occupy the same place in the house - that of the joker, a role which can only be occupied by one person. All their arguments basically stem from jokes going too far, turning into violence. They are not trying to repress their true feelings at these points, rather these are the moments when their true feelings come out. The rest of the time the laws of society mean they have to repress these feelings: in the Big Brother house it is the emotion of hatred that is the main taboo, everyone has to get along, or at least create a semblance of getting along, so why should we imagine that it is love that is being repressed, rather than hatred?

Love Still Sucks

Just done an updated version of my Love Sucks mix from a while ago. While I liked the roughness of the last one I thought I'd do one that was actually mixed "properly," and here's the result. Obviously the tracklist varies a bit through the necessity of mixing, so here it is-

St Elmo's Fire dialogue/Arab Strap - Blackness
Eminem - If I had
Shellac - Prayer To God
Major Lazer feat. Amanda Blank & Einsten - What U Like
Clipse - So Fly (Now We've Had her)
Sebastien Tellier - Sexual Sportswear
Dream Academy - Please Let Me Get What I Want
Lil' Wayne - Do's and Don'ts of Young Money
Nas - If I Ruled The World
Penthouse - Tongue Kung Fu
Big Black - Kerosene
(The Rza as)Bobby Digital - Domestic Violence
The Velvet Underground and Nico - Femme Fatale
Sin With Sebastien - Shut Up (And Sleep With Me)
The Besnard Lakes - For Agent 13
Kid Cudi - The Prayer
Manatees - iiii
Muggs - Rain
NWA - A Bitch is a Bitch
The Alchemist feat. Prodigy - Keep Your Heels On
The Killbots - The Whore (Without A Name)
Spiritualized - Broken Heart
Burial - U Hurt Me
(?) From Mullholland Drive Soundtrack - Llorando (Crying)
Cresa Watson - Dead
The Shangri-Las - Past, Present and Future
Whipping Boy - We Don't Need Nobody Else
Smog - River Guard

And here's the link to download.

Whose Fantasy is it anyway?

Just watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off again and having recently read the whole Ferris as product of Cameron's imagination theory I was looking out for that as well. What mainly struck me about the theory after watching the film was just how unnecessary it was. The film goes to great lengths to point out just what a fantasy figure Ferris is to Cameron, Cameron himself points it out, Ferris knows it. Ferris is set up as the opposite of Cameron, not just in personality but the loving family vs the absent family, popular vs invisible (Ferris is missed from school, Cameron not at all). The point is that whether or not Ferris is a figment of Cameron's imagination doesn't alter the reading of the film in the slightest. Even the events that don't effect Cameron could be seen in the context of his imagination, he imagines all the attention that is being lavished on Ferris, by his principal, his sister, everyone really, in his absence, as a counterpoint to the absence of attention he receives while he is there. But again there is no altered meaning depending on the realness or otherwise of Ferris.
It could actually be that the film is more interesting if we do read Ferris as real, because then we have to ask the question, "why is Ferris hanging about with Cameron?" He's popular with everyone in school and yet he chooses to hang about with the miserable and boring Cameron? Looking at it from this point of view we can actually envisage a third reading in which Ferris isn't a product of Cameron's imagination but that the whole film is a product of Ferris' imagination. It is Ferris imagining his own over the top popularity, his own daring personality. He imagines Cameron as a witness to all his deeds, a way of reflecting his fantasy back onto himself, "wow, imagine what Cameron thinks of me," a way of making himself feel like someone to be looked up to and admired. Perhaps our 2nd Ferris is simply a fairly ordinary middle-class kid ill in bed imagining what he could be doing, imagining what is happening at school in his absence.
But anyway, whoever is having the fantasy, it really is the greatest film...
And here's a cool Ferris related video (which I saw on Discobelle) of Diplo's "Twist and Shout" remix, put over the parade scene -

I might like you better if we slept together

Video for Amanda Blank's "Might Like You Better" -

Not much to the video, but simplicity is sometimes a good thing, and it's still pretty good (the best bit is the popping balloons right at the start), although it does seem to remind me of some hairdressing advert, can't remember which one, but it does anyway. The tune is immense though. Loving it.

Close To The Ground

Not had chance to check the new Sian Alice Group album yet, but here's a taster which makes me want to. Video for "Close To The Ground" -

Hira, the ghost of Big Brother past

A few thoughts on Hira from Big Brother 10. It is pretty obvious that Hira does nothing. Of course, she was Alice in the task and entertained with her epic cake eating, but on a personal level, she does nothing. There is no tension between her and anyone else, no love interest, no friendship, no nothing. Unlike Angel her aloneness never becomes loneliness. She is simply there. In this I think she could very be seen as the ghost of Big Brother past. Watch as other people argue or whatever and you'll see her wander through the background of the scene unnoticed like some apparition. As if she's from an entirely different years' Big Brother, destined to forever retrace her steps, with no heed to events in the current house. No matter how tense the scene unfolding before us, if two people go into another room to converse in private, she'll be there, wandering back and forth in a distant corner of the room, seemingly unnoticed by those having the scene. And it doesn't seem to stem from nosiness, but seems a compulsion, a compulsion to pace forever the Big Brother house...

Even her exercises, so gentle, seem to be just a trace of exercise, a reminder of all those who have ever used the Big Brother to keep fit, but a reminder which doesn't disturb the present.
When she does speak she is like some fairy godmother, encouraging, not so much offering advice, rather motivating, like some old housemate returned saying "do whatever you can do, do what I didn't, fulfill your potential," and then fading away, having engaged in the house but never really becoming involved.
She has gone beyond being merely boring. She has become the very figure of Boredom itself. And in this she is a whole lot more interesting than the tiresome whining of Lisa and David...

John Hughes RIP

Just a quick RIP John Hughes post, before I sit down to rewatch Ferris Bueller's Day Off. And it's from that film that I will base my tribute. So many great films, so many memories, but the one scene that really stands out for me is the scene at the Art Museum which is just amazing, I think it's one of my favourite moments in any film, and it comes in the middle of an already amazing film. The scene both seems out of place in the film - with the comedy all around it, we have this moment of art appreciation - but also absolutely a part of the film at the same time, the whole thing is just really touching and raises the film to a whole new realm of brilliance. And the accompanying version of " Please Let me get what I want" is just classic as well. John Hughes certainly knew how to pick those tunes.
Couldn't find the whole scene on youtube (which is maybe a good thing, go watch the film, if you've not seen it before... where've you been, and if you have seen it before, you probably already have this scene etched in your head and you've probably just rewatched Ferris Bueller or are just about to...)- but here's the whole song with a few stills -



and here's the last 40 seconds or so of the scene, with Cameron mesmerized ...

Execution

New Pink Mountaintops video for "Execution". Not one of my favourites off of "Outside Love", but still, nice video, with "hot" birds replacing the band on teh instruments -

Big Brother 10 and the limits of reason

Last week I wrote this:

The biggest users of reason in the house are Bea and Halfwit. The point I would like to make is that reason is the most successful tactic that a Big Brother contestant can use. In the face of everything you go to the reasonable position which thus makes your opponent seem unreasonable, aggressive. The point is that reason should never be equated with honesty. In the same way that in politics reason is used as an ideological prop to capitalism - "You want a revolution? Be reasonable, look at what usually happens in revolutions, they never work. Capitalism may have its problems but it's the best system we have, yes there's inequality, but until you have a reasonable alternative let's just settle for this..." Reason becomes a way for the privileged to keep their position of privilege.
It is "cultural capital," something I remember from my Sociology lessons, the middle-class are better versed in the laws of middle-class culture so that in a society where "we're all middle-class now," they have a distinct advantage over those less well-versed in the unwritten rules. See how Halfwit by persisting in the reasonable position managed to become the favourite to win the show as everyone else turned to slagging him off, making themselves look bad - their anti-Halfwit sentiments became the opposite of reason.
And now Bea joins in the reasonable brigade. Note the way that with Kenny she started off by being sarcastic to him (the comment on his shoes) but as soon as she got the reaction she desired she returned to the position of reason, making Kenny hated.
And the whole thing demonstrates how hard this position is to criticise. Every time I criticise Bea or Halfwit I am berated for my views based on the fact that they are just so damn nice. Well, yes, maybe they are nice, but that niceness should be seen as the ideological construct it so blatantly is, and, in a show famed for disliking game-players, for the game it so obviously becomes in their hands.

So, what happened? From such a position of reason to Bea becoming the bitchiest housemate (though she does have quite a lot of competition), to Halfwit basically going "nanananananana I'm not listening," to Lisa after he'd criticised her?
While at first glance the 2 things might seem opposed, recent events have simply confirmed my central thesis. Which is that reason wasn't so much the "natural" basis of Bea and Halfwit, but a tactic, a heavily ideological tactic at that. And a tactic that it didn't take a whole lot to break down. Of course, along with their recent outbursts there are still moments when they are alone together when they still have their reasonable discussions, even if these are interspersed with moments when Bea uses their moments alone to bitch.
I am tempted to suggest that Halfwit's schoolboy behaviour in his argument with Lisa stems from the comment Bea made to him about no one having told her they'd fancied her since she was 14 - he has reverted to that age on the back of this comment, perhaps some unconscious memory rising to the surface, but that seems too easy. The other theory I like, but again can't agree with is that Noirin leaving has changed the entire house. Noirin as the structuring principle of the house, the centre, around which everyone else revolved, and her leaving has left everyone out of orbit - there is no centre from which they can take their bearings, all previous positions are lost. But that places too much emphasis on Noirin I fear. No, I think the best answer is that we see the limits of reason here. When faced with unreason, reason has nowhere to go but into unreason itself. We need look no further than the continued use of war to bring other countries round to the idea of liberal democracy - when rational argument is ignored there is seemingly no other way. For all of Halfwit's reason when faced with Lisa he has nowhere to turn but to laugh maniacally in her face...
In Bea's case we simply see that where the tactic she employed with Kenny - being off with him and then when he turned on her acting all innocent and hurt - has failed with David, she tried the same thing but it failed this time, ended up making her look bad. Her niceness is now seen for the facade it could only ever have been.
What we can also see is the unshakeable confidence of the middle-class. Halfwit with his, "I am never leaving, people like me, you are leaving Lisa," speech, and Bea with that awful demeanour of, "how could anyone possibly dislike me?" Which really does show the limits of their reason...

Pon De Floor

New Major Lazer Video, "Pon de Floor" -

Still loving the album, got it on my IPhone pretty much every night, and this is one of the best tracks (though I'd probably say that of about ten of the tracks). Good video, keeping it simple, just mad dancing in mad house...