How many hours a day do you spend on your phone, facebook, twitter, blogs, gmail, email, buzz, chat, your ipod, etc.? If you're anything like me, it's way too many. Between work, home and in between, my life is ruled by digital media. I'm constantly alone but hopelessly connected to 3 billions of people at any given moment in my daily existence. But how many times do any of us stop to think "Isn't there something wrong with living this way?"
Onward to the May Mixtape (Mix Storyboard?... DIY Compilation Album? ... Music Put Together for a Purpose?):
Here's the track list:
(The stories are divided into DGTL MTLDWN = DM and Phone Tag = PT)
President - DM
IAMX
The Alternative (2008)
Call on Me (radio edit) - PT
Eric Prydz
Call on Me (2004)
Science Fiction+Double Feature - DM
Richard O'Brien
Rocky Horror Picture Show: Music From the Motion Picture (1975)
Hello - PT
Floetry
Floetic (2002)
Midnight Show - DM
The Killers
Hot Fuss (2004)
Call Me - PT
Tweet
Southern Hummingbird (2002)
On the Radio - DM
Donna Summer
On the Radio: Greatest Hist Volumes 1 & 2 (1979)
Video Killed the Radio Star - DM
The Buggles
The Age of Plastic (1979)
Call Me When You Get This - PT
Corinne Bailey Raye
Corinne Bailey Raye (2006)
Telephone (feat. Beyonce) - PT
LadyGaga
The Fame Monster (2010)
TV Casualty - DM
Misfits
Static Age (1997)
Wake Up Call - PT
Maroon 5
It Won't Be Soon Before Long (2007)
How Come you Don't Call Me - PT... written by Prince, who knew?
Alicia Keys
Songs in A Minor (2001)
Videotape - DM
Radiohead
In Rainbows (2009)
Call Me Up - PT
Gang of Four
A Brief History of the Twentieth Century (1990)
Computer Blue - DM
Prince and The Revolution
Purple Rain (1984)
Drnk Txt Romeo - PT/DM (there's a case for both)
Gym Class Heroes
The Quilt (2008)
Call Me When You're Sober - PT
Evanescence
The Open Door (2006)
Online - DM
Gnarls Barkley
St. Elsewhere (2006)
Say Goodbye - PT
Eva Cassidy
Eva by Heart (1997)
Hello Stranger - PT
Barbara Lewis
Hello Stranger (1963)
Tomorrow Comes Today - DM
Gorillaz
Gorillaz (2001)
Here's the methodology: (If you're still reading it's your own fault)
DGTL MTLDWN: The case of 22 yr old nostalgia
On my long-postponed visit to the Guggenheim I came across this image:
Hi Way 39 Drive-In, Orange
Hiroshi Sugimoto
1993
Beyond the beautiful composition and the humbling moment I had when standing in front of this beautiful image, I realized that a) immediately recognized this image as a drive in movie screen and b) anyone younger than the age of 15 probably wouldn't. Granted, though I was working on this mix before I saw Sugimoto's work (blame it angst brought on by spending too many hours designing in InDesign + reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
) seeing this piece of technological history offered a bit of perspective. Although I've lived only two years past two decades I've seen technology advance, decay and resurrect more times than any of my predecessors have had in the better parts of their 50 years. My generation was there for:
• actual analog tapes and walkmans, taping songs off the radio and writing down lists to tape from one deck to another
• drive-in movies in the summer time (double features still existed)
• the box and mtv, calling in to request videos
• party lines
• cordless phones
• big brick cellphones
• video tapes
• old school green and black monitor computers (yay oregon trails in the guidance counselor's office)
• big fat heavy video cameras and home movies
• cd cases and discmans
• dvds
• the concept of the laptop
• the birth of the mp3
• blogs
• the ipod revolution
• cell phones instead of house phones
• aol free minute discs sent to every household
• aim
• texting
• reality tv
• myspace
• facebook
• the google takeover
• netflix
• chatting
• youtube
• craigslist
• ebooks
• twitter
• ipads
Of course I'm missing things but you get the point. Video killed the Radio star and Internet killed the Video star. One of the interns at work pointed out the MTV should be renamed because they don't even play music anymore... all they have is bad reality shows. But who needs MTV when you have YouTube? Why make the trip to Blockbuster when Netflix delivers to your door? Is it our job as twenty-somethings between the old age and the new to maintain the collective memory of all of these things that have been left behind in the wake of progress?
We're in the peculiar state of growing up with the "future" (in the 1984 sense of the word) with memories of the past trailing behind us like tin cans on a string. Our personal timelines are intertwined with the birth and death of different technological mediums and yet, we have taken it all in stride.
DGTL MLTDWN is my iTunes library compilation of my timeline. From the Pied Piper's call to all the lonely people in the world in President (read by me as a call to this new world of progress) and the "late night double feature picture show" from RHPS that I remember seeing every summer at the drive-in with my parents to the feelings of isolation in Online and acknowledging the fact that "the digital won't let me go" in Tomorrow Comes Today. This is my (albeit angsty) creative output of an awakening. But the question is, where do I go from here?
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Phone Tag (or my lessons in cellphone dating)
This one's shorter, I promise.
Once there was a dude. This dude seemed cool when we first met and after having a good night I wanted to get to know him better. This dude had card... in some people's opinion poorly designed but that's neither here nor there... which he presented to me and said "Call me. We should hang out some time." So the next day I texted him (I don't even know this guy why would I call him? Texting is safer) and he texted back. This went on for a good 3 weeks. We chatted using yahoo messenger (GOD why do I still have that account?). We became friends on facebook. We went to one movie together. There were 0 phone calls made. Does anyone else see something wrong with this picture?
Well when you're in a lonely, angry city like nyc plus the inherent uncertainty of the dating game, when you add in a system of communication without actually having to talk to people, it's no mystery why that thing with that dude didn't go anywhere. But then it dawned on me phones... especially cell phones... can make, break and mend relationships. It's so much easier to profess your love to, release your anger on, rekindle old flames with and blatantly ignore people when they're not sitting directly in front of you. The mere separation made us bold and with the further distance/convenience of answering machines, voicemail, caller id, texting and messaging we can say and do pretty much anything we want and not have to deal with immediate aftermath. It's dangerous territory but definitely not uncharted waters. All of the songs in Phone Tag deal with the relationship situations, problems,and solutions that come with telecommunications. Enjoy!
See you in June ;)
