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Jul
4th
Sat
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From NYT:

Even if serving as governor might have allowed her to build up a record to run for higher office, as Ms. Taylor argued, her departure removes what has proved to be a bruising political environment at home. Not incidentally, it frees her to move closer to where the action is in the 2012 presidential race.

“And she has a following that will jump in front of a plane for her,” said John Coale, a lawyer who helped create her political action committee. “If she takes this time to develop that base, she could be a real force in the Republican Party, and maybe run.”

The actual saying is, “jump in front of a bullet,” right? This imagines some sort of 9/11 scenario?

Jun
29th
Mon
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Jun
25th
Thu
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National Industries for the Blind, and this is not being cruel, but I got booked as Bill Clinton, a look-alike coming in to do Bill Clinton to an audience where a third of them were blind. But you know what? They loved it.

Wow, I am just reading this and it is magical. (via katiebakes)

Made me think of this.

Jun
24th
Wed
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thisrecording:
download them here
How sure are you that these are actually demos? I can’t tell 100% but they sound identical to the finished songs, with some background fuzz added. It seems suspect, also, that they would have included the “moderate rock” thing on Tourette’s if they were just recording a demo.

thisrecording:

download them here

How sure are you that these are actually demos? I can’t tell 100% but they sound identical to the finished songs, with some background fuzz added. It seems suspect, also, that they would have included the “moderate rock” thing on Tourette’s if they were just recording a demo.

Jun
17th
Wed
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The writer of fiction must embrace a moral vision, or else he is little more than a cheap Fleet Street haberdasher. I decided early on that the work of Saul Bellow was an exemplar of this aesthetic imperative. You will recall the famous opening sentence of good old Augie:

‘I am an American, Chicago born—Chicago, that somber city—and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted.’

There it is in all its Bellovian glory, the bluster and bombast! Can you smell it? The musk of a virile sentence drawing blood into itself? It is about to spread the labia of mediocrity and rut with the ineffable. We could all do worse than to write like Saul Bellow. And when I say write like Saul Bellow, I mean be Saul Bellow. And when I say be Saul Bellow, I mean unzip the skin from his body and wear it as a sort of Saul Bellow suit so that we can get cozy in it and truly inhabit it and understand the Old Macher. Except he is dead.

Missed this from a few months ago, but it’s still really funny. Oh Colson Whitehead you are so caustic! (via julioclock)

It is NOT funny. It’s stupid!

Jun
12th
Fri
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summblr vacation

keyholez:

I will not be reading or writings tumbls until some time in August. Be safe, kids.

WE’LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I NO LONGER EXIST

Jun
9th
Tue
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seedz:

leoncrawl:

youngmanhattanite:

1. Yeah, Jay-Z (“Hov”) is specifically referencing the way he doesn’t write down his lyrics. This actually happens - no Snopes needed - as evidenced by the very real, well-documented shock of Rick Rubin and Mike D (of Beastie Boys fame, you should know) during the recording of “99 Problems” on the supremely underrated 2005 rap documentary/tour diary chronicling the creating of Jay-Z’s supposedly final (but not really) album, The Black Album, Fade To Black.

2. Cajun Boy’s sincere, wide-eyed take on and admiration for the clarity David Carr writes about the distinctly surreal juxtaposition between two prominent media parties happening on the same night isn’t the illiterate garbage (“long YouTube comment”) you suggest it is. It’s a fair, accessible assessment of something. It’s a media column in praise of another media column; almost novel, no? If anything, you have to admire his intention, and the space in which it was put.

3. Meanwhile, you once had a few things to say about a few people reading - verbatim - a friend of yours’ book on camera. How is it any different from this? The brief context at the beginning? What the fuck happened to thinking up jokes? Hov would be sad.

I’ll defer to en-dasher on the matter of Cajun Boy, but will admit that Beavis here has me on the last thing: that Gawker Weekend post from May 12, 2007 was indeed not the most thoughtful thing we ever did.

I almost did a whole thing at 4 a.m. about why there were no links to the original (Leon’s) posts, or any quotations either. Is Leon Crawl common knowledge among YM readers? Even if so, seems a discourteous way to proceed.

Not to speak out of turn but as far as I can tell, the presumption of familiarity is part of the YM style guide.

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youngmanhattanite:

1. Yeah, Jay-Z (“Hov”) is specifically referencing the way he doesn’t write down his lyrics. This actually happens - no Snopes needed - as evidenced by the very real, well-documented shock of Rick Rubin and Mike D (of Beastie Boys fame, you should know) during the recording of “99 Problems” on the supremely underrated 2005 rap documentary/tour diary chronicling the creating of Jay-Z’s supposedly final (but not really) album, The Black Album, Fade To Black.

2. Cajun Boy’s sincere, wide-eyed take on and admiration for the clarity David Carr writes about the distinctly surreal juxtaposition between two prominent media parties happening on the same night isn’t the illiterate garbage (“long YouTube comment”) you suggest it is. It’s a fair, accessible assessment of something. It’s a media column in praise of another media column; almost novel, no? If anything, you have to admire his intention, and the space in which it was put.

3. Meanwhile, you once had a few things to say about a few people reading - verbatim - a friend of yours’ book on camera. How is it any different from this? The brief context at the beginning? What the fuck happened to thinking up jokes? Hov would be sad.

I’ll defer to en-dasher on the matter of Cajun Boy, but will admit that Beavis here has me on the last thing: that Gawker Weekend post from May 12, 2007 was indeed not the most thoughtful thing we ever did.

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And another thing

Seriously fuck Jay-Z. What does he have against auto-tune? “This ain’t for itunes, this ain’t for sing alongs, this is Sinatra at the opera, bring a blonde, preferably with a fat ass who can sing a song, wrong, this aint politically correct.” “Black republicans” indeed…

Also what is it with him and writing punchlines about pens that don’t make sense. “Like bringing a knife to a gun fight / a pen to a test” was one, now we have “Only rapper to rewrite history without a pen” which, WHAT? What rappers you know are writing history with pens you fucking bitchy mope? JOKES HAVE TO MAKE SENSE.

Update: I guess he is referencing his little party trick where he doesn’t write down his raps before he says them? In which case, someone snopes that already.

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