Monday Medley

What we read while getting used to writing “2013″…

• New Year’s around the world.

• A New Year’s Resolution from Norm Macdonald.

• West Virginia is finally being put on the map.

• Adrian Lamo tries to explain himself.

• As Lance Armstrong contemplates a confession, just how altruistic is LiveStrong?

• The 20th anniversary of one of the greatest playoff games in NFL history.

• Alan Sepinwall talks about his new book and the crucial episodes in the last decade of television.

• An unconventional example of criminal justice.

• Some thoughts on Quentin Tarantino’s revisionary history.

• George Saunders has ended the race for best book of 2013.

• Nobody does obituaries like The Economist, and this one, on British speaking clock Brian Cobby, shows why.

• This week in oral histories (two!): A look back at Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay”, plus an oral history of Good Will Hunting.

• The coolest iPhone case that doesn’t really work.

• Bill Wyman exposes the myth that Michael Jackson has sold “a billion” records.

• Matt Taibbi revisits the bailout over four years later.

• The best lede of the week, and it’s not even close.

Aught Lang Syne: Tim’s Video Hitlist

I want to make one thing clear from the start: This is my hitlist. John, Josh, and Pierre had nothing to do with it, and I don’t want to sully their reputations or that of the blog as a whole in presenting it. You know what I think about music.

But the following is a list of eight music videos from the Aughts, loosely defined as “my favorites.” I was late to the music video party, not getting MTV until it stopped playing music videos.*

*I mean “getting” there in the sense that I did not have it as a channel on my television. I did understand what MTV was.

If you want to make the case that I don’t “get” music videos, go ahead.

Monday Medley

What we read on the clandestine flight to South America:

• This probably isn’t Tom Junod’s best work–the paragraph-to-paragraph logic is a bit lacking at times–but it is the best thing we’ve read about who, and more importantly what, Michael Jackson was. It’s also another reminder of a simple rule we have: If Junod writes it, we’ll read it. See: The Falling Man, which may just be his best.

• Josh alluded to David Foster Wallace’s Consider the Lobster earlier this week. Here’s the NPI consensus best essay from that collection. Take our word: It’s about much more than grammar. (N.B.: Feel free to skip the first paragraph/subtitle.)

• Roger Ebert offers a scathing criticism of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on his highly recommended blog for the Chicago Sun Times. He also wrote a pretty good thing about Michael Jackson.

• Ever wonder why we undergo  déjà vu? A study by Elizabeth Marsh of Duke University (this, shockingly, is our first explicit Duke reference on the blog)  and Alan Brown of Sam Madison University provides a reasonable and interesting explanation.

• John S asked why we aren’t asking more questions about David Ortiz and steroids…well, The Big Lead and Jeff Pearlman of SI asks the same question about A-Rod.

• Any fans of Stella and The State out there should be reading this blog in preparation for Michael and Michael Have Issues. 

A Tribute: The Top Ten Michael Jackson Songs

So in light of his unfortunate passing, NPI got together and decided to rank our favorite Jacko songs. It was a dead heat for the #1 spot, with the top three all falling within one point of each other. In our collective opinion, this is what the list looks like: