The Engine of Cultural Alienation – The Music Algorithm and it’s Discontents
I’m going to link a Variety article and not make fun of it. I’m as shocked as you are.
Category: This Modern Life
The Joylessness of Reading
There is an idea running through some forms of Internet Discourse, known as Elite Overproduction. Which is to say, the high emphasis on College and University education has produced more people trained to do Academic Thinking then there are actual jobs requiring such. In the old days, of course, a college degree in English was… Read More The Joylessness of Reading
Tiger King Destroys Everything
The true beast of the Pandemic has returned, and now it will devour it’s own genre. Behold, as the most popular documentary of this century destroys Fair Use: The rule of Fair Use requires that the use of a content be “transformative”, i.e., you’re using it to do something with it other than what the… Read More Tiger King Destroys Everything
Luke Combs Wins a Lawsuit He didn’t Know He was In, Ends up giving money to the Defendant
The beast is hungry. Luke Combs took to social media Wednesday morning to say that he was “sick to my stomach” after waking up to learn that he had won a $250,000 judgment against a Florida woman who’d earned $380 selling 18 handmade drink tumblers with his likeness on them. The country superstar said he was… Read More Luke Combs Wins a Lawsuit He didn’t Know He was In, Ends up giving money to the Defendant
Looney Tunes, Fandom, and physical vs. Streaming
It’s become a commonplace that streaming services are treacherous. You put your faith in them to provide you with content, and they pull it according to bean-counter whim and puritanical outrage. Physical media is the only way to preserve culture! Even directors are getting in the act: Christopher Nolan recently made headlines when he humorously urged fans… Read More Looney Tunes, Fandom, and physical vs. Streaming
Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” is a Dense hard Slog Through Mud
My experience of this film, which I just went to see, perfectly mirror’s my experience with Oppenheimer: with the earlier film, I was bored with the idea and impressed with the result. For Napoleon, I was excited that it was made, and just spend two and half hours sitting through it, wishing I had done… Read More Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” is a Dense hard Slog Through Mud
The Weird History of No Wave
No Wave was a bunch of avant-garders in late 70’s-early 80’s NYC who decided that Punk Rock wasn’t obnoxious enough for them, so they made abrasive atonal music that no one cares about. Nobody even knows what it is. In 2023 most folk barely remember The White Stripes. You have to be a art-house historian,… Read More The Weird History of No Wave
The Meme Self-Regenerates: A New Old Song from the Beatles
Perfectly, the track is called “Now and Then”: “Now and Then” has a similar provenance as “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” the other two “new” Beatles songs to have been released since 1970: All are rough Lennon home demos recorded during the late 1970s and provided by his wife Yoko Ono in 1994 for the… Read More The Meme Self-Regenerates: A New Old Song from the Beatles
The Original Member Berries: American Graffiti
Since abusing Georgia Lucas has become a habit of mine almost as common as abusing George R.R. Martin (what is it with Georges?), occasionally I take the time to look at his non-Star Wars filmography. This is easy, as there are only two other films he’s directed, both before Star Wars froze his auteur vision… Read More The Original Member Berries: American Graffiti
Why Joyce Carol Oates is Just the Worst
She’s not, not really. She’s just a prolific author who is insufferable on Twitter. But then, aren’t we all? This is her take on Agatha Christie novels being Bowdlerized by the rigid red pens of today’s Sensitivity Readers. You see, it does not matter if her work is ideologically transformed, because she’s not a good… Read More Why Joyce Carol Oates is Just the Worst
