Comments on: attn DETROIT’O’PHILES

By: raspberryj

raspberryj — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 14:24:59 +0000

I am not a stalker! At least, not anymore…

By: jshep

jshep — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 17:08:14 +0000

I meant that analogy in that it is Manhattan’s major day-job employer of young artists who are doing it for the check and the benefits, in the same way that Stumptown is Portland’s major day-job employer of young artists who are doing it for the check and the benefits (Kenya AA). Nothing more. I have not consumed the Kool-Aid. But I did want to clarify that Viacom is not a faceless mass of Satan, but rather a small capitalist country populated by some denizens who are neat, and some who are evil.

By: johnny cakes

johnny cakes — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 17:04:54 +0000

“Viacom is kind of like the Stumptown of Manhattan.”
HYPMOTIZE YOU I HYPMOTIZE

By: jshep

jshep — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 22:46:51 +0000

Well, they signed because a lot of people at MTVN/Urge also hold them dear, respect the music etc, to the point of obsession (stalking?). And while Viacom is a corporate conglomerate no better than any other voracious capitalist jabba the hutt in this unfortunate era of fatty capitalism and war evergreen, Justice selling mixes on Urge is kind of the same as if they were selling shit on iTunes — it’s a distro service (only at Urge we actually care about, and write about, the music). It’s weird… it’s hard to see how this shit works when you’re not in the belly of the beast, but MTV is actually a gigantic collective of people making a series of individual decisions — and some of those people are less about the bottom line, more about the love of craft — and, believe it or not, music. Yes, some of those people are probably corporate d-bags who are just hoping to cake so they can flip some properties and spend their 40s counting their diamonds on a yacht off St. Tropez, everyone else be damned. But many of them are also really cool and trying to put something good out that will reach a lot of people (see: Joseph Patel, producer of “MTV’s My Block”; see: ego trip, creators/envisioners of many EDUTAINING (sorry) VH-1 programs; see: *every* giant music nerd at URGE: see: the progenitors of MTV social/political outreach group Think; et cetera). It’s like, fuck the Republicans and the soulless money ppl and the wrongdoings and the buying up of every cultural-everything in sight, I’m with you, but on a smaller scale, it also requires a slightly more nuanced reading. It is a collection of individual moral decisions: “i.e. Will working at a corporation such as Viacom be an evil I can deal with if it means this other media-thing gets out into the world and can somehow better it?” Particularly now, when no one is paying anyone jack-shit for mass-audience creativity that is unrelated to advertising.
Sorry, that was probably a longer response than you were thinking about. Just ruminating on a Thursday night before my last day at the D-Star.
(Also, Viacom employs 10,000 people, many of which are artists/musicians/whatever using it as their flexible day-job. To use a PDX-specific comparison, Viacom is kind of like the Stumptown of Manhattan. A big, giant, corporate Stumptown. Nahmean?)

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:05:53 +0000

The ewww factor of MTVN/Viacom + music I hold dear. Maybe I’m being dramatic.

By: jshep

jshep — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 17:02:59 +0000

Never fear, Sumner Redstone is still stacking paper. Update on non-Viacom employment coming soon.
Why do you feel dirty?

By: Steve Schroeder

Steve Schroeder — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 16:19:05 +0000

Whoa. Viacom life is over for you?
Is Urge closing up shop already???????
jk.
What will you next conquer?

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 15:49:40 +0000

This is all makes me feel a little dirty in a bad way.