Singing Boys.

december 2nd, 2016

One Direction came up in my trivia studies a while back and, finding i was ignorant, i sought out videos of their performances. One Direction is a cultural touchstone; i sought to touch the stone.

Here is one of the videos i found: the boys use a single microphone held at hip height and sing one of their big hits acapella. The mic placement gives their singing a haunting eerie quality; the necessity of ecstatic silence from an arena of young screaming women is powerful.

This is a holy moment. This is communion.

Marcel or Vlad or one of my brothers (i know, narrowing it down :) showed me this interview with Werner Herzog that tastes the flavor of Summer 2016: Pokémon Go. Herzog initially reponds in a conspicuously Old Man fashion, “I don't have a cell phone,” but then he surprises me! Because he engages! “Tell me about Pokémon Go. What is happening on Pokémon Go?” And then later, “When two persons in search of a pokémon clash at the corner of Sunset and San Vicente is there violence? Is there murder?”

There is church in pop. There is poetry and violence in pop. The artist is not afraid to touch the stone.

i should've titled this blog post “this one goes out to the haters!!”