February 2012
25 posts
January 2012
26 posts
Listen
Madonna’s Super Bowl Song Leaked.
Gordon Ramsay's Dwarf Porn Double Found Dead in a Badger Den in Wales →
dailytelegraph.com.au
Gordon Ramsay’s Dwarf Porn Double Found Dead in a Badger Den in Wales
Apple’s iPad and the Human Costs for Workers in China - NYTimes.com →
nytimes.com
I’m really, really glad that the Times is writing this series about manufacturing conditions in China; it’s one of the most significant human-rights stories in the world, and it’s one of those things Americans truly do not like thinking about. I know I generally don’t, but a part of me is glad to have it rubbed in my face.
I sort of worry that the focus on Apple is counter-productive — every company that manufactures goods for the American market is engaged in this sort of behavior, and Apple as a company is cast in the role of “shit-magnet” far too often and out of proportion to their actual conduct, I think.
That said, I do acknowledge the narrative advantages for a journalist of focusing on Apple — and I do have to say, their insanely gigantic cash hoard starts to look a little bit obscene in this context. It’s naive to say, I’m sure, but with a pile of reserve cash that gigantic, what kind of changes could be made to working conditions among their suppliers if even 20% of that was earmarked as required to go to programs to improve living conditions? It would be fundamentally anti-competitive in some ways, yes, but maybe having the resources to do things like that would make Foxconn even more attractive as both an employer and a supplier. Who can say.
“Hi! We are aware that you have been having trouble with Lana Del Rey for some time now. When you know that a relationship isn’t working it is somtimes hard to move forward but we just want to let you know that it is alright to make a clean break. And maybe the right time is now. Maybe now it is time to let go of Lana Del Rey. And that is fine. Do not feel guilt. She is safe in the arms of pop. Why now? Well, she’s got a proper single out this week. This is the one that’s supposed to be ‘the big one’. And yes we know the accidental Top 10 hit last year confused you a bit, because you weren’t sure whether you were already supposed to have bailed on her by that point, so your end-of-2011 year in review articles were a bit muddled. You didn’t know what you were supposed to think any more, but that does not matter any more because, like we say, you can walk away right now with your dignity. And there’s no need to feel bad that it hasn’t worked out. You’ve given it a good go. You’ve had your chance to impose your boring ideas of authenticity onto a pop creation, to express your disgust that she might be better in the studio than on the stage. That’s the way you like to judge things and that’s fine, it’s just that this isn’t how pop works, and Lana Del Rey is a pop thing. A hot, melodic, major label-signed pop thing.”
—
Popjustice - A note to Alternative Music Scribes having trouble with Lana Del Rey
Been waiting for someone to write this post (there’s more). I have to admit I fundamentally don’t understand the venom about Lana Del Rey. The primary complaints appear to be that she has a “manufactured” image, which, DUH, it’s an IMAGE, that’s the POINT, and that said image is a problematic performance of womanhood, which, yes, but (a.) that’s not exactly new in the music world and (b.) a problematic performance of something can still have incredible entertainment and artistic value: see “West, Kanye.” There’s also the “can’t perform live” thing, but, well, very few people in this world really can perform live, and she’s also in her early twenties, so that doesn’t surprise me one bit.
Don’t get me wrong — I don’t really even like her that much, I think the songs are pretty decent and her voice is an intriguing instrument, but come on, folks, she’s just a product, like everything else in this world. You wouldn’t write 5,000-word screeds about Doritos flavors you don’t like, no matter how much other people like them.
Fun Fact Of The Day
Adele’s “Someone Like You” was co-written by the guy from Semisonic.
Not sure how I missed that until now.
(The presence of that guy, Ryan Tedder, and Rick Rubin on that record doesn’t do a whole lot of favors for the “Adele is so authentic / sui generis” argument you still hear occasionally, but whatever, not the kind of thing I get worked up about anymore.)
(And of course I had to look at the Wikipedia page for 21 when “Rumor Has It” came on at Crate & Barrel, because of course it would, and I got the idea in my head that Cathy Dennis wrote it. IF ONLY. Also, yes, I’ve been at Crate & Barrel a lot lately, I am kind of being a total yuppie the last couple months, I don’t want to talk about it.)
Last Night's Dream
I write an email in which “Johnny Depp” is autocorrected to “Johnny Drip” four times, and am embarrassed about it.
Texts From Mutants →
textsfrommutants.tumblr.com
Images of the X-Men paired with captions from Texts From Last Night. Yeah, that’s important. (Via Rachel)
