March 2013
1 post
RIP Jason Molina
This is sad, as the passing of beloved musicians always is, but for some reason this one’s hitting me harder than most. I’ve got some broader reflections up at The Daily Banter, which I hope you’ll read, but since a friend who knows more than I do about non-rap music asked me for some entry points to Molina’s catalogue today, I thought I’d also republish here what I...
February 2013
1 post
More Wrong Than Right On Privilege-Checking &...
I’m accustomed to disagreeing with Freddie DeBoer, but I’m unused to seeing him employ lousy logic and self-defeating arguments. So it was surprising to see him do so poorly on the subject of privilege — the subject of some of his best and most personal writing — in a post about the debate over jokes and offense-taking that followed the Oscars:
People of the world, I implore you: what...
December 2012
1 post
A Way To Be Productive In Discussing Gun Violence,...
A bunch of kids were murdered today at an elementary school in Newtown, CT. Most reports put the number of fatalities at 27, 18 of them children. The tragedy is inspiring familiar responses. Some insist that it is disrespectful and wrong to discuss gun policies and culture in the immediate wake of a tragedy, without inviting that discussion in the future. Others insist that it is this confirms it...
November 2012
8 posts
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Roky Erickson Show Writeup [BYT]
I’m really glad I watched the Roky Erickson documentary again the day of the show. It helped erase all expectations, which I think would’ve screwed up my ability to enjoy the man’s pure existence, which is such a triumph given where his life went. From my writeup:
You can still hear the raw material of about a dozen sub-genres of rock in Erickson’s vocals. The lilting top end...
“[Severine] gives no sign of being sexually interested in Bond, merely of being...”
– http://reciperifle.blogspot.sg/2012/11/bond-villain.html
That’s Giles Coren, arguing too much from the vile moment in Skyfall where Bond climbs silently into the shower with a woman he’s correctly identified as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and trafficking. I say “too...
7 tags
Crazy People Make Great Music, Sometimes Get...
I’m watching You’re Gonna Miss Me this afternoon, the documentary about 13th Floor Elevators frontman Roky Erickson, who is playing in DC tonight. It’s a wild story of drugs and psychological disorder and misdiagnosis and institutionalization and law enforcement example-making. I never picked up the album he did with Okkervil River, titled “True Love Cast Out All...
6 tags
On Barbara Kingsolver, Perspective, And Being...
I’m listening to Barbara Kingsolver talking about her new book “Flight Behavior” on Science Friday. She’s saying really smart things about how climate science fails to persuade even those most directly impacted by climate change. The book takes place in southern Appalachia, and revolves around an unusual demonstration of climate change, and how it’s received by...
Mission Statement
When writing about pop culture, I try to abide by Craig Ferguson’s rules of thumb: “Does this need to be said? And does this need to be said by me?” I’ll be posting a mixture of things here— mostly excerpts from and links to my full reviews at Brightest Young Things and, on occasion, other places. There will also be shorter postlets when I have thoughts too small for...
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"Skyfall" Review [BYT]
My review of the new Bond is up at BYT. Maybe you saw that Roger Moore called it the best Bond ever? He’s probably right about that. It’s brilliant. From my piece:
When Daniel Craig’s Bond traded the camp and gadgetry that marked the first four decades of Bond films for realism and rough edges in Casino Royale, plenty of devotees felt betrayed. But by recognizing that the...
6 tags
On Rap And Politics And Lazy Journalists...
Alyssa Rosenberg was kind enough to let me join the guest-blogging crew while she R&R’d a couple months back, and serendipitously enough that meant I got to write about one of the dumber moments of the 2012 campaign, in media terms. Nicki Minaj cracked a joke about voting Romney in a verse on Li’l Wayne’s mixtape The Dedication 4, and a bunch of facile click-chasing stuff got...
December 2011
1 post
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The Roots "undun" Review [The Grio/Rap Genius]
From my review on behalf of Rap Genius, up at TheGrio:
On the standout track “One Time,” Phonte refers to “the street’s Hammurabi code,” both a play on a common slang for guns (“hammers”) and a literate linkage of the draconian code of the street back to one of the oldest written legal codes.
Phonte’s talking directly about the same unwritten code that Black Thought evoked two tracks earlier...
