How good was it? Shawn Moynihan offers an appreciation.
Over at CJR, Nicholas Lemann ponders the limits of clear language, going back to George Orwell's classic "Politics and the English Language." Lemann doesn't quite worship at the altar of "P&TEL," however: He applauds it, but points out it was a rush job—one of 100 articles Orwell published in 1946.
Well, that's the…
"Folks,
"I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news. I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's, which lay behind this year's phantom 'stroke.'
"We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism. For now work is continuing on…
Ike Turner, who was either born Izear Luster Turner, Jr. or Ike Wister Turner, has died a 76. He's probably best known today for having been the discoverer, husband, and serial abuser—by her account—of Tina Turner, from whom he was divorced in the mid-'70s.
I don't mean to excuse Turner for raising his hand to his wife. After all, even while denying that he was a monster, he did confess to having struck her and cocaine was frequently involved, which means that he might not have been the best judge of his own actions.
However unadmirable he might have been, he was a giant in…
You listen.
It's no wonder JA had waited so long. After only a few moments, you'll start to giggle and blush with disbelief and enthusiasm, in awe of what you're hearing. At…
Apparently, JA invented the Internets. Who knew?
Also, he's some sort of oracle:
I suspect, therefore, that quality will be forgotten in this rush to make the future happen. Will new generations, overloaded with information and brought up on a diet of data-reduced audio and MPEG-compressed video, even care about sound quality?
Yikes.
Perhaps,…
When I first began exploring ethnomusicology, I found the music strange until I learned that young men in Pygmy culture sang songs to attract girls and that single campesinos in Peru could not engage in courtship dances if they didn't play the charango. I was in a band to pick up girls, so I felt an immense kinship with my African and Andean brethren.
Somehow, knowing my Natufian ancestor had a toolbag makes him…
So of course, it's being used in outdoor advertising here in New York. Innocent pedestrians (well, innocent by New York standards) are assaulted by a bodiless voice murmuring "Who's that? Who's there?" It is then followed by: "It's not your imagination!"
I have two reactions to this: 1) Shades of Philip K. Dick, and 2) How stupid do you have to be to put additional voices inside the heads of already stressed-out NY pedestrians?
…