tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33168102012-01-29T20:48:11.419-05:00Anti-Climacus<br>"Thou shalt not extinguish thine anger, but shall master it,
that thy conscience may not be blunted by adjustment
to wrong causes."<br>-The Dutch Ten Commandments to Foil the NazisNicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.comBlogger48061100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-38262335297569429012012-01-27T12:45:00.002-05:002012-01-27T12:45:17.344-05:00Shameless political pandering, University of Michigan edition: the man's got my vote.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-86797252486685749862012-01-26T14:30:00.000-05:002012-01-26T14:30:02.306-05:00I had the opportunity over Thanksgiving break to go back and watch some old episodes of the Bernie Mac Show, which holds up surprisingly well. The New Yorker does a good job of outlining its essential charms:
Bernie is full of hot air and bluster (he operates in the big-baby
tradition of Ralph Kramden and Archie Bunker), but part of his charm is
that he is a genuine hero and yet doesn’t see Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-77631741349344137812012-01-26T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-26T12:00:08.666-05:00The Ron Swanson rap is right up there with that "Boots and Cats" video as best internet-related distraction for this week.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-47185430535157124792012-01-26T07:50:00.000-05:002012-01-26T10:18:32.584-05:00I'm in the process of teaching the development of legal institutions related to human rights since 1945. It's forced me to confront some of the more important changes in the way I understand the IR literature. My default position on entering grad school was a kind of realism: most of the political world is bound by power and relative status and the distribution of power in the world system is Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-57726032136836394532012-01-24T14:30:00.000-05:002012-01-24T14:30:00.261-05:00I haven't been to my hometown since, oh, 2004 or so, but this article on school closings was doubly weird: in part because it's strange to think about places I've been no longer being actual schools, and in part because I still recognize so many of the names. I guess nothing much ever does change there.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-9879339605235381192012-01-24T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-24T12:00:09.171-05:00Somewhere between Brian Cook and Spencer Hall lies the approximate correct response to Joe Paterno's death. I do worry that he will be too quickly rehabilitated, that the Sandusky stuff will be reduced to "a chaotic few months right before he died" and not "a pattern of behavior that lasted well over a decade." Most everyone else seems engaged in the process of forgetting. Which is tragic, but Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-17096069593830294812012-01-24T07:50:00.000-05:002012-01-24T10:05:50.375-05:00Another interesting appreciation of the merits of Patti Smith:
Smith was the president of a fan club that had just one member but a
hundred idols: Rimbaud, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards, Jackson
Pollock, Isabelle Eberhardt, Brian Jones, Georgia O’Keeffe, William
Burroughs, Renée Falconetti (Joan of Arc in Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928
movie), not to mention Johnny Carson. She evoked Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-36010330671896452302012-01-23T14:30:00.000-05:002012-01-23T14:30:01.826-05:00Real-life academic friend Kevin Vallier is now writing at Bleeding Heart Libertarians.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-51899598185097300552012-01-23T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-23T12:00:09.945-05:00If we're debating whether Caitlin Flanagan is the Leni Riefenstahl of anti-feminist writing, this probably counts as evidence for the 'aff' side of the resolution. And makes her look really, really bad:
Although she takes quite a while along an
uneven, pothole-strewn path to get here, conjuring the voices of Betty
Draper, Nurse Ratched, Marlin Perkins, and RuPaul along the way,
Flanagan’sNicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-63523858530458021182012-01-23T07:50:00.000-05:002012-01-23T10:37:20.998-05:00
The general rule of thumb for Pavement songs is twofold: first, the music is more likely to direct you to the actual meaning or import of the song than the lyrics ever are (exception that proves the rule: "Date with IKEA," where the earnest Tom Petty rip-off is intended to heighten the irony that the song's about IKEA. Sort of). The second is that, because the songs are often filled with Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-69793553339891817302012-01-21T17:23:00.002-05:002012-01-21T17:23:46.295-05:00Want. For oh-so-many reasons.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-85253067570374436492012-01-19T14:30:00.000-05:002012-01-19T14:30:01.517-05:00I had the good fortune, many years ago now, to have had a mechanic tell me that the 'check engine' light is basically useless. Though the light had come on, it was for no serious problem, and so he declined to charge me and sent me on my way with that information. It covers too many possible scenarios, and any truly serious problem will be otherwise evident. What it does do, as the post points Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-39303777781069838922012-01-19T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-19T12:00:09.357-05:00Go read TNC on Newt and racism, because this gem:
If your chief goal, as a thinking person, is to find a path to making
yourself right, you may never amount to much of a thinking person, but
you can never be disappointed.
Gets followed up by this one:
It must be admitted that Juan Williams is, himself, no stranger to such
pursuits, and that the unerringly righteous are, ultimately, Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-12461499186394471772012-01-19T07:50:00.000-05:002012-01-19T10:17:34.467-05:00"Nothing going on... except talent." A brief and fawning evaluation of Michigan basketball and our awesome point guard on Grantland. And we're bringing in a top-5 guy next year--this isn't even a season we're supposed to be particularly good. The gradual transition of Michigan to pretty good team that mostly makes the NCAA tournament is pretty much the one thing I never thought I'd see way back Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-88768700709688790382012-01-18T14:46:00.000-05:002012-01-18T14:46:30.008-05:00Teaching day. You should probably not expect anything on a teaching day.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-14520641923371210432012-01-17T14:30:00.000-05:002012-01-17T14:30:01.929-05:00This induced a chortle:
At the heart of ethical theory are issues that seem inescapable, and
that no other field of inquiry promises to answer. How ought we to act?
What kinds of things are worth wanting? What type of person should you
aspire to be? Many religious people suppose that there is an
authoritative source of answers to these questions. They are not moved
by Plato’s cogent proof Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-55118297036772663862012-01-17T14:17:00.002-05:002012-01-17T14:17:32.414-05:00Cougar Town is coming back! Everyone should watch it, assuming you enjoy a good sitcom. Unfortunately the scheduling seems doubly bad for me, but that's what Amazon Instant Video is for.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-24790061035744951412012-01-17T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-17T12:34:57.902-05:00Jimmy Fallon: surprisingly alright, all things considering.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-69422116477131143972012-01-17T07:50:00.000-05:002012-01-17T10:34:37.833-05:00I am busy writing lectures, but two delightful items culled from Facebook:
First, some Highlife/Western African guitar music here.
Second, from one of my old high school friends: "Someday, Frito-Lay will introduce Doros, and they will be massive and
flavorful, and we'll all wonder why we wasted so much time with Doritos."Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-83994747716347223462012-01-16T14:30:00.000-05:002012-01-16T14:30:02.205-05:00Being a mature sort, or at least attempting to be, I don't go in much for swearing, either in person or on the internet. But sometimes it is more than deserved, as when Deadspin gives approximately the right response to the fawning Washington Post profile of Joe Paterno. For a more measured but no less apoplectic take, there's always The Atlantic. Here as elsewhere (see also the Catholic church Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-42602867382549925862012-01-16T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-16T13:28:23.944-05:00William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman: adorable.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-39046504809314942222012-01-16T07:50:00.000-05:002012-01-16T11:29:32.744-05:00
Fluxtumblr posted about this one this morning, and it seemed like an appropriate choice. "You Are the Everything" has been either my favorite R.E.M. song or on the short list of favorites since I first discovered it. (Green was the first CD I ever bought, so that'd make this 7th grade). I think Matty Fluxblog also gets the reasons for its excellence right: it's the concentrated form of the Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-31100699364799930362012-01-13T12:16:00.002-05:002012-01-13T12:16:31.684-05:00I hope this lasts for a long time: LeVraiMitt on twitter.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-35724607641931268512012-01-13T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-13T12:10:04.938-05:00Excellent in all respects: Advice for freshmen from former freshmen, the University of Michigan, 1921:
Be a good mixer. Like young Babbitts, the writers of
"Advice" preached the value of broadening your circle of acquaintances
(but only of the better sort) and making friends (but not too many).
"There are many places you will meet people, men mostly. Women at
Michigan are not, by far, to Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-19765128479717045582012-01-13T07:50:00.000-05:002012-01-13T11:41:19.330-05:00This blog really needs to have a label for "Go read Ta-Nahisi Coates." Because, seriously:
I really wish Zinn had pushed through, instead of simply posing
questions. I wish he had made a case for Lincoln responding in some
other way, after the Confederacy launched a war with the explicit aim of
raising an empire that would protect and expand slavery. I really wish
he'd taken a hard up the Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-3534839636485257692012-01-12T14:30:00.000-05:002012-01-12T14:30:00.199-05:00When your potential finale is unfavorably compared to Lost, watch out:
Say what you want about the ending of “Lost,” but at least it didn’t go on for nine years before it got there.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-73732315772792449232012-01-12T13:00:00.000-05:002012-01-12T13:00:07.431-05:00I have an active promise to one of my friends not to make fun of Wisconsin anymore (the whole 'mitten state' thing got a little heated). So I am simply passing on a link to an infographic on binge drinking on the assumption it will be of general interest.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-58995428533782529132012-01-12T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-12T12:00:07.694-05:00Ron Swanson Valentine's Day cards. These may have to happen.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-44970966216435528252012-01-12T07:50:00.000-05:002012-01-12T10:28:50.108-05:00A nice review of in-real-life acquaintance John Inazu's book on the freedom of assembly. I remember when he first explained to me that this was going to be the topic of his dissertation, and it seemed a little obscure, but, as the review notes, real-world politics have a way of bringing relevance to even the most obscure theoretical problems. I haven't read the book, but I know John and the Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-68851474635662632512012-01-11T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-11T12:00:07.216-05:00Abraham Lincoln, even more awesome than you might've suspected:
Abraham Lincoln became the war’s most notorious jester, known for his
backcountry yarns and goofy, self-deprecating style. Washington
socialites complained that he simply would not stop telling jokes at
their dinner parties. His cabinet – stiff, bearded, capable men, whom
Navy Secretary Gideon Welles called “destitute of wit” – Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-13128111586360841322012-01-11T07:50:00.000-05:002012-01-11T07:50:00.105-05:00Though I'm sympathetic to the point raised here, it does seem to fly past the obvious counter-argument:
If I were able to actually have a conversation with Santorum in which
the historical reality of sanctioned polygamy in most human societies
was made impossible for him to ignore or soundbite into oblivion, I’m
willing to bet that the likely way out of the trap would be to argue
that Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-15791220934885275842012-01-10T14:30:00.000-05:002012-01-10T14:30:02.563-05:00
Spreading the gospel of Cougar Town:
Well that brings up the fact that Bill, once again, on the
Twitter, started making noise that this would be the year you finally
change the title. He asked for suggestions, but you're back and you're
still "Cougar Town."
I swear to God, there were days, maybe even weeks if you add all
the time up together, where all we did was talk about the Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-13104793814280487022012-01-10T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-10T12:00:09.658-05:00Oh goodness, there's a Gil Scott-Heron memoir. Must wait until lesson plans are completed for the week.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-57832695088000635312012-01-10T07:50:00.000-05:002012-01-10T09:43:13.503-05:00Amartya Sen on David Hume. It's actually pretty good.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-58825911228553187552012-01-09T14:30:00.000-05:002012-01-09T14:57:11.588-05:00One more post about this and I'm done, not least because it looks like Rick Santorum's moment in the sun is rapidly coming to a close. Following on the argument here, and last week's post about Front Porch Republic and their difficult conception of "freedom," it seems apropos to say that it's this dimension on which Santorum is a bad candidate. In traditional classical liberal discussions of Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-51386999878781416282012-01-09T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-09T12:00:08.919-05:00Fleet Foxes sing... Parodies of popular music in the style of Fleet Foxes. "Waterfalls" particularly recommended.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-61110626553885726972012-01-09T07:50:00.000-05:002012-01-09T10:38:52.513-05:00
Being a white dude from Michigan who grew up in the 90s, loving hip-hop was an easy and obvious choice. I've written before about the D.A.I.S.Y.-agers, groups like A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul who did interesting things musically and conceptually, but who I only learned about after the fact. These things will happen when you're 10 years old. The Soulquarians, however--a group of Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-77237462919175998192012-01-06T14:30:00.000-05:002012-01-06T14:30:02.599-05:00Why, I know somebody who has a paper floating around arguing that no text is ever finished, and it's just the oddities of publishing that make us think otherwise. Probably should get back on that.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-81416164426887778392012-01-06T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-06T12:00:08.363-05:00Pretty excellent, in a hip-hop sort of way.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-79776822047930830062012-01-06T11:00:00.000-05:002012-01-06T11:00:08.841-05:00Long-time blog-friend Joe Carter has a truly excellent evisceration of the Front Porch Republic phenomenon. He does a good job of isolating the problems of localism as it pertains to food:
For example, one professor (they were almost all professors)
presented his localist bona fides by explaining how he bought his
vegetables from a local food co-op. He was very proud of the fact that
he paid Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-80551444381055155952012-01-06T07:50:00.000-05:002012-01-06T07:50:00.463-05:00The flip side to yesterday's musings on colonialism at Undisclosed Tropical Island is the less readily apparent facts. One day we took a bus tour of the northern part of the island (the southern part being more mountainous and so less inhabited), and it was not hard to notice the housing conditions were frequently sub-standard. As it happened, that evening I had dinner with someone who works for Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-85719517429808800122012-01-05T14:30:00.000-05:002012-01-05T14:30:01.707-05:00I know we're supposed to find Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen unbelievably precious, and while I do like Brownstein quite a bit,* I found the NYT article on them more sad than inspiring: they're people who openly admit to being failures at all their relationships (and seem oddly willing to say unflattering things about their exes, or at least their exes' ability to keep them interested) who Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-70203089799465919692012-01-05T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-05T12:00:01.904-05:00Ta-Nehisi Coates on Ron Paul and the problems of leadership. Pretty much a must:
The need was real. And the man who best perceived that need--Louis
Farrakhan--preached bigotry, and headed a church with a history of
violence, and patriarchal and homophobic views. We knew this. Some of us
even endorsed it. A few of us debated about it. But, ultimately we
didn't care. Farrakhan--and his cadre Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-68225530893397493462012-01-05T07:50:00.000-05:002012-01-05T07:50:00.085-05:00If there's a stereotypical conservative reaction to colonialism and its legacies, I think it is to deny the importance of either. Problems can be admitted--no one will go out of their way to defend Apartheid these days--but they are generally assumed to be local and particular rather than general. The legacies, it is said, of colonialism are beneficial to the formerly colonized peoples--Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-20603725466052919512012-01-04T14:30:00.000-05:002012-01-04T14:30:00.529-05:00The rules of classical music etiquette have always seemed strange to me. I'm glad I'm not the only one for whom this is true. I'd be hard-pressed to think of another genre in which the proper response to music designed to be danced to (not symphonies, obvious, but various lesser chamber music-type pieces), or otherwise inspire intense emotional experiences, is to sit quietly and still and act as Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-89751161076970063142012-01-04T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-04T12:00:04.246-05:00Mariano Rivera, in addition to being the greatest closer ever in baseball, is a nice and humble guy. And also pretty insightful:
”You need to use your brain to pitch effectively in the big leagues,”
explained the future Hall of Famer. “You can’t go out there and do
exactly what you want to do without a brain. As you get older, you
mature and put your knowledge to work, It’s like when you go Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-87965844014069559822012-01-04T11:00:00.000-05:002012-01-04T11:10:19.459-05:00"Rick Santorum? Really?" was pretty much my response to the Iowa caucus. He's all the parts of social conservatism I dislike (no man has more fairly deserved the internet meme attached to his name, because few have tried so hard to be offensive to people they disagree with, Rick Perry on gay soldiers possibly excepted), and none of the parts of fiscal conservatism that I do.
On the bright side: Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-58889893058264123712012-01-04T07:50:00.000-05:002012-01-04T08:57:18.117-05:00D'Angelo covering Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun": the perfect start to any day.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-12549814243480727962012-01-03T14:30:00.000-05:002012-01-03T14:30:00.436-05:00As Mungowitz would say, "write every day." Which, if you're an academic or other aspiring writer, should be enjoyable if not easy.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-2366375848660820342012-01-03T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-03T12:00:07.207-05:00This, via Jacob Levy on twitter, is a thing of brilliance, and really makes me think I should Trojan Horse a few fake essays containing the magnificent phrase "Discipulus tuus hunc tractatum non scripsit," which any political theorist worth their salt should be able to add to an undergrad paper for an extra level of pretentiousness.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-17645202014801109492012-01-03T07:50:00.001-05:002012-01-03T07:50:00.112-05:00While Hamley's probably is the greatest toy store in the world, I disagree with Alan Jacobs slightly about whether it's a sign of New York privilege to refer to it in terms of F.A.O. Schwartz when the latter is comparatively new. I say this simply because the opposite seems to imply an even greater example of YPIS: the average New Yorker (ostensibly the target of the New York Times) has probably Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-43073100751550397692012-01-02T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-02T12:00:01.402-05:00I'm not sure it would be of general interest--though given this blog's eclectic readership, who knows?--but on the plane ride back from my undisclosed tropical location, I happened to read a very interesting old New Yorker article about the atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima. The article is, in fact, the entirety of the August 1, 1946 issue, so it may require a university subscription to access (I Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-20905595425247268162012-01-02T07:50:00.000-05:002012-01-02T07:50:00.626-05:00
This is not a complain about reggae. Let's be clear on that from the beginning. Reggae's not really my thing, but at its best it's angry and political, it mutates readily into other genres (calypso, ska, and my personal favorite, dub, in which the bass is turned way up in the EQ and a lot of spring reverb is featured. Lyrics not necessary, though what lyrics there are will likely be subjected Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-28977319325029914082012-01-01T00:01:00.000-05:002012-01-01T00:01:03.765-05:00
"Others, inversely, believed that it was fundamental to eliminate useless
works. They invaded the hexagons, showed credentials which were not always
false, leafed through a volume with displeasure and condemned whole
shelves: their hygienic, ascetic furor caused the senseless perdition of
millions of books. Their name is execrated, but those who deplore the
``treasures'' destroyed by Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-34498425662087281602011-12-31T07:50:00.000-05:002011-12-31T07:50:00.398-05:00Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-91439312090016544202011-12-29T14:52:00.001-05:002011-12-29T14:52:09.470-05:00Hiatus break: it's been truly fascinating to be on this trip with someone who knows about the relative economic situation of the Caribbean. There will be much to blog about on my return. In other news, this place is stupid beautiful: I can see the mountains and the ocean from my balcony (I may post pictures). In other other news, "island time" is the stupidest thing ever. I hate it with the whiteNicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-23292046990332867552011-12-26T07:50:00.000-05:002011-12-26T07:50:00.497-05:00
I've had a large number of female friends for as long as I can remember (odd biographical note: between the beginning of my sophomore year of college and the second semester of my senior year, only female friends). The reasons are not especially complicated: until I got to grad school, if you wanted to talk about books or movies, or poetry, or philosophy, or your emotions and relationships, theNicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-64811425746850991602011-12-24T12:37:00.000-05:002011-12-24T12:37:00.084-05:00The obvious Christmas music choice:
Because I do not have baby boomer nostalgia, I don't care for most Christmas songs, which on the whole are cloyingly sentimental and obviously mass-produced attempts to recreate fictional American Christmases of yore (like all American traditions, pre-packaged and probably made up in the mid-20th century).
If pressed, I will admit to "Simply Having a Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-24612746269555885382011-12-23T19:12:00.002-05:002011-12-23T19:12:13.237-05:00One of two Christmas songs I unironically love:
Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-47802106172784695752011-12-22T11:21:00.000-05:002011-12-22T11:21:04.571-05:00That big piece that came out a few weeks ago, about how there has been no appreciable stylistic change in the last 20 years, seemed problematic to me for a number of reasons. In the first place, it's impossible to talk about the 20th century at all without noting a. the massive disruption caused by the Great Depression, which meant that any period of time within 20 years of the 20s or 30s (i.e. Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-48994463352467718742011-12-21T19:11:00.002-05:002011-12-21T19:18:28.055-05:00The Newbie's Guide to How I Met Your Mother, or "What is this show Friends you keep referring to?"
This is such an original show! No one has ever done a show about "six young friends living in New York" before! How I Met Your Mother is totally different because it has five friends! Let me prove it to you!
Under the heading "Well-developed characters":
Ted, the protagonist, is far from macho Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-78093029451570398742011-12-21T11:58:00.002-05:002011-12-21T12:02:48.518-05:00Christmas-themed, Christmas-set, or Christmas-associated movies to watch very early on December 24th, before I go to bed at a reasonable hour in order to awake at an unreasonable hour the next 'morning', movies I own or can get on Netflix edition:
Die Hard
The Apartment
Barcelona
Others?
(note: already watched "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" with my Durham nearest and dearest. that's a Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-32018473425478310402011-12-20T09:54:00.000-05:002011-12-20T09:54:10.021-05:00N.B.: posting will be light for the remainder of this week as I attempt to wrap up this semester. Posting will be mostly nonexistent next week as I have been reliably informed that internet access will cost upwards of $15 a day at the undisclosed location I will be at for an indeterminate period of time.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-70253764157976511962011-12-19T14:30:00.000-05:002011-12-19T16:57:29.331-05:00The Oscar for Best Adapted Burn goes to Karl Barth for Oh, Snap: The Man Who Went There:
As a man with a tendency to write in a somewhat long-winded manner, Karl Barth has a number of very interesting passages but few highly quotable lines. When he does, though, they're usually a doozy. After discussing Catholic attacks on Reformed theology in the 16th century:
I scarcely need to add that theseNicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-83955575766304020192011-12-19T12:00:00.000-05:002011-12-19T12:36:37.567-05:00I have mentioned a few times that A Burnt-Out Case is my favorite Graham Greene novel, and the only one that really holds up for me as a narrative. This is in no small part because it's the only novel in which he shows any real respect for non-religion: in all the other novels, the protagonist suffers from doubts over some variant of Catholicism but is eventually pulled back to his faith, or Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-29900175301115137132011-12-19T07:50:00.000-05:002011-12-19T07:50:00.060-05:00A link, rather than a video, for once: "Gloria's Step [Take 1]" by the Bill Evans Trio, from The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings. Take 2 is the one that made the album Sunday Afternoon at the Village Vanguard,* but I think Take 1 is superior in almost every way, except for the 10-second gap where someone knocked the power cord out from the recording equipment. I have nothing but love for Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-10401487196392285072011-12-16T12:00:00.000-05:002011-12-16T12:00:09.473-05:00On Hitchens, I have nothing particularly brilliant to say. He was very influential in my left-to-right move in college, but like the other person largely responsible for that move (Andrew Sullivan), I hadn't followed him in years.* Part of this was my own move from interest in journalism to academia: he had mastered the short, assertive style of the magazine think-piece, but as I came to find Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-12515366501953399982011-12-16T07:50:00.000-05:002011-12-16T07:50:00.726-05:00I used to know someone who would've loved this: twitter by post. I think I even have a tag for this.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-63189575811814398762011-12-15T15:16:00.004-05:002011-12-15T15:16:46.946-05:00This search that brought someone to this blog was particularly delightful to me:
"Troester is of what decent"
The answer is "German" if you're interested in ancestry. Assuming "decent" was actually meant, that seems like half of an interesting question.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-17346594885280416062011-12-15T12:00:00.000-05:002011-12-15T12:00:08.784-05:00The Ladies' Paradise: The first Zola I've read where no one commits suicide at the end (depending on how you interpret The Dream, I suppose) and all the better for it. It recounts a lightly fictionalized version of the rise of the department store in Paris through the eyes of a young female sales clerk. I couldn't help but make two comparisons to Balzac, both of which I think are flattering: Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-82174162810619310112011-12-15T07:50:00.000-05:002011-12-15T09:58:14.183-05:00Adventures in Cultural Consumption, an ongoing series:
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie: I know, based on Metropolitan, that I wasn't supposed to like this, but I have to admit I liked the increasingly twisty 'narrative,' including the end. I am also on board with the notion that middle-class values function mostly as a screen for indiscretions and vices carried out all the same (see also Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-52436813659045351172011-12-14T14:30:00.000-05:002011-12-14T14:30:03.525-05:00I'd like to point you to Phoebe's discussion of the "A Girl You Should Date" essay, on the troubling topic of stereotypical "girls who read" and the misogynist pseudo-intellectual men who love them. My complaint about the essay, registered in the comments, is that it assumes that a woman who reads will have, as her favorite book, one primarily concerned with finding the perfect man: ie a woman Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-20256709516287676952011-12-14T12:00:00.000-05:002011-12-14T12:00:00.409-05:00I'm surprised anyone would identify Angry Birds as a productivity waster. As the linked post notes, most of the time I spend using my phone to do miscellaneous 'time-wasting' tasks is time already wasted: standing in lines or sitting at a restaurant after the person I'm with has excused themselves. And if you're the sort of person who writes for a living, it becomes evident quickly that only so Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-56593311012717793422011-12-14T07:50:00.000-05:002011-12-14T10:40:59.271-05:00A surprisingly well-written and interesting treatment of MC Hammer:
MC Hammer was a pop success, but now you could be a pop success while
appealing to a core rap audience. In retrospect, Hammer’s lack of that
core support has helped to keep him out of the history books. There’s
nobody left to advocate for him. Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ’Em still ranks among the best-selling hip-hop records Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-90859171787410405852011-12-13T14:30:00.000-05:002011-12-13T14:30:01.945-05:00English pronunciation. Should be good for a laugh or two.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-32312313016779780602011-12-13T12:00:00.000-05:002011-12-13T12:00:07.743-05:00As a general rule, I think conservatives tend to rely overly much on the Ph.D. as a credential of intelligence and authority. It is and remains mostly a bureaucratic hurdle, and the dissertation is usually the beginning of one's contribution to scholarship rather than a fully-formed work in its own right (the fields, to my knowledge, where this is less true also tend to be those that think of theNicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-54437606775912938272011-12-13T07:50:00.000-05:002011-12-13T10:25:33.989-05:00Though as a general rule I don't comment on generational trend pieces, I'll make an exception for Up With Grups. It's been awhile since I've seen an article that shifts its tone so greatly between start and finish. The beginning:
Let’s start with a question. A few questions,
actually:
When did it become normal for your average 35-year-old New Yorker to (a)
walk around with an iPod plugged Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-87360695605112790782011-12-12T12:00:00.000-05:002011-12-12T12:00:08.067-05:00Kurt Cobain: nice, funny, insightful guy.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-51641930194157471332011-12-12T07:50:00.000-05:002011-12-12T09:58:04.027-05:00
No band ever sowed the seeds of its own destruction better than Oasis. Despite the fact that Noel Gallagher was a bona fide good songwriter in his prime (when the third song on the single is pretty good, that's an excellent sign of having a deep bench, and this was a regular occurrence '93-'97), and despite the fact that the best of their music bears little resemblance to the Beatles, most of Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-30270410365768604082011-12-09T07:50:00.000-05:002011-12-09T10:47:46.214-05:00Yup.
Via Jacob Levy on Facebook.
(I literally never read internet comics unless they've been posted on facebook. I like to crowdsource my work that way.)Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-89615626754937669182011-12-08T14:30:00.000-05:002011-12-08T17:23:26.926-05:00Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-7076592778451349792011-12-08T12:00:00.000-05:002011-12-08T11:59:23.570-05:00I am provisionally on board with almost all criticisms of Rick Santorum, but this one that ties into Santorum's rhetoric on suffering and its disturbing political implications hits home:
Santorum’s notion that suffering is just part of life, or even
something to be valued, is problematic when asserted by a person of
obvious wealth and privilege. In other words: it is easy for Santorum
to Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-52628811237438192042011-12-07T14:30:00.000-05:002011-12-07T14:30:00.815-05:00Not unlike "The Part About the Crimes," but real. And fascinating, in the way that casually evil people are fascinating.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-10145563367661183602011-12-07T12:00:00.001-05:002011-12-07T12:00:03.698-05:00Yeah:
In other words, the "one knife, one pan", "I don't need kitchen gadgets"
snobs aren't a better, purer sort of cook; they're just ignoring most
of the contents of their kitchen. How many of them cook over an open
fire, rather than using one of those high-faluting fancy stoves with
their automatic temperature regulation and their electric lights? Why
are they storing all their food inNicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-51573546769555727592011-12-07T07:50:00.001-05:002011-12-08T10:53:59.997-05:00As I mentioned on twitter a few days ago, I do not understand the hate directed at Tim Tebow. He's a white dude who is a walking definition of 'gritty' in a way not captured by statistics. In the normal run of the sports world, this means he should be a David Eckstein-like universally beloved player. I do get the impression he talks about Jesus a lot, but since I don't follow professional Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-1791424757052918962011-12-07T07:50:00.000-05:002011-12-07T10:43:44.887-05:00Twenty minutes of Alec Baldwin talking to Chris Rock. The latter's description of his working methods and his relationship to his wife are both quite interesting. His insistence on remaining friends with Adam Sandler is baffling.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-18274177868941365642011-12-06T17:00:00.000-05:002011-12-06T17:00:05.458-05:00From my friend Chris: What Phish sounds like to people who don't like Phish. They tried something like this around '98, if I remember correctly.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-73800997309516308022011-12-06T14:30:00.000-05:002011-12-06T14:36:50.668-05:00A really excellent article on the Civil War from Ta-Nehisi Coates. But I'm sure you've already seen it:
For the portion of
the country that still honors, or traces its ancestry to, the men who
fired on Fort Sumter, and thus brought war, the truthful story of the
Civil War tells of a defeat richly deserved, garnered in a pursuit now
condemned. For the blameless North, it throws up the failedNicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-17547005114032688442011-12-06T12:00:00.000-05:002011-12-06T12:00:08.993-05:00The Thanksgiving break and How I Met Your Mother's newfound availability on Netflix Instant prompted me to do some rewatching. I'd given up on the show at the end of last season, due both to the increasingly melodramatic nature of the plot and the creators' Lost-like inability to sustain the mythos the show was built upon. Even so I still loved the first three seasons and parts of the fourth.
Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-68512169607649080872011-12-06T07:50:00.000-05:002011-12-06T07:50:00.893-05:00I Love My Alma Mater, an ongoing series:
Michigan football's offensive coordinator is named Al Borges. For us, this automatically sparks associations to Jorge Luis Borges. The first was a post on mgoblog that (correctly, and insightfully) used the subject matter of "Funes, the Memorious" as the basis for an in-depth look at offensive playcalling tendencies under Al Borges. The second is a Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-79397545728838840522011-12-05T14:30:00.000-05:002011-12-05T14:30:00.461-05:00I'm not sure whether Rob Sheffield impressed me more by dropping a Smiths reference in his appreciation of Britney Spears, or by his pointing out that Britney's latest song has a flute hook taken from the melody of a Kinks song. Again: a flute hook taken from a Kinks song. I might've been wrong in assuming Lady Gaga was the brilliant postmodern pastiche artist. Either that, or Britney is trollingNicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-33238792771769035082011-12-05T12:00:00.000-05:002011-12-05T12:00:06.304-05:00A near 1200-page novel with multiple plot points that take hundreds of pages to be resolved? Sign me uo.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-53953762900304858112011-12-05T07:50:00.000-05:002011-12-05T10:14:22.739-05:00
"Most of all, I love Manchester. The crumbling warehouses, the railway
arches, the cheap abundant drugs. That's what did it in the end. Not the
money, not the music, not even the guns. That is my heroic flaw: my
excess of civic pride."
-Tony Wilson, 24 Hour Party People
I've mentioned before my belief that indie music is the most conservative of genres. It's also the most (perhaps the onlyNicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-32880159786340724652011-12-04T14:30:00.000-05:002011-12-07T10:50:46.632-05:00Re-reading, the greatest of literary pleasures.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-10997553919389135982011-12-01T14:30:00.000-05:002011-12-01T14:30:02.163-05:00Consider this an open memo to myself:
At some point when you have time again, watch that Woody Allen documentary.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-15456423373431073102011-12-01T13:29:00.001-05:002011-12-01T13:35:12.221-05:00Things that annoy, application edition:
Web forms that require letters of recommendation to be uploaded as files. I do not have pdfs of them to upload. I will gladly direct Interfolio to send an email containing them, and in some (few) situations I will ask my recommenders to email them in themselves. But the alternative in this case seems to be giving each of them my login and password and Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-47308081164233913052011-12-01T12:00:00.000-05:002011-12-01T09:40:34.169-05:00Give Alan Jacobs his due on this point:
Modern liberalism likes to think that all our problems are
epistemological: we are afflicted by never knowing with sufficient
clarity what we ought to do. Our fictions tend to reflect that
assumption. Tolkien, not being a modern liberal, thought it more
interesting to explore situations when people know what they need to
know but may lack the Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-39296349254003911862011-12-01T07:50:00.000-05:002011-12-01T09:12:25.889-05:00When I first came across it I had the assumption that I would have a significant amount to say about this Hairpin post about The Marriage Plot. As it turns out I don't. I have two much smaller things to say:
1.
It's remarkable to me the correlation between negative-ish reviews of
the book and reviewers who are convinced Leonard is nothing more than a
DFW stand-in. In physical description, Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-55459914674635919542011-11-30T14:30:00.000-05:002011-11-30T14:30:01.855-05:00In Which Lee Ranaldo makes me feel bad for only sometimes liking Sonic Youth. The song's pretty good, too.Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3316810.post-69285814064769687692011-11-30T12:00:00.000-05:002011-11-30T12:00:08.162-05:00I am unsure that "the problem with TV shows these days is that they recycle plots and gags from old TV shows" is a valid critical argument. Is the problem with The Brothers Karamazov that it steals the "innocent son comes to angst over dead father" plot from Hamlet? Or could we perhaps concede that tropes and jokes and plots will be repeated because it's in the nature of telling stories to do so,Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.com1