Interesting results last week, with Aimee Mann and Joni Mitchell tying for a quarter of the votes each, and Tracy Chapman winning with 50%.
This week: Definitive punk, post-punk, and new wave bands
Remember: T-dome ends in 5 weeks.
Slate (yes, I read there often) has an article highlighting some of the all-time great expressions of personal dislike in poetry. From the Roman poet Martial, translated into English in 1608 by Frances Davison, comes my favorite (of course it’s potty humor):
I muse not that your Dog turds oft doth eat;
To a tongue that licks your lips, a turd’s sweet meat.
This has me thinking about great put-downs in pop culture. What are the elements of a great insult? (more…)
My husband is a big fan of thrash and power metal. You know, the fast stuff. With the high-pitched vocals and the speedy guitar work. He calls it “The Metal.” Like it’s a living, breathing thing. I’m also a big fan of metal, but the metal I prefer is the opposite. It’s slow, dark, low…HEAVY. Doom metal. I call it Pure Audio Sunshine.
We debate sometimes over the definition of heavy. To me, the slow, down-tuned stuff is heavy. To him, the speedy, screamy stuff is heavy.
But there was one band early on for me who defined what heavy music was: Soundgarden.
Via Pop Candy I learned that today is the first day of TV Turnoff Week. In commemoration, I’d like to share my list of shows that I always, without fail, make a point of setting my DVR to record on a weekly basis. Here’s my Must-Record List:
That’s itâ€â€five hours of can’t-miss weekly programming, including commercials (which I flip past). I’ll catch other shows now and then, but these are the shows I queue up on my DVR for regular viewing.
What shows are you going to make a point of watching in an act of quiet rebellion against the officious sanctimony of others?
x = (Pi+3)/2
2x = Pi+3
2x(Pi-3) = (Pi+3)(Pi-3)
2Pix-6x = Pi^2-9
9-6x = Pi^2-2Pix
9-6x+x^2 = Pi^2-2Pix+x^2
(3-x)^2 = (Pi-x)^2
3-x = Pi-x
Pi = 3
New York is the greatest city in the world for pizza. Even the worst street pizza is better than Pizza Hut. There is something so delicious and wonderful about getting a slice of cheese, folding it (because we like our crusts thin here), and feeling the grease drip down our throats. MMMmmmmmm…
Grimaldi’s and Lombardi’s always get the most ink, for good reason (delicious pizza and quaint location), but there are better. My personal favorite is the focaccia de nona from La Villa (right down the street here in Brooklyn). Amazing. We also like grandma’s pizza for its crushed tomatoes and garlic/oil/basil combo from Pizza By The Park a couple blocks further away.
I’ve never been to Chicago and had the deep dish there so I can’t really compare it, but I’m having a difficult time imagining it better than my de nona. And Supergenius, please don’t try to tell me that the super ultimate stuffed-crust cheese explosion from Dominoes is a contender.
Last week I returned home from the grocery store with some rhubarb that I had purchased as an impulse buy. I saw those dark red stalks clustered there in a display near the front of the produce section and decided that I had to have it. I figured I could decide what to make out of my rhubarb once I got it home. Today I washed it and put it together with some recently purchased strawberries and made pie.
Tepid voting last week leaves Sufjan Stevens’ “To Be Alone With You” at the top. You guys just don’t like Jesus.
This week: acoustic female performers
Remember: T-dome ends in 6 weeks. (more…)
Whatever you do, no matter how badly you want to, do not open this link if you don’t want serious clues about the season finale of Lost.
My contacts deep inside the power circles of Hollywood tipped me off to something big. (more…)
Three episodes left this season, and we still don’t know who caused the bus crash. This comes as no surprise to VM viewers, who didn’t know who killed Lilly Kane until the season finale (but as this week’s ep taught us — do we really know who killed Lilly?). So, let’s share speculation and and rumor about this season, with a little poll on who’s to blame.
For those who haven’t seen this season yet, (minor) spoilers ho! (more…)
If you haven’t read any Neil Gaiman, you should. If you have, but wonder what all he’s up to, this post is for you. (more…)
If you live in New York you walk. If you’re my wife you walk a step behind me. If you’re me you want to push into oncoming traffic those not following the unspoken, unwritten rules of sidewalk walking.
The underlying principle is that sidewalks are streets for pedestrians. There are rules, just like traffic laws, that if followed, can help us to efficiently/effectively/safely walk down our sidewalks. The following are a few of those rules: (more…)
Kulturblog fave Zhang Yimou has been tapped to oversee the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2008 Olympics. He has committed to the project full-time, saying that he will not direct any new films until after the Olympics are over. He will finish his current project, “The City of Golden Armor.”
Steven Spielberg has also signed on as a creative consultant.
All I can say is that taking two years out of a directing career to produce an overblown production that would be more suitable for the Vegas strip seems like a baaaaad idea from my perspective. Who cares about national pride? I want my movies!
Twelve hours from now, 20,000 runners will be lining up to run the 110th Boston Marathon. These runners will have spent countless hours nursing blisters and black toenails and obstinate IT bands through daily and long weekend runs, looking forward to this day with quiet trepidation. (more…)
The Onion A.V. Club has a feature that they call Random Rules, in which somewhat famous people set their mp3 player to shuffle and say something about each song that comes on. My favorite contributor so far has been Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse. He has the f-word to normal word ratio of a stoner seventh grader, but he’s pretty funny.
Everybody knows you’re only as cool as your music collection, so here’s your chance to show how cool you are. Set your mp3 player or computer music program to shuffle and tell us the first few songs that come up and say something about them. No cheating to make yourself look cool. The coolest person wins a big prize provided by one of the gainfully employed KBers (i.e. not me). (more…)
In a bloody onslaught, the B-52s bombed the hell out of the other fun bands with “Private Idaho.”
Easter Edition this week. See below for the lyrics.
Remember: T-dome ends in 7 weeks. (more…)
I’m not exactly sure which came first for me, my love of football or football cards (chicken or the egg). I imagine there was a time before the Seattle Seahawks were the focus of my pre-pubescent life but I don’t remember it. (more…)
This album is so annoying. It also has a lot to love.
“The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” starts off the annoyance. It’s the kind of song that would accompany a dancing, lip-synching, goo-splattering montage in a Nickelodeon movie. Then the annoyance increases with “Free Radicals,” a Lipped-up take on funky dance music complete with Wayne Coyne’s best Prince falsetto. These and the few other annoying moments on the album (including, but not limited to, bird chirps, ambulance sirens, and, worst of all, the “Uh huh . . . Uh huh”s on the otherwise harmless “Goin’ On”) are reminiscent of the silly playfulness typified by the Lips’ one hit, “She Don’t Use Jelly.” And they are just as unnecessary and disposable. (more…)
Last week I posted about my vinyl singles collection, this week I’m gonna brag a little bit about my albums. I only took pictures of some of the ones I thought worth mentioning.
(more…)
When you get an hour to kill you should watch this video about 9/11. It’s quite fascinating. There’s a lot of “evidence” and even some evidence to a government conspiracy.
However, I have two major disputes:
1) This film doesn’t even touch motive. I don’t know what Bush’s bottom-line advantage would be to blowing up the twin towers. Many people (not in this film) suggest it was to gain love/trust from Americans, to be able to invade Iraq, to get more oil money, etc. None of those seem like powerful enough reasons to kill 3,000 of your own people.
2) The likelihood of the government pulling this whole thing off without any leaks, without any government worker involved coming forward with damning evidence, without some CIA/FBI bumble is extremely, ridiculously, ludicrously unlikely.
But some of that stuff is incredibly convincing…
Wow!! RADIOHEAD wins in a stunning victory!! “High and Dry” garners 14 of 20 votes, putting it in the Valhalla of songs.
This week: fun bands. Remember — vote on the SONG, people.
Also, a reminder: T-dome ends in 8 weeks. Week 52 is the end. If you have suggestions for the final Thunderdomes, get them in now. When it’s over, it’s over. (more…)
Slate is publishing in bi-weekly installments a novel “written in real time” by Walter Kirn, who must be somewhat important because otherwise I wouldn’t have heard of him. You can read about the concept here. You can read the first nine installments here (they’re short).
Briefly, here’s what’s going on: Kent works at AidSat, a commercial remote monitoring service that, via a disguised transmitter/communication device, tracks its clients’ every move, monitors their vitals, looks for signs of distress or danger, provides emotional support and advice (deluxe package), and generally keeps a constant vigil to ensure their safety and happiness. Kent has the hots for a neighbor named Sabrina, an AidSat client, and uses his AidSat connections to his advantage. Sabrina is a friend to a senile old man who is paranoid about a future event that he refers to as “the unbinding.” (more…)
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