My Space (myspace.com) is hot. So hot that Fox bought it. For those of you not familiar with My Space, it's an Internet friend network, a la Friendster. People put up profiles and pictures, they invite people to be friends, which leads to more connections and so on and so forth. The one thing that has separated My Space from similar networks is its emphasis on music.

My Space offers bands a chance to upload some songs on their page. Thus, it is a gigantic cafeteria for new music. Recently, as many of you may know, major artists have streamed entire new albums on My Space. This includes Neil Diamond and Beck, to give you an idea of how big this has become. My Space even has a record label. My Space records has just released a compilation which has a few big names mixed in with artists who have garnered audiences through many hits on their My Space pages. So Weezer, Dashboard Confessional and Click Five rub elbows with the lovely Tila Tequila (who I think has the most popular page on My Space – she is a hot chick, and while a few of her songs are lame aggro or punk, she has a few nice new wave retro tracks), Plain White T's and Jupiter Sunrise.

I've had a My Space page up for over a year now, after having been invited by the band Superfallingstars (credit where credit is due). I will say that it has helped me sample a fair amount of music. In fact, it can be frustrating to read about a band and then find out that they don't have a My Space page (though often, they do, but My Space's poor technical performance means that I can't find the page in a name search). And I know of a few people who just swear by it – it has led to many discoveries.

Still, it can also be overwhelming. I have a number of bands amongst my My Space friends, who I've added to sample their wares...and I still haven't gotten around to it. There's never enough time in the day. Like anything on the Internet, My Space is a resource for a music fan - if you have the time, it's worth it.

One other thing I like about My Space is that it offers a place to post blogs. I have learned that blogging is like eating potato chips – once you start, it's hard to stop. The next six paragraphs come from a recent blog entry of mine (http://blog.myspace.com/mrhonorama):

What is it about MTV and its related networks? Each channel starts out with a music video orientation, and slowly but surely devolves into something loathsome. Currently, MTV is Punk'd, Pimp My Ride and My Massive Overexpensive 16th Birthday Party. Humiliation, Vacuousness and Consumerism -- the cornerstones of MTV programming. I'd at least like to see MTV get back it's alleged edge -- how about My First Abortion?

Now, MTV did come up with MTV2 -- and it showed all videos. Until it became a dumping ground for old MTV programming. Okay, I can live with a few programs -- a little Beavis and Butthead, Daria and Jackass -- at least those shows were hits. But they didn't stop there. If there's anything lamer than a retrospective of MTV's Spring Break coverage, it's seeing it three years later..."I remember our best bikini contest...first prize to the woman who had bigger tits than Matt Pinfield..."

VH1 is pretty much the same story. The turning point for VH1 was Behind the Music. It really took off, and in classic TV executive thinking, rather than making it the foundation of a broad based network programming strategy, the suits basically turned VH1 into the Behind The Music channel. Which killed it. Currently, VH1 is the domain of inane best of shows and clip shows which give B and C-list comedians a place to try out their new Paris Hilton jokes.

The worst is coming. Anti-music thinking has moved to VH1 Classic. I loved the channel when I first got my digital cable -- all videos. Once in a while a concert or something. But in the last few weeks, they've started MTV2-ing the channel. Big blocks of Behind The Music reruns. Lame documentaries on hair metal. Consequently, I'm going to be watching a whole lot less.

At one level, I realize that if you are selling ads, it helps to have actual programs. You can identify demographic groups, etc. However, music video programming is so low cost. You get the videos for free. Really, isn't that an easy way to make a little money?

So another MTV related channel bites the dust. I swear, if the people who ran MTV ran an all hardcore porn channel, within two or three years, they'd quit showing videos, and just show documentaries on the rise and fall of porn starlets (cocaine addiction? Again???) and have B and C-list comedians make jokes about the acting in porn films.

Book beat:

I picked up one of the newer installments in the 33 1/3 series on great albums: Franklin Bruno's tome on Elvis Costello & the Attractions' Armed Forces. In the book, Bruno breaks down the album's songs in schematic detail, while also looking at the controversial incident that took place in Columbus, Ohio, where Costello got into a fight with Bonnie Bramlett and other members of Stephen Stills' road crew. The fight ensued when Costello used the ‘N'-word in putting down Ray Charles and James Brown. The other significant part of the book is a look at fascism in Britain, as Costello had originally planned to title his third LP Emotional Fascism.

The book is chock full of information. In many respects, Bruno's research is exemplary. Sadly, he makes a decision that prevents this book from effectively saying much about Elvis Costello or the record that is ostensibly the subject of the book. Bruno decided to organize the book as a kind of glossary, with topics, names and song titles appearing in bold face, alphabetically. Let's flip to a random page...hmm...86...and I'll go through the entries on the following pages: the song "My Funny Valentine", Napoleon Dynamite, National Front, "Night Rally", "Oliver's Army", and "Party Girl". That's actually one of the less haphazard sequences.

Bruno said that he organized the book this way in order to "be useful as well as playful." Whether it's either is open to debate. What is easier to establish is that in using this unwieldy structure, Bruno fails to properly develop the main premises of his book. Perhaps he has something to say about the Columbus incident, the use of political imagery in Costello's songs, or many other things about Costello. However, by scattering his discussion of the various topics, he never builds on points, and then never comes to any conclusions.

A byproduct of this format is that is allows Bruno to go on much lengthier excursions regarding minutiae than he would have had he organized the book in a more linear manner. Thus, some of the entries that go into British history give way more information than necessary. It's not that the info is totally uninteresting, it's just that Bruno fails to tie it to anything relevant about the subject at hand.

Likewise, in separating the entries about the songs, it makes it hard for the reader to get a coherent picture of the album as a whole, unless he or she wants to keep flipping amongst the song entries, which would be difficult, since there's no index here. Of course, some readers might not be too enamored with Bruno's breaking down songs by chord changes and other elements that you'd have to be a musician to understand. To top it all off, Bruno sometimes assumes the reader has knowledge about certain artistic aspects of Costello that he shouldn't. In a few spots, he jarred me into remembering things, but even I didn't get some of his references, and I was a major fan of this album.

While I love Bruno's music, especially with Nothing Painted Blue, this book has marginal value at best.

Martin Gordon also has a book out about an album – in this case, his newest record. The God's On His Lunchbreak (Please Call Back) Companion is a pamphlet sized book which prints all of the lyrics to Gordon's original songs (and the Gilbert and Sullivan tune!). These are accompanied by essays telling the stories behind the songs, and terrific illustrations by drummer Chris Townson. Between Gordon's witty writing and Townson's pictures, there's a kind of Monty Python aspect to the project. Which isn't to say that Gordon doesn't provide salient information about each song, but it's hard not to read each of his entries on a song without laughing at least once.

My favorite passage is where he discusses sports metaphors in cricket (relating to the song "Bad Light Stops Play"), and a time when an announcer intoned, "Well, the bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey." As Gordon helpfully explains: "It helps to know that, like most words in the English language, ‘willy' is a slang word for the male member." So what do ‘Martin' and ‘Gordon' really mean, hmm???

Of course, it's unlikely that one would purchase the book unless one already owned the album. Well, I suggest you hop on over to martingordon.de, check out some soundclips, and consider getting both the album and the book.

Happy Holidays everyone!

___________________________________________________________

To reach any other page contained in this month's update on Fufkin.com, read the home page for the appropriate link and click on it. You can also search the site from any page using the search box located at the top of each page. Merely type in the word, phrase, name of the band, recording, name of the Fufkin writer that you are looking for or Whatever in the search box, and then click on "Search". If you would like to e-mail us, go to the About Us page for a list of e-mail addresses.

Go back to the home page by clicking here

________________________________________________________________