December 2010
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To the Class of 2011 →
My end-of-the-world piece for the Awl is up. It is an address to the members of the class of 2011 who remained in school and searching for a solution after the reality of the crisis sunk in, and so is optimistic, kinda. But it’s also about finding a way to preserve the world’s creative output in a way that other creatures can understand, which is less so, though still not entirely a...
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“The problem with Black Swan is not that it “sees everything in quotation marks.”...”
– Is Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky’s tawdry thriller, a work of camp? - By Dennis Lim - Slate Magazine
This is relevant to my interests. I haven’t seen Black Swan yet because it isn’t out in the UK yet, so I can’t have an opinion about Lim’s reading yet.
(via mootpoint)
Oh man, now I really have to...
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“New Year’s is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to...”
– Mark Twain (via my dad)
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Prince Concert Setlist at Madison Square Garden,... →
Here is the setlist from Prince last night. Kinda sad we didn’t get “Adore” or “Nothing Compares 2 U,” but it was easily made up for by “She’s Always in My Hair” and the piano medley of “I Wanna Be Your Lover” -> “How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore” -> “Sometimes It Snows in April.” But the thing this...
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“In a whirlwind turn of events, Sandra and Tracey take the UK by storm, hitting...”
– From the IMDB plot summary for Fat Slags (2004)
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What the humanities are for
mootpoint:
“My own answer to what the humanities are for is simple: They should help us to live. We should look to culture as a storehouse of useful ideas about how to face our most pressing personal and professional issues. Novels and historical narratives can impart moral instruction and edification. Great paintings can suggest the requirements for happiness. Philosophy can probe our anxieties...
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You Won't Be The Same Person When You Wake Up Next... →
thisis:
This is something I wrote for The Awl. I am actually trying not to freak the fuck out right now because it is the first thing that I have ever even submitted for publication. And The Awl has sooooooo many awesome writers that it is really weird seeing my name on a byline there.
This is great and you should read it!
"I could always add more dick jokes" - the best of...
2010 was an unusually good year for me writing-wise, so for my own edification as much as anyone else’s, here are some good things I wrote this year.
Sex Offender Week: Performing Don Draper (The Awl, April 29)
Globalism’s Enfant Terrible (Tumblr, May 15)
Sleigh Bells as Guilty Pleasure (Tumblr, May 17)
Scissor Sisters, “Night Work”: Yay for Sex and Drugs and Pleasure...
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Strange Eastern Conspiracy Hath Ethical Chocolate
o-song:
What Rawls Hath Wrought by John Gray (The National Interest): The human rights movement, argues Gray, was inspired by a 1971 book by philosopher John Rawls, and began to make itself known in the late 1970s. By the 2000s, even the right wing of US politics accepted this framework of human rights, using it to justify its invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Gray argues that the framework of...
"I could always add more dick jokes" - the best of...
2010 was an unusually good year for me writing-wise, so for my own edification as much as anyone else’s, here are some good things I wrote this year.
Sex Offender Week: Performing Don Draper (The Awl, April 29)
Globalism’s Enfant Terrible (Tumblr, May 15)
Sleigh Bells as Guilty Pleasure (Tumblr, May 17)
Scissor Sisters, “Night Work”: Yay for Sex and Drugs and Pleasure...
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Anonymous asked: you think it should have said holocaust whiner?
Credit in the straight world
It’s pretty inarguable that videogames have gotten a lot better at visually representing the real world. For instance, compare the jump in visual sophistication that’s taken place in the 25 years between 1983’s Elevator Action and 2008’s Grand Theft Auto IV. But here is the question I put to you: have games gotten better at reproducing the experience of actually living in...
Anonymous asked: you think it should have said holocaust whiner?
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"It’s about loving music and challenging your... →
Scott Tennent replies to my post from yesterday about his book on Slint and talks about the degree to which Slint was just a normal band. I think this is very important too - Slint broke up before they were able to even be particularly acclaimed, so everything they did was in a context thousands of other bands have found themselves in.
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"Hallelujah" Gets Enlisted in the War for a... →
A thought struck me last night while I was brushing my teeth. “Did I write something recently in which I referred to the Old Testament as Bible I: The Quickening?” I thought. Why yes I did! Here is my by-now yearly address on the State of “Hallelujah,” this time looking at the way its transformation from a sort of secular drinking song to an unfocused lament and, now,...
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The drama years
For how little teenagers matter, we sure do pay a lot of attention to them. I mean, seriously: they have limited incomes, are severely restricted in their movements, don’t hold down jobs, have relationships that will almost certainly end, and tend toward the shallow and unreflective more often than not. And yet we place them at the center of most of our pop culture both as audience...
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“My idea is always to reach my generation. The wise writer, I think, writes for...”
– F. Scott Fitzgerald (via my dad - thanks dad!)
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Howl III
For Carl Steadman
I saw the best bloggers of my generation hired by print publications, abandoning their Tumblrs, dragging themselves to an office at dawn missing their warm pajamas, tousle-headed hipsters burning for a paycheck in the blight of recession, who uninsured and anxiety-dreaming and hungry and hungry sat up typing in the baby-plagued halogen of coffeeshops slumping against hard wood...
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Howl III
For Carl Steadman
I saw the best bloggers of my generation hired by print publications, abandoning their Tumblrs, dragging themselves to an office at dawn missing their warm pajamas, tousle-headed hipsters burning for a paycheck in the blight of recession, who uninsured and anxiety-dreaming and hungry and hungry sat up typing in the baby-plagued halogen of coffeeshops slumping against hard wood...
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The drama years
For how little teenagers matter, we sure do pay a lot of attention to them. I mean, seriously: they have limited incomes, are severely restricted in their movements, don’t hold down jobs, have relationships that will almost certainly end, and tend toward the shallow and unreflective more often than not. And yet we place them at the center of most of our pop culture both as audience...
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POLLS CLOSED
The top vote-getter for pick-a-pitch was the teenagers one, so I’ll put that one up tomorrow. The ones for Heavy Rain and politics got some good support too, so maybe I’ll try and work those in as well. Only whatafoolbelieves liked the McCarthy/McBride one, though, so he gets a gold star, but the pitch goes back in the drawer.
The Torches of Freedom Campaign: Marketing,... →
Actually, cigarettes and feminism have a pretty interesting history together! (As do consumerism and feminism, but that’s for another time.)
Mini-meetup / tiny Awl bawl
Here is the deal: I am only in the city for a little bit longer and have to deal with some things, but I would like to see some folks I have seen before and meet other folks whom I have never ever met in real life. So let’s do that this Wednesday (the 22nd) from 6 pm until whenever, at the Magician (because, hey, retro!) and then we will see where things go from there.
If you are...