Friday, July 15, 2005

Iggy Pop on Environmental Scanning

On Thursday, we had the opening session of the "One Book, Five Landscapes, Six Partners, Endless Possibilities" project here at OCLC. Late yesterday, I received the following e-mail, reprinted here with Lisa's permission.

George,

On my way back to the library after your presentation today, I was listening to a Terry Gross Fresh Air interview with Iggy Pop and I had one of those "aha" moments--something he said struck a chord and relates to what we discussed today.

He was talking about how he formed The Stooges and what he was looking to create with the band (saying that he didn't think there was much of a future in "getting a bowl cut, wearing a polyester shirt and imitating the Yardbirds.”).

When Terry said he was ahead of his time, he responded by saying he was actually with the times and everyone else was behind. He said, “If you looked at what was happening socially, culturally, even in the automotive industry, you see that the music we created was music the time was screaming for.” One would never think about Iggy Pop looking to the automotive industry to inform his music—but there you have it—an environmental scan of sorts influencing the birth of punk rock.

Looking forward to learning more and hearing what others have to say.

Lisa Fuller
Community Relations/Development Director
Worthington Libraries

Incidentally, this blog entry is being cross posted to a new open forum at WebJunction about the One Book project. Even though it will focus on the Ohio-based project, the forum will be available for anyone who wants to participate. Lurkers can read the discussion; you'll need to register for WebJunction (free and fast, and anonymous if you'd like) to post. The URL for the new forum will be announced next week.

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