I spent the 4th of July post singing the praises of Rolling Stone magazine, and suggesting that their investigative reporting, arguably the only remaining vital component of the magazine, has served mightily over the pas decade in the service of American liberty. I still believe that, but today I wanted to wonder with you about [...]
I’ve been thinking a lot about my job lately, in the early days of the new school year. I know this is nothing a hipster would say, but I just love my job. I love my profession; I love my career. And I was thinking today about how it all started. When I was sixteen [...]
My apologies in advance—or in arrears, perhaps—to any and all fcrp readers who have both heard, and are utterly fed up with, this Justin Bieber party trick. It’s hard for a guy with a day job to keep up with the speed of sound, even when the sound’s this slow. Maybe Hipster-hated Chris Martin can [...]
Thanks to fcrp reader Emily, who suggested the first video in today’s post—which led me, old guy that I am, to think of a couple of earlier examples of this kind of thing. So to begin at the beginning: here’s the video that Emily pointed me to, a subtle but instructive piece of performance art. [...]
If you opened this page hoping to find a discussion of Rihanna’s video for “Umbrella,” I’m sorry to have deceived you. Well, not “sorry,” exactly: I mean, I did it with malice aforethought. But that’s not exactly the agenda here today; rather this is a “meta-discussion” of the video—a discussion of a discussion of the [...]
I’m afraid I don’t have the space here today to develop the point, but my own sense is that if Daniel Johnston is a gifted artist, his gifts are more as a visual artist than as a musician. Many of his cartoons have circulated widely in popular and cyber culture; if you don’t realize that [...]
As promised/threatened yesterday—and what a vibrant conversation yesterday, y’all!—I want to work through some impressions of The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2006), a pretty riveting documentary recommended to me by fcrp reader Steve. It turned out to be a great way to redeem a long stretch of otherwise exasperating insomnia last week. But you don’t [...]
So after the tough sledding of the past few days, it’s time for us all to frolic a bit in the shallow end of the cultural pool: it is, after all, still summer, and Labor Day’s just around the corner. Here, then, a parlor game: What are your ten favorite “rock movies”? That phrase wobbles [...]
Yup: 24 hours later, I still can’t get Cee-Lo out of my head. And he keeps cussing in there! Just a few more stray thoughts about “Fuck You,” on a Sunday morning. First, what a remarkable bridge, right? Cee-Lo holds it off until 2:40; that’s mighty late. The change in tenor, both musical and emotional, [...]
Honestly? This is not how I wanted today’s post to go. But sometimes you’ve just gotta testify. On days when I’m plopped in front of my computer for hours at a time—like yesterday, Friday, working from my home office—I start up my computer with four different programs running. Outlook (what can I say? I’m a [...]