We poke around the 'Net:
- An interview with Paul Krassner. During which he says:
The more repression there is, the more need there is for irreverence toward those who are responsible for that repression. But too often sarcasm passes for irony, name-calling passes for insight, bleeped-out four-letter words pass for wit, and lowest-common-denominator jokes pass for analysis. Satire should have a point of view. It doesn’t have to get a belly laugh. It does have to present criticism.
via The Sideshow. From The Sun magazine, which looks interesting.- The New Yorker's Sasha Frere-Jones profiles Beyoncé Knowles' musicianship and musical influences:
She is also a strange and brilliant musician. Young black female singers rarely get past the red rope and into the Genius Lounge—the moody, the male, and the dead crowd that room. But with or without co-writers, Knowles does remarkable things with tone and harmony. The one time I met her, backstage at a Destiny’s Child concert in Peoria in 2000, she talked about listening to Miles Davis and Fela Kuti—affinities I didn’t know how to process until I heard “Apple Pie à la Mode,” from the following year’s Destiny’s Child album, “Survivor.” It’s a slinky song, something of a throwaway, except that Prince or D’Angelo could easily have done the throwing away.
(Yes, I do approach Pop Music Critics with a jaundiced eye, but this isn't too bad, considering. Although I regard it as kind of funny that Amy Winehouse's eye maquillage is attributed to the Ronettes but not Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra or Maria Callas. The early '60s seemed to worship the Theatrical Eye.)- John Scalzi does an infrequent (ha!) political posting, the flavor of which can be gotten from this:
Well, the GOP says, yes, in fact, Obama did get his stimulus bill done, but he didn’t do it with us, and since he promised that he’d do things in a bipartisan fashion, that means he’s failed. There are two things here. One, as regards the stimulus bill, I’m guessing Obama figures the relevant marker for success is whether the thing passed or not. Surprise! It did. Two, when the GOP enforces a party line vote against the stimulus bill and then goes on Sunday morning talk shows to complain about the lack of bipartisanship in the White House, it’s like a shopkeeper complaining that he’s got no sales while he’s waving a gun at anyone who tries to enter the store.
Which rather illustrates Krassner's point. But I digress. - ETA: Oliver Willis' site and my Mac have not liked each other, but this post is a giggle. Thanks to Arthur Hlavaty.
No comments:
Post a Comment