Lava lamps....

[Brendan Lepschi <B.Lepschi@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Not musical, but still Bomp-worthy....

>From The Onion (website below)
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>http://www.onion.com/onion3704/lava_lamps_retro.html
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>Lava Lamps Revert from Passe Retro Kitsch back to Novel Retro Camp
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>WASHINGTON, DC--Lava lamps, the once-popular, then passé, then popular
again, then passé again novelty items that have cyclically taken various
American subcultures by storm throughout their 35-year history, are back.
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> According to a report issued Monday by the U.S. Department of Retro, the
status of the multi-colored, mildly psychedelic light fixtures changed again
in 2000, reverting from a tired form of passé retro kitsch back into a novel
form of retro camp. The switch marks the 17th time the government has
changed the lava lamp's retro classification since its initial resurgence in
1976 as an amusing, campy throwback to the then-outmoded '60s hippie drug
culture.
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> "Lava lamps, which throughout the late '90s were seen as an irrelevant
remnant of a relatively minor mid-'90s form of '60s retro, are once again
retro in an exciting new way for millions of Americans unfamiliar with their
previous kitsch-object incarnations," U.S. Retro Secretary Brian Setzer
said. "That fallow period of the late '90s laid the groundwork for a revival
within a subset of retro consumer for whom the novelty factor of floating
bulbs of wax suspended in water and lit from below had not yet worn off."
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> Setzer--who made his name in the '80s playing retro '50s rockabilly with
The Stray Cats and subsequently enjoyed a comeback in the '90s, both for
playing '40s big-band music with the Brian Setzer Orchestra during the retro
swing revival and as the subject of retro appreciation himself during a
concurrent '80s retro wave--praised the pop-cultural tenacity of the lava lamp.
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> "One of the few pop-culture fads to weather a significant number of
lame-then-cool-again changes in the fickle American retro landscape, the
lava lamp has proven itself the rare retro phenomenon that will not die,"
Setzer said. "Whether this is good or bad, or what it even says about our
society, is largely unknowable."
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> As noted in the Retro Department report, the popularity of lava lamps at
any one moment is difficult to gauge due to their varying status within
different subcultures. As a result, the lamps often simultaneously occupy
many different points along the retro-cycle curve, causing confusion among
retro cognoscenti. For example, in 1998, computer dweebs considered the
lamps "CyberKewl," while swing-dancing hipsters dismissed them as
"lame-a-roony-toony."
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> Further complicating matters are the complex meta-retro aesthetics of
pop-culture-obsessed Generation Xers for whom the lamps represent a form of
"retro-retro." For such individuals--who enjoyed the lamps in the late '80s
as a retro throwback but then grew out of this "pure" retro phase and
rejected them, only to eventually develop nostalgic affection for their
original retro feelings--it is hard to assess how they truly feel about the
lamps.
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> "Remember back in '88, '89, when everybody had lava lamps in their dorm
rooms because they were so hilariously evocative of the late '60s, early
'70s?" said Todd Wakefield, 31, a recent lava lamp re-reconvert. "That was
awesome."
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> "Lava lamps? Please. I remember back in '88, '89, when everybody had one
in their dorm room because they were trying to be all late '60s, early
'70s," said Jen Cushman, 31. "Talk about over. Having a lava lamp now is so
late-'80s late '60s/early '70s."
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> Still others view the matter altogether differently.
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> "It all depends whether you're talking about straight, unironic,
revivalist retro or one of the numerous strains of pre-X and Gen-X irony,"
said Seth Burks, 29, author of the award-winning Athens, GA-based 'zine
Burning Asshole. "I've identified 22 distinct varieties of irony-informed
retro and non-retro aesthetics, including camp, kitsch, trash, schmaltz,
post-schmaltz, and post-post-schmaltz. It's time we addressed the woeful
inadequacies of the government's current retro-classification system." 
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> The report marks the latest in a string of controversies for the embattled
Department of Retro, which is still feeling the effects of 1998's bitter
infighting over the still-unresolved issue of "classic" rock. The department
was further rocked in May 1999, when Setzer replaced then-Retro Secretary
Donny Most, who stepped down after refusing to endorse That '70s Show.
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