Thursday, September 27, 2007
Why the Good Lord Make Bike Lanes
As someone who gets nervous even when I have to drive past slow-moving bicyclists on wide roads with good-sized shoulders, watching this video filled me with a combination of grudging admiration and sheer abject terror. I'm sure the world would be a better place if more people rode bikes rather than driving everywhere, but come on . . . these guys are just assholes.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Yep, I'm Still a Week Behind
Judging from recent stories about Pitchfork, American Apparel, and Wes Anderson*, I'd say that the Onion is now devoting itself full-time to the tearing down of hipster darlings.
In loosely related Pitchfork-bashing news, this headline at Gawker (via Pandagon) says it all: Pitchfork Has Way More Reviews Written By Guys Named Mark Than By Ladies With Any Name. Maybe that's what drove one female writer to throw around terms like "tampon rock": the only way to get noticed is to draw accusations of misogyny.
*Personally, I like the fact that Wes Anderson flicks are so formulaic. I got into them waiting to see the shot of people diving into a pool, the slow pan over all of the cast members near the end, the slow motion part right before the credits, and the cameos from their usual stable of players.
In loosely related Pitchfork-bashing news, this headline at Gawker (via Pandagon) says it all: Pitchfork Has Way More Reviews Written By Guys Named Mark Than By Ladies With Any Name. Maybe that's what drove one female writer to throw around terms like "tampon rock": the only way to get noticed is to draw accusations of misogyny.
*Personally, I like the fact that Wes Anderson flicks are so formulaic. I got into them waiting to see the shot of people diving into a pool, the slow pan over all of the cast members near the end, the slow motion part right before the credits, and the cameos from their usual stable of players.
"Anyone who requests this drink should also get a T-shirt that says 'I am an asshole, please take my money.'"
Anthony Bourdain is pretty much awesome, even if I don't know what he's talking about most of the time.
I'm so glad I'm not a molecular gastronomist right now.
I'm so glad I'm not a molecular gastronomist right now.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Comments On Week-Old A.V. Club Pieces, Part II
The idea behind "Random Roles" (actors comment on various projects, big and small, in which they appeared) is a little disappointing in execution; most actors seem far too reluctant to admit that they've done some really crappy movies and TV shows. Another problem: with features on Steve Zahn, Jeff Garlin, and Kevin Nealon, I'm starting to think that the writers at the A.V. Club are actually compiling a massive archive on the making of Daddy Day Care.
I must say, though, that Kevin Nealon's description of a movie musical based on his and Dana Carvey's "Hans & Franz" sketches sounds surprisingly watchable, due largely to the involvement of Conan O'Brien and Robert Smigel. And also that it would be a musical.
I must say, though, that Kevin Nealon's description of a movie musical based on his and Dana Carvey's "Hans & Franz" sketches sounds surprisingly watchable, due largely to the involvement of Conan O'Brien and Robert Smigel. And also that it would be a musical.
Well, This is Reassuring
It seems with all the commotion over shoe bombs and liquids and suspicious T-shirts, the TSA has cut back on checking for box cutters.
Monday, September 24, 2007
I Was There: An Oral History of 1997
I have once again fallen hopelessly behind in my RSS reading, so I'm only now delving into this AV Club list of the landmark albums of 1997. While I appreciate any attempt to deflate the current wave of boomer self-congratulation, I must voice one objection to this look back: it makes me feel really old. On the bright side, though, now I think I'm old enough to gather the young 'uns around my rocking chair to hear my stories of the way music was when I was their age. So join me as I look back on my personal memories of the Onion's picks:
1. Radiohead, OK Computer - I loved "Creep" but didn't much care for The Bends, so it would seem that my interest in Radiohead would have been nipped in the bud. "Paranoid Android" was such a shock to my senses, though, that I instantly became a fan of the band. While I didn't technically listen to the whole album until I was in college, I had prematurely decided that it would be one of my favorites. Turns out I was right!
2. Modest Mouse, The Lonesome Crowded West - Who? I may have been faintly aware of the existence of a band called Modest Mouse prior to the unexpected success of "Float On," but certainly not this far back. No music geek points for me.
3. Sleater-Kinney, Dig Me Out - Back in the day, my only real outlet for music criticism was the record review section of the Philadelphia Inquirer. That's where I first heard of Sleater-Kinney, when I read a rave review of Call the Doctor. Dig Me Out got four stars, and I thought to myself, I should probably check these gals out. Nine years later, Sleater-Kinney was going on hiatus, I still didn't own this CD, and I desperately snatched up a ticket to one of their final shows to assuage my guilt at sleeping on them for so long. It was a great show, but I still haven't bought this album for some reason.
4. Elliott Smith, Either/Or - As far as I was concerned, Elliott Smith was the guy who sang that song from Good Will Hunting. I rooted for him to win the Oscar because I was at least sophisticated enough to know that he was a lot better than Celine Dion.
5. Yo La Tengo, I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One - Take the anecdote behind Dig Me Out, only replace references to Sleater-Kinney with Yo La Tengo. Yo La Tengo are still together of course, and I did acquire this album last year. Sometimes I wonder how my life would be different if I had actually gotten into all of the hip bands of which I was vaguely aware at the time. Probably nothing would be different except for an annoying habit of trying to work Yo La Tengo into as many conversations as possible.
6. Spiritualized, Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space - Didn't these guys have a song in a Volkswagen commercial? Cool album title, though.
7. Company Flow, Funcrusher Plus - El-P was in Company Flow, right? I own I'll Sleep When You're Dead but I fear it might be another ten years before I have really gotten into that album.
8. Björk, Homogenic - You know, I can't really remember when I became aware of the existence of Bjork, but I'm fairly sure that I would have hated her at that point of my life.
9. Belle And Sebastian, The EPs - I really, really wish I'd been into Belle and Sebastian when I was 15; it's hard to think of another band that can appeal equally to gawky adolescents and sophisticated rock snobs.
10. Notorious B.I.G., Life After Death / Wu-Tang Clan, Wu-Tang Forever - I was just getting out of my "Rap's not music! They don't play instruments!" phase, but wasn't far enough along that I was, you know, listening to the stuff.
11. Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, Supa Dupa Fly - I didn't get it. Was she wearing a garbage bag in that video? Somewhere between "Get Ur Freak On" and "Work It," I finally realized how awesome Missy was.
12. Erykah Badu, Baduizm - Now this, I liked, at least as far as the one song I knew. If I'd only bought the CD, I could have probably gotten into the Roots a good four or five years early.
13. Mogwai, Young Team - I'm still not quite sure what "post-rock" is. Do you think my adolescent self could have figured it out?
14. Daft Punk, Homework - Boy oh boy, I would have hated Daft Punk, not being able to see the difference between their house music and the generic dance-pop I was forced to listen to at school dances. The duo didn't show up on my radar until 2001, when "One More Time" was all over MTV2. Based on the video, I just assumed they were Japanese.
15. Helium, The Magic City - Oh, sure, these guys! Um...did they have an album called No Guitars or something? (Yes they did.) I think I read a review of that once.
16. The Promise Ring, Nothing Feels Good - OK, I've seriously never heard of this band. This is getting quite embarrassing.
17. Bob Dylan, Time Out Of Mind - Finally! An album I actually owned in the year 1997! (OK, it was early 1998. Close enough) I bought this with the prize money I won in a writing contest (the featured speaker that day, incidentally was the editor of a now-defunct music magazine, my first glimpse of a real-life record snob.) It was the first Dylan album I owned and, in retrospect, not the best place to begin one's appreciation of Mr. Zimmerman. Still, it did the trick, even if it took me a few more years to fully catch up with his career.
18. Other essential 1997 listening: Oh, who cares at this point? It turns out I shouldn't be depressed that it's been 10 years since these albums were released; I should be depressed that my musical taste ten years ago was so lame, and I still haven't finished my remedial listening.
I can only hope that this won't become a recurring feature. If so, I guess I have a year to prepare myself for the shame of knowing that when In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star were in stores, I was busy talking up Rebekah to anyone who would listen.
1. Radiohead, OK Computer - I loved "Creep" but didn't much care for The Bends, so it would seem that my interest in Radiohead would have been nipped in the bud. "Paranoid Android" was such a shock to my senses, though, that I instantly became a fan of the band. While I didn't technically listen to the whole album until I was in college, I had prematurely decided that it would be one of my favorites. Turns out I was right!
2. Modest Mouse, The Lonesome Crowded West - Who? I may have been faintly aware of the existence of a band called Modest Mouse prior to the unexpected success of "Float On," but certainly not this far back. No music geek points for me.
3. Sleater-Kinney, Dig Me Out - Back in the day, my only real outlet for music criticism was the record review section of the Philadelphia Inquirer. That's where I first heard of Sleater-Kinney, when I read a rave review of Call the Doctor. Dig Me Out got four stars, and I thought to myself, I should probably check these gals out. Nine years later, Sleater-Kinney was going on hiatus, I still didn't own this CD, and I desperately snatched up a ticket to one of their final shows to assuage my guilt at sleeping on them for so long. It was a great show, but I still haven't bought this album for some reason.
4. Elliott Smith, Either/Or - As far as I was concerned, Elliott Smith was the guy who sang that song from Good Will Hunting. I rooted for him to win the Oscar because I was at least sophisticated enough to know that he was a lot better than Celine Dion.
5. Yo La Tengo, I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One - Take the anecdote behind Dig Me Out, only replace references to Sleater-Kinney with Yo La Tengo. Yo La Tengo are still together of course, and I did acquire this album last year. Sometimes I wonder how my life would be different if I had actually gotten into all of the hip bands of which I was vaguely aware at the time. Probably nothing would be different except for an annoying habit of trying to work Yo La Tengo into as many conversations as possible.
6. Spiritualized, Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space - Didn't these guys have a song in a Volkswagen commercial? Cool album title, though.
7. Company Flow, Funcrusher Plus - El-P was in Company Flow, right? I own I'll Sleep When You're Dead but I fear it might be another ten years before I have really gotten into that album.
8. Björk, Homogenic - You know, I can't really remember when I became aware of the existence of Bjork, but I'm fairly sure that I would have hated her at that point of my life.
9. Belle And Sebastian, The EPs - I really, really wish I'd been into Belle and Sebastian when I was 15; it's hard to think of another band that can appeal equally to gawky adolescents and sophisticated rock snobs.
10. Notorious B.I.G., Life After Death / Wu-Tang Clan, Wu-Tang Forever - I was just getting out of my "Rap's not music! They don't play instruments!" phase, but wasn't far enough along that I was, you know, listening to the stuff.
11. Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, Supa Dupa Fly - I didn't get it. Was she wearing a garbage bag in that video? Somewhere between "Get Ur Freak On" and "Work It," I finally realized how awesome Missy was.
12. Erykah Badu, Baduizm - Now this, I liked, at least as far as the one song I knew. If I'd only bought the CD, I could have probably gotten into the Roots a good four or five years early.
13. Mogwai, Young Team - I'm still not quite sure what "post-rock" is. Do you think my adolescent self could have figured it out?
14. Daft Punk, Homework - Boy oh boy, I would have hated Daft Punk, not being able to see the difference between their house music and the generic dance-pop I was forced to listen to at school dances. The duo didn't show up on my radar until 2001, when "One More Time" was all over MTV2. Based on the video, I just assumed they were Japanese.
15. Helium, The Magic City - Oh, sure, these guys! Um...did they have an album called No Guitars or something? (Yes they did.) I think I read a review of that once.
16. The Promise Ring, Nothing Feels Good - OK, I've seriously never heard of this band. This is getting quite embarrassing.
17. Bob Dylan, Time Out Of Mind - Finally! An album I actually owned in the year 1997! (OK, it was early 1998. Close enough) I bought this with the prize money I won in a writing contest (the featured speaker that day, incidentally was the editor of a now-defunct music magazine, my first glimpse of a real-life record snob.) It was the first Dylan album I owned and, in retrospect, not the best place to begin one's appreciation of Mr. Zimmerman. Still, it did the trick, even if it took me a few more years to fully catch up with his career.
18. Other essential 1997 listening: Oh, who cares at this point? It turns out I shouldn't be depressed that it's been 10 years since these albums were released; I should be depressed that my musical taste ten years ago was so lame, and I still haven't finished my remedial listening.
I can only hope that this won't become a recurring feature. If so, I guess I have a year to prepare myself for the shame of knowing that when In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star were in stores, I was busy talking up Rebekah to anyone who would listen.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Weekend You-Tubery: Equinox Edition
Bob Dylan - Summer Days
Van Morrison - When the Leaves Come Falling Down
Yo La Tengo - Autumn Sweater
Van Morrison - When the Leaves Come Falling Down
Yo La Tengo - Autumn Sweater
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