Posted in Uncategorized on February 22, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The Unit for Criticism at the University of Illinois has a new blog (Kritik–pronounced “Critique,” I’m told), and I think it’s a Very Interesting Thing. So far they have a number of papers that were originally presented at symposia sponsored by the Unit (including a quite nicely poetic one by Matt Hart and a few [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged McCain, Obama on February 14, 2008 | 1 Comment »
At what point does parody jump the shark? So far it’s still funny and still fairly smart politics, I’d say. And somehow it strikes me that the sensibility of these parodies is much, much more appealing than the ads from last time around.
Posted in Uncategorized on February 12, 2008 | No Comments »
In light of the in-depth commentary that previously appeared on this blog concerning Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters, I figured it was appropriate to mention that the album won a Grammy last night for Album of the Year. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I certainly did a double-take when I [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Barak, music, Obama, Pearl Jam, Politics on February 7, 2008 | No Comments »
I don’t know what to do with Pearl Jam’s new Barak recording, “Barak Around the Clock.” [Sorry, It's broken]
I suppose it’s meant to be funny; or maybe “edgy,” like, ironic, you know. Said with rising inflection. It’s pretty stupid, as political statements go and as music; cornball, whatever.
Mostly it makes me wonder if Pearl [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged irony, Lawrence Welk, One Toke Over The Line, pop culture, television on February 6, 2008 | 5 Comments »
I can never really get my head around the Lawrence Welk show. Welk, himself, seems clearly unironic, and I’m pretty sure that most people who watch it, or at least who watched it at the time, liked it without irony; but I really wonder about the musicians, singers, dancers and so on. Could [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged advertising, election, Obama, Will.I.Am on February 4, 2008 | No Comments »
Did Will.I.Am read (and hate) Maureen Dowd’s post (linked here)? Did Obama? Did Scarlett Johansson and Herbie Hancock and Kareem Abdul Jabbar and John Legend and the lot of them?
Perhaps not, but this is a nice response to the notion of Obama-as-Smooth-Jazz-Modernity. It is certainly smooth, and like Hancock’s Joni Mitchell tribute [...]
