Day 30
And finally we have an odds & ends post.
Simon Reynolds has a thrillingly good review at Salon of the new albums by Kanye West and Guns N' Roses. I praise it not because I agree with or have even heard any of the music discussed, but because it's a corrective to the dreaded and endlessly popular "think piece." Instead of a convoluted mess of half-baked reminiscences and observations thrown about in nominal relation to the records at hand, Reynolds briefly summarizes the popular opinions/ideas about the musicians and then zeroes in on the music, most notably the technological aspects. Kind of like what David Bordwell might produce were he a pop music critic, Reynolds discusses in depth, vis a vis Chinese Democracy, ProTools, compression, and digital correction; and re. 808s and Heartbreak, well, 808s, Autotune, and many/most of the other techniques Kanye's puts to use. Sure, he throws in some not unfounded psychoanalysis, but this is a review and not a tech-spec sheet. Writing like this obviously takes a bit of a gestation period, and a solid body of knowledge on the part of the reviewer, but the music world would probably be a better place if more pieces were half as edifying.
Secondly, in a fit of haven't-done-the-dishes-in-a-while resourcefulness a short while ago, I discovered that spoons may actually be preferable to butter knives for spreading. At least in that they can scoop it just as well, but when actually applying the butter to the bread (or other surface), you can adjust how much you're using by turning the spoon to leave some for another swipe. From mild shame to vindication in mere seconds.
And the Egyptian has their weekend midnight schedule up for January. I can finally see Se7en, and will almost certainly revisit Wet Hot American Summer, Dr. Strangelove, and The Matrix, none of which I've seen in a theater.
Whew.
Simon Reynolds has a thrillingly good review at Salon of the new albums by Kanye West and Guns N' Roses. I praise it not because I agree with or have even heard any of the music discussed, but because it's a corrective to the dreaded and endlessly popular "think piece." Instead of a convoluted mess of half-baked reminiscences and observations thrown about in nominal relation to the records at hand, Reynolds briefly summarizes the popular opinions/ideas about the musicians and then zeroes in on the music, most notably the technological aspects. Kind of like what David Bordwell might produce were he a pop music critic, Reynolds discusses in depth, vis a vis Chinese Democracy, ProTools, compression, and digital correction; and re. 808s and Heartbreak, well, 808s, Autotune, and many/most of the other techniques Kanye's puts to use. Sure, he throws in some not unfounded psychoanalysis, but this is a review and not a tech-spec sheet. Writing like this obviously takes a bit of a gestation period, and a solid body of knowledge on the part of the reviewer, but the music world would probably be a better place if more pieces were half as edifying.
Secondly, in a fit of haven't-done-the-dishes-in-a-while resourcefulness a short while ago, I discovered that spoons may actually be preferable to butter knives for spreading. At least in that they can scoop it just as well, but when actually applying the butter to the bread (or other surface), you can adjust how much you're using by turning the spoon to leave some for another swipe. From mild shame to vindication in mere seconds.
And the Egyptian has their weekend midnight schedule up for January. I can finally see Se7en, and will almost certainly revisit Wet Hot American Summer, Dr. Strangelove, and The Matrix, none of which I've seen in a theater.
Whew.
Posted on Sunday, November 30, 2008
1 Comment(s):
My ideal butter-spreading utensil would also have a built-in heating element, for those occasions where you forget to remove the butter from the fridge until spreading time.
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