Mardi Gras

1) I love this song but would it be a hit now? It is more than a little creepy.



Speaking of creepy in a violence against women way, did you see what Chris Brown's opening line on his Rihanna re-mix. Gawker has a post about it.

He is so very classy. His Twitter feed is awesome. His beef with Andy Levy is even better.

2) FAU has complained about The Hunger Games visibility in the past and I am going to complain about another pop culture phenomena that is over exposed: Downton Abbey.

Vulture (which I love) has a piece a day, and yesterday's piece was "Why It Doesn't Matter That the Second Season of Downton Abbey Was Mediocre" but they are still going to talk about why this soap opera (which I did try to embrace) is wonderful.

No. It is not. Objectively, it is bad art. I am not saying that the people who enjoy it are lesser for it (out loud) but I am saying that the people who wholeheartedly support it (loudly) are missing something. (Looking at you, Most Media Bloggers!)

This is not a cause for me, nor am I doing this as a way to slag the fans of the show...I just do not understand it and the love for it.

When even the Guardian was saying after the second series (and it is series, not season. STOP DOING THAT!) that it was awful, why did the nattering and chattering classes (especially here) still love this show?

3) It is a quite a week for birthdays. Yesterday would have been Kurdt Cobain's forty fifth birthday and today would have been David Foster Wallace's fiftieth.

In honor of DFW's 50th, The Awl has provided 46 Things to Read and See for DFW's 50th Birthday. I have read and seen most of these and I do have to make the suggestion that if you have not read DFW, you take the time to do it. He will, if not change your life, challenge your suppositions, which is what an author is supposed to do. (See what I did there?)

I think I may spend the evening listening to Nevermind and reading a collection of DFW's short non-fiction.

4) Did you watch Maddow last night?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Did you see the stuff about Frank VanderSloot? Amazing, was it not?

It does make me think of someone saying, "Pay no attention to the man behind the money curtain. Pay not attention! I will use my attorneys if you pay attention!"

5) It is Mardi Gras!

Here are your beads!

You know what to do!

(It's okay. It really is okay. You will have all of Lent to feel guilty about it.)

An aside:

Last week, I was on the bus headed east on Western Avenue, and the two high school aged people sitting behind me were having a loud conversation.

(Passing a Lutheran Church)

She: What is Ash Wednesday?
He: (Authoritatively) It has something to do with the Jews.
Me: (weeps silently)

Randomness for a Thursday Morning

I love this version of this song...

The Naked and Famous are so listenable and this is just another reason why everyone should go to Austin at some point.

Both Nirvana and the Strokes have tribute albums out right now. I have been effusive in my praise for Newermind and I am giving the Strokes tribute album a chance over the next week or so.

From the NYT:

Despite its abbreviated career, Nirvana was the most important rock group of the 1990s; all the while this Seattle band — especially Kurt Cobain — expressed nothing but reluctance. The Strokes, young, beautiful, fashionable and from New York, appeared to crave fame in a way that Nirvana didn’t, and yet “Nevermind” is the album that went platinum 10 times over, nine more times than “Is This It.”

Paying Tribute to Nirvana and the Strokes



I came across this piece on the Awl yesterday (Was Aaron Swartz Stealing?) and it was great. Maybe it was great because I did not know anything about it, even though I understood the players and the game itself, and it made me think that I have been spending too much time on the wrong type of media since I stopped being a full time professional geek. I wonder if it would have had the same effect, since I am a big fan of the CopyLeft movement as well as the belief that "information wants to be free" even when we are required to pay for the delivery system. It is worth the time to read it, even if you are disinterested in the topic.

On Facebook, I linked to a number of articles but these two stuck out, and made me think when I was in a bout of severe insomnia last night...

From the always funny The Onion: Obama: Debt Ceiling Deal Required Tough Concessions By Both Democrats And Democrats Alike which was funny because it is true. More to the point, it has been one of the long time failings of the left to compromise to the point of not being true to their beliefs in the hope that the right will give a little. Though the policies advocated by the left often succeed as the reactionary conservatives die off.

And then there was this from the NYT as well...

Teaching Kids How to Break Up Nicely

Late last month, 200 teenagers from Boston-area schools gathered to discuss the minutia of Facebook breakup etiquette. Should you delete pictures of your ex after splitting up? Is it O.K. to unfriend your last girlfriend if you can’t stop looking at her profile? And is it ever ethically defensible to change your relationship status to single without first notifying the person whose heart you’re crushing?

My quip about this was, "Interesting...also why I plan to keep my relationship status hidden from now on...at least until they add "Is Hopelessly Self Involved" as a setting."

When someone asked if it was not a standard setting, I had to respond with, "Not yet, but I keep lobbying for it...someday I hope that mainstream America will recognize my love for myself as a valid choice and that I will be entitled to all the benefits that people in "couple love" have."

It is about Singles Equality folks, it is a basic human right.

And then, while I was reading, I returned to Bon Iver, which I had not listened to since it first came out a couple of weeks (longer than that, surely) ago...such great music with such painfully sincere lyrics.



Have a great day, everyone. Hopefully, today will be as interesting as yesterday was.