Whatcha reading?

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Kory
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Kory »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
07 May 2022, 8:37pm
Kory wrote:
07 May 2022, 8:08pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
07 May 2022, 6:28am
Silent Majority wrote:
07 May 2022, 4:48am
Dr. Medulla wrote:
06 May 2022, 4:30pm
Tub book:
Image
Read this maybe 20 or 25 years ago, but it caught my eye on the shelf, so why not?
Not the world's greatest graphic design
No, not at all. The designer would have adored the early years of the web.
They should be happy now that web brutalism is making a minor reappearance.
And as a deliberate statement, a la zines in the 80s and 90s that wanted to emphasize that the creators were amateurs, I can get behind that. I can respect pretty much any purposeful expression even if I disagree with it or find it unpersuasive.
I haven’t looked into it too much but I get the sense that in this case, it’s meant to be ironic. Irony, as we all know, died from overuse in the first couple years of the 2010s.
"Suck our Earth dick, Martians!" —Doc

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Kory wrote:
08 May 2022, 1:58am
Dr. Medulla wrote:
07 May 2022, 8:37pm
Kory wrote:
07 May 2022, 8:08pm
They should be happy now that web brutalism is making a minor reappearance.
And as a deliberate statement, a la zines in the 80s and 90s that wanted to emphasize that the creators were amateurs, I can get behind that. I can respect pretty much any purposeful expression even if I disagree with it or find it unpersuasive.
I haven’t looked into it too much but I get the sense that in this case, it’s meant to be ironic. Irony, as we all know, died from overuse in the first couple years of the 2010s.
Overuse or misuse? Just going the opposite of convention to be contrary ain't ironic, even if they claim otherwise.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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61) Henry V: The Life of the Warrior King & the Battle of Agincourt 1415 - Teresa Cole. Kindle. 2015. Simple and brief and completely accessible, telling you all you'd wish to know about that King of England. I started Ian Mortimer's book on Henry V, but it was solely about the year 1415, hitting every day of the calendar as a way of understanding the guy better, but fuck that dreary sounding shit. Threw it straight into the metaphorical roaring fire. The King has a reputation as England's national hero mostly based on hammering some Frenchies, but left little in the way of a legacy. I've said before how little battle coming down maintains my interest and medieval fighting is just as dull to me as WW2. But this was what the guy's all about, so you get the ride you queued up for.
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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62) The Starmer Project: A Journey to the Right - Oliver Eagleton. 2022. Kindle. Keir Starmer is a monster, really, who's been doing horrible things for a brutal establishment for his entire adult life. Mangerialist ambition and an air of competence has brought him to the top of the Labour party. Blair without the imagination or tactical advantage of a compliant press, Starmer is destined to be shafted and replaced by someone worse.
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Low Down Low
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Silent Majority wrote:
14 May 2022, 11:01am
62) The Starmer Project: A Journey to the Right - Oliver Eagleton. 2022. Kindle. Keir Starmer is a monster, really, who's been doing horrible things for a brutal establishment for his entire adult life. Mangerialist ambition and an air of competence has brought him to the top of the Labour party. Blair without the imagination or tactical advantage of a compliant press, Starmer is destined to be shafted and replaced by someone worse.
Couldn't agree more and I'm only a couple of chapters into it. He's spent the past two years lifting his hem to the gutter press and now they're repaying him with a monstering over having a bottle of beer during lockdown. I'd laugh about it if it wasn't all so luridly depressing.

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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

Low Down Low wrote:
14 May 2022, 12:39pm
Silent Majority wrote:
14 May 2022, 11:01am
62) The Starmer Project: A Journey to the Right - Oliver Eagleton. 2022. Kindle. Keir Starmer is a monster, really, who's been doing horrible things for a brutal establishment for his entire adult life. Mangerialist ambition and an air of competence has brought him to the top of the Labour party. Blair without the imagination or tactical advantage of a compliant press, Starmer is destined to be shafted and replaced by someone worse.
Couldn't agree more and I'm only a couple of chapters into it. He's spent the past two years lifting his hem to the gutter press and now they're repaying him with a monstering over having a bottle of beer during lockdown. I'd laugh about it if it wasn't all so luridly depressing.
Right. His fall - before or after the next General Election would be - would be well worth some sour grapes if the Opposition wasn't intentionally ignoring the vulnerable harder than even the government is.
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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63) The Island of Dr Moreau - HG Wells. 1896. Paperback. A better horror novel than I expected, with some genuinely unsettling scenes and concepts. The first person narrative means I know that the protagonist will survive the horrible man-beast ordeal, which takes away some of the tension and I think also two potentially very satisfying endings. Still, a good book from a writer I've sometimes underestimated.
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Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Silent Majority wrote:
17 May 2022, 7:37am
63) The Island of Dr Moreau - HG Wells. 1896. Paperback. A better horror novel than I expected, with some genuinely unsettling scenes and concepts. The first person narrative means I know that the protagonist will survive the horrible man-beast ordeal, which takes away some of the tension and I think also two potentially very satisfying endings. Still, a good book from a writer I've sometimes underestimated.
And much appreciated as a critique from an era of scientific triumphalism and progressive ideas of human perfectibility.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Flex
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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HG Wells may be a touch underrated these days, I suspect.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead

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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Finally finished listening to Jim Ruland's SST book (houseguests have messed with my workout schedule). It's a book that has all the virtues and shortcomings of a popular history. It's an entertaining narrative, filled with personality clashes, achievements, and failures. But in terms of figuring out what it all means, there's a lot of contradictory and confusing conclusions. Ginn, no surprise, is the fundamental villain, a guy who, for all his musical creativity, is a vindictive and jealous control freak who is quick to sue and would rather let bands' past records rot than release them or surrender copyright back to the band. But my core complaint is that, in this story, I don't see anything especially punk about SST beyond its chosen market—nothing especially radical about targeting an under-attended market. If SST is distinct from corporate music, its model isn't a radical alternative (like Dischord) but pre-corporate business, or the small business, where the whims of the owner dictate what happens. A boutique label, really. I don't see anything punk or dissenting about that. At all. Ruland doesn't pause to think about this stuff—about whether SST ever was as radical as punk fans thought—because he's invested in tell abbreviated stories about the artists he loves who were on the label. He's upset that SST is letting its catalogue gather dust when it could be putting out remastered deluxe editions (since when was punk about cleaning up the sound and re-releasing stuff with a few extras?!?!), and if not let the bands have their music back. Would he be okay with SST acting more corporate? It's just frustrating to see these stories told in a way that fundamentally confirms late capitalist logic, gutting the radical potential of something like punk. Corporate rock sucks, yes; SST's catchphrase was right. But SST's model wasn't that much better, even if it released records from better bands.

Next audiobook:
Image
Christopher Lasch, The Revolt of the Elites. Lasch is one of my favourite curmudgeonly scholars, a guy who started on the left and moved more and more to the right without ever embracing the right. Someone who scowled at politically correct language and the importance of self-esteem and, in general, what he called the therapeutic state, where democracy had been reduced citizens pursuing what makes them feel better about themselves. Much of the blame is placed on elites who have withdrawn from civic culture, leaving a vacuum of aimless selfishness. (This book came out in the mid-90s; seem familiar?) It's the kind of book that would almost certainly be reviled by left and right, but more the former, I think. But he's still one of the people I like reading for critique of the left because it comes from a desire for something better, not simple discrediting.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Flex
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Flex »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
18 May 2022, 11:06am
Finally finished listening to Jim Ruland's SST book (houseguests have messed with my workout schedule). It's a book that has all the virtues and shortcomings of a popular history. It's an entertaining narrative, filled with personality clashes, achievements, and failures. But in terms of figuring out what it all means, there's a lot of contradictory and confusing conclusions. Ginn, no surprise, is the fundamental villain, a guy who, for all his musical creativity, is a vindictive and jealous control freak who is quick to sue and would rather let bands' past records rot than release them or surrender copyright back to the band. But my core complaint is that, in this story, I don't see anything especially punk about SST beyond its chosen market—nothing especially radical about targeting an under-attended market. If SST is distinct from corporate music, its model isn't a radical alternative (like Dischord) but pre-corporate business, or the small business, where the whims of the owner dictate what happens. A boutique label, really. I don't see anything punk or dissenting about that. At all. Ruland doesn't pause to think about this stuff—about whether SST ever was as radical as punk fans thought—because he's invested in tell abbreviated stories about the artists he loves who were on the label. He's upset that SST is letting its catalogue gather dust when it could be putting out remastered deluxe editions (since when was punk about cleaning up the sound and re-releasing stuff with a few extras?!?!), and if not let the bands have their music back. Would he be okay with SST acting more corporate? It's just frustrating to see these stories told in a way that fundamentally confirms late capitalist logic, gutting the radical potential of something like punk. Corporate rock sucks, yes; SST's catchphrase was right. But SST's model wasn't that much better, even if it released records from better bands.
Interesting. Not too surprised by the flaws even if it's disappointing not to see the material mined for something a little more thought provoking. I'll probably try to give this a read sometime still, jus given how much I adore so much of the core material from SST (and want to read some Greg Ginn shit talk).
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead

Pex Lives!

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Flex wrote:
18 May 2022, 11:12am
(and want to read some Greg Ginn shit talk).
You'll enjoy it for that. From his love of the Grateful Dead and techno to shady (tho not unconventionally so) business practices and short fuse before going to war with bandmates and bands on his label, it's not hard to portray Ginn as predatory toward the punk scene. That would be an unfair step or three too far, but in the end he comes of as a hyper-individualist, only willing to fight tooth and nail if it fits his interests.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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64) Is This Anything - Jerry Seinfeld. Audiobook. 2020. Seinfeld bloodlessly declaims six hours of his routines from the seventies til Covid times in an audio booth. While the best has some Carlin-esque wordplay and fun with concepts, what really sticks out is the complete lack of growth as a craftsman between the start and the end. The answer to the question posed by this book's title is: No.
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Silent Majority wrote:
19 May 2022, 8:53am
64) Is This Anything - Jerry Seinfeld. Audiobook. 2020. Seinfeld bloodlessly declaims six hours of his routines from the seventies til Covid times in an audio booth. While the best has some Carlin-esque wordplay and fun with concepts, what really sticks out is the complete lack of growth as a craftsman between the start and the end. The answer to the question posed by this book's title is: No.
Back when Seinfeld was going strong, he put out a book of his stuff (can't recall what it was called) and it was striking how flat it all seemed. He's not untalented by any means, but for someone who starred in and co-created a groundbreaking sitcom, it gives you pause to wonder how the hell *that* guy made it.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
19 May 2022, 9:12am
Silent Majority wrote:
19 May 2022, 8:53am
64) Is This Anything - Jerry Seinfeld. Audiobook. 2020. Seinfeld bloodlessly declaims six hours of his routines from the seventies til Covid times in an audio booth. While the best has some Carlin-esque wordplay and fun with concepts, what really sticks out is the complete lack of growth as a craftsman between the start and the end. The answer to the question posed by this book's title is: No.
Back when Seinfeld was going strong, he put out a book of his stuff (can't recall what it was called) and it was striking how flat it all seemed. He's not untalented by any means, but for someone who starred in and co-created a groundbreaking sitcom, it gives you pause to wonder how the hell *that* guy made it.
I'll credit Larry David, to be honest.
a lifetime serving one machine
Is ten times worse than prison


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