July 2011
29 posts
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"The Top Ten Failed First Singles Off The Game's... →
“For mid-level major-label rappers like Game, keeping your fans satisfied while they wait impatiently for a product you keep desperately promising is right around the corner has become a melancholy fact of life. Unless you currently have at least two Top Ten hits currently floating in the radio-playlist soup, your album is a theoretical construct, no more “around the corner”...
June 2011
44 posts
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Tony Skratchere- “Lady in Red (Yacht Bounce...
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"Blow Up: An Oral History of Michael Bay, the Most... →
GQ has been killing these exhaustive oral histories.
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WatchHow much more entertaining is this Catholic throwdown than the standard interview garbage?
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"Here Come the 'Cars 2' Razorblades"- Will Leitch-... →
“The worst movie writers, in our opinion, are the ones who treat movies as some sort of expectations game, who go into every screening with as much information to supply their preconceived (and often incorrect) notions of a film as possible. Then, if the film is slightly better than they thought, it is “good.” If not, it’s “bad.” The problem is that these...
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"How to Talk to Little Girls"- Lisa Bloom-... →
“Teaching girls that their appearance is the first thing you notice tells them that looks are more important than anything. It sets them up for dieting at age 5 and foundation at age 11 and boob jobs at 17 and Botox at 23. As our cultural imperative for girls to be hot 24/7 has become the new normal, American women have become increasingly unhappy. What’s missing? A life of meaning, a...
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The Best Songs of 2011 So Far
I didn’t get the chance to write about many of these—maybe I still will, maybe I won’t. In order: 1. Bon Iver- “Calgary” 2. Panda Bear- “Last Night at the Jetty” 3. tUnE-yArDs- “Bizness” 4. Tyler, the Creator- “Yonkers” 5. Cass McCombs- “County Line” 6. Local Natives- “Who Knows Who Cares (Take Away Show...
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Drake- “Trust Issues” From his...
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WatchI read the script, and I can’t say I was too jacked up about it. There’s too much talent on display here to dismiss it though.
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"The Condition: Personality Seepage"- Bethlehem... →
At least several times a day, I find myself misplacing tone and intention. There are supposed to be clear boundaries here, and yet as different as the interactions are, the relative homogeneity of the interface is what dominates. If I lose focus, the human behind the chat window, or looming over the email-in-progress, drifts away. “I have long admired your publication” becomes “I love the...
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"Get Over Ferris Bueller, Everyone"- Alan Siegel-... →
In this article—and its more scholarly counterpart, Caleb Crain’s “Totaling the Ferrari: Ferris Bueller Revisited” for The Paris Review—Siegel makes some valid points about how Ferris might not be as universal or as charming as we once thought. (I still love it. It’s universal to a White suburban boy, and I don’t think it was aiming to be anything else.*...
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"Peter Saville on His Classic Joy Division and New... →
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WatchThe Rapture- “How Deep Is Your Love?” As if they never left.
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"Space, Time, and DVR Mechanics"- Chuck... →
“What I’ve come to accept (and this is both good and bad, but mostly bad) is that — for the rest of my life — I will never not instantaneously know about any marginally insane event. There’s just no way to avoid the information. The world is too mediated and interpersonal relationships are too connected. Because most adult relationships are now predominantly based around new...
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Modest Mouse- “Out of Gas” From their...
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“That was one of many job opportunities that Galifianakis blew. He says he turned...”
– Bragging about jobs you turned down is the new having a job.
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"Food for Thought: Why Cuisine or Couture Can... →
“Art is of the mind; it is ethereal. Everything it gives us it gives to our brains. Fashion and food fail to be serious art because they are trapped in the physical world. Compare a still-life painting of food – one of those rich, laden Dutch images of lobsters and lemons – with a real plate of food. The painting is very obviously not food – it does not give what food gives. But it does...
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"Free Lil' Boosie's Lyrics! Rap on Trial, Again"-... →
“BoosieJustice does make a mistake in categorizing Boosie’s music as simple ‘entertainment.’ Though it’s important to reject the absurd notion that lyrics can, in any way, be evidence of a crime, it’s clear that Boosie’s writing provides a great deal of insight into how he’s living his life, and it would be wiser to approach this reality head-on....
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"Teen Wolf Director's Commentary"- Rod Daniel- Rod... →
Twenty-six years after the film’s release, Teen Wolf director Rod Daniel has self-released a commentary for the DVD. As far as I know, there are two precedents for this type of thing: Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s incendiary, anti-Comedy Central companions to the South Park DVDs and Rian Johnson’s listen-along to The Brothers Bloom, which he put out for iPods while the movie was...
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"My Rapist Friended Me on Facebook (and All I Got... →
At times, this is hard to read; but it’s definitely worth it.
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WatchAs if David Fincher was going to cut an underwhelming trailer. His trailers are better than his movies sometimes.