Monthly Archives: June 2021

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Things are looking up for music fans. As cities ease COVID restrictions, more and more shows are being booked for the summer and fall. In the meantime, though, you can enjoy the one constant over the last 15-plus months: Valley artists churning out great new music. Here are our picks for the best songs of the month.

As frontman CJ Jacobson told New Times late last year, Paper Foxes spent COVID collaborating as a whole, finding ways to "move forward together." Now, in one of the first pieces of music the band's released in sometime, they share the results via a new single, "Crystal Ball." The crystal ball in question seems to be a greater analogy for hoping that you'd seen heartache coming, and knowing you never truly can. Pair that with some sweet synth sounds, like a more raucous sounding version of The National, and you won't know whether to weep openly or dance your feelings out (the answer's actually both.) If this is what a newly aligned Paper Foxes can deliver, our crystal ball says the future is looking extra bright.

Mega Ran is no stranger to collaborative projects, especially those with a loosely based theme or concept (often involving video games and/or wrestling). Maverick Hunters sees the local MC checking every box as he links up with "otaku" rapper Noveliss for an album celebrating the entire Mega Man video game series. The eight-track LP has plenty of great tracks, including "Dear Summer," which involves "stories of our changing world," or the rasslin' homage "Clash Of The Titans." But the clear standout is "Bubblegum Crisis," which manages to blend nerdy references, wordplay galore, and earnest lyricism over a hypnotic beat courtesy of producer DJ DN. Whichever way your nerd flag flies, consider this a true summer anthem.

When it comes to punk, The Posters take a direct approach. Since forming in 2019, they've perfected a style they describe as "loud and fast," drawing from skate punk and hardcore of the '80s and '90s. That basic blend has proven rather effective, and they've opened for such punk legends as Agent Orange as well as local acts The Dead Beat Hymns and Corky's Leather Jacket. With the band's latest, Ambush!, they continue to distill the essence of punk, resulting in nine rollicking and riotous tracks tailored for your next (as appropriate) slam dance session. Case in point: "This Is It," a lo-fi gem of snarling angst that is both timeless punk rock and a mighty fist raised to the future. The Posters are proof that keeping it simple doesn't mean keeping it safe or boring.

Rochester, New York native Ryan Flynn is an odd duck for sure. He describes his musical efforts as a "perpetual orb-praising space pop venture," and since relocating to Arizona in 2021, he's spent his time "exploring the deserts of space and time and continuously finding new inspiration for music and visual releases." But with songs like "Automatic Love," you'd be quick to dismiss any, um, eccentricities. Just look past the slightly creepy video that involves a dirty basement and property damage; the song itself is an off-kilter synth-pop jam that turns breathy vocals and uneven instrumentation into something genuinely endearing. If it takes being a little silly and nonsensical to happen, then Flynn's dynamic pop stylings are worth the weirdness.

Phoenix garage-punk outfit The Rebel Set would have you believe their latest album, Modern Living, is the perfect summer soundtrack. But forget connotations of a day at the lake, or even a summer get-together around the grill; it's best suited for a summer in our current reality. Case in point: "Going Out In Style," the first single of the 12-track LP. This hodgepodge of peppy surf rock, frills-free new wave, and shimmery '60s pop belies the sense of abandon or outright nihilism sitting at the song's core. But even if this song is all about blasting out of this world on your own terms, it makes a deeply catchy case for such decision-making. Really, that air of "when the going gets weird, the weird get going" feels like the best-case scenario for Planet Earth in 2021.

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Chris Coplan has been a professional writer since the 2010s, having started his professional career at Consequence of Sound. Since then, he's also been published with TIME, Complex, and other outlets. He lives in Central Phoenix with his fiancee, a dumb but lovable dog, and two bossy cats.

See the article here:

The Five Best Songs From Phoenix Musicians in May 2021 - Phoenix New Times

The monetization and other advantages of the Digital Switchover (DSO) remain the most compelling narrative of this convoluting story. The entertainment sector will open up with foaming opportunities. The league of talents available in the sector will suddenly sponge up the opportunities whether in the movies, music, comedy, live theatre shows, technical and every aspect of the entertainment sector, will suddenly become some kind of attractive pie that every entertainer with a little gift, will scramble to have a piece of. And all of us writers will have more stories to write, build up a dome of adjectives to decorate an industry that continues to search for its best days.

This is the one story the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, loves to tell. I cede that to him with all respect. And when he tells the story, he waxes lyrical like Unoka in Things Fall Apart, seducing listeners with his flute, and perhaps those hearing the good news from the Minister will jostle for positions of advantage to reap from an opportunity unfolding piecemeal. The nation is bleeding for good stories. Every little strand is important to drop in the mix.

In spite of some spice of nihilism in a seemingly obliterating situation, I love good news and try to go overboard in search of some crumbs to sweeten our situation. This is why I am contributing this material with the prayers that it be considered dispassionately even by those who grumble that the Simply Tech Column haunts them unjustifiably.

And there is no need to feel that way. The DSO process is a very big thing, bigger than personal convenience and predilections, and Nigeria, with the exaggerated claim of being the biggest economy in Africa, is far behind in execution. This is very painful and only a few people will understand why. While we talk of the business benefits of the DSO, some people fail to actually reason that one of the most important components of the DSO is the social inclusion in the value chain which unfolds into benefits for the ordinary TV viewer.

This is why the NTA, for me, presented a rare piece of good news last week, when it reported the meeting between the lower house of the National Assembly House of Representatives and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to discuss ways of ensuring that the DSO process runs smoothly and also provide benefits for the ordinary Nigerian. It was a smart and needed move by the House and efforts should be channeled into such meetings to prevent the process from atrophying.

Hon. Odebunmi Segun, Chairman, House Committee on Information and National Orientation, in the report monitored by this writer, was very concerned about government expenditure in the DSO and how such expenditures were being managed to profit the ordinary Nigerian out there. Government, he informed, has subsidized 908, 000 Set Top Boxes to be given out free. How far have we gone about it and how many have been activated? he asked.

For a simple recall, DSO means Digital Switchover from analogue broadcasting to digital broadcasting. Although some countries have since concluded the process, Nigeria is only now struggling along. A cardinal feature of the process is that when concluded some television sets will be unable to access TV programming, thus making the Set Top Box, which will help convert these signals, mandatorily indispensable.

In the United States, Government gave out two coupons of $40 each to each TV home. The South African government is giving out free Set Top Boxes through the SABC. Important notice. If you see this message, the station says, go to your nearest Post Office to register for a free government subsidized decoder..to continue receiving a television broadcast.

It thus become very expedient to give considerate concern to the position of the ordinary Nigerian in the DSO value chain. This is the fellow who earns the minimum wage of N30, 000, the fellow for whom there is little respite because even that amount, now less than $65, is not being paid by the state governor who justifies this aggravating wrench with dwindling revenue from Abuja.

A Set Top Box which some nations, including South Africa, are giving out free, costs N10, 000 at the moment. A state government which acquires 10, 000 Set Top Boxes will have to shell out N1bn. This is a lot of money especially in the face of the economic tailspin facing the nation, and this Math staggered me last week into thinking that the DSO was heading for the rocks if some ingenuity was not introduced into the process. The ordinary folk cannot afford it and the government may not want to be involved, pleading a worsening economic reality.

But here is my appeal. An attractive spinoff of the DSO is the Digital Dividends which will cede the broadcast frequencies given up by broadcasters to the telecommunications industry. When former DG of the NBC, Mr Emeka Mba, tested the waters, one of such frequencies was ingeniously sold to MTN for about N34bn. There are two left, this writer was reliably informed. Even when I am the first to admit that the worsening security situation in the country will likely attenuate the value of the remaining two, there may still be the compelling need to put them up for sale. While such monies would necessarily go to the Federation Account, it is my appeal that a significant percentage be given to the NBC as seed fund to acquire Set Top Boxes for some TV homes across the country.

While one was pained by the insipid participation of the Lagos State Government in the DSO launch in Lagos recently, my prayer is that as the exercise berths in Kano, the State Government and the Local Councils should be fully mobilized to be part of the process, and explore the possibility of funding some Boxes for those who cant afford them economically. In addition, businesses, as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR), should fund some Boxes while wealthy individuals should give some kind considerations to the ordinary Nigerians by funding their little window to the world.

This is what I think. The DSO process is far from being foolproof. There are too many contradictions and checkpoints that can abort the process any time, too much of dredges that wont be healthy to wash up. But the process should be niftily managed for the sake of the people. Some of us will also need to manage our badly concealed interests, expectations and plain but irritating meddlesomeness. The ordinary Nigerian needs a little space. You cant take food from his table and also take his television. That will be wicked.

Okoh Aihe writes from Abuja

Read the original:

For DSO, a little consideration for the ordinary Nigerian - TheCable

It was April 2019. I was seven months pregnant and in Topshop, looking for something large in which to rehome my body.

I was wearing a maternity dress that, if you had seen me pregnant, you would have recognised a cheap, pleated wraparound in a red floral print that expanded as I expanded. I imagined Issey Miyake, but increasingly looked more like an armchair. It had served me well, but I was determined to buy something, anything, to see me through the next few months.

I had been inside for 20 minutes, moving slowly between the rails like an icebreaker, when I started to feel breathless, then nauseous. Neither was unusual in my pregnancy, so I left the shop looking for a bench. There was no need once outside, I suddenly felt calm. I realised it wasnt the baby making me sick. It was the stuff the rows and rows of stuff.

I couldnt quite explain what had happened until I read Mark OConnells 2020 book, Notes From an Apocalypse. In it, OConnell described a similar experience at a branch of Yo! Sushi, as he watched a conveyor belt go round and round: I thought about the volume of animal and human flesh required to keep the system going, he wrote. Suddenly, he, too, became breathless, experiencing a kind of abstract terror at the delirium of commerce.

While it was sushi that did for OConnell, it was mass-produced dresses that did for me. Everything is commodified and nothing is sustainable. This truth overwhelmed me. Two years later, that cheap red dress is one of the last new things I own. The only clothes I buy are secondhand.

The operative word here is new, because what happened in Topshop wasnt so much a Damascene moment as a corrective to something already in motion. I really love clothes, but I have always tended to buy used ones. As a student in Leeds, it was fashionable to dress as if in the past, so I bought my frayed Levis 501s in vintage shops. In my first job in journalism, in 2007, I was earning minimum wage, so I went to charity shops out of necessity. When I started earning a bit more, I upgraded to vintage from Beyond Retro, because the jeans had the high waists I so desired.

Occasionally, I felt the siren call of the high street or, when I entered fashion journalism in 2013, sample sales. But, in the end, I always return to eBay or, lately, the fashion resale site Vestiaire Collective. I dont look for vintage, an amorphous term that usually means it costs more, and I am unsure about the marketing terms resale and preloved, which feel loaded. I prefer the term used, because that is what they are. And, generally speaking, used clothes, even designer ones, are good value old Chlo lasts longer than new Zara and costs roughly the same.

It helped to create a plan that was clear, but not so drastic that I would immediately give up I could buy new underwear, or trainers for sport, but nothing else. If I really wanted a new dress, it had to be old. The key, I realised, was to value appetite over principle, to go with the carrot, not the stick. If I cracked which I did, twice I would simply move on.

It helped, also, that I had a baby. I didnt gain much weight, but my belly became a souffle and the idea of buying in-between clothes returnitywear, if you will bummed me out. Plus, few things prevent you from wafting around shops like having a toddler. It goes without saying that my son wears only old clothes or hand-me-downs.

Lockdown has helped, too. Over the past six months, I have had more time to look at what I already own, to get trousers re-hemmed, or just iron stuff so that it looks better. I conduct inventories, weighing up what I need (trousers, thermal vests) and what I dont (everything else). I try to operate a one-in-one-out policy, donate to clothes banks or sell things on eBay.

It also helps to not look. Over Christmas, I wanted a yellow beret I had seen in a shop window. I have a navy beret, but this was yellow. I thought about it a lot. Then, suddenly, I didnt and now it is summer. Once you look past the want and are honest about the need, desire dries up pretty fast. Capitalism is for children, says the author and psychotherapist Adam Phillips, in the sense that it preys upon how our desires are easily exploited. If people are not given time to find out what they want, they tend to grab things.

If I do land on something appealing (usually algorithmically on Instagram), I simply note the designer and look on eBay. I find that this has the useful effect of either sharpening or dulling that desire. There is a thrill in the hunt. You have to really want something to bid on it for days on end. Not everyone has the time to do this I do it while cooking, waiting for the kettle to boil, sitting on the bus but often I lose interest, which decides for me.

The fashion industry is one of the worlds great polluters. Initially, buying used clothes was a financial imperative, but working in fashion gave me a heightened awareness of the carbon, water and waste footprints of clothes production, as well as the working and living conditions of many of the people who make the clothes. It has become a difficult square to circle. At some point, resisting consumerism becomes the only ethical choice.

This situation is not confined to fashion. It defines our economic system. With its supply chains, developing-world factories and ceaseless creation of trends, fashion is at the sharp end of 21st-century capitalism, but it is not an outlier.

Some clothing companies have begun to modify their practices. Sustainability has shifted from buzzword to normality. This is commendable, but at times it can feel like a loophole new stuff is still new stuff, no matter how sustainably you dress it up. On average, 40% of the clothes in European wardrobes are not worn.

It probably sounds unusual that someone who until recently had spent seven years as a fashion editor would give up new clothes, like a pusher renouncing drugs. In some ways, it is about separating church from state I write about what people are wearing and why, rather than what they should. Fashions role is to reflect the world and provide visual cues about someones identity. Fashion should be fun, a form of self-expression, while clothes can reveal cultural trends, even sociopolitical ones. That is why we care about Trumps Maga hat, or Billie Eilish in a corset in Vogue. Even if you dont have an interest in what you wear, you are communicating as much.

The photographer Kate Friend is one of the best-dressed people I know, yet owns very little. I dont like a lot of stuff in any aspect of life, she says. Like wearing an old mink coat while condemning fur, she believes buying any clothes, new or old, is counterproductive to sustainability, because it creates desire. The greenest product is the one you dont buy. By not buying, you attempt to rewire the need for new, she says.

Friend buys two items of clothing a year and tops up underwear every six months. Last year, I got two Acne jackets, one short and shirt-like, one very long and oversized. One or both will get worn most days a week over something very basic, she says. If these items fulfilled certain criteria (I have to be sure Ill wear it weekly, if not daily, and it has to be adaptable to all sorts of situations), she will wear them until they fall apart.

Her mindset is driven by her work as a nature photographer. I like to wear uniform things that I can move around in and are easy to pack, she says. And if spending time among plants or landscapes informs what we really need, it definitely isnt a ton of clothes.

Of course, there is a difference between not buying things and not being able to. Rebecca May Johnson, an Essex-based writer and academic, has bought one thing so far this year. She spends most of her disposable income on her allotment. When she has money for clothes, she prefers to buy from Old Town in Holt, Norfolk, which makes clothes to order (not to measure), so there is no waste, and the clothes are sent to you after six weeks. They last a long time and are beautifully made. The clothes are not cheap, but they really suit how I live and feel in my body, she says.

Johnson says this is simply her choice. I do not attribute any moral value to buying or not buying things. People take their pleasure where they can in the ways they can, especially if choices are limited by income and working conditions, she says. Buying nice stuff is nice, nothing more.

I told my Topshop story to Patrick Fagan, a behavioural psychologist at Goldsmiths, University of London. Were you overwhelmed by the futility and nihilism of consumerism? Id say so, he says, pointing me towards a change of thinking dating back to at least the 1960s that says that we have become consumers, rather than producers, and have less control over our lives. This, he says, has created a hole that consumerism cant fill.

There is a subconscious rule of thumb that if something is new, it must be good, and in some cases thats true, says Fagan. But its also about having autonomy buying new things feeds into that. Make something new, but familiar, and people will buy it.

There are times when I have failed. The first was when I returned to work from maternity leave during lockdown. I wasnt at home and had only a few breastfeeding T-shirts with me, so I bought a gaudy blue silk shirt, which was, on reflection, a panic-buy Zoom shirt. (I rarely wear it.) The second time was late last summer, when I was caring for my ill mother during the lockdown. Shopping was impossible, but also, because of mum, unthinkable.

On one particularly dark day, as she lay dying upstairs, I went online and bought a coat. It was oversized in navy wool, not unlike a blanket. I dont know why I bought it I imagine now it was some sort of salve but when it arrived, wrapped in crisp white paper, with me knowing my mother would be dead by the time it was cold enough to wear it, I could barely look at it. Then, and truly then, the fantasy of easy acquisition was exposed for all its emptiness.

Rather than buying new ones, I wore her clothes to the funeral (they are nice and we were the same size). This is quite common, says Fagan: When people are faced with mortality, they want to hold on to nostalgic things with meaning. By wearing her clothes, I felt connected to her.

Paola Locati is a fashion consultant who has worked in the industry for more than 20 years, yet she has barely bought anything new in five. Like me, it was a perfect storm of personal events turning 50, putting on weight, her mother dying that changed her outlook. You think: ah, Ill buy clothes in the hope of losing weight, but its a false economy, she says.

Now, Locati follows a few arbitrary rules. She buys clothes only to replace ones she has worn out. She repurposes clothes she already owns. And she tries to wear the clothes she inherited from her late mother.

I know I am still scratching a consumer itch, but, in cutting out the new, I value what I have already. As Samuel Delany wrote in his 1979 memoir Heavenly Breakfast: Its nice to have most of the people knocking around in something once beautiful, with wear grown comfortable.

Read more from the original source:

I felt nauseous in Topshop: why a fashion editor gave up buying new clothes - The Guardian