December 2010
74 posts
2 tags
“Jay-Z loves the Peace Corps. He’s never said so publicly, and...”
– Peter Hessler: How Rajeev Goyal helped the Peace Corps : The New Yorker
now that, folks, is a lede.
see also
“an autobiographical play about Ford’s daily encounters with Andrew Cunanan...”
– People to watch in 2011: Playwright ‘is an idea machine’ | desmoinesregister.com | The Des Moines Register
“Can anybody tell me exactly what a talk box is, how it works, and how it’s...”
– John Walker Lindh, “the American Taliban,” in a 19917 online post as quoted by Dave Tompkins in How to Wreck a Nice Beach
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“(Turing once dreamt of engaging a supermachine in chess and outsmarting it by...”
– Dave Tompkins, How to Wreck a Nice Beach
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“And I remember in September of 1998, after looking at The Thomas Crown Affair, I...”
– The-Dream, interviewed in May 2010, as quoted in Atlanta: Hip-Hop and the South (photographs by Michael Schmelling, text by Kelefa Sanneh, interviews by Will Welch)
see also
“In Italo Calvino’s novel “Mr Palomar”, the eponymous hero is dazzled by the...”
– The tyranny of choice: You choose | The Economist
“Consider the way that music—notably, in America, jazz and hip-hop—developed both...”
– Barbecue and American culture: Fire in the hole | The Economist
“The academics quoted lyrics written by Pete Townshend of The Who when he was 20:...”
– Age and happiness: The U-bend of life | The Economist
“People like the Vegas will always keep coming, no matter the fences that go up...”
– Migrant farm workers: Fields of tears | The Economist
A beautifully humanizing story from a perhaps unexpected source. One that makes you wish The Economist used bylines.
“Caitlyn Meyer is 19 going on 34, wise beyond her years. She’s a sophomore...”
– Keeler: After hardship, Newton family treated to holiday cheer
Sean Keeler is consistently my favorite Des Moines Register columnist. I like how here he could have done what so many columnists seem to do— pull a reporting-free idea out and spend 10 minutes typing it up— but instead...
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“We didn’t become OutKast until like the middle of eleventh grade when a...”
– Big Boi, interviewed in August 2008, as quoted in Atlanta: Hip-Hop and the South (photographs by Michael Schmelling, text by Kelefa Sanneh, interviews by Will Welch)
“One way James [Murphy] changed the way we work is by having us commit to an idea...”
– Free Energy lead singer Paul Sprangers, as quoted by Steve Kandell in the Jan./Feb. 2011 issue of SPIN
“Have you seen Ghostbusters II? Do you remember how Rick Moranis’s...”
– Weigel : No Labels: Hey, You’re Welcome for the Lame Duck!
“One need only compare the rape scenes in Rand’s novels to Lester’s...”
– Joseph Heath, Andrew Potter | Nation of Rebels: Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture
OK, so I highlighted the most shocking bit, but I just finished this book and found it a really interesting companion/supplement to Thomas Frank’s The Conquest of Cool, which I previously finished (and...
“And for a second you’re like “seriously, why have I not heard of...”
– 2 YEAR LAG: Pitchfork Reviews 4/11/08
i really like red house painters and some sun kil moon, but i don’t remember having much reaction to the past few years’ stuff really, or go back to it much, and anyway regardless of the merits i came across this just now and thought it was funny.
Merriam-Webster’s most searched word in 2010:... →
“sharecropper turned professional bad-ass”
– No Excuses - Ta-Nehisi Coates - National - The Atlantic
“Is there any reason why the second ending is journalistically inferior to the...”
– “But sure to end on a note of optimism” | The Blog
“Does “memorable” equal “good,” the way “skinny” came to mean “pretty,” or...”
– Cr4Bdbgs, I asked Twitter people to send me their…
I don’t have any stake in the “Buffy” debate that prompted this quote, but I thought it was worth, well, quoting. Might not there be some truth to this, the first part anyway? Not that being memorable isn’t often a...
“Picture a group of girls facing each other while forming a circle on a dimly lit...”
– Some adults call teen dance fad too close for their comfort :: Des Moines Register
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“On a commentary track, we learn more horrifying details; a crew member, bitten...”
– Fitzcarraldo :: rogerebert.com :: Great Movies
see also
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“Reason.com editor Nick Gillespie has a response to my item gently pointing out...”
– Nick Gillespie Responds, And His Point Is… I Have No Idea | The New Republic
“Weaned on the NME, whose reviewers demolished the bad in startlingly good ways,...”
– Groove Column: on accentuating the positive (December 2010) | We Are Proud Of Our Choices
As Pearson says, he’s “not a critic,” so the roles are different. To an extent, it’s part of a critic’s job (almost by definition) to point out the negative in ways that...
“What does Julian Assange have to do with arts journalism, you well might wonder....”
– Ideas Have Concequences - Robert Christgau - ARTicles
“I think it’s important that they see me every so often enjoying it, so they know...”
– The Real Stephen Colbert, Northwestern Magazine
A rare break in character for this remarkably thorough alumni-mag profile.
“even if there were those who wanted to pick up and run with the Ludacris piece...”
– Midcentury Modern: Yuletide Pop’s Golden Age | Postmodern Times by Eric Felten - WSJ.com
Also: What, no love for “Last Christmas”? It’s no “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” but… (the two Lennon/McCartney Christmas songs also seem to have entered the canon,...
1 tag
The 20 Worst Songs of 2010, #6: Salem, "Trap Door" →
markrichardson:
desnoise:
hardlyart:
hardcorefornerds:
tomewing:
perpetua:
Every word of this is hilarious and ruthlessly on-point. This is why I am proud to say that Christopher Weingarten is my friend, and why I am so glad that we’ve got someone this good out there on the front lines calling bullshit on this terrible music.
Lots of good points, and “Trapdoor” is terrible - as are...
“I don’t mind making year-end lists,” Peter Margasak writes in this...”
– This Week in Reader Music | The Blog
“Ours is not the first generation to think that what younger people listen to is...”
– Alexis Petridis. (via slightly)
i love him. this is good.
(via ungainlysweaters)
This has long been one of the topics I have in my locker of “can’t think of a column - help!” emergencies, so on the one hand it’s a bit annoying Alexis has got there first. On the other hand, I can only heartily...
“I have too many favourite lines and lyrics to count. Big Daddy Cane’s effortless...”
– WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED RAP? | More Intelligent Life
[sic]
The 20 Worst Songs of 2010, #6: Salem, "Trap Door" →
hardlyart:
hardcorefornerds:
tomewing:
perpetua:
Every word of this is hilarious and ruthlessly on-point. This is why I am proud to say that Christopher Weingarten is my friend, and why I am so glad that we’ve got someone this good out there on the front lines calling bullshit on this terrible music.
Lots of good points, and “Trapdoor” is terrible - as are the other ‘screwed’ tracks on...
1 tag
Fluxtumblr: Two Things I Dislike In Music Writing →
perpetua:
If it’s Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg, then it’s also Dennis “Ghostface Killah” Coles.
When Free Energy was here the other night a friend pointed out to me that somebody this friend said was Spiral Stairs was in attendance, explaining that he was here because Bob Nastanovich was spinning records between sets that night, and this all seemed very strange to me, especially because I...
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“Best Quirky, Unclassifiable Restaurant: Fong’s
Sharpen a focus, pull it...”
– W.E. Moranville, Des Moines Register, Datebook Diner’s “Best of 2010” (no link because the Register’s website is lacking)
I can’t wait to tease my favorite “utterly hip” bartenders tomorrow night.
(Seriously dudes. Come visit me, and this is where I will...
“What are you?” Feller harrumphed, eyes narrowing suspiciously. “Stupid?”
– Keeler: ‘Rapid Robert’ Feller did things his way, on and off mound | desmoinesregister.com | The Des Moines Register
“Like Mattingly, Maas was a left-handed batter. As a result many of his home runs...”
– Kevin Maas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“REMEMBER Napster?”
– Coming next: A swarm of leaks — WikiLeaks’ rivals will be hard to fight | The Economist