Michael Jackson via last.fm"...in 1979, with Off The Wall, he invented modern pop as we know it. He'd been around for years, making the occasional solo record, but for literally millions of us, it was a de facto debut album from a kid -- a kid! Like us! -- we were hearing for the first time. It was an unabashed disco record, with an anthem called "Burn This Disco Out" at a time when "disco" was the most polarizing word in pop music. But it was a disco record that imagined the entirety of pop in disco terms, and it sounded universal on a level … [Read more...]
APPETITE FOR SELF-DESCTRUCTION
June 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Cover via Amazon Early in "Appetite for Self-Destruction," Knopper quotes former Warner Records and EMI CEO Joe Smith as observing, "This business ain't full of Martin Luther Kings." It says something about the emotional power of music that anyone would expect sainthood in its executives, but in the real world the absence of "Martin Luther Kings" is notable in virtually all businesses. Internet romanticists liked to ridicule the often implausible claims of record execs that they were looking out for the artists, since these were, at times, the … [Read more...]
RESEGREGATING THE CHARTS
June 25, 2009 By 1 Comment
"The Beatles hit white America like the biggest thing to happen maybe ever, and they hardly hit black America at all..." Elijah Wald in TIME, talking about How The Beatles Destroyed Rock'n'Roll (Oxford). Erik Himmelsbach, LA Times Michealangelo Matos, AV Club … [Read more...]
THE GAINSBOURG CHRONICLES
June 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Image via Wikipedia "I feel a nostalgia for an age yet to come." Matt Kane see also: Warhol as Batman, with Nico … [Read more...]
UNDERREPORTED STORY OF THE MONTH: HEALTH CARE
June 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment
INSURANCE SECTOR PROFITS FROM TOBACCO INVESTMENTS UPDATE: new links Related articles by Zemanta Life, health insurers invest big in tobacco (beinghealthyhomeandaway.blogspot.com) Health, life insurers hold billions in tobacco stocks: NEJM article (scienceblog.com) Health Insurers Own Tobacco Stocks Worth Nearly $4.5 Billion [Conflict Of Interest] (consumerist.com) Health insurers invest billions in tobacco stocks (boingboing.net) A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that life and health insurance companies in the U.S., … [Read more...]
YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY BABY
June 15, 2009 By 1 Comment
A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that life and health insurance companies in the U.S., Canada and Great Britain invest heavily in tobacco companies. Tobacco use is a major cause of fatal lung diseases and cancer, and is known to elevate the risk for heart attack and stroke. The study found that the American insurance company Prudential Financial, Inc. has $264.3 million invested in U.S. cigarette makers, including Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds. The Canadian company Sun Life Financial, Inc., which sells life, health … [Read more...]
BACKHANDED ENDORSEMENTS
June 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment
I get a special chill whenever I find myself agreeing with EVERYTHING Ralph Nader says. And Matt Taibbi is not GOD-ON-A-STICK, but he can be pretty persuasive. … [Read more...]
DEFINITION HUNT: POSTMODERNISM
June 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment
If postmodernism is useful, then it's not as a theory in itself, but as an approach to other theories, perhaps typified by a degree of quasi-existential self-realization, a certain incredulity to meta-narratives (be they social, religious, cultural, philosophical, or economical), and a desire and ability to draw holistic links between seemingly disparate elements. Anything goes, as long as one is sensible. Of course postmodernism is rarely seen in this manner these days, and is more often a misunderstood, abused, and unfairly maligned mismatch … [Read more...]
ELMORE LEONARD IS NOT A HACK
June 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment
OR: RENTAL OF THE MONTH 3:10 To Yuma gets at all those Batman themes in that rarest of imperfectible genres, "the Western." Exploiting the hoariest of cliches, Russell Crowe plays the baddass like a carney barker, but Bale bores a hole in him with his eyes, and by the end it's less a surprise twist shootout than exquisitely delayed tension. Man those guys worked that script ...to the bone (Halsted Welles, Michael Brandt, and Derek Haas): "Sometimes a man has to be big enough to see how small he is..." … [Read more...]
TOP DOZEN SLEEVEFACERS
June 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment
OR: POSES DOUBLING AS COMMENTARY... (why does Bowie dominate this meme?) … [Read more...]
