After a Process of Sincere Self-Reflection....

Inspired by my new hero, noted constitutional law scholar and relentless nonpartisan Ann Altmouse, I have engaged in a process of Sincere Self-Reflection, and have concluded that I'm better off dropping Netflix for the time being. Not that I don't love it, but we I just don't have control of the DVD player often enough to make it worth it.

But that means I have to collect and send back the DVDs I currently have, which include Weezer's Video Capture Device.

I'm not exactly sure of the moment hipsters started hating on Weezer, because I've been in and out with them myself. The reviews of last year's Make Believe were actually pretty funny: "Okay, I gave that Rivers Cuomo ONE MORE CHANCE, but we're done, man!" I dunno, I kind of like it. It's not a perfect record, but there's so few of those it's hardly worth smacking a band down when they don't have one. But "Beverly Hills" is a terrific song, and if there were any justice in the world, the Redd Kross-y "Best Friend" would have been all over the radio. (I do take as fair and kind of funny the criticism of the single they did release, "We Are All on Drugs," as a pop take on the children's sond "Diarrhea." And its cleaned-up version, "We Are All in Love," is even sillier.)

Weezer broke at a time when music was, for lack of a better term, really, really good. The 1993-94 period was one of those moments when power pop took advantage of a gap in the field, seizing the term 'alternative' (arguably meaningless after about 1992, except as a marketing gimmick) for power pop. There was so much going on and coming out in that period that to look back on it is a bit dizzying. And the Blue Album was, truly, a remarkable record. I'm willing to cut Cuomo some slack for not quite getting back there. (True: I was in church with my dad once and the priest gave a sermon on "In the Garage." I was daydreaming, the way one does, when he said "I'd like to quote here one of my favorite philosophers, Rivers Cuomo...." I swear I gave myself whiplash with the double-take. It was about authenticity and being fully oneself and all that kind of stuff.)

Anyway, Video Capture Device.

Lots of great stuff on here, though I could live with a few less alternate versions of "Buddy Holly" and more interview footage and rare video. The studio sessions are great, for instance, and it's not like "Buddy Holly" is exactly hard to find on TV. (Oddly, however, I'm not sure I ever saw the video for "The Sweater Song" before....) It's definitely heavier on the earlier period, spending significantly less time on the "troubled" years, which I guess makes sense, but doesn't seem wholly honest to me. The effect of putting all the alternate versions of a song end-to-end is a bit numbing as well. ("Here's the video. Now here's the outtakes for the video. Now they're playing it live in Tokyo. Now they're playing it live on Letterman..." like that.) But certainly illuminating, and recommended from this end.

PS. I got an email from Blue Ash's Frank Secich thanking me for mentioning them and saying he liked the site. I'm speechless.) (There is actually a tangential connection with this post, and when I'm not pregnant and able to drink again, I'll expound on my complex theory of power pop as Midwestern Minor Literature in the mode of Deleuze and Guattari, but that's for another day....)