Archive for April, 2010
30
Apr
Posted by John S in Music, Ranking Bob Dylan Songs, Rankings. Tagged: Blind Lemon Jefferson, Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan (album), honesty in music, honesty vs. authenticity, Joni Mitchell, Joni Mitchell is a bitch, LA Times, Lou Reed, See That My Grave Is Kept Clean, Woody Guthrie. 4 Comments
Why is a 20-year-old kid singing about keeping his grave clean? This, in a nutshell, is the problem with Dylan’s first album: His songs don’t feel honest; they sound as if he is trying to duplicate the emotions of other singers instead of translating his own feelings. There has been some discussion recently, thanks to [...]
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30
Apr
Posted by Tim in TV. Tagged: a mention of the l. ron hubbard house, amanda kimmel, candice woodcock, catfights!, colby donaldson, courtney as best juror ever, courtney yates, danielle dilorenzo, danielle's ample bosom, hidden immunity idols, i actually did see the l. ron hubbard house (frightening in several ways), jerri=suzie, jumping ship, mock outrage at aliteral tendencies, parvati shallow, robert louis stevenson, rupert boneham, russell hantz, sandra diaz-twine, survivor survival guide, treasure island, unc alums: what else do you expect?. 3 Comments
“This is ridiculous! Colby!” –Danielle “I didn’t even see what happened. I was watching Treasure Island.” –Colby “Jumping Ship” established its premise early: Led by Rupert, the Heroes would try to sway Sandra to their side; Russell would counter by trying to get Candice to come over to the dark side. The vote would almost [...]
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29
Apr
Posted by Tim in Sports, Unabated to the Quarterback. Tagged: chris berman, jon gruden, Malcolm Gladwell, mel kiper jr., NFL Draft, philosophical questions about the enjoyment of sports, steve young, the bottom line, the masters, the topography of heaven, the unknowability of the nfl draft, the unpredictability of college qbs in the nfl, todd mcshay, tom jackson, Unabated to the Quarterback. Leave a Comment
A few years ago, I tried to force one of my friends to watch The Masters. I tried to explain how watching a major golf tournament was different from watching any other sporting event, with the way the leaderboard constantly evolved and, by Sunday night, you laughed at yourself for thinking a few hours before [...]
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29
Apr
Posted by John S in Real World/Road Rules Challenge, Sports, TV. Tagged: "you killed it", Brandon drinks a beer, but you can't play drunk, Danny is an idiot, Katelynn hurts her knee, Kenny, Kenny Alliance, Laurel proves to be INvaluable, Laurel proves to be valuable, Real World, Real World/Road Rules Challenge, TJ Lavin, well-oiled machines, Wes, Wes/Evelyn Alliance, you can play hurt. 2 Comments
“We are a well-oiled machine.”—Wes “They absolutely killed the rest of the competition: Kenny and Laurel are again victorious. Who would have thought that Kenny would dominate a challenge this much?”—TJ Lavin Last night’s episode wasn’t particularly exciting. It basically just served to re-illustrate the things we already knew—until, that is, the very end, which [...]
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28
Apr
Posted by John S in Culture, Getting Lost, TV. Tagged: answering Lost's questions, Christian Shephard, cut to black, Desmond Hume, friday night lights, How has Lost answered my questions?, identity questions, Jack Shephard, Jacob and the Man in Black, john locke, John Locke is special/important/a believer, LA X, Lost, Lost final season, Lost Season Six, Mad Men, the importance of John Locke, The Island, The Sopranos, The Wire. 28 Comments
In the absence of a new Lost episode last night (ABC ran a rerun of “Ab Aeterno” instead), this week’s “Getting Lost” will look at where the show’s final season stands now: Given the hype and anticipation for this season of Lost, has it lived up to the expectations? That, of course, is the big [...]
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27
Apr
Posted by Tim in Sports. Tagged: american point guard renaissance, baron davis, bob cousy, brandon jennings, chauncey billups, chris paul, deron williams, derrick rose, gary payton, handchecking regulations, isiah thomas, jason kidd, john stockton, nate archibald, rajon rondo, ron harper, russell westbrook, stephon marbury, steve francis, steve nash, the 2:1 FGA:Ast ratio, the triangle offense, tony parker, why point guard is the most important position. 5 Comments
For me, the American Point Guard Renaissance started on an otherwise uneventful night in Winston-Salem, N.C. in February 2004. In Wake Forest’s upset of Duke that night at Lawrence Joel Coliseum, highly touted freshman guard Chris Paul showed that he may not have been touted highly enough. Paul scored 19 second-half points and absolutely dissected [...]
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27
Apr
Posted by John S in Music, Ranking Bob Dylan Songs. Tagged: Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan (album), Chronicles, Dylan living it up, Dylan's voice, early folk scene, Pretty Peggy-O, Song to Woody. 3 Comments
Other than the great “Song To Woody,” which I praised last week, I haven’t ranked the songs on Bob Dylan’s first album very high. In fact, if you leave out “Song To Woody,” the average ranking of the songs from Dylan’s debut has been about 99th, and none of the other tracks has come in [...]
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26
Apr
Posted by John S in Law. Tagged: 2010 Census, Bill of Rights, empirical data, Founding Fathers, James Madison, john locke, love of statistics, something the founders got right, the census is great, the Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, thomas jefferson. 8 Comments
As a general rule, the Founding Fathers get way too much credit. The Declaration of Independence was basically plagiarized from John Locke; a lot of the Constitution is downright awful, either from a moral standpoint or a procedural one. Let’s not even get started on the Bill of Rights… One thing the Founders do not [...]
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26
Apr
Posted by NPI in Monday Medley. Tagged: Alex Rodriguez, Alicia Parlette, Bob Dylan, Dallas Braden, Diane Wood, Joe Posnanski, John Mulaney, Joni Mitchell is a bitch, Ke$ha, NBA Draft, NFL Draft, philadelphia, Phillies fans, San Francisco Chronicle, SAT scores, Saturday Night Live, Springfield Nuclear Power Plant Softball, the awl, The Simpsons, wall street journal, you don't walk on the mound. 1 Comment
What we read while going undrafted once again… Alex Rodriguez is “clutch” now, so we have to come up with new crimes for him to commit, like violating the age-old rule about not stepping on Dallas Braden’s mound. This inspired The New York Times to revisit all of A-Rod’s old sins. John S was going [...]
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25
Apr
Posted by John S in Literature, Sunday Book Review. Tagged: 1996, Alanis Morissette, Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, Charlie Rose, david foster wallace, David Lipsky, Infinite Jest, literary fame, Newsweek, oddly placed afterwords, Rolling Stone, second-order vanity, The Lost Years & Last Days of David Foster Wallace, The New York Times Book Review, Time, Walter Kirn. 4 Comments
“If by some paradox, this whole fuss could get me some kind of even just like a five-minute cup of tea with Alanis Morissette, that would be more than reward enough”—David Foster Wallace, 1996 In early March of 1996, Rolling Stone sent David Lipsky to join David Foster Wallace for the end of his book [...]
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