Music interlude # 1 - Give us more National!
Posted by popkitchen | Filed under music
I can’t decide between Interpol and The National, who is my favorite band. The latter are uber fancy bunch in expensive designer suits from Manhattan, erudite and conceited, intimate friends of models and actresses, while the former are friends from Ohio, who struck camp in hipster central Williamsburg in Brooklyn.
Between sounding like Joy Division or a meet-up of Bruce Springsteen and Tindersticks, I am helpless to decide.
Both bands, I saw live in London.
shirt i bought on the national concert in london
The National – Theory of Crows (from the first album The National)
The National – Karamazov (Live @ Carnegie Hall, March 2, 2009.)
The National – Wake Up Your Saints (Live@Carnegie Hall, March 2, 2009)
The National – Vanderllyle Cry Baby_with Bon Iver (Radio City Hall, concert promoting
Dark Was the Night)
The National – Blood Buzz Ohio (Live at Boston)
The National – Warm Singing Whores (unreleased B side from 2006.)
The National – Halo Chagrin (unreleased song from 1998/9)
Download files here.
Enjoy!
Tags: download, interpol, new songs, the national
freedom loving nation
Posted by popkitchen | Filed under politics
Serbia is indeed a land of wonders. Serbs would be the first to call themselves freedom fighters, due to the centuries fighting foreign invaders, now the influence of the international community. Not to mention civil wars of 1990’s.
But the freedom that everyone wants is not granted to all. National minority groups, people with disabilities, Roma people, gays, among others.
photo by andrija ilić
Contradictions abound everywhere you look. Foreigners visiting Serbia are stunned by the warmth and hospitality they encounter. Yes, it is safe to walk the city streets even in the middle of the night. Kids are still playing out in the yards unsupervised. On the other hand, the intolerance towards people of different colour or different national origin is almost institutionalized. It is not the state not doing
by bobster855@flickr
My small contribution to the struggle for universal human rights is the first article I published that has nothing to do with popular culture. Respected East European portal Transitions Online requested a piece on the drama surrounding the adoption of the Law Against Discrimination this March.
Tell me you opinion or ask me a question, I would be happy to respond.
Tags: gay rights, law against discrimination, serbia, transitions online
what i learned about tennis
Posted by popkitchen | Filed under everyday life
people watching djokovic practice
I am not following sports much. As I remember names and information, since my brain is subscribed to useless trivia, I know a few athletes, football players, coaches, names of teams, but not because I like it – I don’t need yet another obsession – but because I am listening to guys talking amongst each other. That knowledge can be used later. In the company of men of course.
When I was a kid I watched Monika Seles and kid myself that one day I would be a famous tennis player. I trained for a year or two and stopped. Surely, I am proud of the success of Serbian tennis players, but simply I don’t have the patience for watching of matches on TV.
On the other hand, I love all kinds of media. So the opportunity to work in the press centre of an ATP tournament was a great thing. I watched two matches live – let me tell you my laymen friends, it is a great experience. Plus, I hung out with reporters. One of them is Vincent Cognet from French sports paper L’Equipe. An English speaking Frenchman, who listens to The Who and wants to know about Belgrade’s best bars. I don’t speak French, but I used the knowledge of other Romance languages to decipher what he wrote and I know that Vincent made a good story. On one hand, he was following the tournament, on the other he was keen to learn about Belgrade, Serbian mentality and reactions of people to the tournament.
Get it here: bienvenue-au-djokovic-open
Tags: atp tournament, belgrade, l'equip, serbia open 2009
keepers of the cultural choice
Posted by popkitchen | Filed under music
balkan beat music conference
Let’s get one thing clear – there is no such thing as music industry in Serbia. That is not to say that there are no bands, there are many working to get their music released in a traditional way or that there is not a scene, but the revenue from sale of music is miniscule. Though I was a kid in the times prior to the breakdown of former Yugoslavia, from what we are being told the story goes like this – Tito’s Yugoslavia was the most Western out of all Communist countries (it was on the better side of the iron curtain), thus young people were looking up to Anglo-American pop culture as a means of emancipation. And from this perspective we can claim that Yugoslavia had a pretty vibrant popular culture – both in terms of mass taste, as well as fringe stuff – I wrote already about black wave cinema of the late sixties/early seventies, also new wave music from the 80’s needs to be mentioned, as a perfect example of capturing the zeitgeist.
With the war, the sale of licensed music stopped, while the local music scene struggled for survival. I remember buying bootleg CDs as a teenager, called „Bulgarian CDs“, named after a country in which they are produced. Whole of my generation lost a habit of buying music, so when torrents and file sharing software appeared, it basically fitted into our worldview – finally we had the means for what we practiced, or at least wanted to, all along.
On one hand, it sucks. On the other, if there were not for a pirate scene in the 1990’s, would there ever be a festival like EXIT, which gathers around 100.000 people every year.
Sorry for the long intro. But, I needed to get some things out of the way, so I could tell you that the perspectives of people working in music industry in Britain and Serbia are totally opposite. Everything that we could gather from this conference was just interesting bits of information. Regarding this aspect, one of the most remarkable guests was John Dyer, Director at Domino Records. I got to chance to interview him for Popboks webzine and he was a joy to talk to. Even during the conference, John was informative, jovial, down-to-earth. That is to say, when he talks about online marketing, he is talking about decisions that are common sense for the bands that want promotion, not selling us quips about Facebook/MySpace/Twitter miracles. More importantly, Dyer works at Domino, which is one of the biggest independent labels around. With roster of artists such as Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Animal Collective, Bonnie Prince Billy they are probably the most relevant label around.
john dyer
I spoke to Dyer about the future of independent labels, new ways of consuming music, bands that could get us out of recession, as well as personal influences. Dyer is primarily music fan, then music executive: he is witty and unpretentious.
Popboks kindly allowed me to translate the article into English.
POPBOKS: Talk of the division on independent and major labels was present here today. Same complaints are heard all over the world. What does someone, working for an indi label, thinks about that?
If I was in that room, I would gather some money to hire someone to make a fifth major label. A company to do the negotiating.
P: Something like an aggregator?
Yes. Like an aggregator.
P: But would Domino participate in that?
Domino could provide advice, but we have to run our own business. The question is why would we do it? But, if people really wanted to do something, they need to work on that, otherwise the old problem would be repeated all over again. Which goes back to the question – do you want to have a proper music industry or to just end up on the major?
P: Do you think that the recording industry came full circle, from the single, LP, then the CD, to the single again?
That’s true. That is the way people reinvent things. When we talk about people’s desires, once they like the artist, they want to hear the whole album. At this moment, people have the choice to buy only the single. iTunes is good. They deliver what they promise. It is hard to get them to do extra for you. Decision-making people in iTunes are actually making music decisions – of course, when you have a big name, they push it, as they know it needs to sell a lot. This is valid for the UK. Where it stops being relevant is countries, for example, in South Europe or Scandinavia, because iTunes haven’t bothered building country by country store, after all it is a scale business.
P: In terms of streaming and services like MySpace or Last f.m., can a label refuse to allow the songs or albums for streaming? And if you do allow, how does that affect you?
So far, we have been able to control the conversation. But Last f.m. is not a streaming service, they are hiding behind the story that they are Internet radio, thus they are not legitimate streaming service. On the other hand, you need to know how streaming services work, people need to listen to you, repetitively. In a way, they are rewarding people with large catalogues. If you represent tiny 1% of the market, which means something in the physical market, like a position on the charts, in streaming services it just drives the price down, against all music available. I think it is a pretty dull experience, for a consumer. It is not good for a young culture.
P: Last year the biggest story in the recording industry was merging of functions of a publisher and concert organizer, exemplified by the contract between Madonna and Live Nation. Is that a viable option for the future?
Something like that can work in the case of big pop stars. Concerning alternative music, it is hard as it is. You can not enter other people’s territory, which is already small. Promoters hate managers, managers hate records labels, it is all a vicious circle. We can only do what we do best and that is the issuing of albums. If you listened what the IT companies were saying and their thing is to say that they know how things work, right now there wouldn’t be any record labels left. But that is simply not true.
What we can do for a band is to help them build their own infrastructure. Like a website. For example, 30% of all sales of Domino go through websites of the bands.
P: How do you see the role of independent labels during the time of recession? Now you need a new band, a hit, to drive you through the recession.
Yes, we do. Always. If you trace the history of independent record labels, they had a significant hit in the first ten record releases. Factory had Joy Division, New Order, then they put a lot records until Happy Mondays came along. Then Rough Trade, they had bands like Scritti Politti, Stiff Little Fingers, Aztec Camera, then there was a break before The Smiths. Mute had Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Erasure among its first releases. Music label lovers - they are still putting out making music that major labels are not interested in. This way bigger artists are subsidizing smaller artists. A taste has a place in the decision making. In this business, we are not interested in bringing the quarterly increased profits to the shareholders. Sure, we want to make money. However, we can turn off the tap and say that we pushed this artist too far, we don’t want to over saturate the market.
Your question is – why is it important that independent labels exist, right? People quite like choice. Even people who like Britney Spears, they would be disturbed if that was the only thing available. Because in few years time, they can look at something and say “my brother quite likes that’ or “my sister likes it, I am glad it exists”. Independent labels represent cultural choice.
P: What is the next big thing for Domino Records?
In America, we have an artist called Dirty Projectors. He comes from the same space like Vampire Weekend. He sits in Brooklyn and he is like a band’s band, he is the guy who gave the confidence to all these other bands to get involved in music. His stuff is pretty leftfield, but I believe that we can bring it to a higher level of consciousness and let Serbia download it by the thousands and not pay us (laughs).
P: You mentioned Factory Records, I read what you wrote when Tony Wilson died. Does Domino model itself to a label like Factory?
I was quite fond of him, as a friend. But, I would never have signed for his record label, the man was chaotic. Our owner, Lawrence Bell is admiring Chris Blackwell at Island, that is a really good touchstone. Of course, we are looking up to Factory, Rough Trade, Creation, Mute, today Beggars Banquet. We look at the lessons that they have had and we try to avoid the bad things. There are quite a few things at Factory that I would avoid. But Tony’s PR, his anti-culture passion, his arty Situationist experiments, these bands would not have come to Factory, if he was different. They had incredible commitment and there are not many people, who don’t see money as the prime objective. This is what we are trying to do, build services around our artists.
Tags: balkanbeat music conference, belgrade, domino records, john dyer, Last.fm, online music, popboks
MA Update#2
Posted by popkitchen | Filed under academic, web 2.0
bibliography
Two weeks ago, I have presented my dissertation, entitled “Economic Value of User-Generated Content: An Investigation Into Productive Practices of the Users of MOG website” at my home University: Universita degli Studi di Firenze.
After researching the topic for three months in London, then writing it back home in Belgrade (admittedly, it took longer than it should), I am pleased to say I am over.
As with every big project, this is something hanging over your head, but then when it is finally over, you feel left without a purpose. So, allow me to share some of the conclusions I came up with over the last six months.
I wanted to investigate the economic processes underpinning web 2.0 ecology, such as mass participation on common goals and long tail, particularly looking at these phenomena from the perspective of a user, that is produser (thanx to Bruns).
The value of user-generated content is inherently economic, though the exact valuation does not ascribe to traditional economic categories. That is to say, that affect and reputation gained through the creation of user-generated content need to be taken into consideration. I used Tiziana Terranova’s concept of immaterial labour to frame the labour taking place on MOG – work done collectively, voluntarily, without expectation of remuneration.
The users of MOG, who generously offered their time, helped me get better insight into practices of users: most of them agree that the amount of time required for creation of posts, videos, comments to other people’s profiles, several called this time investment labour but “labour of love”. General consensus is the more you work, the more you consider your efforts seriously – and perhaps you are not expecting payment, but you want respect of your work (your time> see the reaction of users of Facebook on the change of the rules of this social network). Online platforms depend on the contribution of users, this is the way for them to make profits, but the work going into creation of content can not be managed.
Through the reading I did, I came across two (roughly) distinct groups of scholars on the subject of online labour – web enthusiasts (Tapscott and Williams, Leadbeater, Clay Shirky among others, to a certain extent Benkler and Jenkins) and left-leaning critics (Scholz, Terranova, Gane and Beer, Ritzer and Lovink), but what I felt was lacking was greater involvement of user’s own thoughts on the subject of contributing content online. This is why I take somewhat middle-ground position in assessing the arguments from both sides.
Many people told me that once you finish your MA you feel that you just started to nibble the mass of material available and that certain topics require further exploitation. Whether I do embark on that route (Ph.D.), it remains to be seen, but will keep you posted in any case. Whoever is interested in reading of my thesis, can contact me via this blog. Usage is allowed with a proper attribution.
In the meantime, MOG redesigned its interface. I will continue to monitor the developments on the site, as I find it really useful when it comes to music consumption today. But more on that some other time.
Tags: MA, user-generated content, web 2.0
beppe severgnini@belgrado
Posted by popkitchen | Filed under books, media
Beppe Severgnini is a well-known Italian journalist, columnist in Corriere della Sera daily, a former 
correspondent of The Economist, as well as the author of several books, which regardless of whether they deal with how Italians are navigating the living in the Western world or explain the mystery of Italy to the foreigners, are united by a single topic – an exploration of the Italian identity. As a part of the mini Eastern European tour, during which he already visited Sofia and Bucharest, Severgnini came to Belgrade, talked with students, professors, Italians working in Serbia, in Italian Cultural Institute, as well as on the Faculty of Philology the next day.
Despite having spent a part of his life in London and Washington, during the period of the Fall of Communism he was a correspondent from Eastern Europe (he remembers the interview he did with the opposition leader Vuk Draskovic in Belgrade in the spring of 1991), Severgnini is mostly involved with his homeland, the character of his compatriots, supreme achievements that this country offered the world, as well as the mentality issues, contributing to the weak spots of it: corruption, nepotism and bureaucracy. The stubborn resistance to introduction of organization and order, distrust over every attempt to reform the society, gripping influence of the Church on the society and as of recently the inflow of immigrants are some of the problems troubling Italy. Yet, if Severgnini was solely focused on the justifications, no matter how ingenious or witty they were, and they are, the people would stop after reading his books.
“Your Italy and our Italia are not the same thing” he wrote in the English edition of his popular book La Testa Degli Italiani, called La Bella Figura: An Insider’s Guide Through Italian Mind, provoked by the manner people treat his country in the Western media. Although droves of tourists and Italo-enthusiasts come upon the boot on the Apennine peninsula, what you can read today about la bella paese, Severgnini classifies into two groups: love letters and the diary entries filled with disappointment, depending on who is writing. The stories on the superiority of Italian cuisine and wine, importance of family and mama with the capital M are the product of American women in their forties, while the reports on corruption, embezzled European funds and the irresponsibility of the political elite are mostly to be found in the British media, written by middle-aged men, who according to Severgnini are full of interest, but lacking in passion for the subject matter. Meanwhile, Italy is something else entirely – a labyrinth that Severgnini embarks on exploring with excitement, in a book shaped as a ten-day journey, during which the readers can learn about Italians and their ways on an airport, beach, high way, la piazza, restaurant, hotel, bank or at home. Inspired by the though of Luigi Barzini, who said “In this moment, being honest with one self is the greatest form of patriotism”.
As of 1998, on the website of Corriere della Sera, Severgnini has been keeping a blog and managing the forum called Italians, gathering Italians scattered around the world, as they have a long tradition of emigration and foreigners living in Italy, whose number multiplied over the years, this forum providing a platform for various discussions stemming out of this situation. At the same time, it is the title of his new book – Italians: Il giro del Mondo in 80 pizze (Italians: A Trip Around the World In 80 Pizzas), a travelogue on the journey that took him to different parts of the world, but no matter where there would be some Italians ready to take Severgnini out for a pizza. In the foreword to the book, Severgnini is quoting NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman and his “the world is flat” maxim, only correcting this statement to say that Italians knew it all along, thus they put a pizza on the flat surface. The Belgrade gathering was occasioned in Pietro del’Oro restaurant, owned by a football player Dejan Stankovic, which enthused our guest even more, as he is a long-time supporter of Inter, which is the subject of no less then three books (Interismi, Altri Interismi, Tripli interismi).
“Italy is not a nation, but a temptation” (Italia non e una nazione, e una tentazione), provoking only associations on the beautiful things in life – music, food, opera, art, he told the students during the lecture that English is used, while Italian is loved. Several of the traits vital for the understanding of the Italian character start with the letter I: if we believe Severgnini, Italians are too intelligent for their own good, their brain is working 24-7. For example, seeing a red light in the traffic would make a decent person stop (by this he probably means law-abiding Northern Europeans), while an Italian would start to think about the type of the red light he sees and engage in a discussion with it – it is not really STOP, it is a relational STOP and it is up to you to decide whether and how it applies on you. Or ideology: depending on the side on which they’re on Italians call the opposition “fascists” or “communists”, today’s burning topic of immigration is a result of the policy of the “good heart” of the Left and “firm hand” of the Right, both of which did nothing to solve the issue. Italians improvise, ahead of the meeting in the European Commission in Brussels, an Italian Minister will prepare himself in the car on the way from the airport, despite the meeting being scheduled weeks in advance and the topic being of essential importance. The chief advantage of Italy is “the capacity to turn every crisis into festivity” Severgnini concludes.
Writing about a collective entity is a slippery slope, due to the tendency of an author to overcriticize or overpraise, and always generalize, because if everyone is dissolved into a mass of different individuals books like this would be pointless. But it seems that Severgnini is successfully traversing this terrain. Until his books are translated into Serbian or I have another opportunity to go to Italy and buy one, here is an excerpt from his London lecture.
Tags: beppe severgnini, italians, italy, la bella figura
a moment to remeber
Posted by popkitchen | Filed under everyday life, politics
When television stations do not have any quality program, the time slot is not guaranteeing high viewership, they put something together as “On This Day in History”, a collection of facts, some known, some completely unfamiliar. Historical events presented as trivia. Like anyone is watching, right?
On this day six years ago, the first democratic Prime Minister of Serbia was assassinated. His killers are in jail, the people who provided the (political) support to them untouched. Serbia in a perennial limbo, with irresponsible political elite, corrupt and dysfunctional institutions, not really sure whether to protect the heritage of people, who destroyed all hope in 1990’s, no matter the cost or to fulfill the vision of the man, who had it. And wanted his vision to become our reality.
Zoran Đinđić (1952-2003)
Tags: in memoriam, serbia, zoran đinđić
map schmap_london
Posted by popkitchen | Filed under everyday life, web 2.0
It is not a particularly difficult to get a nod from Schmap free digital travel guides and have your photos included there. All you need is to have “some rights reserved” license on your Flickr page.
Yet, this is a updated version of a London guide and me being so sentimental about this city, can not feel less than excited that my contributions found its way into the guide.
If you notice that the address on the photo for Saatchi gallery is not correct, I pointed out to the authors and I am sure that they will make the necessary changes.
I wrote about nostalgia, it is about to hit me hard.
Tags: london schmap flickr
gmail outage freakout
Posted by popkitchen | Filed under everyday life, web 2.0
The web as a platform is not there yet. This morning’s Gmail outage warned us about “putting all the eggs in one basket”. Google is indispensible, but not infallible.
While some predicted the end of the world, Microsoft’s Mel Carson twittered about new Windows mail.
Tags: gmail outage twitter
Where did you study Andrew Keen?
Posted by popkitchen | Filed under academic, books, films, web 2.0
here is no way to write or speak about web 2.0 without mentioning Andrew Keen and his book (pamphlet?!) The Cult of the Amateur. I am finishing a part of my second chapter , explaining the concept of user-generated content. In all the debates, his position is the most extreme and thought provoking, so he found his way into my thesis.
On his website (and Wikipedia) it says this about his education:
Andrew was educated at London University where he got a First Class Degree in Modern History, at the University of Sarajevo and at the University of California at Berkeley.
andrew keen's business card, by ae-j@flickr
There is no such thing as graduating from London University – there is a group of colleges constituting University of London – UCL, Goldsmiths, LSE, Birkbeck …. as well as Institute of Education, of which I have only fondest memories.
One more thing – not to disparage University of Sarajevo – but I didn’t know it was had reputation, as an international institution.
Only once passed through Bosnia on my way to the seaside, somewhere round ’86. Would love to go there again.
……..
The result of web 2.0 would be that someone from University of Sarajevo finds me and criticizes me for doubting the excellence of this academic institution. Or Keen personally attacks me for looking into his credentials. Things to do when you are pressured by deadline and procrastinating.
Tags: andrew keen, MA thesis, the cult of an amateur, university of london, user-ge, web
