February 2012
It is literally not every day that one of your... →
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“If you caught me at the right time during the early part of the last decade, you...”
– All the credibility/authenticity/guilty pleasure/selling out/indie arguments are over. Unless it’s an Archers-of-Loaf-versus-Pavement-level debate, it just seems silly, empty. Like it just doesn’t give enough fucks.
“Yoga teachers and how-to books seldom mention that the discipline began as a sex...”
– “Yoga and Sex Scandals: No Surprise Here”
More like the No Yoga Times, you know?
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nonchalantjon asked: Are there any sites you recommend other than p4k, stereogum, and spin (not that you do or don't recommend these, it's just these are the only sites I know) that offer long form reviews and critical articles?
jakec asked: How does rapgenius know so much?
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Girls Are Not Inherently Stupid, Please Be Advised
This is a sort of interesting article. But it seems to go out of its way to get the reader’s buy-in for the central premise. ‘This is about how people (girls) say “like” a lot, but it’s got something smart to say, so please keep reading!’
NYT:
Whether it be uptalk (pronouncing statements as if they were questions? Like this?), creating slang words like...
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The problem with Tom and Ann
wonklife:
The problem with the Tom and Ann subplot in this season of Parks & Recreation is that it’s forcing viewers to confront the unpleasant fact that if they actually knew Tom Haverford in real life, they would hate him so, so, so much.
I actually couldn’t disagree with this more. (Surprise!) Tom’s into hip-hop, being silly, giving away iPads, looking out for friends,...
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This Talking Is Only Bravado: In a Lifehacker poll... →
In a Lifehacker poll from March 2011, nearly a third of respondents said they owned at least five computers, an especially astounding figure if you consider that smartphones didn’t count in the poll. Only 8 percent of respondents owned just one computer. To be fair, Lifehacker readers aren’t your average American—it’s a site dedicated to improving your life through technology, and...
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Because it's broken
emilybooks:
by Sady Doyle
It’s easy to read the buddhist as a feminist text. It’s also easy to read it as a book about dissolving the boundaries between high and low art, or a performance piece about obsession, or a book about the abuse of spiritual authority. It’s even possible to read it as simply a book about abuse and its aftermath. Bellamy explicitly acknowledges that her subject — an...
Eggs Fashioned From Stem Cells, Maybe
No one tell the Republicans. If this turns out to be true, murderers may soon face the same stigma as abortioners.
NYT:
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital say they have extracted stem cells from human ovaries and made them generate egg cells. The advance, if confirmed, might provide a new source of eggs for treating infertility, though scientists say it is far too early to tell if...
WatchParis Hilton’s “Drunk Text” is the song of the year as far as I’m concerned. It is the weirdest, worst, best, most technologically advanced song I have ever heard. It’s like futuristic robot anthropologists (think about that) tried to document the year 2007, but they did it from the vantage of 2020. This music is the equivalent of the bald-headed/mono-hued jumpsuit...
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“Lately, that concept of putting a price on convenience has been adapted as a way...”
– A story from the New York Times about paying for access to the carpool lane. So this is basically the result that Net Neutrality types were horrified about, thought it would be Ragnorak. Seems like it’s… innocuous in, like, real life so far. I mean, the roads are still more important...
New York City Cops Keep Being New York City Cops
NYT:
Four New York City police detectives have been placed on desk duty and stripped of their guns and badges amid claims that they drank alcohol at a Washington Heights restaurant while on duty last week, according to a law enforcement official and the detectives’ lawyer.
In addition, the official said that one of the detectives was being investigated by the police Internal Affairs...
Two In The Bush
Wonkblog:
In 2000, George W. Bush ran for president saying “I don’t think they ought to be balancing their budget on the backs of the poor.” In 2012, amidst a much worse economy, Romney is running for president saying exactly the opposite.
Jeb Bush:
I used to be a conservative and I watch these debates and I’m wondering, I don’t think I’ve changed, but it’s a...
“People are bored. They’re dead! Go to a shopping mall and check out the...”
– I can’t remember where I heard this, but it seems like The Keep is considered to be ‘lesser’ Jennifer Egan. I could not disagree more! Though I did read this in one night, one sitting, I thought it was a tightly plotted, thematically, well, tight novel. This thing was written and...
gillianmae:
Housekeeping: We have a reader survey up for Capital New York. Please take it if you check out the site!
I like/contribute to this site, so I have a vested interest, maybe (do I?) in you taking this survey. I have no idea.
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I was really thrilled to see this →
andrewmcclain:
Scrolling through today’s new reviews on Pitchfork and saw that the wonderful B Michael Payne has a great review up on Dustin Wong’s new album and was totally thrilled for him.
This is so nice of you to link to. Yes, I have now contributed a review to the website that has been the most influential website on my life, and well it’s very cool. But that’s boring to...
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theblueprint replied to your post: Opponents of Opponents are My Allies: BitTorrent Edition they say the lotto is a “tax on the stupid”. i’d argue playing by media producers’ rules is precisely the same.
I almost agree with you. I mean, I don’t agree with you because, as much as I used to like shoplifting when I was a teenager, I do think stealing things is wrong now, ten years later.
...
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Opponents of Opponents are My Allies: BitTorrent...
Regarding a certain web comic with a history of being the worst, Andy Ihnatko:
Here’s my conversation with a hypothetical person who wants to check out “Game Of Thrones.” Not with Matthew Inman, author of The Oatmeal, I hasten to say. Just a conglomeration of the species of torrenters as a whole.
You want to see what the hubbub around “Game Of Thrones” is about? Cool. The show is produced...
“Men, or at least male biologists, have long been alarmed that their tiny Y...”
– Lol at NYT calling X chromosome “buxom”
“If I can indulge myself for just a moment, I’m feeling a little postmodern...”
– Grantland or Thought Catalog?
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Watchmuumuuhouse:
audience re Muumuu House reading at St. Mark’s Bookshop (20 Feb 2012)
yep
“What if Victor Cruz’s accomplishments cut against the stereotypical grain....”
– Eddie Huang is always entertaining to read, and his take on Linsanity is, essentially, great
A Tao Lin-curated reading at St. Mark's →
“I’ll blow a panda if it asked me to in a small human voice.”
“Should have gotten an MFA in waiting for my dealer.”
“Blowing Rick Ross on mushrooms would be intense.”
Twitter and rappers were popular subjects.
Oh this was fun. It involves Marie Calloway, Tao Lin, Cole, and, like, everyone on the Internet.
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shorterexcerpts replied to your post: Sleigh Bells Is Lana Del Rey But Good Well that, and they only played SNL after the 2nd album came out, well after they proved they could be a great live act. Which isn’t exactly a minor difference.
I saw them play the Studio at Webster Hall, for an MTV broadcast — this was before Treats or right around the time of its release — and it was easily the...
Sleigh Bells Is Lana Del Rey But Good
Spin:
The duo’s career path had been a smooth sprint, even by today’s standards, from forming (July 2008) to posting (demos on MySpace in January 2009) to playing (buzzy CMJ shows in October 2009) to signing (with M.I.A.’s N.E.E.T. label in April 2010) and selling (147,000 copies of their debut, Treats, released in conjunction with N.E.E.T. and Mom + Pop).
[…]
...
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“The part of this I take issue with is the part about complaining about...”
– katherine st asaph: Back to Bedbugs
I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed by Katherine St. Asaph, but I just wanted to make a correction: I’m reasonably sure “trollgaze” was created by Matt-T as much as a meme can be said to have been made by someone.
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It's Hard Being A Publicly Principled Person For...
From Kalefa Sanneh’s Profile of Ron Paul in the latest New Yorker:
In the summer of 1981, Paul introduced a simple bill, with no co-sponsors: “A resolution that United States District Court Judge William Wayne Justice is impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors.” Justice had issued a series of rulings in the nineteen-seventies and eighties that led to the desegregation of Texas...
“Forced to duck beer cans, fireworks and smoke bombs at places like Death By...”
– Chris Weingarten, writing last summer in the VV, apropos of Nitsuh Abebe’s latest “Why We Fight”.
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The Lil B Effect
If you listen to enough of Lil B’s music — alternately, if you listen to any Lil B’s music enough — just about any brand of music starts to sound fine to you.
I don’t know if this is a salutary effect, or its opposite.
“Silicon Valley, where engineers in khakis write software code, might not at...”
– Blogger Uses Rap to Teach Pithy Business Lessons
Speaking of ledes, this is the worst one I’ve read in some time.
(via seanfennessey)
The NYT is shamefully aware of its audience.
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“It does seem impossible to make something work if you go into with a defined...”
– Chuck Klosterman is insane.
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Popcorn Noises: Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror →
popcornnoises:
Those early Sleigh Bells demos like “Crown on the Ground” and “Infinity Guitars” weren’t just lo-fi because Miller couldn’t afford professional studio gear. They were sonic petit fours, ideological representations of some of the loudest music ever made. Even notoriously loud bands like My Bloody Valentine made recordings that balanced the rush of distorted guitars with softened,...
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This is part of my stance on the Chris... →
katherinestasaph:
My stance is generally “ugh,” but here’s the fuller version. Summary: there are a few astoundingly obvious things people are ignoring.
Sorry, but this is the best thing about Rihanna. Because she’s a musician, so maybe the music has something to do with it? Or have we abandoned talking about actual things, and instead are we only talking about ourselves, our own wind...