Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the general quality of fortune cookies, specifically the fortune part of the package, has deteriorated considerably, shifting from the old-fashioned vague predictions to advice reeking of platitudes cribbed out of hackneyed self-help books. I mention this because while noshing out the other day I happened to crack open a wild one.
It read as follows: “Those who take year-end best lists too seriously are destined to die miserable and alone.” And hey, on each side of this portent was a smiley face. Yeah, I’ll admit it freaked me out a little.
10. Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Blue
Placing a record I’m not likely to play a dozen more times in my life in the No. 10 spot? Why yes indeed. Not a tribute to Joni Mitchell’s fourth album, nor is it to my knowledge related in any way to the final film of the late Derek Jarman (the cover might lead one to this conclusion), Blue is a “note-for-note copy” of Miles Davis’ ’59 masterpiece made by an interesting and divisive group (and with this release, increasingly so).
Quotations are used in the sentence above for a fairly obvious reason; a note-for-note reproduction of such a complex work is an absurdity if not an impossibility, though MOPDTK get so close (I mean at times they get REALLY close) that accusations of plagiarism have been lobbed against Blue. Those charges are off base; but then what exactly is on target?
It’s less an elaborate prank, but as the inclusion of the typically amazing Jorge Luis Borges story “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote” makes clear (well, kind of), humor is part of the strategy; namely, satire concerning worship of the masters, but also a postmodern playfulness that’s proven to be like sandpaper rubbing on scores of folks’ nerves. They needn’t get so upset. Kind of Blue is indestructible and its essence will never be replaced or replicated; but of course, that’s not really the intention of the sticky can of worms that is Mostly Other People Do the Killing’s Blue.