The Other Corener
Much has been made of the upcoming generation's flaws. We can't talk to each other anymore without whipping out our phones to shoot off a text. We have to change songs halfway through because we thought of another one we wanted to listen too. Every 15 minutes of productivity must be accompanied by 15 minutes on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Buzzfeed, or some other chasm of the internet. I'll admit, these things aren't always great, especially in large doses. But in the words of Woody Harrelson's immortal True Detective character Marty Hart: "You know, throughout history, I bet every old man probably said the same thing. And old men die, and the world keeps spinnin'." Let's focus on the drastic, and potentially positive, things the first generation to grow up with technology is bringing with it into the world. Internet based companies such as AirBnB and Uber challenge the authority of Hotel Chains and Taxi services respectively--offering a higher quality of service and more of a personal connection. Tinder gives horny twenty somethings a venue to browse potential hookups at lightning speed, and opens up a chat between mutually interested users. There are thousands of legal and technically illegal ways to get any movie, TV show, or song on any device we want. Now, I'm not arguing for a complete overhaul of society here. I personally love leaving my phone off for days at a time, enjoy long term relationships with the right person, and would totally go to a store to browse CD's if a friend of mine happened to be in a hipster phase. But, since when does a little competition hurt? AirBnB and Uber will probably result in a huge change in either the price or quality of hotels and taxi services in the consumer's favor. People never listened to more music than they do right now (if you count dubstep as music). Old people will yell at you until they are blue in the face about how the hookup culture is destroying America, but couldn't you argue the same about societal pressure toward the institution of marriage? And if someone could just seek out sex with a partner instead of a relationship, wouldn't it mean so much more to the relationship if he/she chose the restriction? I want to see us push technology to work for us, because that will challenge the status quo to improve itself or cede to a better way. And it's not just improving the lives of the fortunate--though that has been the primary function of technology thus far in my opinion. What if we used phones to allocate food or water supply? What if we could stream lessons in a trade craft to millions of eyes? Having immense computing power at our disposal is a tremendous advantage to everyone--an advantage that is unparalleled in history and completely uncharted territory for the world at large. Right now we can send a text to anyone almost anywhere in the world and get a response. Imagine if we could talk to them like they were right next to us. -ZY Add Comment by Kevin Fentress I sent the following letter to the Wrigley Company (which owns Skittles). I will post any response I get to this blog. Dear Wrigley, I’ve enjoyed Skittles since I was a child. Whether I was getting candy at the movies or at Walgreens, they were always a favorite of mine. And though your Sour and Tropical lines are perfectly decent, Skittles’ classic combination of flavors will always be unbeatable. I recently bought some Skittles at a movie theater, but as I started eating them, I noticed something was off. Lime didn’t taste like Lime anymore. Upon inspection of the wrapper, I realized that Lime had been replaced. Lime-green Skittles were now Green Apple flavored. I didn’t write this letter to ask why you did this, because I think I already know. We live in an age in which the notion, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” no longer applies. The products we consume are constantly being updated, adjusted, and rebranded. I partially blame this mentality on the Internet, which advances the idea that in order for something to be good, it must be brand-new. But let’s get back to the business at hand. Wrigley, I do not say this lightly: the replacement of Lime by Green Apple is nothing less than a travesty. Lime was always a flavor that I held in high esteem. Though it was not my favorite, it was always reliable. It was a Skittle I was happy to get whenever I pulled it out of the bag. Green Apple, on the other hand, is simply a weak flavor. After my first taste, it immediately dethroned Lemon (which I don’t dislike) as my least favorite Skittle. The greater problem is not Green Apple’s taste in and of itself, but rather its incompatibility with the other flavors. Skittles are no longer the perfect mixture of flavors they used to be. Lime is an essential link in the Skittles chain, and I implore you to bring it back. I just want to taste the rainbow again. Sincerely, Kevin Fentress by Kevin Fentress In the late 90s and early 2000s, the white rapper archetype could be summed up with a single name. Eminem was an artist who achieved fame and fortune not because of his whiteness, but despite it. Though his race was (and still is) a frequent topic of conversation, even the most casual hip-hop listener could tell that Marshall Mathers’s success was based on sheer talent. Which brings us to the white rappers of today. Let me preface the following by saying that I realize talented white voices do exist within modern hip-hop. However, this essay is about the genre’s most prominent white representatives: the “artists” immediately brought to mind with the phrase “white rapper,” those who have enjoyed the most mainstream success. Let’s start with Macklemore. He and Ryan Lewis have enjoyed immense popularity since the release of The Heist in 2012, and it’s easy to see why; the duo makes radio-friendly pop songs with upbeat rap verses. I won’t deny that Macklemore has some raw ability, but his music completely lacks edge. In order for his jaunty tunes about thrifting and shiny cars to offend anyone, they’d have to make an impression first. But despite all this, I do think Macklemore comes from a place of sincerity. How else can one explain his “Same Love” comparison of the gay community’s collective struggle to his brief questioning of his own sexuality in the third grade, or the time he cluelessly dressed as a Jewish caricature? Such tone-deafness leads me to believe that Macklemore is genuine in his approach, no matter how dull and tiresome it may be. While Macklemore’s star has faded slightly since The Heist’s release, Iggy Azalea’s is as bright as they come. With two hits dominating the radio waves this summer and a constant presence in the public eye, she has quickly become a household name in the music world. It only takes a brief listen to any of her songs to see why this is a bad thing. Azalea, a white Australian woman, ambles through her rap verses in a syrupy, exaggerated accent with all the tact of a minstrel show. Her attempts at sounding “urban” during her songs are hamstrung by the way she talks in interviews – in which she unsurprisingly sounds like a white Australian woman. Her trademark drawl is an affectation at best, and a racist gimmick at worst. This begs the question: is Azalea self-aware? Is her oral blackface a cynical and calculated choice? Or is she merely oblivious, like a down-under version of Jamie Kennedy’s character in Malibu’s Most Wanted? In either case, the end result remains the same: a blow to white credibility in the hip-hop world. The fact that these two have come to represent the Caucasian in rap is nothing if not depressing. On one hand is a smug, self-congratulatory milquetoast; a symbol of everything wrong with the millennial generation. On the other is a white girl with delusions of color spouting the most degrading form of Ebonics this side of Norbit. They may be different in their respective approaches, but both are equally committed to building up racial barriers through music. I’ll conclude with a simple request, directed to no one in particular: please stop giving these people money. In today's absurdly PC culture, white people are blamed for enough as is. Let’s not add terrible music to that list. P.S. It's a great honor to have the first post on the Corener. Hopefully it won't be the last. |