2005/03/28

I can't stop obsessing about Beck, pt. 3

A quote from a post on Lightning Struck Itself, a blog by Clem Bastow:

Somebody once said, in relation to Beck's eclecticism, that 'no one in real life likes country and hip hop' ... It is his tenth album and his second made having returned wholeheartedly to the arms of a certain celebrity church/cult, the one that actively encourages its members not to seek inspiration, friendship or collaboration from 'no-case-gains' ... Guero led me to something of a revelation: could it be that this 'faith's' cultural isolationism is at the root of Beck's legendary eclecticism? If you're raised within a vacuum, it's pretty hard to worry about liking country and hip hop - and samba and jazz and metal and rock and, and...


This made me remember something I read a couple months ago.

"The revolution that failed", Salon.com:

Spike Jonze, while not as cantankerous as those three, comes off as an immature, insecure skate-punk prankster with little intellectual curiosity and a blissful ignorance of pre-"Star Wars" culture. This may be why his movies, "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation," seem so original -- he isn't imitating classic films of the past because he's never even seen them. Waxman reports that one day on the set of the former film Jonze took Malkovich aside to tell him he was overacting a scene. "I was getting a little Blanche there, wasn't I?" the star agreed. Jonze looked puzzled. "Blanche Dubois," responded Malkovich. "Tennessee Williams? 'A Streetcar Named Desire'? Blanche Dubois?" Jonze could only shrug; he had no idea what Malkovich was talking about. "What did you get me into?" Malkovich moaned to producer Steve Golin, who could only respond, "At least it won't be derivative."

1 comment:

Dave said...

Do you want to write a CD review for Guero? E-mail arts@imprint.uwaterloo.ca. I think you'd do an excellent job.. We'd need it by Wednesday... last issue of the term..