January 2010
71 posts
I didn't know what a balaclava was until I...
agrammar:
And here’s the weird response: a good number of educated, middle-class people, people who know what a balaclava is, people who might blog about going on vacation or heading to a Richard Serra exhibit, take a big step back.
I agree with a lot of what’s said in Nitsuh’s post— as always… Nitsuh OTM is basically my mantra— but this subject heading is true.
Natural Stride Sports: Barefoot Running Song of... →
“WEEKEND “All-American / Youth Haunts” (Mexican Summer) 10”...”
– Gmail - New Arrivals #338
“George Bush pushed up spending more than any president since Lyndon Johnson. ...”
– Big government: Stop! | The Economist
But they endorsed Bush in 2000.
“Mercy, did they boo. They booed when Cael Sanderson was introduced. They booed...”
– Keeler: Hawkeye fans ride ‘sellout’ Cael Sanderson | desmoinesregister.com | The Des Moines Register
“It’s not what somebody “could” do that’s important; it’s what they do.”
– Chuck Eddy – “Lay It Down, Clowns!: The Beastie Boys Take Over?” (1987) « The Beat Patrol
“Either your customers live in Fuckville, Nowhere—those cities Obama kept...”
– Lauren Bans (via fatmanatee)
haven’t clicked through yet to read the whole thing, but as fatmanatee says, “#toughwordsforchilis”
jessica hopper should be sort of ashamed of...
agrammar:
desnoise:
acrophobicbird:[see link]
agrammar: [see link]
I don’t know that I fully agree with any of the sides here, but it does seem unfortunate to start getting into “who’s the less privileged, a white American woman or a Persian-American male who tells Details he has been buying $32 deodorant since his mom started getting it for him.” … I agree, it’s ironic and disappointing...
“Salinger made a career out of being publicized for not seeking publicity,”...”
– Salinger featured in ‘Shoeless Joe’ | desmoinesregister.com | The Des Moines Register
Imagine I had more time and used this as a peg to write a column about Belle & Sebastian, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sally Shapiro, and, in the post-Burial era, the new ubiquity of...
“Can’t we simply discuss whether their music is dull or not? (it is)”
– Sean T. Collins, commenting on Fluxtumblr
jessica hopper should be sort of ashamed of...
acrophobicbird:
agrammar:
Do you see what I mean about playing it fast and loose here? She — like everyone else — calls them white, then digs up a quote correcting this misstatement and brushes it aside as some kind of posturing: “bandying around” their ethnicity. If Jessica Hopper wants to call you white, no amount of not-being-white is going to change that. She will match lazy thinking with...
on joanna newsom, strangeness, and "authenticity"
agrammar:
… who is apparently set to release a triple LP. Her music is distinctly polarizing, right?
Hmm, I think that’s kind of part of the marketing pitch on her, isn’t it? Everybody’s “polarizing” nowadays, and that’s often presented as evidence that they’re worthwhile. Anyway, it’s not true for me with Newsom— I really liked the first...
justsayjolie:
ouizy:
Your Daily ’90s: I Can’t...
“We live now in a vicarious age, but we don’t live our lives through other...”
– Esquire: Charles P Pierce on the 2000s: The First 3,650 Days
been meaning to post this essay from the latest Esquire… I feel like it dovetails interestingly with the Harper’s essay I quoted twice the other day.
as an internet commenter trying to call out my lack of a “context for...
“Darner helped design a guitar with built-in effects pedals with Bilt Guitars. He...”
– Des Moines Scenester: Brandon Darner | Metromix Des Moines
hey, cool! i want one.
“After a couple of minutes of a simplified glam shuffle, it tacks on an unrelated...”
– Reviewed: Spoon’s Transference - Music Review - Washington City Paper
No, no, no! That’s exactly what it’s supposed to do. It’s like on a Deerhunter or Atlas Sound song, where the things you expect to change (melody, lyrics, rhythm) stay the same and everything else...
“If you want to know what’s really going on in a society or ideology, follow the...”
– The serfdom of crowds—By Jaron Lanier (Harper’s Magazine)
“Am I accusing all those hundreds of millions of users of social-networking sites...”
– The serfdom of crowds—By Jaron Lanier (Harper’s Magazine)
A corollary here for me: It can be true that a person has as many favorite songs each year as the proliferation of online year-end lists would suggest only if the idea of “favorite songs” is diminished.
“Sometimes, you’ve got to let go of the things that just don’t matter...”
– Daily Herald | Confronting Ford: Will Dann go to ‘Extraordinary Measures’ to get truth?
Says a critic writing a column three decades later about how he refused to interview Harrison Ford ever again (UNTIL NOW!!!) after the actor lied to him about the source of a scar on his chin.
A...
“You are obviously not looking hard enough. There are TONS of other venues...”
– Craigslist - re: Dead Moines
Aw man, Craigslist fite brewing in my lil town. Hope I can find some time to summon up some thoughts on this soon. Then again, I’m still so new— what do I know?
“When he wrote The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck described a family of Oklahomans...”
– Daily Howler: Do we progressives still like the people? Frustrated minds want to know
“the kid gloves with which the stuff on this list is treated is unheard of from a...”
– kiss out the jams: razzin’ jop
The Year of Too Much Consensus →
tomewing:
desnoise:
perpetua:
This is an extraordinarily depressing essay by former Voice editor/professional contrarian Chuck Eddy. It’s like a guy who used to be principal of a high school getting really angry about the outcome of his old school’s student council election.
Deep, deep inside the rockcrit bubble here. Is the idea that indie vocals are bad actually contrary to the...
The Year of Too Much Consensus →
perpetua:
This is an extraordinarily depressing essay by former Voice editor/professional contrarian Chuck Eddy. It’s like a guy who used to be principal of a high school getting really angry about the outcome of his old school’s student council election.
Deep, deep inside the rockcrit bubble here. Is the idea that indie vocals are bad actually contrary to the prevailing opinion among most...
“pie holes”
– De Gustibus - Snacking Nation - When Did Grazing Take Over Our Children? - NYTimes.com
intervju: joel alme | tram7.se →
"Morrissey's Voice Will Never Give Me the Ability... →
“Maureen Dowd, a liberal columnist”
– Barack Obama’s first year: Reality bites | The Economist
Mike Barthel, if you’re out there, can a mention like this in The Economist serve as evidence in my (probably annoyingly) long-running campaign to convince you that whether or not you and I take Dowd seriously, many do— and...
“I want to express personal things and worldviews in my writing too (though I...”
– (via tomewing)
As usual, I think we’re ultimately on the same page here, just wording our thoughts differently. The only place where I might begin to depart is with your observation that messy, long-form reviews “secretly don’t want to be reviews.” We agree, I think, that...
“bratty but terse”
– Music Review - The Drums and Surfer Blood - Florida Indie Rock, No Surfing Allowed, at Bowery Ballroom - NYTimes.com
Not another one of those long-winded brats, then! Good.
TAPPED Archive | The American Prospect: The... →
1 tag
“The feeling of satisfaction you get as a reviewer is one of having successfully...”
– (via tomewing)
Honest question: I’m not the only one whose feeling of satisfaction from writing a review has to do with expressing something personal about myself and how I see the world, right? Putting oneself out there as a barometer against which others can measure their own experiences?...
“languorous, almost frightening in their stomp”
– No Holds Barred for Gucci Mane, Rap Star - NYTimes.com
1 tag
Comet Gain: “Don’t Fall in Love If You...
“[T]he day people stop screaming at the TV set disagreeing with us, it’s...”
– Simon Cowell, Entertainment Weekly, Jan. 15, 2010
“And I’m sensing that someone out there watching has a pulled muscle in their...”
– Pat Robertson, during his Daily, Hilariously Specific, Prayers to viewers. (via hammerito)
“At this point, we seem content with proper language but structural inequality.”
– Daily Howler: As pundits failed to explain an offense, we thought of that famous old cult
How he got there →
Bob Somerby’s new site. (Yes, he has finally made the jump from The Daily Howler to… blogspot. Well, Twitter can wait, I suppose.)
“Steve Schmidt described Palin as “very calm - nonplussed”
– McCain aide: Palin believed candidacy ‘God’s plan’ - washingtonpost.com
for the last time, as a PSA:
non⋅plus
]]>", "6");interfaceflash.addParam("loop", "false");interfaceflash.addParam("quality", "high");interfaceflash.addParam("menu", "false");interfaceflash.addParam("salign",...
“Rick Perlstein, author of “Nixonland,” sees a strong resemblance between Mr....”
– Roger Ailes of Fox News Has an Agenda - Profit - NYTimes.com
this quote seems relevant in light of Michelangelo Matos’s recent comment on the word “hater”. i see a similarity between the two mindsets (that of Nixon/Agnew/Ailes and that of the person who perceives all opponents as...