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Achin' To Be

It's always bugged me. And now I have just the blog to spew about it in.

Every time I see some young rock critic dude bashing on the Replacements as ancient and irrelevant history, as being the perfect band for old white American rock critics, it gets me all defensive—being the forever young white dude rock critic that I am. The release of Don't You Know Who I Think I Was? (a Mat–ian title if there ever was), the new Mats best–of seems to have brought all the Mats morons out of the woodwork yet again.

In short, for me, in my opinion (attn: legal dept.), the Replacements…

America's Greatest Female Spy

Virginia Hall was considered so dangerous by the Gestapo that they crafted a Wanted poster with her likeness. The UK made her an MBE and the US awarded her the DSC—the only woman ever to receive that honor. She parachuted behind enemy lines with her "wooden leg in her backpack." So why haven't I ever heard of this remarkable woman?

Hayden B. Peake reviews a biography that just might make Hall's name better known.

Huckleberry Imitates the Tiger

"Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit
To his full height!”

William Shakespeare

Welcome to visitors from The Friday Ark and Carnival of the Cats.

On the Other Hand

You could just rear back and box the crap out of him. That works for Bagheera.

Welcome to visitors from The Friday Ark and Carnival of the Cats.

What's a Cello Sound Like?

Kandinsky said it's "the deepest blue of all the instruments." More on synaesthesia.

Ancient Bosnian Pyramid Update

It ain't over until the fat NGO sings?

Grown Together

"Oh, you're still here," Elizabeth said, on her way out.

"Would I leave without saying 'good-bye,' E?"

"Well, I wouldn't normally think so, but you were just so quiet. I thought you'd snuck out. What's going on?"

"I just finished my Sonic Youth review. It took me all day."

"I heard the music playing earlier."

"I've been listening to it for five days straight."

"You know you don't have to like something just because you liked it in the past. It's okay not to like it."

"Oh, I know. But this is really good." I nodded my head for…

Can Do!

How to make your own headphones. They may not be an audio upgrade from the ubiquitous three-buck upchuck earbuds available from your friendly flight attendant, but I love this guy's roll-your-own attitude.

Besides, in this throw-away culture, maybe DIY projects like this are precisely what's needed to create a new generation of component builders.

Britten's Children

Here's a fascinating review of John Bridcut's Britten's Children, a book that traces Benjamin Britten's fascination with a succession of young boys and that obsession's role in the creation of so much of his glorious music.

Peter Grimes, starring John Vickers, was my first experience of live opera at the Met, but prior to that I had little experience of Britten's music. I was gob-smacked by the power of the opera and its wonderful orchestral interludes, but in the weeks after seeing it, I kept attempting to suss out why the townspeople of the Borough got so upset over the death of his…

Intergalactic Self-Defense Mechanisms

That's ray guns to you and me—and Lockwasher has assembled a beautiful bevy of 'em. I love the spray-gun/toilet float-ball jobbie and just may be inspired to create a few of my own—depending, as Lockwasher says, on what kind of stuff I find.

Via Grow A Brain.