Beck gets it. Every time I hear someone whine "It's too hard to maintain constant Surprise!" I'm just gonna send 'em over to beck.com. This guy has reinvented himself so often he makes David Bowie and Madonna look like Luddites.
In an age of digital downloading (legit and ripped-off) he still sells CDs thanks to some brilliant packaging ("Guero" included pop-art videos of each song and his latest, "The Information," has four different sets of randomly-inserted stickers enabling you to create one-of-a-kind, customized album covers, like the one right here).
And while most artists play it safe on live TV performances (leaving "chance" to the ultra-controlled environment of big-buck music videos), Beck's recent Saturday Night Live appearance, TRUE performance art, has already become legendary. If you haven't seen it (doubtful if you're reading this), it's been taken off YouTube, but here's another version from German TV.
You're my hero, Beck. Maybe there is something to all this Scientology stuff...