reading list

What I’m reading: February 4:

• Susan Sontag’s Journals and Notebooks. – By Katie Roiphe – Slate Magazine –
• Essay – Consider the Philosopher – After the Death of David Foster Wallace – NYTimes.com –
• Final touch: A cosmetic lift for your funeral? – Health care- msnbc.com – A really great photo essay on after-death cosmetic procedures and the funeral industry.
• The short, disgusting life of the Hummer | Salon News –
• What Sells During An Economic Downturn | JC Report –

What I’m reading: November 25:

• Is it OK to be liberal again, instead of progressive? | Salon –
• Annals of Culture: Late Bloomers: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker –
• How do different religions define death? – By Nina Shen Rastogi – Slate Magazine – Part of my continuing death/ death ritual obsession. Seems like with all the talk of when life begins, there would be more talk about when life ends, but I guess that only happens when there’s a relevant court case.
• Every Man a Derrida: A nation on the verge of self-deconstructing – Reason Magazine –
• Where did all the female rappers go? – By Jonah Weiner – Slate Magazine –

What I’m reading: November 19:

• Silent Party #5 | Pitchfork – Eric Harvey sort of breathlessly goes through Kanye West, iTunes’ Genius feature, privacy, and the British Journal of Psychiatry
• New York Times headlines that read like Zen koans. – By Jessica Winter – Slate Magazine –
• Move Over, My Pretty, Ugly Is Here – NYTimes.com – “I think there was a brief ugly moment,” Ms. Esch said. “But it may have been a passing fancy.”
• Election by sound bite | Salon – Joan Didion
• Ableton – Hot Chip – Trying to restart learning Ableton, hoping for some inspiration from Hot Chip.

What I’m reading: July 9:

• Why we need movie critics. – Slate Magazine – Will someone make a similar argument for music critics? I don’t think they can, just for the simple economics of what’s being critiqued. Now, when new movies ‘leak,’ when it becomes just as easy to sample before buying as music does, I think movie crit will be just as over as music criticism. This article, btw, mostly defends ‘film’ criticism, not the consumer reports of movie critics, the Rotten Tomatoes quick quotes guys from local papers.
• Reason Magazine – Education for Profit – An article about University Of Phoenix, where I’ll be going if this music thing doesn’t pan out.
• The New Yorker: Annals of Medicine: The Itch – This woman scratched her head down to her brain. That’s all I’ve taken from this—kinda hard to read with that image of her greenish nerve fluid dripping onto her pillow still in my mind.
• The Smart Set: Nobody’s a Critic – June 26, 2008 – “Trying to maintain critical distance today is thus a practice in self-alienation…So we need another metaphor. If criticism isn’t about distance anymore, maybe it can be about closeness.”
• Basics – Discovery of More Planets Gives Alien Life-Seekers Heart – This means it’s time to reactivate my SETI @ Home account.
• How Do America’s Super-Rich Get Away With Acting Like ‘Just Folks’? – Grazes too many points without hitting them, but, reminds me a little of Paul Fussell’s Class, though his book’s too old to account for this ‘just folks’ crap.
• McSweeney’s Presents: All Known Metal Bands. – Just the Q’s here.