Friends,
If you know anything about music, you know that ska is cool. When you take the typical rock pieces (guitar/bass/drums) and throw in a bunch of horns, what you get is something sweet. There are still a bunch of directions you can lean within the "ska" family -- punk (MIghty Mighty Bosstones, Less than Jake), reggae (The Skatalites, Sublime), pop (No Doubt), or what is considered just ska (Reel Big Fish, Five Iron Frenzy).
Here's the issue: ska is dead. Consider the above bands, which were all the ones I could think of off the top of my head:
Mighty Mighty Bosstones: last successful venture was in 1997; fell apart, for all intents and purposes, in 2003
Less Than Jake: popularity in the late 90s, successful album in 2003, then a slow fade into anonymity and an abandonment of ska for pop-punk
The Skatalites: a 60s band who had some success as they re-formed in the 90s, but now it's a group of dudes that continually changes members and tours for the heck of it
Sublime: hugely popular in 1996, when their lead singer died of a heroin overdose
No Doubt: very popular in the 90s, but went away in 2001 so Stefani could launch her successful dance-pop career, or something
Reel Big Fish: started a pretty steep decline in 1998, with the exception of one hit in 2002 that didn't feature horns
Five Iron Frenzy: not really popular outside their "cult following" (of which I'm a member); disbanded in 2003
As per yoozh (I don't know how to write the abbreviation for "usual"), wikipedia says it best -- "By the late 1990s, mainstream interest in third wave ska bands waned..." My question is "Why?" Here are some theories I have:
Reasons ska (or any extinct sound) died* and went to heaven**
1. Maybe it was a top-heavy genre
When you think about the era of crooners, you think of Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Bing. Maybe when those three guys called it quits, there were no comparable talents to fill their shoes and the genre died. Maybe the demise of the Bosstones, Sublime, and No Doubt ended this party.
2. Maybe people were worn out from all that skanking
3. Annoying pretentious music insider comment: Genres always come and go because music is an organic thing that is constantly being innovated. People started making better music than ska, so people stopped listening to ska.
4. Maybe the youth of America has a collective attention span of about 10 years
5. Maybe the sound of ska naturally appeals to a certain narrow age range (say, 15-22)
If so, it might have a natural lifespan of 7-14 years in this culture of myriad competing fads.
*As with all living things, every music genre eventually dies
**Like dogs, all music genres go to heaven. Except death metal and whatever genre Marilyn Manson represented.
Help me speculate
Do you like ska?
Why do you think ska died?
Jon
Thanks to everyone who responded to last month's tip and gave ideas for future months. This month's grammar tip goes out to apostrophes everywhere.
The right and wrong ways to use an apostrophe
There are 3 (and only 3) correct uses for apostrophes in the English language. They are...
1. Possession
Ex.:
This is Jon's calculator.
This is Jon's extended edition DVD of The Two Towers.
No, she is not Jon's girlfriend.
2. Contraction
Ex.:
It's not like I'd betray those who've misused apostrophes, because I'm sure I've done it (haven't we all?), and if I don't stay careful, I'll hurt someone and he'll say he'd never do a thing like that and it wasn't his fault and it isn't my business and this won't be the last I hear from him.
3. Outlandish first names
Ex.:
Da'Quan
D'Sean
D'Mario
Mone't
D'asia
(These were ones I found quickly on google. Sadly, D'Luigi returned no results.)
What you can't do with an apostrophe is pluralize common words. So if you see a sign in a grocery store that says "Banana's" or "Apple's", you know you're not in a grammar store.
I will now say something that, if you're a seasoned grammarian, might blow your mind. According to p. 985 of Greenbaum and Svartvik's A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (according to wikipedia, of course), it is acceptable to use an apostrophe to pluralize written items that aren't actual English words.
Thus, it would be grammatically ok to write that such-and-such global war happened in the 1940's or that you learned your ABC's.
[There's no compelling reason for me to argue for this pluralization opinion, but I thought it might shock a few of my highbrow friends, and highbrow people need to chill out. And I do realize that, grammatically, I'm typically the highest brow.]
Thanks for reading!
As always, I'm accepting feedback, questions, praise, disagreement, relevant prose or poetry, and ideas for future posts in the Comments section.
Jon
Due to the popularity of the other monthly feature (grammar tips) and the even greater popularity of the cooking blog genre, here's where we are. A monthly cooking installment from someone who doesn't know how to cook anything.
How to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
Just kidding. Sort of. I know that if you can operate a computer/smartphone and read this blog, you can prepare a PB&J. But, because I've made many more of them than you, I've learned some tricks of the trade that you may want to know. And so, this won't be a how-to, but a revelation of 2 important tricks in the peanut butter and jelly process.
1. Squeeze jelly
This isn't a joke. Tip #1 is to go buy jelly that comes in a squeeze dispenser instead of a jar. Here's why:
- When you use jarred jelly, you face a strange knife dilemma. Can you use the same knife for your PB and your J? If so, how much work will it take to thoroughly remove the extra peanut butter from the knife? If not, can you sleep at night knowing you dirtied two knives for the simplest food known to single man?
- Jelly is unwieldy!! It's easy enough to spread with a knife, but the transfer from jar to bread is nearly impossible.
- Plastic containers are just safer and less risky than heavy glass jars.
I almost can't overstate this. Squeeze jelly.
#2. The bread flip
It took me years to discipline myself enough to regularly execute this crucial step. Let me explain:
First, notice that a piece of bread is rarely actually symmetric, as seen in this near photograph quality rendering:
Now, the typical guy move is to grap two consecutive pieces of bread together in one movement, and just slide one next to the other (without flipping one of the pieces), as so:
The problem, as you've probably already deduced, with this initital set-up is that now, when the spreads are added...
...there is no way to combine the pieces perfectly. Thus there will be overhang on both sides of the sandwich, threatening to deposit either of the spreads onto fingers, shirts, or beards. Had a flip of one piece of bread been orchestrated right out of the bag, you can see that we would have ideal sandwich conditions:
Just put those bad boys together! Mmmmmm!!
Contribute, even though you're 29 culinary levels ahead of me
What 4th-grade-friendly food tips would you like to see? Cereal? Bagels?
Do you have any thoughts on the two genius tips above?
Jon
