A-brewing…

Hello, dear readers.  As the title suggests, changes, they are a-brewin’ here at Kunstwollen, the blog for the aesthetically-minded citizen.

First, next week will begin Kunstwollen’s first extensive coverage of an aesthetic event.  As we speak, hundreds of nerds, computer geeks, film geeks, music executives, musicians, music junkies, musos, PIBs, etc. are heading down to Austin, TX for the annual convergence of creativity and ridiculous fun known as the South By Southwest Music/Interactive/Film Conference.  Being an Austin native, SXSW (as it is colloquially know) is the highlight of every year for me.  This year, however, may be my last.  And to go out with a bang before I take London by storm, I have officially registered for the conference and obtained a coveted music badge.

Jarvis Cocker will grace SXSW with this pontification.

 

 

So what does this mean for you, people of the internet?  It means Kunstwollen will briefly shift gears into SXSW-freakout mode.  I’ll be locked in a condo in cold and rainy Port Aransas, TX for the next few days, so expect ample SXSW preview coverage.  Then, once the festival descends upon us, I will make an attempt to keep the good interwebs up to date on conference and festival doings.  Of course, Kunstwollen will retain its art historical focus, but now that will shift to skinny jeans, American Apparel, cheesy stage lighting, and the aesthetic nightmare known as Metallica.

However!  To begin the coverage!  I am getting increasingly excited about Late of the Pier, an act out of one of my favorite places on the island of Britannia, the East Midlands.  Upon first listen, back in my Sheffield days, I didn’t think too much.  Typical false 1980s nostalgia, I thought.  But, in recent days, I’ve returned to their debut album Fantasy Black Channel and realized my initial evaluation was horrifically flawed.  They’re more than the typical electronic fare.  In fact, their debut comes across as a full frontal belly flop onto a sticky disco floor on student night.  And that is a very, very good thing.  Here’s a track particularly illustrative of this phenomenon, “Heartbeat”.  And, as watching the video reveals, the kids have quite a sense of the visual.  Good on them.

Although Late of the Pier tickles my fancy for dance-electronica, the British import I am most excited for is none but Sheffield’s greatest, Jarvis Cocker.  Jarvis won’t be playing this year (though I haven’t given up hope on that one just yet), he will be delivering a lecture he debuted at the Brighton Festival last May.  It’s entitled “Speaking the Unspeakable with Jarvis Cocker” and tackles many different issues dealing with lyrics and apparently embellished with lots of examples and a slick PowerPoint setup.  Now, there are few musicians on this planet who I would want to listen to ramble for two whole hours, but Jarvis Cocker is at the top of that very short list.  Based on interviews I’ve read and Jarvis’ contributions to the Live Forever and Made In Sheffield documentaries, I expect nothing but intelligent, insightful, and downright brilliant musings from Britpop’s favorite creepy uncle.

I hope I’ve whetted your appetite for more SXSW coverage and if you’ll be at the conference or festival or any parties associated with either, I would love to run into you and discuss or swap Twitters or what have you.

Until next time.

Late of the Pier will be showcasing at La Zona Rosa at 10:30 on 3/18 and at Aces Lounge on 3/20 at 1am.  Jarvis Cocker will speak at the Austin Convention Center on 3/18 at 3:00.

A brief example of my theory.

I don’t know if any of you like to rot your brain with reality TV.  Although I claim to be an intellectual and have even fooled grad schools into accepting me, I have a severe weak spot for the Apprentice.  On Sunday, the second episode of the second season of the Celebrity Apprentice aired on NBC.  This week, spoiler alert for you avid reality fans, figure skating champion Scott Hamilton fell victim to the much feared firing finger of the Trump.

Now, let me preface what I’m about to assert by saying I love Scott Hamilton.  He was and still is an uncannily fantastic skater as well as by far my favorite commentator on TV today.  But, as I said previously, the world of figure skating does not quite grasp the concept of a unified aesthetic.  On the Celebrity Apprentice, Donald et al. referred to this as Scott’s failure to understand branding.  You see, non-Apprentice viewers, Scott chose a not so clever name for an action hero advertising online retailer Zappos.com: EEE.  He missed the opportunity to capitalize on the “Z,” something that even a brief glance at Zappos.com will tell you is at the heart of their aesthetic vision for the brand.  And this missed opportunity cost his team the win and ultimately ejected Mr. Hamilton from the show.

So Scott confirmed my hypothesis.  Figure skating types just don’t “get” branding.  While obviously Scott Hamilton has enjoyed an incredibly illustrious career, his presence in the public mind has diminished greatly in recent years.  Perhaps, if figure skating could exhume itself from the entertainment afterlife of cheesy ice shows scored by Amy Grant or Kenny G and come up with a single, solitary image, a brand if you will, they could enjoy commercial success even in non-Olympic years.

But of course, all of this is just conjecture.  Conjecture backed up by testimony from Donald Trump, but still conjecture.