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Wednesday, October 4th, 2017
| Time | Event |
| 8:00a | The Philosophy & Music of Devo, the Avant-Garde Art Project Dedicated to Revealing the Truth About De-Evolution
Have you ever felt like Network’s Howard Beale? Ranting to anyone who’ll listen about how mad as hell you are? “I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad.” Or maybe agreed with the weary cynicism of his boss, Max Schumacher? “All of life is reduced to the common rubble of banality.” Faced with the cruel, stupid theater of mass politics and culture, we begin to feel a blanket of overwhelming futility descend. All of the possible moves have been made and absorbed into the programming—including the outraged critic pointing his finger at the stage. Avant-garde artists since the late 19th century have correctly sized up this depressing reality. But rather than seize up in fits of rage or succumb to cynicism, they made new forms of theater: Jarry, Dada, Debord, Artaud, Brecht—all had designs to disrupt the oppressive banality of modern stage- and state-craft with mockery, sadism, and shock. And so too did DEVO, the authors of “Whip It.”
Their 80s New Wave antics seemed like a juvenile art-school prank. Behind it lay theoretical sophistication and serious political intent. “When we first started Devo,” says Mark Mothersbaugh in the “California Inspires Me” video above, “we were artists who were working in a number of different media. We were around for the shootings at Kent State. And it affected us. We were thinking, like, ‘What are we observing?’ And we decided we weren’t observing evolution, we were observing de-evolution.” Wondering how to change things, the band looked to Madison Avenue for inspiration—intent on taking the techniques of mass persuasion to subvert the enchantments of mass persuasion, “reporting the good news of De-Evolution” in a joyous theater of mockery. The philosophy itself evolved over time, first taking shape in 1970 when Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale met at Kent State. Casale had already coined the term “De-Evolution”; Mothersbaugh introduced him to its mascot, Jocko-Homo, the 1924 creation of anti-evolution fundamentalist pamphleteer B.H. Shadduck. Fascinated by Shadduck’s bizarre, proto-Jack Chick, illustrated freak-outs, Mothersbaugh and his bandmates adopted the character for the first single from their 1978 debut album (top). Are We Not Men? We Are Devo! announced their carnivalesque gospel of human stupidity. Devo proved nothing we didn’t already know. Instead, they showed us the elevation of idiocy to the status of a civil religion. (Later in the 80s, they would expressly parody the national religion with their Evangelical satire DOVE.)
The theater of Devo was weirdly compelling then and is wierdly compelling now, since the banality and casual violence of late-capitalism that threatened to swallow up everything in the twentieth century has, if anything, only become more bloated and grotesque. “As far as Devo was concerned,” writes Ray Padgett at The New Yorker, “Devo wasn’t a band at all but, rather, an art project… inspired by the Dadaists and the Italian Futurists, Devo’s members were also creating satirical visual art, writing treatises, and filming short videos.” One of those videos, “In the Beginning Was the End: The Truth About De-Evolution,” featured their “first ever cover”—Johnny Rivers’ “Secret Agent Man”—before they re-invented (or “corrected,” as they put it), the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction.” They would screen the 9-minute film, with its footage of two men in monkey masks spanking a housewife, before gigs. The concepts are aggressively wink-nudge adolescent, reflecting not only Devo’s take on the regressive state of the culture, but also Casale’s belief that “high-school kids know everything already.” But amidst the synths and shiny suits, we still hear Howard Beale’s cri de coeur, “I’m a human being dammit! My life has value!” Only in Devo’s hands it turns to dark comedy—as in the title of a song from their 2010 comeback record Something for Everybody, taken from words printed on the back of a hunter’s safety vest that call back to the band's beginnings at Kent State: “Don’t Shoot, I’m a Man.” Related Content: The Mastermind of Devo, Mark Mothersbaugh, Shows Off His Synthesizer Collection Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness The Philosophy & Music of Devo, the Avant-Garde Art Project Dedicated to Revealing the Truth About De-Evolution is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs.  |
| 11:00a | A 17-Hour, Chronological Journey Through Tom Petty’s Music: Stream the Songs That Became the Soundtracks of Our Lives
For some time now, both critics and the big guitar makers have clanged a warning bell about the end of rock. But we need not be alarmed. Rock isn’t dead. Only it’s no longer the preserve of leather-clad cock-rockers and sensitive boys with fancy haircuts. “A new generation of female and non-binary performers,” writes a New York Times feature, “punk in style or spirit, coming from the all-ages warehouse and D.I.Y.-venue ecosystem—is taking their place.” Still for many of us, it feels like rock as we knew it, at least, is passing away, especially after the death of Tom Petty this past Monday. Like so many other recent losses in music, he was exceptional, ushering in a laid-back, unassuming singer-songwriter tradition by being, as Billboard magazine writes, “less of a rock n’ roll star and more of an observational dude” with an “uncanny ability to write hit songs.” Petty wrote about the everyday sordidness and grace of life in small towns and big cities alike. His songs were spare vignettes written around archetypal American characters who expressed universal longing in poetic lines cut with a diamond. Like Dylan, but with much more concision, he could capture dusty Americana and Biblical dread with perfect clarity, as in 1991’s “Learning to Fly.”
He wrote lines so achingly moving and evocative that he only needed a handful of them to make spare ballads like 1994’s “Wildflowers” sound like mythological epics. This is the 90s Petty one generation first came to know, a wistful folk-rock troubadour and youngest inductee into a classic rock elite in the supergroup the Traveling Wilburys with Dylan, Jeff Lynne, George Harrison, and Roy Orbison. The breakout Petty of the 70s and 80s was a scrappy everyman rocker with punk energy and R&B roots. “American Girl,” “Refugee,” “Don’t Do Me Like That”… there is nowhere you can go without hearing Petty’s “stripped-down, passion-filled, elemental form of rock ‘n’ roll,” as Randy Lewis writes in an L.A. Times obituary. [Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<div [...] http://cdn8.openculture.com/>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.] <div class="oc-video-wrapper">
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<p>For some time now, both critics and the big guitar makers have clanged a warning bell about the end of rock. But we need not be alarmed. Rock isn’t dead. Only it’s no longer the preserve of leather-clad cock-rockers and sensitive boys with fancy haircuts. “A new generation of female and non-binary performers,” writes a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/05/arts/music/25-women-making-best-rock-music-today.html?_r=0"><em>New York Times</em> feature</a>, “punk in style or spirit, coming from the all-ages warehouse and D.I.Y.-venue ecosystem—is taking their place.”</p>
<p>Still for many of us, it feels like rock as we knew it, at least, is passing away, especially after <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/oct/03/tom-petty-obituary">the death of Tom Petty this past Monday</a>. Like so many other recent losses in music, he was exceptional, ushering in a laid-back, unassuming singer-songwriter tradition by being, as <em>Billboard</em> magazine writes, “less of a rock n’ roll star and more of an observational dude” with an “uncanny ability to write hit songs.”</p>
<p>Petty wrote about the everyday sordidness and grace of life in small towns and big cities alike. His songs were spare vignettes written around archetypal American characters who expressed universal longing in poetic lines cut with a diamond. Like Dylan, but with much more concision, he could capture dusty Americana and Biblical dread with perfect clarity, as in 1991’s “Learning to Fly.”</p>
<blockquote><p><em>Well I started out down a dirty road</em><br/><em>Started out all alone</em><br/><em>And the sun went down as I crossed the hill</em><br/><em>And the town lit up, the world got still...</em></p>
<p><em>Well the good ol' days may not return</em><br/><em> And the rocks might melt and the sea may burn</em></p></blockquote>
<p>He wrote lines so achingly moving and evocative that he only needed a handful of them to make spare ballads like 1994’s “Wildflowers” sound like mythological epics.</p>
<p>This is the 90s Petty one generation first came to know, a wistful folk-rock troubadour and youngest inductee into a classic rock elite in the supergroup the Traveling Wilburys with Dylan, Jeff Lynne, George Harrison, and Roy Orbison. The breakout Petty of the 70s and 80s was a scrappy everyman rocker with punk energy and R&B roots. “American Girl,” “Refugee,” “Don’t Do Me Like That”… there is nowhere you can go without hearing Petty’s “stripped-down, passion-filled, elemental form of rock ‘n’ roll,” as Randy Lewis writes in an<a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-tom-petty-20171002-story.html"> <em>L.A. Times</em> obituary</a>.</p>
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<p>But, while Petty’s songs became ubiquitous, they never disappear into the repetitious sonic landscape of background music. We recognize them immediately and connect; they feel personal, “as though he’d written them,” Mikael Wood aptly <a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-tom-petty-appreciation-20171002-story.html">remarks</a>, “to soundtrack the specifics of your life.” He made earnestness cool and gave voice to feelings you didn’t know you had. He didn’t strike self-aggrandizing poses or make cynical money-grabs.</p>
<p>Tom Petty was a true believer, who also believed that rock ‘n’ roll was dying from greed and cynicism: For him, he told the <em>L.A. Times</em> during his 40th, and final, tour, “it was about something much greater: It was about moving people, and changing the world, and I really believed in rock ‘n’ roll. I still do. I believed in it in its purest sense, its purest form. And I watched it commit suicide; I watched it really kill itself over money.”</p>
<p>It’s possible he didn’t know much about the burgeoning young, earnest rock scenes thriving in small venues and house parties in the American small towns and big cities he sang about. But his energy and passion has surely passed on to a generation that has not given up hope in rock ‘n’ roll.</p>
<p>Hear a chronological playlist of Petty’s music, a soundtrack of millions of lives, just above. 275 songs, from his first, 1976 album <em>Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers</em>, to 2014’s <em>Hypnotic Eye</em>, and including his work with 90s supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. Here’s hoping that another crippling loss for old fans will inspire millions of new ones to discover and preserve Petty’s impeccable songwriting legacy.</p>
<p><strong>Related Content:</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.openculture.com/2017/10/watch-tom-petty-rip-and-the-heartbreakers-perform-their-last-song-together.html">Watch Tom Petty (RIP) and the Heartbreakers Perform Their Last Song Together, “American Girl”: Recorded on 9/25/17</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.openculture.com/2017/08/how-leonard-cohen-david-bowie-faced-death-through-their-art-a-look-at-their-final-albums.html">How Leonard Cohen & David Bowie Faced Death Through Their Art: A Look at Their Final Albums</a></p>
<p><a href="http://about.me/jonesjoshua"><i>Josh Jones</i></a><i> is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at <a href="https://twitter.com/jdmagness">@jdmagness</a></i></p>
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| 2:00p | Three New Prequels Get You Ready to Watch Blade Runner 2049: Watch Them Online, Then See the New Film on Friday
Even if you've spent each and every day since you first saw Ridley Scott's Blade Runner waiting for a sequel, you still might not be fully prepared for Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 when it opens in theaters this Friday. The 1981 original took place in the Los Angeles of the then-far-flung future of 2019, meaning that 30 years have elapsed in the Blade Runner universe between its first feature film and its second. Much has taken place over those three decades, some of it portrayed by the three official short prequels released to the internet over the past month. Today we present them all in chronological order to catch you up with what happened after Harrison Ford's Blade Runner Rick Deckard picked up that origami unicorn and left the building.
In 2020, the year after Blade Runner, the artificial-being-making Tyrell Corporation introduces a new model of replicant, with a longer lifespan, called the Nexus 8S. Two years later comes "the Blackout," an electromagnetic pulse attack that destroys all technology within its reach. You can see it happen in Blade Runner Black Out 2022, the short at the top of the post directed by respected Japanese animator Shinichiro Watanabe (and featuring a score by Flying Lotus as well as a reprisal of the role of the quasi-Esperanto-speaking police officer Gaff by Edward James Olmos). Replicants having taken the blame for the Blackout, their production gets legally prohibited until the efforts of an organization called the Wallace Corporation get the ban overturned in 2030. The man at the top of the Wallace Corporation, a certain Niander Wallace, first appears in 2036: Nexus Dawn (middle video), directed by Ridley Scott's son Luke.
In that prequel we see Wallace, who rose to prominence on his company's solution to global food shortages, submitting for approval his latest replicant, the Nexus 9 (although his negotiation strategy leaves little room for compromise). The younger Scott's 2048: Nowhere to Run (below), which introduces a new and imposing replicant character by the name of Sapper Morton, takes place just a year before the sequel, by which time, according to the timeline unveiled at this past summer's Comic-Con, "life on Earth has reached its limit and society divides between replicant and human." Enter Ryan Gosling's K, one of a new generation of replicant- hunters, who goes out in search of a predecessor who went missing some 30 years ago. All of this, of course, still leaves questions unanswered. Chiefly: will Blade Runner 2049 deliver what we've been waiting even more than three deacades for? Related Content: Watch the New Anime Prequel to Blade Runner 2049, by Famed Japanese Animator Shinichiro Watanabe Jared Leto Stars in a New Prequel to Blade Runner 2049: Watch It Free Online Blade Runner 2049’s New Making-Of Featurette Gives You a Sneak Peek Inside the Long-Awaited Sequel The Official Trailer for Ridley Scott’s Long-Awaited Blade Runner Sequel Is Finally Out Philip K. Dick Previews Blade Runner: “The Impact of the Film is Going to be Overwhelming” (1981) Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities and culture. His projects include the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook. Three New Prequels Get You Ready to Watch <i>Blade Runner 2049</i>: Watch Them Online, Then See the New Film on Friday is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs. |
| 5:35p | Depeche Mode Releases a Goosebump-Inducing Cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes”
40 years ago, David Bowie recorded "Heroes," a song that tells the story of two lovers who embrace in a kiss by the Berlin Wall. How the song was recorded gets wonderfully retold by producer Tony Visconti, in a post/video we featured in January 2016. Don't miss it. Above, you can watch Depeche Mode's new cover of "Heroes," recorded to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the song's official release (September 23, 1977). "'Heroes' is the most special song to me at the moment,” Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan told NME. “Bowie is the one artist who I’ve stuck with since I was in my early teens. His albums are always my go-to on tour and covering ‘Heroes’ is paying homage to Bowie.” In another interview with Rolling Stone, Gahan talked more about the experience of recording this song: "I was so moved, I barely held it together, to be honest." Watching the performance, I got a few goosebumps, I have to admit. Follow Open Culture on Facebook and Twitter and share intelligent media with your friends. Or better yet, sign up for our daily email and get a daily dose of Open Culture in your inbox. If you'd like to support Open Culture and our mission, please consider making a donation to our site. It's hard to rely 100% on ads, and your contributions will help us provide the best free cultural and educational materials. Related Content: Producer Tony Visconti Breaks Down the Making of David Bowie’s Classic “Heroes,” Track by Track David Bowie & Brian Eno’s Collaboration on “Warszawa” Reimagined in a Comic Animation Depeche Mode Releases a Goosebump-Inducing Cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs. |
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