February 2011
46 posts
Minimoonstar: My Top Ten Things About Lists →
tomewing:
This is spinning out of this v good post by Sabina, aka minimoonstar.tumblr.com. I would have reblogged but I don’t think you can “read more” a reblog and I fear I may need this function.
10. I dunno about essentialism but I do know that the first thing I ever did with music…
LISTS AS GAMES, AS PROCESS
Think this is key - I enjoy the ones on ILM because they’re all process,...
January 2011
47 posts
Trying to amuse myself with some hipster sitcoms
But I don’t think I can think of anything better than “Ironic Signfeld.”
barthel:
themattsmith:
R. Kelly : I...
Girlboymusic gets a silver medal in language
Because she also used -zh but wrote it in a word that makes me think of someone trying to pronounce Uggs after a bad dentist’s appointment. Also did not use the word fricative.
Did overly-hyphenated musicwrite come from...
Answer: depends on whether hyphens reduced the word count, I guess.
I took an 800-word-max piece to the limit by adding the crucial qualifier “Tiger Beat.”
Reminds me of a conversation my friend Ian had with his boss in college:
Boss: “Make sure you don’t write in more than 24 hours in a week, since that’s the maximum allowed in your contract.”
...
Tristan wins at language
…Because he used the word “fricative,” which I did not know existed.
YOOZH it is!
"The yooge"?
I’m trying to figure out how to most evocatively or accurately spell “the yooge/yoosh/yooj” — the first syllable of “usual.” Rhymes with “luge.”
How would you spell it?
Addendum
Come to think of it, this film is most accurately the first half of Citizen Kane. There’s no downfall! A better movie might have centered on Fanning from rags to riches to meh in true Kane fashion. But both Facebook and “Facebook’s (semi-fictional) Author” aren’t only still alive, they’re still young — they haven’t even built Xanadu or run for...
Citizen Mark
Having read the Awl piece girlboymusic linked (no linking as I’m posting from my iPod and will expand this later) the frame is all wrong and the tut-tutting misplaced. This isn’t a serious movie about historical events — IT IS CITIZEN KANE. From the semi-fragmented but basically linear storytelling to the screwed-over loyal best friend to the impulsive wildchild lover...
The Social Network
Hm, the two most consistent observations I’ve heard about The Social Network — that it overly (or inaccurately) dramatizes the development of Facebook or something something something Mark Zuckerberg comes off as a real asshole — seem totally beside the point of the movie, which as movies about internet start-ups go is a ripping yarn.
Why on earth should I give one iota of a...
Exist Yesterday.: Notes on taking the Ke$ha Spirit... →
emmyblotnick:
…which you can take here.
I appreciate the thoroughness of putting a dollar sign in the word “is.”
No matter my answers, I expect Ke$ha to say my spirit animal is “UGH I WANT HA$H BROWN$!!!!”
One question begins, “My love life is…” (which is not a question but whatever)…
Another rabbit. Interesting — it’s the second least-popular spirit animal among people...
My empathies to everyone.
Glenn McDonald provides a service to self-absorbed self-googlers humanity by posting his exhaustive Pazz ‘n’ Jop stats. Here are my “empathies”:
0.174 · 9 · Josh Langhoff · 2010
0.15 · 8 · Tal Rosenberg · 2010
0.106 · 6 · Paul Thompson · 2010
0.106 · 6 · Frank Kogan · 2010
0.104 · 6 · Rob Sheffield · 2010
0.103 · 6 · Ellis Widner · 2010
0.103 · 6 · Jayson Greene ·...
AV Club is hiring an editor for the soon-to-open...
Yes. (Also, cool!)
Xgau Sez: absorbent →
tomewing:
xgausez:
From “Awesome: Simon Reynolds’s ‘Blissed Out’” (Village Voice, 1990):
Unfortunately for [Simon Reynolds], or at least for his pride, rock discourse is dripping with truth value, and infinitely absorbent too. Needless to say, Reynolds and his posse were determined to escape co-optation, and…
This is, obviously, fascinating for more than just the word absorbent! It’s a look...
Since I’m trawling through the Xgau archives, here’s some prescient word-association from a RockCritics.com feature:
“The Osbournes”
Good show that portends many worse shows.
Machiavellien?
Ugh, the fake screengrab in the header doesn’t even spell “Machiavellian” correctly. I am duly ashamed.
LOL
I just had a Momentary Delusion of Grandeur following the ego-boost of reblogs of that post. MAYBE NOW SOCIETY WILL BEGIN TO GRAPPLE WITH THIS UNWIELDY THING WE CALL THE INTERWEB!
Other Emotions Invented by the Internet(?)
A persistent, mild, wry amusement, somewhere between smug self-satisfaction and a contact high. My wife sez: “I know you saw something funny on the internet when you get that stupid smile on your face. I hate it.”
Reblog ego boost leading to momentary delusions of grandeur. “Fifteen ‘likes’ and three reblogs without critical commentary. I AM SHAPING PUBLIC...
Five Emotions Invented by the Internet →
The state of being ‘installed’ at a computer or laptop for an extended period of time without purpose, characterized by a blurry, formless anxiety undercut with something hard like desperation. During this time the individual will have several windows open, generally several browser ‘tabs,’ a Microsoft Word document in some state of incompletion, the individual’s own Facebook page as well as that...
Xgau Sez #2
inured
That Dog: Retreat from the Sun [DGC, 1997]
For a pop adept, Anna Waronker skimps on the surefire. On no more than half does the chorus come around and grab the ring; on no more than a couple does the verse leave you waiting for the chorus to make its move. But I think that’s because she realizes that we’re so inured to tunefulness that the surefire backfires. Waronker’s...
Cr4Bdbgs: Xgau Sez #1 →
marathonpacks:
cureforbedbugs:
New stupid Tumblr project: search the text of Robert Xgau Consumer Guide reviews according to the “somewhat uncommon” word choices in a random word generator. INCREASE YOUR WORDINESS!
aberrant
From “Sincerity Is Never Enough” (1985) about Yoko Ono:
Before Double Fantasy, Yoko’s pop…
I am shocked that we’re allowed to talk about music crit and evocative,...
"No matches were found for 'masturbatory'"
Well that was a little surprising.
Xgau Sez #1
New stupid Tumblr project: search the text of Robert Xgau Consumer Guide reviews according to the “somewhat uncommon” word choices in a random word generator. INCREASE YOUR WORDINESS!
aberrant
From “Sincerity Is Never Enough” (1985) about Yoko Ono:
Before Double Fantasy, Yoko’s pop successes comprised scattered tracks too minor to qualify as coups. When...
The Singles Jukebox 21 Most Controversial Songs of... →
I put together a mix-n-match of commentary from Jukebox, original tracks from YouTube, and some background for a few of the songs on this big ol’ post over on Bedbugs. Includes the streaming and download links for the mix.
Should I do one for 2009?
Critics who had to sing "Motownphilly" to... →
theoreticalgirl:
Good to know I wasn’t the only one who had to do this! Pretty impressed that I got four correct. I’m a really bad test taker.
I hyperventilated at the thought of having to answer this, btw. I might get Bobby Brown, and I might (MIGHT) get Bell Biv Devoe (though probably not) but I didn’t even realize they were name-dropped in Motownphilly!!
Just North of Something Important: Imaginary... →
blackbeardblog:
MORITURI
Morituri is an online forum which in look, feel and functionality works in the same way as other fora. The difference is that the length of one’s membership is strictly limited. On arrival in Morituri a new member is given an allowance of 999 posts. Each time they…
Someone please find money for Tom Ewing to write the Mr. Palomar of online communities NOW.
FYI
I don’t plan on writing anything else about this in the heat of the moment. I’ll wait for, you know, facts about things.
YouTube writings of the AZ shooter
From the YouTube page:
“Terrorist
If I define terrorist then a terrorist is a person who employs terror or terrorism, especially as a political weapon.
I define terrorist.
Thus, a terrorist is a person who employs terror or terrorism, especially as a political weapon.
If you call me a terrorist then the argument to call me a terrorist is Ad hominem.
You call me a terrorist.
Thus,...
Grandpa needs tech help
It seems like a bunch of people are reposting “Reply” comments to Tumblr without doing a screen grab now. But I can’t figure out how. Could someone please help a technologically incompetent blogger?
For Your Controversial Listening Convenience
Here’s the streaming SoundCloud of the 2010 Singles Jukebox Controversy Mix.
I Think UR a Contrarian by cureforbedbugs
Details here, download here.
I Think UR a Contrarian: The 21 Most Controversial...
I warned you… DOWNLOAD
Here it is — 19 minutes worth of the most Controversial Songs of 2010 according to the Singles Jukebox. This is pretty much my first mix of this sort, and as for basic mixology competence, I can only guarantee that I occasionally paid attention to the keys that the songs were in. I also tried not to cheat by using other songs (cheated twice, both from the...
This Controversy Mix...
…Is unholy. It might be good. But regardless of either of those things, it’s almost finished! I just have to find a way to shoehorn Everything Motherfucking Everything and MGMotherfuckingT into it. MY KZ, UR ALL A BUNCH OF LOSERS.
If I haven’t uploaded it by Friday (some of us have to WORK tomorrow, gawd), pester me.
Another title spoiler: “King of Drunk Girls.”
Bad Ideas
Currently creating an epic mix/mash-up of the most controversial tracks on the Singles Jukebox. All sources culled from the Top 20:
Ke$ha - Cannibal
Nicki Minaj - Your Love
The Tallest Man on Earth - The King of Spain
Joanna Newsom - Good Intentions Paving Company
The Knife - Colouring of Pigeons
M.I.A. - Born Free
Sleigh Bells - Infinity Guitars
Liz Phair - Bollywood
Everything...
In Beebe, Ark., 5,000 Dead Blackbirds Drop from... →
It’s raining hen!
2011 Ongoing List →
Here’s the placeholder for my annual ongoing music list. Last year’s is now finished, available here. And I already have two good albums that I didn’t consider for 2010 — Daddy Yankee’s Mundial and the Care Bears on Fire EP Girls Like It Loud (Jane Dark and Xgau are back to beating me handily at the teenpop game; oh well, fun ride while it lasted, though I wrote about...