Here's a very interesting, and pessimistic, blog post about the decline and fall of modern journalism. How did mainstream journalism get so sloppy, so spin-prone, so lazy?

The key question then becomes why we produce stories with "falsehood, distortion and propaganda"? He says, "There are certainly a lot of lazy hacks out there - some of them are drunk as well. But that's a relatively small factor." To Davies, it's a "structural problem". Modern journalism has been saddled with a structure that is likely to produce inaccurate stories. As he so eloquently put it, "Newsrooms are taken over by corporations that have injected logic of commercialism and rejected the logic of journalism."

Corporations (Rupert Murdoch's name was mentioned more than once) have ignited two main problems - they have reduced the time that journalists have and they have increased their workload. "So instead of making contacts, finding stories and checking facts, more and more journalists sit at desks and recycle press releases from world of PR and wire news. Not only do we recycle, but we do it without checking properly."

There are very few perfect rock songs. I am convinced that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's "Need Some Air" is one of them.



(not sure why someone has set their vacation footage to this song, but the audio is high quality)

You wanna pick something up, you gotta lay it down
You wanna turn something on, you gotta set it off
You wanna let something in, you gotta tear it out
I wanna feel the sun, I just need some air

The only word that you know is please, please, please
The only life that you see is from your knees
I wanna feel the light, I just can't receive
Don't wanna leave the ground, I just need some air
I need some air

Crank the volume up, open a window, and enjoy. Singing along at the top of your lungs is optional.

Are you constantly losing your cell in weird places? Is it always falling out of your pocket? Dropping into the toilet? Getting in the way of your sandblaster? Being exposed to high voltage current? Getting crushed under tilting bridges?

Have we got a phone for you.

ginnyz responded to my earlier post on great works of literature that suck with her own list of works that should be 'fired from the canon'. She reports being allergic to 'works with an entirely too British sensibility.' Fair enough.

That got me thinking about where there's a specific type of literary volume that, uh, doesn't exactly speak to my soul. Upon further reflection I have concluded that there is. It is this:

I can't stand novels where I'm inclined to dislike most or all of the central characters.

I'm not simply talking about not identifying with certain types of characters. Yes, if you populate your book with characters I find insufferable then I will be annoyed. But I'm talking about this form of literature (which I think is VERY twentieth century) where authors protagonists who have essentially no redeeming features. They're hateful, spiteful, dingy, dirty, miserable, small-minded and they have no aspirations to change. And here we have a 300+ page novel, starring them! In God's name Why?

If you want specific examples I'll throw Madame Bovary or Faulkner's As I Lay Dying (a book that basically ruined Faulkner for me) out there. The first at least had the advantage of being intended as social satire, but the reason why we should want to read about the Bundren family will forever elude me. These aren't good people. They're not interesting people. They don't have an interesting story. Why should anyone care? I, for one, fail to.

Even in the obvious presence of satire, like in Bovary, I find this sort of approach to character very spurious. Madame Bovary, the person, does not exist in real life. No one is truly that shallow, that completely self-centered, that "bourgeoisie." Or if they are, they weren't always. Making a character that is so completely two-dimensional and then making fun of them seems like getting in some cheap shots. I don't feel like Camus is really sticking it to the middle class when he doesn't make any good faith effort to find out who the middle class really are.

I'm not saying that I only like books where the heroes are heroes and the protagonists are saintly in their conduct. I enjoy the flawed anti-hero, the tragic figure and even the selfish bastard who has a momentary glimmer of repentance just as much as anybody, if not more. But I don't like characters who have been cynically dehumanized and stripped down until they're nothing more than objects of misery.

If that's your vision of humanity and that's what you want to write about, fine. But to me it seems like a colossal failure of the imagination. Throwing in the towel on humanity and declaring "Well, I guess life just sucks," is something any alienated fourteen-year-old can do. When adults do it, only presumably with less ignorance and more cynicism, should we really reward the steaming pile that results with the title of 'Great Literature'?

I'm just asking.

I'm of the opinion that the literary movements of the first half of the twentieth century did us no favors. Not only did a lot of the books produced by modernism suck, but they carried along with them this bizarre conceit that we should like them because they were so bad.

Possibly we should extend the blame back to their predecessors? I object to the Romantics on ethical and philosophical grounds (ever since reading Plagues of the Mind) but at least those people knew how to tell a story. Tess of the d'Urbervilles may be maudlin and overwrought, but it does have characters, sentence structure, and a plot, and for that we should applaud it.

This modern fallacy that good writers can and should chuck all these things out the window is dwarfed only by the one that says that readers who don't get the deep inner meanings buried in the resulting mess must be card-carrying members of the bourgeois. If you're bored or annoyed or disgusted by hundreds of pages of tortured inner monologue written in a fractured style, then YOU are to blame!

I'm not of the opinion that one should never have to make an effort in literature. Struggling through some of the giants of literature is a noble endeavor and will arguably make you a better person. But the idea that a book can't be good unless it's a struggle? That's poison.

Ahem.

I could rant on about this topic at length, but this is really just a preamble to this wonderful list I found via Crof's Writing Fiction Blog: Fired From The Canon. Literary blog The Second Pass has compiled a list of books by literary giants that you should feel no compunction about skipping. Faulkner, Virginia Woolf and Cormac McCarthy make the cut (or don't), among many others!

I have been fortunate enough to have been spared all the books on this list*, and for most the argument seems strong for continuing in my ignorance. The only exception is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. Based on everything I know about it, I think it's something I would like, and perhaps more importantly, something I need to read regardless.

What about you? Are there any books on that list that make you beg to differ? Any books that you would add to it? Go!

* I have sort of a sense of smell that instinctively warns me away from books and films that I won't enjoy. My experience is that this internal early warning system tends to be fairly accurate. It's not simple luck that I've never tried to read On The Road.

I always keep this playlist called "New Hotness" on my computer and my iPod. I stuff all the new stuff I'm listening to a lot into this playlist and then listen to it on random (I have this weird fetish about randomizing the music I'm listening to, a psychological hangup that surely deserves its own post).

The thing is right now I have so many 'girl rock' albums in rotation that I'm often not sure who I'm listening to! I've got Morningwood, the Spinnerette's debut, the new Metric and Yeah Yeah Yeahs albums going, and if they don't exactly blur together they do FIT together.

Apparently 2008/2009 is the year when producers across the globe dialed back the distortion, brought in the drum machines and turned the keyboardist up in the mix. And everybody was rocking like it was 1983!

I'm not complaining in the slightest, mind you. I LIKE this sound. And these are all super solid albums that are worth checking out (although Metric's "Fantasies" currently holds a special place in my heart - seriously amazing guys). Girl power, and all that.

I just find it surprising that Emily Haines and Karen O could sound so similar.

In spite of the fact that I've returned to American soil, over at the Chinese Apples blog we're forging ahead with an exciting new picture post! I've got a few posts that I have wanted to do but which I just didn't have time for the last month. God willing they'll go up in the next few weeks.

The winners of the 2009 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest have been announced. This yearly competition to see who can write the WORST opening sentence to a hypothetical novel is always supremely entertaining. If that sounds like your bag, you should definitely check it out.

As is usually the case, I get more of a chuckle out of many of the runners-up then I do the winners. Read them all!

I decided whilst in A'dam that an Important Life Skill that I lacked was Cooking. Now, I can make a few simple items, but I don't really have anything that would work for, say, a dinner party. So I decided that since I am now living with my parents and have willing victims diners I should try and learn.

I don't really want to become a master chef. What I want is to master maybe five or so really delicious recipes.

So, I'm cooking dinner Wednesday and I need your best recipes, if you'll share. I want to make the kinds of things that I personally find really delicious. I'm thinking Mexican, Greek, Italian. Definitely something with olives. I'm open to other possibilities as well, as long as they're DELICIOUS. And somewhat suitable for a beginner.

If you've got recipes you'd like to share, drop me a comment or send me an email: braun at dontbeafraid dot net.

Thanks!

One of the student volunteers at the nearbye Mission House is a German girl named Anna. She is quite interested in English slang and wants me to make her a list of the more obscure or esoteric slang words to use to amuse her language teacher. Fair enough, but I have a hard time of thinking of these things in a vacuum. So I turn to you, dear friends and readers. Please leave your comments and I will compile a nice list of slang to pass onto her. Clean stuff only, please, although certainly you are encouraged to make suggestions that would sound funny coming from a German. I've already got her using "off the hook" and "all up in yo grill".

British slang also welcome!

Via Freaknomics is a new scientific study on people's 'social networks' - the various groups of close friends that you may have. A lot of interesting things have come out of the study, which challenges the idea that people consciously select their friends. But even more interesting is this:

[W]e examine how social contexts affect changes in personal networks over seven years. Worthy of mention is that, while the size of personal networks is remarkably stable over time, we substitute many of our initial network members for new ones.

Huh.

So, at the end of seven years you're likely to have roughly the same number of friends you started with, but they won't necessarily be the same friends. In fact, Freakonomics pegs the actual number at 48%. HALF your friends will change over seven years. Fascinating.

That rings true to my subjective experience. It seems as though over time different people within one's social group can change quite a bit in importance. You might have been inseparable from Allen in 2000 and barely known his friend Barbara, but by 2007 you hardly see Allen because he's now married, but you and Barbara are having Taco Night every Tuesday*.

To be honest, though, I'm slightly a-typical from what this study describes. I tend to actually enter new social networks from time to time. So I would say I definitely have MORE friends than I did seven years ago. But I do think I'm unusual in the way I have several different social networks, so I don't think it invalidates this theory. Regardless, within the social networks that I've had from the beginning people have definitely moved closer and farther away from me.

It's something that seems particularly relevant now that I'm on the cusp of going back to the US and leaving an entire social network behind. Who, if anyone, will I stay connected with? I hope there's someone.

What about you? Do you find that it's true that you have the same number of friends but that many of them are different than they were seven or even ten years ago?

* Mmmmmmmmmm... Taco Night...

I never know how useful these What Tom Is Listening Too posts are. Cathartic for me? Yes. Rather self-serving? Probably. Helpful for you? No idea!

Hey, I'm just sharing stuff I love with you. I try and include quick links to actual songs or videos when possible so you can decide for yourself if it's for you or not. My hope, as always, is that I might point someone in the direction of something cool they hadn't heard before.

So, onward and upward!

The Bird and The Bee - Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future
B&tB is the usual folksy female songwriter stuff with a twist. Inara George's cool, ethereal vocals carry just the right amount of ironic self-awareness and the lyrics run the gamut from clever to whimsical. Even better, her partner Greg Kursten makes sure that every track is inventively arranged, with nods to such leading electronic lights as Beck. It's feel-good pop that won't strain your brain, but also won't insult your intelligence.

( Video for 'Love Letter To Japan' )

Your Vegas - A Town And Two Cities
It's a bit ironic, really. The Killers have released two albums trying so hard to capture that big 80's arena rock song but not quite getting there, and then Your Vegas comes along and nails it on a debut album replete with power ballads about small towns and riding into the sunset. Mind you, there's not a shred of originality on display here. But YV channels Bruce Springsteen expertly, and without a trace of self-consciousness. But forget comparisons. If you're in the mood for something soaring and anthemic, you need look no further. This is it.

Listen to Your Vegas channeling their inner U2 in this video for In My Head.

Procupine Tree - In Absentia
And now for something darker. Imagine that a death metal band traded in its distortion-laden guitars and vocal thrashing to focus on something that's got elements of everything from bluegrass to electronica mixed. But imagine that thematically, they were just the same band as before. That should give you a good starting point for what prog-rockers Porcupine Tree have done on this album. Lyrically, this is dark territory, but that only occasionally comes to the fore in the song arrangements. Instead there's a lot of beautiful melodies, nice harmonization and lush arrangements. This all serves to make the result both more disturbing and more profound than songs built on wailing guitars and speed drumming would ever have been.

PT appears to be very diligent about removing any and all copies of their songs from YouTube, but the Internet being what it is you can still listen to their absolutely transcendent track "Trains" here.

Finally, this being Europe, I've been listening to a lot of techno. I'd be remiss if I didn't point you in the direction of a couple of solid tracks.

First, you really ought to check out this Moby-esque remix of a Nina Simone gospel song. It's called "Sinnerman" and it's by Felix Da Housecat. The video is not half bad either.

Next, we have "Two Takes It (feat. Carmen Castro)." Get up and dance! Mr. Oizo has reworked an old hip hop song with some female MC vocals. I don't know who Carmen Castro is, but you can't deny that "on the mic, [she's] meant to be the freshest." Some sexual inuendo, if you can handle it.

The video for Tiga's 'Shoes' somehow manages to be profoundly disturbing. But click through to it and set it in the background and you'll be alright. Well, the actual song is also fairly weird. But it's catchy, and kind of hilarious besides. "Those gloves don't touch my skin!" Word, lady. Word.

I know there's months and months of musical goodness I need to catch up on when I return to the states in a month. In the meantime, if there's any good stuff you want to bring to my attention please feel free to do so in the comments!

I would like to 'pimp' my cousin's 'weblog', wherein he reviews 'flicks' such as 'Star Trek 11'.

Living in California has naturally exposed Zach to a lot of films and filmmaking. Being from the same genetic stock as me has naturally predisposed him to be brilliant. So, he has a lot of insightful things to say.

For instance, he and some friends put together an additional 'podcast'* about the movie which you may also find insightful.

It's also possible that you are SO OVER Star Trek, but I just finally got around to seeing it last night. My thoughts generally line up with my cousins so I won't rehash that stuff. It was 'aight. I'm still a Next Generation guy, though.

* I'll stop doing that now, I promise.

Just read a really fascinating Slate article entitled Why No More 9/11s? It lays out eight prevailing theories on why terrorists have not made a successful attack on US soil since 2001, starting with the comforting ("Terrorists are dumb.") and moving towards the disconcerting ("It's only a matter of time."). It's long, but you won't be bored.

Nintendo announces that a new side-scrolling Mario game is coming to the Wii - and it's multiplayer!

Ooh, major grammar controversy over on Eric D. Snider's blog. Mothers, cover your commas! This may not be appropriate for the weak of punctuation:

Last week I posted an item that I thought would be entirely uncontroversial. It was simply a list of mistakes made by major North American newspapers in their reviews of the movie “Dance Flick.” The movie was made by several members of the Wayans family, which led to errors along these lines:

“The Wayans (should be Wayanses) keep making the same movie.”
“Like the Wayans’ (Wayanses’) last movie, this one is no good.”
“I hope this is the Wayans’s (Wayanses’) last movie.
“All those Wayans’ (Wayanses) should know better.”

As I said, I didn’t expect any controversy here. Plurals of last names are formed the same way as plurals of other nouns: by adding “s” or “es.” The only common exception is that last names ending in “y” don’t change to “ies” (e.g., baby/babies, but Murphy/Murphys). And once it’s pluralized, you show possession the same way: by adding an apostrophe. My boss, my many bosses, my many bosses’ offices. One Wayans, several Wayanses, the Wayanses’ latest movie.

Yet as soon as I posted it, there was dissent.

He goes on to detail the debate and quote from the relevant style guides. Then, to cap it all off, he emailed the senior copy chief at the LA Times to ask him if the LA Times (one of the papers quoted) made a mistake. Ballsy!

And guess what, the copy chief owned up. Snider was right, the LA Times and internet were wrong, and 'Wayans' should always be pluralized 'Wayanses'. To be completely fair, I would have gotten this one wrong too. I'm not a walking style guide, but I've read and written enough that my gut calls on grammar (if I can be bothered to look twice at it) are usually pretty accurate. But I would have been wrong to go with my instinct here. It should indeed be 'Wayanses'.

I still think it looks weird.

( My (literal!) gut response... )

So. Wayanses or Wayans'? What do you guyses think?

And here is a fine Flash-based productivity-enhancer, via Dave Barry.

This is game design at it's finest. There are no instructions because none are needed. It's simple, elegant, and challenging. Props to whomever.

UPDATE: I've decided that this game is even more brilliant than it first appears, as the rather contrary nature of the cat somehow feels extremely true-to-life.

Via Writtenwyrdd -

Musical fusion is a lovely thing.

Two bands I dig: Queens of the Stone Age delivers tight, growly rock with cold precision. It's a style they've honed over the last few albums until it sounds almost machined. But it's still really cool.

Meanwhile, I've never been that much into punk, but I make a definite exception for The Distillers from Down Under. Brody Dalle sold her snarly vocals so well that she could outscream any male vocalist in the punk scene hands-down.

So, what would happen if Josh Homme of QotSA and Dalle of Distillers got married and formed a new side project?

Probably something exactly like this: the band is Spinnerette, the song is "Ghetto Love", and the video is oh-so-stylishly minimalist. Enjoy.

"Personally, I think that if MacGuyver had carried around a lot more C4, he could have gotten through a lot more doors a lot easier."
-Grant Imahara