Questions for Silver Jews

I will produce it.

Oh, let's not even start this -- more and more, I hate ridiculous applications of the word "pseudo-intellectual." What could possibly be construed as "pseudo-intellectual" about Berman -- that he writes poetry? Poetry which is actually quite anti- intellectual, insofar at it's unformed and vernacular and conversational, and most poetic "intellectuals" wouldn't even take it seriously?

I realize you were sort of kidding, but "pseudo-intellectual" is a pet peeve of mine. I fear that within three generations, no one will be allowed to know anything at all, and we'll all be complete morons wandering around saying, "Did you hear that guy going on about the Earth being round? What a pompous psuedo-intellectual twat."

Then ask David Berman why he broke up with me. WHY?

This isn't to say that there aren't plenty of ridiculous folks who want to leave unread copies of Kant lying conspicuously on the nightstand, or just generally use unachieved signifiers of intellectuality as status symbols. But we should call them something else, because "pseudo-intellectual" all too often bleeds over into unnecessary sniping at people who are generally interested in such things.

In regards to music, such phrases are "good," "bad," "apple" and "lil' johnny."

example: "That new Radiohead album is good." "I thought is sounded bad." "It was kind of apple in some ways." "Let's ask Lil' Johnny."

I mean, really? Is that any way to interpret someone's creative musical vision?

"Psuedo-intellectual" and its cousin in intellectual "pretension" should by definition mean that a person's aspirations toward intellect are a pose, and what's more a self- aggrandizing pose, intended to impress others and derive status. In that sense they can be useful words, because plenty of people do this.

My problem is that if a guy comes along and starts blathering about existentialist fiction, two complexities crop up: (a) how much you know about existentialist fiction, and (b) whether what the person is saying has any merit. If you know the topic and what the guy is saying lacks merit, you'll probably just say so: "You're wrong." If you know the topic and what the guy's saying does have merit, but you clearly detect self-aggrandizement, "pseudo- intellectual" seems valid, if snobbish. More problematic is when you don't know the topic, which makes it slightly harder to tell whether the guy is saying things for the purpose of self- aggrandizement or not. My qualm is with "pseudo-intellectual" as it's typically used, which is as a way of saying "I don't know the topic, and refuse to believe that anyone would learn about it except for the purpose of self-aggrandizement." It all too often works as a handy way of keeping anyone from talking about anything that anyone else isn't interested in or knowledgable about, and it's quite irritating that it often gets used to sneer at people who really do have an interest in "intellectual" things. Even more irritating to me is that it gets thrown at people who aren't even doing remotely intellectual things in the first place, like, say, David Berman. The guy's in a rock band and writes distinctly non- academic poetry, for God's sake -- it's not as if he's sending essays to Partisan Review.

There's this weird assumption at the center that intellectuality cannot possibly be fun, and is usually just a kind of educational snobbery. And that's simply not true.

I say "Vive le intellectualism!," the donkey bays, and several boxes of Cap'n Crunch are opened and strewn about the room.

Francis Bacon shows up, drunk, and tries to hit on a Spanish midget.

yes?

the mailman dreams he's Paul Rever

e

this is weird cause speaking of dreams and the Jews, last night I dreamt that David and Cassie got a divorce, and Cassie ended up (or actually this might have been a cause of the divorce, it's muddy) performing as an actress in some weird cabaret style theatre thing that had newspaper critics' quips shown in real time LED ticker-style above and around the stage. one of them was "good for you girl, you can do way better than that creep!" or something like that. pretty sure this had a lot to do with the fact that on Friday I was re-reading an old article about how the Jews made their formal dissolution announcement via their original message board (the same announcement where DCB outed his dad as the infamous spin honcho he is), and the article contained a comment from some guy comparing Berman Sr. to Aaron Eckhart's character in Thank You For Smoking. which I ended up watching later that night just for that reason.

so anyway, prior to my wedding, I asked "The Silver Jews" for a few reception songs suggestions. I was returned:

"When I Said I Do" by Clint Black and Lisa Hartman-Black
"Knights in White Satin" by the Moody Blues
"I'm Gonna Come Over There and Love You" by George Strait
"I Love You a Thousand Ways" by Lefty Frizzell (only one I actually ended up using)

I sincerely, sincerely hope he and Cassie are doing great.