January 2012
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New Year's Resolutions
Not because posting them publicly will make me any likelier to do them, but because the best face forward they put on my ambitions is a sop to my ego.
Make a schedule. Stick to it.
Put away the devices and pick up a book.
Read, and listen, and watch, without planning to write about it later.
Spend money in a manner consistent with my income.
Get rid of stuff. Throw it away, sell it, put it in...
December 2011
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In the interests of total transparency, this is a notice that I’ve called a mulligan on my 100 favorite songs of 2011 and swapped out three or four songs for ones I realized too late that I liked more. But obviously, nobody who is not me should care.
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michelledean asked: THE INTERNET
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What will you miss least about 2011? Discuss! →
Jonathan's 100 Favorite Songs of 2011 (So Far)
That’s right, jesus christ not another one of these things. Nothing very surprising if you’ve been following along. Still wanted to do it.
This was both one of the best years of my life and one of the worst. I have zero perspective on important things about the year, much less on its music. These are a hundred songs I liked listening to while it happened, and which I haven’t got...
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WALE FT. RICK ROSS & JEREMIH “THAT WAY”
If there are horns in the arrangement, I’m probably going to overrate the song unless I spend enough time with it to move past them. Even the limited fanfare here seduced me into thinking warm thoughts about the song, even as I acknowledged in my blurb that the sentiments being expressed were sociopathic. Jeremih’s sighing...
“Grant Morrison, to justify his outlandish fantasy worlds recently said “We...”
– Campbell forever.
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This is a long one, brought to you by the article The and by sorting in Windows rather than iTunes. Apologies.
TECH N9NE FT. YELAWOLF, BUSTA RHYMES, TWISTA, CEZA, JL OF B. HOOD, U$O, D-LOC & TWISTED INSANE “WORLDWIDE CHOPPERS”
When I’m tagging my hip-hop mp3s, I always want to put the “ft.”s in order of appearance, because if I’m not really familiar with...
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Trigger warning. →
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SAK NOEL “LOCA PEOPLE (WHAT THE FUCK)”
Yet again, I’m tripped up by my total dumb-puppy crush on anything even remotely Spanish-language, even when nearly the only words in Spanish are “Jonny, la gente está muy loca” (“Johnny, people [here] are really crazy”). The DJ with his name on the thing is Spanish, but the singer vocalist Esthera Sarita is Dutch,...
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Ugh. Thanks for the fact-check, Erika. →
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PANIC! AT THE DISCO “THE BALLAD OF MONA LISA”
A constant refrain in this (Re)Consideration has been “I haven’t really listened to anything this person did before this song.” This is the latest one of those. Apparently this is a somewhat different Panic! At the Disco than the Panic! At the Disco that some people really really love, and there’s been a change in...
Or I could start alienating half my dashboard now by talking shit about metal!
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NADIA OH “TAKING OVER THE DANCEFLOOR (KATE MIDDLETON)”
It’s an insane song, yes, but perhaps only a song this insane could explain a country in which riots and a wedding seemed to take up the bulk of the year (as seen from an ocean and a continent away). When she robotically chirps “take your money, we gone take your money,” it’s nightmare fuel for anyone who...
katherinestasaph asked: sadly we were not the first to put Super Bass at No. 1! I forget who did. (Entertainment Weekly maybe?)
Popdust's Best Songs of 2011: #20-1 →
katherinestasaph:
This is it: our top 20 songs of the year! I wrote on “I’m On One,” “Beat of My Drum,” “The Edge of Glory,” “Novacane” and “Rolling in the Deep.”
I wrote on “Skyscraper” and “We Found Love.” Which might make the following statement sound biased, but I’m not, honest: This is the only year-end list I’ve seen that got the #1 spot exactly right.
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Crowdsourcing my deficiencies
jonathanbogart:
Hey, if anyone knows of any good writing on the Golden Age of Tango (or of Flamenco, or Bolero, or Fado, or Samba, or Rumba, or Son), could you drop me a line? Academic, literary, populist, whatever. Spanish-language okay, Portuguese workable.
Reblogging for morning tumblrs. Wouldn’t be mad at any signal boosts, either.
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MAGNETIC MAN FT. JOHN LEGEND “GETTING NOWHERE”
For someone who’s been awfully dismissive of neo-soul singers in the past, I sure do like them on an individual song level. (See previously: Jill Scott & Anthony Hamilton.) John Legend’s earthbound yearning is catapulted heavenward by a gorgeous production track from UK funky trio Magnetic Man, all scattered celeste notes...
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Crowdsourcing my deficiencies
Hey, if anyone knows of any good writing on the Golden Age of Tango (or of Flamenco, or Bolero, or Fado, or Samba, or Rumba, or Son), could you drop me a line? Academic, literary, populist, whatever. Spanish-language okay, Portuguese workable.
Hey Internet. I know, I know, it’s a long slow slog to Friday, when I shall be free to run and jump and romp about the place with you once more. But it’s no good sitting by my door and whining. I have to sleep sometime.
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Watchandrewtsks:
nickminichino:
docshaner:
My new favorite old Christmas song.
I know somebody who reads this Tumblr is going to want to watch Oscar the Grouch sing “I Hate Christmas.”
This is AWESOME. Also, it is seriously old school because Mr. Hooper is in it (so, pre-1983). I’m wondering if children’s TV show makers in the modern era would be this willing to depict the kind of...
Word string I cannot get out of my head for some...
Lie Dream of the Clams Casino Soul
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LADY GAGA “MARRY THE NIGHT”
This has taken so long because I don’t really feel comfortable talking about why I don’t really feel comfortable writing about this song. So I’ll just say that I’ve listened to it a lot, that it’s probably the best song off Born This Way, and that I almost never get much pleasure out of it.
LADY GAGA “THE EDGE OF...
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I ♥ Erika + Isabel.
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Pop quiz.
Were my first words of the day (“Goddammit. Fuck you.”) directed towards:
a) A person or other entity that had harmed, threatened, or inconvenienced me in any way;
or
b) A clear blue sky?
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Ugh, fuck Spotify.
Look, I understand that there’s no real incentive for labels to release high-quality transfers of old 78rpm records to a free(ish) streaming service; most people won’t know the difference between a shitty transfer and a good one. (Strike that; most people won’t ever even know any of it is there.) And yeah, I know, it’s the Internet; nobody gives a shit about properly...
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ley-lines asked: What is your favorite reprint among the riches of the Golden Age of Reprints? I have barely dipped a toe in the ocean of stuff that has come out in the past decade.
hyenabutter asked: I can't help but see this as a personal request
lightbulbhead asked: What was your gateway to old comic strips? It seems many people I talk to stumbled across the Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics and it hooked them, as it did me (though I was hooked by Nemo slightly a few years before). Were you another victim of it's all-encompassing grasp?
jonathanbogart asked: "I have none to give," the Ghost replied. "It comes from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men. Nor can I tell you what I would. A very little more, is all permitted to me. I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked beyond our counting-house — mark me! — in life my spirit never roved...
Speak comfort to me, Jacob. →