Here at Flavorwire, we pride ourselves on not only writing some of the best content on the internet, but keeping an eye on all of the great writing that other folks on the ‘net are doing, too. Today, we’ve got a look at where Beck’s Odelay stands 20 years after its release, an examination of the safety of clubs in a post-Pulse shooting world, the trend of videos featuring swearing Irish dads, and a damn crazy Game of Thrones theory.
Stereogum reliably covers the most important album anniversaries with a kind of personal depth that is basically required to sell any album anniversary essay. Their recent piece on Beck’s Odelay is no different. The piece goes into Beck’s relationship with the Dust Brothers, who have kind of been credit for steering him toward longevity after experiencing the breakout success of “Loser.”
With these guys, Beck figured out ways to streamline his sound without dumbing it down. It took forever, to the point where it’s been theorized that the album’s title is a pun on “oh, delay.” Or maybe it’s not streamlined, exactly. Maybe Beck just figured out how to stop getting in his own way. There are big hooks all over Odelay, and the only song that doesn’t really work as a car-radio singalong is the Silver Apples-esque noise-bloops hidden track. “Where It’s At,” the first single, has lyrics that even make sense, albeit intermittently! (It was basically Beck’s version of “Love Shack.”) But even without that, Beck’s whole lost-kid-adrift-on-cable-TV thing struck a zeitgeist-y chord. This was before the internet was something that everyone had to have in every home — I think my parents finally signed up for dial-up America Online around the same time that Odelay came out — but the idea that we were drowning in an overwhelming amount of culture was still somehow a major talking point. And Beck made that sound cool. He sounded happy and at home there.
At Pitchfork’s the Pitch, Marc Hogan talks to club owners about what we need to do in order to keep clubs and venues safe. The answer is pretty commonsensical, but not entirely heartening: we need to get rid of guns. Huh, who woulda thought.
Monika Bernstein, who runs the San Francisco event promotion and production company Blasthaus, echoes what many (including Senate Democrats) believe: Our gun laws are the issue. “Security [here in San Francisco], especially at larger venues, is always diligent about checking bags and pockets for weapons, drugs, etc.,” she says. “But there’s nothing that can stop a person with an armed rifle from shooting their way through the front door.” For her, the solution is keeping guns out of the wrong people’s hands and providing better mental health services.
The Awl does the important work of examining the trend of Irish children posting videos of their Irish fathers swearing at things. This should be the next trend to take Hollywood by storm, honestly.
“Ah you’re a fucking thick c***, I swear to Jaysus. That’s the most stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard in me life.” Only in Ireland could a Dad affectionately call his daughter a c-word and have it send her into a fit of laughter. Second, he calls forth the twin deities of Irish swearing, fuck (or perhaps fook) and Jaysus, both being equally holy, and perhaps related to the similarly Catholic Quebecois sacres swears.
I don’t watch Game of Thrones, but I love reading Game of Thrones conspiracy theories. This is a particularly juicy one that directly relates to last week’s episode, and Arya. We won’t excerpt any of it here, for spoilers’ sake, but head over to Wired to have your mind blown.