http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Thu, 27 May 2004 14:16:42 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/05/27/141642.php ChaseThe year it all changed. I'd like to think it were true. Even before I was political, I can look back and say that most of my instincts have always been conservative. While listening to the Grateful Dead might not seem a conservative practice, in a musical culture such as ours and for a kid merely conceived in 1979, it is. No matter what the Grateful Dead's political affiliations were, their music, despite its psychedelic tendencies, was essentially conservative. It was steeped in the American folk tradition of nameless ballads and characters whose motto was "don't tread on me." Modern musicians, who seldom look further back than the preceding generation, have lost that conservative balance, and when each song aims to do something new rather than something better, the music becomes nothing more than a puerile attempt at creativity, which even falls short of cliché. Perhaps the soul, as unpalatable as that word has become, is not born with each individual but is an inheritance passed from generation to generation and either developed or squandered in each. As there is a soul in everything, the abandonment of tradition by modern musicians has left music essentially soulless. As Joni Mitchell said a few years ago, explaining the condition of modern music,You've got all these assorted divas, like these sappy, romantic singers. They are not tender like Nat "King" Cole -- they are overwrought. And it's very flashy, but it's soulless. You look into the eyes of these people, and you know they are looking at themselves in the mirror. There is nothing to them but their own image.... We are drowning in images. We don't know fantasy from reality. Especially the generation coming up. Something happened. Anything that is so accessible becomes disposable: You sit in your living room and you drink your cola and you eat your pizza, and you just watch all of this, you know, pornography. It's not even music. "There is nothing to them but their own image": They have no past, no base, no tradition. They have found a beginning and an end within themselves, and so are left with only their vanity, which soon fades and becomes a living grotesque of makeup and surgery.It may seem like a huge jump from an article about 1979's importance to folk music. It may be. But it has always been my impression that the best of my generation, those conceived in 1979, have found the soulless modern age wanting and have looked back for something better. In the Grateful Dead, or in Joni Mitchell, or in Winston Churchill, or in Edmund Burke, we have found it. There is no doubting that the social guillotine may drop at any moment, lopping off the head of prescription and leaving the body politic with only that organ of passion to guide them. Then again, 1979 may have been the year it all started to change. As the vestiges of the last generation fade out of the media and out of power, the beginning and end they found in themselves will prove fatally accurate, and m-m-my generation will be inspired just enough to ignore them. With "so many roads" out there, why would we take their worn-out one?I'd like to think it were true. Music16044@blogcritics.org Thu, 27 May 2004 14:16:42 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/10/01/123258.php ChaseHere's what Rush Limbaugh had to say:"I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team." (LA Times)McNabb is a solid quarterback, but he is not the reason the Eagles win. Look at last season: McNabb gets injured -- Eagles keep winning. That McNabb is overrated is obvious to anyone who is not a diehard Eagles fan (or a wannabe Eagles fan like someone I know, who's seen Philadelphia only once); that he is overrated because the media wanted a good black quarterback is questionable, but it is definitely not outrageous.So far this year, two other black quarterbacks have the highest QB ratings. Of course, it's early in the season, and if you look at last year's stats, a different story is told. Then again, stats don't mean all that much. Michael Vick, for example, finished middle of the pack in QB rating last season, yet it is fairly obvious that Vick and Falcons are synonymous; the team doesn't win without Vick.All that information would point to Rush's being perhaps too judgmental of the media's preferences according to quarterbacks. But Rush, while being honest enough to confront race on a national scale such as NFL Primetime, didn't say everything. The fact that McNabb is black is not the sole reason that he became a media darling (there are many black quarterbacks -- one of whom, Michael Vick, is the best quarterback since Elway left, and another, Byron Leftwich, is going to be one of the best in the next ten years -- you heard it here first); McNabb became a media darling because he is black and can pass.The unspoken racial stereotype in all professional sports is that black guys are the best athletes and white guys are the best specialists. NBA: blacks can dunk, whites can shoot; MLB: blacks can hit, whites can pitch; NFL: blacks can run, whites can pass (and kick); NHL: whites can skate, blacks don't play hockey. Despite personal opinions on the subject, these are the stereotypes. Rightly or wrongly, the media wants to eliminate these stereotypes. Therefore, a black player who excels in a stereotypically "white" skill becomes very popular with the media and a lot of pressure is put on him. Likewise, a white player who excels in a stereotypically "black" skill is also a media darling (e.g., Moss's pal Jason Williams). The media is fairly consistent on this across white/black distinctions.But that is the truth. McNabb is overrated because he is a black quarterback who plays, more or less, like a white quarterback. He breaks the racial stereotype, and the media (once again, rightly or wrongly) touts him for that. Either way Rush was right. Sports8813@blogcritics.org Wed, 1 Oct 2003 12:32:58 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/09/13/122306.php ChaseMuch has been written about both Johnny Cash and John Ritter since yesterday. But not much has been said about Tex Ritter.Born Woodard Maurice Ritter on January 12, 1905, "Tex" was the son of James Everett and Elizabeth (Matthews) Ritter of Murvaul, Texas, in Panola County. He died in Nashville, Tennessee on January 2, 1974. He became one of the best-known singing cowboys in western movies. Tex's youngest son, John Ritter, became a popular TV star in the '70s and '80s.Johnny Cash appeared on Tex Ritter's "singin' cowboy" show Ranch Party. Also, on Ride This Train, "Other highlights include Tex Ritter's 'Boss Jack' (in which Cash takes on the voice of both slave and master in his hometown of Dyess, Arkansas)."So here's to that small world, to boss "Jack" Cash, and to the son "Jack" Ritter. Music8355@blogcritics.org Sat, 13 Sep 2003 12:23:06 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/08/31/010650.php ChaseNOTE: Weekend posting will decrease significantly over next few months -- to resume early January. There were some classic (word not thrown around lightly) games today, none better than Colorado's 42-35 victory over their state's lower budgeted counterpart. Joel Klatt of Colorado had a 402-yard, 4-touchdown game; Bradlee Van Pelt of Colorado State matched him with 339 yards, 3 passing and 2 rushing touchdowns. The gridiron was lit-up during this game. No, literally. In true Natural fashion, lightning flashed as Derek McCoy (Colo.) caught a 72-yard touchdown pass. In the last few minutes, Van Pelt tied the game on a 30-yard rushing touchdown. And how better to end such a game? How about a last minute Colorado touchdown by a guy named Purify?It's gonna be a good season.In other college football news. Did you see Oregon's new uniforms? What bro?! I guess they keep the team safe while jogging at night. Culture7976@blogcritics.org Sun, 31 Aug 2003 01:06:50 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/08/29/035552.php ChaseThe attempt of this rudimentary study is to determine which topics are most popular with blog readers. The limitations of this study are numerous and so cannot be enumerated here. They include the small N of blogs, which were chosen at random (i.e., those that came first to my mind), the importance or pace of currents news, and of course, the assumption that the comments of a particular post indicate that the post itself is popular with readers. However, I think that most bloggers determine the success or failure of a post based on both their comments boxes and their inboxes. Since I do not have access to their inboxes, I have chosen their comments boxes as the sole variable of post popularity. Other than that, I've used my best judgment and many Greek symbols to come up with a mathematical formula (or Microsoft Windows XP Calculator) of post popularity, whose *p, **p, ***p, and ****p should be relevantly significant on at least some level.The following list comprises the random sample and results of my test:Little Green Footballs (1) Foggy Bottom Visits LGF. Comments (206). Topic: Administration. (2) No Special Programming. Comments (146). Topic: Terrorism.Scrappleface (1) Justice Roy Moore Inspires Evangelism Leaflets. Comments (93). Topic: Religion. (2) Congress Makes Law Establishing Religion. Comments (83). Topic: Religion.Moxie (1) Grayed Out Davis. Comments (34), Trackback (1). Topic: Recall. (2) Torture by Square Pants. Comments (21), Trackback (1). Topic: Pop.Spoons (1) Women Who 'Shoot to Kill'. Comments (31), Trackback (4). Topic: Guns. (2) A Reader Asks . . . Comments (12), Trackback (1). Topic: International. Right Wing News (1) A Terrorist Thanks to the Anti-War Movement. Comments (43), Trackback (1). Topic: Terrorism. (2) America Should Get Rid of Their Nukes. What Could Happen? Comments (32), Trackback (2). Topic: International.Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler (1) Meanwhile, In Gallia Transalpina . . . Comments (105), Trackback (2). Topic: International. (2) A Lone Idiot With a Keyboard. Comments (98), Trackback (3). Topic: Other Bloggers.Juan Gato (1) Banana Fana. Comments (9). Topic: Other Bloggers. (2) No Need to Go On. Comments (9). Topic: Pop.A Small Victory (1) While I'm Away. Comments (30). Topic: Religion. (2) But They Hate Us. Comments (17), Trackback (1). Topic: Iraq.Winds of Change (1) Who Will Bell the Cat?? Comments (96), Trackback (2). Topic: Iraq. (2) Hate Is Not the Answer. Comments (16), Trackback (2). Topic: Terrorism.The results of my test indicate that almost half of the successful posts (of the last 10 on each of these sites) dealt with religion, terrorism, or other international defense issues, respectively. The latter two may be combined, as they are very closely related, with the 11% figure for Iraq, which would make roughly 44% of successful posts regarding the topic of national security (percentages are rounded to whatever I think best illustrates my point). This is not surprising considering the blogosphere rose to prominence (i.e., with the regular media) as a countermedia for honest information on war and national defense in the wake of September 11.Religion, perhaps, is an unexpected popular topic; however, the numbers here may be skewed because of the passion that most have concerning this topic (equally on the pro- and anti-religion side -- actually, probably more on the "anti" side all in all). Regardless, it seems that God still has a fairly important place in cutting-edge forums.The other topics are mostly concerning personal blogger issues (however, Moxie's Spongebob Square Pants problem is a concern for all -- this cannot be allowed to go on! Or one day we might all be walking around humming cartoon jingles in our heads like that movie Demolition Man in which Arnold Schwarzenegger is president and . . . uh oh). This indicates that the audience likes to relate to the blogger on a personal level and that the blogger-audience relationship is a good thing to keep going.Ultimately, this post is probably not valuable or significant in any way, shape, or form. But I provided some cool links and kept it pretty brief.Suggestions for future research: "What Bloggers Like to Write About." It would be interesting to compile a list of most popular posts based on blogger topics rather than on reader response. I know, I know, the suspense is killing you. Adios. Politics7946@blogcritics.org Fri, 29 Aug 2003 03:55:52 EDT