DFW, Chuck Klosterman, Eric Clapton, Leo Fender...

This morning I ramble, and don't really connect the dots...

David Foster Wallace and Chuck Klosterman. Do they belong in the same sentence? Both are writers, both are funny. Both wear glasses. Both write insightfully about Pop Culture. Both are two of my absolute favorite writers. One is dead. One is living. The dead one is (in my estimation) a genius. This is based on one mammoth, amazing, insightful, beautifully sad and funny book. Both have provided me with hours and hours of thought-provoking insights, laughter and maddening detours.

The living one might be a genius too. Especially if you are one of those people who lightly throw the word around. I might be one of those people. I do think if you want to be considered a serious thinker, and entertaining too, you should write about Pop Culture. Anyone born after 1955 should have Pop Culture on the brain.  It's that big and that important, and that interesting. If you don't think about it, or write about it, well, you are living in an alternate reality that just isn't as colorful or interesting.

And Chuck is obsessed with Pop Culture, and he will try to convince you that KISS is an essential band, and that Guns N' Roses made the greatest record of the 80's. Not saying I'm convinced, but he makes a great case. But Chuck always surprises me. He's so funny, so insightful, and always seems to be coming from an "out of the box" frame, that he shows some kind of Pop Culture genius credibility. Really!?!

I've lately had Eric Clapton on the brain. I don't know why. Probably because he's a really good guitar player, and I own and admire lots of his early work with Cream, Blind Faith, Delaney & Bonnie and Derek and the Dominos. He was famously declared to be a "god" at a young age, and then well, he has had a long career where he pretty much squandered that reputation.  It's obviously hard to maintain Godhood. 

Check out this blog post from Charles Matthews - it's funny, corrosive and totally eviscerates Eric Clapton's later career. Some people hate Clapton, and think he ruined the Stratocaster all on his own. Funny. And maybe sort of true.

Anyway, I came across a passage (again) last night, and this blog post of mine is just long-winded way of getting to Chuck K. comparing Eric Clapton to Eddie Van Halen... so good, so funny, so true, so Chuck...

"Eddie and Eric are certainly among the greatest rock guitarists who ever lived, but for totally different reasons. Listening to Clapton is like getting a sensual massage from a woman you've loved for the past ten years, listening to Van Halen is like having the best sex of your life with three foxy nursing students you met at a Tastee Freeze. This is why rock historians and intellectuals feel comfortable lionizing Eric Clapton, even though every credible guy in the world will play Van Halen tapes when his wife isn't around." - Chuck K.

So great. A good example of why I love Chuck's writing.

But I think I'll give Eric Clapton the last word.  Yes, I love his early work, and his later work not so much, but you can't deny that he's a great and influential guitar player.  He almost exclusively plays a Fender Stratocaster, although earlier in his career he played a Les Paul, for guitarists this is an important and significant thing. I mean I'm obsessed with guitars and one of the great, fundamental questions is always: Fender or Gibson? It's a very important, existential question.  I came across Eric's great tribute to the Stratocaster and it's creator Leo Fender... it's beautiful, worth a read for sure. And really like him or not, Eric must be an expert on guitars.

"I come back to the fact that I don't think that there's anything that doesn't come from pure logic. I would challenge anyone to come up with a better guitar. The Stratocaster is as good as it gets, isn't it?" - Eric Clapton