I’m No Antidigitalist: a song about GormanGate

by davidleeking on June 18, 2007


Click To Play


Last week, as I was reading and responding to everyone’s responses to Michael Gorman’s blog posts, I re-read a couple of the posts myself… and this phrase from his earlier “blog people” article started running through my head … and wouldn’t leave.So I did what any self-respecting closet musician would do on his day off - I wrote a song!

A little more explanation - I wrote the music (with a little help from GarageBand here and there). For each line of the lyrics, I pulled random Gorman quotes from these three articles.

This is probably some odd self-fulfilling prophecy, since I am a blogger, since Gorman said “entirely possible that their intellectual needs are met by an accumulation of random facts and paragraphs” … and that’s pretty much what I did to construct this song!

Now, on to the song! And here’s a game for you while listening: try to find each quote while you’re listening to the song!

I’m No Antidigitalist
Music by David Lee King, lyrics pulled from Gorman quotes

an associated flight from expertise
believers in Biblical inerrancy
authoritative printed sources
an extreme example of technophiliac rambling

human beings learn, essentially, in only two ways
verifiable credentials and demonstrable expertise
derision of the professorial authority figure
hyperventilating not blasphemy

I’m no Antidigitalist

there are obstacles to such a benign outcome
antihuman and intellectually debasing
the endemic confusion of means
the triumph of hope and boosterism over reality

I’m no Antidigitalist

read what they want to read … random facts
read what they want to read … paragraphs

an associated flight from expertise
believers in Biblical inerrancy
human beings learn, essentially, in only two ways
hyperventilating not blasphemy

I’m no Antidigitalist

The structures of scholarship and learning are based on respect for individuality and the authentic expression of individual personalities.

Enjoy!

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{ 4 trackbacks }

Free Range Librarian » Blog Archive » David Lee King’s Protest Song about Antidigitalism
06.18.07 at 9:30 am
Pattern Recognition » Gorman: the Musical!
06.18.07 at 9:43 am
blogdriverswaltz.com : Blog Archive : links for 2007-06-18
06.18.07 at 6:22 pm
We Interrupt My Nap… « T h e U t o p i a n L i b r a r y
08.22.07 at 5:56 pm

{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Steven M. Cohen 06.18.07 at 9:17 am

Wow!!! Michael Stipe would be proud!!

2 Jenny Levine 06.18.07 at 9:29 am

Thanks for making me laugh so hard this morning :)

3 jennimi 06.18.07 at 9:32 am

Been a fan since “Are You Blogging This”! David, you kill me. Rawk.

4 Karin Dalziel 06.18.07 at 9:40 am

Great Job! Really made my morning. :)

5 joshua m. neff 06.18.07 at 10:10 am

I love it! We need more bibliopunk!

6 K.G. Schneider 06.18.07 at 10:47 am

Also, related, I noticed that Britannica’s blog has been *very selective* about trackbacks… as if we don’t know what the biblioblogosphere actually wrote! Talk about proving a point.

7 Steve Lawson 06.18.07 at 11:09 am

Everyone is tripping and it’s all free!

8 Steve Lawson 06.18.07 at 11:12 am

KGS: what evidence do you have? There are plenty of trackbacks from critical posts. My post on the topic doesn’t appear as a trackback, but that’s because I forgot to ping the EB blog.

9 Dorothea Salo 06.18.07 at 11:38 am

*is tripping*

10 Sarah Houghton-Jan (Librarian in Black) 06.18.07 at 12:07 pm

You take the cake for being the funniest biblioblogger, and the most musically-inclined. I think you should get some sort of award for that.

11 Starr Hoffman (geeky artist librarian) 06.18.07 at 12:18 pm

Excellent!!! Is it just me, or does this song and singing style owe a lot to the band Cake? I like.

12 davidleeking 06.18.07 at 12:23 pm

Starr - I admit, I actually had Cake in mind when I did this. So I must have pulled that one off!

13 K.G. Schneider 06.18.07 at 12:38 pm

Steve, maybe it’s just MY posts ;-) and perhaps I don’t have the right update services in my WordPress options?

14 K.G. Schneider 06.18.07 at 12:56 pm

Sorry for this side conversation, but I did verify that my trackbacks are working and I have Pingomatic listed. (Duh, one of my trackbacks is on this post!)

15 Ryan Deschamps 06.18.07 at 1:28 pm

David,

You should get out less.

And do more of this.

Great song, great satire, great sauvignon (oh well, two out of three ain’t bad).

16 SG 06.18.07 at 1:48 pm

Now I know what it’ll sound like when Michael Stipe, Trent Reznor, and Tom Morello make a record together.

Too bad Johnny Cash isn’t around to cover it…

17 David Rothman 06.18.07 at 2:10 pm

Best. LIS. Song. Evahr.

Thanks so much for the giggles.

18 Sue 06.18.07 at 2:54 pm

Okay, now I have a new favorite song to replace “Code Monkey.”

19 Louise 06.18.07 at 2:58 pm

Oh! This fills me with delight! Thank you, David. You’ve brightened a bleary Monday.

20 Brian 06.18.07 at 3:55 pm

Cool tune. Sorta reminds me of “My Past Lives” by Too Much Joy.

21 Helene Blowers 06.18.07 at 8:16 pm

>>>>> I see a new award category in the CIL/IL future. In addition to InfoTubby’s, I think we just may need InfoGrammys. This is winner in my book - Supreme!

22 Kelley 06.18.07 at 8:42 pm

The harmonica breakdown (in addition to other elemenets) makes the song brilliant!

23 Pete 06.19.07 at 3:56 am

Puts me in mind of Remain in Light era Talking Heads. Very nice.

24 Beatrice 06.19.07 at 5:24 am

In the words of the Partridge Family: “I think I love you…” Genious! Love the talking at the end. Very Cake as others have said, but also a little John S. Hall from King Missile!!

25 Chadwick Seagraves 06.19.07 at 11:04 am

David - Great song. Very well done. Nice to see you are learning blues harp. I started playing cross harp in 1994 and had some fun with it in bars during college. I used to have friends who played blues guitar well and we used to jam back in the day. I really miss playing with a good guitarist. Harmonicas are great, but cross harp sounds so much better when we have someone to accompany. Anyway, you are sounding really good. Keep it up.

26 JanieH 06.19.07 at 9:13 pm

I keep coming back to listen again and again. This is my new fave blogland song.

27 Rachel 06.20.07 at 3:21 pm

David: You ROCK.

28 Donald Barclay 06.20.07 at 6:09 pm

Dude,

You are clearly main-entry material.

29 Darren 06.20.07 at 9:39 pm

I love this David! You are on fire!

30 Jeff 06.21.07 at 12:03 pm

First of all, you get a day off???

Somebody, somewhere should be paying you something!

JBD

31 Michael Gorman (pretend version) 06.27.07 at 12:43 am

What you people call “music” is nearly as bad a what you call “writing” on your blogs. You are fortunate that I do not crush you simply by using my superior mental powers. I could also use my hair lightening powers or blue blocker sunglasess powers, but those options would be less ironic.

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