Monday, November 28, 2005
What I Want for Christmas
Pogues tickets.
A tattoo of this.
This.
A couple nice cymbals (crash, ride, hi-hats, the whole shebang -- thick as a Sunday Times, I hit 'em pretty hard).
If anyone wants to buy me any of the items on this list, I will gladly provide my address upon request.
I'm completely serious. |
A tattoo of this.
This.
A couple nice cymbals (crash, ride, hi-hats, the whole shebang -- thick as a Sunday Times, I hit 'em pretty hard).
If anyone wants to buy me any of the items on this list, I will gladly provide my address upon request.
I'm completely serious. |
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Also, Doesn't It Distract the Hell Out of Drivers?
You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!
"Can't too much go wrong next to a big statue of Jesus," said one member of the church, James Nelms, 23.
The idea of remoção is nothing new to Rio de Janeiro, where nearly 20% of the population, a million people, now live in about 750 slums. During the 19th century, town planners forced thousands from the slums of central Rio in a bid to turn the city into a "tropical Paris". In the 1960s, the politics of removal again came to the fore as favelas were bulldozed in the city's south zone and their residents sent to the housing projects on its outskirts. Forgotten by the city's politicians, many of the projects, like Cidade de Deus or City of God, underwent a process of favelização or "favelisation", and are now controlled by drug-trafficking gangs.Related |
Monday, November 14, 2005
I'm Also Working on Spellchecking My Posts
Google referral of the day:
"some goddam relevent commentary"
I'm working on it, man. I'm working on it. |
"some goddam relevent commentary"
I'm working on it, man. I'm working on it. |
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Mad Money
As I was saying, the news that Dan Rather is profiling James Cramer on 60 Minutes does not quite thrill me.
Hey, remember Cramer's flagrant disregard for conflicts of interest as he boosted his hedge fund in mid-'90s columns and tv appearances and denigrated stocks he intended to sell short? And hey, remember his New Republic cover piece from '96 when he cheered on AT&T for laying off 40,000 people, sending their share prices skyrocketing? He thanked the workers for creating such awesome wealth, and then recommended that the stock market take the place of Social Security and welfare and unemployment benefits. And then his own IPO made him filthy rich, then it tanked. And he still has his own goddam TV show. HOW CONSISTENTLY WRONG DO YOU HAVE TO BE?
Seriously, what do you have to do to be blackballed from cable news? How many times to you have to resign in disgrace or be proven disasterously wrong before you're not welcome on Hardball? Would Dick Morris, Newt Gingrich, G. Gordon Liddy, and Pat Robertson have to actually kill a man in cold blood and in Prime Time before the producers stop calling? Or would it have to be an attractive white woman? Will Peter Braunstein be hitting the speaking circuit with Judy Miller next year? Maybe he can give a talk at the Pajamas Media launch party! |
Hey, remember Cramer's flagrant disregard for conflicts of interest as he boosted his hedge fund in mid-'90s columns and tv appearances and denigrated stocks he intended to sell short? And hey, remember his New Republic cover piece from '96 when he cheered on AT&T for laying off 40,000 people, sending their share prices skyrocketing? He thanked the workers for creating such awesome wealth, and then recommended that the stock market take the place of Social Security and welfare and unemployment benefits. And then his own IPO made him filthy rich, then it tanked. And he still has his own goddam TV show. HOW CONSISTENTLY WRONG DO YOU HAVE TO BE?
Seriously, what do you have to do to be blackballed from cable news? How many times to you have to resign in disgrace or be proven disasterously wrong before you're not welcome on Hardball? Would Dick Morris, Newt Gingrich, G. Gordon Liddy, and Pat Robertson have to actually kill a man in cold blood and in Prime Time before the producers stop calling? Or would it have to be an attractive white woman? Will Peter Braunstein be hitting the speaking circuit with Judy Miller next year? Maybe he can give a talk at the Pajamas Media launch party! |
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Ambitious Young Lawyers in Clean-Shaven Shocker!
Every week in New York media another lengthy piece is published somewhere that gives a detailed portrait of a group of people whose existence you may not have known about before, but who you now hate with an intense passion. This week, it's "The Little Supremes," rich young people with law degrees and megalomaniac ambition. Here's a fun one:
Ms. Barkow, a memo has arrived from the rest of the country: YOU'RE DOING A SHITTY JOB. Unless your job, having sniffed out said biases, entails underlining those biases, adding a smiley face in the margins next to them, and symbolically burning the 9th Amendment while kicking a gay puppy. In which case, good work, hope you enjoy your judgeship.
Compliments extended also to Anna Shneider-Mayerson for this sentence:
Law partners... with ambitious career goals... dressing conservatively...? BUT THEY ARE UNDER 40 YEARS OLD! WHY DO THEY NOT SPORT BITCHIN' TATTOOS AND PARTICIPATE IN THE ESPN2 "X-GAMES"? |
Rachel Barkow, 34, an associate professor at N.Y.U. Law School, clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia alongside several Little Supremes, serving as the Âcounter-clerkÂÂthe nickname given to the Democrat he hires to sniff out political biases in his arguments.
Ms. Barkow, a memo has arrived from the rest of the country: YOU'RE DOING A SHITTY JOB. Unless your job, having sniffed out said biases, entails underlining those biases, adding a smiley face in the margins next to them, and symbolically burning the 9th Amendment while kicking a gay puppy. In which case, good work, hope you enjoy your judgeship.
Compliments extended also to Anna Shneider-Mayerson for this sentence:
They wear blazers comfortably -- not a lot of beards or nose rings here.
Law partners... with ambitious career goals... dressing conservatively...? BUT THEY ARE UNDER 40 YEARS OLD! WHY DO THEY NOT SPORT BITCHIN' TATTOOS AND PARTICIPATE IN THE ESPN2 "X-GAMES"? |
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
No Enlightenment At the End of the Tunnel
Happy Election Day! All across the country the folks you helped elect are now entrusted with the responsibility of guiding our fair communities and erasing centuries of human achievement with one 6-4 vote:
Whoo! U-S-A! U-S-A!
I bet some Kansans are starting to regret voting a straight Nihilistic Skepticism Party ticket. |
In addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena.
Whoo! U-S-A! U-S-A!
I bet some Kansans are starting to regret voting a straight Nihilistic Skepticism Party ticket. |
Monday, November 07, 2005
I Am the Opposite of Funny
I won! I won!
Everyone who is anyone is entering Radosh's New Yorker Cartoon Anti-Caption Contest. This week's contest is here. |
Everyone who is anyone is entering Radosh's New Yorker Cartoon Anti-Caption Contest. This week's contest is here. |
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Remainders
Aaaaand We're Off!
Related: The second that some DLC shithead, such as Liebermann or one of the Nelsons (FL, NE), starts praising Alito's judicial tempermant and commitment to the law, that's a huge raise and you should fold. |
Random Thoughts On the Upcoming Mayoral Election, Mostly Borrowed
We liberals do so love the nobility of a lost cause. In my darker moments, when, say, I'm scrounging enough change for one ride on the L train (if it's even running, due to the monopolistic, price-gouging MTA's on-going effort to replace its operators with robots), my thoughts on the political landscape of this fair city due come down to, basically, "God, I hate that fucking pasty-faced rich prick."
If, as the smug old cliche says, a conservative is a liberal whose been mugged, a New York liberal might be one who, after having been mugged, returns home to an apartment almost as shitty and just as unaffordable as that of his or her assailant. Anyway, don't forget to vote, you fucking pasty-faced rich pricks. |
If, as the smug old cliche says, a conservative is a liberal whose been mugged, a New York liberal might be one who, after having been mugged, returns home to an apartment almost as shitty and just as unaffordable as that of his or her assailant. Anyway, don't forget to vote, you fucking pasty-faced rich pricks. |
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
***BREAKING***
Pitchfork Review Bromide Watch, Day One
Various Artists
One Kiss Can Lead to Another
[Rhino; 2005]
Celebration of sentimental pop songs as more mature/timeless than rock cliches:
Defensive support of Rock Crit Cred through measuring of release's importance to the established rock/punk canon, with tacit nod towards "authenticity" of said work and gratuitous namechecking:
Verdict: This box set sounds totally fucking awesome. |
One Kiss Can Lead to Another
[Rhino; 2005]
Celebration of sentimental pop songs as more mature/timeless than rock cliches:
One of the saddest quirks of rock criticism is that the hopes, dreams, and fears of teen girls are frequently considered frolicsome fluff while the rage and defiance of teen boys is miscast as the articulation of free thinkers. And yet, it's the girls-- in part, because they're more likely to function as mouthpieces for adult songwriters-- who examine universal subjects such as love, romance, self-actualization, self-confidence, and personal politics, while young rock bands often simply reject growing up, fight responsibility, and wear that struggle as a badge of pride. Both approaches can work, of course, but unlike a sneer, a kiss never goes out of style.
Defensive support of Rock Crit Cred through measuring of release's importance to the established rock/punk canon, with tacit nod towards "authenticity" of said work and gratuitous namechecking:
In the past 40 years the music featured on One Kiss has served as a touchstone for a wide variety of artists, most notably 1970s New Yorkers (the Ramones, Bruce Springsteen, New York Dolls, Blondie-- even Martin Scorsese), 1980s Brits (the Smiths, Jesus & Mary Chain, the Field Mice, the Cocteau Twins), and contemporary indie stars (Saint Etienne, Magnetic Fields, the Avalanches, the Concretes).
Verdict: This box set sounds totally fucking awesome. |
