Howl Turns 50
Has the time-bomb become a time-capsule?
If There Were No Sun, You Would Have This Song
Like many perpetually adolescent, emotionally-stunted hipsters, I had a radio show at the campus station back in the day. Crafting a show that had flow was an arcane art—one that is virtually impossible to experience on commercial radio stations with limited play lists. Therefore, it was an art that, once mastered, would be of almost no practical use. It certainly wasn't going to get you a good paying job.
Mad Men
I've been fascinated by AMC's summer series Mad Men. Its depiction of 1960 America is revelatory—even though I was alive then, if only eight. And, as Ellen Feldman observes, it's not just the details that make it so powerful, it's a throwback in terms of character development and, dare I say it, pacing. Although AMC has commercials, it doesn't observe the same rhythm other channels do, so some scenes develop for 11 or 12 minutes before a break.
Magnus, Robotfighter Handbook
Anybody besides me remember that old Russ Manning Gold Key comic? That's what this book reminds me of.
Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase
Joan C. Gratz's seven minute animated, um, trip through art—from La Gioconda to Chuck Close. It's 2D claymation from 1992, but it was new to me.
Musurgia Universalis
Father Athanasius Kircher explains just about everything—and the pictures are gorgeous.
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
My friend Jeff gave me a copy of the new CD remaster of this David Byrne/Brian Eno disc—and it's great. Now Byrne and Eno, "in keeping with the original spirit of the album," offer listeners access to the original multitrack recordings and a chance to remix them through a Creative Commons license. They also offer a chance for the remixes to be posted in a daily Top 20, as chosen by the site moderators.
New Crit on Popular Music
Wow, Mark Steyn is even crankier than I am.
On Farting: Language and Laughter In the Middle Ages
Who am I to critique somebody else's field of study?
Pitchfork Gives Music a 6.8
"'Music's first offering, an eclectic, disparate, but mostly functional compendium of influences from 5000 B.C. to present day, hints that this trend's time may not only have fully arrived, but is already on the wane,' [editor in chief Ryan] Schreiber wrote. 'If music has any chance of keeping our interest, it's going to have to move beyond the same palatable but predictable notes, meters, melodies, tonalities, atonalities, timbres, and harmonies.'"