Week 5 - Positive Energy

I am going to jump in early with this weeks blog as I feel like there are a few things I can respond to that might be more worthwhile than talking about what I learn in my upcoming live sound intensive. Though, Tim do not take that as me being dismissive of the knowledge you will impart on us. I'll save my thoughts on that for next week and write a far more inspired response. I would actually like to write about CIU today.

Ian Dixon was discussing the concept of ego and dropped a Skyhooks joke but then quickly followed up with "But of course you wouldn't know who Skyhooks are". The above photo is a picture I took when I was at Mushroom Records office last year and it's a gold cassette of Ego Is Not A Dirty Word. I took the picture because I am a huge Skyhooks fan and it was probably the coolest piece of Australian history I had come into contact with in my life. The reason I post about what Ian said is not because he dropped a Skyhooks joke and I suddenly went "Oh man, I like Skyhooks" it's more a case of a lot of the lecturers at SAE have this overarching assumption of incomprehension that they place over their students. I just happen to have a nice picture to help prove a point.

I am not saying that the majority of the lecture theatre knows Skyhooks, it's 100% likely a handful don't but it's this idea that due to the median age of students we exist in some cloud of millennial ignorance. I understand that you probably assume it's a two way relationship and that we have this assumption that you are blind to everything we enjoy as young people in 2017 but it's really not the case. I would say that there's a fairly strong amount of respect toward the staff as we recognise that in this industry you cannot exist for any amount of time without being fluid and employing adaptation. I would say that you, Tim, are likely far more informed on popular music and culture than any other 50 plus year old. So it's pretty disappointing to hear things like what Ian said today and also from a range of staff members in the past because in a lot of ways you encourage us to be creative, informed and enlightened young individuals but are quick to place boundaries on where that enlightenment ends. As millennials we have only grown up in a strictly post modern era and we are definitely responsible for the transition into the metamodern. As a result we are acutely aware of nearly everything that came before us and it's a fucking joke. Literally a joke, welcome to the internet in 2017.

I listened to a few different records tonight while I wrote this but Positive Energy was a bit of a favorite. It's by a band called DIÄT from east Berlin. It's got a few Australian guys in it if you're confused about the vocal. They sound heaps like Wipers and I guess a little bit like your pal Youth's band Killing Joke.