December 2010
(source)
“The presumption of art’s essential ‘goodness’ is nothing more than a political...”
– Dave Hickey, via Alex Ross.
November 2010
My Top Ten Bad Writing Habits
I have so many, I can’t even tell you. But here are ten.
General lazy-assedness. It takes a lot to get me going; generally, if I want to achieve an extended piece of writing on any given topic I need to shut myself in a silent room, dose myself with lack of sleep and caffeine, and take regular Internet breaks. Writing produced under such artificial circumstances, with quality control thrown out...
prettyinkiwi asked: Your Kesha posts made me so happy. I had no idea anyone thought that much about her music, but I feel justified in enjoying it now!
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The Ke$ha Papers.
This is the post where I link to everything I’ve said about Ke$ha (or about the discourse around Ke$ha) on my Tumblr and on the Singles Jukebox. Everything I could find, anyway. I have an unfortunate horror of repeating myself, which means I’ve tossed off lines of argument in conversation that should have been incorporated into the longer pieces, so here it all is. If...
Good God. Don’t ever let me stay up all night writing an essay about Ke$ha again, Tumblr.
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“Been working for nine months on something that will sell for 3.99 on Amazon MP3....”
– Fleet Foxes (fleetfoxes) on Twitter (via seaninsound)
Classicist not comfortable with the times he was born into, film at eleven.
whatwillsuffice:
I realize it’s completely ridiculous to feel that you’ve missed the whole “life” train by not becoming anything by the ripe old age of 32 …
Could you just repeat that a few more times?
whatwillsuffice:
I realize it’s completely ridiculous to feel that you’ve missed the whole “life” train by not becoming anything by the ripe old age of 32 …
whatwillsuffice:
...
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“There is no end to the subtle tortures which civilisation has devised and is...”
– E. V. Lucas, Over Bemerton’s (1909)
Wait, “Massive Attack” isn’t on Pink Friday? The hell?
(Something something commercial performance something something the lamentable taste of the American public something something second-guessing her instincts. You can figure it out, and have probably already said it. I’m still not here.)
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-11-21) →
Erik Satie (41)
Ke$ha (9)
James Gang (9)
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (5)
Jon Secada (2)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Unscheduled hiatus.
The sudden if not entirely unexpected death of my laptop has left me feeling as though a limb, or a sensory faculty, has been violently removed. There are as always compensations; I’ve rediscovered a love of (book-) reading that has, with each successive book accomplished, left me even more inconsolable than before, for where will I opine about them, if not here?
(You may note a...
Aaaaaaand my laptop monitor just quit on me. So good night, Tumblr. I’ll see you when I can raise the cash.
seriouslyflippant-deactivated20 asked: what are you doing new years...new years eve?
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isabelthespy asked: if you could have any superpower, what would it be, and why?
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Hey Tumblr,
I just realized that there are different generations of the dashboard. Do you see pictures in photo posts as full-width first, or do you have to click to make them full-width?
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Hey, is it Friday evening and you've got nothing... →
I can't begin to describe how happy this makes me... →
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Girls With Slingshots has an RSS feed!
Seriously, this shaves like, twenty seconds off my daily Internet routine.
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novazembla:
hotblondecocktail:
I just asked the cute new computer guy if my manicure makes him want to drink my fingers? Because I think it looks like champange?
Just an FYI, this is a really good example of why I only hang out with gay men and women and why no one else understands or likes me.
I hate this. See, I think that’s a pretty delightful thing for you to have said, because who...
EXPLOIT VULNERABILITY.
The following are disconnected thoughts, the kind you have when driving home after a long day and you’ve spent all your downtime on a spreadsheet that will fit eighteen hundred dollars of outlay into fourteen hundred dollars of income and the only thing that’s made you smile all night is something you realized after the fact was a leftover gag from racist minstrelsy, then reconstructed...
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“A whopping 39 songs make up this project, many of them innocuous ramblings about...”
– Bob Waliszewki, “Ani DiFranco: Revelling/Reckoning (Review),” Plugged In Online, (n.d.)
Here is a blatantly homophobic review of an album. I would hope, however, that even a blatant homophobe would realize it’s also a thoroughly silly review of an album.
(via screwrocknroll)
The date’s in...
“I had a bad time. Then I judge that world is going to mistakenspace evil...”
– From the spammed comments folder of my website. I’m humbled to hear that my writing about C + C Music Factory, Spin Doctors, and Macy Gray had that effect on someone.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-11-14) →
Miami Sound Machine (31)
Blue Öyster Cult (19)
Ke$ha (11)
The Times (3)
Claude Debussy (3)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“You never describe any horrors happening, you just say that they do happen....”
– Roald Dahl, in response to “How do you include horrific events without scaring your readers?” (via novazembla)
I don’t know about anyone else, but that shit freaked me out when I was a kid. It was way more traumatizing than it would have been if he’d gone into detail about bones being...
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Aspiring Meme-Starter: #tgiwoti
cureforbedbugs:
I’m trying to start a meme on Twitter where everyone describes something they’ve written without publishing it to the internet. The tag is Thank God It Wasn’t On The Internet, #tgiwoti
You can see mine so far here. Feel free to make it a Tumblr meme.
In high school, I wrote a series (I called it a “cycle”) of poems on the Arthurian legends. Thank God It Was On This...
Q: what is the overlooked gem of an album that...
If I end up doing an album list (I probably won’t), Rose Elinor Dougall’s Without Why will be on it, not necessarily because it was one of the best albums of the year, but because it was one of the albums that came out this year that I listened to.
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Ragg Thyme. →
I said I might have a link later in the weekend for anyone interested in diving into historical ragtime. The four compilations are Classic Ragtime: Roots and Offshoots (RCA Victor), Ragtime Vol. 1 (EPM Musique), Stomp and Swerve: American Music Gets Hot (Archeophone), and The Greatest Ragtime of the Century (Shout! Factory), the last of which is a collection of piano rolls made by ragtime, jazz...
“I might not be the best person to weigh in on this book, actually, because I...”
– Sady Doyle, talking on Tiger Beatdown about problems she has with certain types of televised entertainment, that I also have. Like seriously, I could have written this passage.
By the way, there is also some insight here into why I hate Curb Your Enthusiasm.
(via andrewtsks)
Oh, man, when I was a...
“That’s one of the great puzzles of every American generation to come along since...”
– Shaenon goddamn Garrity on the final Scott Pilgrim book.
isabelthespy asked: to be interpreted in whatsoever manner, regarding whatsoever context(s), you like: what do you find sexy?
girlboymusic asked: I love ragtime, but know next to nothing about it. Suggestions as to how I should educate myself?
cureforbedbugs asked: When did you start writing online? I only know your writing as of...uh, 2009? Maybe even 2010, but it was post-Tumblr.
petenovez asked: Jonathan,I can't remember if you've already discussed her elsewhere but what are your thoughts on Janelle Monae?
Me too me too me too! →
