For Merriweather Post Pavillion, a decent record by a band that’s always been given a free pass by the blogosphere (Animal Collective). Reading the accolades is hilarious. Here’s the winner:
What’s more important is that Merriweather Post Pavilion is not just one of the finest things you’re going to hear in 2009 but that it should sit well next to albums like Kid A on lists of the best music made in our time.
I’ll be curious to see if the authors are willing to own that statement in 2 years time.
James Warren discusses the role of print journalism in a democratic society, and the inherent trust between the newspaper as an institution and its audience:
Journalism at its best succeeded because of an accumulation of trust on the public’s part over the past 60 or 70 years–a general sense, now sadly on a southerly trajectory, that the final product merited both inspection and confidence. There was value in a reporter gaining true expertise in a given area, winning the trust of individuals, and ultimately using that expertise and trust to cover and break stories of relevance to a community.
If one wanted to make a list sure to anger, shock, and alienate hardcore music fans, this has to be it. What makes this list significant is the extent to which the author defends his picks in historical, artistic, and personal terms. Very impressive. (via kottke)
UPDATE: The more I delve into this list, I find myself trusting the author more and more on some picks that I would wholeheartedly disagree with under other circumstances. [Sidenote: I could never write an homage to The Beatles (as much as I'd like to) as good as the one here. Mad props.]
The somber, elegiac tones before President Obama’s oath of office at the inauguration on Tuesday came from the instruments of Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and two colleagues. But what the millions on the Mall and watching on television heard was in fact a recording, made two days earlier by the quartet and matched tone for tone by the musicians playing along.
I wondered about this on Tuesday. The audio was just a little too good for that environment and miking setup. And as the article points out, keeping the instruments in tune would have been difficult.
Watch the Objectified trailer, a documentary film on industrial design by director Gary Hustwit, creator of Helvetica. The new film features interviews with Jonathon Ive (Apple) and several peeps from IDEO, etc., discussing product design and the relationships forged between designer and consumer. Film premieres at SxSW 2k9.
At Sundance this month, Derrick Comedy will debut Mystery Team. The comedy centers around 3 clueless teenagers who are looking to re-establish their reputations as sleuths, trying to solve a murder mystery. The trailer reminds me of a mashup between The Pink Panther (with Peter Sellers) and Bottle Rocket.
It took no time at all for certain media outlets to declare ‘We have no President’ after Chief Justice Roberts accidentally re-arranged the wording of the Presidential oath during yesterday’s inauguration. The San Francisco Chronicle writes that President Obama should re-take the oath in private, and that there is historical precedent for doing so:
But because the procedure is so explicitly prescribed in the Constitution, Beermann said if he were Obama’s lawyer, he would recommend retaking it, just as two previous presidents, Calvin Coolidge and Chester Arthur, did under similar circumstances.
I agree with the Chronicle. This is exactly the sort of slip that would drive the anti-Bush movement into a flurry of web rage.
Daniel Gross has a story in Newsweek about the outgoing President’s slim options to “replenish the ol’ coffers”:
Several publishers I spoke to believe a Bush memoir wouldn’t command much in the way of foreign-rights payments. And given Bush’s professed lack of interest in reflection, what could he offer to American audiences? “Right now, his presidency is seen as such a cascade of mistakes that it’s hard to know what he could say that would be compelling,” says Geoff Shandler, executive editor at Little, Brown. Bush’s best option may be to cut a deal with a Christian publisher like Thomas Nelson, which pays smaller advances than the New York houses.
A hilarious web pilot, written and directed by John August, centering around 5 characters in a post-apocalyptic world. One of the characters is played by Justine Bateman. It’s quite unfortunate that this series never took off.
“People have tried for centuries to use drama to change people’s lives, to influence, to comment, to express themselves. It doesn’t work. It might be nice if it worked for those things, but it doesn’t. The only thing the dramatic form is good for is telling a story.”
The Lord of the Rings is fundamentally an infantile work. Tolkien is not interested in the way grownup, adult human beings interact with each other. He’s interested in maps and plans and languages and codes.
Having recently completed the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, I was struck time and time again (in fact, beaten over the head) by the massive chip on Pullman’s shoulder. The books themselves are entertaining enough, but ultimately, I finished the 900+ page trilogy disappointed and a bit let down.
Here’s the gist of the story: Pullman hates God, or at least organized religion, painting the Catholic Church - the Magisterium in his world - as an institution whose sole aim is to smother out all human desire. The notion is at times reasonable, but Pullman’s relentless criticism takes no prisoners, willingly sacrificing story, plot, and character development to make the argument ad nauseum inside a Tolkien-lite fantasy/polemic.
What’s left is local news, investigative journalism and intelligent coverage of national news. Perhaps 2% of the cost of a typical paper. I worry about the quality of a democracy when the the state government or the local government can do what it wants without intelligent coverage. I worry about the abuse of power when the only thing a corrupt official needs to worry about is the TV news. I worry about the quality of legislation when there isn’t a passionate, unbiased reporter there to explain it to us.
But then I see the in depth stories about the gowns to be worn to the inauguration or the selection of the White House dog and I wonder if newspapers are the most efficient way to do this anyway.
Point taken, but among other things, I’ll miss accountability. There are very few news sites that I trust outside of the traditional lexicon. And a lot of network coverage still takes its cues from newspaper reporting (and isn’t always the most reliable source of information, I should add).
Beyond a few token acts of bipartisan marketing, Barry’s major duty in the Senate was to avoid legislating, so he could pretend Washington-outsider status and nullify attacks on his non-existent policy positions. That’s the thing about Obama and his candidacy: He was a blank slate, the pinnacle of vapid public relations—onto which the benighted masses may project their sincerest, yet unfounded, hopes in the wake of the worst administration in history.
A co-worker sent me to the documentary, The Boy with the Incredible Brain, this morning. The film centers around Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant who can perform long calculations in his mind. Tammet can recite pi from memory up to 22,514 digits and learn a language in a week, among other impressive gifts.
I happened to picked up a copy of Daniel’s first book, Born on a Blue Day, over the weekend as well.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of Americans are trying to come to terms with the last 8 years — both the good and bad. Here are a couple I’ve stumbled across today.
My Dinners with Dubya — The frequent, gay dinner guest who accidentally brought weed into the White House on his first visit.