Rollin' and Tumblin'

‘Behind Blue Eyes 1975’ by The WhoHappy birthday, Roger Daltrey.

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:37:27 -0500

‘Behind Blue Eyes 1975’ by The Who
Happy birthday, Roger Daltrey.

‘Rockin’ at Midnight’ by The HoneydrippersThese guys could...

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 13:39:12 -0500

‘Rockin’ at Midnight’ by The Honeydrippers
These guys could swing!

laphamsquarterly: The standard rap on Grant is that he was a...

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 12:26:02 -0500

laphamsquarterly:

The standard rap on Grant is that he was a drunk who surrounded himself with spoilsmen who stole the country blind. In an era of scandals—the Crédit Mobilier’s siphoning of millions in the construction of the transcontinental railroad, the Tweed Ring’s bilking of New York in awarding city contracts, the Whiskey Ring’s dodging of the tax on booze—Grant was said to turn a blind (or drunken) eye to all manner of wrongdoing. Beyond that, the simple soldier was over his head in the White House. At a time of rapid economic change, he hadn’t a clue how to manage an increasingly sophisticated economy.

Considering the current state of the American economy, this last charge might now be the most damning, if true. But it’s not true. And Grant’s surprisingly sophisticated handling of economics, especially in the wake of the Panic of 1873, suggests that he deserves better from the historians than he has been getting.

Weekend homework: Read H.W. Brands on Ulysses S. Grant (from our latest issue, Politics) and come back Monday morning ready to talk about all things Civil War.

Reblogging this for the Cream homage in the article title.

"If I could write just one song as beautiful as Julia, I would achieve my life’s goal. This song has..."

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:26:57 -0500

“If I could write just one song as beautiful as Julia, I would achieve my life’s goal. This song has such a soothing and healing quality to it. I could hear it a thousand times in a row and it would draw me in every time. The guitar and vocals are so delicate and right – almost celestial. And when I found out it was about his mother, who abandoned him, returned, and then died - it just made it all the more amazing.”

- Beatles Songwriting Academy: Under The Influence: Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana)

(via XKCD)

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:45:35 -0500

(via XKCD)

"It all started, her mother said, when Janice was 6 and picked up a book at the local library, “A..."

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:42:47 -0500

“It all started, her mother said, when Janice was 6 and picked up a book at the local library, “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle — a fantasy in which one of the main characters is a scientist who happens to be a woman.”

- Janice Voss, Shuttle Astronaut and Scientist, Dies at 55 - NYTimes.com

"Hype is helium: the monatomic force that causes a cultural product to exceed its normal boundaries,..."

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:44:48 -0500

“Hype is helium: the monatomic force that causes a cultural product to exceed its normal boundaries, float upward, and crowd out everything around it. Hype works when an artist or art work hits an already partially exposed common nerve, setting off a mass discussion about issues that go far beyond whatever product started the chatter. Sometimes what’s left behind after hype turns out to matter a lot: Nirvana’s Nevermind. Sometimes, not so much: Axl’s Chinese Democracy.”

- Lana Del Rey: Just Another Pop Star : The Record : NPR

"It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll. And you don’t make it by complaining, you..."

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:08:43 -0500

“It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll. And you don’t make it by complaining, you make it by knocking them dead. And you can do that on a Japanese guitar as well as a Les Paul. Talent is much more important than equipment. These guys are just being ripped off by an old system which is trying not to die. They’re being bitten by hucksters the same way you get ripped off on the street by the guys playing three card monte.”

- Bob Lefsetz on a TIME Magazine piece in which members of the band Two Lights laments their disappointment on their lack of success after investing $100,000 in their music career.

What’s different about Radiolab (and what I think is...

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:34:09 -0500

What’s different about Radiolab (and what I think is changing about the web) is that it *is* a production, just one of a very new kind. Radiolab is actually post-blog and post-livestream. It’s not aping the oratory of old or the raggedness of the new. It’s a hybrid that takes lessons from the past, recent and deep. (via How ‘Radiolab’ Is Changing the Sound of the Radio - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic)

The Beatles were our Bible it has to be said in a lot of ways...

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:36:13 -0500

The Beatles were our Bible it has to be said in a lot of ways although we were able to take some things further than the Beatles because we had better technology and we had the benefit of their experience. But the Beatles just did so many things right. (via Beatles Songwriting Academy: Under The Influence: Brian May)

nycdigital: Check out the new NYC Street Closures Map.

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:32:29 -0500

nycdigital:

Check out the new NYC Street Closures Map.

How a Coin is Solving One of the World's Great Explanation Problems

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:48:21 -0500

“I’m a football fan, I followed the Premier League since its inception and if I had 50p for every time someone had asked me to explain the offside rule I’d be a very rich man.” “When the coin is in circulation I hope people like it and I hope people are able to use it to explain the offside rule.”

So, the coin is a visual aid meant to be used in concert with a verbal explanation. Sounds familiar. The real magic of this explanation though, is that it also buys beer.

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-25)

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:15:57 -0500

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-25):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

iPads and the Embarrassment Factor

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:31:00 -0500

News that all the graduate students in my Future of Media seminar would receive iPads for the semester generated a flurry of excitement.

Some students replied with exclamation points in their email messages. Some stopped and asked when the iPads would be available. Others passed on word to classmates and seemed to enjoy the envious responses.

Then something odd happened: The students, all in their mid- to late 20s, became self-conscious about carrying iPads. They refused to use them in public. They felt elitist. In their eyes, the iPad represented snobbery, a technological tool that no one needed and whose utility was far from apparent. Used to a graduate student frugality, they didn’t want to be seen as profligate.

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-18)

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:56:29 -0500

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-18):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

"I studied under producer/engineer Adrian Barber for about 3 months in the late 70’s and he was..."

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 21:03:05 -0500

“I studied under producer/engineer Adrian Barber for about 3 months in the late 70’s and he was quite a character with very seat of the pants in his approach. To some degree you can hear that in “Dream On.” None of the instrument entrances to the sections are clean, with certain instruments (mostly the guitars) jumping out ahead. The lead vocal falls out of the pocket for a second due to a late entrance at 1:58. All this was left in, yet it never hindered our enjoyment of the song, which goes to prove that production perfection doesn’t exactly mean you’ll have a hit.”

- Bobby Owsinski’s Big Picture Production Blog: Aerosmith “Dream On” Song Analysis

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-11)

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 05:31:42 -0500

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-11):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

♪ Listening to Me And Paul by Doug Sahm on exfm for Android

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:16:53 -0500

♪ Listening to Me And Paul by Doug Sahm on exfm for Android

“Back then, the world was a dangerous place, because of...

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:51:15 -0500

“Back then, the world was a dangerous place, because of the things that were happening in Europe and Asia. So the audience was hungry for heroes. … Captain America has to be one of my proudest accomplishments.” (via Joe Simon, Co-Creator Of Captain America, Has Died : The Two-Way : NPR)

nycdigital: Check out NYC startup Codecademy’s app that teaches...

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 10:13:52 -0500

nycdigital:

Check out NYC startup Codecademy’s app that teaches you how to create a program to calculates your NYC taxi fare.