When Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said “higher for longer” last year, it wasn’t about the Grateful Dead concerts he’s attended over the years. No, he meant the Fed might need to raise its short-term interest rate target and/or keep it elevated for an extended period to squeeze inflation out of the economy. As late as December, Powell said that additional rate hikes remain on the table. But short of that, the Fed might keep its current target rate steady until inflation is solidly in-line with its 2% objective. The obvious risk is that tight monetary policy might tip the economy into recession. The market, for its part, is pricing in several rate cuts this year.
Thus far, the release of key economic data for December 2023 has not settled the debate as to whether disinflation has truly paused short of the Fed’s goal. There were inauspicious signs from the labor market in December as well. These data releases don’t rule out a “soft landing”, but they indicate that recession risks are still with us in 2024. The Fed will face a dilemma if the economy weakens but inflation fails to abate, either due to residual stickiness or new supply shocks. The latter are unfolding even now with the shut down of Red Sea shipping.
Bad Employment Report
On the surface, the employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) was strong relative to expectations, and the media reported it on that superficial level: nonfarm payrolls increased by 216,000 jobs, about 45,000 more than expected; unemployment was unchanged from November at 3.7%.
Unfortunately, the report contained several ominous signs:
1) Employment from the BLS Household Survey declined by 683,000 in December and is essentially flat since July. This discrepancy should be rather unsettling to anyone waving off the possibility of a recession.
2) The number of full-time workers decreased by 1.53 million in December, and the number of part-time workers increased by 762,000 as the holidays approached. Retail employment was not particularly strong however, and the big loss of full-time work stands in contrast to the “strong-report” narrative.
3) The number of multiple jobholders hit a record and increased by 556,000 over the past year. This might indicate trouble for some workers making ends meet.
5) The civilian labor force declined by 676,000. What accounts for the change in status among these former workers or job seekers?
6) From the BLS Establishment Survey, government hiring accounted for 24% of the nonfarm jobs filled in December. Social Services accounted for 10% of the new hiring and health care for 18%, both of which are heavily dependent on government.
7) Nonfarm payrolls were revised downward by a total of 71,000 for October and November. We’ve seen downward revisions for 10 of the past 11 months.
8) In total, initial monthly job reports in 2023 overstated the full-year gain in nonfarm employment after available revisions by 439,000.
Those are big qualifiers on the “stronger than expected” jobs report. Furthermore, I tend to discount new government jobs as a real engine of production possibilities, so the report didn’t offer much assurance about the economy’s momentum. In addition, there are estimates that the payroll gain was due to better weather than the seasonal adjustment factors indicate.
Fictional Payroll Gains?
Still other issues cast doubt on the BLS payroll numbers. First, they are based on a survey of employers that is not complete by the time of each month’s initial report. Second, the survey is heavily skewed toward employees of government and large corporations; the sample of small employers is light by comparison. Third, seasonal adjustments often swamp the unadjusted changes in payrolls.
Finally, the BLS uses a statistical model of business births/deaths to adjust the figures. This is intended to correct for a lag in survey coverage as new businesses are formed and others close. The net effect on the payroll estimate can be positive or negative. Unfortunately, it’s difficult for even the BLS to tell how much the birth/death model affects the headline nonfarm jobs figure in any particular month. Therefore, it’s tough to put much faith in the monthly reports, but we watch them anyway.
Stubborn Inflation
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for December increased 0.3% over November and 3.4% year-over-year, slightly more than expectations of 0.2% and 3.2%, respectively. The “core” CPI (excluding food and energy prices) rose 3.9% year-over-year, more than the 3.8% expected. The core rate declined on a one-month and year-over-year basis, however, as did the median item in the CPI.
All CPI measures in the chart declined during 2023, though the core and median lagged the headline CPI (green line), which “flattened” somewhat during the last half of the year. So there appears to be some stickiness hindering disinflation in the CPI at this point, but the apparent “stickiness” has been confined to lagging declines in housing costs (also see here).
The Producer Price Index (PPI) reported a day later was thought to be benign. Like the CPI, disinflation in the core PPI has tapered:
In this context, it should be noted that declines in the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the PCE deflator, have also undergone something of a pause, and the PCE weights housing costs much less heavily than the CPI.
The CPI and PPI reports don’t offer any reason for the Fed to reduce its target federal funds rate over the next couple of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings. There are two more sets of monthly inflation reports before the meeting in late March, so things could change. But again, the Fed has given ample guidance that it might have to leave its target rate at the current level for an extended period.
The Market View
Markets had priced-in six cuts in the Fed funds rate target in 2024 prior to the CPI report, but traders began to discount that possibility in its immediate aftermath. However, members of the FOMC expected an average of three cuts in 2024, with more to come in 2025, whether or not that’s consistent with “higher for longer”. Inflation is hovering somewhat above the Fed’s goal, but getting the rest of the job done might be tough, and indeed, might imply “longer” if not “higher”.
But why did the market ever hold the expectation of six cuts this year? Traders must have anticipated an economic contraction, which would kick the Fed into rapid response mode. The employment report offered no assurance that such a “hard landing” will be avoided. A few more negative signals on the real economy without further progress on prices would provide quite a test of the Fed’s inflation-fighting resolve.
The true story of Stagger Lee is something I’ve known a little about for years. Maybe I heard about it once because the “incident” took place in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. I’ve always been fond of Robert Hunter’s colorful version of the story, put to song by Jerry Garcia and performed by the Grateful Dead (some great live versions here). There are many other Stagger Lee songs, however, going back to the end of the 19th century, though no recordings seem to exist from before the 1920s.
I was working out the Dead’s version of the song on the guitar when I got curious about a couple of things and went down a proverbial rabbit hole. I’ll get into a few details about Hunter’s version of the story below, but all the entries in this long tradition in song are about how the title character killed a man at a bar (or in a cave, an alley, and maybe elsewhere).
The Facts of the Case
The true story is this: Lee Shelton had a dispute with one Billy Lyons at a bar named Clark’s in the “Deep Morgan” neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. It happened on Christmas night of 1895 (not 1932, 1940, or 1948). It’s said to have started with a political argument, not a new phenomenon by any means! Shelton “grabbed Lyons’ derby and broke the form”. Lyons then snatched Shelton’s Stetson hat. Shelton demanded it back, and when Lyons refused, he hit Lyons over the head with the butt of his gun. Lyons pulled a knife and Shelton backed away, shooting Lyons in the abdomen. Shelton “cooly”picked up his hat, according to witnesses, left the bar, and strolled a few blocks to the home of a girlfriend, where he crashed for the night. He was arrested a few hours later, at around 3 a.m. on the 26th.
Lee Shelton was a carriage driver and rumored to be a pimp. He also worked as a political organizer for local democrats, whose “club” met at Clark’s saloon. Shelton had a record as a violent criminal, but he was nevertheless well-connected to powerful players on the local scene. He was also said to be quite a dandy, and he went by the alias of Stack Lee. One theory is that Shelton, a mulatto, intimated that he was the illegitimate son of the steamboat captain Stacker Lee, whose dad owned a line of riverboats. Lyons, an African American levee hand, also participated in politics, but at a republican “club” centered at another saloon a few blocks away from Clark’s, so the two men were rivals in some respects.
Shelton’s first trial ended in a hung jury. Later he was convicted to serve 25 years at the state penitentiary in Jefferson City, Mo. He was paroled in 1909 but sent back to prison in 1911 for another crime. He died of tuberculosis in the prison hospital in 1912, at the age of 47.
The Legend and Tradition
At least one song was written about Shelton while he was in jail awaiting his first trial for murder, Many others followed, including levee work songs and field calls. His legend caught on and became part of African American folklore, sometimes with Stagger Lee cast as the hero of the story, but more often as the bad guy. He was, however, mythologized as a powerful black man who did what he pleased, which was understandably appealing to a people who, by then, had been nominally free for 30 years but still suffered various forms of subjugation.
Robert Hunter’s version of Stagger Lee is consistent with several aspects of the sung tradition of the legend. But like all other versions of which I’m aware, Hunter’s story differs from the facts of the case in several ways. His is a unique imagining of a set of events in the immediate aftermath the shooting. Hunter performedhis original version of the song himself, called “Delia DeLyon and Stagger Lee”. I hadn’t known until last week that Jerry Garcia “re-ordered” Hunter’s lyrics in composing the Dead’s music for the song. Garcia cut a few of Hunter’s lines and made some other small changes. Of course, when you actually start singing a tune, the words can fall out in new ways!
Hunter must have had a good understanding of the song’s tradition, or maybe he did some deep research. I’m impressed either way, but researching a topic like this is a lot easier now than it was in the 1970s. Some of Hunter’s lyrics contain strong echoes of earlier versions as well as other legendary songs, and they share a cadence in phrasing and even pieces of specific lines from earlier variations of Stagger Lee.
The Songs, and Hunter’s Song
Here are a few points about the legend of Stagger Lee in song, and particularly Hunter’s (and Garcia’s) version. These are listed in more or less random order. They are interesting to me in part because I think they reflect the knowledge and study Hunter brought to bear on his song-writing effort.
The Biggest Hit: Versions have been recorded by a number of great artists over the years, including Cab Calloway, James Brown, Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, Taj Mahal, Doc Watson, Bob Dylan, The Clash, Nick Cave, and many others. However, in 1958 Lloyd Price released a version of the song, and maybe the only version, thatgarnered broad popularity. His R&B tune is nothing like the Hunter/Garcia effort, but Price speaks of the moon, a dice game, the Stetson hat, and he refers to the victim Billy as “that poor boy”. Other versions reference Billy as a “poor boy” as well, including Hunter’s. But many traditional songs have used “poor boy” to describe victimized or sympathetic male characters, so this isn’t a big coincidence.
Mississippi John Hurt: Recorded in 1928, Hurt’s version is said to be the “standard”. His lyrics refer to the victim as Billy de Lyon, rather than Lyons. DeLyon is the name used by Hunter. I’m not sure Hurt was the first to use “de Lyon”, but his version was influential. Here is another part of Hurt’s lyrics:
“Gentleman’s of the jury, what do you think of that? Stack O’ Lee killed Billy de Lyon about a five-dollar Stetson hat.”
And here’s Hunter:
“Do you know what he shot him for? What do you make of that? ‘Cause Billy de Lyon threw the lucky dice. Won Stagger Lee’s Stetson hat.”
He’s a Bad Man! The refrain, “He’s a bad man, oh cruel Stagolee”, is repeated many times in Hurt’s early version. However, the refrain Hunter used at the end of each verse was simply “He’s a mad man”. Garcia must have removed Hunter’s “mad man” refrain from the Dead’s version, and it’s easy to see why it wouldn’t have worked as well there. But there’s still the line: “Stagger Lee is a mad man and he shot my Billy dead”.
Interestingly, Hunter’s original “Delia DeLyon and Stagger Lee” is sung to Hurt’s country blues melody (with a few differences – compare here and here). That means, in turn, that the same lyrical cadence is used in both Hurt’s and the Dead’s versions, despite completely different melodies.
Did He Pack a .45… Or a .44? Shelton apparently used a .44 Smith & Wessen revolver to kill Lyons, and almost all versions of the song refer to a .44. Perhaps Hunter simply liked the rhyme of “I won’t come back alive” with “He packs a .45.”
Cowardly Cops? Or Just Corrupt?: The corruption theme was common to many versions of the song. That might have been a product of black resentment in that era against a lackadaisical (and probably racist) attitude toward prosecuting crimes against blacks. Here are a few lines from the 1927 song by Little Harvey Hull and The Down Home Boys, casting Billy as a cop:
“How can it be, You arrest a man that’s as bad as me, But you won’t arrest Stack O’Lee?”
Here’s a verse from one of the traditional versions reprinted at this site:
“The woman asked the sheriff, said ‘How can this be? You got all them bad men, but you can’t get Stagolee’ Deputies took their badges and they laid them on the shelf ‘If you want to get that bad man, you get him by yourself’”
Those deputies sound scared! Either way, Hurt followed Hull in describing a cop who wouldn’t do his job:
“Police officer, how can it be? You can ‘rest everybody but cruel Stack O’ Lee”
These words will ring familiar to anyone who’s heard Hunter’s version. Hunter’s cop was definitely frightened. The lines from “The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics” are:
“Baio, Baio, tell me how can this be? You arrest the girls for turning tricks but you’re scared of Staggerlee Staggerlee is a madman and he shot my Billy dead Baio you go get him or give the job to me”
I should note that there are a few slight differences between the “Annotated” lyrics and those on dead.net.
Nearer My God To Thee: This reference appeared in a tale about a different St. Louis murder taking place in either 1890 or 1899, depending on the source. Like the Lyons shooting, it was remembered in song. Quite a few songs, as a matter of fact. Many were called Frankie and Albert, though many others were called Frankie and Johnny. Same story. Basically, Frankie killed her man Albert (Johnny) for cheating on her.
The following is from Leadbelly’s long 1939 version of Frankie and Albert, followed by a corresponding Hunter reference in Stagger Lee:
“Little Frankie went down Broadway As far as she could see And all she could hear was a two-string bow Playing, ‘Nearer, My God To Thee’…”
And here’s Hunter:
“Delia went a walkin’ Down on Singapore Street Where a three-piece band on a corner played ‘Nearer, My God To Thee’…”
Singapore Street? I thought perhaps Hunter placed the location of the story in San Francisco, but there is no evidence of a street by that name historically. Maybe elsewhere, but there is no Singapore Street in the U.S. at present.
Christmas Day or Eve? Hunter placed the murder on “X-mas Eve” (Garcia sang “Christmas Eve” at least once), but the shooting actually occurred on Christmas night at about 10 p.m.
I only found one other reference to Christmas Eve in the versions I checked out (not even close to half of the total), and I’m not sure it would have influenced Hunter. These lines are from a traditional version with lyrics at this site:
“Stagalee, Stagalee — you must-a been a sinner Ev’ry- Christmas eve they give Stagalee a dinner”
The Dice Game: Many versions of the song have the dispute between Stagger Lee and Billy arising from a dice game. That seems to have been an embellishment prompted by a newspaper article that ran more than six months after the killing (and one day before Shelton’s first trial). It stated that Shelton and Lyons had been shooting craps, but there’s no evidence that dice were involved that night. Here is Paul Slade on that point:
“In fact, there’s no mention of gambling in either the earlier newspaper reports or the inquest statements. Either the reporter responsible was genuinely confused, or he could not resist embellishing the story with one extra little colourful detail. Whatever its beginnings, the gambling is now an immovable part of the song”.
The Bucket of Blood: In 1967, a black inmate at the New York State Pen named “Big Stick” recited a “toast” that contained the following:
“He walked through rain and he walked through mud, Till he came to a place called the Bucket of Blood.”
Apparently Nick Cave’s lyrics were taken in large part from the Big Stick toast, and that, in turn, was based on “traditional” versions going back to at least 1911.
The “Bucket of Blood” was another St.Louis bar in the 1890s where some versions of the song have incorrectly placed the shooting. Perhaps it’s a stretch, but the name of that bar has such a gratuitous ring that it seems reminiscent of Hunter’s lines:
“She waded to De Lyon’s club through Billy De Lyon’s blood”
Minor point, but Lyons‘ “club” actually met at a bar called Bridgewater’s, which was just a few blocks down the street from Clark’s. It would have been odd for her to look for Stagger Lee at Bridgewater’s in order to exact her revenge, but I’m getting picky!
The Gallows: Shelton was not sent to the gallows, but many versions have it that way, including Hunter’s (if we’re to presume that Delia’s wishes were honored).
Delia DeLyon: Billy Lyons was likely married, but not to anyone named Delia. However, there is another murder song called “Delia’s Gone” about a shooting that took place in Savannah, Georgia on Christmas Eve in 1900! I somehow doubt that Hunter’s choice of “Delia” was coincidental.
The Cop’s Name: The name of the lawman in Hunter’s version seemed like a curiosity to me. It’s written as “Baio” in The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics. “Bayou” is probably what most people imagine they hear, and I’ve seen it that way on guitar charts. I poked around to see if I could learn of any historical basis for that name. There are a few people here and there who’ve gone by the name of Bayou… it might be confined to the lower Mississippi Valley. Nowhere could I find any reference to that name in the true story of Stagger Lee or in any other versions of the song. Woodie Guthrie’s rendition has the line “The bayou calls”, which doesn’t seem pertinent. The Rulers recorded a song about Stagger Lee called “Wrong ‘Em Boyo”, later covered by The Clash, but that’s apparently coincidental because “Boyo” is a reference to Stagger Lee himself. So I couldn’t find a source for the name of the cop in Hunter’s story.
Wrap Up
The music of many Stagger Lee songs could be described as old country blues, but there have been ragtime, swing, R&B, folk, reggae, and punk versions as well, not to mention spoken “toasts”. I like Garcia’s Stagger Lee melody for several reasons. It’s catchy, and it also has an “old-timey” or even “rag-timey” feel, despite its electricity.
It’s a fascinating Christmas tale, but probably not one you’ll want to tell your children as you tuck them in next Christmas Eve! Of course, Hunter’s lyrics describe something well beyond the actual facts of the Stagger Lee case. Nevertheless, he respects much of the tradition common to so many versions of the story. Meanwhile, his focus on Delia’s passion, revenge, and righteousness in avenging Stagger Lee’s brutality gives a whole different flavor to the story.
In case I failed to provide links to some of the source articles I drew on, here’s a list:
Several articles by Patrick Blackman on Singout.org
I finally got around to watching Peter Jackson’s “Get Back!”, a distillation of the many hours of video from the Beatles’ recording sessions covering 21 days back in late 1969. The culmination of the film was a brief rooftop “concert” in London. It was the band’s first public performance in years, and it proved to be their last ever. Get Back! is lengthy but very enjoyable and an incredible glimpse into the various personalities of the group.
The film projects a strong impression of the Beatles’ anxiety, at that time, about playing a live gig. During all but the last few days captured on the film, it was unclear to everyone involved whether the band would actually do a live performance. The band members were of decidedly mixed enthusiasm about it. They were also skeptical that the cameras at their sessions could capture enough interesting material for a film.
The Beatles had an early reputation as a great live band, but they had last played live in 1966. Kieran McGovern says the band quit touring for three reasons: poor sound quality, exhaustion, and security concerns. The last two are probably self-explanatory, though McGovern thinks the “bigger than Jesus” controversy was worrisome to the band. As to sound quality, the Beatles were the first band to play massive stadium concerts, but the sound equipment was too puny and not adequately advanced to handle those demands. Even worse, the band was unable to hear itself on stage over the throngs of screaming fans. So they just stopped. By then, they were so wildly successful as recording artists that it was unnecessary to promote themselves by touring.
During the Get Back! sessions, Paul McCartney mused about the pros and cons of doing a live concert, but the band seemed a little paralyzed by the notion. It was as if they were clinging to the idea that studio albums should remain their sole focus. And as they worked out arrangements for new songs, various “takes” were preserved by the engineers so that, if nothing else, they would have material for a new album. They did take after take, often stopping after just a few bars.
I’m sure studio sessions with new material can be challenging. In fact, a few of the songs were composed right there in the studio, going from rough idea to fruition over the course of days. It was interesting to witness the band’s humanity in the face of self-imposed pressure to “get it right”, over and over. I know the feeling in my own small way. When I learn new material on the guitar, I sometimes record myself, but an odd thing happens as soon as I hit “record” … it’s hard to get through a song without some perceived mishap. And one attempt is followed by another. And another. Sometimes these “mishaps” stop me almost right at the start. In some ways it was reassuring, and frustrating, to see the same thing happening to the iconic Beatles. I’m also sure this reinforced their hesitation to “go live”. But when you play live, you just have to play through the mishaps, and I’m sure they’d done it many times before!
Years earlier, as the band rose to fame, they performed live all the time, but oddly, the highly creative years away from the stage seemed to corrode their confidence as a working band. There were so many incredible groups performing live in those days, but not for such immense crowds until perhaps Monterey, Woodstock, and maybe a few other big festivals in the late 60s. Much larger sound systems were a requirement that went unfulfilled at the Beatles’ earlier stadium shows, and the poor sound quality was a great frustration to the band. In the later, post-Beatle years, individual members of the band played huge concerts, and the surviving members still do.
While *nobody* is quite like the Beatles, all live bands make mistakes and play through them. Practice might make close to perfect, but even well-drilled classical musicians have their bad days. The Beatles, however, seemed intimidated by the possibility of screwing up in front of an audience, and about knowing the right notes to play. So the film gave me the impression that the Beatles were at heart, or had at least become, what one might call “book musicians”. Play it the same way every time! And they were so eccentrically “book” oriented that they fought a certain paralysis as to the demands of live performance.
There was an astonishing admission from George Harrison fairly early in the film: I’m paraphrasing, but he found it incredible to hear Eric Clapton launch into lengthy guitar improvisations and then somehow end up “in the right place”. And Harrison said, “I just can’t do that.” I love George Harrison’s guitar work, and he wrote some wonderful songs, but the first statement sounds like something one might have heard from a newbie at a Grateful Dead concert. His lack of improvisational confidence puts emphasis on the idea that he was, in fact, a “book musician”.
For the Beatles, in 1969 at least, the idea of improvisation, or just playingaround, was fine for a bit of fun in the studio, or to loosen up. They tended toward old rock n’ roll material or messed around with their own, older stuff, often with comic effect. And John Lennon was very funny, by the way. But the emphasis wasn’t on the concept of musical improvisation, and the idea of doing it on stage, or playing from the cuff before a live audience, was out of the question.
Meanwhile, improvisation had been an active pursuit among jazz musicians almost from the beginning. It was inherently a looser form than what the Beatles wanted to do. The jam band genre was an extension of the jazz aesthetic into adjacent musical forms like blues, rock, and even country. The Grateful Dead pioneered the jam band “form”, if that word can be used, but in any case, improvisation, or a loose approach to live performance with spontaneous creativity, was widespread in the late 1960s. That’s definitely not where the Beatles were at.
The Beatles were a wonderful band, brilliant songwriters, poets, and musicians. They also were driven by perfectionism, at least at the late stages of their time together. Improvisation was not their “cup of tea”, as it were. They had strong reasons for their reluctance to play live after their 1966 tour. By 1969, they hesitated to do even one concert before a smaller audience. The tentative “show date” on their calendar seemed like an approaching freight train, and they dithered over the kind of show it would be and where it would be staged. Finally, the rooftop of Apple Studios was selected with just a couple of days to go. It was an interesting promotional stunt, but it seemed like a cop-out. Not many people could really see them up there, and the sound quality on the street was probably a very mixed bag. Still, Get Back! was a lot of fun to watch. And I do love the Beatles, even if I love the music and often careening style of the original jam band much more.
Our material possessions aren’t the most important things in the world, but they are often part of our identities as people. Almost anything qualifies, from the big, expensive stuff like a home or a car, to whatever we find worth keeping. Declutter if you must, but the things that remain have a lot to do with our well being, even if they exist simply as part of our surroundings. They reflect our past, present, and hopes for the future, and they embody important aspects of our interests and passions.
I don’t doubt that individuals of high spiritual or metaphysical consciousness are able to transcend the desire for material goods. Very well, though for most of us, certain physical possessions matter. People collect things like matchbook covers or fine art because they are important in one way or another. Great works and quirky novelties all have their place… with someone.
We’ve witnessed an accelerating erosion in the personal art of “collecting” certain kinds of things, however, and that is the main subject of this post. It draws heavily on Kyle Chayka’s excellent piece, “The Digital Death of Collecting”. There are at least two aspects of this decline. One has to do with digital storage, which eliminates physical media and presents a new set of administrative issues. The other strand has to do with a loss of ownership. That’s a distinct phenomenon, but it has probably been driven by digital technology, at least to this point.
Losing Physical Control
Much of the entertainment we experience today is delivered electronically. Historically, we used physical storage media of various kinds: books, vinyl records, CDs, DVDs, books on tape, etc… so it was (and still is) possible to accumulate and possess a physical collection of music, for example. It can be fun to document those collections, like my old bootleg Grateful Dead concert tapes. Now, actually owning a collection of physical music media is an anachronism to many (mostly younger) people. Instead, their favorite music is stored on a device, a server, or “in the Cloud”. Often, without a shred of awareness, this has led to a kind of interference with the individual’s ability to possess and control a whole class of property closely associated with the cultural and intellectual self.
For example, with respect to physical media and storage, we used to shoot photos and, once developed, we’d curate them and put our favorites into photo albums. However, for the better part of the past two decades, phones have allowed us to snap photos and take videos more or less indiscriminately. I periodically transfer my photos to an electronic hard drive, with minimal curation, where they are automatically assigned names with inscrutable combinations of letters and numbers. I’ve been doing it for years now, and it’s a mess. How long will it take me to find a particular photo? Even one photo from a particular event? What if the drive fails?
I need to back them up, of course, but that was the original purpose of the external hard drive! As I updated and transitioned to new computers over the years, I failed to maintain a complete set on the new laptop hard drives. Now, they reside only on the external hard drive. Sadly, in the end, many of us are simply unable or unwilling to implement better record management practices. My “collection” of photos has been neglected. I could try to rename these images descriptively and sort them into folders, but digging into it now seems almost an insurmountable task.
To some extent, the advent of digital players had the same impact on music collections. Some listeners never made the transition and consigned themselves to the use of older media and technologies, despite the increasing difficulty and expense of finding recordings. But they kept their physical collections active, which is a gratifying thing. Those who made the transition grappled with new issues in managing their “collections”, often without the satisfaction of arranging and beholding the physical media. Granted, this isn’t always an either/or proposition, but doing both requires extra effort.
Similar transitions took place with digitized movies and reading material. I have a small movie collection, mostly movie musicals, animated children’s films, and a few cult films and classics. Not all are on DVD, and I haven’t added anything to this little trove in years. I still rent discs from Netflix, but like most people, streaming accounts for a growing share of my viewing. As for books, it’s less common today to see handsome collections of books arranged on shelves, but some doggedly attempt to maintain personal libraries, even if they aren’t all bound hardcovers.
Loss of Ownership
The other strand of our evolving relationship with digitized entertainment has to do with ownership itself. Today, we often purchase what amount to listening, viewing, or other “use rights”. This has sealed Chayka’s “Digital Death of Collecting”. Here’s how he sums it up:
“My lostness comes from the sense that our cultural collections are not wholly our own anymore. In the era of algorithmic feeds, it’s as if the bookshelves have started changing shape on their own in real time, shuffling some material to the front and downplaying the rest like a sleight-of-hand magician trying to make you pick a specific card — even as they let you believe it’s your own choice. And this lack of agency is undermining our connections to the culture that we love.”
Again, books are a case in point. Chayka notes that building a personal library is an expression of one’s intellectual history and interests. Yet today, with electronically delivered reading material sans physical media, you don’t really “own” the books you purchase.This blogger states the case well:
“As I’ve tried to point out before, both publishers and distributors like Amazon have spent the past decade or so removing rights that we used to have when books were physical property, and were something that you actually bought — along with the right to resell and/or lend them to whomever you wished, whenever you wished. Those rights no longer exist, which is why it’s better to think of an ebook purchase as an agreement to rent access under specific terms rather than an actual acquisition of something tangible.”
Free To Rent … and Pay As You Go
Subscriptions are replacing ownership in all sorts of contexts, and the use rights they confer are obviously of limited duration. For example, I was surprised when I realized that I could no longer “purchase” Microsoft Office and then download and install it to my computer. Instead, I have to buy annual subscriptions to continue to use it. Now, I don’t really “collect” software, unless the plethora of apps I’ve downloaded to my phone qualifies. Also, I understand that software becomes obsolete, so my “ownership” of Office was really equivalent to an indefinite but limited rental period. Maybe one-year subscriptions will be a better deal, though I have my doubts.
Renting certainly isn’t new in the “film space”. Blockbuster was a huge success for a time. And again, I get two discs at a time from Netflix to this day. People can still “collect” videos, but I suspect it’s not quite as common today in terms of collecting physical media.
I’ll always argue that renting is an economically rational alternative to homeownership. Same with leasing vs. owning a car, or anything else. And people often take a measure of pride even in things they rent. These own vs. rent choices and their relative values depend on one’s circumstances in life as well as one’s preference for control over the items in question.
Our Carts Runneth Over
A huge upside of all these changes is that we’re enjoying an astonishing array of choices as well as unprecedented convenience. (We can argue about the quality of the art, but that’s for another day.) In fact, the scarcity of new “collectibles” in the categories I’ve mentioned here might not be such bad news to collectors who’ve been at it for a while. After all, their existing collections might gain value. However, some forms of storage media might require technical or mechanical skill on the part of the collector. That’s because they have rigid hardware requirements. Eight-track players? Cassette tapes? VCRs? Who supports them? Yes, you can still buy a phonograph, but finding compatible “content” can be challenging. For the rest of us, streaming digital content frees us from those requirements and their inevitable obsolescence.
Unfortunately, our relationship to so much of our personal entertainment bounty seems more ephemeral than in the past. Streaming music and films is fine, but I’m much less likely to “burn them”, and ownership is an all but forgotten possibility. Like Chayka, I find the loss of owned, physical collections that has accompanied the digital revolution lamentable, not to mention the loss of control. I truly believe that if publishers ever quit printing physical books we’ll be poorer for it. But I’m not a complete technophobe, and I think there’s promise in recent developments in blockchain technology that might restore our ability as consumers to own more encompassing rights to digital assets.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are essentially digital assets of almost any kind, with ownership documented in the blockchain. Some of the most publicized NFTs we’ve seen thus far are notoriously lacking in the actual rights they confer to the buyer. However, advances in standards are enabling the creation of more robust NFTs. There is no reason, in principle, why a consumer could not possess an NFT documenting ownership for a digital copy of a particular film, piece of music, e-book, or any other form one might collect. That might solve the ownership issue if and when crypto assets gain more acceptance. Individuals who are especially proud of their collections of NFTs could produce physical tokens to represent each NFT for display, if only for themselves to gaze upon lovingly. These could be plaques, for example, or the physical tokens could look like DVDs or books! Granted, it’s not the same as a real collection of physical media, but it might serve an emotional purpose.
She looks good in a mask, and I grant you: masquerades often convey exciting undertones of sexual adventurism. But masquerades and masks should be novelties, not a constant way of life dictated by over-precautious public health authorities.
That brings me to the subject of an outdoor concert I’m attending with some friends on May 8th. It’s to be held at a grassy amphitheater along the Mississippi River in south St. Louis County. Unfortunately, the county health department imposes idiotic rules at this and other outdoor facilities. In the document at the link, it’s clear the rules were given some spin by the band who will perform that night, Jake’s Leg, a very good Grateful Dead cover band. And I get it: these guys just want to play music and perform for their fans, who will be happy to soak in the sounds, party, and dance the night away. Still, some of the rules are absurd and fly in the face of “the science”.
There is a certain libertarian streak among Grateful Deadheads, though in terms of realpolitik, probably the majority is of a more collectivist persuasion (not me). Some in the crowd will welcome the rules and might even go so far as to rat-out anyone whose behavior they find “unsafe”. Others will just go along with the rules as they interpret them. Some like me might push the envelope. But as the evening wears on… what a nice expression, … “as the evening wore on…”, it will be interesting to see whether forces tear loose from the prescriptive axis.
I’ve excerpted some of the rules below and added brief commentary. They appear in the order listed in the document, though it might seem a bit jumbled. I’m sorry to have left out most of the friendly color added by the band:
“Bring a cloth or paper face covering. You will not be allowed entry if you do not have one. Gaiters, bandanas and full-face shields are not acceptable as primary or only face covering. Face coverings must completely cover the nose and mouth. Children under 2 years old are not required to wear a face covering.”
The chances of contracting COVID outdoors are virtually nil, and don’t tell me we’re just learning these details … we’ve known that since almost the beginning of the pandemic. Second, in any case, cloth and paper masks are ineffective at stopping the aerosols responsible for most viral transmission. That’s been known for many years. Our public health experts are only now starting to admit these facts. Allowing toddlers to go maskless is the only concession, and it’s true that transmission by children is unlikely and COVID severity in children is very low. But that goes for older children as well, not just toddlers. Asymptomatic spread is similarly rare, so if you feel good enough to go (and they’ll check your temperature at the gate), you are unlikely to present a risk to anyone.
“Please bring small personal coolers only (no coolers w/ wheels) for your favorite beverages (cans and non- breakables please), along with snacks and food, chairs, blankets and personal use items for you and your small group.”
So, maybe not so bad… it’s about like the usual charade at restaurants: we must enter wearing masks, but then we can rip them off as soon as we find a spot to enjoy the music, our snacks, beverages and those all-important personal use items. Hmm, I guess the unsanitary passing of spleefs ist verboten. A hookah with several hoses could accommodate a small group, but that never goes over with an event staff! Edibles are fine!
“Have your ticket ready to be scanned … and always maintain at least 6 feet social distancing while you’re in line. Markers will be placed as a reminder for you.”
Even indoors, three feet of distancing has been acknowledged as adequate by the undeservedly celebrated Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“Please spread out and maintain at least six feet social distancing from other attendees outside of your small group.There is plenty of room to move and dance.”
More of the same hogwash. Note that the requirements offer no definition of “small group”. To appreciate the absurdity and unnecessary ass-covering inherent in all this, let me point out that my “small group” will consist of six or seven friends who haven’t met as a group in more than a year, We are almost sure to mix with other friends whom we’ll see at the show. So group members will migrate between groups, or small groups might merge into somewhat larger “small groups”. This will be happening all over, and it’s a pretty sure bet there will be lapses in mask compliance. If you happen to be spinning or dancing, the last thing you should do is wear a mask. You need oxygen, and you should avoid trapping hot breath and spittle right up against your face (see the latter part of this article).
“Once you’ve found a place to watch the show, please stay with your group at your area. If you must leave your space, you must wear a face covering at all times whenever you are not able to maintain at least 6 foot social distancing.”
Uh-huh… “Distancing” is not always clear-cut behavior. You pass people coming and going and dancing around. Are you “distancing” on average? Will you be ejected if you briefly come within a few feet of another concert-goer, sans mask? These are matters of uncertain degree, and it’s generally why police don’t enforce mask mandates in pedestrian areas, aside from a few draconian “mask traps” outside stores. Outdoors, it’s absurd.
“Please wash/sanitize your hands before and after using all restroom facilities. Always be kind, think of others and practice social distancing when waiting.”
Post-toilet hand washing is always a good practice, of course, but these guys are nuts! When I arrive at the restroom, I’m generally not worried about the remote chance that my hands will pass the virus to my genitals or vice-versa, and we know that the virus isn’t transmitted from surfaces. It’s also regrettable that masks and distancing will limit those sometimes entertaining conversations in bathroom lines.
“All attendees must adhere to these guidelines regardless of vaccination status.”
This also is sheer stupidity, and I’m complaining only because it reflects the “Zero COVID” mentality of the public health authorities holding us hostage. I guess I’d rather not bring my vaccination card along in any case, and at least they aren’t requiring “vaccine passports” for entry to the venue. But just in case I’m misunderstood, the chance that a fully vaccinated individual will catch or transmit the virus is very low and not even worthy of concern in any rational balancing of risk and benefit.
“Disclaimer: All venue initiatives to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are strictly followed and enforced. Those on premises are subject to compliance with all venue safety procedures and protocols. Non-compliance will result in refused entry or ejection from venue without refund. Upon purchasing tickets for the event, you acknowledge and agree to adhere to all venue policies.”
Again, as a practical matter, some of the rules listed above are virtually unenforceable, but we’ll see how the evening unfolds with a crowd of free-wheeling Deadheads. It could be all strangers stopping strangers, just to bump their elbows. Either way, if past is prelude, the amphitheater will be something of a heart-of-gold land.
In advanced civilizations the period loosely called Alexandrian is usually associated with flexible morals, perfunctory religion, populist standards and cosmopolitan tastes, feminism, exotic cults, and the rapid turnover of high and low fads---in short, a falling away (which is all that decadence means) from the strictness of traditional rules, embodied in character and inforced from within. -- Jacques Barzun