January 2012
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“The Margaritaville laid back state of mind is inherently social, and this game...”
– Jimmy Buffett, so next gen (via brianfeldman)
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Watchmaura:
Donating to the Best Music Writing series is the functional equivalent of pre-ordering the 2012 edition of the book—which will collect 2011’s best pieces of criticism, reportage, and other media on music from publications of all types and from all corners of the globe. Why not do so today?
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"Travelers will also hear musicians’ voices... →
Tea Party Princess →
This is a great profile of Victoria Jackson by Gus Garcia-Roberts in the Voice. If you ever wondered how exactly she went from SNL and UHF to a recurring role on Fox News, this deep dive into her family history will leave you with little doubt.
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Why Politicians Get Away With Lying →
Here is a thing you could connect to that, if you wanted; I like the Comm scholar’s answer best, but of course I do. Still: the extraordinarily fuzzy nature of “truth” in politics, our impulse to make complicated choices binary upon reflection, the relationship of our policy preferences to what we perceive as true, the role of self-perceived truth or lies in constructing our...
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“Anyone from a midget in a hooded cloak to the Statue of Liberty greets arriving...”
– Billboard, August 19, 1978
New Orleans’ hottest club is…
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The Australian Alternative: 1995-1998 →
o-song:
This is a mix of mid-to-late 1990s Australian alternative rock that I threatened to make when I linked to my 1 Song A Day piece on Custard the other day. My rule for this compilation was five songs from each year, in chronological order, with two songs at most from each band. I’ve generally gone for very well known songs by very well known bands, with only a couple of songs that are...
We can all agree that comedy nerds are the...
Like, having strong opinions about stand-up comics is what people who took AP classes do instead of quote Anchorman.
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Pop is not enough
Here is an actual thing Richard Beck says in his n+1 piece about Pitchfork:
But the story of The Beatles doesn’t begin with John, Paul, George, and Ringo deplaning at JFK. It begins with Jean-Philippe Rameau’s 1722 Treatise on Harmony, which began to theorize the tonal system that still furnishes the building blocks for almost all pop music.
That is a funny thing to say, because it brings...
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"Blow"
I searched for “Blow” on my iTunes and I thought the results would make a pretty good playlist.
Liz Phair - “Flower” (title is tagged “Blowjob Queen” on my copy, because I downloaded it from Kazaa or Soulseek or somewhere in 2002 and the Internet is gross)
Ween - “Bananas and Blow”
My Bloody Valentine - “Blown a Wish”
Robyn -...
Best Make-a-Wish Ever →
“I watch MythBusters and they inspired me to blow a building up,” said the young boy from Fresno, Calif.
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10 Other People Ronald Reagan's Diary Only...
mentalflossr:
During last night’s GOP debate, Mitt Romney attempted to minimize Newt Gingrich’s connection to President Reagan:
“I looked at the Reagan diary. You’re mentioned once in Ronald Reagan’s diary. And in the diary, he says you had an idea in a meeting of young congressmen, and it wasn’t a very good idea and he dismissed it. That’s the entire mention.” But the former Speaker is in...
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“Shapiro finally called time on the Q&A session and asked a final question of...”
– Capital: Talking about addiction, recovery, and writing with David Carr, Mary Karr, Alan Kaufman, and Elizabeth Wurtzel by Miranda Popkey
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The snake offering Eve a deep-fried apple
Look, Paula Deen’s shenanigans with the pharmaceutical company are reprehensible, but that’s far from the only reason people are getting judgy about the recent news that she has diabetes. Even when writers are careful to specify that her drug dealings are the real problem, the most venomous commentary seems reserved for the mere fact that she has diabetes. Her not admitting she has...
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(The once-healthy Brooklyn scene has worked as a... →
Scott Plagenhoef with your parenthetical statistic of the day.
WTT addendum #1: Simultaneity and the news
The genesis of my P&J piece - the thing that got me thinking about the impact of technological change on how we experience new information - was a story my dad told me. It goes like this. Just after he and my mom got married (in 1969/1970 or so), they were living in New Jersey just across the river from Manhattan - Englewood Cliifs, I think? Anyway, my dad was working as an assistant at a...
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"Considering the deep-rooted American middlebrow... →
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It's Not About The B-Bling B-Bling
tomewing:
Also I was talking to Lex and others in the pub about Jessie J and we were basically admitting that she’d moved from “GO AWAY” to a secret - not quite admiration, but respect maybe - for her unwavering commitment to being as terrible as possible in every creative decision all the time. “Love to hate” is not as well-populated a category as the cliche would have you believe but JJ falls...
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“Tyler’s most (or only, depending on whom you ask) obvious talent is...”
– Jessica Hopper.
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"But the illusion of the monoculture had a real... →
For Pazz & Jop, I wrote about Watch the Throne’s non-leak as Jay and Kanye trying to solve the coordination problem for listeners, the relationship between speed and simultaneity, how technological shifts change our understanding of the collective, and so forth and so on.
(There are also lots of other excellent things to read there; it is a list of writers among which I am very happy to...
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“I brought my 12-year-old son on this latest trip. My rule is that if a candidate...”
– David Brooks.
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"And it’s likely that her singing style may also... →
(via peachtreekeen)
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