Interesting People

[Telemachus]

Most of us have some figure we admire, be they famous like Alexander the Great or less-so like Karen the camp-follower. This is a thread to tell everybody about some human idol you have.

My approach to the thread will be immediate abandonment a mostly off-the-cuff description of the person with research being limited to a few minutes for pictures, date and name verification, etc. The idea I think is to pick a person who is influential enough that you know something about them. But I'm not going to break your arm if you're an overachiever and I also wouldn't stress if you get some facts wrong.

Also, this may be the arts section (and my first post will be an artist), but please don't feel you must limit yourself.

tl;dr Tell us why your idol should be ours!

My first post will soon follow.

Spoiler: This picture is a lot bigger than I expected.

 

[Telemachus]

Musical discovery is an exponential process. It provides the eager listener with an infinitely expanding array of sounds, though it can simultaneously saddle him with more choices than he can handle. The epicenter of my own musical exploration was Nirvana. A mega-band, one so renowned people can sing their songs having never heard a note. Despite their fame Nirvana remained a transgressive group, epitomized by their final studio album 'In Utero.' The sound of 'In Utero' owes its aggressive, raw presentation to both the band and the recording engineers capturing them. The man who receives the most attention at the tape splicer and the mixing board is Steve Albini.

Where Nirvana opened my eyes to the delectable violence of music of which I had until then been ignorant, Steve Albini plucked them out and pointed them at an ocean of it.

Albini's transition into underground legend began at least in 1981 in Illinois while attending Northwestern University with his first band, Big Black. Originally consisting of him playing everything but the sax on his first EP 'Lungs', his music made it onto college radio stations and he began integrating into the Chicago scene and added two members of the band Naked Raygun, Jeff Pezzati and Santiago Durango.

Big Black's sound is harsh.

Spoiler: Click for a sample

Very harsh. But when I discovered it (long, long after their hey-day) in my early twenties I was in love. This was what raw sounded like. This was merciless. This was a vision unmitigated by the commercial world. It made a non-punk listener into a fanatic. So much so that I sometimes referred to the group as Real Punk (being a punk ignoramus notwithstanding). Reviews tend to label them as noise rock, Shellac label themselves as a minimalist rock trio.

Without regurgitating a Wikipedia article, Big Black had local success and was one of Those bands - You know: Your favourite band's favourite band.

Following Big Black was ****man (a name I can't say or link because it might get me banned) for a brief period. They released an EP and an LP (the latter section of the LP consisting of all EP tracks). The characteristic guitars are still present, though this incarnation tended to have more brooding tracks in my opinion.

Finally in 1992 Albini formed the group Shellac with Todd Trainer on drums and Bob Weston on bass. Each of those two deserve their own entry, but for now I'll say that Trainer is a stellar and experimental drummer, while Weston is as much an underground legend as Albini, also a working as a recording engineer (including as an assistant on 'In Utero').

Whenever I talk to a band who are about to sign with a major label, I always end up thinking of them in a particular context. I imagine a trench, about four feet wide and five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with runny, decaying shit. I imagine these people, some of them good friends, some of them barely acquaintances, at one end of this trench. I also imagine a faceless industry lackey at the other end, holding a fountain pen and a contract waiting to be signed

This is the first paragraph in a widely circulated and by now renowned treatise on the state of the music industry as Albini saw it in 1993. Despite recording 'In Utero' and some other major records, Steve's relationship with Big Music naturally never took off, but his credibility as an uncompromising voice and artist remain instead.

It seems Albini takes a stand on many things. He is solid about his affinity for physical analog media, often mentioning in interviews when asked that analog technologies are permanently playable, while digital is prone to obsolescence. Whereas many modern studios operate most typically in digital formats, Steve prefers splicing tape. YouTube has video of it, it's pretty neat.

In between being a revered artist in the underground music scene and putting out top-quality material for decades, Albini also runs his own recording studio, Electrical Audio in Chicago. Electrical Audio is quite possibly a unique studio because Albini runs it in a manner opposed in practise by Big Music. He charges the same for large or small bands, an amount he considers commensurate and deliberately limited to keeping the lights on without being exploitative.

As well, Albini insists that he does not receive royalty credits for the records he is involved with. It is his opinion that the record belongs to the band, and as such earning a time-unlimited chunk of their revenues is unethical.

Finally, I'll end where my fascination began. Apart from the challenging sound, Big Black and the subsequent bands all share Albini as primary vocalist and lyricist (I believe all the bands he formed have vocal and lyric contributions from the other members, not to make him some kind of superman. Shellac for sure). My true interest in his music was precipitated by the often dark, strange, and macabre subject matter. Others writing about him attribute this in part to his pedigree, having taken a journalism major in college. Murderers, drunks, witch trials, drug cartel executions, slaughterhouse entertainment, truckers and women of the road, and plenty of other nasty stuff. It's great.

On top of all these topics he also broached the topic of feminism throughout his whole career*. It is not really explicit, but in a particularly probitive interview he gave some insight into his lyrics which are often scant. He approaches the topic from a very masculine perspective, usually choosing to depict a story or vignette rather than being explicit. Despite not being a feminist, I find his approach interesting, truthuful, and powerful. Much of it is scathing and satirical.

In sum, he's a principled, intelligent artist and I love what he does.

To us, every moment we remained unfettered and in control was a success. We never had a manager. We never had a booking agent. We never had a lawyer. We never took an advance from a record company. We booked our own tours, paid our own bills, made our own mistakes and never had anybody shield us from either the truth or the consequences. The results of that methodology speak for themselves: Nobody ever told us what to do, and nobody took any of our money.

~ S.A.

Next time we'll talk about Liver-Eating Johnson.

*Cool interview: https://www.listenlistenlisten.org/stevealbini/

 

[Telemachus]

Spoiler: Click for huge image

Let's have a quickie.

Liver-eating Johnson is not a man I idolize, nor do I consider him much of a role model for someone else, but it can't be doubted that he was interesting.

Born John Jeremiah Garrison Johnson, he lead a hard but unassuming life in Old West America. He served in the military, worked arduous jobs, literally prospected for gold, and even married and had a kid on the way. A bear-sized fellow, he could be the poster-man for the "Mountain Man" trope.

Where Liver-eating Johnson gets both his fame and name is where his life takes a turn. One day while away from home his family is attacked by Crow Tribe warriors. His wife and child are killed, the wife scalped for good measure.

Thence, John Jeremiah swore his vendetta. In the following years LEJ is alleged to have exacted his revenge on no less than 300 Crow. John killed, scalped, and then feasted upon the liver of his victim. Being a mountain man, and married to an Indian, John was familiar with many Indian customs and beliefs. The Crow believe the liver was vital to accession to the afterlife. Johnson apparently didn't believe in half-measures.

His vendetta continued for a quarter century, after which he and the Crow made peace.

While again I say I do not idolize the man, I can't help being impressed by the idea of pure vengeance, justice, like that of an action film (or a western?!).

Next time we'll talk about Mike Patton.

 

[MaryBerry]

Elizabeth Edwards
She gave me hope and strength when I had breast cancer. She was a strong woman. She was married to John Edwards, the former U.S. Senator from North Carolina who was the 2004 United States Democratic vice-presidential nominee. Her husband had put her through a lot with an affair and having a child with his mistress but Elizabeth hung on for her family. She survived through breast cancer but unfortunately her cancer returned through her liver and she passed away December 2010. I really admired her courage.

 

[MissMonroe]

At the moment I have the most with people who pick up elements from everyday life and know how to give meaning to them.

Such a person is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; for him, looking was central to his life. He saw, formulated and created. His first book, Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, became a bestseller in 1774 and caused a wave of suicides. This deeply intrigued me. The book sparked a lifelong passion for writing in me; the power of the written word is great. Many people omit the prefix "von" because his birth name came without it; he was ennobled in 1782. Talking about the power of words; just add one word to your name and voila!



Von Goethe was blessed to have been born in a loving and wealthy familly. He completed his law studies and worked for a short time as a lawyer at the Frankfurt court. His heart stayed at literature, but he remained working in law until 1776 when he officially enters service with the Weimarer Staatsdienst as Geheimer Legationsrat. He then works for the young Duke of Weimar, Carl August, who becomes a personal friend.

Goethe’s house in Weimar, which I visited twice, is warmly decorated with earth colors, wooden floors and beautiful wooden furniture. However, it is mainly his collections that still make the house his own. The busts and statues/statuettes are breathtaking. His love of geology and mineralogy, loves that I share, has produced a wonderful collection. Make no mistake, no pompousness! What Von Goethe collected he collected for his own further education; he found it necessary to get to the heart of things. This meant that his collections remained compact and are still considered impressive today, all the more so given the limited resources available in the 18th century to research minerals.


His bedroom and a giant head.

Nature also had his interest; this can still be seen today in the beautiful garden where Epicureans would happily gather to philosophize under the stars and enjoy the now until late at night. Von Goethe had a special love for Salvia (Sage), a beautiful plant with various properties that is still intensively cultivated today. In his garden he did botanical experiments; crossing flower (kind) and. He grew asparagus and artichokes, among other things. (Delicious !!!) He also made his own wine from… apricots!

Von Goethe, who was a member of the Grand Lodge of Freemasonry, liked to get out in nature and made several trips. On the way, he wrote and made the carriage stop to draw pictures of all the beauty that reached his eyes. Although Von Goethe achieved international immortality with his play "Faust" and the aforementioned book, his poems are not always immediately brought to light. These poems were set to music by the composer Franz Schubert; Schubert was an admirer of Von Goethe.


His carriage and his final resting place.

His poems take me away, enchant me. I will one day take his walks, follow in his lost footsteps. His drawings show me his love for the beauty of nature, which I perceive every day and let it affect me. His sensitive mind is buried with his body in the Furstengruft (the princely crypt) in Weimar, but I can still feel his energy. His remains lie there in a wooden box, next to him is the (now) empty box that should have contained his best friend: Friedrich Schiller. Both gentlemen have left us with a wealth of wisdom. Von Goethe's legendary last words? “Mehr Licht” (“More light”). The written word remains.





One of his drawings.