freeform goodness

Reading this really nice explication (thanks, 2lmc) of Cornershop’s “Brimful of Asha” makes me realize two things:

1. To enjoy a really well-written pop song, you needn’t know every detail behind it
2. Knowing at least a bit of the background can, in some cases, give you an extra appreciation of the song

In this spirit, I offer a little extra background for the White Stripes song “Hotel Yorba.” If you’ve never visited Detroit, then there’s probably no image in your head that would distinguish the actual Hotel Yorba from any other lodging — say, your typical Howard Johnson’s or Holiday Inn. The thing to know, though, is that the real Hotel Yorba is nothing like either of these places. The real Hotel Yorba is a ten story or so building situated on in southwest Detroit, just a few blocks away from the Greyhound bus station and not far from the Ambassador Bridge (which connects Detroit to Windsor, Canada.)

The Hotel Yorba, it must be said, is not a 4-star hotel. You will most assuredly not find it in the Michelin guide. Not to put too fine a point on it, it’s a flop house. Though I’ve only ever been inside it once, and then for only a few minutes about 5 years ago, my impression was of the type of place you’ll find in the poorer areas in every large American city. It’s the sort of place where folks who don’t have a realistic chance of scaring up enough money at any one time to afford the standard 2½ 1/2 months rent you need to lease an apartment pay for a room a day or a week at a time. The people who live in these places are thrown together for various reasons — un- or under- employment, infirmity, drug problems, or maybe just plain bad luck.

Embedded deep in the psyche of just about every Detroiter is concept of “up north.” Detroit is located pretty near the southern border of the state of Michigan. As a general rule, the further north you go in the state, the less populous it becomes. Hence, since the early days of the auto industry, it has always been a status symbol among the striving classes to own vacation land “up north”. The further north the better, and if you can manage your own cottage (or even better, a vacation home with lake frontage), then you are well and truly blessed, with status to spare among your fellow toiling wage-slaves. Folks toil for decades at jobs they hate, squirreling funds away to afford that “up north” land, ideally with a color-coordinated boat. For those at the lower end of the income scale, this yearning is very nearly an unattainable fairy tale.

“Hotel Yorba” is a cool enough song in its own right, but I think knowing this little extra bit of background puts tension and release in the lyrics into sharper relief.

:: Dave Walker 15:48 (EST/EDT) [+]

:: [/entertainment/music]
:: tags: music

:: Comments (1)

I guess today was the hottest day on record in London, at 100 degrees F (37.9 degrees C.) While scientifically the Celsius scale of course makes a lot more sense, it’s events like this that serve to remind why the Fahrenheit scale retains its adherents in the English-speaking world — in human terms, its milestones tend to occur at more dramatic intervals. The cutover between “really unpleasantly hot” and “damn, really unbearably dangerous to children, animals, and the elderly” happens around the same point where the Fahrenheit scale adds that crucial extra digit. That’s got to count for something. Likewise, when the Fahrenheit scale hits 0 degrees , you know that you’re dealing with some serious cold. In Michigan, when the Celsius scale hits zero, it just means it’s time to break out the sweaters.

Anyway, as is customary when momentous events overtake us, it’s appropriate to fall back on the words of those more learned than ourselves. Therefore, in the words of the immortal Mark E. Smith:

British People In Hot Weather
as performed by the Fall, from the album Extricate

Fill green envelopes and send them to ya
On train ride, read Marx tracts
Play walkmans loud behind ya
Demonstrate on Oxford Street
About what the Hell they couldn’t tell ya
British people in hot weather
Have a heart-to-heart with your sister
People in shorts drunk before ya
Beached whale in Wapping
His armpit hairs are sprouting
Serpentine ah…. Serpentine grrr…
British people in hot weather

Press hot houses waste tree statements
Compare your pearls before the King of Monks
I’m telling ya, oh
Do they know they can get cancer?
Designer tramp goes grrr…
Looking jolly from Stoke
As he walks through and makes up
Titles like this, to order
They’re well off their trolley
Smoking like a chimney
Bespectacled stare-out
British people in hot weather

I was a candidate for club 18-30
but I’ve been through all that shit before
British people in hot weather
That’s it, I’m looking straight for the car
If that’s how you feel, let’s go
British people in hot weather

:: Dave Walker 15:05 (EST/EDT) [+]

:: [/currentevents/international]
:: tags: international

:: Comments (0)

(sigh)
(this)
(that)
(the other)

:: Dave Walker 14:58 (EST/EDT) [+]

:: [/tech/computers/os/win32]
:: tags: win32

:: Comments (0)

• Here’s a pretty darned funny look at the videogame “console wars.” via Slashdot
• Paul Boutin at Slate writes about the fab, stylish home generator to have ready at the house in time for the next power grid failure. via Gizmodo
• Mark Pilgrim has an example REST implementation of Atom’s API available for perusal. Looking it over, I’m pretty much a caveman reading up on particle physics, but hey, it’s good to see it out there.
• Power Mac G5s actually start shipping today. (Apple press release) I don’t have a PayPal link here, so if you’re feeling really appreciative of the service I provide…
• Some neat observations about old records on vinyl and beatmixing from Kent Williams. There was a time about 5-10 years ago when I was seriously playing with the idea of investing in a pair of 1200s and trying to learn how to mix, but the necessary combination of time, resolve, and toy-fund money never happened. I haven’t looked at the new generation of tools (Traktor, Final Scratch, etc.) in any detail, but they sound like fun.
• Merck is one of my very favorite current labels, so I’m very happy that they’re an Emusic signee. I just downloaded a bunch of new things, from Lackluster, Adam Johnson, Esem, and Blamstrain, and they’re all up to the high standards I expect from the label.
• A brutally overlong but occasionally funny and accurate illustrated compedium of the personality types you tend to find in mailing list and forum flamewars. via Don Park
• Steven Frank crystallizes the wireless experience to its very essence: “So, the P800 remains a mystery, but at least for now I can check my email every 5 seconds like a hamster with a pellet button, which is of course the main thing.”

:: Dave Walker 14:54 (EST/EDT) [+]

:: [/misc/links]
:: tags: links

:: Comments (8)

I am saddened to hear that Wesley Willis has passed away from leukemia complications. He was truly one of a kind. At one office where I worked, it was a ritual for us to play “Rock & Roll McDonalds” every day at lunchtime.

:: Dave Walker 14:50 (EST/EDT) [+]

:: [/obits]
:: tags: obits

:: Comments (1)

• George notes that tonight is the premiere of Smoking Gun TV.
• A Warren Zevon update.
• (a few days old) Bruce Perens tidily deflates SCO.
• Heehee: “Well, yeah. God was punishing us with that blackout. You can’t put that many mullets in one place and not expect God to throw down.”
• Please go patch yo’ shit so the rest of us don’t have to hear about it later.

:: Dave Walker 12:13 (EST/EDT) [+]

:: [/misc/links]
:: tags: links

:: Comments (0)