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Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:20:00 -0400

pgwp: The idea of willfully putting Radiohead on just for the hell of it elicits a kind of mental...

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:43:00 -0400

The idea of willfully putting Radiohead on just for the hell of it elicits a kind of mental groan, like I’m getting ready to sit down and watch a Tarkovsky film. Get ready to experience a Work of Art.

Wallace in “Joseph Frank’s Dostoevsky”:

To make someone an icon is to make him an abstraction, and abstractions are incapable of vital communication with living people.

and

One has only to spend a term trying to teach college literature to realize that the quickest way to kill an author’s vitality for potential readers is to present that author ahead of time as “great” or “classic”. Because then the author becomes for the students like medicine or vegetables, something the authorities have declared “good for them” that they “ought to like”, at which point the students’ nictitating membranes come down, and everyone just goes through the requisite motions of criticism and paper-writing without feeling one real or relevant thing. It’s like removing all oxygen from a room before trying to start a fire.

lalitree: “I say it’s time we take a stand against technologically-enhanced isolation and anomie....

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:00:19 -0400

lalitree:

“I say it’s time we take a stand against technologically-enhanced isolation and anomie. It’s time we relearn how to shut our yaps, listen to others and put that pluribus and unum back where they belong. And in the best U.S.A. fashion I say that we do this via expensive gadgets and monetizable web services. Below is a list of modest proposals for Infinite Jest-inspired solutions for life in our present-day techno-dystopia.”

— http://infinitedetox.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/techno-curmudgeonly-solutions-for-life-in-a-wallacian-dystopia/

So many IJ-based blogs! I mean, here is one of a person documenting his/her experience going clean while reading the book.

Kanye, Triumphant

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 20:59:35 -0500

Kanye, Triumphant

HIPSTER RUNOFF PODCAST

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:44:00 -0500

HIPSTER RUNOFF PODCAST:

perpetua:

Just when you think Hipster Runoff has hit a peak, or that it has fulfilled its potential, Carles takes it to the next level. This is brilliant.

When will Carles address the HR phenomenon itself? It almost happens in the Meaningful Near-Death Experience intro, but then it goes on to just be the website in audio form. I want HR to explode in a blaze of self-referential glory.

“An Eluardian Instance” by Of Montreal (Jesse Ewles...

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 15:02:40 -0500

“An Eluardian Instance” by Of Montreal (Jesse Ewles on Vimeo)

Fake American Apparel Ad Artist Now Real American Apparel Ad Artist

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:11:10 -0500

Fake American Apparel Ad Artist Now Real American Apparel Ad Artist

Distorte's Top 5 Albums, 2008

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:14:50 -0500

Distorte's Top 5 Albums, 2008:

perpetua:

Year-end album lists are so boring and unimaginative. This one, however, is precisely the opposite. (Here is the list from last year. I totally owe him for turning me on to Dog Chorus #17.)

MTA haiku

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:55:06 -0500

Max Deadlock obtained
use Diagnostic to resolve
or restart application

natashavc: “There was a desert wind blowing that night....

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 14:04:29 -0500

natashavc:

“There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.”

Also, from David Lynch Keeps His Head:

“Griffith Park, though lovely in a kind of desiccated, lunar way, turns out itself to be a kind of Lynchian filming environment, with perfusive sunshine and imported beer-colored light, but a weird kind of subliminal ominousness about it. This ominousness is hard to put a finger on or describe in any sensuous way. It turns out that there’s a warning out today for a Santa Ana Wind, a strange weather phenomenon that causes fire hazards and also a weird but verifiable kind of high-ion anxiety in man and beast alike.

L.A.’s murder rate is apparently higher during Santa Ana Wind periods than any other time, and in Griffith Park it’s easy to confirm that there’s something Lynchian in the air today: Sounds sound harsher, breathing tastes funny, and the sunlight has a way of diffracting into knives that penetrate all the way to the back of the skull.”

“General Motors CEO Richard Wagoner, left, arrived on...

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:39:03 -0500

“General Motors CEO Richard Wagoner, left, arrived on Capitol Hill for a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday in Washington. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)”

Is that a fucking electric car?

"So far, though, “we haven’t studied the business cases much,” [Ev Williams, the chief executive and..."

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:36:00 -0500

“So far, though, “we haven’t studied the business cases much,” [Ev Williams, the chief executive and co-founder of Twitter] said. “We literally have no business people in the company, so this isn’t an area we’re really focused on.””

- Hilarious.

"Mr. Sander said the route alterations “will result in extra transfers, longer travel times, longer..."

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:06:00 -0500

“Mr. Sander said the route alterations “will result in extra transfers, longer travel times, longer wait times and longer walking time.” Trains would be more crowded. Subway cars would be cleaned less frequently. Station booths would be closed. Bus service would be cut back on weekends and at nights. The express-bus fare would rise to $7.50 from $5. The cost of the Access-a-Ride paratransit service for disabled riders would rise.”

- M.T.A. Plans Steep Service Cuts and Fare Increase | City Room Blog

Welcome to bizarro NYC, everybody! Sounds great!

Momus-like. From Assa.

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:47:53 -0500

Momus-like.

From Assa.

"The scenes of celebration are reminiscent of the end of a sci-fi movie where people of the earth..."

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:20:00 -0500

“The scenes of celebration are reminiscent of the end of a sci-fi movie where people of the earth rejoice over defeating the aliens.”

- Twitter / Slate

Sonic Youth Live at Battery Park - July 4, 2008

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:54:46 -0400

Sonic Youth Live at Battery Park - July 4, 2008:

perpetua:

WFMU has archived a top-notch recording of Sonic Youth’s excellent free concert at Battery Park earlier this year. It’s a great show covering a lot of classics, including “Schizophrenia,” “100%,” “Bull in the Heather,” “Skip Tracer,” “Jams Run Free,” and about half of Daydream Nation.

“The goal of Web 2.0 was to get users first, then figure out how to make money off of them. Well, at...

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:20:07 -0400

“The goal of Web 2.0 was to get users first, then figure out how to make money off of them. Well, at least that’s what you tell your investors. In reality, the goal is more like ‘get users, and hope to get acquired and become somebody else’s problem’.”

— Maybe Yahoo Shouldn’t Have Bought All This Shit | uncov

(via catbird)

tristanjay7: jonathan-deamer: My new favourite Tumblr: Sad...

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:20:36 -0400

tristanjay7:

jonathan-deamer:

My new favourite Tumblr: Sad Guys On Trading Floors

“Turning the economic crisis into one of those clever internet memes.”

Someone wittier than myself should add LOLcat-style captions to these. (Preferably deeper than “FAIL”.)

The next step would be to automate image acquisition and captioning, creating a perpetual stream of schadenfreude.

"My friends, I’m voting for “that one”."

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:09:00 -0400

“My friends, I’m voting for “that one”.”

- reader comment on Check Point: The Second Presidential Debate

via bmichael Tina Fey needs to step it up now.

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 09:31:00 -0400

via bmichael

Tina Fey needs to step it up now.