December 2009
22 posts
a wasted summer with no drummer
10 favorite albums of 2009 in alphabetical order:
- Noble Beast, Andrew Bird - Art Brut, Art Brut vs. Satan - Mister Pop, The Clean - Curse Your Branches, David Bazan - The Mountain, Heartless Bastards - Neptune’s Daughter, Luminescent Orchestrii - The Life of the World to Come, The Mountain Goats - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Those Darlins, Those...
Christmas Is Now Drawing Near At Hand by the...
It’s disappointing to see that according to a Pew poll of people’s opinions on technological change cable news and opinions shows are not considered the biggest “change for the worst.” That honor goes to reality television. Confusingly, people rank the Internet has one of the best technological changes of the decade, but then rank social networking and blogs as some of the...
genius inside: why everything you believe is true
Wouldn’t this be a great title for a self-help book? Who wouldn’t want to read about why they are correct?
Christmas Song by The Aislers Set
The amazing...
oops
Last night I got the bright idea to order lots of pizza in order to prepare for the incoming snow storm. As of this morning, I’ve ate all the pizza and the snow has yet to start.
best easy listening album of 2009
To qualify for this category, an album had to be worth listening to, but mellow enough to warrant the “easy listening” label—an often derogatory term. By any normal standard, the Brakes’ Touchdown LP would not fall into the “easy listening” camp since they are a punk band. However, these tracks are easy to listen to in the sense that almost all of them are...
best australian country album of the decade
As expected, there was fierce competition in this category. Kasey Chambers came out on top with her LP Wayward Angel. Born in the Australian outback in 1976, Chambers emerged on the Australian country music scene in 1999 with The Captain. Wayward Angel hit number one on the Australian charts in 2004. Chambers has the distinction of being one of the few country artists palatable to NPR listeners in...
“Gourmet Magazine, sons of bitches. It looks great; it sounds great. Then you try...”
– Man overheard ranting on Bedford Ave.
circular arguments
A survey of professional philosophers (i.e. college professors) asked what are philosophers experts at. The philosophers reported their primary skill is “Accurately describing the views of other philosophers, living and dead.” Philosophers said a second skill is “Checking arguments for logical validity/internal consistency.” No philosophers claimed they are good at finding...
Callin’ In Sick by Weird Al
“I could...
Don’t Marry Her by Beautiful South
An...
“In 2010 the decline of the MBA will cut off the supply of bullshit at the...”
– Lucy Kellaway, Financial Times columnist
best advice column questions of all time
Slate’s Dear Prudence wins the award for yesterday’s column. Questions include:
Is it a bad idea to hire my friends to clean my house?
What should I do about the “high-level financial executive” at my company who steals everyone’s lunches?
How do I ask my brother if he murdered a hitchhiker?
Over Thanksgiving my younger brother told me about this pop singer called Lady Gaga, who has several catchy songs. The song “Poker Face” sounds to me like something Cartman’s Fingerbang band would sing on South Park. And what do you know, it turns out South Park has Cartman sing the song in a recent episode.