Amoskeag Interview Went Live…

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…and somehow I forgot to mention it on my own fucking webpage. I tweeted it. I Facebooked it. I posted it in the obscurer depths of a Nine Inch Nails message board, but I never mentioned that the interview is actually available online. Below, is the full-text. But I think the magazine probably wants . . . → Read More: Amoskeag Interview Went Live…

10 Best Records of 2011

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I know, I know: I’m rather late. Still, I beat the Grammys. But before it becomes as dangerously irrelevant, I present to you the Top 10 Albums of 2011.

Last year, I bought 41 new LPs and screened a few others. Virtually every artist on my list of favorites released an LP, yet six . . . → Read More: 10 Best Records of 2011

Nerd Flirting

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Hi, kids. If you’ve landed on this website and read past its front page, there’s at least a 40% chance that you’re a nerd. And I offer that epithet in complimentary fashion—nerds are my people. We’re as much a family as any political party, any college fraternity, any professional football team or its fans. . . . → Read More: Nerd Flirting

The 20 Best Tracks of 2011 (So Far)

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I’ve been quiet awhile due to less than thrilling real-life concerns. Nothing exciting has kept me away from writing—a bloody shame, really, because the bit of fecund yin hidden in the aggravatingly dramatic yang that is often existence is the potential to later retell the tale to any number of ends: entertainment, education, commiseration, . . . → Read More: The 20 Best Tracks of 2011 (So Far)

Another Version of the Truth: The Alternate Reality Game as Ergodic Literature

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The multiplatform, multimedia extravaganza that was 2007’s Year Zero Alternate Reality Game brought a new creative medium to the attention of thousands, perhaps millions—people who, by and large, had no previous experience with such things. Alternate Reality Games are curious things: interactive, but largely constructed as a vector to deliver an already composed narrative . . . → Read More: Another Version of the Truth: The Alternate Reality Game as Ergodic Literature

Review: The King of Limbs (Radiohead)

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I wanted to beat Pitchfork and Stereogum to something, for once.

Last Thursday night, I found myself unable to look away from the gifted video for Radiohead’s “Lotus Flower” which, as it’s just a bowler-hatted Thom dancing like a drugged-out maniac, should not be as compelling as it is. Nevertheless, I watched it a . . . → Read More: Review: The King of Limbs (Radiohead)

Congratulations, Arcade Fire, but You’re Just Pawns

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An astounding number of the hipsters I know and a great many whom I don’t (including, apparently, Kanye West [1]) are of the opinion that Sunday night’s Grammy win by Arcade Fire for The Suburbs is a watershed moment in music history. These people seem to believe that this unlikely win . . . → Read More: Congratulations, Arcade Fire, but You’re Just Pawns

Part II: In Which I Take Umbrage with Assertions of Dumbening in “Indie Rock”

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In January second’s New York Times article, entitled “Want a Hit? Keep It Simple,” Jon Pareles argues that, increasingly, “indie rock” seems to be suffering what Lisa Simpson would call “a dumbening.” If it’s somehow escaped notice, I am, generally speaking, never hesitant to accuse something of being preposterously stupid, degradingly clichéd, or so . . . → Read More: Part II: In Which I Take Umbrage with Assertions of Dumbening in “Indie Rock”

Part I: In Which I Admit Apathy for Most Hip Hop

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Once again, I’ve been catalyzed by the newspaper. This essay is part one of a two-part series in response to New York Times music editorials. Mea culpa, but after the relatively Herculean effort that, within the past thirty days, I put into an article on Poe’s Arthur Gordon Pym, I’m just not up for . . . → Read More: Part I: In Which I Admit Apathy for Most Hip Hop

“It’s a Bad Week for Rationalism,” or “Why I’m an Antitheist”

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Check this out: How Dare a Museum Offer an Eclectic Selection of Art?!

Asked in the article is this question: “If it’s wrong for the government to take the taxpayers’ money to promote religion, why is it OK to take taxpayers’ money to assault religion?”

I’m going to sit down with all the . . . → Read More: “It’s a Bad Week for Rationalism,” or “Why I’m an Antitheist”