First published, 31st January 2014
In January not one single skinny fly landed on my web. Two flies landed yesterday (2nd February).
I couldn’t settle last night after flying in from London to Riyadh. I’ve been thinking of writing a novel about Saudi for ten years. Each year I edge a little closer to what it should be. But still, how do you capture the ageless shift from depression to indifference and resignation without losing the humour of it all?
There was this Saudi guy and his wife across the aisle from me on the plane. They both drank like fish: she under her abaya, he between fits of snoring. He told me, before he got too drunk, that he was not a Saudi but an Arab. I thanked him for the information before closing my eyes and dreaming of plane loads of Saudi men and women all sobbing their way back to Riyadh. I had forgotten how much the Saudis hate the theocracy, the regime (but none would admit it). People trap themselves in misery because they would not be sad…
Anyway, that moment was not one of my flies.
So, I couldn’t sleep and it was now two in the morning. I fixed the VPN on my iPad and watched Dave Grohl’s documentary Sound City (first exhibited in the 2013 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2013). That was one of my flies but I didn’t know it until this morning.
This morning I got up at ten, made breakfast and went through my e-mails. There was a request for advice about online universities. I recommended the Open University and a particular undergraduate course I thought would suit. Later, I received an e-mail back asking about an institution in the States. They thought it looked so much better. It had a best-fit program too. What did I think? This was the second fly. Only when this fly landed on my web did I notice the other.
I write my blogs not to make connections to anyone who might read them. That would be just dumb, right? I write blogs when I need to make a connection between things that are already connected but I hadn’t noticed. I’ve always been drawn to the metaphysics of conceits. Actually, I don’t make the connections. They’re already there. Not all connections are metaphors. In fact, the best aren’t. So, what connected Sound City recording studio, Los Angeles with a university offering online degrees?
I’m not going to tell you. But if you get to the end of this blog, you might see it too. That’s how it works round here. UFOs
Anyone who knows anything about sound recording studios knows all about Sound City. Right? And Rupert Neve? They’ll know that the studios were famous for some of the greatest recorded albums of the 1970s and ’80s not least of all because of Neve’s 8028 console. Grohl’s film is not so much about the legend of Sound City and the bands that recorded there but the Neve console.
Grohl interviews Neve. It has a quiet, unassuming, unpretentious stripped down honesty. It’s cool. The ‘fucking genius’ is left to mumble away about the facts of the machine. You’re left to absorb the power of understatement, of litotes.
When Sound City studios closed in 2011, Grohl bought the Neve 8028. One of only four left, it now sits in his own 606 Studio in Virginia – a hi-tech Strad.
Fact is, the Sound City studio was a dump. Before, it had been a factory for Vox. Functionality rules!
So, anyway, I checked out the stats on this fancy university: For-profit, great campus and website, sexy courses. Well marketed. In fact, the institution is owned by Bridgepoint Education Inc.. One disgruntled client … I mean student writes:
Ashford University is a business owned by Bridgepoint Education, Inc., a publicly traded company on The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BPI). The current President and CEO of this corporation – as of the posting date of this thread – is, Andrew Clark, whose earnings in 2009 were an astounding $20.5 million. This is a for-profit higher-learning institution. The university is based in Iowa, but the sales group is in California. It appears that from my research that the school has its accreditation thru the state of California, weird. As this is a business, they know legalities. And they will use you and abuse you; at least, that’s how I’ve left this experience, unfortunately. How do cheaters win, those who make a living out of it?
Student (unnamed), 5 November 2013
Well, if you haven’t spotted the connections, by way of a consolation prize, here are some words from the Foo Fighting Dave Grohl himself:
I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. If you fucking like something, like it. That’s what’s wrong with our generation: that residual punk rock guilt, like, “You’re not supposed to like that. That’s not fucking cool.” Don’t fucking think it’s not cool to like Britney Spears’ “Toxic.” It is cool to like Britney Spears’ “Toxic”! Why the fuck not? Fuck you! That’s who I am, goddamn it! That whole guilty pleasure thing is full of fucking shit.
Dave Grohl
Thanks Dave Grohl … I think :-/
P.S. Um, no, it’s not cool to like Britney Spears’ Toxic. This blog explains why.