Grammar.police

April 12, 2005

Memed in the Public Square

Julian hits me with the new blog game. And it's invitation only! Here's the deal:

Behold, the Caesar’s Bath meme! List five things that people in your circle of friends or peer group are wild about, but you can’t really understand the fuss over. To use the words of Caesar (from History of the World Part I), “Nice. Nice. Not thrilling . . . but nice.”

Sounds good. In no particular order:

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Had the Lips' rising star arrived at an earlier point, The Soft Bulletin would have the cache of Yoshimi. It's a better album.
Graphic novel triumphalism. I was reading an enthusiastic review of new graphic novels in n+1 magazine when it occurred to me: as much as I enjoy graphic novels, the reality is that just a handful of creators dominate the medium, and the recognized classics don't stray far from the "gritty" theme. I'd like to see more breadth along a number of metrics before they completely replace novels in high school syllabi.
Guinness. (I was going to say Red Bull–based drinks, which as a newer genre of beverage is more to get excited about, but truth be told, even with alcohol I loathe energy drinks.
Ted Leo + the Pharmacists. (Which isn't to say that I'm apathetic about your uniform, Tom.)
Artists named Murakami. It would take more space than a bullet permits to make the case for ambivalence vis-à-vis Takashi Murakami's "super-flat" work, but in short, his Warhollian observations on the phenomenon of Japanese culture have been anticipated by anime. Haruki Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicles was okay, but I clearly missed the spark that inspires such devotion as you find among his readers. Besides sharing a surname, both of these artists are often described as "globalized," which seems disagreeable as well.

I get to pass this to three people, so I'm tagging Roxanne, Sarah Hromack, and Matt Y.

Posted by Kriston at April 12, 2005 8:43 PM

Comments

Not to undercut your choices' iconoclasm, but I agree on the graphic novels and to some extent on the Guinness. And you're right that Soft Bulletin is a better album (although YBTPR is quite good -- and it's not random chance that made the Lips bust out around Yoshimi -- it's more accessible than SB).

With all that said, though, what have you got against indie-pop guitar heros, huh?!!

Posted by: tom at April 12, 2005 11:32 PM

I concur on the Soft Bulletin and the Guinness.

Have a blog up now www.matthardigree.com/blog check it out.

Posted by: matt h at April 13, 2005 12:53 AM

I hear you on the Yoshimi. When I first heard "Do You Realize??", I got all excited, thinking it sounded like a long-lost single from a great John Lennon solo album. Then I heard the rest of the record and realized it was the single from a rather average John Lennon solo album.

Posted by: MS at April 13, 2005 5:57 AM

dude. have you listened to "the tyranny of distance" yet? leo's new album isn't all that great, admittedly.

Posted by: catherine at April 13, 2005 8:14 AM

Absolutely reversed on the Lips. Soft Bulletin no where near Yoshimi.

Posted by: Rob W at April 13, 2005 12:16 PM

I didn't know there were people in the world who preferred "Yoshimi" to "Soft Bulletin." That's just insane.

Posted by: Harry at April 13, 2005 1:54 PM

Telepathic Surgery (1989), dammit!

And, as an apatheist, Red Bull makes me wonder if there is a God, and if he hates me personally.

And I wished I could have read From Hell instead of all that Guy de Maupassant carp-ola.

Posted by: norbizness at April 13, 2005 2:01 PM

Amen on the over-ratedness of Haruki Murakami. Random things happen. Emotions are detached. The mundane is profound. Motives are inscrutible. Deep, man.

If you're tired of the dominant graphic novel heirachy, check out Derek Kim.

Same Difference

Posted by: Battlepanda at April 13, 2005 2:30 PM

ok, flaming lips pedagoguery aside, why harsh on haruki murakami? wild sheep chase is fucking great.

Posted by: ted at April 13, 2005 2:35 PM

it might just be me, but i can't help but think that peter gabriel is being sampled or channeled on "One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21"?

and i'd expand the guiness thing to all beer, but i know that's just me.

Posted by: schtaple at April 13, 2005 4:17 PM

Try Norwegian Wood, it's what most people go crazy over, it's also disimiliar from Wind-Up.

Posted by: SAO at April 13, 2005 4:49 PM

I could not agree more about Guinness...*yech!* if the world ever runs out of crude oil...

Posted by: Gordon at April 13, 2005 9:18 PM

i dislike the flaming lips in general. hey kriston, how about Kid A vs. OK Computer? :P (i challenge you to write a post on it... in fact, i think we're long overdue for a giant Radiohead post)

i concur on everything except for Murakami, wherein i have fuck-all idea what you're talking about, because i am a big big philistine.

and, what counts as a graphic novel? does Kingdom Come count? Preacher? Transmet? or are we talking just seriousish stuff like Maus? i always think of Transmetropolitan as my favorite graphic novel, followed closely by Preacher, until i remember that neither actually is. but they are damn good.

and not gritty so much as just really, really, really twisted.

Posted by: seth at April 15, 2005 4:15 PM

oh, two nominations:
1. "tags."
2. "what is the societal role of blogs/bloggers?" or any variation thereof.

Posted by: seth at April 15, 2005 4:33 PM

Also: predistressed jeans. I bought a pair of jeans that were predistressed. Now I have a pair of jeans with holes in them. Does everyone else see what kind of ploy H&M is running?

Posted by: Kriston at April 15, 2005 4:52 PM

i reiterate: radiohead post! :)

also, o/t but i thought you might enjoy these kriston:

http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/
http://www.chrisjordan.com/

Posted by: seth at April 16, 2005 2:06 PM