Page 6 The Lion’s Eye April 15, 2009 Eve on Editorials By Matt Kelly Special to the Lion's Eye mjk5039@psu.edu dorftower THE BEST AIROUITD Last time you heard from me dedicated listeners, I roughly touched on a party I was at. If you recall it was the party in which my ex sent me a picture text the day before Valentine’s Day and almost ruined my holiday. Thankfully, she didn’t, but this isn’t about her. I’ve decided love and sex enough; it’s time for me to move back to what I love talking about, Pop Culture. While at this party in which the text was re- ceived I was sitting on the couch with various individuals. Being that I was the only sober person at this entire party it’s quite possible that I’m the only person to recall this conver- sation but that’s not important. The discus- sion we had been about “great’ vs. “best”. Is there really a difference? I strongly believe that there in fact is a distinct differ- ent between the two. This conversation was triggered by me stating that ALL was a better band than the Descendents. Everyone seemed to think I was talking crazy talk when I stated this, but people are clearly getting a band’s “greatness” confused for musical quality. While Descendents are extremely influential to the punk music scene, musically they don’t hold a candle to ALL. For those of you who aren’t familiar with these bands, The Descen- - dents is a punk/hardcore band from the late 80’s (however theyre still around today); ALL was a side project of all the members _ except the lead singer. ALL was a much catchier and a far more marketable punk band that also managed to do something that few bands can do which was hold on tightly to their punk ethics. As much as I love Green Day and Blink 182 they weren’t able to do this... Rancid was. This theory doesn’t end in the realm of punk music. To make a drastic example... The Beatles are not a better band than Queen. While a lot of people will scream blasphemy at me, there’s probably an equal amount of people who will agree with me. You see, without fail the Beatles are the most impor- tant band in music history. Their music is classic and their influence is forever stretch- ing. In fact I would say that you can pick out any hit single by the Beatles and that song alone will be better than any song your favorite band has ever written. The Beatles are the Neil Armstrong of rock Music. That being said, anyone who picks up a guitar can play the entire Beatles Catalog in less than a month. Their music is simplistic and in many cases, dare I say it, boring. Queen, however, wasn’t a revolutionary band, they just took something that was already there and built a whole new foundation off of it. Anyone can sing a song and sound like Paul or John or George or Ringo (but who would want to?) but nobody can sing like Freddy Mercury. Anyone can play the guitar lead on In My Life, not everyone can play the lead in Killer Queen. I’m not saying that Queen is a collection of the greatest mu- sicians ever, (that would be Primus or Anath- allo) but their individual pieces made catchy, marketable pop songs that are timeless. Even the greatest band to come out of the 90’s grunge sound Weezer, creates this paradox. Everyone is so quick to say that Pinkerton is their greatest album, and they’d be correct. Pinkerton is the greatest album Weezer has ever recorded, but it’s not their best. Their best album is their self-titled al- bum from 1994 (now just known as the Blue Album). The reason once again, it’s fun and catchy. Pinkerton does some amazing things, but the first half of that album doesn’t have great re-listen ability, not like the Blue Album which is so timeless that 1 3 years after its’ release, I can still listen to it from start to finish and sing along with every song. This argument led one of the people at the party stating that I was completely wrong because “the green album was both their greatest and best album ever.” I suppose it’s okay for me to say that this particular person was baked out of his mind thus making his opinion completely moot. Perhaps, I'm the anti-hipster because to me there is nothing wrong with having a good catchy pop song, NOTHING. I am the proud owner of *Nsync, Hanson and Lou Bega CDs - and not in that ironic “it’s so bad that it’s good” way. The fact is that those musicians all made money making songs far catchier than what I can ever write. They knew what they were doing; they did a great job at doing what they set out to do and made great music as a result. I find nothing wrong with that. I find bands like Nickelback making crap and pretending that it’s not crap far more offen- sive. I have pth wrong with bands like Radio- head being able to make money by creating the most unmarketable stuff ever but their few and far between, if you go out of your way to make your music un-marketable your simply signing yourself off to be just a foot-note in music history. This is why, out of hundred’s of 80’s hardcore bands the general public only knows (if you're lucky) Minor Threat, Bad Brains and Black Flag. But I sup- pose that’s PUNK RAWK! ~ I hate punk rawk. I love punk, but I hate punk rawk. And not because the purposeful misspelling (although it doesn’t help), but I hate this idea that if you’re a marketable punk band then you’ve lost your punk eth- ics. Meanwhile, the godfathers of punk (the Ramones) never wanted anything more than to be back on the radio. There’s no bigger headache than the “what started punk rock” question. People say Sex Pistols, but that band got formed because they were fans of The Ra- mones, but if you look at the Ramones they weren’t doing anything more than going back to the 1950’s style rock and roll. So based on that was Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Bill Haley Punk Rawk? Id like to think so to be honest. At the same time, if you want to discuss punk being a “move- ment” of Anarchy inside the system (Anarchy in the UK) then I want to be the first to claim that the Marx Brothers were the first group of “punk rawkers” (seriously, rent Duck Soup, it’s Anarchy on Film). But let’s say that Punk Rawk IS an unmarket- able sound, then perhaps it was Thelonious Monk and all other free jazz musicians who started this musical movement years before Johnny Rotten or Joey Ramone were even born. Now, this raises an even more interest- ing question because if we go back to the Chuck Berry is the granddaddy of punk the- ory then we have something going here. 50’s rock is an extension of country mixed with Rhythm and Blues, which itself is an exten- sion of Jazz. Without Jazz, we couldn’t have rock, which means we couldn’t have punk, which gave us grunge, which gave us Weezer. We wouldn’t have had Jazz if it weren’t for slavery (so I suppose one good thing came from that) so Jazz came out of Africa, which makes me even more curious why there are, so few Black Punk Groups. Perhaps that’s why Bad Brains is the greatest punk group of all time, but. The Ramones will forever be the best. Hometown Hero or Hated Heavy? EDITORIAL By Jackie Downey — Lion’s Eye Editor - jsd5059@psu.edu The American Friends Service Committee, a sect of the Quakers, made Mumia Abu- Jamal a hometown hero in their window display along side real hero’s of America’s history. The group made the display to celebrate Black History Month. Many people were outraged and for good reason - Mumia Abu- Jamal is a convicted cop killer. - On December 9th, 1981, early in the morning hours Philadelphia police officer Daniel “Danny” Faulkner was making a routine traffic stop on Locust Street between 12th and 13th. Officer Faulkner pulled over Mumia’s brother, William Cook, and Faulkner called for backup and a struggle to arrest Cook ensued. Mumia, a cab driver at the time, was parked across the street and ran over when he saw the fight. Mumia then proceeded - to shoot Faulkner once in the back and then from close range four more times, including one shot in the head. Before Faulkner died, he shot once hitting Mumia in the chest. Faulkner died that night and Mumia was escorted by police to the hospital. Through- out the years, Philadelphians and people throughout the world have argued whether or not Mumia ac- tually killed Faulkner or if he was wrongfully accused. The bullets retrieved from Faulkner matched that of Mumia’s gun. The weapon was found next to Faulkner at the scene of the crime and Mumia was wearing an empty gun holster. The bullet in Mumia’s body matched that of Faulkner’s gun. There have been witnesses for both sides calling Mumia either an innocent bystander or a killer. About two years later, this controversial case was under way and evidence from both sides made strong cases. After only three hours of deliberation, the jury unanimously found Mumia Abu-Jamal guilty of murder in the first degree. Since the verdict, Mumia has appealed this decision numerous times. Even if Mumia did not kill Officer Faulkner, it is in poor taste to honor a convicted cop killer. There are plenty of other influential African Americans that should be honored. While the case can be made that Mumia is actively stating his innocence, appealing a decision that convicts someone of murder doesn’t make them a hero. It is an awful dis- grace that people are constantly convicted of crimes they didn’t commit. However, there is over- whelming evidence that this is not the case. As family of Danny, my opinion is obviously bias. I encourage our readers to investi- gate the case from both sides. STATEMENT Wea are ethe newspaper of the Penn State Brandywine campus, : serving the students, administration, faculty, staff, and visitors | of our campus. We vow to inform all of our audiences, and we will trive to make each issue better, so that we remain a vital | : f the Penn State Brandywine experience. We also pledge rofessional, and to follow the highest standards of quslity Co S journalism. ; : ditor-in-Chiet- Christina Felizzi ampus News Editor- Paul DiPietro ocal/World News Editor- rin Kaskela p/Ed Editor(s) - Christina Felizzi and ill Marabella ntertainment Editor(s) - Matt Kelly and Chris Dilenno Sports Editor- Tom McGlinchey {Contributing Staff Writers: Sean Dalton, Martina Delgado, Zach Elf- man, Jill Fein, Christina Furia, Pat Grant, David Kao, Kionna Lipscomb, Teron Mey- ers, Brittany Neimeth, Sean O>Connor, Caitlin Olszewski, Nancy Perone, Elaine fPresto, Tiffany Ragins-Morris, Andrew Shaner, Bryan Silva, Rahel Teklegiorgis, Christian Varalli, Ashley Wood fLion’s Eye Adviser- Karrie Bowen Contact the Lion’s Eye: Christina Felizzi- clf5050@psu.edu Karrie Bowen - kab44@psu.edu For advertising information, please contact Karrie Bowen at 610.892.1336 or kab44@psu.edu. The Lion's Eye is published bi-weekly by the students of Penn State Brandywine, Media, PA. 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