Disturbing stuff:
Everytime I see something painfully lame done on Clinton's behalf, I think she just might ultimately win this thing. At the end of the day, the United States is a pretty tacky middlebrow kind of country.
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Choirs for Hillary
11 Mar 2008 04:23 pm
Comments (99)
They're right, you know. There ain't no party like a Clinton party. Whoop whoop!
Oh.
My.
God.
Between this clip and Sinbad's smack down, does Clinton crack 10% in Pennsylvania?
White people are SO lame!
Um, no.
Even mainstream products in the United States get good marketing. Now, it is true that mainstream products not designed for Matt may strike him as "tacky" and "middlebrow" (as I am sure mainstream products designed for him will strike him as "ironic" and "hip", or whatever his self-image dictates). But no decent product should ever have truly "lame" marketing.
White people are SO lame!
Matt, what do you think of the second Will.I.Am Obama video, with all the OBAMA, OBAMA chants?
Like Reihan, I prefer tacky middlebrow to totalitarian creepy.
I'm not sure that this is worse than the Gin Blossoms.
Obama has Will.i.am videos. I'd hardly say Clinton's cornered the market on tacky.
Shameless Plagiarizers! They're taking all of our material.
Also, thank you for not setting this one to autoplay.
If HRC was a dude, she'd be too dorky to be Prez. I can't believe we're giving her a pass on her dorkiness just because she's a female. Why the double-standard?
Like Reihan, I prefer tacky middlebrow to totalitarian creepy.
And, one presumes, like Reihan, Republicans. Given that, why the fuck would we care?
18 seconds is all I could muster.
will.i.am. is MY's imaginary hip black friend.
I wonder what that one African American guy in the back is thinking?
I remember one of John Kerry's victory speeches in the primary that contained the line, "We're coming, you're going, don't let the door hit you on the way out!" For every one of us to thought, "that sounds so awkward and stilted," I'm sure there were 5 people who thought, "right on! you tell 'em!"
I've long since accepted the fact that the public taste exists in an earnest, irony-free zone.
the United States is a pretty tacky middlebrow kind of country.
Yeah, but most countries are tacky lowbrow kind of countries, so the US isn't so bad. What are the highbrow countries anyway? Finland, Sweden and Denmark? Anyone who argues "France" hasn't watched a French comedy lately, or listened to French pop music.
I missed the Scranton dateline - clearly this is an outtake from The Office and not a real news clip.
Look, is MY so out of the mainstream that he doesn't recognize a glee club when he sees one? They're awful, yes, but they likely got extra credit for the effort.
That's almost as bad as Romney's who let the dogs out.
Anyone who argues "France" hasn't watched a French comedy lately
The irony in all of this is that in the USA, tacky, middlebrow French comedies like "The Dinner Guest" were all the rage among those in the USA who "don't even own a television" and fancied themselves connoisseurs of "feeelm."
Look, is MY so out of the mainstream that he doesn't recognize a glee club when he sees one? They're awful, yes, but they likely got extra credit for the effort.
Posted by Klug | March 11, 2008 5:03 PM
Don't you know? Yglesias and many of his readers are cool cats with a remarkably sophisticated appreciation for the arts, culture, and music. Did you see the Will.I.Am videos, now that's what Yglesias is talking about... sheeeeeeeit! You gotta feel warm in the gut, you gotta be elevated by the music, you gotta be cool.
Klug, you're such a conformist. Yeah, conformist.
Is that the new lineup of Scrantonicity?
The second will.i.am video was indeed horribly creepy, and I'm sorry Matt hasn't brought it up. The first one was genius though, so that about evens out.
now that's what Yglesias is talking about... sheeeeeeeit!
So you've dropped the pseudo skateboarder dude affectation for a 'homie' approach? Excellent. You're obviously a yutz of many talents, Israel. Can you rap in Yiddish?
and, re the Spitzer "scandal", a hypocritical and puriticannical one, too.
That's the first time I've felt bad for Hillary in awhile.
"Please just let this be over, please..."
There was rap in there? I thought it was middle-school cheerleading stuff.
I thought the obvious reason why the second will.i.am video stunk was that it departed from the original formula of putting an Obama speech to music.
Matt, you can't say shit like that. They'll take away your license to blog!
the United States is a pretty tacky middlebrow kind of country.
Looks like someone's been in the New York Times recently.
It's not exactly disturbing unless you're a self-conscious adolescent. Or a really young professional blogger with a phobia of phones :)
That's funny. I could've sworn that, although this certainly shows that there isn't any party quite like a Clinton party, the Clinton party will, in all probability, stop after someone more important than me crunches the numbers after Mississippi and the next round of Pennsylvania polling and realizes that Clinton doesn't have a chance at the popular vote or delegate count in the absence of some groundbreaking revelation about Obama's involvement in the Indonesian sexual black market.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS-wcdlamNo
I can't bring myself to press the play button. I just can't.
Hmmm. Reminds me of "Triumph of the Will" for some reason.
"Strength through Joy". So many nubile young maidens ready to have babies for the Father.. er Homeland.
No enough blondes, of course, but one can't have everything.
Pennsylvania has some interesting ..er..enclaves. Check out the ORIGINAL spelling of "Pennsylvania Dutch".
And while I grew up in the South, I never saw a Ku Klux Klan recruiter until I went to a local gun show here in PA.
I suggest people check out "The Boys from Brazil" DVD from Blockbuster. The movie is set in Pennsylvania.
It's just her two primary constituencies - white women and gay men - doing a cheer for her. What makes it hard to watch is the awful way her head bobbles around with that vacant stare and hideous grin.
jesus, Matt, that one is nothing. Haven't you seen this? Trust me, if you want to plumb the depth of Hillary musical mediocrity then this is your ticket:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FvyGydc8no&feature=related
I thought Obama's supporters were supposed to be the cultists for being enthusiastic.
This video cannot possibly be real. It shows Clinton supporters showing actual enthusiasm for their candidate, and as every Obama supporter knows, enthusiasm and cultism are synonymous...right?
Pennsylvania has some interesting ..er..enclaves. Check out the ORIGINAL spelling of "Pennsylvania Dutch".
OK, I'll bite: what are you referring to?
Of course everywhere is tacky middlebrow and yes Matt you are being too self-conscious. It was perfectly harmless.
Anyone who argues "France" hasn't watched a French comedy lately, or listened to French pop music.
Boy this is the truth. French pop music is truly, horribly, jarringly, awful. And as far as their taste in comedy goes, two words....Jerry Lewis.
MattY doesn't even know what choir generally means. I guess the above somewhat fits that name, but "glee club" is better.
Also: is "DSG" a "liberal", or just a take-off on one?
Bonus discussion topic: are the pseudo-hipsters/moderate racists/anti-Middle Americans above actually Hillary supporters?
THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!! FOR HILLARY!!!
What a shame, the girl directly to her right is fucking hot.
hum: obviously, Don Williams was trying to smear all the millions with German ancestry, since one of the original names was "PennsylvaniaDeutsch". Apparently according to Don Williams, all of those of German ancestry - even those born in the U.S. - are tainted, despite their "later birth".
At least "liberals" aren't counting head bumps anymore.
I remember one of John Kerry's victory speeches in the primary that contained the line, "We're coming...they're going...and don't...let...the door...hit-you-on-the-way...out!"
Yep, remember it vividly, and I still blurt it out in bored moments (and I took the liberty of tidying up the excellent work to reflect the actual original phrasing and cadence).
And he said it after he won both the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire primary. It was already stale after Iowa, but he went ahead and hit us with it again. QuaLOLity!
If HRC was a dude, she'd be too dorky to be Prez. I can't believe we're giving her a pass on her dorkiness just because she's a female. Why the double-standard?
For real!
She's got absolutely no rhythm, and she claps along to music like she's leading the kids on the short bus in song.
I'm totally speechless by both videos. I'll reserve my speech for the first therapist that will see me.
She needs a Department of Soul with George Clinton in the cabinet.
WWO:
Don't forget "And if George Bush wants to debate the issues, I say, Bring. It. On!"
That guy could kill a line dead.
Apparently according to Don Williams, all of those of German ancestry - even those born in the U.S. - are tainted, despite their "later birth".
Tainted how? I don't get it. I knew about Dutch/Deutsch, but so what?
I remember one of John Kerry's victory speeches in the primary that contained the line, "We're coming...they're going...and don't...let...the door...hit-you-on-the-way...out!"The problem wasn't simply Kerry the man. The problem was that he had speechwriters who gave him those lines, he had people who told him, "that sounds great!" and there might have even been voters who thought that conveyed strength.Don't forget "And if George Bush wants to debate the issues, I say, Bring. It. On!"
But then, plenty of people probably thought that Bill Pullman's climatic speech in Independence Day was inspiring, too, rather than cheesy.
Where are Al, Fred, and Juan to jump in and tell us that we're being a bunch of elitists for making all these comments?
"At the end of the day, the United States is a pretty tacky middlebrow kind of country."
Do you have any idea of the sort of culture the masses consume overseas? Or among some of our immigrant communities, for that matter - watch Sabado Gigante sometime: it makes American Idol look like King Lear. In addition to inhaling our most middlebrow films, music, and TV shows, the rest of the world manages to produce plenty of its own crap.
"Boy this is the truth. French pop music is truly, horribly, jarringly, awful. And as far as their taste in comedy goes, two words....Jerry Lewis."
L'Auberge Espagnole was pretty funny. The French can also be plenty middlebrow when they want their movies to make money. See, for example, Luc Besson's big international hits: the Transporter series, The Fifth Element, etc.
"But then, plenty of people probably thought that Bill Pullman's climatic speech in Independence Day was inspiring, too, rather than cheesy."
Considering that that speech was co-written by a German, Roland Emmerich (who was also the movie's director and executive producer) you have a European to thank for that 'cheesy' speech. Most Americans loved the movie anyway, despite this European influence. Heck, even the NY Times and the Village Voice gave it positive reviews, if memory serves.
Re TLB's comment "hum: obviously, Don Williams was trying to smear all the millions with German ancestry, since one of the original names was "PennsylvaniaDeutsch". "
--------------
Actually, I think I referred to "some interesting enclaves " -- not the entire population of the state.
Morris Dees has more info:
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/map/hate.jsp
(click on Pennsylvania )
Fred knows everything but in this case he's correct. Rank philistinism is a world-wide phenomenom.
Fred, nowhere did I say that I didn't enjoy Independence Day. But dude... that dialog-- cringeworthy. Yet, there are people who like that stuff.
This raises the question of whether having good taste is a constant that only some are able to have, or whether good taste is a set of moving goal posts that, by the time hoi polloi adopt its trappings of one era, has already moved into the category of "tacky, middlebrow." Which would imply that the linked-to video would have been considered aesthetically inspired in another era.
Or ask Bonnie Jouhari -- who was literally run out of Reading, PA for trying to enforce the Fair Housing Act:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/01/18/national/main150601.shtml
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/10/22/48hours/main20759.shtml
MorrisDees? You mean, the group that has an indirect link to the MexicanGovernment, while trying to smear those who support our laws? You mean the guy described by Harper's here: freerepublic.com/forum/a3b81c1e9411c.htm ?
As for the original comment: Pennsylvania has some interesting ..er..enclaves. Check out the ORIGINAL spelling of "Pennsylvania Dutch".
I don't know, I have trouble thinking of that as anything beyond an attempt to smear an entire ethnic group. Maybe GFR could be contacted (via IM of course) to weigh in.
To All the French Pop Haters,
I'll take French/Quebecois hip-hop over US hip-hop any day. I have to say that French pop is much better than US pop music. Ditto for Japanese pop (J-Pop). Cantopop is a different story altogether - although they have much better sex scandals!
that vacant stare and hideous grin.
If this Presidential thing doesn't work out, she could be in the next Batman movie as Heath Leger's replacement.
that vacant stare and hideous grin.
If this Presidential thing doesn't work out, she could be in the next Batman movie as Heath Leger's replacement.
If Obama campaigns in York, PA , maybe Matthew can go cover it with Abe Foxman:
http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20020113yorkriot0113p5.asp
-------
"YORK, Pa. -- Neo-Nazi skinheads and anti-racist anarchists fought in the streets yesterday in this central Pennsylvania city still feeling the aftermath of deadly race riots 32 years ago.
One anti-racist was run down when a skinhead, cornered in an alleyway, tried to barrel his way through a mob of counter-demonstrators. The white, Ford pickup truck carried the young man on its fender for almost 20 feet before he landed in an alley. ...
...Police said 25 people were arrested, most for disorderly conduct, during a day of street attacks that began shortly after 9 a.m. as the city geared up for a speech by the leaders of several white supremacist groups.
...
Bellow's group, accompanied by members of the Black Bloc, a coalition of anarchist organizations, including the Boston-based Barricada Collective, roamed the streets in the hours leading up to a speech by Matthew Hale, leader of the racist World Church of the Creator.
A member of Hale's group, Michael Cook, a 32-year-old York County man, had rented a room at the city's library for a noontime speech. Hale, in turn, invited several other extremist groups, including the Aryan Nations and National Alliance, to attend.
Yesterday's showdown followed a series of arrests last year growing out of the 1969 race riots that claimed the lives of a visiting South Carolina woman and a York police officer.
Among those arrested in connection with the shooting death of Lillie Belle Allen, who was killed during the riots, was York's mayor, Charles Robertson. Robertson stepped down from office last Monday after deciding not to seek re-election."
More proof that Hillary Clinton is Tracy Flick embodied.
"Boy this is the truth. French pop music is truly, horribly, jarringly, awful. And as far as their taste in comedy goes, two words....Jerry Lewis."
I'm sure everyone's hearts are in the right place -- but what makes me cringe is that, in order to succeed, arguments like this actually support the race-to-the-bottom aspects of American culture.
"If you want to know the future, Winston, think of Homer Simpson chanting, "U-S-A! U-S-A! In your face! In your face!", forever."
Chuck,
You know. Tracy Flick would have made a much better student body president than the other guy (I know this from personal experience).
now that's what Yglesias is talking about... sheeeeeeeit!
So you've dropped the pseudo skateboarder dude affectation for a 'homie' approach? Excellent. You're obviously a yutz of many talents, Israel. Can you rap in Yiddish?
Posted by Tom | March 11, 2008 5:30 PM
God, you are such an idiot.
Yeah, it really is a shame.
Alas, kids in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre PA don't get the kind of hipster education those at Dalton and Harvard do.
A "progressive" might pick up on this and, in doing so, refrain from sighing at the vulgar taste found in the descendents of coal miners, steelworkers, Nam vets, factory workers, etc.
Especially "a progressive" whose annual prepschool tuition came to more than many of their family's total income will this year.
Well then . . . something to think about when Matt's not raving about how an HBO series really showed him, man, where the black inner-city is at.
Tacky? Middlebrow? Do you realize how snooty you sound?
You must really hate the Democratic Party--all those "un-cool" working class people who shop at Walmart because, gee, they just can't afford Nordstrom's or Sak's.
Tacky? Middlebrow? Do you realize how snooty you sound?
Good taste and dignity cut across all income and class levels.
But those aren't sufficient in elections; we need a majority.
Not to pick on Matt specifically, but the word "middlebrow" really seems to have experienced definition drift in recent years. Basically, it seems to have replaced "lowbrow", and "lowbrow" has largely disappeared. Which is a shame, since "middlebrow" is a very useful term to describe a certain type of sensibility, a sensibility reflected in magazines, like...er, The Atlantic.
C.L.,
You can find "lowbrow" in the likes of Larry the Cable Guy, Carlos Mencia, US Weekly, Glen Beck, Jamie Kennedy, the folks who brought us "Epic Movie" and other related nonsense, etc.
Which just goes to show that "lowbrow" just gets lower.
Sinbad > Carlos Mencia. And I'm not joking with this opinion.
So, Don, you're making a connection between Germans who settled in PA in the 18th century and present-day white supremacist groups there? I don't get it, but I am now pretty sure there is nothing to get.
Er, what about the Oprah demographic?
Did you read about her new Sunday network show?
New Role for Oprah: Playing Fairy Godmother on Reality TV
In the end I think it might be all about who captures the "I believe in angels" demo. Not the prayer people, but angels people.
Oh, that reminds me, someone said to me the other day that Obama's early campaign speeches reminded him of the horrors of "Up with People". They were like a wholesome alternative that someone on the other side of the 60's generation gap invented to keep all the kids busy and away from hanging with the dirty hippies. See you don't get the old themes that are coming back when people like Chris Matthews and M.J. Rosenberg like Obama. They were these geeky wholesame cleancut folk music Peace Corp types, the types that got mad at Dylan for going electric, they were not the hip ones, hence the whole dissing of the "kumbaya" thing. "Kumbaya" was never hip, it was a mainstream alternative to the counterculture.
In a way, you're stepping on dangerous ground here, because it's clear to me that Obama is definitely going after the wholesome rather than the hip, that seems very much to be part of his whole "new majority" program. Nihilists, for example, need not apply.
Cynicism is a no-no for Obama supporters, no?
But no decent product should ever have truly "lame" marketing.
Head On! Apply directly to the forehead!
Head On! Apply directly to the forehead!
Head On! Apply directly to the forehead!
Serious, game misconduct level man card violations in this video.
Which is a shame, since "middlebrow" is a very useful term to describe a certain type of sensibility, a sensibility reflected in magazines, like...er, The Atlantic.
The print version of the Atlantic is cripplingly middlebrow and earnest. It strives to affect "seriousness" -- a slightly right-wing complacency.
artappraiser and his/her friend are fucking morons, primarily because of that drivel he/she just typed, but also because "Up With People" did a video (that was far, far more horrendous than this junk) FOR Hillary.
Wow. Thanks for being doubly patronizing. You've been totally great lately. Really.
Ha, that has to be pretty awkward. It's like going to a restaurant with friends that play a joke on you and tell the waitress that it's your birthday. Except the song is tailored exclusively for you. And you want something from the performers - their votes. And it's being recorded, to be watched forever... you're awkward feelings compounded by the fact that they can be viewed ad nauseum.
(I haven't read the comments yet; this has probably been said already)
There is such a thing as taste and it crosses class boundaries. Jackson Pollock, after all, was raised in Wyoming, not the Upper East Side. The Beatles, the people who made experimental rock like Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's mainstream, came from Liverpool. People may not be able to all shop at Diesel and buy the furniture they want, but they can choose their own tastes.
Zorro,
Ah, but HeadOn's marketing campaign was pure genius, and was actually heavily focus-grouped in advance.
And for what it is worth, there is something legitimately "ironic" about how those ads came about. HeadOn is basically just wax (with some trace elements that are almost surely doing exactly nothing). The Better Business Bureau accordingly challenged an earlier ad campaign in which HeadOn claimed to provide effective headache relief. So, HeadOn stripped out any such references, and having to make an ad out of only what they could say resulted in the spots that became a pop culture hit ... thus providing more marketing for the product than they could ever have paid for.
God, you are such an idiot.
Israel, are you responsible for this fine piece of performance art?
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/rap-in-yiddish/848091224
Cynicism is a no-no for Obama supporters, no?
Wrong! You see, the truly cynical Obama supporters who find this whole "hope and kumbaya" stuff a little hokey realize that his "message of hope" is appealing to a large number of voters, and are happy to cynically decide that this is the best path to victory, and support Obama because of it!
See, cynics, you too can support Obama!
And as far as their taste in comedy goes, two words....Jerry Lewis.
If two American critics were to praise the song stylings of Johnny Hallyday, would it be fair to say that those crazy Americans love Johnny Hallyday?
I think Matt is right to call a Glee club "middlebrow" - I mean it's not Gilbert & Sullivan or NPRs latest fave indie rock intellectual band but it's a step above "lowbrow" music like Whitesnake, Gangsta rap or Britney Spears. And even in middlebrow there are distinctions - high middlebrow - The Atlantic, and low middlebrow - Time & Newsweek. But it's true, when MY calls America a "tacky, middlebrow" kind of place he seems to really mean "lowbrow."
Is that a "more immediate, ecstatic, and penetrating mode of living"? Or did Clinton abandon idealism for careerism long ago? Wait, never mind.
Come on, now. I'm a diehard Obama supporter, but I don't think this was bad at all (at least compared to what this crazy supporter of hers is capable of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxtN0u23Tdc). I give Hillary credit for playing along with enthusiasm. Not every voter is going to pass the hip and cool test.
Fo shizzle.
It's just her two primary constituencies - white women and gay men - doing a cheer for her. What makes it hard to watch is the awful way her head bobbles around with that vacant stare and hideous grin.
Posted by Great White Snark
I don't know where the heck you're getting your information. I'm gay, I know lots of gay men, and we are not that tacky. Plus, no gay man I know is voting for Clinton.
I don't know where you are getting your information. I never claimed anything was "tacky".
Stay fab.
Whoa. Some pretty cringeworthy stuff there.
Imagine what a 76-year-old beat generation survivor like me feels when reading you young cats jiving about irony and what is or is not hip. Without Googling, now, who coined the terms 'lowbrow,' 'middlebrow' and 'highbrow' to describe culture and the arts?
Imagine what a 76-year-old beat generation survivor like me feels when reading you young cats jiving about irony and what is or is not hip. Without Googling, now, who coined the terms 'lowbrow,' 'middlebrow' and 'highbrow' to describe culture and the arts?
Is my above double post a senior moment? Nah, sticky keys.
I now have two impressions of Scranton.
Being assaulted by a drunk dude... and this.
I'll admit, I'm intrigued--the same way that next time I'm in Baltimore, I'll probably drive those extra blocks to the western district just to see the dealers on the corner.
"Without Googling, now, who coined the terms 'lowbrow,' 'middlebrow' and 'highbrow' to describe culture and the arts?"
Without googling, I'm going to guess... Lawrence Ferlingetti?
"Without Googling, now, who coined the terms 'lowbrow,' 'middlebrow' and 'highbrow' to describe culture and the arts?"
I don't know, but whoever it was sure had some gall. (Okay, I admit it -- I Googled.)
Comments closed March 25, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
Thanks for the prediction Matt, you got it in just in time!
Posted by former deaniac | March 11, 2008 4:31 PM