the rich girls are weeping take notes

nevver: À bout de souffle Oddly, it’s...

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:29:00 -0400

À bout de souffle

Oddly, it’s been the kind of day where I’m thinking about this very thing quite a bit.

Woah, this is also my 2000th post. I admit, when I saw that this milestone was approaching, I wanted to post something profound in this space. I guess this is rather profound. Even if it seems (possibly) mildly pretentious and moody.

Music criticism as music education?

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:26:00 -0400

barthel:

This bit by Joe Tangeri from Pitchfork’s top singles of the 90s list made me wonder exactly who that list was supposed to be for, and how it was supposed to work:

Quick, what was Melody Maker’s album of the year in 1993? No, it wasn’t Suede’s self-titled debut or Blur’s Modern Life Is Rubbish; it was Tindersticks’ debut, a brave and spot-on choice.

…because, man, quick or not, I had no idea what Melody Maker’s album of the year in 1993 would be before he mentioned the candidates. I didn’t even have the kind of contextual knowledge that would’ve allowed me to come up with those albums, and I didn’t know why it mattered that it was Melody Maker.

Sorry to crop the rest of this rather good post (you should read the whole thing!) — but I’m taking a moment to remark upon my experience reading this: I have a former friend (oh, the drama!) who worked for Melody Maker during this period, and all I could think was “OMG, that was so [name redacted]’s doing!”

Naturally, I hadn’t listened to Tindersticks in ages because, though I don’t often ditch listening to certain kinds of music because of relationships or friendships gone awry, this person and another from my past (both Tindersticks superfans) have pretty much tainted my love of this band with their sociopathic lifestyles.

Anyway, the funny thing is, I would have totally suspected Suede or Blur to have taken top honors that year in Melody Maker! Because, obviously, I listen to both of those records way more than I listen to the first Tindersticks album. It’s kind of not an easy thing to do, you definitely need to be in the right mood for it.

So, of course, after I read this the other day, I thought ‘Oh what the hell, it’s time to put all that baggage behind me! I’m gonna listen to Tindersticks again!’ And — this is really embarrassing — I’d completely forgotten that The National pretty much cribbed a whole lot of their moves from Tindersticks’ playbook — at least in the early days of their career. Which I wish Tangeri had mentioned, actually. Not in that “Oh, The National, so derivative!” But for the kids, the ones reading this list who’d never heard of Tindersticks until that very moment. Which I suppose does come back to the didactic qualities of good music journalism. There’s a very fine line between this-thing-sounds-like-that-thing and true efforts to expand a reader’s knowledge through references to other bands — but this would have been a good place for the latter, I think — even given the space constraints.

Sorry this is from a janky questionable video site, but it was...

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:33:43 -0400

Sorry this is from a janky questionable video site, but it was the only place I could find a clip of this moment? Just hit the play button twice …

My most favorite 90210-related thing ever. EVER.

desnoise: Elliott Smith - Car (Built To Spill Cover) Came...

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:28:18 -0400

desnoise:

Elliott Smith - Car (Built To Spill Cover)

Came across this while writing one of my blurbs that ran today in p4k’s 90s feature.

Oh. I kind of forgot this cover existed. This is my heart breaking all over the place. Dear mid/late 90’s, I really miss you sometimes.

bmichael: Robyn“We Dance To The Beat” This is not one of the...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:26:55 -0400

bmichael:

Robyn
“We Dance To The Beat”

This is not one of the best songs on the album, but it has one of my favorite lines:

We dance to the beat of bad kissers clicking teeth.

I love this line, too. I’m definitely all over Body Talk Pt. 2 lately. I know you won’t believe me, or maybe you will, but it’s in severely heavy rotation with The Stills’ Without Feathers, Queen’s Greatest Hits Vol 1 & 2, and the new Katy Perry record (yes, really).

I spend a lot of time thinking about how great it’s going to be to listen to all three Body Talk volumes in a row. Since I no longer download leaks or anything, I’m like really excited to wait for that experience!

Queen - Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy on Top Of The Pops, June...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:05:25 -0400

Queen - Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy on Top Of The Pops, June 1977

(via New Kid - Dreamcore Boots at Gargyle.com) Oh man, I hope...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:45:25 -0400

(via New Kid - Dreamcore Boots at Gargyle.com)

Oh man, I hope these fit me. They look narrow-ish there in the toebox.

“Sheep, having no upper teeth, grip the grass between...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:06:00 -0400

“Sheep, having no upper teeth, grip the grass between their lower teeth and upper gum then, with a quick move of the head, they pluck the grass. 100 plucking sheep are noisy.” (via Catskill Merino Sheep Farm | Hand-Dyed Merino Yarn & Pasture Raised Lamb)

Soap&Skin - Thanatos (by benjamin & stefan ramirez...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:03:11 -0400

Soap&Skin - Thanatos (by benjamin & stefan ramirez perez)

Wow, thanks for the heads up on this one, Austrian Cultural Forum!

elchucostore: brinca-brinca…renta :: venta (by chacal la...

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:14:04 -0400

elchucostore:

brinca-brinca…renta :: venta (by chacal la chaise)

My mom (!!!) is on a roll over at elchucostore. She’s documenting hand-painted storefronts in my hometown of El Paso, Texas. This is definitely one of my favorites.

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-8-29)

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:46:00 -0400

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-8-29):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

THIS ONE IS KIND OF EMBARRASSING.

Robyn — Hang With Me Seriously, this song totally gets to...

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:11:43 -0400

Robyn — Hang With Me

Seriously, this song totally gets to the teenage me. I’m trying not to feel weird/bad about that.

Also, man, I wish my hair was as awesome as Robyn’s. Going platinum is just too much work.

So tempted. Don’t be surprised if you see me rocking...

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:17:57 -0400

So tempted. Don’t be surprised if you see me rocking these glasses (which, I might add, are actually sunglasses, but I’d wear as styled here) later this year.

barthel: Once again, the Arcade Fire tells me my childhood...

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:07:00 -0400

barthel:

Once again, the Arcade Fire tells me my childhood experience was illegitimate.

[via]

Actually, I had this problem too, then searched by city name and not zip code, and it loaded just fine.

And, let me tell you, the Santa Fe, NM version of this is really trippy, given that “downtown” is a town square that is nearly 400 years old. Some parts of the application worked really, really well because of that.

elchucostore: Clark Street: La Milpa Tortilleria Grocery...

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:58:53 -0400

elchucostore:

Clark Street: La Milpa Tortilleria Grocery Shopfront typography (by chacal la chaise)

velveteenrabbit: harryjolivet: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Desk...

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:58:50 -0400

velveteenrabbit:

harryjolivet:

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Desk at Bernard Lamotte’s Home, ca 1960 -by André Kertész

The Connecticut home of French painter Bernard Lamotte: the desk on which Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote The Little Prince, with a copy of the manuscript.

via Corbis (Condé Nast Archive)

"It’s more in the early Cronenberg, early Polanski kind of mood, like ‘The Tenant.’"

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:37:00 -0400

“It’s more in the early Cronenberg, early Polanski kind of mood, like ‘The Tenant.’”

- Vincent Cassel on Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (via seanfennessey)

I wasn’t aware of Black Swan until a few days ago; after watching the trailer my first thought that it was kind Rabid meets The Red Shoes. Or, yeah, The Tenant!

I am a little nervous about this, btw. Requiem for a Dream (The Director’s Cut) literally left me screaming “Turn it off! Turn it off!” in horror. That was a first! Then again, I adored The Fountain … (… and haven’t seen The Wresler yet. I KNOW.)

How to tell if a CEO is lying

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:26:00 -0400

How to tell if a CEO is lying:

youmightfindyourself:

bobulate:

The Economist summarizes a study from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business showing how to tell when a CEO is lying:

Deceptive bosses, it transpires, tend to make more references to general knowledge (“as you know…”), and refer less to shareholder value (perhaps to minimise the risk of a lawsuit, the authors hypothesise). They also use fewer “non-extreme positive emotion words”. That is, instead of describing something as “good”, they call it “fantastic”. The aim is to “sound more persuasive” while talking horsefeathers.

By analyzing the linguistic features present during 30,000 conference calls by CEOs and CFOs the study also found:

[D]eceptive CEOs use significantly fewer self-references, more third person plural and impersonal pronouns, more extreme positive emotions, fewer extreme negative emotions, and fewer certainty and hesitation words.

Give CEOs a pencil and paper and listen well, and you too can detect horsefeathers. [via]

Fascinating stuff!

velveteenrabbit: Head Over Heels - Go-Go’s This is second time...

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:50:00 -0400