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Flatstock won't be at Bumbershoot this year (BOO!)
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Charles Mudede wants Bad Brains to apologize
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Slog
News & ArtsThursday, May 24, 2012
Teh Internets Amazon Announces It Will Quit ALEC, Sources Say, as Protesters Infiltrated Shareholders Meeting
Posted by Dominic Holden on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 9:49 AM
- Goldy
With the group Working Washington promising "more than 500" protesters, scores of people are amassed right now on the plaza outside the Seattle Art Museum, where Amazon is holding its annual shareholders meeting. Hard to say if they have 500 protesters. But lots more folks are inside, too. "Word is that the protesters have so many people on the inside that they're about one-third of the shareholders in the meeting," Goldy reports from the scene. That said, some shareholders have been banned from entering.
They accuse Amazon of dodging taxes, mistreating workers, and supporting the right-wing fuckers at the American Legislative Exchange Council. The controversial, corporate lobby group is behind lots of odious legislation, including Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Goldy reports that he's just received a text message from someone inside: "Just announced. They are not renewing membership in ALEC." Hurrah!
Games Fill in the Blank
Posted by Grant Brissey on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 9:36 AM
For us this morning, Jesus was just blocking traffic...
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Books / Teh Internets Philosophybro.com
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 9:31 AM
The name "philosophybro.com" is goofball and this will likely be another internet flash in the pan (like the use of the letter "z" at the endz of everyz other damned wordz), but it might give you a little Thursday-morning delight. And, like Cliffs Notes and the "[insert philosopher here] for Beginners" series, it might actually be helpful.
From an early chunk of their summary of Plato's Apology, in which Socrates addresses the court that will eventually sentence him to death:
Socrates: "Everyone is all, 'Oh, Socrates! He thinks he's sooooo smart, he knows everything that happens in Heaven and below the Earth, and he makes arguments do all kinds of weird shit, and he teaches other people to do that.' And they've been telling you all this since you were little kids, so now you're thirty and you've heard for twenty-five years that I'm a huge asshole, and I've got a single day to undo that."
"Look, here's what really happened. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it or anything, but apparently the Oracle said I'm the wisest man alive. And I don't want to brag, because I was like, 'wait, what? I don't know shit.' But, you know, the Oracle is kind of a big deal, and I didn't want to go around telling people the Oracle is just straight up wrong, because that's actual blasphemy instead of the shit you dragged me in here for, but I figured if I could actually find someone wiser than me that I could say, 'Me? No way, Jimmy, he's definitely your guy,' then I wouldn't have to worry about wisdom or whatever.
"So THAT is what I started doing. I went to all the bros who had these great reputations for wisdom, bros who claimed to know tons of shit, and I'll be damned if they weren't mostly just fucking idiots. It was like, the better a reputation a man had, the fucking dumber he was. I'm not saying I knew more than them - I'm pretty sure that I know jackshit. But these guys also didn't know anything, and were pretty sure they knew everything. And when I tried to point out that they didn't know anything, they just got pissed off like it's my fault they've got their heads up their asses, which is why they told you guys growing up about how I think I'm smarter than everyone, even though I've literally never said that, ever.
And a paragraph from their summary of Foucault after the jump.
Film Pakistani Women Acid-Burned by Their Husbands Fear Oscar-Winning Film Will Now Be Shown in Their Homeland
Posted by Jen Graves on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 9:29 AM
Um, yeah. This is a case where the art, regardless of how good it is, should be stopped from being seen.
Two Pakistani women who were attacked with acid by their husbands agreed to be part of a small film. They had no idea it would become an Oscar.
Now the filmmakers want to show the film in Pakistan, and the women fear for their lives.
They may even have to file an injunction.
Seriously? DON'T SHOW THE FILM IN PAKISTAN, JERKS.
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2012 Obama Is not a Big Spender
Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 9:16 AM
This is based something that Romney is not familiar with: hard facts.
Of all the falsehoods told about President Barack Obama, the biggest whopper is the one about his reckless spending spree.Is this business of making shit up a Mormon thing?As would-be president Mitt Romney tells it: “I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno.”
Almost everyone believes that Obama has presided over a massive increase in federal spending, an “inferno” of spending that threatens our jobs, our businesses and our children’s future. Even Democrats seem to think it’s true.
...In the 2009 fiscal year — the last of George W. Bush’s presidency — federal spending rose by 17.9% from $2.98 trillion to $3.52 trillion. Check the official numbers at the Office of Management and Budget.
The big surge in federal spending happened in fiscal 2009, before Obama took office. Since then, spending growth has been relatively flat.
....Over Obama’s four budget years, federal spending is on track to rise from $3.52 trillion to $3.58 trillion, an annualized increase of just 0.4%.
Health Hating People Doesn't Make Them Thinner
Posted by Jen Graves on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 8:58 AM
Lots of us have been saying this for a long time. The first anecdote in this story, about a stranded child not asking for help because nobody wants a fat child, is something I can relate to directly. I remember feeling just like that, because I had family members telling me fatness was worse than almost any other trait I might have—and they weren't so crazy, because that's a message society sends girls and women every day.
Can we stop doing this to each other now? Fat-shaming is real, and it's the opposite of effective social policy. Period.
"As long as we have this belief that obese people are lazy and lacking in discipline, it will be hard to get support for policies that change the environment, which are likely to have a much larger impact than trying to change individuals," said psychologist Rebecca Puhl of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Death Diamonds Made from Dead People
Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 8:50 AM
For real
Hong Kong (CNN) — Eva Wu has kept her son's room unchanged ever since he died in January of 2011. Cornald passed away from a rare form of cancer, known as PEComa, at age 17. Divorced and single, Wu recalled his optimism even in his final days."He always comforted me. He said 'Mummy, I know what's going on. I'm not afraid of dying. I know where I'm going to. I have Jesus in my heart so don't worry about me'."
To keep him close in death as he was in life, Wu had his ashes made into a diamond. "I feel peace. I feel he's near me. And it's 100% him. Nothing else but him," said Wu, who keeps the diamond on a cross necklace. "And I can recall his smiling face, and I can recall his gentle character."
How you make diamond out of a dead person:
The ashes-to-diamond process is fairly straightforward... 200 grams of cremated remains [is sent to a] laboratory in Switzerland. The carbon from those ashes is then filtered out to more than 99% purity and refined into silky, black graphite. A machine then applies volcano-like pressure and temperature: Nine hours later, a synthetic diamond — which has a bluish rather than clear tint, owing to boron found naturally in the body — is born.But the diamond is not the person. A human is not an thing but a process. The diamond only shows the process at the time of death. Because of turnover, the soft parts of a person you haven't seen in 6 or more months are mostly made of different elements. The human is ultimately a "passing through," to use the language of Bruno Latour. Meaning, we are images maintained by entering and exiting elements. A picture of person is much closer to the truth than a diamond composed of their elements.
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News The Morning News:
Posted by Megan Seling on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 8:08 AM
The Voting Continues in Egypt: "Millions of Egyptians voted Wednesday in a historic and apparently orderly presidential poll that is expected to usher in the country's first freely elected civilian leader after six decades of military-backed dictatorship."
Science is Neat: The SpaceX capsule did all the fancy tricks they wanted it to do (to test navigation and sensors and such) and they'll attempt to dock at the space station tomorrow.
Sounds Like the 520 Construction Site is Quite a Party: There are new claims of construction workers drinking on the job.
The Face on the Milk Carton: "A man has implicated himself in the death of 6-year-old Etan Patz, whose disappearance 33 years ago on his way to school helped launch a missing children's movement that put kids' faces on milk cartons, police said Thursday."
If You Want to Bum Yourself Out: Read this account of what allegedly happened when a young man was beaten to death (supposedly as part of a hazing ritual).
Thanks, Iran Navy: They claim to have saved a US cargo boat from a pirate attack.
Iran's navy said Thursday it saved an American-flagged cargo ship that was being attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Oman.
An Iranian warship responded to a distress signal from the US-flagged Maersk Texas, a cargo ship of 150 metres (500 feet) and 14,000 tonnes, which was besieged by "several pirate boats," the navy said in a statement reported by the official IRNA news agency.
The cargo vessel "was saved by the navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran" on Wednesday, IRNA added.
The pirates "fled the scene as soon as they spotted the presence" of the warship. Maersk Texas "thanked the Iranian navy and sailed towards its destination safely," it added.
It was the first time the Iranian navy protected a US ship from pirates.
Hockey!: The New Jersey Devils won 5-3 last night, giving them a 3-2 lead in the series against the New York Rangers.
Are the Yankees for Sale?: There were rumors... and now those rumors have been crushed.
Baby Cheetahs!: BABY CHEETAHS BABY CHEETAHS BABY CHEETAHS!
Today's SIFF Pick: Jen Graves says you shouldn't miss Cousinhood. "If a Judd Apatow movie were set in Europe (where men are just that much more sophisticated and dress better) and crossed with A Fish Called Wanda, it would be Cousinhood." See even more SIFF picks and reviews here!
Economy Hey Britain, How's That Austerity Working Out for You?
Posted by Goldy on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 7:20 AM
The British recession is worse than originally thought, with the Office for National Statistics revising its first quarter estimate of the drop in GDP from 0.2 percent to 0.3 percent.
The data put additional pressure on the government of Prime Minister David Cameron, which has adopted austerity measures to reduce debt, to consider ways to spur economic growth.
Remember, this is what Republicans are running on in 2012: austerity. Voter beware!
Science Opportunity
Posted by Goldy on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 6:53 AM
- NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State University
Eight years later, I'm not sure what's more amazing, that we're getting such stunning images from the surface of Mars, or that the Opportunity rover is still sending these stunning photos after more than eight years of operation? NASA has earned its fair share of criticism over the years, but damn we got our money's worth out of this particular piece of equipment.
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City No Bridging While Beering
Posted by Eli Sanders on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 6:00 AM
Via the "Problem Solvers" at our local ABC News affiliate:
BELLEVUE, Wash. — Drinking on the job is both illegal and potentially dangerous. But a KOMO 4 Problem Solver hidden camera investigation discovered workers drinking on the largest construction job in the state: The 520 Bridge construction project.
Don't miss the part where KOMO finishes off this undercover investigation by just walking in and opening up the fridge.
And: While we're not building any giant floating highways over here at The Stranger offices, I do wonder what KOMO's Problem Solvers might find if they conducted a similar investigation into the contents of our editorial fridge. Any guesses?
(Answers at 11 a.m.)
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Savage Love SL Letter of the Day: Putting It In
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 5:58 PM
My husband, 23, and I, 22, have been married for three years and we have a beautiful 4-month-old daughter. I have a few questions that I hope you can guide me in a good direction....
1. I like sex, but I stay home with our baby and I get tired at the end of the day. My husband and I would have sex every day when we first got together and now it has slowly diminished to about 6 times a month. How do I get my energy up enough to make our relationship hot again?
2. My husband wants me initiate sexual activity. He has a lot more experience in the bedroom then I do and I dont want to look stupid. I always feel like he is judging. How can I get over the fear of judgment and make it happen?
3. Our biggest problem is that I dont trust my husband putting anything in my vagina. When we have sex I have to put his penis in myself and it takes forever, because I tense my legs up. It isn't my husband's fault, I have always been this way. I have tried to let him do it, but I fear he will hurt me (accidentally) and stick it in "wrong." He has been so supporting about my screwed up issues, but I can tell he is getting frustrated. How can I trust my husband and get over it?
Thank you so much in advance!
Brand New Mom
My response after the jump...
Economy Corporate Austerity
Posted by Goldy on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 5:52 PM
Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman spent $178 million on her 2010 campaign for governor of California, $144 million of her own money, more than any other candidate in US history. And yet voters rejected her, choosing Democrat Jerry Brown instead.
So unable to impose austerity on all of California, she's instead doing it at Hewlett-Packard, where eight months into her tenure as CEO she just announced the company would lay off 27,000 workers. HP recently reported quarterly profits of $1.6 billion on revenue of $30.7 billion, down from the same quarter last year, but higher than analysts had projected. But despite helping HP earn a profit, those 27,000 workers have to be let go, because apparently that's what successful executives do.
2012 Cash 4 Santorum
Posted by It's Paul Constant's Birthday, Everybody!!! on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 4:06 PM
If your afternoon is not going well, maybe this will help: Rick Santorum is still begging for cash to pay off his failed presidential campaign. At least you don't owe tens of thousands of dollars to the people who helped support your very public humiliation!
Visual Art Bumbershoot to Skip Flatstock This Year
Posted by Grant Brissey on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 3:58 PM
A tip last week suggested that Bumbershoot organizers One Reel may not be including American Poster Institute's Flatstock at this year's festival. I sent out an e-mail last Wednesday, and One Real Associate Director Aubbie Beal responded to my e-mail late yesterday with this statement: "It's true that Flatstock is taking a break from Bumbershoot this year due to current space constraints. However, we are hopeful that we will find a mutually agreeable, suitable location for them next year, when new spaces become available after the Next 50 Celebration has ended."
The Ladies / Election / Olympia Hell Hath No Fury Like a Women's Health Organization Scorned
Posted by Goldy on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 3:52 PM
Democrat Maureen Judge (yes, she's my ex-wife) won endorsements today from Planned Parenthood and NARAL/Pro-Choice Washington in her 41st Legislative District state senate race. Perhaps just as significantly, these are endorsements that her opponent, Republican incumbent Steve Litzow, has now lost. Litzow, who claims to be pro-choice, and is a former NARAL PAC Board member (as is Judge), shared a dual endorsement from NARAL with Democratic opponent Randy Gordon in 2010. Not this time:
In describing their endorsements, each organization cited Judge’s adamant and unwavering support of women’s reproductive rights, as well as Litzow’s votes to kill the Reproductive Health Parity Act in the 2012 Legislative session. Although he has described his votes as “procedural,” it is clear to women’s health organizations his votes equate to a broken campaign promise.
“Women and families don’t understand what a procedural vote is, but they do understand when a candidate runs on a platform of protecting women’s health but then votes three times against protecting women and families,” said Dana Laurent, Political Director at Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest.
Judge also received the endorsement of the National Women’s Political Caucus of Washington.
As the incumbent, and a relatively moderate Republican who voted for marriage equality, Litzow still likely holds the edge in this race. But Litzow only beat Gordon by less than 200 votes in a Republican wave election year, and while the 41st got slightly less Democratic after redistricting, it still leans in that direction. Women vote. So this'll hurt.
Film Is It Time to Retire the Wilhelm Scream?
Posted by It's Paul Constant's Birthday, Everybody!!! on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 3:26 PM
Always-entertaining nerdblogger MightyGodKing wants Hollywood to stop sticking the Wilhelm Scream into their movies. (For a brief history of the Wilhelm Scream, this very-low-resolution video will explain all you need to know.) MGK writes:
...the problem is this: whenever I hear a Wilhelm Scream I am taken out of the movie experience. My suspense of disbelief ends and I am just a guy sitting in a movie theatre who realized he just heard the same damn scream for the umpteenth time, because I recognize it. Every time.
I get his point, and the movie that inspired his post—The Avengers—does have an especially noticeable Wilhelm Scream in it. But I like the Wilhelm Scream. I think it's an endearing part of moviemaking. It's a split-second salute to all the people who work behind the cameras, and it's a tradition that has stretched through decades of filmmaking. Sometimes, a good Wilhelm Scream can be the only refreshing organic moment in an otherwise-stultifying CGI death march. I agree that it's a shame that the in-joke has gone public in such a huge way, but it's more than an in-joke now. The Wilhelm Scream is that one shared moment where we all, filmmakers and filmgoers, come together to recognize that we're watching a movie, and movies are fun, dammit.
But which side are you on?
Crime / 2012 / Election Improper Campaign Documents Continue to Haunt McKenna
Posted by Goldy on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 3:23 PM
Now that the AP has followed up on and confirmed the story Eli and I broke a few weeks back on the hundreds of campaign documents gathered from Rob McKenna's King County Council office, and stored in the county archives, the rest of the media is following suit. Thanks, AP!
Of course McKenna's people have denied that this is evidence of anything improper, and maybe that's true (maybe) in a purely legalistic sense, given that the chain of custody cannot be verified. We only know that these campaign documents were found in McKenna's office (where they shouldn't have been). We can't be certain how they got there.
But, you know, come on... hundreds of pages of campaign documents scattered among McKenna's official council records? Are we really supposed to believe nothing improper was going on?
What was different about McKenna's office than that of other council members of the day is that McKenna used his taxpayer salaried council staffers to simultaneously run his election campaigns. That's legal, as long as these staffers perform none of their campaign activities on council time, on council premises, and using council resources. But what these documents suggest is that this is a helluva lot more difficult to accomplish in practice than in theory, and that McKenna was at very least negligent in enforcing the ethics rules.
SIFF / Film Announcing the 30-Second Exorcist Video Contest!
Posted by David Schmader on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 3:09 PM
- "Top this, bitches!"
Everything you need to know:
William Friedkin, aka the guy who directed the best horror movie EVER, is coming to SIFF this year to receive a lifetime achievement award. We DARE you, Seattle, to make a short video that will entertain us so severely that it causes our heads to spin around and green soup to shoot from our mouths fire-hose-style.
RULES OF THE CONTEST
Your film must be 30 seconds or less.
Your film may be live-action and/or animation.
You may not simply edit together fragments of scenes from The Exorcist.
Points will be awarded for originality.
Deadline for entry is June 4, 11:59:59 p.m.
Upload your video to a site with no password restrictions. (YouTube, Vimeo, your own website, etc.) After you have done this, e-mail the link and your contact information to promotions@thestranger.com with the subject “exorcist.”
The Stranger will use this link to show off your work to our readers! We will announce the winner on June 5 on SLOG!
Get hopping, and may God have mercy on your souls.
Chow More Devastating Sandwich News
Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 2:50 PM
Last week, a terrible thing happened: The I Love New York Deli in the U-District closed (with outcry in comments over here).
Now we have learned that, horribly, the original I Love New York Deli in the Pike Place Market is also gone, gone, gone, as of this past Sunday.
I just had a rather heartbreaking conversation with owner Jon Jacobs. He was at his Big Apple Deli in Maple Valley, which remains open. Among other factors in the closures, he mentioned that his meat costs had nearly doubled. "We tried raising the price 25 cents and people went insane," he said. "Look at the price of gas versus seven years ago... and I wasn't going to cut back on quality." He says the micro-neighborhood of the U-District shop, which opened near Scarecrow Video in summer 2009, has suffered mightily because of the economy and construction in the area this past winter (as noted in comments here—and it was arguably never a great location in terms of foot traffic in any case). "Business really dropped off," he said, "a lot of businesses had trouble—the hot dog place went out of business—they've been there forever. Five businesses went under."
"It sucks, but there's nobody to blame but myself," Jacobs said. "Financially, it just wasn't feasible anymore. It just got to be where it was ridiculous... You just get to a point sometimes where you just can't fight anymore."
"Those were the love of my life, those stores," he said. "You get behind in the rent, and you just can't catch up."
Jacobs mentioned filing for bankruptcy (the Maple Valley store is a separate entity). "I don't want it to be this way," he said. "Those days that i was at the Market, I loved those days. This is the hardest time of my life... if I could pay the bills right now, I would. I know I'm not the only one, but I feel like I am. I work 20 hours a day—I work my ass off. It's really hard."
Meanwhile, Jacobs is trying to negotiate a lease on a space on the Ave to resurrect the U-District store, which would involve a loan from his father.
Comedy / Music / Sex / Theater "If You're Fucking, You're Probably Having Some Sex!"
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 2:23 PM
"... if you're not fucking, then the absence of fucking is occurring!"
Classic Reggie Watts. He opens by asking who in the crowd is from Brooklyn. They cheer. Then he asks who's from Manhattan. They cheer, and he flips them shit for sounding a little "nose-forward." Then: "How many people here have ever had sex?" Hesitancy from the crowd. "That's okay! You don't have to be embarrassed! It's okay!" And then this song:
Chalk it up as another step on the quest to articulate what should be obvious to everyone.
2012 Mitt Romney's Moving Goalposts: Unemployment Edition
Posted by It's Paul Constant's Birthday, Everybody!!! on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 2:21 PM
When he's not bragging about the 100,000 tens of thousands thousands possibly dozens of jobs he created at Bain Capital, Mitt Romney has been saying that in his first term as president, he'll get unemployment down to 4%. But like his job creation numbers, Romney is backing up on his unemployment numbers, too, according to Talking Points Memo:
“I can tell you that over a period of 4 years, by virtue of the policies that we put in place, we get the unemployment rate down to 6 percent, or perhaps a little lower,” Romney said, “depends in part upon the rate of growth of the globe as well as what we’re seeing here in the United States, but we get the rate down quite substantially.”
Given that we’ve been hovering near eight percent for months, that sounds like a major improvement. But many models — including the one used by Congress’ non-partisan budget and economic scorekeeper — suggest we’ll reach that level whoever happens to be president. The table on page 129 of CBO’s 2012-2022 outlook forecasts an average unemployment rate of 5.8 across fiscal year 2017, which begins October 1, 2016, just shy of four years after Romney’s hypothetical inauguration.
So now Romney is promising he'll lower the unemployment by two percent in four years. By some metrics, the unemployment rate has lowered almost three points in the last two years under President Obama.
Life "Wedding Gay Blues"
Posted by David Schmader on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 2:09 PM
From this week's I, Anonymous:
- STEVEN WEISSMAN
I understand weddings are the shit to you. It's your chance to cut loose in the big city, get drunk on free booze, and dance your ass off. This is also the first time you've met a real-life gay. I'm certainly in favor of changing the hearts and minds of rural folk, but please remember I'm here to enjoy myself, too. Being an advocate for the entire species is pretty damn tiring. Here are some ground rules for the next time you meet a gay at a wedding. (1) Please don't tell my boyfriend he looks like Jesse Tyler Ferguson, "that gay guy" from Modern Family. (2) Don't ask me if I think your redneck boyfriend is (a) hot, (b) gay, (c) all of the above. (3) Don't ask me to use my gaydar on any of your other redneck friends whom I've never met. (4) Don't ask the DJ to play "Vogue" and then say you did it just for me....
Read the whole thing here.
Film What Do You Think of the Great Gatsby Trailer?
Posted by It's Paul Constant's Birthday, Everybody!!! on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 1:18 PM
The Great Gatsby directed by Baz Luhrmann will be in movie theaters this Christmas in 3D. (WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST WRITE?) It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, and Tobey Maguire. Here's the trailer:
Those are some very good actors (Mulligan, as far as I'm concerned, hasn't made a misstep yet; even in terrible movies, she's exceptional) but they have a lot of work to overcome the basic premise of the project.
Politics McDermott Fires Back Over "Protest Vote" Allegation
Posted by Unpaid Intern on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 1:17 PM
Posted by news intern Mike Gore.
In my Saturday Slog post about Andrew Hughes, challenger to Jim McDermott's Congressional throne, we included the following controversial bit:
Strolling through Burien, our chit-chat turned to more serious matters, such as the recent National Defense Authorization Act, which allows for the indefinite detention without trial of “suspected terrorists" —both citizens and foreigners alike. Hughes said he would have voted against the act, just as McDermott did. However, Hughes brought up a point that after 23 years in Congress, McDermott should be able to do more than cast "just a protest vote."
Kinsey Kiriakos, spokesman for Rep. McDermott, shot me a stern email stating that McDermott actually did a lot more than cast a protest vote:
Death
Paul Constant and Dominic Holden Think[s] Rock and Roll Is Dead
Posted by Grant Brissey on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 12:35 PM
But Dominic thinks that new wave is the genre's most recent development [This is a blatant lie that I made up and now feel terrible about], so we'll not even get started on him today. Paul, however, has debatably been paying attention and, in this week's music lead, entitled The Caretaker: Only Jack White Can S(t)ave Rock and Roll from Obscurity, writes:
Rock and roll made that shift from an active idea into a passive idea a decade or two ago; this is what most people mean when they say that rock and roll is dead. You can smush rock together with some other regional sound for an explosion of novelty—remember Vampire Weekend?—but every major idea behind rock and roll has been dissected and examined to death. When you're dealing with white guys playing electric guitar, all you can do is maneuver around the different parts of the ceremony to make aspects feel slightly fresher, but it's all ultimately a tribute to some idea that's been leached clean of nutrients by previous generations.
What say you readership? Weigh in here.
Video of the Day Lunchtime Quickie: Perry Farrell Hyping Tequila?
Posted by Kelly O on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 12:30 PM
What did he just say? Was it something spiritual and profound? Thanks, Perry! And you don't even drink!
Your Daily No-Duh
Posted by It's Paul Constant's Birthday, Everybody!!! at 12:09 PM in 2012 / Media
Pictures of Amazed Women in Men's Bathrooms
Posted by Charles Mudede at 11:30 AM in Hetero
Here Comes Woodstock for Ron Paul Fans
Posted by It's Paul Constant's Birthday, Everybody!!! at 11:09 AM in 2012
Is Light Rail Driving Racial Minorities Out of Rainier Valley?
Posted by Dominic Holden at 11:04 AM in City
Settlers in History, Settlers Today, Settlers from Space
Posted by Charles Mudede at 8:24 AM in History
Dems' Odds of Holding State Senate Just Got Better
Posted by Goldy at 8:18 AM in Election / Olympia
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
SL Letter of the Day: Thank You Noted
Posted by Dan Savage at 6:22 PM in Savage Love
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Confidential to Conservative Christians: Keep Doubling Down On Hate, Assholes by Dan Savage
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SL Letter of the Day: Show This Woman Some Love by Dan Savage
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Dharun Ravi Sentenced to 30 Days by Dan Savage
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Seattle's Forthcoming Waterfront Ferris Wheel by David Schmader
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NOM's Brian Brown Said I Could Name the Time and the Place by Dan Savage
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Why KeyArena Won't Work by Goldy
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Israel Is for Jews by Charles Mudede
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Every Child Deserves a Mother and a Father by Dan Savage
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