Not sure how I feel about this pt 2.

But wait! Since yesterday, I think I figured it out. At first, I thought author-I've-never-heard-of (which of course doesn't mean anything but you'd understand if you saw the hilarious preening that goes on in her piece) Susan Hill was also saying something about affirmative action (which she is not, it turns out.) I have a slightly mixed but mostly negative & suspicious view of affirmative action, which is unarguably a racist enterprise. It can go very, very wrong, but I also think it ignores the real problem-- more effort needs to be put into education at the start: let's say elementary school-- that is how to put people on an equal footing. Letting minorities into college for fun(ding) doesn't, nor does it mean it will improve things from the top down-- there are now enough examples of the disadvantaged going to college and succeeding, the time for affirmative action has passed. It is trickle down. It's time to start the hard work and reform the early portions of education, or even start with high school-- the really hard one. Also, to expect a minority to "go back" and help "their people" is a very odd impression and demand that borders on tribalism, projected & enacted. It also ignores poor whites as what, I think, will-- if it is not already-- become a group suffering under the same prejudices as racial groups are saddled with.

But Susan Hill is talking about something else. Continue reading!Herself. Susan Hill was asked to participate in-- and I haven't been able to find really good info on exactly what-- but it sounds like a public exhibit that includes published authors and non-published ("amateurs") writers. From what I have gathered their pieces are posted (on a wall?) anonymously. This has been done before. Susan Hill took great offense to this and wrote a piece in her column in the Spectator entitled "No, amateurs are not 'Just as good as. . .'"

The reason for my confusion on how I felt about what she was specifically saying was because she does not in the end provide any kind of real argument. She splits time between criticizing the practice of including writers only because they are from the margins of society-- though I can't imagine there wasn't a screening process for quality if a large group of marginal-types applied-- and between hysterically defending her position as a published author, which has nothing to do with choosing people of a certain background-- what she actually has a problem with is being presented anonymously, though she avoids directly saying this.

Hill understands publication to mean you are automatically good and uses herself as an example: "If someone writes a marvellous short story I don`t care where they come from – the sewer, the street, prison, a palace, a university…if the story is as good as one William Trevor can write, say, or Helen Simpson - or me - then good, let them go up there." In the first part of the sentence, she is making a straightforward argument for good quality as the supreme qualifier. But then. . . William Trevor, yeah, but he's the greatest short story writer of our time. I don't care how good Susan Hill actually is, but it's quite clear now how good she thinks she is.

I agree with this sentiment if you isolate it:

I can neither draw nor paint. I have zero – no, sub-zero – graphic talent. So, if I get some crayons and a bit of paper and have a go, should that have equal right to go up there next to David Hockney? Well, I mean, why not ? It’s part of the democratisation of crayon on paper isn`t it? No. It is not. You might just as well say the ‘democratisation of sound’ means I have a right to pick up a violin and join the Halle orchestra.

That is not the same as amateurs, though. An amateur is "one who engages in a pursuit, study, science, or sport as a pastime rather than as a profession" and the word comes from a Latin root that means "to love." An amateur has an enthusiasm for something rather than a profession. Usually it would imply no formal training either, or at least nowadays it does (definition 3.) Of course this gets us into bad territory-- painters who can't paint, avant-garde improv music bullshit. But even punk rock needed real instrumentalists-- Sid isn't on the Pistols' album. So I don't want to talk about how many problems I have with recent philosophies behind "art" (or "post-art"), as I'm not qualified and then I will start sounding like Susan Hill-- not the ego, I know I can't paint, but the incoherence. The point is, Susan Hill's examples (violin) describe lack of skill and training. There is no evidence that the people who will be submitting have never written before or have no idea how to spell.

She has already decided that anybody who doesn't have a bibliography behind their name is automatically terrible. I'd say, yes, some of the time that is true, but it's also true of some of those who have been published, Stephanie Meyer-- who is actually terrible, I know now because I tried reading a few pages of the sparkly vampire books in a bathroom in PA.

So really, there's nothing confusing about how to object to Susan Hill's piece once you realize that she doesn't really take it anywhere other than patting herself on the back while nervously swatting out against an obscurity that these amateurs have that she fears. Also, this one event was designed around this one concept-- an event that has decided to be selective based on something besides the actual writing (though how do you prove you are disadvantaged, names alone can't show that.) I would be, again, surprised if after this first "who is disadvantaged" filter the event doesn't then get down to looking at the actual pieces.

It's interesting that one event is enough to get Hill stocking up on shotgun shells & Spam and boarding up her windows. She sounds reactionary & scared, worried that, yes, the cream will still come to the top but when they put the names back on the pieces it will turn out some unknown wog (or anyone else) will be that cream and she'll be left with nobody to join her in patting herself on the back.

i loved this. you will too. or else.

Read "Eric" (12 panel comic-- worth the three minutes it takes!) by Shaun Tan from Tales from Outer Suburbia

harrison ford. you are wrong.

Says he--

I think it would be interesting to deepen the relationship between he and his son [Mutt, played by Shia LaBeouf] and play on that relationship. .... It's full of opportunity.

Nooo. No, it would not be interesting. Nobody wants (wanted) to see the relationship between Rebels & Ewoks deepened, or the relationship between Jar Jar Binks & the Jedi deepened-- or the relationship between JJB & Ewoks with the audience deepened. . . unless it involves a lightsaber. Ha-ha. Or maybe a Blastech E-11? Which is where I stop?

So, maybe it is safe to announce that there is no hope. Though I do love what Sean Connery thought of the new movie-- "rather good and rather long." Aww, he's just being nice, and he always knows what to say. Just try to fuck with that man.

But I think in the end, the problem was, really-- all the good that was in Indy IV was not good enough to make up for how failure-y the failures were. Much like that sentence.

room with a view. of a big ugly building. and a pretty sky!

not sure how i feel about this pt 1.

First is Royal Caribbean's decision to dock at Labadee. Yahoo News writes, "[Y]ou'd probably think there's no way that cruising tourists could have returned to frolicking on Haiti's beaches mere miles from where people are trapped beneath the rubble of a decimated city. Unfortunately, you'd be wrong." The cruise line's defense is that it is first of all also delivering aid and that, second, re: the economic stimulus the people they are offloading provide.

I find the latter to be a better defense because the relief they are physically delivering will probably prove to be a relatively minuscule amount when compared to their earnings over the course of these tours as well as in comparison to the amount of money poured into running those boats-- much like the seemingly astronomical donations are probably just specks in the twinkling firmament that is a celebrity's annual income. The Rumpus wonders--as usual making a good point-- if the cruise line is taking a cut from the vendors they claim to be helping. If this is the case, that is reprehensible-- and yet somehow different from the cuts relief organizations are taking, perhaps because a non-profit is more palatable than a purely commercial enterprise. On the other hand, I would doubt, or hope, that a cut is able to be taken if the place looks anything like other tourist destinations, where difficult-to-regulate shadow economies tend to thrive. And unfortunately, sometimes--arguably all the time-- a profit with a cut taken is better than nothing at all.

I guess the thing that makes me the most uncomfortable is the implication that people shouldn't be partying so close to the disaster site. Emotionally and on first reaction, I agree. It is frightening, but I think it is more easily lambasted because it is an immediate display of the wealth and quality of living gulf that you don't often get to see so closely juxtaposed.

What I have trouble with is-- how is it different from partying it up all the way out here in NYC while Haitians are being dragged out from under rubble? I do not think it's hypocrisy to decry the cruise line while doing 5 shots for $10 all day at that place by St Marks. I do think it strange to use proximity as the excuse to only point fingers at what has always been a classic and easy sign of indulgence (the cruise.) I for one was out all day after work on Tuesday drinking. So were a bunch of other people. And one of those Red Cross $10 donations would have put me out for that night of drinking-- I don't have that much money and that one text message would have been a sacrifice, one that I ultimately did not make. As for these relief benefits that promise a good night (or at least 3 hours) for a donation of $5-$10? Sure, 100% proceeds are supposed to go to an aid organization-- no promise how much gets to the people, in light of bureaucracies, basic logistics, corrupt officials, evildoers gone down to Haiti to extort & bribe-- but the reason why these venues & individuals host such events is for the profit they make before & after the event, when you can't stop drinking, can't stop dancing, can't go home or to a candlelight vigil, and for the political capital displays of generosity provide for their enterprise. The extremity of wealth represented by cruises simply makes a good and simplistic poster child for the greed of capitalism, but to hold only the large displays accountable is to not try to make any advancement on the ground.

On the other hand, are we supposed to wear black and beat our chests until Haiti is back on its feet, if it arguably ever was, whether or not we ever gave the place a thought before this happened? (Once. . . I read The Comedians.) No. Mourning should never outlast the grief, which is certainly based on a personal barometer. Should I be enraged, taking an example replicated all over the internet, that the site I plan to link to below has an article about Haiti next to an ad for the Miss America pageant and pictures of rich young things making out at a fancy sponsored event? No, though it is a degree of the same thing as the cruise upset. But I don't know what we're supposed to do, though I think things done in earnestness, while sometimes quite dangerous (to give another Greene example) are often the best examples of what can be done (despite being an old fashioned and somewhat schmaltzy sentiment)-- especially in reaching out to others so that awareness expands at an exponential rate.

This brings us to another point, that donations to Haiti have exceeded donations to other recent disasters, including the tsunami and Katrina. Or maybe discomfort that this is even being reported? I don't know if it's supposed to make people feel good about themselves-- eh. Or if they should feel bad that they didn't step up earlier-- again, not a good reaction. I'd like to believe that it is a result of using technology to an even greater advantage-- especially the texting thing-- and that it is simply this new and fast ability to push forward awareness that has led to such outstanding examples of collective giving. And that its result will be that people will, collectively, see how much they, as individuals, were able to do & then do so the next time something as tragic occurs, using the knowledge that they were able to help what was initially a seemingly insurmountable devastation. On the other hand, people will argue that it is racism, that it is white guilt, anything. And yes, it is hard to argue for selectively geographic compassion when the entire world is suffering, but even more difficult to argue that this means you should shut down & do nothing in the face of the enormity of this task of universal empathy that demands that the net be cast over the entire globe, which is an infinitely huge place. People take up specific causes for a reason to make their comprehension of what is going on more manageable and to make their impression of their own impact more palpable-- this is not a bad thing. I believe such causes should always be taken up in context. Which is again, why I think awareness is key. Easily marketable boutique causes need to be done away with until every cause is a "boutique"/grassroots/micro-cause because it is able to use details to appeal to the basis of human suffering, and that is why people should be readily & succintly given facts and streamlined options of aid constantly via the media of all that is going on, not just when a something massive & terrible happens. I think this is happening to a degree already, but I think the response to Haiti is an example of how it can be improved and, hopefully, how to keep a cause from fading. (Naturally, not all causes are easily boiled down to a root, and that is not what I am arguing for-- rather, a wide range of facts should be made available in an act that symbolizes trust in the people being solicited, as well as in their own cause. This is oversimplifying it, still, though, and I'm not equipped to go into this part of the argument.)

And so in the interest of education but not simplifying, the next step is to make people aware that rescue is not the only critical stage in a response, but rebuilding.

"Here was the worst place hit, so maybe it'll be the first to recover," reasons Jonas, standing next to the crushed factory. . . Although Jonas mourns his sister — as well as the loss of his brother and mother, who died when the family's home collapsed — he says it's time to move on. "I need to find a job so I can help what's left of my family. They are depending on me" [TIME.]

at least it's not being used for any sort of. . . social commentary.

it just keeps on going & going.

Since I don't have anything smart to say about it because I'm somewhat shocked & most of all disgusted, hopefully this will be the last that we hear of these types. But I want to go on record that I've never liked Westwood's stuff anyway. So there.

roundup.

• This kid should be grounded and beaten.
  

• Tony Judt's essay "Night" in the latest NYRB issue is worth reading (available online)-- not only because he addresses an intensely personal subject that could have easily turned into a spectacle, but because it is so beautifully written. His lecture on Social Democracy is also v. interesting.

• Drunky Hogwarts kids! Eh. Not that big of a problem.

• LATimes goes behind the scenes at Wikipedia.

• Propaganda posters striking because they were recently made & because of what we know followed them.

• The Splendid Fairywren is my new favorite bird. Cos it's pretty. And hilarious. I want a dozen of them in white wicker and/or copper cages hung around my room like some batty Tennessee Williams character.
  
  
• And this is my new favorite photo: a light-up froggie!

• And, finally, if you have a second-- it literally takes a second-- go show Jim your support in the 2010 Scotblog Awards. Jim has an excellent music blog dedicated to bringing attention to a lot of bands you've never heard of but should hear, and he is an awesome fellow.

gee.

Some of these books have been written by authors who held very lucrative positions and had the resources to help them through their financial downfalls. Some booksellers wonder if the average reader will be able to empathize with them.

Indeed, early in Ms. Browning’s memoir, she contemplates a trip to Brooks Brothers to buy a pair of pajamas for better lounging. And in “The Bag Lady Papers,” Ms. Penney writes of having to sell two of her three homes and describes how a friend takes her to the Four Seasons Grill Room for lunch to commiserate.

“I don’t know that a lot of people are going to be relating to a Dominique Browning or an Alexandra Penney,” said Karen Corvello, adult buyer for R. J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Conn. “A segment would, but not that broad a segment.”

--New York Times Book article on rash of I-lost-my-sweet-job-&-third-house books that are coming out & will no doubt sell very well despite that slim segment, and ignoring for a sec how irritating this opulence sounds, I can't imagine these books would be all that interesting, as I don't usually go for this type of reading.

Later the article notes--

Loss is loss, said Ellen Archer, publisher of Hyperion, the unit of Disney that is releasing “The Bag Lady Papers.” Even a person who has a lot of money to begin with suffers when it is gone, and goes through a lifestyle re-evaluation.

“It makes you think, ‘What if that happened to me? What really is important to me?’ ” Ms. Archer said. “I think it’s a very relatable question.”

But keep in mind that there is a lot more fat available to trim before you hit nasty old bone when these described individuals are forced to ask these questions. . . which I guess makes for a longer book. In the end, I'm not sure what to think, at all, (huh? angry? dismissive? envious?-- because really, they didn't lose their jobs if they were able to secure a book deal and find themselves-- that's a job) and it will be interesting to read the reviews when they are made available.

this sounds awesome.

June 1962. The Crescendo Club on Hollywood's Sunset Strip. Ella Fitzgerald and her quartet have settled in for a two-week run in her adopted hometown. In the middle of a set, she starts singing "Too Darn Hot," which had been a highlight of her 1956 album, "The Cole Porter Songbook." But a few notes into the song, Fitzgerald is interrupted by the sound of kids dancing the twist in another joint upstairs. She decides to go with the flow: Drummer Gus Johnson and pianist Lou Levy start pounding out a boogie-shuffle beat, and the singer improvises lyrics about how hard it is to sing Porter while everybody's twistin'. She then launches into the "Kiss Me Kate" show tune with the kind of energy and swing that the young twisters couldn't even dream about. It's a brilliant, spontaneous moment, and a wonderful insight into the thinking of one of the iconic interpreters of the Great American Songbook.

--WSJ's Will Friedwald on the new 4 disc Ella Fitzgerald "Twelve Nights in Hollywood"

the devil. true story.

"Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it," he said on Christian Broadcasting Network's "The 700 Club." "They were under the heal [heel] of the French. You know, Napoleon the third, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you will get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it's a deal." [Pat Robertson via Ta-Nehisi Coates]

Ok, we all heard about that and were suitably outraged and embarrassed. There's a bit of a thing going on at The Atlantic's Coates' blog-- a blog I often find things to take issue with but continue to visit on occasion because it does provide interesting and smart discussion.

Coates posted about Robert Tabor's "A Qualified Defense of Pat Robertson." As Coates eventually points out, this article suffers from a misleading title. Besides a brief conciliatory note, which I don't think is hardly ever a bad thing and is, anyway Tabor's opinion, I don't find that Tabor is defending Robertson's intentions. He is instead explaining the background Robertson is drawing upon. It's a very interesting article on its own, just in terms of ideas and history, and gives a brief focused primer on Haiti's political woes. It's well-written and most importantly, it provides a description of what needs to be thought about when viewing Robertson's as-usual nasty remarks.

I take issue with people's reactions to the article. Many are quite nasty themselves, saying that the history and information Tabor's article contains is irrelevant or shouldn't be mentioned if it is used to cast a wider, more revealing but not necessarily more negative light on Robertson.

Both these objections represent the same frightening strength of uninformed opinions. I don't understand how revealing further information about a comment is irrelevant. I agree that Robertson should be criticized, but he must be criticized using as much information as possible to do so. Simply dismissing his statement as loony racist pseudo-Christian babble is, Tabor has proven, not the entire truth. It is the result of a loony racist pseudo-Christian's ideas, but it not itself only something PR dreamed up. Robertson is using information to misinform, a very smart piece of demagoguery because the tiny kernel of fact present, however distorted it eventually becomes, tends to make for even more convincing and thus more dangerous arguments for those willing to believe something.

I think people are upset that Tabor didn't offer anything that outright refuted or proved Robertson wrong. This is obviously not something he chose, and Tabor is doing a favor for those who would rather lazily wholesale dismiss Robertson's comments based on their admittedly warranted dislike of him. Tabor is helping people form informed opinions, vital to any dialogue that is going to get anywhere. Tabor is providing context that anybody who wishes to form criticisms must take into account if they want to create a strong and solid counter-argument. Vitriol only gets you so far, and it tends to bring any and all opinions, no matter how diverse, to about the same muddy place to spin your wheels in.

Coates is smarter than me. This is obvious and so I think I may be misunderstanding what he is saying here:

What really got me, and perhaps too much, was the idea that the history--while very important--offered any kind of defense of Robertson. Suffice to say, I still believe that, and I still stand by my point about the generous reading.

I am not sure about this. The history Tabor provides is the background. It is not defending what he said or what he meant. It is showing that Robertson is not making shit up all on his own, but that he is distorting things. And again that is his real crime, taking something and using it to misinform. Tabor is allowing people to not be misinformed, because those who think Robertson pulled it out of his ass (which thought until I read Tabor's piece-- when I, funnily, caught up with Pat Robertson re: some aspect of Haiti's history, distorted or not) are just as misinformed as those who believe he is telling the historically accurate truth-- in any aspect history is not just "very important," it is critical. Which Coates does say in the same post: "As I told Robert, and I think as was clear in the thread, I certainly do not object to anything that helps clarify the history and origins of Haiti. It's important to understand. Pat Robertson's ugliness aside, I think, as one commenter said, the good thing is we've all been a little enlightened here." History isn't the core of the argument, but it is still vital information.

But is Coates also saying that no context should be given if it makes Roberston look a little less. . . crazier than usual? Because that's what some of the more hysterical comments on all the posts mentioned here are saying, and I find it hard to believe that Coates agrees. But regardless what he's saying, others are saying it. It's a dangerous thing to deny history when you disagree with it. We all know that and all the easy examples of why this is so are found in the last 100 years, which gives us some nice material evidence that is harder to locate the further back in time you go, for example Haiti at the end of the 18th century with an educated non-native elite. See also, Timothy Snyder's article "The Holocaust: The Ignored Reality" for a description of the problems with relatively recent history (again despite the existence of a greater amount of primary, some still living, sources) and how it has been distorted, to history and to its victims loss, by cherrypicking facts.

I appreciate that Coates has provided a forum for mostly reasonable exchange. (Though not quite so in his original post, which contains some odd assertions.*)He is eventually very gracious towards Tabor, who provides a good clarification of what he was writing, and it is good to see a space online for that kind of interaction.

Bonus funtime music: Satan is Real - The Louvin Brothers

The Rumpus has a good roundup of ways to help Haiti.

______
* Coates draws this comparison:

Again, if I go on TV and claim that the Boston Tea Party was actually the Boston Cocaine Party, then claim that the drug trade is what liberated America, and then further claim that the Meth epidemic is a direct results, saying "But there was a party," isn't a defense--not even a qualified one.

This is hyperbolic and does not draw any kind of parallel to Tabor's article. There is no myth, oral tradition, or anything that involves cocaine; Coates is presenting this as the devil of Robertson's argument (and I suppose trying to be as silly as Robertson is), but it doesn't make sense if he is trying to attack Tabor. This is different from Tabor's description of the trajectories of syncretic Haitian traditions and institutionalized Christian traditions.

One of the first things that comes to mind in any discussion of Haiti, Voudou is a complex blending of West African and popular Catholic traditions. Paul Farmer gave the best description of Voudou’s place in Haitian culture and society when he thus described a firmly Christian peasant: “Of course he believes in Voudou. He just believes it’s wrong.” The Voudou question strikes at the heart of Haitian religious life. For its practitioners, Voudou offers a pantheon of friendly spirits, or lwas, that offer avenues to healing and hope. For its opponents, including many conservative Protestants and Catholics, it is spirit possession and satanic worship. The two sides disagree on what percentage of Voudou involves curses and malevolence, but both agree that such things are part of the religion. And, for those who oppose Voudou, Boukman’s ceremony in Bois Caiman sold the country to the devil.

Tabor isn't saying "there was this party." Coates is simplifying what Tabor has bothered to spell out and expand on in his article. Tabor is saying "there was this party, and there are some sources and traditions that suggest they were smoking rocks."

cream

In November, Salon posted AP's top compensated private school presidents according to their filed taxes. My alma mater's prez made it at #5, which I didn't really want to see, especially because he came in about $100,000 over the NYU guy. This is mostly because about 70% of interactions I have had with NYU kids over the years-- NYU undergrads who are still in school-- has gone like this--

NYU kid: Where do you go?
Me: Columbia.
NYU: Oooohh. CO-lumbbiaaah.
Me: Oooh. Fuck off.
NYU: Columbiiaaah. Polohhh. Yachts. Rooohwwwwing.

Despite the fact our tuition ends up about the same and I'd wager we have just as much nasty little New York private school grads as they do in our graduating classes. It's just hard to draw out the vowels in NYU into a sort of blue blood accent thing.

But beyond this silly faux rivalry that only crops up when you have nothing else to think about (and the other kids always bring up), I had trouble with Salon's posting this list because it seemed like it was trying to imply something but the original poster was too lazy to think about what, exactly, was being said.

I had a great experience at Columbia with the professors, the classes, facilities, co-workers, and the other kids there, and so I am happy to defend it. I don't pretend that there is transparency where there is not, and I don't pretend to get mad at what little gets through the bureaucracy just so I can have something to be outraged by. I think Columbia has made some ostensibly stupid decisions, like giving into the hunger strike kids to pour more money into some kind of ethnic studies program-- whatever that means-- and pouring sunshine and justification into their liberal middle-class/white guild souls. I certainly think they need to make sure that the kids are better taken care of, and I think, like everyone, that I-- and, especially, my family-- should not have been forced to incur so much debt. But I also think they-- PrezBo included-- have made some wise decisions, including allowing the President of Iran to speak, despite what the hysterical groups on campus tried to suggest. (And waiving some overdue fees too after I graduated, but that's because they were lazy, I think.)

So I thought, ok, who cares, I don't care if PrezBo and his hair are getting fabulously overcompensated, nothing I can do. Nothing I can do. Columbia has a stupid amount of money, and it should be seen in context, right? Thing is, Salon ran the list without commentary, they're being as lazy as I am, so it's cool. But what are they saying, or trying to say? They're clearly trying to elicit an immediate reaction-- because indeed, that is too much to be making, for anybody to be making-- but now what? There is no breakdown, no indication of what percentage of the universities' endowments these salaries are being snatched from. A well-compensated president means he probably has a name in the field and can thus solicit donations and attract top-of-the-field professors, which increases the prestige of an institution and frankly, makes (or would I guess in a different economic climate) your degree & diploma worth a little more.

And just like any professional, he is extorting the institution (think baseball players)-- his skills for millions, or else he'll take it somewhere else (maybe to NYU, Harvard, Brown!) The downside, and source of understandable moral objections, is that he is a single individual occupying a massive part of the budget, in part necessitating those donation solicitations that ensure he has a job as top salesman-- one of the many reasons I did not contribute to any of the senior funds. C and J have recently been having huge problems with getting their tuition covered, despite having already completed 75-90% of the degree. College is fun and it is stimulating, and when within the community it is easy to forget that you are dealing with a sprawling business, easy that is, until they suddenly decide they "can't" give you money. Yes, then it is especially frustrating to realize that this one guy is making a bazillion dollars. But Salon didn't discuss any of this and the more incendiary comment on the post (kill them, etc, education should be free) doesn't even discuss why it is such a problem that these salaries are so outrageous-- something I would have liked to see from a respected source that would know more about the politics and ideas behind both education and economics. I want a description of reasons to be opposed to this logically, morally, theoretically, not just emotionally, which is all posting a list sans commentary will result in.

The best comment on the post came from october271986, who copied a similar list.

1. Charlie Weis, Notre Dame $3,300,000

2. Pete Carroll, Southern Cal $3,000,000

3. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa $2,850,000

4. Mack Brown, Texas $2,550,000

5. Bobby Petrino, Louisville $2,500,000

6. Jim Tressel, Ohio State $2,450,000

7. Bob Stoops, Oklahoma $2,400,000

8. Tommy Tuberville, Auburn $2,200,000

9. Joe Paterno, Penn State $2,100,000

10. Philip Fulmer, Tennessee $2,050,000

11. Bobby Bowden, Florida State $2,000,000

12. Dennis Franchione, Texas A&M $2,000,000

12. Urban Meyer, Florida $2,000,000

Notice where the presidents' list starts--

1. Shirley Ann Jackson, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: $1,598,247

2. David Sargent, Suffolk University: $1,496,593

3. Steadman Upham, University of Tulsa: $1,485,275

4. Cornelius M. Kerwin, American University: $1,419,339

5. Lee C. Bollinger, Columbia: $1,380,035

6. Donald V. DeRosa, University of the Pacific: $1,350,743

7. John E. Sexton, New York University: $1,297,475

8. Jerry C. Lee, National University: $1,189,777

9. Nicholas S. Zeppos, Vanderbilt: $1,275,309

10. Amy Gutmann, University of Pennsylvania: $1,225,103

As the poster points out, #1 paid Ms Jackson would be the 34th highest paid coach. Now I like college football as much as the next guy-- okay, maybe not as much, but I enjoy it-- but if this puts anything into perspective, it is that fabulous amounts of money are being drained into the accounts of individuals all over the country, for a wide range of difficult to defend reasons.

With the crisis in the UC system (as well as the accompanying poorly planned protests which begged the question why didn't you protest when the government made the cuts, why wait until the schools were forced to carry them out) and the mounting inability to afford higher education, particularly by the middle class whose economic situation is virtually ignored by the formula for calculating financial aid, it is definitely an uncomfortable experience to see how much money is going to one individual in an institution that is supposed to be the sum total of all its participants in quality and output and, implied by this, is supposed to be a result of an even distribution of investment in each individual. But frankly, killing these guys & making education free (that commenter also makes what are either bad jokes or sincere I-wear-Che-shirts statements about kulaks, so I'm not sure what he/she is up to) is a silly suggestion because it does not address the problem. I still believe one of the first steps is to eliminate ETS (and here is where I say violently, if necessary, by tearing their ability to hold tests violently away) and breaking apart all markets-- test aid, test prep-- that have formed around it.

is it, like, ok to make zoolander jokes again? because i think that's what these people are, like, doing?

"'We're going to burn everything, it's like opening Pandora's box,' Kate said. . . The result would offer an antidote to 'high gloss, high fashion, glamour, put-together, shiny, perfect-- everything too exact,' as Laura put it."

From the New Yorker. Rodarte dresses go for astronomical prices. I thought high prices were supposed to mean, like, well "put-together," maybe even "exact." (That's the point of Ikea, right? They are priced low because they are not "exact.") I understand their pieces tend to be highly detailed by hand, but the philosophy they are pushing is the same one behind ripped jeans.

And then this from Erin Wasson:

"The people with the best style for me are the people that are the poorest. Like, when I go down to Venice beach and I see the homeless, like, I'm like, 'Oh my God, they're pulling out, like, crazy looks and they, like, pulled shit out of like garbage cans.'" [via the Cut]

Like the guy who used to sit outside our apartment with his shirt off and pick at the seams? Because he had bugs? From pulling shit out of garbage cans? The guy wearing mismatched sweatsuits? I thought it wasn't cool to say this anymore, no matter what Brooklyn keeps vomiting out.

So second week back at work and I'm admitting the holidays are over. Been having a bit of bad luck with my computer. Virus! Very funny tvshack, but I managed to eradicate it thanks to the magic of internet forums. Also, I decided to downgrade my iTunes because iTunes 9.fuckyou.0 is a piece of bloated shit, but hilariously, that means having to reload my entire library. Which means, hilariously, having to relabel and re-album-cover-ize my entire library. So I'm like halfway through that, then I have to reapply all the album covers, which I get obsessive about for some reason. (I think everybody does.) Oh, and we have bedbugs again.

I think the point of this post is to say one, I hope you guys had a great holiday season! and you're easing back into the swing of things not-too-hard, and to repost what I thought was a deeply clever holiday "card" picture (up there) before I retire it until next Christmas. It's a riot a minute with Noise Annoys. See? A Santa hat. It's funny because. I don't know. The only way that guy on the stoop's day is going to get worse is if that wreath falls on him, though. And that would be funny. The commercial-religious institution is always coming down on me, maaaaan. (In your head say it like the bus driver in the Simpsons.)

The art of letter writing is not dead, but it is hurtin.

Despite the increasingly incomprehensible emails, texts, and messages this modern age sends out ("urrgggh. ick. ok. cool. see you then." was one gem that went out yesterday), the art of letter writing is getting some cheerleading from joint sites Letters of Note and LetterHeady (via TheRumpus.)

I never really had a penpal growing up, though I corresponded with my best friend who had moved 40 minutes away. Recently, I was wanting to start that up again. Last year I bought from the Met some nice stock cards with a beautiful gold embossed Tiffany bee design, but it's been languishing in my drawer like it's waiting for somebody to invent a WABAC machine so I can, like, write to my cousin in 1920. "My dear cousin. Thank you for the preserves and relishes. Everyday the light fades a little earlier. Blah blah blah." I think it's also waiting for my handwriting to improve.

Looking at the letters as well as (especially) the designs of the letterheads-- which include those of Hitler, Churchill, Nat King Cole, the Man in Black himself, Einstein, and a super sweet old motel letterhead with a cowboy-- makes me want to write fantastically elegant and well-phrased (and legible) letters to people (who I don't know.) It even makes me want to stay at a hotel and use their letterhead, which is something I haven't seen in awhile. Rather than providing whole sheets of paper, they usually just have a half-used notepad, which I have used to write letters, but it's not the same. Small cramped letters poorly written using the hotel/motel cheapo ballpoint pen. Boo. Point is, seeing how nice things used to be inspires a revival. I have always had huge issues with instant messaging and the like, but it was always about the degradation of social interaction and responsibility etc. Now I'm feeling polemic about the aesthetics.

Actually, I think the last letter I sent out (this was for work, thank you notes for the 5 year old's birthday) was "Dear Blah, Thanks for the KNex set. It is fun and I like to build things with it. Thank you for coming to my birthday party." Which is definitely not deserving of a letterhead. (And it should have said, "Thank you for the KNex. I LOVE TO LEAVE IT LAYING AROUND IN PIECES SO SOMEONE ELSE-- THAT'S B--HAS TO PICK IT UP FOR ME. FUCK YOU FOR GIVING HIM THAT THING.")

	The White Stripes - Death Letter
	Found at skreemr.com

i want i want i want. . . to see this!

* Ray Winstone as a British gangster and jealous husband
* Ian McShane as Meredith
* John Hurt as Old Man Peanut
* Tom Wilkinson as Archie
* Stephen Dillane as Mal
* Joanne Whalley as Liz
* Melvil Poupaud as Loverboy [source wikipedia]

io9's best Comic Covers of the Decade

Gawker imprint io9 has 100 of their choice covers posted, limited it to 1 per series. My favorite & most familiar cover artists, I'm realizing, are James Jean, Adam Hughes, Ben Templesmith's work on Fell, and of course Mike Mignola, so it's fun to browse the selection and find new artists.

• i09's Favorite Covers of the Decade

My Favorite of the Decade that I Can Actually Remember

1. The Proposition. Everything about this film is perfect. The look, the music, the themes perfectly delivered by Nick Cave's script, but especially the outstanding cast.

2. Kontroll. A subterranean fairytale that switches between truly frightening to truly funny to truly touching. It leaves a residual feeling that's hard to shake off, even if you've seen it five times before.

3. Breakfast on Pluto. Another fairytale-type, this time set in 1960s and 1970s Ireland. Based on a book by Patrick McCabe, it also has a badass soundtrack.

4. Infernal Affairs. Tight and thrilling. I usually can't describe films like that, but Infernal Affairs, which was remade as The Departed, was able to deliver. Tony Leung excellent, as always.

5. Sexy Beast. Not only a good crime caper but also featuring an outstanding cast. One of my favorite parts of this film was that it featured older, mature characters rather than slick People's Hottest People of the year. Not because those people are necessarily bad actors, but rather because it brings life to a somewhat worn-out genre. Another film that earns the descriptor of "menacing."

6. Eastern Promises. This film was exactly the right length, not just because it clocked in at 100 minutes. A controlled and succinct plot, punctuated by moments of violence that were all the more starker for their scarcity, resulted in a tight film that doesn't waste any time but is never rushed.

7. Momento. When a film is as good as everyone says it is, it's kind of a big deal.

Best Genre: I usually eschew this as a category, and you'll notice mostly genre (crime, thriller) above, but I want to mention these separately for what they did for their respective genres-- fine films on their own and also hopefully models for future genre films.

Sin City. Nobody had seen a film that looked quite like it til it came out. But it wasn't pretty empties. The plot was exciting and it pulled off pulp noir in a way that you don't see a lot.

Serenity. Great cast, great script, a nice dystopian anti-government ending which is most remarkable for featuring a dark ending that wasn't trying to show off its own daring the way other films try to do when they decide to involve deep scary plot twists to show how they're not genre.

King Kong/The Mummy Returns. These two films really show what you can do with the genre-- the Saturday matinee, B-movie vibe-- something that Indy IV stunningly failed to do.

Best Made a Funny: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy. Strangely, this film was a return to Monty Python & Marx Brothers' type absurdity, from 2004 before we were sick of Will Ferrell.

Best Animated Film: The Emperor's New Groove-- self-aware and still hilarious.

What about you guys??

New Year's Resolutions!

I don't usually make specific ones, not because I'm perfect and don't need them, but because I would rather take things as I go, improving myself and my environment (not in a hippie green way, but in a like clean out my desk way) gradually and constantly as I see fit.

And because I'm lazy.

But for the blog, and especially because I've been sent another takedown notice (?!?! on the same post?!?! so not sure what's going on) and because the emphasis on music has been certainly decreasing, to bring my tag cloud (see right-hand sidebar) to equilibrium-ish. The "avail files" tag is way too huge, and I want to start posting more on Movies, Reading, Artsy, Photography, other stuff that is hopefully still interesting.

And if I have one fantasy New Year's Resolution, it is that I would like to stop this ridiculous trend that refuses to die-- glasses with no lenses in them, often oversized. YEAH I'm talking to you you freakin hipster chick on the A train on Monday. I'd rather see you wearing Uggs with fringe on them.

Belated 12 Days of Xmas Countdown starting in its usual haphazard fashion.

BUT.

So I got jumped by the usual suspects and came back from PA to find a DMCA email in ye olde inboxe.

I have re-posted the full contents of the email below and have edited the post so that it doesn't include the rapidshare links. As usual, Blogger has included a link to Chilling Effects, "founded in 2001 by Internet activists who were concerned that the unregulated private practice of sending cease-and-desist letters seemed to be increasing and was having an unstudied but potentially significant "chilling effect" on speech" [source].

Without incriminating myself. We've all done things that are "illegal"-- severity varying, because I know you have all peed in public before, at least-- and when caught, it's hard to argue against the consequences if you have entered into a contract with the government under which you live, which is easy to do. You're living there. And so I can't be too terribly indignant about getting that post taken down.

I don't feel bad though because it was the Clash Singles box set. That box set being a very pretty go by a record company at milking a cash cow 20 years later for the rest of what it's worth. So hopefully you guys grabbed the more rare tracks way back in 2007, and really, that thing was about the beautiful re-issues of the singles covers, which you can find sprinkled around the internet. It's too bad-- or fitting-- that someone (whoever you are) decided to go after a shining example of exactly why people take issue with record companies and why they are trying to provide this material for other enthusiasts.

But this means I will be sticking to my new more cautious policy of severely reducing the amount of files actually posted by me. I will continue to link, though I will be more careful about burying the link so nobody else gets in trouble. I will continue to abstain from posting entire albums. This is too bad because I was hoping to post an album that I have been meaning to post for years, so I might lift that restriction just once. I will continue, as I have done since this blog started, to properly cite all text that I quote, which I think is one of the most important things to do. I do have some standards.

Finally, I am very happy that blogger now sets the post to DRAFT status. I was pretty irritated the last time this happened, on what I thought was a well thought-out review of the new Green Day album, when the whole thing disappeared because I had linked to one of the tracks. I think it's a nice recognition of the work done on blogs (maybe not here, after all the goofing off, haha) because a lot of the places I have downloaded from have always included well-written, insightful reviews of the music.

For the email, as if you guys haven't seen it before, Continue reading!

Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog is alleged to infringe upon the copyrights of others. As a result, we have reset the post(s) to "draft" status. (If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits. The URL(s) of the allegedly infringing post(s) may be found at the end of this message.) This means your post - and any images, links or other content - is not gone. You may edit the post to remove the offending content and republish, at which point the post in question will be visible to your readers again.

A bit of background: the DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement. If you believe you have the rights to post the content at issue here, you can file a counter-claim. For more information on our DMCA policy, including how to file a counter-claim, please see http://www.google.com/dmca.html.

The notice that we received from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the record companies it represents, with any personally identifying information removed, will be posted online by a service called Chilling Effects at http://www.chillingeffects.org. We do this in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Please note that it may take Chilling Effects up to several weeks to post the notice online at the link provided.

The IFPI is a trade association that represents over 1,400 major and independent record companies in the US and internationally who create, manufacture and distribute sound recordings (the "IFPI Represented Companies").

Sincerely,

picture source

xmas. break!

I will be heading out to PA, again, for the holidays. It is very cold in that place, and I will most probably not be bringing my broken-ass I-can't-run-on-battery-power laptop with me. So until sometime next week, it will be pretty quiet around here. When I get back, I hope to use the 12 Days of Christmas to do something I've been meaning to for awhile-- posting songs and albums that I always thought I had but never did. Albums and songs I really want to use the opportunity to "get out there" because I think they're worth it. I'll probably be combining that with reposting songs I posted this year that I think are worth the time, like a greatest hits. And I will have put together that movie list by New Year's. Ah, youthful ambition.

But seriously, have a wonderful Christmas and don't slip on that ice. xoxo.

Wassailing is not ass wailing. Or is it?

My boyfriend ("J") is the Grinch and hates Christmas songs like some kind of Communist, so we were of course naming as many as we could think of the other night (over the Giants fans whopping at same bar as mentioned before, also over the music that was trying to block out the Giants fans, so we were yelling too which just contributed to the problem) and our buddy brought up "Here we come a wassailing."

Which brought us to how we all thought we were terribly clever back in the day when we figured out Santa was an anagram for Satan.

And then I thought I was terribly clever because I realized Wassailing is an anagram for ass wailing. Mostly because that's what they're doing, right? Going around wailing Christmas songs at your door &c, and you're hiding in the backroom because you don't know if it's like trick or treating, or that St Stephen's day thing, like do you have to give them candy or money or your good china?

Well it turns out wassail is a punch. But don't worry-- wassailing, as a verb, is about still going around irritating your neighbors, presumably drunk. With suggested Anglo-Saxon origins, it was a way during the so-called feudal period to irritate the lord of your manor and, yes, he did have to give you something to eat. If he wasn't a douchebag, presumably. Or if he didn't set his hounds or gangs of color-bearing mercenaries after you. The songs were meant to invoke blessings, good cheer, etc, for the coming year-- which is why you wish people Merry Christmases. In England, the orchard-wassailing was to promote a good harvest.

Naturally, the practice took a violent turn, as if this wasn't a surprise since you were giving people alcohol and sending them around to harass people, with reports of obnoxious drunken early New England versions of the hey-bra types to bust into houses and demand food & drink. Think in "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"-- "we won't go until we got some." Sinister. This should give J. the Grinch, Mr NYHC, something to appreciate about Christmas songs, and all you punk rocker kids, you. (Which means I can start playing the songs in the house, right?)

So I guess maybe you should stay in that back room. Because it's not ass-wailing. It could be ass-whaling. And while you're at it, brew some of that wassail punch stuff. Modcloth has got the recipe up.

Trifecta of January movies with bigger and better badassness

Was at the bar last night, have now resolved to check if the Giants are playing from now on and then avoiding bars on that night. But they kept showing a trailer with Denzel & Gary Oldman, which reminded me that in the slew of commercials and ads I've been seeing around the city (always seems like more around the holidays, and half of them seem to be large posters of Elvis Costello looking smug), there were 2 that I particularly wanted to check out. Those being Legion and Daybreakers.

I just sat down and flipped through the trailers. They all look terrible. But in a good way, the way Max Payne or those Resident Evil films are terrible, but I had fun. The problem with these types of movies is that they really are aided by a movie-theater presentation, so that the colors and effects and noises are in full force. On a computer screen you really only get the dialogue. And you are hopefully not at the theater for that. I don't know. Might be worth picking some lazy, hungover day to pay the price for one and then hop around til you get them all. It looks like they'll be out around the same time.

Because really, what do they have going for them that's worth $12? Predictable plots, fabulous special effects that mask those predictable plots, people with a lot of guns and other unusual and outlandish weapons who tote snazzy one-liners mostly along the lines of dour statements like, "We're not out of this yet," in all its badass and very serious varieties. I mean, they don't even look that interesting, especially because the trailers rely on BIG things rather than the drama. But I'm a sucker for these kinds of movies, and it's hard to say no when they've also got Denzel, Gary Oldman, Dennis Quaid, Paul Bettany, Willem Defoe, Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill, silly Biblical and occult references, fabulous post-apocalyptic fashion, fabulous faux-atomic 1950s fashion in the case of Daybreakers it looks like, and vampires and angels and angry post-apocalyptic desert denizens, oh my.

Okay, hard to say no if you figure out how to defray that cost.

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry

I have always associated this story with the above Norman Rockwell picture because our family owned the Norman Rockwell Christmas book. As an ardent fan of the man, I'd rather resort to fisticuffs than try to intellectually explain his greatness (luckily someone smart at Vanity Fair did that for me.)

Fifty-Two Stories, a site sponsored by Harper Perennial that I've been meaning to mention, say for fifty-two weeks, has posted the master of the twist's Christmas-time twist for this coming Christmas week. The version they've chosen is a newly illustrated format by Joel Priddy, whose art is as cheerful and gentle as the story.

• The Gift of the Magi from Fifty Two Stories

To go with it--though not sure how much I like this version, maybe I hafta hear it a few more times--

• Tom Waits - Silent Night, Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis [live | Skreemr]

Casting the Runes by MR James

Back around Halloween, A Different Stripe, the NYRB Classics blog, posted the complete text of "Casting the Runes" by horror-master & medieval scholar M(ontague) R(hodes) James. I had never heard of him and, reading the story, it became clear to me the influences he has had on everyone from Lovecraft to Bellairs to horror radio programs to Mignola. This one in particular has the added bonus of being included in Edward Gorey's The Haunted Looking Glass, published by the NYRB.

"Poor Mr Dunning? I don't know why you call him that; he's a very happy man, is Dunning. Lots off hobbies and a comfortable home, and all his time to himself."

"I only meant I should be sorry for him if this man got hold of his name, and came and bothered him."

"Oh, ah! Yes. I dare say he would be poor Mr Dunning then."

Since James often wrote these stories as a form of Christmas Eve entertainment (could this be where Stephen King got the idea for "The Breathing Method"?) I think it's appropriate to pass on the link at this point.

More James is available through Wikilivres.

Perfect Tommy is my Nerd Boyfriend

It's usually hard for me to get into fashion blogs because they tend to be short on good commentary and more about some girl (or 13 year old?!) posing in fabulous outfits while throwing large bills and whatever legal documents go with a trust fund in my face. That's why I look at photoshoots in magazines. Because they're supposed to be breathless expressions of consumption and conspicuous wealth.

Speaking of which, this made me laugh/cry.

It has recently come to our attention that AllSaints, a British clothing company, has come out with a shirt design called the “Williamsburg.” International fame at last! We’re not sure how well the shirt fits its namesake — true, it’s a plaid button down, which fits, but no one we know in Williamsburg pays 120 dollars for plaid button downs.

Yes you do. If I do, you do. Or did they move to Philly? Or do all your friends cap out at $50-$80? (Also, a little irked by the "Laurel Canyon pants declaration. Why not? Shouldn't the post, on a "real"-- fancy looking-- sponsored publication, tell me? Though that's assuming a responsibility that is perhaps overstated in my mind.)

Anyway Ringo, Have a Banana is refreshing in its actual dedication to sharing photos, ideas, and products without constantly featuring the face of the blogger herself. And one of these shared items is a fashion blog that I can really get behind-- Nerd Boyfriend. The site has a simple concept-- post pictures of "nerds" (from Marty McFly to a stupid cute old Billy Wilder) and provide suggestions on how to get what they are wearing. That the site lionizes nerds should make it all too horribly ironic since hipsterdom has been staging raiding parties into the nerd/geek subculture for far too long-- going so far as to WEAR GLASSES WITHOUT LENSES kid on the L train. But the site is so pared down and goal-oriented that it avoids these pitfalls. Each post is about a certain set of items on a certain famous person. Sure, it might encourage these hip cats & their friends to continue dressing like Jack Kerouac instead went to the Engineering school in the 1980s and was bff with Elvis Costello, but what really won me over?

Uh. That they featured Perfect Tommy & told you how to get his fabulous, fabulous checkered jacket-red pants-blue tie combo.

Now that's what I call good taste. Here's another favorite.

So it's the end of the decade.

Which I missed. For about a week I passively clicked on "Best Things Ever of the 00s" or whatever they're calling them without really thinking why this deluge of lists, besides that it makes easy features.

I was just starting high school when the decade started. It was a long time ago. So I can't weigh in the same as some of these critics (besides the fact that they are critics & I'm not.) I definitely can't keep up with, say, The New Yorker's Richard Brody, who is a fine film critic and obviously knows his shit. But, really, Knocked Up is your #8? I barely made it through that movie. I like what it did and showed, but taking that into consideration, it is more a movie to appreciate for its message and idea rather than as a fine film. Thank God Juno didn't make it on there. Again, it's awkward to object to his choices when I haven't even heard of half (most?) of them, and the one great, maybe the best, function of these things is to find out about films you would otherwise never have heard of, and in this case, will be very good.

At least Gran Torino, which I finally saw, made it on his short list.

But, hi, Total Film. You think There Will Be Blood is the best movie of the decade?

Ick. No. It was fine-- it was a good movie. Rather disturbing but also rather bloated. Everyone talks about DD-L's performance as well as Paul Dano, both of whom did a fantastic job, but the performance in the end that really got to me was Kevin J O'Connor, who was amazing. Especially when he worked to contrast DD-L's performance as. . . DD-L. With a moustache. His scenes as the mysterious maybe half-bro were some of the most menacing and elegant parts of the film.

But not the best film of the decade. It was far too long, decadent, and seemed unsure of what it was trying to do besides throw a few shocking sucker-punches your way. And shocking they were, but in the end, when that's all you remember when you walk out, it's hard to justify a film that revolves around that.

So, I dunno. I disagree with a majority of their list. I think they got it right when they say Star Trek is the best sci-fi of the decade (though I think the dark story line of Serenity makes it a neck-in-neck race) and I do hope it, especially in its role as a blockbuster, revitalizes the genre. I highly disagree that Spider-Man was "the comic book hero" of the decade now that Iron Man has hit the scene and I will always be most loyal to Hellboy. I still think Hot Fuzz is much more funny than Shaun of the Dead (not a popular opinion.) I hope LotR wasn't the epic of the decade because I really don't think they are well made films. I think they are too glossy and missed a huge opportunity. But I can't think of any other epic. And I don't even want to hear about Donnie Darko. I have never made it through that silly film.

But then what are some of the finest films I've seen this decade? I can't rank them, but my first thought in opposition to There Will Be Blood was, "Aw fuck no. The Proposition was." So here we go. I'll try to think of 5. I can't actually remember most of the movies I've seen. I'll probably change my mind in like five minutes. I think I should relabel this "my favorite films," because after all, what else are these lists. But then I would have to extend the list to 10. That's hard. But I'll post that up soon. Because I think I just changed my mind.

it's gross out. thank god eggnog is back in the stores.

gross. [view while at work the other day. willing to sacrifice comfort to take children to playground because there, they entertain themselves. i read and ignore them and tell them to walk it off when they "hurt themselves" and when i get bored i listen to music and jump up and down-- cue middle school kids looking at me weirdly, hi kids, it's cold, or it's the magic of music! makes ya wanna mooove.-- and take pictures. if i was an old man, i would probably be arrested since it's a playground full of children. i saw that svu episode. speaking of which, i just saw the new ice-t svu ep and he got all 'police brutality' on some fella. which was awesome. speaking of which, j came back the other day rather drunk & idealistic & tried to put in a complaint of overexertion of force some cops- who refused to give badge numbers, which is illegal- were using on same couple in the subway. i couldn't get the whole story out of him, or the story didn't really make much sense and after a few of his (drunk) calls to, like, everything, including clogging up the 911 line, nothing got done, which isn't a surprise. but as they say. . . well, go down for the music files to find out what they say. yes, self-pitch! subtle, too.]

grossss. [view of ave A from the window right now. ick. & in an hour i have to walk alllll the way to ave B.]

not grossss. eggnog (3 parts-- hard won. j ran out of the line when we were almost to the check-out and harassed someone til they dug out the off-brand eggnog. cashier yelled at me when the machine didn't ask for my pin. happy holidays!) with coffee (1 part, surprisingly good, made the flavor darker and richer, no real hint of coffee, more like caramel. i don't drink eggnog with alcohol because alc & dairy makes me, lame, sick without fail.)

um. so. the vatican has a playlist.

AND IT'S SWEET.

The seat of the Catholic Church released a list of 12 songs onto the social networking Web site's streaming music service this week when the site launched in the United Kingdom.

Among selections from Mozart, Muse and Dame Shirley Bassey is the slain rapper's song "Changes," which was released two years after his shooting death on a greatest hits album in 1998.

"The genres are very different from each other, but all these artists share the aim to reach the heart of good minded people," the Vatican wrote on its official MySpace Music page.

As of Thursday night, "Changes" had been played more than 4.6 million times on the Web site.

The list was compiled by Father Giulio Neroni, artistic director of church publisher St Paul's Multimedia. He was also responsible for compiling the Vatican's recent Alma Mater album, which combined Gregorian chants and prayers with classical music and the voice of Pope Benedict XVI speaking in five languages. [CNN]

It seems the Vatican can do no wrong. Literally. Heyyyy.

guess what i learned.

When texting, don't even try to abbreviate Jay-Z's name. Cos it looks like this. Jayz. & then you look like a fool. {pic source}

Peyton Manning is the next Dwayne Johnson. I'm convinced.

Ur a card. Ima card. Sending cards?

J & I have been trying to decide if we should do Christmas cards. ("Should we do Christmas cards? Is it too late?" "I dunno. Maybe." Which is repeated every time I see a cute card I like.) The question is if we really even know enough people "by address" to send them to. I could be a dick and Photoshop (with credit) some of the cards I like and e-mail them to people. But that means 1. I'd be being a dick. And, 2. e-card, just not the same.

C sent me this link (the above graphic) this morning (which I also received this morning, which means I got up in the morning and not, say, at 3pm) and it was stupid cute with the added bonus of being made by TopatoCo, which is also producing some of Wondermark's Christmas cards which, needless to say, make me giggle.

Check a few more out after the jump. This one is also quite silly. Then go see the real deal. They go for $12/pop.

Continue reading!

I just realized what I should have posted for Halloween.

Which I had plenty of time to do. As I was sitting at home in full costume (okay, every girl with dark bobbed hair's cop-out costume which is more like getting dressed and then rolling your pants up) as Mia Wallace, waiting for my roommate to call me about some party that I decided to go to for the sake of going somewhere (since I wasn't terribly excited about going out that night, thanks to about 800 kids dressed as Spider-man jumping at people on the sidewalk in a full rainstorm) until said roommate, dressed as Lawrence of Arabia (I think?) wandered in dead drunk at 1AM and left the door open and stumbled into his room and fell down. . .

You know, that Mia Wallace costume is harder than it looks. It's a VERY specific shade of lipstick, and I had to mix, like, four colors to approximate it.

Anyway. Zombies don't have tails.

thankx.

The kids I nanny collect beer bottle caps, which is kind of gross because they keep them all in a jar that smells like our recycling bag, which is full of PBR cans. (ok I think I like Bud- NOT BUDLITE, I'd rather drink Natty Ice--more than PBR. Shame shame. Anyway, I don't drink beer at home anymore. This is my weight loss plan.)

It's interesting to see what kind of beer their father drinks, especially when they kids are driving me crazy and "interesting to see" becomes "this child is annoying me and flaunting beer in front of me when do I get offffff." They are mostly beers I can't afford and don't really like, anyway, ie Magic Hat. (Also, Corona, which I do like, and a lot of Sierra Nevada, which is way out of my price range. The thing about beer is, unlike the orange juice and cheese singles I'm always sneaking from their fridge, people notice if a bottle is gone, and that's some pretty bad work ethics right there, anyway. Despite being bereft on that good old Protestant work ethic, I do have that Catholic fear of being discovered, forcing me to be an honest soul. Though I did use their facewash, once.)

I'm not sure if anybody has actually washed those caps, ever, which I guess is something I should do sometime this week. Anyway, I hope you guys all had a great Thanksgiving, if you celebrate it. I was in freezing cold Lewisburg, PA, pigging out, mostly, including on Shiner straight from Texas (see above photo, Shiner caps for the kids. See how nice I am to small children.)

One thing that I liked about PA-- home of Yuengling, which holds a special place in my heart despite my inability to spell it correctly the first time, ever.

I really want to make sure things start picking up around here soon. I've got some reviews in mind, including the new Star Fucking Hipsters album (so far, eh-bleh, but I need to give it another listen) and a lot of sweet art I've been finding around the interweb. See you soon xoxo!

This is Cool: Japanese Barcodes

"Masters of turning the mundane cute, we recently came across this collection of the clever ways Japanese designers have extended this eccentricity down to the boring barcode" [from Cool Hunting-- visit them for more!]

Those wacky Japs-- as in Japanese--and their insanely cute things. Make sure to visit Cool Hunting for more, some are quite funny, all are stupid cute. You can see the hippie gun barcode over there and more at Barcode Design Gallery, which designs and licenses out the retooled barcodes.

iko iko

There are a few songs I really, really hate-- can't stand. I know it sounds high maintenance but there is something about these tracks that makes me cringe. Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl." Any version (even the Clash version) of "Louie Louie." "Chapel of Love"- "sing-songy, cloying, childish"- by the Dixie Cups, a group which I wrote off for a long time solely based on that insipid, insidious track that stays in your head the way Tootsie Rolls stay stuck to your molars and then makes you get cavities and have to have Novocaine and pay insurance on false advertised filling material that isn't covered by insurance but Dr Dentist Evil failed to mention that before.

Which is too bad, because 1, they're a seminal group that really can sing, etc, and 2, the Dixie Cups do a fantastic (my favorite, probably) version of the oft-covered"Iko Iko" (or "Jock-a-mo.")

"Jock-a-mo" was the original version of the song "Iko Iko" recorded by The Dixie Cups in 1965. Their version came about by accident. They were in a New York City studio for a recording session when they began an impromptu version of "Iko Iko," accompanied only by drumsticks on a coke bottle [Barbara Hawkins: "We were just clowning around with it during a session using drumsticks on ashtrays. We didn't realize that Jerry and Mike had the tapes running". ]. The tape happened to be running and session producers Leiber and Stoller added bass and drums and released it [wikip]

The bare bones beat from those Coke bottles mesh perfectly with the precise, ultra-clean, almost blase vocals. The song is about a fight between two Mardi Gras crewes, which explains the epically threatening lyrics, which kind of form the fun with the contrast to the bright melody. I've also included the version off of the Diplo/Santogold collab "Top Rankin Mixtape," which I listen to more than Santogold's (or however she spells it now) s/t. Enjoy!

• Iko Iko - Dixie Cups
• Iko Iko - Dixie Cups/Diplo & Santogold
  

ps. What??