Tag Archives: Music & Popular Culture

Burning down the (empty) house

– Carolina’s got no culture ’til the mushrooms kick in… Doco burned the house down last night. Unfortunately, nobody was in it at the time. The house, in this case, was the Little Bear in Evergreen, CO, a well-respected venue that hosts everything from local mainstays to up-and-comers to significant national acts. And Doco is a band we’ve mentioned before

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Democracy & Elitism 4: equality, opportunity and leveling up the playing field

Pulitzer- and Emmy-winner William Henry‘s famous polemic, In Defense of Elitism (1994), argues that societies can be ranked along a spectrum with “egalitarianism” on one end and “elitism” on the other. He concludes that America, to its detriment, has slid too far in the direction of egalitarianism, and in the process that it has abandoned the elitist impulse that made

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Saturday Video Roundup: Gossip

Meet one of my favorite new discoveries of 2k9 – Gossip. I’m still trying to parse everything that’s going on here – seriously, they’re described as “punk,” which they certainly are, but they’re also maybe the best indie party dance band I’ve heard since The B-52s. I’d never have thought you could slam everything from The BellRays to Paula Abdul

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In praise of young girls, in defense of Roman Polanski

Child rapist Roman Polanski has been apprehended in Switzerland. Read all about it. Outrage is palpable – on both sides. Yes, there are two sides. In addition to the “hang the pedophile” side, there’s the – if I might repurpose Wilde here – unspeakable in defense of the unconscionable crowd. Hey, lighten up folks. It’s not like the guy was

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Duh of the Day

People say the funniest things. In the latest Lefsetz Letter, Bob Lefsetz, incredulous at how little play the new Antony & the Johnsons disc has gotten in the US, wonders: Are Europeans just that more sophisticated, or does radio suck just that badly in the U.S? I can’t speculate on the first part of the question, although I have some

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