I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: CARLY RAE JEPSEN-Tiny Desk Concert #915 (November 25, 2019).

It has been eight years (!) since Carly Rae’s ubiquitous “Call Me Maybe” took over the airways.  In those eight years I have grown to like the song and think of it fondly.

I also basically didn’t realize that Carly Rae was still making music.  Of course, she’s not all that prolific either–she has put out two albums since the album that featured “Call Me Maybe.”

I don’t know if she still has the same pull as she did back then.  I don’t know if this pop sensation is as big a draw as Taylor Swift was (I expect not).  Although evidently she is still beloved.

In 2012, Jepsen’s No. 1 hit “Call Me Maybe” was inescapable, and her 2015 album, E-MO-TION, made her a critical darling. An extremely high proportion of NPR employees also happen to be fans of the pop star; despite the nonstop impeachment hearing coverage happening just down the hall, Jepsen commanded a considerable and captivated crowd at the Tiny Desk.

The three songs she plays at this Tiny Desk are nowhere near the earworm that “CMM” was.  But there is something very sweet about how happy she is singing these certainly catchy songs..

From the moment Carly Rae Jepsen arrived at NPR HQ for her Tiny Desk concert, she brought an obvious sense of joy. Take, for example, her sound check: Working with her band of longtime collaborators, she seemed downright delighted, beaming at the musicians as she gave notes after each meticulous run-through. It’s that attention to detail that has helped build her a devoted fan base ready to make memes of her every move.

All three songs are from this year’s Dedicated album.

“Now That I Found You” is certainly the catchiest of the three.  There’s a cool, slightly funky guitar riff (from Tavish Crowe).  The whole song has more of a disco vibe (in the bass from Adam Siska) and there is something delightful about her breathy whispered vocals.  She doesn’t do the trills and vocal acrobatics that pop singers are prone to.  Midway through the song, everything drops out except for the piano (from Jared Manierka) and some lovely backing vocals (from Sophi Bairley) then the end takes off as a big dancefloor banger.

Introducing “Want You in My Room” she says, “This is the most direct, to the point song that we’ve ever been a part of performing and I’ve been a part of making.”  I was impressed to learn that her band was made of “longtime collaborators.”  But I also got a kick out of the way she seemed a bit shy describing the song as “a real come hither song.  You’ll see what I mean.”

It’s amusing that she says this is the most direct song that she has written.  It is kind of explicit, and yet compared to the rest of the pop world, it comes across as endearing.  Indeed, even if she does exhibit “Smiling swagger” I’m won over by her apparent innocence.

The song has a fun snare drum opening (from Nik Pešut) and a big “Hey” in the opening.  The chorus sounds a lot like something else but I can’t place it, but it is fun to hear her sing (and get into)

On the bed, on the floor
(I want you in my room)
I don’t care anymore
I wanna do bad things to you
Slide on through my window
(I want you in my room)
Baby don’t you want me too?

The pretty yellow plaid jacket comes off for the final song “The Sound,” a pretty song that starts as a ballad and gets bigger by the end.  This song didn’t leave much of an impression on me.  Perhaps since they were “modulating the album’s sparkling pop-disco vibe to fit our sun-filled office,” the hooks went away on that track.

Amazingly, her set is only 10 minutes long (one of the shortest ones I can think of).  And she doesn’t even do “Call me Maybe”!

It’s also frustrating that with such a short set they don’t even show they little joke at the end that you can hear everyone laugh at.

But I came away from this concert with more respect for her.  I might just have to listen to her critically acclaimed album after all.

[READ: October 21, 2019] Machines Will Make Better Choices Than Humans

When you look up books by Douglas Coupland, you will find all manner of tiny books.  Most of them have content published in similar form elsewhere.  But its not always obvious how edited the pieces are.  And frankly, the things he writes about are often so similar that it’s not always easy to know if this is an essay you’ve read before.

This book, published by V2 in Rotterdam is 37 pages in very large font.

The cover image as well as the texts on pages 13 and 19 come from “Slogans for the 21st Century”

The three are:

• Machines Will Make Better Choices Than Humans
• I’m Binge Watching My Data Stream
• My Data Stream Doesn’t Judge Me

The rest of the book contains five items:

Foreword by Michael Van Dartel
He says that Coupland admits that the future is here: “It’s here and it feels odd” and it feels like we are in a “perpetual five minutes from now.”  We continually rely on assistance from big data, often unquestioningly  Usually people take one of two sides: those entranced by the opportunities for business, health mobility and those reluctant to accept a future determined by machines and markets.  But maybe we don’t need to ask if this future is good or bad, just how we will relate to it as human beings.  Coupland is not projecting utopia or dystopia, he is talking about how we will and do relate to this technology.

“Meet Todd” appeared in both Shopping from Jail (2012) and The Age of Earthquakes (2015) It’s also available at The Financial Times.
It’s about downloading an app called Todd who knows you so well, he eventually takes over your life and then leaves you to yourself.  It’s funny and potentially plausible.  The final line: “Change the T to G.”

“I’m with Smupid” is also in The Age of Earthquakes (2015)  He has combine smart and stupid into 2 new words: “Smupid” is acknowledging that we’ve never been smarter as individuals and yet somehow we’ve never felt stupider–like looking at the words on a piece of paper and waiting for the article to translate itself.  “Stuart” is the other way–I’m a very intelligent human being, but without an internet connection I can’t display that intelligence.  There’s also “No-tech tourism” where you read books or watch film precisely because of the lack of 21st century technology.  he also proposes the pill “ninetenicillin” that would make you feel as though 9/11 never happened and you were still living in the twentieth century.  Although we must realize it’s easy to be sentimental about the twentieth century, but imagine if you did suddenly go back, how much you would miss.

“Red Dot” was released as “Über That Red Dot” in Bit Rot (2016)
Following the black Uber dot on a screen is like a cat with a red laser pointer.   When people say you could get raped by an Uber driver he responds that you could get raped by any driver, really.  So why are you focusing on Uber?  There’s no real argument top not have Uber drivers.

and

A Conversation on Data in the 21st Century.
The interviewer suggests that big data refers to artificial intuition–with the dream being that if enough data can be collected, everything can then be predicted.  Coupland says there’s no room full of people in charge of this–data is mostly centerless and disconnected.

Realistically, there is also no hope of a perfect world even with big data because “there will always be idiots and evil people.”  Not to mention, people are unpleasable.

The interviewer says that our relationship to data seems to be informed mainly by the commercial interests of software companies and online giants.  Coupland’s response: “but if not them, who should have it–your government?  That’s pretty scary.  Religion?  Yikes.  So if not companies, governments and religion, then…there’s nobody else left to deal with it.”

Despite the concerns that the interviewer brings up Coupland points out about technology and data mining, technology allows “people who didn’t have a voice [to] suddenly have one.  That’s new and probably very good.”

He ends with this thought:

People want what they want. Roast Chicken recipes. Facts about a drug they’re taking.  Sports statistics.  Niche porn. Cheats for video games.  Homework answers.  What people look for is fantastically mundane and predictable.  And I don;’t think people at any of these data firms are sitting in their chairs taping their fingertips together cackling from a sense of power. They’re mostly just trying to invent new ways of reformatting data,  I wish they could use the data to better understand the human soul, and maybe someday that will happen.