Books: What Is Heavy Metal? - A Review Of Electric Wizards By JR Moores

 (Drivebycuriosity) - I am a connoisseur of Heavy Metal and enjoyed quite a lot of heavy bands either solo or at  Psycho Las Vegas, Desert Fest, Fire in the Mountains, Chicago Open Air and more festivals. When JR Moores´ book "Electric Wizards: A Tapestry of Heavy Music, 1968 to the Present" appeared on my radar, I had to purchase it ( amazon). The title gives the impression that the author wrote about the history of Heavy Metal.

It turned out that the title is misleading, Moores has a very peculiar understanding of what is "heavy", which I explain in this post.

Surprisingly Moores begins with a chapter about Beatles`song "Helter Skelter" from 1968. He calls this piece "heavy" and claims all over his book that this piece started Heavy Metal. Really? 

"Helter Skelter" is loud, fast & violent, but certainly not heavy. Guitars and vocals are rather high pitched, the bass underwhelming. Apparently the author is too young to know Rolling Stones`"19th Nervous Breakdown" from 1966. The piece has already massively downtuned riffs. It is known for Bill Wyman's so-called "dive-bombing" bass line at the end ( wikipedia). And "My Generation" by The Who is even more massive and turns into a Heavy Metal riot. The early Stones & Who pieces were much closer to Heavy Metal than any Beatles song.

Why does Moores ignore the classics? The final act of Mozart`s Don Giovanni, the "Commendatore Scene" ( youtube), is much heavier than most of the bands mentioned by Moores. This is also true for Mozart`s`"Requiem", Bach`s "Toccata and Fugue in D minor for Organ", Wagner`s "Götterdämmerung", Strauss´ "Ein Heldenleben", Beethoven´s symphonies and the compositions by Sibelius, Grieg and many others.

Eventually on page 29 Moores arrives at Heavy Metal and introduces Black Sabbath, the godfathers of the genre. On about 10 pages he analyzes their epochal album "Paranoid", later recordings and their "employment of downtuned guitars" and "angular riffs". Right! But he also mentions Bruce Springsteen and the Vietnam War in this chapter. What is their relation with Heavy Metal?

Then follow around 120 pages about different genres & bands, including country rockers Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa, psychedelic bands like Doors & Jefferson Airplane, the Japanese avant-garde group Les Rallizes Dénudes, German Krautrock (Amon Düül, Can, Kraftwerk etc.), jazz composer Sun Ra, punk bands like the Clash & Sex Pistols. There are also chapters about Caribbean Rastafaris and Reggae bands plus about 12 pages about Funkadelic and other American disco bands! Where is the heaviness?

The reader has to wait till page 165 where Moores eventually portraits the Melvins, an influential eclectic band which mixes drone and other heavy metal elements with punk and classic rock.

Finally on pages 232-268 follow more Heavy Metal bands: Sleep, Earth, Sunn O))) & Electric Wizard plus Stoner bands like Kyuss & Queens of the Stone Age.

 

                              Missing The Mark

 

"Electric Wizards" is disappointing. The author missed the mark by far. Even though Moores shamelessly borrowed the title from the English doom metal band "Electric Wizard", the book is not about Heavy Metal. Just about 60 pages from around 330 are about Heavy Metal bands, less than 20%. The Select Discography at the end of the book - including Fugazi, PJ Harvey, The Kingsmen, Sly & the Family Stone, Bruce Springsteen, REM, Muddy Waters, Butthole Surfers -  confirms this.

How could he overlook the ubiquitous Scandinavian Heavy Metal scene, influenced by the sheer eternal dark Nordic winters and the compositions of Sibelius & Grieg? How could he ignore influential bands like Yob, Cough or Wolves in the Throne Room?

Apparently philistine Moores dismisses the classical composers and most of the Heavy Metal bands for political reasons. He cares more about the political attitude of the bands than their music, bands who "expoused socialist and humanist causes with some anarchism". 

The book turns out as a political pamphlet about "depressed and disillusioned council workers, anxiety-ridden joggers, racist attacks on scapegoated minorities, fallout from insufficient flood defenses, amazon warehouse workers" etc. etc. No wonder that the book ends with complaints about the political situation in the UK and the US. What is Heavy Metal? Moores doesn`t care.

PS: On top of this post I put an image from "Sleep" performing @ Psycho Las Vegas 2017 ( driveby).

 

Contemporary Art: Beautiful Explosions @ Andrew Kreps Gallery New York

(Drivebycuriosity) - Contemporary art is full of discoveries. On a walk on Broadway in Manhattan`s Tribeca district I spotted a wonderful exhibition @ Andrew Kreps Gallery ( andrewkreps). 

They exhibited works by Goshka Macuga, who is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London ( press). The show is called "When ice melts in a glass of water". This sounds like a Japanese poem, but I don`t know why.

 

Apparently the artist is fascinated by explosions, either man made or by nature.

 

Anyway, these explosions - so terrible they are - are really beautiful.

 

To be continued

Books: The Marginal Revolutionaries By Janek Wasserman

(Drivebycuriosity) - In the early 20th century some Austrian economists used to meet at Café Sacher and other famous coffee houses in Vienna and debated the trends of their genre. Albeit these economists differed in many things, they shared a common belief in the rights of the individuals and in free markets. They disputed Socialists and leftish thinkers like John Maynard Keynes and his followers who advertised that the economy should be regulated by the government.

The Austrian think school spread over to the US, Germany and England and gained a strong influence on the development of economics and politicians like Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Argentine´s President Javier Milei. Janek Wasserman, Professor of History at University of Alabama, describes in his book "The Marginal Revolutionaries: How Austrian Economists fought the war of ideas" ( amazon). 

Friedrich Hayek (1899 -1992 ) is the most famous of the Austrian economists. He was an opponent of John Maynard Keynes and objected the Brit´s recipes of fine tuning the economy through government measures. Hayek explained that consumers & entrepreneurs know best what they need. He described that free markets are the most efficient way to satisfy the needs the consumers and to allocate scarce resources. Hayek wrote: "The spontaneous interaction of a number of people, each possessing only bits of knowledge, brings about a state of affairs in which prices correspond to costs".     

In the year 1974 Hayek received the Nobel Prize for Economics for his book "Road to Serfdom", but he had to share the award with Swedish left-wing Gunnar Myrdal. Anyway, Hayek´s "Road to Serfdom", that defended the rights of individuals and sharply opposed totalitarian systems on the right (Fascism) and left (Socialism), could be seen as the "Austrian Bible". Hayek declared that "economic freedom unchained intellectual capabilities via scientific progress and lifted the standard of living for all. The retreat into socialism jeopardized ´Western Civilization`by stifling spontaneous impulses through coercive government action". Hayek warned that the "tyranny of the majority always looms as a threat to individuals and minorities".

Hayek and other "Austrians" got influenced by Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973), who was a sharp critic of governments attempts to control the economy, either from the left (Socialists, Marxists) or the right (Nationalsocialists, known as Nazis). According to Mises the economy functions best when it is left alone. He described how the unregulated decisions of consumers, inventors & entrepreneurs (capitalism) lead to the best use of scarce resources (rational allocation of resource).

Carl Menger (1840-1921), who also belonged to the godfathers of the Austrian School, focused on the individuals and their preferences. He explained how markets function and how everybody benefits from free trade: "People will give up what they value less in return for what they value more, which is why both sides can gain from an exchange". Menger was one of the first who defined the term "marginal utility": The additional satisfaction or benefit (utility) that a consumer derives from buying an additional unit of a commodity or service".

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (1851-1904), another early "Austrian", explained the use of interest rates. A Dollar tomorrow has less value than a Dollar today. Therefore people accept a later payment, when they receive an extra payment for this delay (the interest), the more the later the payment. VBB called entrepreneurs "as a class of individuals engaged in speculative ventures". I think that is good definition of Elon Musk. These entrepreneurs "earned their wealth not through the exploitation of labor or land (as Marx & Co. claim) but through their far-sighted commitment to the production of goods".

 

                Move Fast And Destroy Things

And there were more influential "Austrians":

Fritz Machlup (1902-1983) emphasized the importance of information for the functioning of markets and the economy and explained the relation between exchange rates and the balance of payments.

Gottfried Haberler (1900-1995) focused on  comparative advantage in international trade.

Josef Schumpeter (1883-1950 ) became famous for his stylish elegant "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy ( a pleasure to read in German) and coined the term "constructive destruction", describing the relationship between innovation and economic development - Mark Zuckerberg`s: "Move fast and destroy things".

Oskar Morgenstern, born in Germany, but educated at University of Vienna, was a pioneer of game theory.

The philosopher Karl Popper (born 1902 in Vienna) was not an economist, but he supported the "Austrian" view with his elaborated critique on Marxism.

The (early) Austrians focused on consumption, not on production (opposite to Marx & Co), and declared that "the satisfaction of the wants of consumers matters for the economy". They  introduced the term marginal utility into economics. This term "describes the change in utility (pleasure or satisfaction resulting from the consumption) of one unit of a good or service" ( wikipedia). For instance a second class of beer could bring more satisfaction than the first, but the additional gain by a third glass maybe zero, and more glasses of beer could have negative effects (intoxication, hangover or worse ). 

The simple image on top of this post shows the curves of marginal and total utility. The maximum utility is reached when the marginal line hits zero (following Calculus). Economists also use similar curves for costs and other variables to depict maxima of profits and other indicators.

In 1947 the "Austrians" founded the Mont Pèlerin Society, named after a Swiss Alpine resort town. The members asserted a commitment to the rule of law, private property, competitive markets, international economic relations, and liberty. Since then their annual conferences attracted many classic liberal economists, including James Buchanan and the Chicago economists Gary Becker and Milton Friedman.

Milton Friedman joked: "There is no such thing as Austrian economics - only good economics, and bad economics". Anyway, today´s "Austrians" represent a complex system of conflicting ideas and schools of thought. Sadly today`s "Austrian" School drifted away from economics and gets represented by sectarians like Ron Paul, a former flight surgeon and obstetrician-gynecologist.

This blog post is just a sketch to outline the basic ideas and trends of a very complex topic. Wasserman elaborates on almost 300 pages the development of the different schools of thinking, the conflicts inside the "Austrians" school and their feuds with Keynes, Galbraith and their followers. We learn about the careers of many more economist I could mention here, describes their successes and failures, their publications & meetings and spices his report with a lot anecdotes. Highly recommend for any scholar of the history of economics.

 

 

Economics: What Is Wrong With The Michigan 5-Year Inflation Expectations

(Drivebycuriosity) - If we believe the University of Michigan, in the next 5 years the US inflation rate will stay around 3%. This is the result of a poll, called "Michigan 5-Year Inflation Expectations" ( trading).

How can these people know what will happen in the next five years? Do they have any idea what caused the high inflation of the recent years? Apparently the so-called 5-year expectations are just an extrapolation of the recent trends.  

The image on top of the post shows that the variable went down before 2020, because inflation rates were very low, and then it went up again, following the rising inflation ( trading).

 

                         Uneducated Guess

 

 (source )

The polled expectations ignore that the reported inflation numbers are inflated by the "shelter costs", a mix of rents & house prices, which count for about 40% of the core-inflation and 27% of the headline inflation! In April 2024 inflation ex shelter was just 2.2%! ( bls.gov ). Unfortunately the statisticians calculate their "shelter costs" from rent payments from the past, therefore the "shelter" component has a time lag of 12-18 months! (marketwatch aier  cato). The actual reported inflation numbers are a view into the rear window.  

To make things worse, the poll is just an uneducated guess. It ignores the causes of inflation. In 2020 & 2021 the US government flooded the economy with stimulus checks in the value of trillions of dollars (American Rescue Plan), supported by massive bond purchases by the Federal Reserve. The government money landed directly on the bank accounts of the Americans, blowing up the money volume M2 (bank notes & coins & deposits at banks). Milton Friedman described this as helicopter money (cato ).

As a result in 2020 & 2021 the US money supply M2, the engine of the inflation, jumped 40%. The money deluge met a constrained supply of goods & services partly - because of Covid19. "Inflation is caused by too much money chasing too few goods and services", noticed the economists at fisherinvestments".

The causal connection between money and inflation is known since the 16th century at least. Nicolaus Copernicus described already in the year 1522 how "too much money" causes inflation. Copernicus` "quantity theory of money" is based on observations: 

Early in the 16th century Spain conquered today`s Latin America and looted the silver stocks. The Spaniards send the precious metal to Europe where is was printed into coins and used as money.

As a result the European money supply jumped, meeting a restrained supply of goods (agriculture, hand works) &  services. The flood of money raised suddenly the demand for scarce goods & services and caused a jump of the price level.

Elaborated studies by Milton Friedman, Karl Brunner, Allan Meltzer and many other economists (known as Monetarists) described already in the 1960s how and why the inflation rate follows the growth rate of money with a time lag (causal connection).

 

 (fred.stlouisfed )

Fortunately the monetary growth has already peaked in February 2021 (with plus 27%). Since then the monetary growth rates have been falling and turned negative in December 2022 (image above). In the recent months the money supply has been shrinking!. 

The poll also ignores that the technological progress works against inflation because it reduces prices for many things, not just computers & smartphones. Internet, automation & other aspects of the technological progress are reducing the costs of producing & distributing stuff, curbing inflation. Therefore inflation was low before the money deluge of 2020/21 hiked the price level. But the money deluge is over.

The German poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller had an explanation for the stubbornly misguided "Michigan 5-Year Inflation Expectations":  "Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain".

Art Market: Impressionists & More @ Some Tidbits From Spring Auctions 2024 New York

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - In the recent two weeks New York´s global auction houses had their huge spring auctions. Besides masses of contemporary works there were also a lot Impressionists and other epochs. Since I focus on contemporary art I display here just some tidbits from the galleries at Christie´s, Sotheby`s & Phillips.

On top of this post you can see my favorite: René Magritte´s "Le Banquet".

 

At Phillips I discovered this wonderful Monet: "La route de Vétheuil, effet de neige".

 

I also love "Interior with a Stove" by Vilhelm Hammershøi.

 

Above follows "Sans Titre" by the Chilean surrelist Matta.

 

This beauty by Egon Schiele also caught my eyes: "Stehender Akt mit Draperietuch"

Moisle Kisling´s females can easily be recognized by his idiosyncratic style: "Femme à l'écharpe bleue".

 

 

Robert Henri´s "Portrait of Sarah Burke" is an eye catcher as well.

Above follows Leonor Fini`s "Le Train".

I couldn`t resist to collect some of the ubiquitous nudes: Max Pechstein`s “Akt Ill, sitzend von vorne (Marta)”  paintings by: Pierra Bonnard:  "Nus’Habillitant" & "Nu de profil, jambe droite levée".

 

Last but not least Alexander Calder`s “Cornucopia”.

Enjoy!

Football: 1. FC Heidenheim - How A Small City Club Succeeds In Germany`s First League

 (Drivebycuriosity) - If you are interested in football, in the US known as soccer, you might follow Deutsche  Bundesliga. Germany´s first football division has a new member: 1. FC Heidenheim. The clubs doesn`t have the huge budgets of Bayern München, Dortmund, Red Bull Leibzig, VFL Wolfsburg (owned by Volkswagen) or Bayer Leverkusen, owned by pharma giant Bayer. The newcomer`s home is Heidenheim, a tiny industrial town (50,000 residents) between Stuttgart and Munich. The club isn´t supported by the fan base of a big city, neither are there huge sponsors. Anyway, in its first season in the Bundesliga, the top German league, Heidenheim collected 42 points and finished at 8th place of a table with 18 teams.

 

( source)

Heidenheim`s success was made by Frank Schmidt, the lead coach of the club. In 2007, Schmidt, a former soccer player, who also is educated in banking (Bankkaufmann), took the lead of Heidenheim when they played just in Germany´s Oberliga, the fourth tier of the professional system. Since then he had led the club upwards, even with tiny budgets. In season 2008-09 Heidenheim climbed to Regionalliga Süd (third tier), in 2009-10 up to 3rd Liga (league), in 2013-14 to 2nd Bundesliga and finally reached the Bundesliga in 2022-23. 

 

                      Combative Mindset

In his autobiography "Unkaputtbar" Schmidt tells the club`s history and explains his concept ( amazon). The word means "indestructible", contrary to the German term "kaputt gehen" - a quote by another German football coach, who praised Heidenheim`s & Schmidt`s very combative mindset.

According to Schmidt, Heidenheim`s sociological & economical background is shaped by the climate (highest and coldest stadium in German professional football) and the frugal regional "Swabian" mentality. Because Heidenheim relies on a tiny budget, the club could not keep top players for long. If one of them got attention, for instance as goal shooter, a bigger club wanted to buy him (the contract between club & player). These transfers supported the finances of the little club. 

Therefore the coach often needed to find replacements who fit into the club and to Schmidt´s concept. For instance next season Heidenheim will have to replace Eren Dinkçi, one of the "Leistungsträger" (high performers), who was on loan from Werder Bremen. Next season Dinkçi will play for Freiburg, who payed allegedly € 5 million to Bremen who owns the contract. But Heidenheims´s rise shows that the coach not only successfully replaced the "Leistungsträger", he shaped the team even stronger!

Schmidt wrote: "Heidenheim is a chance for many players. We often chose players, who failed elsewhere. Players who start promising, but whose careers stall. These are very good premises - for the player as well as for us. Giving someone a second chance is not only human, it usually also pays back".

Heidenheim`s coach chooses players who are capable to confront new situations without fear and are passionate. Schmidt wants resilience, the ability to never give up. He claims that mentality can be exercised and can been exemplified by the coach. If the coach strives to win always, then the team endeavors to win always as well.

Schmidt doesn`t measure a player by the goals he scores, but by how many chances he realizes, and primarily, how he behaves, after missing a goal chance and if he is unflinching. 

The coach likes challenges; when the team stands with "its back to the wall" he has to find a solution. "There is nothing better, than having a new idea to revitalize a difficult situation".

Schmidt lays the basis on athletic exercise, giving the team the strength to run more kilometers - and more sprints - than their opponent. But crucial is the willingness to reach the limits again and again and even to shift them sometimes. 

I believe that this mentality gives Heidenheim the chance to perform even better in the coming seasons. Time will well. 

Good luck to Schmidt and 1. FC Heidenheim.

 

 

 

Books: How To Write A Thriller - In A Lonely Place By Dorothy B. Hughes

 (Drivebycuriosity) - Do you want to write a thriller? Maybe around 200 pages about a serial killer? Easy! First, You will need a map of Los Angeles. The City of Angels is world famous and stage of myriads of thrillers. You mention the names of streets, places and neighborhoods, like Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica Canyon, Westwood etc. They fill already about a third of the book. And everybody knows these names from novels of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and other writers.

You also need a protagonist. What about you young fellow, a good for nothing, who has no occupation. A guy who stays in someone else`s flat in LA, who is far away, and he lives from the checks of a trusting uncle (from he also steals). The guy has plenty of time, for whatever he´s up to. He also has good friend in LA, who is a cop, and he becomes acquainted with the friend`s friends, who are cops as well. And from the begin the reader senses that something is wrong with this fellow.

Dorothy B. Hughes published her novel "In a lonely Place" in the year 1947 (amazon) ). Apparently she tried to exploit the popularity of hard-boild thrillers by Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hammett and others, who also set their novels in Los Angeles. But Hughes`plot is unbelievable & ridiculous, especially the friendship with cops, who investigate the case of a series killer in LA.

The book got a lot attention, maybe because a woman and not a man dived, dives into the mind of an especially creepy and disillusioned young man. Some years later Patricia Highsmith wrote her Ripley series and did a much better job.

 

Art Market: Tidbits From Spring Auctions 2024 @ Phillips New York

  (Drivebycuriosity) - It is the season for the huge spring auctions of the global auction houses in New York City. I already posted about the auction galleries @ Christie`s (here ) and Sotheby`s ( here).  

 

This post is about the galleries @ Phillips, the number 3 of the global auction hosues. The company has the reputation to be more focused on contemporary works than her bigger competitors and to show more cutting edge art by up-and-coming artists. But they also had some big names. I display here some of my favorites from the exhibition - as usual a very subjective selection.

 

This post starts with "Washing Line, Early Morning, May" by Caroline Walker, who belongs to my favorite artists because she displays simple motifs in a cinematic way. I discovered her work @ a show in London in 2019 (my post ).

 

Above another cinematic painting: "It`s Friedrich" by Friedrich Kunath.

 

I also love Julien Nguyen`s "Point Break".

 

 Then follow "After Albers (LA Sunset)" by Dominic Chambers;"A Soft Rein" by Shannon Cartier Lucy & "Cake With Thong" by Danielle Orchard. 

 

Above follows Dan Collen´s "Mother (Well)". I already blogged about a Dan Collen show at Gagosian ( here). Then you can see "Staten Island Ferry Docking" by Richard Estes.

Salman Toor`s "The Picnic" & Haley Josephs`"May you bloom and grow forever (From a slug in the black forest)"

                          My Place beside her

 

"Untitled (History painting)" by Korakrit Arunanondchai (denim and inkjet print on canvas).

 

 

Sex sells: Issy Wood`s "Study for the Bada Bing"; Eric Fishl`s "Motel" & Jenna Gribbon`s "My Place beside her in bed".

 

 

For those who don´t plan to travel to Hong Kong soon, above Jean-Michel Basquiat`s "Untitled (Portrait of Famous Ballplayer)" from 1981. 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

Art Market: Tidbits From Spring Auctions 2024 @ Sotheby`s New York

 (Drivebycuriosity) - It is May again - the time for the huge spring auctions of the global auction houses in New York City. I already posted about the auction galleries @ Christie`s (here ). This post is about the galleries @ Sotheby´s. Quantity & quality of the displayed art works was overwhelming, so I post just a small selection, a very subjective choice as usual.

 

Above you can see Adrian Ghenie`s violent "Untitled" (2009, acrylic on canvas). What`s happening here?

 

Like Ghenie, Francis Bacon belongs to my favorites - an acquired taste I have to confess. I needed years to enjoy his work. Above his "Portrait of George Dyer Crouching" (1966, oil on canvas) followed by a photo of the model. I like Bacon`s version better.

                       Sirens & Shipwrecks

I am also a fan of Cecily Brown´s massive murals, which usual depict an orgy or such. Above her "Sirens and Shipwrecks and Bathers and the Band". Yes!

 

Above this paragraph follow Dana Schutz, one of the up and coming artists, with "Pennsylvania Terrarium" and Katharina Olschbaur with "The higher I ascend, the more humble I become".

 

Above one of the strange paintings by Genieve Figgis: "Untitled".

 

                            Cut To Ribbons 

 

and another strange image, this one is by Christina Quarles, another up and coming artist: "Cut to Ribbons"

 

Above a typical Lisa Yuskavage painting: "The Mound", followed by Christa Banban`s "La Nina" & Jules De Balincourt`s "They come and get lost".

                     Burnt and Bleached Denim

 

Above Korakrit Arunandondchai`s "Untitled (History Painting)" (2013, inkjet print on burnt and bleached denim) & Tracey Emin`s "But you never wanted me".

 

No auction without Andy Warhol. Above "The Last Supper" with greeting from da Vinci.

To be continued