Momus: Open Universities (YouTube)

[Mobbd]

Oscillations-dwellers might know Momus from his Art-Poppish music. I've never cared for it, but I have time for the lad himself and for his essays and his generally thoughtful written/spoken output.

He was also thought for a long time to be a direct inspiration for Nathan Barley (or possibly Cunt) so brace yourself for his striking and often rather silly look. I'd advise you to be open-minded; I've found it to be worthwhile.

Since 2016, he's been posting these improvised lectures to YouTube. They tend to be about 20 minutes long and are based around what I'd call optimistic twentieth-century themes. His motivation for this was 2016's shift towards cultural and actual fascism, and he wanted to add his tiny counterpoint by talking but about more liberal and often Socialist themes that are important to him. In my opinion, we should all do that if only we could be arsed. There's no call to action to these videos; he just seems to want to add a micron of something different to the general discourse. I get the impression that he wants to ignore the unproductive muckslingling of political Internet bickering without going down that "adults in the room" line and inadvertently becoming a centrist dad. I see that as creative and refreshing.

I'm posting about his videos here in Picture Box because they've been a fun thing for me to watch/re-watch during lockdown (they're easy but stimulating, short and therefore easily bingeable). But also because I've noticed that a lot the TV shows being discussed here are superhero-oriented or action sci-fi or whatever: precisely the kind of thing Momus would describe as "toxic" and a sign of the times. (Not knocking anyone here for enjoying those things - I usually do as well).

So, if you're up for it, here are some of my favourite installments to try and also a link to a playlist of the whole series chronologically:

Design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vFzGdep-dw&list=PLEk7kSjByIOIkMWc6S3uYfWBZiojNtO61&index=24

Microfascism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hcpvo3HY-MY&list=PLEk7kSjByIOIkMWc6S3uYfWBZiojNtO61&index=8

(The microfascism episode ironically enough contains what is arguably an unfortunate example of micro-misogyny on his part. I choose to believe it was a failure to quickly think of a better example to illustrate a broader point; these are all done on-the-hoof remember.)

Elective Affinities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLUaUgXwhQ4&list=PLEk7kSjByIOIkMWc6S3uYfWBZiojNtO61&index=48

Computers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqhW-8NJd44&list=PLEk7kSjByIOIkMWc6S3uYfWBZiojNtO61&index=100

Cool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWvS8StgPdI&list=PLEk7kSjByIOIkMWc6S3uYfWBZiojNtO61&index=22

Most of them are just pieces-to-camera from wherever he happens to be living (Osaka in the early ones and Berlin in the more recent ones) but he also does the odd location thing from an art fair or wherever he happens to be gigging. During his move from Japan to Berlin, he spent about five months in places like Hanoi and those vids are pretty good albeit not typical.

Happy is another very atypical episode in which he takes us around his Osaka neighbourhood by bike. It's very relaxing and highly likable, a bit like those bike-ride vids Alexei Sayle does now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzhlwPmpXro&list=PLEk7kSjByIOIkMWc6S3uYfWBZiojNtO61&index=26

I find that some of his insights have helped me to articulate myself better. Also that some of the things he talks about open up lovely Wikipedia/Google vortexes of discovery.

Anyway, give it a bash if you want to. Aye, he's pretentious and often narcissistic but he's also interesting and (I believe) putting these vids out for a good reason.

Playlist of the whole shebang: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEk7kSjByIOIkMWc6S3uYfWBZiojNtO61

[markburgle]

I'll defs check these out, my mate introduced me to Momus about 20 years ago, I always found him a fascinating character.

The only album of his I ever had was his debut Circus Maximus which I'd recommend to anyone - nothing like his later stuff, it's a really well written/played singer-songwriter record (his finger-picking skills were pretty badass at the time), all about matrydom and biblical themes but done with intelligence and wit.

I liked the story where he had some massive lawsuit he needed to pay off so he sold his fans the chance to have a song written about them on his next album, in a style of their choosing and using whatever info they chose to feed him, for $1000 a pop. Seems like a standard sort of upper-tier Patreon gift now but at the time it was an innovative idea. Those songs (30 of them) became the album Stars Forever and if you look it up the song titles are all just names of people (or occasionally businesses).

[Mobbd]

I liked the story where he had some massive lawsuit he needed to pay off so he sold his fans the chance to have a song written about them on his next album, in a style of their choosing and using whatever info they chose to feed him, for $1000 a pop. Seems like a standard sort of upper-tier Patreon gift now but at the time it was an innovative idea. Those songs (30 of them) became the album Stars Forever and if you look it up the song titles are all just names of people (or occasionally businesses).

Yes, the lawsuit itself was entertaining. The offending lyric concerned a real-life trans musician going back in time to marry herself. Not particularly offensive even now with our most people's more nuanced understanding of trans identities, but it upset the person he was singing about and she sued. As you say, it resulted in Stars Forever, which was certainly inventive and a long-in-advance example of crowdfunding. Heh.

Edit: maybe it was offensive. "Trans women are women" implies (correctly, I think) that trans women were always women. I guess Momus' lyric didn't take that into account. Then again, women can marry women.

[Mobbd]

[lazyhour]

Used to love Momus until he wrote this, in a 2021 track-by-track self-review of an album:

I really was a teenage existentialist, and although it made me a miseryguts, it did bring something universal. What identity politics (the fake progressivism of our time) lacks is precisely that kind of universal empathy. Out goes "the human condition", in comes "me and my special difference".

From here

He added the following on Facebook:

All the LGBTQIA movement needs is to add an S for "straight" and it can become a universal statement on sexuality. But it won't, because universal is not what it wants to be.

I questioned this directly, saying that as attacks on trans people are on the rise, is it the right time to pour scorn on a movement designed to protect and support vulnerable minorities?

He replied:

Absolutely not. What I am questioning is the approach of adding endless subdivisions to a list of people who deserve rights, when the whole point of rights is that they are said to apply universally. A tribal rights model is bound to result in sibling rivalry.

I went off him a lot after that. All sailed a bit too close to "All lives matter, am I right??"

[Mobbd]

You're right to pick up on that, lazyhour. It's a position he repeats in this latest video.

It's disappointing and I can't understand it given everything else he says and does. He's extremely sex positive and values otherness and softness and rails against what he calls the strong force. It's completely contradictory.

He's right that rights should be universal but the fact remains, in practice, that they're not. That's why we need to shout louder and more specifically as minorities. He's a victim of bigotry himself many times over. It's fucking bizarre that he can't see this.

[Mobbd]

@lazyhour , Were you a Click Opera reader?

[Toki]

Is the LGBTQIA movement meant to be universal, or is it meant to represent particular people? I thought it was the latter and I've never had a problem with that. Is it crass for me to say it's like saying 'Crisis don't represent those who can afford houses'? I feel like I may be missing context. I'm going to check out these videos anyway, of course.

[Shaky]

Is the LGBTQIA movement meant to be universal, or is it meant to represent particular people? I thought it was the latter and I've never had a problem with that. Is it crass for me to say it's like saying 'Crisis don't represent those who can afford houses'? I feel like I may be missing context. I'm going to check out these videos anyway, of course.

Yeah, exactly this. It reeks of, "All Lives Matter so black people are the real bigots!!!!!" style disingenuousness. The fact that "my special condition" as he puts it is still seen by far too many people as something unusual or weird is why minority groups exist in the first place.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

as a universalist i want to gatekeep moomus

He's extremely sex positive and values otherness and softness and rails against what he calls the strong force. It's completely contradictory.

id say we're long past the point where this has become a dogwhistle in itself. no tenderqueers in the universalist clubhouse

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I think Momus is a twat tbh

[lazyhour]

@lazyhour , Were you a Click Opera reader?

Yeah, but I was always more a fan of his music than his witterings.

[Indomitable Spirit]

Typical "otherness and softness" enjoyer

[Mobbd]

as a universalist i want to gatekeep moomus

id say we're long past the point where this has become a dogwhistle in itself. no tenderqueers in the universalist clubhouse

A dogwhistle to what?

[crankshaft]

as a universalist i want to gatekeep moomus

id say we're long past the point where this has become a dogwhistle in itself. no tenderqueers in the universalist clubhouse

Can you explain this to me because I have no idea what it means.

[Mobbd]

Can you explain this to me because I have no idea what it means.

I think they're doing a bit by using gatekeep and dogwhistle incorrectly. As to why I'm not sure! General mischief.

[crankshaft]

I find it so hard to tell.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

A dogwhistle to what?

its like the way gender critical people talk about how comfy they are and how much they like biscuits, when someone is posting about gentleness and the other and softness in that particular way, my first thought is "oh aye, cancelled were you?"

[bgmnts]

Internet man is a wrong un shocker!

[Mobbd]

its like the way gender critical people talk about how comfy they are and how much they like biscuits, when someone is posting about gentleness and the other and softness in that particular way, my first thought is "oh aye, cancelled were you?"

I don't think that would be a dogwhistle. That would be more like a tell. I think a dogwhistle is when you're coding your statements to address a small population within a larger population.

Momus has always advocated for softness and otherness. There are things he could be cancelled for today but it would have to have been pretty darn early in his career (before it even began really) to have impacted him in the way you suggest.

(And by the way, gatekeeping is the opposite to what I'm doing. Gatekeeping is when you won't let other, newer, "lesser" fans in on your favourite thing. I made the OP to share with you guys something I've been enjoying lately.)

[Video Game Fan 2000]

I don't think that would be a dogwhistle. That would be more like a tell. I think a dogwhistle is when you're coding your statements to address a small population within a larger population.

Momus has always advocated for softness and otherness. There are things he could be cancelled for today but it would have to have been pretty darn early in his career (before it even began really) to have impacted him in the way you suggest.

(And by the way, gatekeeping is the opposite to what I'm doing. Gatekeeping is when you won't let other, newer, "lesser" fans in on your favourite thing. I made the OP to share with you guys something I've been enjoying lately.)

there's an observed pattern where people who lean heavily on that kind of language and pleas for tenderness or softness, speak about the other and othering, all the time sometimes have intolerant views or opinion., hence the insult 'tenderqueer'. its a dogwhistle because it signals to other 'tender' or 'softness' types with similar views, or especially that an in group is strongly maintained and intolerant of opposition or dissent. im not an expert on momus but i know how strongly disliked he is in some LGBT and arts circles, and he fits a pattern to me of someone who makes a big deal of how soft and sensitive they are outwardly, when in fact he's got a history of saying some hurtful and reactionary stuff.

and i meant gatekeeping universalism as an idea, not momus.

[ProvanFan]

Sitting astride a throne of nappies

[Brundle-Fly]

I've loved his work since the eighties. Always knew Currie was a problematic character, but that was par for the course. It's like moaning about slasher movies.

[The Culture Bunker]

I, conversely, have always found Momus' work a bit crap, but quite liked a few Del Amitri songs. AOR they may be, but, hey, they remind me of happy times from my childhood. Has cousin Justin got a record of being a bit of an arse?

[Brundle-Fly]

I, conversely, have always found Momus' work a bit crap, but quite liked a few Del Amitri songs. AOR they may be, but, hey, they remind me of happy times from my childhood. Has cousin Justin got a record of being a bit of an arse?

The one where he fell through the bar.

[lazyhour]

Having read a lot of Momus's writings I suspect he suffers from the same syndrome as Brian Eno - it's more important to have your own Special, Clever Opinion on stuff than it is to think for a bit, listen to other people and reach a considered conclusion. I saw an In Conversation with Eno about 15 years ago and some what he said was mind-bendingly insulting and weird, especially one riff about how people from the southern hemisphere (ie brown people) are the world's groovy, sexy hips/groin, and people from the northern hemisphere (ie white people) are the world's stiff, smart brains. Yikes.

[Toki]

Brian Eno's smile when he thinks he's saying something profound really annoys me. But I like his first two solo albums. Other than that, I don't really like anything else of his I've heard and the ambient music stuff seems more like an idea that would turn up in a David Foster Wallace book satirising adolescent art than something that people would shell out money for. I'm banging on about Eno too much now.

I watched Momus's Tokyo videos. It's a good format and his voice has a kind of beguiling calmness to it, but I didn't really learn anything. Are these lectures? They seem like vlogs. Are vlogs lectures?

[Mobbd]

Having read a lot of Momus's writings I suspect he suffers from the same syndrome as Brian Eno - it's more important to have your own Special, Clever Opinion on stuff than it is to think for a bit, listen to other people and reach a considered conclusion.

I think that's probably spot-on.

I watched Momus's Tokyo videos. It's a good format and his voice has a kind of beguiling calmness to it, but I didn't really learn anything. Are these lectures? They seem like vlogs. Are vlogs lectures?

Which ones? Happy? That one is basically a vlog and a departure from his usual format. His most recent videos (from around episode 180 or so) are far more vlog-like as well, something he explained/reflected on two or three episodes ago - can't remember which one. The lecture format is from the beginning when he was in Osaka: and they're informal, improvised lectures. Usually just riffing on a theme. A good recent-ish one and a return to form imho was Superlegitimacy:

[Senior Baiano]

Typical "otherness and softness" enjoyer

People who carefully curate their own wikipedia page

[Vodkafone]

I personally have no problem with either

What identity politics (the fake progressivism of our time) lacks is precisely that kind of universal empathy. Out goes "the human condition", in comes "me and my special difference".

Or

What I am questioning is the approach of adding endless subdivisions to a list of people who deserve rights, when the whole point of rights is that they are said to apply universally. A tribal rights model is bound to result in sibling rivalry.

I think it's simplistic to equate this with right wing 'all lives matter' bollocks. The LGBTQ quote does seem to be a bit deliberately provocative though.