February 2011
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Jukebox January
I’ve reviewed some songs at the Singles Jukebox this past month. Here they are, with scores out of ten and links to text:
Jay-Z & Kanye West - H.A.M.: [4]
Mona - Trouble on the Way: [4]
The Vaccines - Post-Break-Up Sex: [4]
The Naked and Famous - Punching in a Dream: [5]
Blake Shelton - Who Are You When I’m Not Looking: [5]
James Blake - Limit to Your Love: [6]
Avril Lavigne...
January 2011
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“Importing hot dogs from Chicago to a party in New York is just the sort of...”
– Chris Rovzar and Jessica Pressler, “Gossip Girl Recap: I Wouldn’t Want Someone Like You, Wanting to Be Like Me,” New York Magazine, January 25, 2011
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The Beastie Boys - The Move (Hello Nasty, 1998)
...
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“A rooster is crowing, and an alarm clock chimes. “Wake up, wake up, wake up,...”
– Christine Hauser, “Social Security and Welfare Benefits Going Paperless,” The New York Times, January 28, 2011
Strangely, this article goes on to discuss old people who don’t like bank accounts, and doesn’t once mention how drug dealers will cope with the change to welfare...
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“In this paper, we have developed a simple theory of political transitions. Our...”
– Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, “A Theory of Political Transitions,” The American Economic Review, Vol. 91, No. 4 (Sep. 2001) pp 938-963
I don’t know a whole lot about what’s going on in Egypt (and before that Tunisia), but what I have seen has reminded me of this...
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“The episode begins with Homer in a carnivorous fury, anxiously anticipated an...”
– Nathan Rabin, “The Simpsons (Classic): ‘One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish,” The A.V. Club,” November 21, 2010
This is a great observation of what made Lisa great when the show was at its peak: her carefully balanced combination of alienation, intelligence, and naïveté....
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Watch“I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed.” — Daniel Plainview, There Will Be Blood (2007)
State of the Union preview at the USSC:
America can win without other countries — like China — losing. In fact, as both Krugman and Klein point out, if China does better, America will too. If the Chinese get richer, they can start buying more stuff which would help address the...
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P.S.
Just for general entertainment purposes, however, I wish some country somewhere would conduct its voting like Eurovision does.
…And Vermont gives Barack Obama 12 points (douze points!)
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(if the Academy were to reveal the voting results... →
andyhutchins:
Your Parenthetical Aside of the Day comes from Nate Silver, who explains instant-runoff voting with elegant broad strokes and mashes up the Oscars and Idol in a brilliant bit of frenzied insight.
I would urge any non-Australian to read this article, because it elegantly describes the process of instant runoff voting, or as we call it, preferential voting. This is the process by...
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WatchFlight of the Conchords - “Hurt Feelings” (from Ep 02.03: The Tough Brets)
Tom Junod, “The Sore Winners: Will America’s Super Minority Sink Us All,” Esquire, October 27, 2010:
It is one thing to listen to Sean Hannity tell his listeners, day in and day out, that they look down on you, and they think you’re stupid. It is quite another to enter into a Facebook...
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Guys, the Firefly movie is pretty awesome.
The Operative: Do you know what your sin is, Mal?
Mal: Aw, hell. I'm a fan of all seven.
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“Record stores have always seemed crazy to me, but it doesn’t upset me....”
– Marge Simpson, The Simpsons, Ep.07.24: “Homerpalooza”
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Nicki Minaj ft. Eminem – Roman’s Revenge
On Tuesday, the Singles Jukebox reviewed “Roman’s Revenge” and gave it a [6.12]. I didn’t get a review in, but here’s what my draft looked like:
Minaj’s first favor to Eminem: reminding us, through her example, of his talents for mimesis, role-playing, and linguistic dexterity. Marshall Mathers’ presence on the track is one of weary competence. His...
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“Liberalism in the 19th century focused on opposing concentrated power and...”
– Timothy B. Lee, “The Return of Bottom-Up Liberalism,” Bottom-up, January 19, 2011
Lee’s post argues that liberals have been forced to internalize libertarian critiques, and he might be right. I sort of don’t think so, however. Part of this might be because I’m...
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“And so, to Mr. Douthat’s chicken-and-egg dilemma — which came first: Ms. Palin...”
– Nate Silver, “Sarah Palin and the Media Symbiosis,” FiveThirtyEight, January 18, 2011
As much as I approved of the referenced Ross Douthat column, I like what Silver is saying here as a general principle. When it comes to media analysis (or similar; this often applies to politics as...
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Or, with less snark.
Robyn’s sincerity in “Tell Your Girlfriend” is too insistent to be plausible. I think the song is more interesting if you thus interpret it as her being passive-aggressive. I would like Robyn a lot more if this were true.
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Los Angeles.
Fry: So you're saying these aren't the decaying ruins of New New York in the year 4000?
Farnsworth: You wish! You're in Los Angeles.
Fry: But there was this gang of ten year olds with guns!
Leela: Exactly. You are in L.A.
Fry: But everyone is driving around in cars shooting at each other!
Bender: That's L.A. for ya!
Fry: But the air is green and there is no sign of civilization whatsoever!
Bender: He just won't stop with the social commentary.
Fry: And the people are all phony. No one reads. Everything has cilantro on it!
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#hashtagging
My style is like the reaction from too much acid…
…NEVER COME DOWN.
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“The big thing was the writers strike, it hurt the film and it made it hard on...”
– Michael Bay on Transformers 2
Whatever you may think of Michael Bay, you have to admire him for seeing a lack of script as merely a possible hindrance to making a movie, instead of, ya know, a complete deal breaker.
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“I wish I could permanently disable youtube comments, so I would never have to...”
– -rmxbb in re: “Ghetto Superstar”
As I always say: never trust a ’90s baby.
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“But research looking at how people actually feel about their vacations suggests...”
– Drake Bennett, “The Best Vacation Ever,” The Boston Globe, June 20, 2010
I read about this in the New York Times back in 2005, but I can’t find that article, so here is another one that says the same thing. As far as I’m concerned, this doesn’t matter. So we go on...
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jakec asked: So I really liked Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, and I'm certain it's because of the reason you mentioned in your first paragraph (about being the age where I like going to shows and making out), and I saw it for the first time the day after I broke up with my first serious girlfriend and then watched it like thirty more times over the next month because we'd just moved...
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Responding to old, old posts. →
Two not very related things.
jonathanbogart:
If you’re still with me, you may have realized that I don’t use the adjective “dumb” as a pejorative; in fact, I usually tend to couple it with the adverb “gloriously” in my head. This is because half the joy of pop music for me is nonverbal, or even preverbal; as long as it’s got bright colors, bounces around, and features enough smiling faces, I’m...
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I'll see if I can get around to going into this in...
America is very good at talking about itself. It is not very good at talking about how it talks about itself.
Australia, by contrast, is terrible at talking about itself.
EDIT: I want to complete the comparison by saying that Australia is very good at talking about how it talks about itself, but I’m not quite certain that’s true.
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“It’s obviously true that Gatsby holds some sort of flame for Daisy, but...”
– Ta-Nehisi Coates, “This Won’t End Well,” The Atlantic, January 10, 2011
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“For the past couple of years I’ve been working on a novel about—my...”
– Michael Chabon, “That’s Why I Came,” The Atlantic, January 10, 2011
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