Since Whiskeytown and Heartbreaker, Ryan Adams hasn’t really done much for me. Until now. Check out “Welcome to Ryan Adams dot com Motherfucka (aww shit)”. Props to pitchfork. This deserves its own post for sure. Holla!

Watch this funny exchange between some pretty Fox News anchor and California Senator Barbara Boxer. Even the aged Boxer manages to make fun of Fox’s “fair and balanced” claim, to which the Fox News anchor appears personally and genuinely insulted.

And speaking of unfair, unbalanced coverage, WP columnist Dan Froomkin has an excellent, methodical article on the absurdity of President Bush’s rhetoric and the media’s failure for simply quoting him without putting his rhetoric in the proper context (thereby revealing its absurdity).

For example, Froomkin notes Bush’s penchant for raising bizarre straw-man arguments using the “some people say,” “some say,” and “some people in Washington say” sentence constructions. To prove his point, Froomkin includes links to Google searches of Bush’s public comments where he used the these constructions (replicated here: “some people say,” “some say,” and “some people in Washington say“).

I will make no bones about it — TV on the Radio is now one of my favorite bands in the history of the world. Why? Because their music is outrageously sweet. Listen to their song “Wolf Like Me” on their myspace page. It’s everything dark, brooding, melodic, and slightly phantasmagorical rock should be. They came to Dallas two weeks ago but unfortunately I could find nobody to go with : (

To see them in action live, check this video out. They’re playing “Dreams” with Trent Reznor and the lead singer from Bauhaus (whose rock-star stylings are a trip to watch). When the camera pans over to show the audience, you will be entertained : )

I got this speech video from a fellow teacher on a web group that I’m on and was very impressed with this guy’s views on the current state of public education in America (and, really, the first world). He’s a great speaker and pretty funny too. If you care about education and the future, then this is a must see. I agree with him — fortunately, a lot of modern teaching techniques involve teaching to the various intelligences — not just logical/analytical/verbal — and I am trying to incorporate Total Physical Response (TPR)-type activities into my Latin classes.

As a side note, speeches like this evidentally happen all the time at this “meeting of the world’s top minds” called TED that occurs every year in Monterey, CA. I need to figure out a way to crash this party.

It pains me to say this, but on the matter of Art Brut, ZMurder was first right, but then ultimately wrong. Art Brut sucks.

Art Brut’s Bang Bang Rock & Roll is music that only a obessed music critic could like. That’s the only explanation for how after spending 800 words making fun of them, describing their lyrics as

first-person narratives that sound no more complex than a transcript of just-some-guy’s thoughts on a completely unremarkable day … all expressed in language too shallow for even diary-scrawling[,]

Pitchfork can give Bang Bang Rock & Roll an 8.9 rating.

On first listen, Art Brut is at best laughable, at worst an astonishing waste of time (for both the listener and the band members). To me, it’s comedy, and I’ll concede that to the extent it makes one laugh, Bang Bang Rock & Roll is right up there with Weird Al (or more aptly but more obscurely, A.C.). But I can’t imagine a casual or even casually serious music fan listening to a song like “Move to L.A.” and appreciating it as music, not comedy. It’s just not there.

Rather, to attempt to appreciate Art Brut as “music”, one needs a thorough, academic understanding of musical context. Bang Bang Rock & Roll is not good music per se, but “good” only when considered in a broader framework of today’s music. As Pitchfork puts it, Art Brut is “refreshing” because they “fill [a] vacancy” left by “all those 30-piece ensembles, nautically focused concept albums, intricate field-recording pastiches, and three-hour drum circles that dominate our musical neighborhood.” To Pitchfork, Art Brut deserves our attention because of their supposed commentary (I’m not sure it’s intentional) on the pretentiousness of punk or the self-indulgent excesses of the current indie scene. And that’s all fine and well, but it shouldn’t take a deep appreciation of musical context to be able enjoy an individual work.

Surely, a band’s purpose must be (a) to make good music, and only once that has been achieved, (b) to make some commentary or convey a message. It can’t just be commentary alone. But if a band fails at (a), there’s no point in moving on to (b). It’s like Reason’s critique of the most aggressive forms of modern architecture: (HT Murderman)

We want buildings to please their users, not help architects make a philosophical point—a self-indulgent tendency in twentieth-century architecture that reached its reductio ad absurdum with the so-called deconstructionist architects, who deliberately designed buildings that no one would want to live in.

Likewise, surely musicians must make music that first aims to at least minimally pleases the listener, before they are allowed to make critical commentary. The latter without the former is simply unadorned self-indulgence on the musician’s part. It gratifies the musician, but disrespects the listener. But, if Art Brut is to be appreciated the way Pitchfork appreciates them, they are to be appreciated because they make a point, not because they make good music. And that’s a waste of time.

We’re about five weeks away from drafting our new fantasy teams, yet we do not have a league yet. Does anyone have a league recommendation for us? Perhaps a free keeper league. Also, who wants to play this year? We will probably need 10 again.

From Slate:

The pope’s suggestion that compulsion and violence are inherent features of Islam has outraged the Muslim world…. In the West Bank, Palestinians attacked four churches with guns and firebombs. And a Somali cleric added his two cents: “Whoever offends our Prophet Muhammad should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim.”

Although less so than The Great Political Cartoon Debacle of ‘06, responses like these make me feel a huge mental/logical disconnect with certain elements of Islamic culture. I might never see eye to eye with someone who when criticized for being violent simultaneously claims that the criticisms are false and flies into a murderous rage.

I don’t doubt that my own culture is full of people with equally insane inconsistencies. Nevertheless, when I read stuff like this, I’m still struck by a scary feeling that there is an unbridgable cultural chasm between myself and those like the aformentioned Somali cleric.

This morning I was sitting at Ancora Coffee reading The Design of Everyday Things when this Asian hipster dude pulled up in a sweet modded out Pista. The thing to do among Madison’s single speed riders (of which there are approximately 200,000) is to put electrical tape over the logo of their bikes — some kind of No Logo thing. This dude, though, took it to a new level. I created a mock-up of his bike (in Paint, natch):

ZLindsey, if you don’t do this with your Pista I will no longer respect you.

I fuckin hate modernist architecture too. Read this article if you love and hate architecture (it’s about the Ground Zero reconstruction).

I’ll be the first to admit that over the last few years, perhaps no band has produced as consistently beautiful, ethereal music as Sigur Ros. Their three-album progresssion, Ageatis Byrjun, ( ), and Takk, has been a study in how to make engaging, lyricless music, without falling into the excesses and triteness of New Age or Pink Floyd 1982-present. So it bothers me that I’m about to level one of the most devastating criticisms one can about any music: There’s never a good or appropriate occasion to listen to Sigur Ros. The result is that as much as I like and respect Sigur Ros, I never find myself listening to them. Which leads me to wonder, do I even really “like” the music? Read the rest of this entry »

I may have to update my Best Albums of 2003 rankings (if there ever was such a thing). I recently acquired (via the Madison Public Library) Matmos’ The Civil War (pitchfork here) and M. Ward’s The Transfiguration of Vincent (pitchfork there). Both of these artists have critically hailed albums this year, but since a) the library has neither and b) I spent all my money on a coffee machine, I acquired their 2003 releases instead.

Both are excellent! The Civil War is like Boards of Canada with penny whistles, tubas, and bagpipes. The album is inspired by the civil wars of England and the United States and so utilizes instruments common to martial music of the 19th and 17th centuries. Thank god they also use computers to make said instruments sound really wicked. The best song is “Zealous Order of Candied Knights” which I’m pretty sure is also a Neutral Milk Hotel song title, but “Reconstruction” may need to be added to our “Best Songs over 8 Minutes” Lists. “The Struggle Against Unreality Begins” is also money. Matmos was at Pitchfork this summer, and now I’m sad I missed them.

M. Ward’s Transfiguration of Vincent is nearly as good, at least if you like that alt-country sound. My fave’s are “Vincent O’Brien”, “Helicopter”, and the ridiculous cover of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”.

Don’t get me wrong. Dear Catastrophe Waitress and Hail to the Thief are still way better than either of these. But these are probably top 10 for ‘03.

Guys,

I know when you click on this link and see the gender and age of the members of this band, you’re going to think me a mighty big wussy. I can understand that. But listen to their song — “Find a Way”. So poppy, so catchy — when I first heard (randomly — I just downloaded a bunch of modern indie songs) them, I would have sworn they were adults. Such a mature sound for their age. Give ‘em a shot. They’ve already toured with Death Cab for Cutie and Pearl Jam!

I just came across an intersting graph of inflation adjusted home prices in the us over the last 116 years from a recent NYT story.

The current bubble makes the real-estate booms of the 70s and 80s look tiny.

Food for thought for anyone thinking about that all important step in the journey to the middle: buying a home.

Due to complications stemming from Yahoo being fucking terrible, I got locked out of my old Flickr page. Though you can still go there, it won’t be updated. So I set up a new Flickr page! Get in there like swimwear!

This weekend, I’m a tourist in New York City, and today, I went on a long walk: 8.25 miles. Here’s the route. I think that’s a a one-day personal best for walking.

The bell has rung and the US has fallen to Greece. Strangely, I am not as devasted as when we lost to Argentina in ‘04. I am slowly adapting to a new world order in which American teams (even with NBA talent) are not the best. I still believe America has the deepest and overall best talent in the world, but that has not translated into international tournament championships the last few years. Greece is the first team that has knocked out the US without current NBA players on its team (though Fotsis has played before and Spanoulis will play with the Rockets next year). They were, however, the European champions last year, which goes to show how advanced the best Euro teams now are compared to NBA teams. Even winning a bronze will be a tough order for the US — beating Spain or Argentina will be no easy task. I think there are a few main reasons that teams like Greece, Spain, and Argentina currently have a leg up on us in the Olympics and Worlds –

1) Their players have played together for much longer (I think Argentina is nearing 10 years) from the junior teams on up. Not only that, but there are no restrictions on practice time overseas, meaning whereas US college players are limited to 20 hours a week, the Europeans can practice twice that much if need be. This results in beautiful team chemistry, both defensively and especially offensively. The US simply lacked the defensive cohesiveness and a defensive philosophy to which they commited when dealing with the wrinkles Greece’s offense threw at them again and again — especially pick and rolls from the top of the key.

2) FIBA rules — it’s a different game than the NBA. The ball is slightly smaller. Periods are shorter. Less fouls. Fewer complete sentences. Goaltending allowed. Zones allowed. Shorter three point line. American NBA players have to adapt to these rules whereas foreign players grew up playing by them and there is little if no adjustment time.

I think the US is off to a great start in rebuilding its national program. Now that we have a 3-year commitment from players and coaches, the cohesion should be much better over the next two summers (though there will be some different players chosen, and Kobe will be on the team, which could take a little away from that elusive flowing harmony). They have to develop ways of dealing with the sophisticated offensive gameplans of these finely tuned and seasoned top flight national teams. Most importantly, a more team-oriented half-court offense needs to be thorougly practiced and implemented in game-time situations. This, however, plays against what makes the US team so strong in the first place — stellar individual talent and one-on-one ability (it’s the basketball culture our best were raised in).

Even with improvements, I’m not so sure that we’ll win gold at the Olympics. We’ll be vying, but I can still see the same problems that hurt this team against Greece coming back to bite us. Regardless, I have never been more excited about the state of basketball. Forget nationalities. The standard of play has never been higher, and the increasing parity worldwide should only help push and elevate the game to greater and greater heights. Sure, I want the US to win every time, but I’d rather see great basketball than us trouncing everybody last with the Dream Teams. I’ve never been more excited about a all-foreign game than the upcoming Spain-Argentina semifinal….

PS — Hats off to the Greeks for playing the game of their lives — they shot tremendously well, made their fourth-quarter FTs, and executed with surgical precision. At least US basketball is still respected enough to receive the best from its opponents every time.

Like the crazed, international basketall-thirsty fan that I am, I am watching the early morning US-Greece World Championships semifinal (though I may have mild food poisoning), and it is not pretty. We’re down by 14 with 5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. Our lack of offensive team cohesiveness (especially in half-court offense) and a gameplan to deal with the Greeks’ incessant pick-and-rolling (not to mention our atrocious free throw shooting) is killing us. It looks like we may lose this, and worse yet, doesn’t bode well for us were we to play Spain/Argentina. Sigh…..

On a better note, I’m going to Fayetteville this weekend! Hopefully, I’ll make it up Friday night and leave Sunday afternoon. It’s been a long while, so I’m definitely looking forward to good times.