February 2012
11 posts
I Say The Same Thing About Cassie This Time That I... →
I forgot that Cassie’s “King Of Hearts” was up for review on the Jukebox, so I ended up writing about it in the comment thread, to the extent that my comment figured out what it was about:
Damn, I missed…
The Future Of Sharing →
blackbeardblog:
Here’s an interesting blog post taking about the future of social sharing - in particular identifying “sharing fatigue” on particular networks and asking why this happens.
The post suggests it’s because for most the rewards of sharing don’t grow and evolve over time - reminding me of the situation you see in games where routine tasks start off as fun but turn into grinding once...
Richard Kogan Discusses The Budget, Debt, And The... →
If you’re wondering where I picked up my hand gestures and facial mannerisms, my brother, Richard, is the culprit. He demonstrates them here; also talks about the debt and the economy.
Wow! There's A Cell Phone You Can Eat! →
Wow! I’d never heard this before! Writer Kenzie and producers Bloodshy & Avant take a dramatic “Reach Out I’ll Be There”–type melody, throw it into swing time, and make it a funny, bumpy promenade.
The dance is terrific too, each of SNSD…
Man Bites Horse →
Been grumbling a lot about the diarrhea sluice of likes and reblogs on Tumblr, but here I am doing the equivalent of a Tumblr reblog (h/t Dave). Been trying not to go more than three days without posting anything new on my livejournal, and…
Tonight The Ballot Let Me Down →
Cleaning out the garage.
Top Nonsingles, 2011:
1. DJ Bedbugs “Young Money Cash Minogue”
2. Chucha Santamaria Y Usted “Miami Lakes”
3. LeAnn Rimes “The Bottle Let Me Down”
4. HyunA ft. Zico “Just…
No Tiers For The Creatures Of The Night, Part 1 →
Over the last few months several groups from the commercial lower tiers of K-pop have been at least as exciting as the big names. Foremost among them is New.F.O, whose “Bounce” would be a candidate for my 2012 P&J had the…
Future Secretary-General Shows Leg →
Look, how am I going to find time to write anything if I’m spending all my time watching Korean TV?
Background: on the East L.A. thread, I said,”But since I’ve pegged [Sunny] as a future President of South Korea…
I Wasn't Born In East L.A. →
I wasn’t even born in a town at the far eastern end of Los Angeles County. Neither was Tiffany Hwang (born in S.F.), but that’s where she grew up, in Diamond Bar, California.
Also, despite SNSD’s…
Mental illness robs you of everything, leaving you... →
Departures, a video by my friend Freddy Bosco.
Since he created this, he’s given up smoking.
[EDIT: Though the screen looks black, if you click on the arrow the video plays fine.]
On Average, I Sleep For 2 Hours [laughs] →
Disturbing interview with Qri, of T-ara — the clip seeming to lack any knowledge that it is disturbing. “Tiara Cutie and Pretty,” says the screen.
From what I’ve read, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ashlee, Lindsay, et al. subjected…
January 2012
25 posts
My Country Critics Music Poll ballot, 2011 →
Just posted this on Rolling Country. Was hesitant about posting, since I wanted to listen to the Zach James once more to decide if I should actually endorse it or warn you off. Folkie naval gaze from…
The Euro Zone Is A Slow-Motion Train Wreck →
“‘The euro zone is a slow-motion train wreck,’ Mr. Roubini said during a separate panel discussion.”
Confused centipede attempts to mate with mealworm pupa Slow-wreck aficionados will note that this is better than a couple…
My Love, The Douche →
Just saw this comment by Brian Park from a couple of months ago on the Singles Jukebox thread for Fat Cat’s “My Love Bitch,” the title we gave the song turning out to be questionable; most translations…
Cr4Bdbgs: "I didn't sign up to be famous." →
cureforbedbugs:
I think this is a claim worth hanging on to in an age in which celebrity can indeed be largely accidental (or at least hyper-accelerated). When Lana Del Rey says it, the immediate impulse a lot of people seem to have is to scoff at the audacity of it. How can someone who has been courted by a major record label, who re-made her image specifically to try again after her first try...
very filled with dreams: sincere questions: →
cureforbedbugs:
theremixbaby:
if you can be a nerd about comedy or sports or beer or cars or other traditionally not-nerdy things then why can’t you be a nerd about shoes or reality tv or skin-care or pilates or celebrity gossip or hair dye? are girls who take multiple pictures of their outfits every single…
I suppose I’ve always thought that “nerd” lost its power as a word worth fighting...
P&J Breadth
cureforbedbugs:
My fave statistic by Glenn McDonald, not just because I’m listed at at #1!*
Thought it might be interesting to list the artists that the people tied for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place have voted for since 2008. (One issue with statistic is that it’s just a count over time, meaning people who started voting after 2008 aren’t eligible.
Read More
I was surprised I was so high, but I...
Is there an IS-LM Curves For Dummies? →
My understanding of economics is so primitive that I don’t even have a good idea of what I need to know but don’t. But beyond the basic “supply and demand” stuff, I’d say the crucial…
god this year's list is great, yall are crazy.... →
2NE1 in ilX ‘n’ P&J
“I Am The Best” ranks only 38th in the ilX poll but receives wild gushes from those who’d not previously heard it: “there is something beyond just the synth timbre…
My Pazz & Jop Ballot, 2011 →
How to get Maura Johnston interested in K-pop if she isn’t already: Freestyle! The ’80s dance music, that is. In Korea freestyle’s not nostalgia or a separate genre but a living part of the musical language, a…
Polling The Poll Of Polls, 2011 →
Mark informs us, “This is the time of year when I require a POLL OF ALL THE POLLS, to diminish the absurdly extensive ‘end of year’ music commentary I am almost certainly never…
[Poll embedded]
Wonder Girls THE DJ IS MINE Over On The Jukebox →
Wonder Girls “The DJ Is Mine” is reviewed over on the Singles Jukebox, and I share the general Jukebox confusion (i.e., once again I tend to agree with what people are saying whether they like the…
I just need a help, 'cause of my mistakes... I'll... →
While searching YouTube fruitlessly for some 2NE1/Big Bang couples action, I came across this live sitting-on-the-floor knockoff of the inferior reggae version of “I Don’t Care,” with G-Dragon writing, on the spot, a brilliantly half-assed…
Is there much couples dancing in K-pop? →
Posted this over on the Jukebox, where I underrated “Trouble Maker”:
It took me a while to get HyunA as a dancer. What I first thought was sloppy now strikes me as having a nice flow. She’s…
Freaky Trigger readers reacting to high finish of... →
Freaky Trigger readers display a range of reactions to the high finish of 2NE1 in the Freaky Trigger Readers’ Poll:
(I’m the guy in the white jacket, third row, left.)
Loose Sync →
Loose lips sink ships, but loose sync is the shit.
Excellent post by arbitrary_greay about “loose sync”:
There are some cases where the performers can be putting their own spin on the same steps and…
Returning home with an empty heart... →
Unfootnoted text that I hope is never deleted from Wikipedia:
Soyeon fostered her dreams of becoming a star even before she could stand in front of a mirror. After getting into an arts high school…
Top 90 Singles, 2011 →
1. Britney Spears “Hold It Against Me”
2. 2NE1 “I Am The Best”
3. Fat Cat “My Love Bad Boy”
4. GD&TOP “High High”
5. Jeremih “Down On Me”
6. IU “The Story Only I…
2012: The Year Of Frank Screaming At The Internet →
OK, here it is, and I’m quite proud of it. Under 1,200 words and has only four embeds:
The Year That Wasn’t The Year Of HyunA Screaming At A Chicken
Was a long journey getting there. First, when I…
Glass clink and exhaustion →
Still compiling my Top 100, and RaNia’s “Masquerade” keeps crawling higher: chintzy little dance track, sounds a bit wasted, mid-’80s late-night glass clink and exhaustion, ghetto cuties not concealing the wear ‘round the edges, and no one bothering….
Internet Alert →
Internet Alert: Some people on the Web are posting about music. (My post — my initial post, that is — will be at 12 noon Mountain Time on Wednesday January 4. Site also features …
Things Not As Bad As They Seem? →
Excuse me while I continue not to post on something I sort of know how to think about — music — and instead post again on what other people are saying about the European economy. Krugman links a piece by fellow…
[The livejournal feed missed this post, and I only noticed now that it wasn’t on Tumblr. It was back on Dec. 22.]
I have seen HyunA screaming at a chicken →
When HyunA did her first of a string of performances of “Just Follow,” I wrote it up like so: Live version of “Just Follow,” with Zico in place of DOK2; HyunA’s relative stillness makes her as…
December 2011
5 posts
This week in the Gaon Chart's top twenty →
Gummy performing Sanullim’s “개구쟁이,” with a rap by T.O.P. From a Korean singing contest, but one that uses established performers. Don’t know how good a comparison this is, but think of if Kelly…
When I try to submit P&J I get This Poll Is Now...
Know anything about this? [EDIT: OK, thanks for the replies. Maura has posted that they’re working on a fix. I suppose I should also ask if anyone knows if the deadline for comments is the same as the deadline for the poll.]
Europe Rehearses Suicide (Exploring Options Or... →
NY Times: European Central Bank Dashes Hopes for Bolder Action Some people who believe that they know what they’re talking about think that the European leaders really have no clue as to what…
This is the thread where we figure out the plot to... →
Complicated Korean Video Friday resumes today with Ga-In’s “Irreversible.” I find the video profound, though the message — what the man’s trying to convey to Ga-In — would be a platitude if reduced…
Wonder Girls' BE MY BABY over at the Jukebox →
Wonder Girls were rollin’ and rockin’ the Jukebox last Friday. I’m in the comments with a minor dissent, my main problem being that I keep hearing a motif from Miss A’s “Bad Girl Good Girl” in…
November 2011
11 posts
World Still Ending →
Haven’t posted in a while, so here are a few quick flashes: —The world is still ending, thanks to Europe. Or at least there’s a piece by someone named Ed Harrison explaining why an Italian default…
Everyone gets a puppy →
Essay question regarding Occupy Denver (200 words or less): If Occupy Denver were a success, what would this look like? Answer (my vision of immediate utopia): We’d have an informed and engaged…
Chakrabortty, Ewing, Sinker: The... →
dubdobdee:
Creativity, ideas and imagination are literally exiled from any culture that’s divorced itself from actual physical craft in some form (“workers by hand or by brain” as the lovely lost clause four put it, ruskino-marxism at its most poetic): I don’t mean everyone has to make pots or knit hats themselves, or bake their own pies; I do mean that tactile, sensuous form of some kind has to...
A Red Herring Swallowed One →
And then there were three. Associated Press: “Universal, Sony/ATV to buy EMI for $4.1 billion” I don’t have much to say about this. Something like it has been expected for years. Does it change…
SNSD's THE BOYS Over On The Jukebox →
And the girls toss a perfect “meh.” (Jukebox link.)
Some Albums Through Early November, 2011 →
If the Osmonds can make a metal album, so can Feist — though it turns out she merely made a metals album… Best track on the Lauren Alaina alb is “Growing Her Wings,” lyrics…
Also, I never answered your question about how... →
cureforbedbugs:
girlboymusic: Also, I never answered your question about how Unbroken : Demi Lovato :: Loud : Rihanna except we never even got a Rated R, so do YOU have any thoughts on that?
Cr4Bdgs: My thought is that actually the anomaly here isn’t Demi, it’s Rated R. Every...
Occupy Denver Tuesday Night →
I think this was Tuesday night. No further snow last night [Wednesday night], but the temperature got down to 16 degrees Fahrenheit (–8.9 degrees Celsius). As I was leaving after the assembly there was one homeless guy who…
Facebook's cookies →
Let’s say I’m having affairs with ten married women, two married men, and a couple of geese. Now, unrelated to these — and this is actual fact — I have only two Facebook friends, my friend Dave so…