January 2012
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(Thank God): Question for/about the Singles... →
the20000:
matthewtowles:
I’ve noticed that a large number of recent reviews (by “recent” I mean the past few weeks, but I’m sure this could be said about the past few/several months, etc.) have an aggregate score of around five (5) out of ten (10).
My question is this: are these average scores purely the result of simple mathematics (in that any relatively large grouping of numbers would...
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And the reviews are in!
redrabbleroz replied to your photo: Four years ago I celebrated Australia Day by…
I really dislike the green and gold
It’s not the best, but I’ll take it over Union Jack blue, white, and red any day.
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“Beyond that, I find the pseudo-monarchial trappings of the speech increasingly...”
– James Joyner, “State Of The Union Address Obsolete,” Outside the Beltway, January 24, 2012
Yeah, I really hate this.
I live under a monarchy, and you know what Obama didn’t look like yesterday? A king. He looked like someone who has been elected and who, in nine months time, has...
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Apparently the State of the Union is strong
2012: “The state of the Union is getting stronger … the state of our Union will always be strong.”
2011: “The state of our Union is strong.”
2010: “Despite our hardships, our Union is strong.”
2009: “The United States of America will emerge stronger than before.”
2008: ”The state of our Union will remain strong.”
...
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“From the start, the speech focused on what Obama has accomplished over the past...”
– My take on last night’s State of the Union address is up now at American Review.
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“I am in blood
Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning...”
– Macbeth, Macbeth (III.iv)
That, unfortunately, is what I thought of today when Obama said “The state of our Union is getting stronger. And we’ve come too far to turn back now.”
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Some snarky things I need to say about Sydney's...
Look, I’m pleased it’s happening too. But when it comes to food and gimmicky ideas, Sydneysiders can’t help but dumb out, and they’ve greeted this news with all kinds of dumbness.
“Stop dreaming about those LA taco trucks…” says TimeOut. Sydney is “following” “trendy and affluent Santa Monica” says StreetCorner. The City of Sydney...
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“In the hands of great filmmakers (like Mr. Eastwood and Mr. Godard, to stick...”
– A.O. Scott, “Fasten Your Seat Belts, the Chevy Is Taking Off,” The New York Times, September 15, 2011
This applies to creative pursuits beyond film. There should, for instance, be an analogue for music.
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ABQ
Shows that do cities right.
The Great American Television Dramas of the 21st Century each took on the city in their own way. “The Wire,” most famously, pieced together a Baltimore characterized by multivalency, a blown out, concrete place where nothing is discrete: all the pieces matter. “The Sopranos” deliberately swerved away from the city like Tony does in the opening...
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“The San Bernardino Valley lies only an hour east of Los Angeles by the San...”
– Joan Didion, “Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream,” The Saturday Evening Post, April 1966
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Other things I've written lately.
USSC: “Farewelling Representative Giffords”
USSC: “More meaningless stats, stat!”
The Singles Jukebox: “Game ft. Lil Wayne & Tyler, The Creator - Martians vs. Goblins” [9]
USSC: “Santorum nabs the coveted fictional mob boss endorsement”
USSC: “MLK’s Occupy moment”
USSC: “The tax election”
USSC: “Annals...
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“Is New Zealand part of Australia?”
– Jesse Pinkman, “Breaking Bad” Ep. 02.12: Phoenix
Yeah Mr. White! Yeah geography! (This quote = G.O.A.T.)
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“I think reducing misogyny to the usage of the word “bitch” misses...”
– Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Jay-Z Still Big Pimping, The Atlantic, January 20, 2012
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“Seeing Los Angeles after ten years away, one realizes all over again that...”
– Norman Mailer, “Superman Comes to the Supermarket,” Esquire, November, 1960
It’s not that I agree with Mailer here. He’s telling a particular East Coast story of America, one resigned to the nation’s perpetual decline and its failure to have achieved to its potential....
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Saving you the click through. →
My Pazz ballot:
EMA, Past Life Martyred Saints
The Weeknd, House of Balloons
Tyler, the Creator, Goblin
Horrible Crowes, Elsie
Lady Gaga, Born This Way
Frank Ocean, Nostalgia, Ultra
Shabazz Palaces, Black Up
A$AP Rocky, LiveLoveA$AP
Jay-Z and Kanye West, Watch the Throne
Toro Y Moi, Underneath the Pine
Tracks:
EMA, “California”
JoJo, “Marvin’s Room (Can’t...
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“…Huntsman’s strategically silly daughters.”
– Dave Weigel, “Jon Huntsman’s Presidential Campaign RIP,” Slate, January 15, 2012
Also this.
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“Republicans in 2012 had no interest in a compromise candidate who could speak...”
– Dave Weigel, “Jon Huntsman’s Presidential Campaign RIP,” Slate, January 15, 2012
More Harry Potter metaphors in political reporting please.
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There's this certain type of female pop star...
…whose detractors don’t merely think her music is bad; they think the very being of the star herself is bad. There’s this strange fury to the denunciations, a disgust that someone allows this woman to even exist.
Examples:
Lana Del Rey
Kreayshawn
Lady Gaga
Taylor Swift
Katy Perry
It used to happen with Britney. Miley got it a bit.
Related?
Does it happen with men? I...
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A thing about the NDAA
Many people who pay a little bit of attention to American politics are very angry at Barack Obama for signing a bill known as the NDAA. The NDAA contains a provision permitting the president to indefinitely detain people accused of terrorism. It explicitly refrains from saying whether this includes American citizens, a stance that codifies the current unsettled nature of the law.
The detention...
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Two things about the ERA.
America, it should totally be in the Constitution. Y’all were talking about this in the ’70s and you still haven’t made it happen? Come on, yo. I know it’s old news, but it still really really really should be a constitutional amendment.
You should fix the wording though. It’s totally a product of liberal squishiness. As proposed: Section 1. Equality of rights...
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I really don't know much about Toronto.
Like, when I try to build a mental picture of what the city is like, I basically draw a blank. I have: Canada, Drake, Scott Pilgrim, Lake Ontario, and the CN Tower (which belongs to the dead). It’s not much to go on.
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Other things I've written lately.
The Singles Jukebox: “Young Jeezy ft. Jay-Z & André 3000 – I Do” [5]
USSC: “I like being able to fire people”
USSC: This is how it begins…
The Singles Jukebox: “Trouble Maker – Trouble Maker” [3]
The Singles Jukebox: “Ke$ha ft. Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, T.I. & André 3000 – Sleazy Remix 2.0: Get Sleazier” [4]
The Singles Jukebox:...
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Romney rolls on to New Hampshire →
This is my New Hampshire primary preview column for American Review. And it’s all about Mitt Romney because the GOP race is pretty much all about Mitt Romney right now. And what I’m seeing from Mitt at the moment is a campaign that’s pretty good at getting shit done:
But Romney has also run a slick campaign. He managed expectations in Iowa perfectly, for instance. He was never...
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ninefruits asked: What is your own political philosophy? You seem to have a dislike for everything.
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One more thing on Ron Paul.
After this I’m done. Dude ain’t gonna be president and I’m sick of pretending he’s relevant.
The only decent responses to Paul’s racist past in favor of the candidate that I’ve seen are ones that acknowledge it, consider the candidate greatly flawed because of it, yet insist that he would be nonetheless instrumental in implementing other desirable policies....
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ninefruits asked: Both you, and Ron Paul, should read Hayek's "Why I'm Not A Conservative", to see the disrespect he had institutionalised cultural norms (not just state based ones), both philosophically and practically. American libertarianism is very much tied to the nation (particularly Southern nationalism), which is a significant form of collectivism (and a cage that inhibits free trade)....
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rap city
Start of the Line: Top 30 DMV songs of 2011: part one and two.
Speech is My Hammer: The Top 10 Michigan hop-hop albums of 2011.
Fake Shore Drive: FSD writer’s poll. [Chicago]
Anything else?
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Yes Minister re: economics and British geography.
Desmond Glazebrook: It took me 30 years to understand Keynes’s economics, then everyone started getting hooked on these new monetarist ideas. You know — “I Want to Be Free” by Milton Shulman. Humphrey Appleby: Milton Friedman. Desmond: Why are they all called Milton? Anyway, I’ve only got as far as Milton Keynes. Humphrey: Maynard Keynes. Desmond: I’m sure there’s a Milton Keynes.
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“The emergence of the city as playground for the young and well-to-do masks the...”
– Daniel Denvir, “Iowa-centric candidates ignore the urban crisis,” Salon, January 3, 2012
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““If the U.S. had a popular vote election, candidates would focus on saturating...”
– Daniel Denvir, “Iowa-centric candidates ignore the urban crisis,” Salon, January 3, 2012
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“And yet anyone who has stood on the cliffs at Watsons Bay, if they’re not...”
– Drusilla Modjeska, “Under the Bridge: Delia Falconer’s ‘Sydney’,” The Monthly (November 2010)
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“…The “1001 Things” series is of somewhat variable quality — and the idea...”
– Blue Lines Revisited
Thank you, Tom Ewing. This is exactly why I recoil from the 1001 Things You Must X Before You Die series, and I’d never been able to articulate it before.
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Addendum to that age and experience thing
The way it causes you to better recognize music’s component parts and respond less well to novelty.
In a fit of old before my time angst*, I sometimes wonder if it’s happening to me, with my Singles Jukebox review of Cults being the most palpable manifestation of it. (But I think maybe the same thing is happening to me with Skrillex?)
The thing is, I don’t think this should be...
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“But even just to deal with the music listener’s experience, it’s always been the...”
– Carl Wilson, “Retromania: A Roundtable with Ann Powers, Carl Wilson, and Daphne Carr,” Bookforum, January 3, 2012
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“It becomes evident that what he now reads as mere repetition was once revelatory...”
– Carl Wilson, “Retromania: A Roundtable with Ann Powers, Carl Wilson, and Daphne Carr,” Bookforum, January 3, 2012
This is important.