Image via Wikipedia "I feel a nostalgia for an age yet to come." Matt Kane see also: Warhol as Batman, with Nico … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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. … [Read more...]

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...]

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 … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

OR: POSES DOUBLING AS COMMENTARY... (why does Bowie dominate this meme?) … [Read more...]

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Just before we left, Lester took us down into the basement of his house, to look through his stack of discarded promo albums, and told me to take anything I wanted. I selected three different Move LP's, among other castoffs, but when I showed him the recent Dana Gillespie album, he waved his hand … [Read more...]

Somewhere between Duchamp's Mona Lisa and Yoko Ono's "Cut Piece," the worth and import of a modern artist began forming behind the question "Is this artist pulling our leg?" Jeff Koons, now ensconsed, starts a lot of the answer like his forebears, with a big Yes, and then... Ingrid Sischy's … [Read more...]

Triley60's Geek Chart … [Read more...]

You can see, then, why I find the AMS resolution so pompous. The society condemns outlandish abuses of music and people in remote prisons while it undermines the role of its membership at home. In doing so, the AMS parades in lockstep with other contemporary institutions, for which Enlightenment … [Read more...]

The ultimate goal for music technology, "the celestial jukebox," is going to be reached very soon. That term has been floating around for a decade or more, but what it comes down to is total access, anywhere and at any time, to any music ever recorded. That's not just the 10 million songs presently … [Read more...]

A virus is currently spreading among today's young people. Like swine flu, it has made life extremely unpleasant for many, but unlike the H1N1 strain, it is exclusively passed between old and young. If left unchecked, it could have the far-­reaching effect of rendering an entire generation between … [Read more...]

You young'uns may not remember, but Sinead caused a scandal on SNL back in 1992, and got booed off Bob Dylan's stage two weeks later, all for confronting the "real enemy" as an abused Irish Catholic. It's time for a major essay on how right she was and how oblivious Dylan remains. … [Read more...]