This forum is for talking about non-music-related stuff that the DBT fanbase might be interested in. This is not the place for inside jokes and BS. Take that crap to some other board.
Before the duffle bag, I once bought a copy of Margo Jefferson’s On Michael Jackson on Nook. I already owned a paperback copy, but I decided to buy the digital version to see what “they” had all been saying about technology making my life easier. Within two days I’d forgotten my password, unable to remember which character I had caps-locked and where the underscore went. When I tried reconciling this minor mistake, I was greeted with a security question I didn’t even remember answering: “The name of my first dog? The fuck? I never even had a dog.” I called customer service and waited for close to 30 minutes as they verified my identity and reset my password. When I finally got back into my account, On Michael Jackson was no longer in my library. I had to download it, again. Swiping my screen to page through the digital copy, I looked for traces of my original interactions with the text, but nothing was there. It was like I had never read it.
That same night I went to the Strand and asked, out of pettiness, if they had another copy of On Michael Jackson. I wasn’t expecting them to have it, but I wanted to prove that what had happened with my Nook would never happen again. If they did have it, I would own two copies of the same book. Much to my surprise, I was handed a copy of the book that looked nothing like mine. Suddenly, I began to understand what music lovers must feel like when, after spending hours digging through crates at hole-in-the-wall record stores, they finally locate that 12” vinyl they never thought they’d find: I need this.
The sooner we put those assholes in the grave&piss on the dirt above it, the better off we'll be
I am loving this. Its about the Space Shuttle. Up to the end of STS-1 the first mission.
Really good. Not too much science for my tiny non-mathematical brain to handle, great stories and personalities, and real insight into the years and years of work it took to make it happen. Absolutely recommended.
finished a few nights back, really a great read. I had a few minor gripes with a few of his rhetorical devices and some sloppy copy-editing when it comes to factual stuff (dates/locations of well-known events) but it didn't matter overall, the tale he is telling is far more compelling and entertaining. Highly recommend it
Son, this ain't a dream no more, it's the real thing
I don't really know why that title annoys me so much but it does. I think the main thing is that the title goes so far, and so awkwardly, out of its way to distinguish the book from the collected criticism by Ellen Willis, which was published after her death. I've never heard of Hopper but she's taking on a serious challenge if she wants to be compared to Willis in any way, shape or form. Willis was one of the greats and one of the very few whose writing actually holds up to book form years later. Perhaps I'll check out Hopper one of these days, but if anyone is interested, the Willis book is called Out of the Vinyl Deeps, edited by Nora Willis Aronowitz and is definitely worth your time.
I guess the other annoying thing is the trend towards ever narrower categories in order to claim a "first" or "best." Like baseball stats covering on base percentage v. one handed lefties in night games on the road. Just because it can be calculated doesn't mean it's meaningful or useful.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard
I don't really know why that title annoys me so much but it does. I think the main thing is that the title goes so far, and so awkwardly, out of its way to distinguish the book from the collected criticism by Ellen Willis, which was published after her death. I've never heard of Hopper but she's taking on a serious challenge if she wants to be compared to Willis in any way, shape or form. Willis was one of the greats and one of the very few whose writing actually holds up to book form years later. Perhaps I'll check out Hopper one of these days, but if anyone is interested, the Willis book is called Out of the Vinyl Deeps, edited by Nora Willis Aronowitz and is definitely worth your time.
I guess the other annoying thing is the trend towards ever narrower categories in order to claim a "first" or "best." Like baseball stats covering on base percentage v. one handed lefties in night games on the road. Just because it can be calculated doesn't mean it's meaningful or useful.
FWIW, she discusses this briefly at the start. I can't seem to cut/paste this from books.google.com so I am going to type out the full passage. This is the very first page in the book. Big ding to her and her editor(s) for allowing "should of" to make it to print
The title of this book is not entirely accurate. There's Ellen Willis' Beginning to See the Light, though it wasn't all music writing, and then her posthumous collection that was. Of course Lillian Roxon's Rock Encyclopedia from 1969, Caroline Coon's crucial 1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion and the collective, life-changing Rock She Wrote. We should be able to list a few dozen more- but these books don't exist. Yet.
The title of this book is about planting a flag; it is for those whose dreams (and manuscripts) languished due to the lack of formal precedence, support and permission. This title is not meant to erase our history but rather to help mark the path.
This book is dedicated to those that came before, those that should of been first, and all the ones that will come after.
Son, this ain't a dream no more, it's the real thing
Second edition of a book that grew out of a course about quantum mechanics for non-science majors at UCSB. Fascinating stuff that deals with big questions about the universe and "reality." I love this shit.
I don't really know why that title annoys me so much but it does. I think the main thing is that the title goes so far, and so awkwardly, out of its way to distinguish the book from the collected criticism by Ellen Willis, which was published after her death. I've never heard of Hopper but she's taking on a serious challenge if she wants to be compared to Willis in any way, shape or form. Willis was one of the greats and one of the very few whose writing actually holds up to book form years later. Perhaps I'll check out Hopper one of these days, but if anyone is interested, the Willis book is called Out of the Vinyl Deeps, edited by Nora Willis Aronowitz and is definitely worth your time.
I guess the other annoying thing is the trend towards ever narrower categories in order to claim a "first" or "best." Like baseball stats covering on base percentage v. one handed lefties in night games on the road. Just because it can be calculated doesn't mean it's meaningful or useful.
FWIW, she discusses this briefly at the start. I can't seem to cut/paste this from books.google.com so I am going to type out the full passage. This is the very first page in the book. Big ding to her and her editor(s) for allowing "should of" to make it to print
The title of this book is not entirely accurate. There's Ellen Willis' Beginning to See the Light, though it wasn't all music writing, and then her posthumous collection that was. Of course Lillian Roxon's Rock Encyclopedia from 1969, Caroline Coon's crucial 1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion and the collective, life-changing Rock She Wrote. We should be able to list a few dozen more- but these books don't exist. Yet.
The title of this book is about planting a flag; it is for those whose dreams (and manuscripts) languished due to the lack of formal precedence, support and permission. This title is not meant to erase our history but rather to help mark the path.
This book is dedicated to those that came before, those that should of been first, and all the ones that will come after.
Well, that's better at least. "Should of" excepted.
I didn't mention Beginning to See the Light because like the woman says, it's not rock criticism. It is great writing though and once again highly recommended. If nothing else, it's really impressive when someone's so right about so much in real time (as opposed to in retrospect w/ the benefit of history and perspective). I didn't mention Lillian Roxon because her Encyclopedia is more a compilation than criticism but i guess there's a lot of overlap there. She was alive when the book first came out but she's been dead for quite some time. Don't know the other 2.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard
Markalanbishop wrote:Second edition of a book that grew out of a course about quantum mechanics for non-science majors at UCSB. Fascinating stuff that deals with big questions about the universe and "reality." I love this shit.
Are you familiar w/ Richard Feynman's collected lecture on disc? I have them around here somewhere. They're supposed to be fantastic and oriented to the layman but I haven't yet got around to listening.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard
Markalanbishop wrote:Second edition of a book that grew out of a course about quantum mechanics for non-science majors at UCSB. Fascinating stuff that deals with big questions about the universe and "reality." I love this shit.
Are you familiar w/ Richard Feynman's collected lecture on disc? I have them around here somewhere. They're supposed to be fantastic and oriented to the layman but I haven't yet got around to listening.
No I'm not. I'll have to look for that. But I am comforted by one of his quotes in this book: "No one understands quantum mechanics."
Markalanbishop wrote:Second edition of a book that grew out of a course about quantum mechanics for non-science majors at UCSB. Fascinating stuff that deals with big questions about the universe and "reality." I love this shit.
Are you familiar w/ Richard Feynman's collected lecture on disc? I have them around here somewhere. They're supposed to be fantastic and oriented to the layman but I haven't yet got around to listening.
No I'm not. I'll have to look for that. But I am comforted by one of his quotes in this book: "No one understands quantum mechanics."
Schrödinger's cat does, but you'll never get the answer out of him.
beantownbubba wrote:Are you familiar w/ Richard Feynman's collected lecture on disc? I have them around here somewhere. They're supposed to be fantastic and oriented to the layman but I haven't yet got around to listening.
No I'm not. I'll have to look for that. But I am comforted by one of his quotes in this book: "No one understands quantum mechanics."
Schrödinger's cat does, but you'll never get the answer out of him.
If he told you, they'd have to kill him, which raises certain difficulties with this cat.
The sooner we put those assholes in the grave&piss on the dirt above it, the better off we'll be
beantownbubba wrote:I didn't mention Beginning to See the Light because like the woman says, it's not rock criticism. It is great writing though and once again highly recommended.
Sure is! But it's more rock criticism than anything else.
The sooner we put those assholes in the grave&piss on the dirt above it, the better off we'll be
beantownbubba wrote:I didn't mention Beginning to See the Light because like the woman says, it's not rock criticism. It is great writing though and once again highly recommended.
Sure is! But it's more rock criticism than anything else.
Or so I thought. I pulled this off the shelf and counted pages: 317 plus acknowledgements, introduction, and endnotes. It does start with 110 pages on music, but the "American Girls Want Everything" section runs 133, followed by 56 pages of Next Year in Jerusalem. That's 133 pages on the New Left, or 98 pages on feminism (not counting Next Year in Jerusalem), or 89 pages on Judaism. Or 189 pages of something other than music that seems to be a thing all its own. So maybe I was wrong.
The sooner we put those assholes in the grave&piss on the dirt above it, the better off we'll be
S&S, will you please read some airplane trash or john grisham or a bodice ripper or something? You're making some of us look bad.
John A Arkansawyer wrote:Or so I thought. I pulled this off the shelf and counted pages: 317 plus acknowledgements, introduction, and endnotes. It does start with 110 pages on music, but the "American Girls Want Everything" section runs 133, followed by 56 pages of Next Year in Jerusalem. That's 133 pages on the New Left, or 98 pages on feminism (not counting Next Year in Jerusalem), or 89 pages on Judaism. Or 189 pages of something other than music that seems to be a thing all its own. So maybe I was wrong.
I appreciate the effort JohnA, but no need to work that hard, really.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard
beantownbubba wrote:S&S, will you please read some airplane trash or john grisham or a bodice ripper or something? You're making some of us look bad.
John A Arkansawyer wrote:Or so I thought. I pulled this off the shelf and counted pages: 317 plus acknowledgements, introduction, and endnotes. It does start with 110 pages on music, but the "American Girls Want Everything" section runs 133, followed by 56 pages of Next Year in Jerusalem. That's 133 pages on the New Left, or 98 pages on feminism (not counting Next Year in Jerusalem), or 89 pages on Judaism. Or 189 pages of something other than music that seems to be a thing all its own. So maybe I was wrong.
I appreciate the effort JohnA, but no need to work that hard, really.
You don't think I enjoyed pulling that book off the shelf? And consider how little effort page counting is in a book with a well-made table of contents. And how embarrassed I am when I miscount something.
The sooner we put those assholes in the grave&piss on the dirt above it, the better off we'll be
beantownbubba wrote:S&S, will you please read some airplane trash or john grisham or a bodice ripper or something? You're making some of us look bad.
John A Arkansawyer wrote:Or so I thought. I pulled this off the shelf and counted pages: 317 plus acknowledgements, introduction, and endnotes. It does start with 110 pages on music, but the "American Girls Want Everything" section runs 133, followed by 56 pages of Next Year in Jerusalem. That's 133 pages on the New Left, or 98 pages on feminism (not counting Next Year in Jerusalem), or 89 pages on Judaism. Or 189 pages of something other than music that seems to be a thing all its own. So maybe I was wrong.
I appreciate the effort JohnA, but no need to work that hard, really.
I promise you, Kingdom of Matthias has some sensual stuff in it.
