listmaking notes and observations, the six month line, Travie McCoy edition

Some of you may be wondering why I picked Travie as my one non-Panic/formerly-of-Panic person to track. The answer is: because someone expressed a general sense of appreciation for his tweets but puzzlement about what he was talking about.

I got (and get) about 80% of his cultural references most of the time without having to look them up (as opposed to P!ATD/TYV, where I'm collectively, running at about 70%), but whether that is because his style is less opaque or because he's talking about things I'm already familiar with is open to question.

That said, the last six months of annotating his Twitter have been really interesting. Unlike the other four, his "art" section is fairly extensive, and, as I mentioned before, he has a very distinct visual sensibility, or possibly orientation would be a better word. I get the impression he reads (sometimes literally) the landscape in a different way than the others. Generally speaking, if there is art, or something visually unusual somewhere around him, he will find it, photograph it and share it with us.

He's also shown in interest in a variety of films -- everything from Fletch to Antichrist. Though it's worth noting he really didn't enjoy the latter at all. I'm trying to find the right words to summarize his film list -- film snob really isn't it; film geek is probably closer. Some of the movies are just dumb fun, but a good many of them are challenging.

Musically he's an mix of hip-hop, jazz and the fairly broad spectrum of modern pop and rock, with an emphasis on hip-hop. He has probably the least amount of Beatles songs (one) of anyone I'm annotating. I actually find the lack of Beatles rather refreshing. One of the more complex parts of annotating him was figuring out how to class references to friends-who-are-musicians. Hence the "general" catagory, where I stash everything that isn't specific to a song or video, or related to a live show.

Finally, the #1 thing I've learned in the last six months: Travie loves toys. A lot. He loves them as playthings, as art, and as art you can play with.

Halloween magic vs. Christmas magic

ETA: Thank you for the snowflake cookie, Mme. Anonymous!

My neighbors are having a wild dance party, so I'm staying up to talk about magic.

Basically I was reflecting on the idea this week, in the context of the creative endeavors of Ryan (Mr. Halloween) and Jon (Mr. Christmas). Both of the holidays, or, rather, the secular celebrations of the holidays, are glossed with at least the idea of magic.

Halloween magic is (or can be) a darker, more menacing sort of thing, the echoes of the Wild Hunt rolling down through the years. It can be charming and sweet, too, tiny babies and dogs in costumes are adorable, but the electric charge of the thing, the beating heart, if you will, is in the vaguely hallucinatory swirl of the collective adult masquerade. Where people can be what they want, or who they really are, under the guise of a costume.

Christmas, on the other hand, is more about wish fulfillment and million-to-one chances and happy endings, sprinkled with snow. (Unless you are Terry Pratchett; I was also reminded that I need to re-read Hogfather for his far more bracing take on the tale of Father Christmas.) Christmas is bright lights, shiny wrappers, and romance.

Actually, all things considered, I suppose they are both about romance, just different kinds. Dramatic, stormy, Heathcliff-on-the-moors Romance vs. kitschy, ugly sweaters, embarassing relatives and stolen-kisses-under-the-mistletoe romance. Heavy cloaks and carriages rattling over wet, gaslit, cobblestoned streets vs. apple-cheeked skating on frozen ponds followed by hot cocoa and sugar cookies.

I don't actually have much of a conclusion; I was mainly thinking about how different those kinds of magic are, and how that might (in the abstract) shape the music they make together. Panic's NRWTC stage show is, from what I've seen in pictures and on YouTube (I never saw it live), very much in the vein of Halloween magic. The PO tour, as best I can tell, was mostly a big hippie festival, which may have been dreamy but wasn't exactly magical, per se. And current!Panic! seems to be aiming for Rat Pack-style glamor, which is a different kind of magic altogether.