Never blend in

[imomus]

"I'm always very interested in my first impressions of Japan after I've been away for a while, because in a way they're the strongest and most revealing ones, before it all becomes familiar and habitual," I wrote on December 31st. So, before it all faded into habituation, I scribbled down a bunch of adjectives. Japan was "soft, breezy, floral, sensual, efficient, uptight, northern, tidy, neat, well-organised, superlegitimate, pristine, theatrical" and so on.

Well, I've just arrived in New York (after stops in Milan and Berlin... it's all a blur, my eyes feel like they're lined with lead), and I'm scribbling down my first impressions of this city just like I did last year, when the billboards on the road in from Liberty International airport seemed to proclaim that "we're all criminals of one kind or another. Potential criminals or sinners..."

This year it's a related impression I get: winners and losers, we're all obnoxious mavericks. It's the impression you get of America when you've just arrived from Japan, before it all settles down and comes to seem normal. When you're a bit jet-lagged, either fuzzier than usual or, perhaps, somehow, clearer.

I take the train in from the airport; it's the first time I've taken it in from Newark (which is what I insist on calling this airport, although it's probably called "Operation Enduring Democracy Shining Liberty Torch" by now), and I'm slightly surprised there even is a train, or that there are toilet facilities in the station. Because, after Japan, my impression of this society is that it's a place where the idea of being in public doesn't really work. Although it's undeniably a society in every normal way -- a place where people congregate, work together, follow the rules, co-operate, work in teams -- America doesn't seem to like to think of itself as that. It prefers to think of itself as a big mass of individuals... mavericks.



The message is right there on a billboard for Hennessy cognac. Beside a sepia portrait of Marvin Gaye the copy line reads "Never Blend In". It looks like Gaye's late, slightly tragic period, the time when he was living in exile in Oostende, making "Sexual Healing" with drum machines, seeking sexual healing himself. Now, forgive me for thinking it's a bit odd to use Marvin Gaye as an image of the supposed greatness of not blending in. Gaye surged to fame with records like "What's Going On?" -- very much a news bulletin about the collective life of the black community at the peak of its radicalism. His individualist phase is him in exile in Belgium, or him being shot dead by his own father for being, apparently, too defiant and cocky. Is that what the poster is alluding to? It's a pretty tragic symbol of the life of a "maverick".

The next sign I see on the train is a notice about what happens to customers who don't co-operate with the conductor, refuse to pay, or threaten violence. They'll be put off the train at the next station and handed over to the police. It must happen a lot. Mavericks, you see.

There are lots of adverts for a car insurance company called Geico, whose mascot is a horrible slimy green gecko. Three million divers switched to Geico last year, he says. He loves saving you money on your insurance claims. When you crash, presumably, into another obnoxious maverick.

There are other ways mavericks can clash, of course. The train passes a big billboard which just says "Divorcing?" and gives a number. Conflict is making a lot of people rich in America. Conflict, crashes and fights. 1-800 I-CAN-DIVORCE!

Then there's a billboard that says "Jail is a 4-letter word. Call this number to find out how to avoid ending up there." How many young American men between 20 and 30 are in jail at any given point? This article says that in some cities (like Baltimore) more than 50% of the population in that age range are either in prison, on probation or on parole. Mavericks.

Winners and losers are both mavericks. They resemble each other here in their refusal to play by the rules. Some end up in jail, others running companies. My flight has featured lots of personal announcements from the founder and CEO of Continental, telling us how he started the company, how everyone working for it is exceptional. Mavericks. Give 'em a big tip! Because they're individuals, and so are you. There follows a song with so much virtuoso soul melisma the singer manages to put 12 syllables into the word "I". I counted them.

The train is confusing. Everybody who's just arrived at Operation Enduring War on Terror airport is looking for Penn Station New York, but many must descend on the platform at Penn Station Newark, which is in Jersey City. It does have a couple of skyscrapers, although all you'll find on the platform is one drunken bum. Another maverick.

The train is full of people making cell phone calls. Something people don't do in Japan, so you don't have to hear people endlessly telling invisible partners "I'm on the train" in a loud voice. Outside there's another billboard: some New York Times number one best-selling author (Janet Brown?) poses in slacks, as skeletal as Joan Rivers, the scalpel-thin face of someone who's battling the ageing process with lots of plastic surgery and "winning". Her books are about murder.

On the subway train there's a young black guy selling candy "to put myself through college". It's a slick ploy; he's not a loser but a potential winner. He's not asking for charity or admitting weakness, but showing how well he can play the maverick game. The carriage is full of mad-eyed loners in jeans and padded jackets. Just how badly disconnected from the social network is the guy opposite you, eyeing you with a strangely manic, desperate look? Well, he's talking to himself. The women are also "mavericks" -- just rather more nervous ones. They too wear jeans and padded jackets.

As I approach East Broadway station, suddenly the carriage fills with sane people. Tall, thin people who talk to each other warmly and animatedly, people who look poised and intelligent, people who look as if they live in groups and realize that society is all about obligation, and achievement comes collectively. They're the Americans of the future, and they're Chinese.

So here I am sitting in a cafe on Orchard Street. Stipe is singing on the radio "Nobody tells you what to do, baby... Hey kids, rock and roll, nobody tells you where to go, baby". It's a tragic view of society, and Stipe sings it in a tragic way, the sad image of Marvin Gaye floating above his voice.

Later this week I start work at the Whitney, where I'm very afraid I'll be taken for an obnoxious maverick myself. I'll blend right in.

Comments

[cargoweasel.livejournal.com]

So really, at heart, you want to be a Japanese businessman working 12 hour days in an office cubicle, riding the train in an orderly fashion with a box lunch, but the relentless individualism of the west is forcing you to wear thrift store clothes and hang around galleries and put out music?

[(Anonymous)]

i have more or less the same question?

trevor.

[bopscotch.livejournal.com]

It gets worse - Marvin Gaye was also an alcoholic at the time he was shot by his father. They have this billboard near an intersection by my community college... It makes me cringe everytime I see it.

[i-am-a-hot-sale.livejournal.com]

52% of the black population

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Yes, but since Baltimore is a predominantly black city, I'm sure that translates to somewhere around 50% of the entire population of the city.

*ponders*

[willabark.livejournal.com]

I am always intruiged to hear about how non americans see us.
It never occurs to me how sepratist we tend to be.

[peripherus-max.livejournal.com]

That Marvin Gaye maverick sign is EVERYWHERE! It's even in Huntsville, Alabama on a dirty roadside next to an identically-sized methadone clinic billboard in a poor part of town that houses the community's only decent coffeeshop.

I also can't believe you wrote this entry without once mentioning Madonna's record label - "Maverick."

[wingedwhale.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine keeps guns in his house. "If some crazy psycho comes into my house, I need to protect my family." Maverick vs. Maverick?

[asimovfan.livejournal.com]

I liked this entry. I'm not quite sure if i'm understanding your point of view though.. Are you saying that americans all claim to be unique indviduals, but in trying so hard to be different and unique, they just end being a different flavor of sameness?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I think the emphasis on individualism pushed to such insane extremes becomes paradoxical; yes, there's the different flavor of sameness thing going on. But at the same time I think there's really obvious social decay going on here. I see very clearly the American Environics (http://imomus.livejournal.com/169070.html) perspective that the US is turning towards "fatalism, and a focus on every man for himself. Despite the increasing political power of the religious right, Environics found social values moving away from the authority end of the scale, with its emphasis on responsibility, duty, and tradition, to a more atomized, rage-filled outlook that values consumption, sexual permissiveness, and xenophobia. The trend was toward values in the individuality quadrant."

I think the signs of that are everywhere.

[bifteck.livejournal.com]

My guess is that you were selected to show at the Whitney at least partially because you are considered a maverick, though perhaps not an obnoxious one.

[tsenft.livejournal.com]

I love this entry. I can feel your sadness in it, but I love it.

[iamcoreyd.livejournal.com]

Nick, have you ever been to the Southern US? The Maverick Syndrome is particularly annoying here. Everyone has an abnormally huge truck covered in bumper stickers that show everyone how individual they are, but as soon as an actual risk-taking individual comes along he/she is tormented. The motto is: "be nonconformist, but in the same way as everyone else."

[peripherus-max.livejournal.com]

Spot on observation. I find this intensely annoying as well, esp. since the REAL (or at least, self-advertized) spirit of the South is one of rebellion, right?

[peripherus-max.livejournal.com]

Unrelated question: Nick, have you ever lived for an extended time in a country in the Southern hemisphere? I can't help but wonder how Santiago or Buenos Aires would influence your artistic output. Would a South American country fall uniquely within (or more precisely... thirdly, or better yet, perhaps outside) your multi-post maverick-collectivist binary?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Never been to the southern hemisphere. But South Americans mostly fall into the Catholic side of the Protestant / Catholic binary, don't they, which means that, like the Southern Europeans many of them are descended from, they're more collectivist than individualist. (For me, individualism is all tied up with Protestantism.) Especially if they're also communists, like the Cubans.

I feel immensely more at home with the music of Cuba, Jamaica and Brazil than the music of the US, I must say, and I'm sure it's something to do with the collectivist and non-fesity vibe of South American music. Compare reggae with rap, for instance.

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, I don't really like America but you're just a total, complete dick. Pure asshole. Especially for someone who was a few months ago proclaiming that America has some of the best intellectualism and art itself.

What a fiesty, angry maverick you are! If you don't want to be perceived as some kind of Maverick maybe you should get your head out of your ass and stopping writing shit like this. I'd say people with their heads up their asses is pretty much where capitalistic individualism comes from and is in turn producing that brand of capitalism.

What a tool of capitalist individualism!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Especially for someone who was a few months ago proclaiming that America has some of the best intellectualism and art itself.

That's tomorrow's entry! Today I'm just reading billboards.

I see a picture, you see a picture, we see the picture.

[instant-c.livejournal.com]

You could look at your gig as being a de-alienation of the artworks. Somehow breaking up the internalized and quiet viewer/artwork relationship? Stories man! Stories can collectivise us! Break the myth of the loner artist cowboy! Perhaps all the works were made by two thousand people with no name! Good luck, I will be there just to see you at work in april!

re: Geico

[kingdoma.livejournal.com]

wait until you see the TV ads for Geico. For some inexplicable reason, the gecko has a sarf London accent.

Re: Geico

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

He used to have a more aristocratic patois a while ago. I suppose the cockney is less off-putting to focus groups?

[lunarflares.livejournal.com]

I read this article (http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/celebrity/marvin_gaye/index.html) about Marvin Gaye awhile back, and it might add a bit of perspective on his "Maverickness." Among other things, he was explosively violent and "sexually deviant," according to many American values (and laws). Is that the sort of individual we're meant to admire? Imagine the response if, instead of Mr. Gaye, they had a big picture of Michael Jackson. His music often rallied equality, World Citizenship, and other "positive" messages, but something tells me the average American would be outraged by the idea of Mr. Jackson's uniqueness being used as a positive example of individualism.

(I might add that I do enjoy both Gaye and Jackson's music, but I think it's a fallacy to view their persons as role models, when it is their music that has admirable attributes).

In any case, I would also like to extend my appreciation to you, Momus. I don't have the energy (or intellect/experience) to engage in an argument with you about your view of a hedonistic and decaying West versus the perfect, soft lily of Japan, but suffice it to say I don't always agree with you. Still, I look forward to reading your posts, because they nearly always incite a reaction from me, which I won't classify as being positive or negative, because I think the act of reacting is positive in nature. Though, perhaps you'd disagree with me on that.

Also, I recently discovered that "Lovely Tree" is a fairly perfect song for driving slowly through heavy rain at night.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Ah, I love to hear the secret life of songs I've written. All the interesting stuff happens after they've left my machines.

[scottbateman.livejournal.com]

Welcome back to New York!

1. I'd love to catch coffee with you--email me at scott at batemania dot com if that sounds like fun.

2. I'd love to be able to record one of your Whitney tours for animation purposes--would you be interested...?

3. How long are you in town? Because we're planning another Bateman365 Live show for late April, I think., and I'd love to have you as musical guest... :-)

east-west contrast

[(Anonymous)]

After living for quite a while in japan, and having traveled back and forth to the US i completely understand the tone of what you're saying.

Every single time I go back i get this shit feeling that nobody gives a damn about nobody - except themselves. There is something very gray that goes way beyond the colors of the buildings and the style on the streets. I find it very frustrating and nobody seems to understand back at home.

Sometimes i get people telling me that Tokyo is a crazy place with neons all over, girls with fluorescent dresses, old drunken salarymen and that's why i get this empty sensation back in the US. I don't think so (it's not true anyways). Japan can be incredibly boring at times, i've had the longest, slowest days of my life here. It's more a question of american attitude in general. That goes for mainstream culture, advertising, films and the music scene. I think you've pointed out part of the issue.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Your friend should avoid Philly.

[(Anonymous)]

Strange you would find the NY Metro area more individualist in regards to the Puritan/Catholic scale - most people in this area are either Catholic or Jewish, at least of origin or in culture (which is to say, nominally). Outside of Boston, this is pretty much the Catholic stronghold in the US, and definitely the Jewish stronghold.

If you look at families, people are generally pretty tight-knit, especially with rent prices: kids are staying with their parents Italian-style these days, particularly since most of the European-descended people are of Italian descent.

You see a kid dressed like a freak walking down the street: chances are he still lives with his parents, or he's living off of them. During the week he could be all spruced up for business.

Life around here is more complex than people rubbing up against each other in some obnoxious, hyper-individualist way, though I do admit that yes, people get verrry aggressively independent and it's natural advice to *look after yourself*, though that's more urban-region common sense than anything else.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Most people are Catholic or Jewish, yes. Not many old stock WASPs.

The looks of white midwesterners or southerners really stick out here; when white people have a surname like Johnson or Smith, it's something of a curiosity. I get subscription requests in the mail from Ebony and Jet, because of my name. My tailors refer to me as "that white boy with a black man's name," or "cuz."

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

Welcome to us. You are now free to pretend that you are free.



Right now I'm pretending I'm the guy on the right. I think thats David Bryne

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

That's the line I use to get into town. I keep earplugs with me, so I can read.

I would say most people are simply obnoxious livestock. Most true mavericks I've had the pleasure of knowing are usually gracious and charming.

Unfortunately, this part of the country is known for being especially deficient in manners, and people here are often unaware that they are in fact being rude. I've lived among them for most of my life, but I've never acclimated myself to it. I used to be mortified when going to other parts of the country with associates on business, because they would proceed to reinforce every bad Northeast stereotype in the minds of our hosts.

That said, I usually find New Yorkers to be friendly and polite.

[outdoorminerbob.livejournal.com]

I get the impression that NYC is the cutting edge of just about everything in America, the rest of the country eventually follows suit whether it's wearing padded jackets or being rude and self absorbed.

I'm from a town of about 30,000 in rural Ohio and while I'm still only 28 years old it's not hard at all for me to notice the differences between now and 20 years ago in the way people interact in my parents' suburban neighborhood. People just don't interact as much, there's no more block parties, fewer garage sales, a new gated subdivision even sprung up behind my old house with all of 5 houses in it. My dad used to walk our dog back there until they actually kicked him out one day.

I can't help but imagine all the current neighborhood kids plopped in front of their respective HD displays, xbox 360s humming away, shooting video bullets at anonymous kids hundreds of miles away.

My mom claims that it's because houses no longer have porches. People no longer congregate outside enabling them to interact with their neighbors. I guess you can blame air conditioning for that.

I'm in Japan now and I'm worried about going home because I've lost my outer shell, people don't confront you on a regular basis here and I'm afraid I've gone soft.

[lunarflares.livejournal.com]

Lord Whimsy (and others) bring up a good point. Have you spent much time in the Pacific Northwest? We're quite different than the Northeast or South of America -- my first trip to New York felt like I was in a completely different country (or many other countries).

[fireflesh.livejournal.com]

Not to mention that there is definitely more than one American South...

Momus, the pace and vibe of the NY metro region is simply not representative of the country as a whole. Please tell me you plan on expanding your travels.

[(Anonymous)]

OK, you can make fun of New Jersey jus' cause its natural to compliment the ever pervading 'Jersey Smell' and its plethora of ugly ass-dom, but how dare you make fun of our dear American citizens whose families are in the armed forces spreading freedom and democracy like glorious confetti 'round the unprivledged world where all the brown people live, practicing their underdeveloped beliefs that could be improved with the majic touch of American Mavrick-dom! Operation, Freedom, Liberty, Shock, Awe... Blessed be these words which make up our good intentions!
PS We won World War 2 by the way, and anyone who is a naysayer of our entitled and riteous government is a leftwing corporazi. Those types should be rounded up and shot i'm afraid. PEOPLE LIKE YOU!
Sincerley, a Canadian

[wishdragon.livejournal.com]

Every human culture is flawed... or at least every culture that has ever existed up to this point has been flawed. It all seems like stages of the same disease to me. Words like "Tradition" and "Values" leads to words like "Intolerance" and "Tunnel Vision" while words like "Freedom" and "Individuality" lead to words like "Chaos" and "Instability." Each of those dimensions has its own private heaven and hell.

To my way of thinking, the very best thing about a society based on Freedom and Individuality would be the ability for people to express themselves and explore to the limits of their minds without being punished and without punishing others. Living in that world would be like pulling off a heist - a bank job where the vault is the universe that contains all the knowledge and experience and art that infinity can hold, but the real prize is the pleasure of the accomplishment.

The very best thing about a society based on Tradition and Values would be knowing that you are secure in your place in the world, being able to depend on the world to be safe and welcoming everywhere that you are. Living in that world would be like dancing through a wonderful musical number where you are absolutely acing every turn of the heel and tap of the foot in perfect sync with the rest of the dancers.

But that's just my idea of what those worlds would be like.

In my opinion, humans are what fuck up the equation every time.... but they're the only things that make it worth doing the math in the first place.

-Wish

[outdoorminerbob.livejournal.com]

I remember reading an interview with Perry Farrell a few years ago where he was talking about how Venice Beach was no fun because you couldn't shock people anymore. He wanted to move to a place where he could still move people.

I wonder if that isn't part of the attraction of Japan for people like Momus and myself even, that it seems like it is still possible to stand out here. I wonder what percentage of foreigners in Japan secretly or openly harbor the ridiculous fantasy of being a famous musician or artist.

[hello-mike.livejournal.com]

A couple of departures of America ago, on the way home to Canada, I got out a notepad and scribbled out a few pages of catharsis. About the society, about the dysfunction, about the chill in the air, the uneasy feeling you can get just walking into an unfamiliar place in America. I'm never entirely sure why I'm here when I'm here.

And yet I keep coming back, because so many things are here. Maybe I feel like I can rescue some people before they go completely dead, permanently encased in foam, inured to real life because of what they have to deal with on a daily basis here.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm too dramatic about it, but everything I think about it continues being reinforced as long as I'm down here.

America is a punch in the face.