McSweeney’s List (9 August, 2023)
Accessible Audio for McSweeney’s List will be available soon!
This week’s McSweeney’s (Play)List is comprised of songs that have been censored throughout the history of pop music.
DISCLAIMER: I have recently, upon an excellent recommendation, purchased a pair of Blundstones. This has, admittedly, influenced the piece you are about to read.
Social media is a weird beast. I can't imagine being born into a world where my birth was live streamed or my parents announced their divorce via status update. (Editor’s Note: Or marriages. Like a seventh or eighth wife.) It didn't start that way of course, we've been slowly boiled to this historic moment in which we have both our social lives, and our lives on socials.
I was a late adapter to social media. Hell, I was slower than some of my contemporaries to get on board with chat rooms. (Editor’s Note: I regret asking Dawn to clarify this sentence.) I dig people, but disembodied dialogue with strangers never scratched my itch for intimacy. I skipped the whole MySpace craze, confused as to why people would spend time there rather than with each other. At some point I caved and got Facebook, 'cuz there was this guy I knew, and yada yada yada. It seemed harmless at the time, fun, new, superfluous.
As with any proper slow boil -- or drops filling a Bucket if you're bored with the boiling metaphor -- we don't consider all the changes that brought us to this point. Culturally, there was no social media, and now we have professional influencers and TikTok mansions. Those of us who remember the before times honestly feel lucky. I speak for an awful lot of people of my generation and older when I say it's a fucking great thing that I didn't have social media when I was teenager. Forget the impact of filters on our concepts of self and beauty, I'm lucky that my bad decisions, dumb opinions, and juvenile sense of rage live only in memories. Don't even get me started on camera phones, I would've been straight up arrested.
While the popularity of social media ramped up, online personalities flattened. The entirety of a person cannot be conveyed in a sound bite or profile picture, and as a result, people began to pick and choose which parts of themselves to highlight. The "curated" timeline won over the spontaneous scrapbook style, and in no time we knew who was the "food photo" friend, or the one who only posts pics of their kids and never of themselves, or the selfie Queens and Kings who never tire of their own countenance in different contexts. We also suddenly knew who supported guns, who hated the government, who was an "ally" to whom this week. And that spread beyond the screen. As our e-selves became one trick ponies, leaning heavily into whatever cause or hobby we identified with, our irl selves seemed to follow suit. Increasingly, people and groups seem to be more "ya, but" and less "yes, and", trapped by the expectations we've socially set for ourselves. We've each become one of the Powerpuff Girls or Ninja Turtles, when wholly we are each a balance of those parts.
For all of that, social media has also become a cultural glue, keeping us in touch with people who might otherwise have floated off, or letting us show our important moments with everyone we care about all at once. How many times have you seen (or been) the person posting in crisis until a friend swoops in and offers to hold real space? Social media has become a necessary evil. We share the news articles and petitions we care about, hoping to drive attention to the things we hold important. And that goes double for artists, who often use social media as their main hub, making business connections, showing off their wares, and building a fanbase. There are actual factual workshops about how to use social media to take your arts hobby to arts career.
As an arts magazine (and more abstractly an artistic collective), Forget The Box has been using social media forever. It's how we share our pieces, promote events we believe in, gather the network that becomes our contributors and supporters. But somehow in the pissing contest power struggle between "Big Tech" and the CRTC, we got dubbed as "news", and have been unable to use our FTB socials. It feels strange that after all the effort we've put into getting our page seen, tracking our hits, watching our follower count steadily climb, that we could be effectively erased from the conversation so easily. The funny part is that we aren't news at all, which only serves to prove that Meta is using this as an opportunity to blanket ban Canadian outlets without due diligence. They have nothing to lose by doing so, and it proves the power of their position. The CRTC is effectively trying to shake down Google, Meta et al, demanding they pay Canadian news organizations for clicks. Ergo, they consider the publicity outlets receive on social platforms to be outright content theft. If the CRTC had pulled it off, it would have helped to fill the coffers of the CBC -- which the government has been giving progressively less money to. I can see how the very same government might be in a scramble to get someone else to pay for the things they themselves claim to support. It's not my first encounter with folks who prefer to scream about a broken system than put their energy into solving it, and it won't be my last.
Both sides of this debate are huge entities; powerful, rich entities. The victims (surprise, surprise) are the little guys: the Canadian who will no longer find their local news in their Google newsfeed, who won't be able to share important info about things like water advisories on their Meta pages if they've gotten it from a news source. And small DIY publications out here just trying to talk local arts with local artists, hyping the scenes that we're passionate about.
Sharing this article on your socials is now the best publicity we have, so do me a solid and do that. Also, as we're going to be changing up our advertising plan, click here for our new donation page and buy us a proverbial beer so we can get our name out there all over again.
We are Forget The Box. We don't give up, we build bridges over bullshit. See you in the streets! (Editor’s Note: She means when we’re putting up posters. We’re not trying to fight anyone. Right now.)
No Ring, All Fight
IWS Hardcore is having a no ring, no rules, wrestling match, and it's the kind of fun that doesn't come up every day. Watch impressive feats of athleticism mixed with "holy shit, did that just happen?!" up close and personal. Drinks, fighting, cheering, it's a perfect chance to let your carnal self out to party.
WHAT: IWS Hardcore Presents No Ring, No Rules Wrestling Match
WHERE: Turbo Haüs, 2040 St. Denis St., Montreal, H2X 1E7
WHEN: Friday, August 11, Doors @ 7 PM, Show @ 8 PM
METRO: Sherbrooke (Orange)
DETAILS: Facebook
Civil Disobedience Is Fun
Craftsmen, designers, mobile thrift stores and such are descending upon Lafontaine Park to sell their wares. Everyone's invited to shop, or set up their own table! The catch (or fun part) is that selling wares in Montreal parks is illegal. Sounds super low risk, so if you wanna shop (or sell) local while getting the adrenaline hit of dodging cops, this one's for you.
WHAT: Flea Market Anarchiste
WHERE: Lafontaine Park
WHEN: Saturday, August 12, 11 AM - 10 PM
METRO: Sherbrooke (Orange)
DETAILS: Facebook
Rock'n'roll Is Forever
Looking for music this weekend? Self proclaimed stoner-rock, grunge, power trio Macrocilix take the stage with desert / psych rockers Birmani and Flood. It's a night of wall-to-wall Montreal music! Rock on!
WHAT: Macrocilix / Birmani/ Flood
WHERE: Casa del Popolo, 4871 Boulevard St. Laurent, Montreal, H2T 1R6
WHEN: Saturday, August 12, 8 PM
METRO: Laurier (Orange)
DETAILS: Facebook
Laughter Is Life
Looking to laugh with great food and cocktails? We've got you covered! Paul Bedi is hosting a killer lineup at a fab venue, so it's literally dinner and a show. Have some sexy cocktails while you laugh till you snort.
WHAT: Live Love Laugh
WHERE: Lola Lola Lolita, 60 St. Jacques St., Montreal, H2Y 1L2
WHEN: Saturday, August 12, 7 PM
METRO: Place-d'Armes (Orange)
TICKETS: Allevents
Limited Time Luxury
While summer is still in full festival swing, I keep hearing words like "back to school", and it's making me edgy. All too soon we'll be wishing we could lay in the grass under the setting sun, listening to sweet times. Don't stall on it. Time is flying. Btw, shoutout to host and local musician extraordinaire Lea Keeley for appearing on the Osheaga stage this past weekend!
WHAT: Open Mic Mondays in Jeanne-Mance Park
WHERE: Jeanne-Mance Park
WHEN: Every Monday, Sign up @ 6 PM, Show @ 630 PM
METRO: Mont Royal (Orange)
DETAILS: Facebook
McSweeney’s List drops every Wednesday with the best events to catch each week in Montreal!
