Comments on: still not pornography

still not pornography

eugenen — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:19:47 -0800

The music video (SLYT) for the New Pornographers' single "Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk" turns the cheerful, bouncy pop tune into an elegy for the ravaged Gulf Coast. (The NPs previously.)

By: jnrussell

jnrussell — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:39:11 -0800

Whoa, is that really Neko Case? Doesn't look or sound like her at all. Or maybe the problem is that I'm stilll (apparently) living in 2006 and she's had four years of touring/boozing/getting in fights since then...

By: NoMich

NoMich — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:50:09 -0800

Goes well with Talk Talk's It's My Life video.

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:56:23 -0800

Where's Dan?

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:57:58 -0800

Great song, great album, great video. Thanks!

By: jammy

jammy — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:58:46 -0800

thanks, eugenen

By: poe

poe — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:09:03 -0800

Light, Sweet, Crude. It has a slick beat! I could get down to it.

By: limeonaire

limeonaire — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:40:44 -0800

Fuuuuck. That made me cry.

By: limeonaire

limeonaire — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:50:25 -0800

BTW, this (the oil spill) is why I've spent the better part of the last week trying to find a good petroleum-free moisturizer. I stopped wearing makeup back in April because of it, but I was waiting 'til I reached the end of the bottle of Lubriderm to switch moisturizers. Now it's time—fuck Big Oil. Of course, I know, I say that, and I'm still driving a car to and from work every day. But it's one step, at least. I just can't stomach buying another bottle of petroleum distillates to rub on my face.

By: jnrussell

jnrussell — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:58:30 -0800

Totally agree with limeonaire, the Deepwater Horizon fiasco is a pretty big motivator for me to shed my oil dependence. Alas, I'm still working up the courage to bike 12 miles to work in the dead of winter.

By: es_de_bah

es_de_bah — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:11:22 -0800

thanks for sharing. good ol' nps all that stock footage of oil pumps suddenly brought to mind the phrase "drill baby, dill." funny. haven't heard that one too much lately.

By: rollbiz

rollbiz — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:33:06 -0800

Something in my eye... I've never been to New Orleans, something I plan to finally correct this spring. By the way, this afternoon the Department of Justice filed suit against nine companies, including BP, to recover damages relating to the oil spill. It's probably dumb to hope that if they win, they'll make regular folks whole, but can I please hope for now anyway?

By: muddgirl

muddgirl — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:48:17 -0800

Whoa, is that really Neko Case? Doesn't look or sound like her at all. She's 40 years old and isn't wearing make-up and didn't do her hair. That's what some people look like at 40, yes especially if there's some hard living involved. I know it's a little strange to see an older woman on video who isn't styled. I think it's admirable. Also... I don't know, maybe you should think about what impulse makes your first reaction to this rather powerful video, "Wow, look at that lady!"

By: bardic

bardic — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 19:22:27 -0800

Neko Case is a goddess, make-up or no.

By: Slap*Happy

Slap*Happy — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 19:52:32 -0800

Umm. This is way to late, and does more evil than good. The little bugs in the water turned out to be more voracious and efficient than thought.* Louisiana seafood is safe and healthy... oysters have filtered out the bad stuff and are clean, shrimp stocks are bountiful, I am dead serious when I say you should have some. An oyster and shrimp po'boy is about God's own perfect sammich. *We. Got. Lucky. The next time 'round, it will be much, much, much worse. My Dad was telling me his family were dodging tarballs on Jersey beaches as far south as Tom's River, as late as the '70s, from torpedoed tankers during the Battle of the Atlantic.

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:10:18 -0800

Where's Dan? Oh hi, Dan!

By: jnrussell

jnrussell — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 08:13:23 -0800

I don't know, maybe you should think about what impulse makes your first reaction to this rather powerful video, "Wow, look at that lady!" That's a good point. I clearly should have worded my comment differently. I never meant to imply that Neko Case being unrecognizable to me was a negative thing, nor that it was the only thing I thought about the video. But you're right that it was my first reaction, because it's the first thing I saw in the video. I paused the video to write a comment, then finished the video. Also some other things to consider: 1. My only exposure to New Pornographers has been through Neko Case's solo career. 2. I had no idea she was in her 40s. I honestly thought she was in her late twenties. 3. The few interviews I've heard with her sounded completely different than she sounds in this video; different tone of voice, different style of speech. So I see her sitting there and talking and I think "Is that Neko? Of course it is, right? I mean, you know she's in NP...and that's her red hair....but the video's kind of out of focus, and she doesn't sound right, and she seems really different in her manner...less animated, less energetic...well that's probably because she's not onstage..." so then I went on to google and looked for pictures of her and all I could find at first were glossy magazine shots that really look quite different, even her cheekbones looked different. It was just a moment of audio-visual confusion to me, so I remarked on it. I thought this post was about both NP and the Gulf tragedy. I commented on the first, because that was the first thing I noticed. I had other thoughts to share about the Gulf tragedy (which I did share to some extent later, re: my comment about trying to reduce my oil dependence), but I didn't want to make an overly long post (like I'm doing now, to defend my ill-advised pithy post) highlighting in detail my blubbering and bawling(for me this always happens: powerful music+powerful emotional images=cry like a baby). It shouldn't matter to me, but I feel like I need to defend myself here, because muddgirl's painting my comment as disparaging of Neko's looks and loading my original comment with these assumptions I apparently have about age and femininity and beauty when all I meant was that I just didn't recognize her visually or aurally and that it was likely my own fault for not following her career or NP that closely.

By: muddgirl

muddgirl — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 08:37:21 -0800

because muddgirl's painting my comment as disparaging of Neko's looks and loading my original comment with these assumptions I don't care whether or not you were disparaging Neko's looks - I would have been equally interested if you had posted, "Wow, I never realized how hot Neko Case is!" Either way, it is almost stereotypically sexist to comment on a woman's physical appearance (and vocal pleasantness) over anything else in a picture or video. I understand that you didn't intend to post a sexist comment, and I'm sure you didn't even realize that the comment was sexist, but them's the facts. If you actually meant to ask, "Is that Neko Case?" why... that seems like a perfectly cromulent way to phrase an honest question.

By: jnrussell

jnrussell — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 08:56:54 -0800

But I wasn't commenting on Neko Case's hotness at any level (disparaging or praiseworthy), only my recognition of her as a person with whom I was somewhat familiar. I never said her voice was less pleasant, either. Only that it sounded different than I remember. Of course I have sexist tendencies and I want to be conscious of that, so thank you bringing this to my attention. I try very hard to NOT be sexist, to actively police my own biases, assumptions, and actions, and in this case I believe I was not making a statement about Neko within in the context of physical attraction, but rather within the context of recognition. Perhaps I'm wrong and I can't trust my own judgment in these matters. I'll be thinking about this one for awhile. On a related note, if I had posted that I didn't recognize Carl's appearance and vocal pleasantness (note: I didn't say she sounded worse, just like a different), would we still be having this conversation?

By: muddgirl

muddgirl — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 09:17:10 -0800

if I had posted that I didn't recognize Carl's appearance and vocal pleasantness I extremely dislike "switched gender hypotheticals", mostly because I feel there's a great probability that most people wouldn't notice Carl aging - Carl is a guy and thus almost never wears face-altering make-up or a face-altering hair style. We watch him age gradually rather than all-at-once as the make-up is removed. We're used to watching men age.

By: limeonaire

limeonaire — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 09:28:01 -0800

But the real question is, can we all agree that Neko Case is awesome? 'Cause seriously: She's awesome.

By: jnrussell

jnrussell — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 09:56:17 -0800

Yes, Neko Case is awesome. Fox Confessor is one of my favorite albums. And one last reply to muddgirl: I think I understand, now. There's no way to remark on a woman's appearance without being sexist about it. I've learned a good lesson here, and I'll try to apply it to all my future comments.

By: eugenen

eugenen — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 09:57:28 -0800

I extremely dislike "switched gender hypotheticals", mostly because I feel there's a great probability that most people wouldn't notice Carl aging - Carl is a guy and thus almost never wears face-altering make-up or a face-altering hair style. We watch him age gradually rather than all-at-once as the make-up is removed. We're used to watching men age. That's interesting because if you watch this video from seven years ago, Carl looks drastically different from what he looks like today, while Neko looks almost exactly the same.

By: hydropsyche

hydropsyche — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:54:41 -0800

The little bugs in the water turned out to be more voracious and efficient than thought.* Louisiana seafood is safe and healthy... oysters have filtered out the bad stuff and are clean, shrimp stocks are bountiful, I am dead serious when I say you should have some. An oyster and shrimp po'boy is about God's own perfect sammich. Scientists don't agree with you on that one. They say for safety you should probably only eat 1/2 a po'boy a week. The levels are being measured against a national average of consumption; in terms of shrimp, that translates into one meal a week as small as 3 ounces, or about four jumbo shrimp. The Natural Resources Defense Council survey showed that many Gulf residents consume three to 12 times that amount.