I’m No Antidigitalist: a song about GormanGate

Posted on June 18, 2007
Filed Under Digital Music, Future of Libraries, Miscellany, Silliness |


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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Comments

35 Responses to “I’m No Antidigitalist: a song about GormanGate”

  1. Steven M. Cohen on June 18th, 2007 9:17 am

    Wow!!! Michael Stipe would be proud!!

  2. Jenny Levine on June 18th, 2007 9:29 am

    Thanks for making me laugh so hard this morning :)

  3. Free Range Librarian » Blog Archive » David Lee King’s Protest Song about Antidigitalism on June 18th, 2007 9:30 am

    [...] was hoping someone would take random quotes from Michael Gorman and do a remix, and David has done just that, very amusingly. Thank goodness you can listen to it, since we Blog People are incapable of [...]

  4. jennimi on June 18th, 2007 9:32 am

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

  5. Karin Dalziel on June 18th, 2007 9:40 am

    Great Job! Really made my morning. :)

  6. Pattern Recognition » Gorman: the Musical! on June 18th, 2007 9:43 am

    [...] I’m no Antidigitalist [...]

  7. joshua m. neff on June 18th, 2007 10:10 am

    I love it! We need more bibliopunk!

  8. K.G. Schneider on June 18th, 2007 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.

  9. Steve Lawson on June 18th, 2007 11:09 am

    Everyone is tripping and it’s all free!

  10. Steve Lawson on June 18th, 2007 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.

  11. Dorothea Salo on June 18th, 2007 11:38 am

    *is tripping*

  12. Sarah Houghton-Jan (Librarian in Black) on June 18th, 2007 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.

  13. Starr Hoffman (geeky artist librarian) on June 18th, 2007 12:18 pm

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

  14. davidleeking on June 18th, 2007 12:23 pm

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

  15. K.G. Schneider on June 18th, 2007 12:38 pm

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

  16. K.G. Schneider on June 18th, 2007 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!)

  17. Ryan Deschamps on June 18th, 2007 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).

  18. SG on June 18th, 2007 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…

  19. David Rothman on June 18th, 2007 2:10 pm

    Best. LIS. Song. Evahr.

    Thanks so much for the giggles.

  20. Sue on June 18th, 2007 2:54 pm

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

  21. Louise on June 18th, 2007 2:58 pm

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

  22. Brian on June 18th, 2007 3:55 pm

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

  23. blogdriverswaltz.com : Blog Archive : links for 2007-06-18 on June 18th, 2007 6:22 pm

    [...] I’m No Antidigitalist: a song about GormanGate : David Lee King (tags: libraries) Bookmark: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

  24. Helene Blowers on June 18th, 2007 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!

  25. Kelley on June 18th, 2007 8:42 pm

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

  26. Pete on June 19th, 2007 3:56 am

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

  27. Beatrice on June 19th, 2007 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!!

  28. Chadwick Seagraves on June 19th, 2007 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.

  29. JanieH on June 19th, 2007 9:13 pm

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

  30. Rachel on June 20th, 2007 3:21 pm

    David: You ROCK.

  31. Donald Barclay on June 20th, 2007 6:09 pm

    Dude,

    You are clearly main-entry material.

  32. Darren on June 20th, 2007 9:39 pm

    I love this David! You are on fire!

  33. Jeff on June 21st, 2007 12:03 pm

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

    Somebody, somewhere should be paying you something!

    JBD

  34. Michael Gorman (pretend version) on June 27th, 2007 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.

  35. We Interrupt My Nap… « T h e U t o p i a n L i b r a r y on August 22nd, 2007 5:56 pm

    [...] GarageBand to remix some Michael Gorman quotes into the wildly fun “bibliopunk” piece, I’m No Antidigitalist. Now Libraryman is “Disco Dancing for Peace in the Biblioblogosphere” with Gorman, with [...]

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