Day Old

R.I.P. Teddy

EV — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:00:01 +0000

1980 presidential primary, I guess I didn’t pound the pavement hard enough.

Winterspring in summer

EV — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:44:12 +0000

So it’s taken, uh, some time since I announced the release of Aaron’s first full-length album, but there is finally a clever little video to go with the first single “Winterspring”. We worked with animator Maya Erdelyi to put together this claymation/puppety thingy, and I think it’s a right good time. So please to enjoy, and share, and all that good stuff (here’s the direct YouTube link). ALSO: If you have a Facebook account, please consider going to the Ampersands’ page and becoming a fan. There’s a minimum before you can get one o’ them slick usernames, and due to much promotional inactivity, we need to get on the stick. Millions of thanks!

Eulogy for Two Michaels

EV — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 01:35:35 +0000

It’s Friday evening, a little more than 24 hours after Michael Jackson was pronounced dead in Los Angeles, and I am physically and emotionally exhausted from the loss. This is not a personal loss, mind you, as tempting as it is in these moments to take that tone—my extraordinary father died when I was eight, and I divorced my first love, and to compare this to either of those would be a lie of the highest order. No, I’m exhausted because our culture is starved for shared emotional experiences, and yesterday and today we fed. And because I’m a music journalist, and I work for Billboard magazine, which literally defined the metrics against which much of Michael’s enormous success has been and will be measured, which meant that last night was a blur of monumental chaos at my workplace. And lastly, because I was born in 1976, meaning that before I could even begin to articulate the slightest understanding of pop, soul, and performance genius, Michael was a god.

For the past, oh, ten to twenty years, most of my deliberate thoughts about Michael Jackson have revolved around the grotesque joke he has become–his preposterous physical transformation; his unconscionable alleged acts towards children; his bizarre public behavior in every form. But somehow, I was able to separate this extraterrestrial from the person I emulated when singing “I Want You Back” at elated karaoke sessions; the freedom fighter from countless viewings of Captain EO. These were not the same person. They WERE NOT. We’ve been having this conversation all along, yeah, but now we really have to man up and have it, because it’s That Time.

In the past 24 hours, people I love and respect have expressed disgust that such adoring tribute has been thrust upon a man who very likely inflicted sexual abuse on children—perhaps the worst evil a person can commit. I understand where these people are coming from. How can a few pop songs stand up for even a second against that? But at the same time, how is it that last night, when “Thriller” came across the jukebox at a bar, three of us simultaneously began dancing like zombies with a giddy enthusiasm? None of us have respected Michael Jackson as a contemporary musician or a moral human for years—where do we get off getting a high from his output? What kind of hypocrites are we?

But see, that’s just the thing. If I had been in that bar with those same people last week, and “Thriller” had come on, the exact. Same. Thing. Would have happened. Of this I have zero doubt. An entire generation of music lovers, probably two, has willfully colluded to allow Michael Jackson two distinct identities—that of ridiculous monster, and that of glorious pop royalty, because we cannot accept the alternative. We won’t relinquish the joy of hearing his unmatchable voice against that unrelenting rhythm; we can’t forget the awe of seeing him express emotions in song that no human of his age should have any concept of. It’s not wrong to remember him as a gift to the world, and it’s not wrong to hate him irreversibly for what he probably did. And while the people closest to Michael Jackson have to reconcile that he was one person, I do not. And I will appreciate that luxury and give thanks for it.

National Adjective Day Sidelined by Swine Flu

EV — Mon, 04 May 2009 05:25:39 +0000

…Or, you know, because I was gone all day and sort of forgot. And because let’s face it, I’ve been slipping in my attention to a number of Day Old traditions, such as the cookie swap, quarterly poetry slam, and concept of regular posting. Anyway, I literally spent 8 hours both yesterday and today talking about almost nothing but parts of speech as part of a training, so my enthusiasm for adjectives is nearly depleted to absolute zero. The truth is that while I’m the first to admit that the idea itself is pretty lame, the execution had promise, so I still have a soft spot for the original holiday and its five exciting successive celebrations, so I encourage you to reminisce (even though several of them, I now realize, involve me apologizing for dropping the ball). At the moment the only adjectives I can think of are disinterested and uninterested, the distinction between which I actually had an organized, 15-minute group discussion about today. So, you can see what that might do to a person. Anyway, happy NAD.

If you can make it there…

EV — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:45:45 +0000

Every time I start to grow weary of New York City, I will encounter something like this for no goddamned reason whatsoever, and remember why I’m here.

Carry a laser down the road that I must travel

EV — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:12:12 +0000

Don’t mind me, just testing out today’s sinister theory that website traffic can be increased by titling posts with slightly wrong song lyrics. And for the record, these lyrics would be much better.

When I was a kid, they were called Samoas for the FIRST time

EV — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 22:20:24 +0000

You know you’ve crossed over some invisible border between youth and something else when your whole weekend is fucking MADE by the delivery of a set of recliners. Aaron and I started having recliner lust about two years ago, and finally broke down and put them on the Christmas list as the things we wanted more than anything on Earth. They weren’t in stock when we ordered them three weeks ago, but they finally arrived yesterday morning, and we have spent all weekend either reclining or saying things like “hey, you wanna go recline?” Anyway, as a result we had to move some stuff around and will be donating a loveseat to the Salvation Army (the only org that will come pick stuff up) on Tuesday–if you or someone you know would like a very nice comfortable blue loveseat, let us know before Tuesday and we’ll give it to you instead.

At the request of no one but my mother (click to enlarge):

I’m your little glowing friend

EV — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:24:46 +0000

I’m pretty pleased to report that the “short” list of 33 1/3 proposals that are still in the running was posted last night, and my “Flood” proposal is still kicking. There were two other proposals for “Flood” in the original list, and I only know that’s mine because I got a thumbs-up email, but whoever proposed “Lincoln” also survived so TMBG has two chances to represent (although I’m sure there is essentially no chance they will both get published, for diversity’s sake). Series editor David Barker managed to read 597 proposals in six weeks and cull them to 170, and I don’t envy him and his colleagues the task of now getting that down to 20-something for contract. Anyway, the list is still as varied as the original (like, Britney is still there, twice), confirming that people must have turned in some phenomenal proposals that recommended themselves far beyond the canon status of the proposed album. Really looking forward to seeing what comes out of it.

Some reading material

EV — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 04:19:43 +0000

Even though I personally started reading comic books at the impressionable young age of 28, there is actually quite a substantial market of teenage girls for American (read: non-manga) comics and graphic novels, although it’s a little hard to figure out. Anyway, I wrote about it this week in Publishers Weekly, with the hook of an exclusive announcement about a forthcoming OGN from prolific children’s/YA author Jane Yolen. Give it a look-see if you are so inclined!

It all goes downhill from here!

EV — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:21:28 +0000

I’m on deadline right now, but I just wanted to wish you and yours a very happy New President Day. I’m not sure if it’s hit you yet, but go to Whitehouse.gov and maybe it will. And make sure to check out the speech on line if you didn’t get a chance to watch it live–despite being on deadline, I did slip out to a bar with some coworkers, and was duly impressed by how balls out Obama’s first speech as CiC was. And when I say “balls out,” I mean it can be summarized as so: “Hey, let’s all thank President Bush for his service. Now, we are all here today because we as Americans collectively decided that we were finished with this evil childish bullshit.” He did in fact use the word “childish” at one point, not-so-subtly referring to the previous administration. That Jon Favreau guy is pretty fierce.