March 2011
83 posts
“You can’t help but listen to much of this music in the context of what would come about seven years later via new wave and conclude that Rundgren was far more interesting as a composer than the folks he influenced. New Order versus Todd Rundgren? No contest.”
—
Todd Rundgren delivers psychedelic gem - Toledo Blade
I want those last two sentences on a t-shirt. Just… wow.
Play
Play
“One place to see this new form developing is at the Web site for Zima, a clear-malt beverage that is aimed at Generation Xers. The ad aims to associate Zima with cyberspace cool and a feeling of belonging to a hip, exclusive group (Tribe Z) that surfs the Net. […] About 8,000 people registered to join Tribe Z while it was still under construction.”
—
From a 1995 article in the LA Times on “cyber marketing”, found in a folder at work labeled “World Wide Web 96.”
Also includes the sentence “They’re putting up video pages on Internet’s World Wide Web, buying space on electronic magazines.”
UPDATE: Oh, hey! Here it is on Internet’s World Wide Web!
Relic
We’re cleaning out the filing cabinets in our offices for an impending move, and my nostalgic hoarding tendencies got all fired up. Slide carousels! Hand-written sales spreadsheets of vinyl records! A Publishers Weekly from 1989!
My favorite find, oddly, was an issue of The New Yorker from May 18, 1998. It features an article on “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” by Susan Orlean called “Girl Power,” a George Saunders short story, a review of “Deep Impact,” listings for shows at Brownie’s and Tramps (including Lotion! Rob again!), and plenty of lamentations over the end of “Seinfeld” — the issue came out the week of the final episode.
I’m tempted to go home, change into all black, rim my eyes with kohl, crank the Moon Safari, curl up with this fossil and pretend the last decade never happened.
Or, you know, think about all the great stuff that did.
Will the Real Frank Smith Stand Up by Frank Smith - The Morning News →
themorningnews.org
(Alternate Title: The Other Sarah Brown Is Called Frank Smith.)
“I just never think, that is never think of qualities which are specifically feminine or masculine. I divide people into two classes: the Irksome and the Non-Irksome without regard to sex. Yes and there are the Medium Irksome and the Rare Irksome.”
—Enjoying Flannery - The Barnes & Noble Review
Play
Miami (Ohio) May Be Best Story in N.C.A.A. Hockey Tournament - NYTimes.com →
nytimes.com
We’re just like Hoosiers! Only Buckeyes. (Only Redhawks.)
To make this less jarring: we used to spend every weekend watching these guys play hockey the way most kids would hang out at malls or roller rinks or in people’s basements. I grew up in clusters of pre-teens and teens sitting on red wooden benches, eating caramels and Baby Ruths from the vending machines, trying not to get them stuck on my braces, pounding the plexiglass, socializing. The hockey rink is where I first heard the music of Queen and Gary Glitter, where I saw my first naked man. So: kind of formative.
