Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Michael is everywhere!


A postscript of sorts to yesterday's post... Finally sat down this morning to watch (& send off) the Netflix DVD that's been languishing on our kitchen table for at least two weeks, a 2000 Oscar-nominated Belgian film called Everybody's Famous.  I won't give too much away by saying that our protagonist kidnaps a national star in a bid to break out of an increasingly desperate mid-life turn of events--he himself is a frustrated songwriter hoping to jump-start the career of his daughter, who is floundering on the Flemish star-tribute circuit...

Anyhow, the father shows up to negotiate his demands wearing a Michael Jackson mask (which I unfortunately cannot manage to find a picture of on the web--someday I'll sort out how to do screen-shots).  A jarring yet oddly moving moment--and another nod to MJ's global reach...

Monday, June 29, 2009

Remembering: Michael

Time will tell if folks will truly remember when / where they first heard of Michael Jackson's passing (why this particular fascination?  do people need to feel "a part of" the story?  trace it back through not only 9/11, but also Diana, Lennon, Elvis...), but for me, I was folding clothes and listening to NPR.  At that point, it was an unconfirmed report, but I hopped over to CNN while finishing the laundry.  Turns out I watched a lot of TV on MJ this weekend, and heard not a few songs on the radio to boot--collective, mediated mourning...

I was pretty much in Michael's marketing sweet-spot circa Thriller--an 8th grade music (video) enthusiast.  Granted, my copy of this album was in fact one side of a Maxell D90 cassette recorded from Tony Wilson (the other side had a Pat Benetar live set, if I'm not mistaken), and I was never a "fan" the way I was about new wave artists like Mr Numan (or even Prince, for that matter)... But Michael Jackson was someone who really transcended culture cliques--or perhaps better to say, race-based entertainment boundaries of the 1980s...




Favorite musical moments from Jackson's songs returned in force this weekend: the squeal of delight as "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" kicks, the bubblegum fizz of "ABC," afro-beat echos in "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"... Video moments I'd forgotten, like the nod to Do the Right Thing as MJ goes postal at the end of "Black or White," Steve Stevens giving it the ol' college try in "Dirty Diana," Cher trying her best to keep up with a choreographed Jackson 5 (good luck with that)...

Back in the day, I taught a class at BSC called "Mass Communication Theory & Research," and one year we read a solid book by Jason Mittell called Television and Genre, which had a chapter on Michael Jackson and music videos.  MJ is so intertwined with '80s-era MTV that it's hard to imagine one without the other.  So it was eye-opening read for the whole class (myself included) to find that in fact MTV had refused to air Jackson's first single off Thriller.  It took the entire corporate weight of Columbia/Sony to get MTV to ease up on it's lillywhite playlist policy.  (For media studies folks who might be reading this, seek out this chapter--it's an enlightening window into race and pop culture in Reagan's first term.)  This helps to explain why even now I am still sorting out all the solid music made by African American artists in the 1980s that I never really sorted out at the time--to say nothing of whole histories of blues and jazz...

The 24/7 news cycle lumbers on that Friday, with Larry King interviewing Céline Dion & Cher.The most surreal moment of the evening comes with Randy Jackson ("No relation!" King dutifully notes)  on the line.   We see a decontextualized image of a helicopter--King, only mildly flummoxed, learns through his ear that the copter appears to be carrying (Michael) Jackson's body, prompting him to ask (Randy) Jackson if maybe he knows where the flight is headed?  Randy does not...

I've read some pretty nasty stuff on facebook and elsewhere on MJ's passing--and I guess I can understand it, if you believe he was guilty as charged in the various molestation charges.  But it seemed oddly dissonant to me--something even now I'm not terribly excited to engage.  I think of Jackson's struggles these days (or my mediated understanding of them, of course) in terms of Herman Gray's book Watching Race, which is about television, race, and cultural politics in the era of Reaganism (coming this fall to a COMM 300 virtual classroom near you).  MJ's too-overt wrestling with his own racial identity is starting to become a means for to talk about race in the USA in the 1980s (and beyond)...

We flip to MSNBC, where the helicopter has landed--Jackson's body has been moved from UCLA Medical Center to a helipad at USC, which is close to the LAPD Coroner's Office (where by now two autopsies have been carried out and reported upon) and Keith Olbermann narrates the transfer of the body into a waiting van.  Ambulance chasers, all of us--we watch (and watch again) as the nearly-formless, sheet-covered body is slipped into the van, which drives uneventfully to the Coroner.

He is gone.

I turn to my wife and say something inane about the universality of death.  However wrongfully, I can't just not say anything...

Saturday, June 20, 2009

I get interviewed, or 10 litas wasted!


A month or so back, I was asked to do an interview for Lithuania's largest daily, Lietuvos rytas.  After teaching on media for several years now, and writing about Lithuanian media in particular, it's an odd experience to become a "participant" again in the process.  I managed to piss a lot of people off for writing off Sasha Son (who did, in fact, get to the second round of Eurovision).  I still owe him 10 litas.  Here's the interview:

1. How many years and under what circumstances have you lived in Lithuania? 

Add it all up, and I've lived over two years in LT... 1997-98 I was an English teacher at Seduva Secondary School.  2000-2001 I was doing dissertation research and interning at Radio Vilnius.  Summer 2002 I did some follow-up research in Seduva.  But really that was the last serious chunk of time I've lived in the country.  By the time I finished my dissertation, I was already writing about history--the period right before EU & NATO accession.  I've been back each of the past two summers, and have a conference in Kaunas this summer--but it's not the same as living there.  I miss it.

2. From 
http://www.bridgew.edu: “His particular focus continues to be in Lithuania, with a wider contextual base in post-socialist Eurasia.” Is it accurate to say you sort of built a career out of  interest in Lithuanian pop culture? How much of your research material, gathered in Lithuania (or about Lithuania), do you use in your classes? Do you students seem to be interested in it?

My dissertation on Lithuania allowed me to work through a range of interests: not just television and film, but also popular music and new media as well.  My work on Lithuania certainly helped build my career.  My hope is that it's not a one-way situation--for instance, I'm working on a study-tour to bring a class of students to Lithuania this next summer, introducing them to another culture--one I fell in love with myself some dozen years ago...

My work in Lithuania comes up in my research methods course (field work takes time!), though I try to not make it about ME.  I have a new class next year called "Cinema of Small Nations" that will include a unit on Baltic film--we're going to use a special issue of the Estonian journal Via Transversa that focused on the "lost cinema of the former Eastern Bloc."

My students are curious about the world, but a lot of them haven't had the chance to be exposed to a lot of stuff.  I had a student travel to NYC for the first time in his life (only a four-hour drive) only because of the festival success of a film he acted in.  Students take my classes on Global Cinema, Central European Film, or (most recently) Central Asian Cinema and are really learning about that part of the world along with trying to sort out the films.  Even sorting out watching films with subtitles is a challenge, because it's a learned skill they have yet to develop....

They're open to learning, and that's all I can ask for! 

3. You met and interviewed Andrius Mamontovas, other Lithuanian pop/rock stars. What impression they made to you? Any stories/reminiscences connected to them? Did they conduct themselves as stars, or they were casual with you? 

AM was incredibly gracious with his time--I interviewed him twice, and once my cassette recorder even worked!  He strikes me as both wise and self-aware--seeing as all I could muster is kind of smart and self-conscious, I wasn't exactly in a position to negotiate a profound interview, I'm afraid.  I still have a tape of our interview in Old Town: AM's talking interrupted by a song by....yep!  No escape.

I still regret not getting to the last Foje show in '97--I made up for it by seeing AM several times in 2000-01, including a blisteringly loud show in Palanga... 

Olegas from Lemon Joy opened several doors for me, for which I'll always be grateful.  My wife and I even celebrated Int'l Women's Day w/ him & his family, which was fine.

I got to interview Skamp in 2001 after Eurovision--I wrote extensively about the LT contest that year in my dissertation, and so it was helpful for me to hear from them what they thought about the whole "real Lithuanians" discourse.

I got a few autographs for friends / family but never for me... except for running into A. Kaušpedas in the airport w/ my 4-CD Antis reissue, and sheepishly asking for a signature....

If you're asking whether the LT stars acted arrogantly, I would say absolutely not.  It was an artificial situation--they don't know me, I'm recording their conversation, I'm from the state radio (press) but also a student from abroad (?!).... So the fact that they sat down with me at all was gracious.

I realized, though, that my interest ultimately was more towards these stars' AUDIENCES and that my time was probably better spent sitting around in Seduva talking about what Antis meant to them... instead of trying to interview Antis themselves.

4. How they perceived themselves being musicians in a small country, relatively far away from the European music scene? Did they express any frustrations?

I think AM and Skamp both were looking to break out, or cross over, or what have you.  Neither really succeeded in that sense, but both really continue to be successful domestically.  In the diss, I discuss AM's double-bind in particular--he was looked at with a fair amount of disdain for trying to "rebrand" himself internationally.... And when he would go abroad, it still ended up mostly being Lithuanians looking to hear "Laužo Šviesa" and relive the '80s....That's got to be hard--but it's also opened so many doors for him...

5. What did you know about Lithuanian pop music/pop culture before coming to Seduva/Vilnius? Did reality contradict any of your preconceptions about the state of Lithuanian pop music? about consumption of foreign pop music?

I knew absolutely nothing about Lithuanian pop music before setting foot in the country.  Well, I read about Antis from a dogeared copy of LET'S GO USSR!  We saw Lemon Joy play at a club in Feb. '97--they were pretty heavily influenced by The Smiths at that point.  That was my first exposure to the local scene.

Really, my students were my teachers.  We would talk in and out of class about media, and I would encourage them to bring tapes to class to play.  Students took me to see SEL that spring, and introduced me to Mamontovas and Foje.  

I came to LT thinking I was going to write a dissertation about postsocialist film industries that was going to cover 27 countries--totally ridiculous.  Once I actually was living in Lithuania, I realized there was WAY more going on right there than I could account for.  And I needed to not just talk about film, but about a wide spectrum of media practices.  I'm lucky my students were willing to teach me so patiently.

6. In your article “Lithuanian Contests and European Dreams” you focus a lot on European Song Contest—Eurovision. Why Eurovision was interesting to you? How you, as American, not just as media researcher, perceive it? Is it comparable in any way to “American Idol”? Why yes/no?

I'd read about Eurovision in Melody Maker & the NME (all bad stuff, of course), but never seen it until 1998--"Viva Victoria," right?  It was just great television for a night.  Israeli transvestite boom-chick?  I'm in!

Working at the state radio in 2000/01, I saw the gear-up for the ESC first-hand, which got me to talking with folks on both sides of the TV screen.  This was a period when everyone saw that LT needed to get into the EU & NATO, but a) it wasn't 100% clear it was going to happen [remember how LT = NATO, EE = EU, LV=?], and b) it wasn't clear what was going to be gained, but c) there was a sense of loss--a decade after getting out of one multinational state only to enter another, right?

I couldn't really walk up to folks and say HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT EU ACCESSION, THEN? and expect anything worthwhile.  But I could get to that through the back door--LT & Eurovision (vis-a-vis success by both EE & LV) became something of a referendum of whether or not LT "belonged."

I don't think it necessarily plays out that way now, but I defer to those "on the ground" to make a more informed argument on that...

7. What drive people to think of Eurovision as “a gateway to Europe”? Do you find these hopes naïve, or they do have any substance after all?

The precedent is there: ABBA, Celine Dion...even Lordi!  Heck, Ruslana made the rounds after her win, right?  The problem when it comes to LT artists is that the political economy of the industry works against them in a huge way.  Ironically, after trying to break out by playing it straight, the boys of LT United made a blip on the European radar with tongue firmly in cheek.  I have to admit I didn't get it at first--but now I look back and see that as probably THE defining LT/ESC moment.  At least until 2010--I have 10 litu that says Sasha Song doesn't make it out of the semifinals.

8. Let’s say one day Lithuanian win
s Eurovision. Will that help the country’s image? Will substantial amount of Europeans pay attention to it? What about Americans? Australians?

I think Europop travels--wait, is Lordi Europop?  I think so.  If the act has that "something" that puts them over at Eurovision, they can potentially take that "something" on the road.  But while my students that are into metal know Lordi, nobody has anything to say about the Russian winner this past year.  
 
9. Maybe having internationally successful band would help Lithuania’s image more? I’m thinking about something like Lithuanian ABBA… What are the biggest obstacles for Lithuanian musicians to make any larger footprint in the world pop scene (I am not talking only about ESC)?

Robert Burnett wrote a great piece about the success of Sweden internationally, and he identified four key things Sweden had going on: musical competence of its citizenry (especially seen in extensive music education), industrial / infrastructural presence, a history and existing network of voluntary organizations, and audience sophistication vis-a-vis global music trends.  What kind of marks might we give LT on the "Sweden test"?

10. Do you find it strange that Lithuanian national television (LTV) is at the center of selection who is going to represent Lithuania in Eurovision? LTV is all about being non-pop and elitist… Some of the “expert judges” are experts in folk singing… Does it have anything to do with the poor Lithuania’s performances in ESC?

If you look at the ESC from an industrial POV, whom else would be in the center of national organization if not LTV?  This is part of how public-service broadcasting is being branded, right?  Pan-European populist broadcasting.  This tension you identify is something that public-service broadcasters globally are wrestling with--but having folk singing experts decide who goes to Eurovision helps explain to me why we have another LT singer with questionable taste in hats ready to be bounced in the semifinals.  I think the hat just bugs me because it reminds me of "I, Assassin"-era Gary Numan!

But fair is fair--I remember seeing a broadcast in '98 of Rebel Heart playing for all the kids in Vilnius for Dainu svente--headbanging kids in traditional outfits, while the band (in full pancake makeup) spit out I'M YOUR ENEMY--DON'T YOU F**K WITH ME!  Classic.

11. If you approached an average Joe in Massachusetts and asked him what Eurovision was, what, in your opinion, he would say?  Why most Americans are not interested in European music; or are they? How would you define a term of Europop to an average Jonas in Seduva? Why Americans do not like Europop in particular?

An average person in Massachusetts has no idea what Eurovision is.  Students in my "Popular Music, Communication & Culture" course now know what it is, but I think they wish they didn't.  Their loss.

I think what matters here in the US is the song... or the (sub)genre....more so than where the song is from.  People don't care that Peter, Bjorn & John are from Sweden--they just like that whistling song, right?

I think part of how Europop works is that it's designed for folks whose first language ISN'T English--English is pretty much THE second language of Europe at this point, and it serves as common currency.  But if you're looking for something deeper in terms of lyrics, that's not where to look.  

12. At a time you were living in Lithuania, debate about Skamp’s Lithuanian-ness and necessity of purely Lithuanian pop music versus singing in English peaked. Do you think the debate is still relevant in nowadays Lithuania? In other words, do you think Lithuanians are more open in 2009 than they were in 2001?

I'd like to think that this debate is over.  But it's not.  Actually, I think it's transforming in ways that will make this even MORE pressing in coming years.  This latest wave of folks who have left the country to make their lives outside of Lithuania--there's so many folks like this.  And they're EVERYWHERE, right?  I think folks from LT are more open, but I think the discussion re: Lithuanian-ness will continue...just like European-ness and global citizenry.  Those questions never are fully resolved--they keep coming back in new and interesting ways.  

13. In your article “Lithuanian Contests and European Dreams” you wrote: “To a native English speaker, Europop lyrics can always seem simplistic, if not downright nonsensical”. What do you make of this piece of lyrics:

        A little girl is crying alone
                    A little boy searching for his home
                    Giving up to a sin
                    For a heart-craving dream
                    Is that a sin?

                    If you really love
                    The love you say you love (really love)
                    Then surely that love would love...
                    Then surely that love would love to love you back

FYI, this is a song by Sasha Son, official Lithuanian entry to Eurovision’09.

I saw the video.... His heart is in the right place (vs child abuse) but the whole thing seems packaged in a way that is ultimately disappointing to me.  Like I said, I have 10 lt that says LT is done in the semifinals, but I'd love to be proved wrong.  As soon as someone like me opens their big mouth, that's almost a guarantee that Fate will find a way to serve me Humble Pie...

14. A very straightforward question: Why Lithuanian acts always were miserable to lukewarm in Eurovision?

We might best answer that on a case by case basis....

15. What Lithuanian music is on your iPod (if any)? Why? 

Mamontovas--Laisve tavyje...Superb b-side w/ a beautiful chorus
Empti--Diskoteka...They should have been MASSIVE--what a loss
Jurga--Instrukcija...Saw her in Boston--great new hope for me for LT pop
Lukas--Ėch ta laime...Did a presentation on this song at MIT two years ago!
Mango--Raskila...Musu kiemo raskila, nu va.


Thursday, June 4, 2009

It was 20 years ago today...

June 4, 1989: concurrent with major changes in Eastern Europe, China too was on the verge of major change...or so it seemed.  For weeks before, hundreds of thousands of people had converged on Tiananmen Square, looking for change.

Instead, they got tanks.  And the counter-revolution was televised.

I had a conversation with a student yesterday who is (rightfully) psyched to be going to China later this summer on a school trip--it's going to be an experience of a lifetime for him, no doubt (at least until his next trip, when he stays there even longer!).  When I brought up the June 4 anniversary, though, and the government tactics (reported by NPR) to cordon off social networking internet sites in an attempt to nip any reprise in the bud, I didn't get much of a response.

In some ways, it's natural--he was one year old when that happened, while I was going into my junior year of college.  Still, that past informs the present, and is important in helping to contextualize China (and the world) in 2009...

I haven't seen this yet myself, but a little Google action turned up this link to an episode of PBS' Frontline on China & 1989.  Check it out, and maybe even let me know what you think?