Thursday playlist: latest online enthusiasms

Oh, this video is really good! (thank you Bryan Waterman for the link–our BW who has a fun tumblr blog now):

buying cigars online

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO6y1-erVEw[/youtube]

If that wasn't your moment of bliss for the day, and you can stop yourself from replaying it, I recommend following this link to a tumblr page called Shallow Rewards written by another 33 1/3 author (Joy Division). He has several downloadable music mixes that are excellently curated. I haven't heard all of them, but the first three are recommended. Especially if you commute to work on a morning train. He creates really nice moods. And he includes great little songs I never bumped into before. Where has that awesome Mekon's song been hiding all these years? And why didn't anyone tell me that PJ Harvey's last album had this gorgeous two minute gem called “Hanging in the Wire?” Thanks Chris Ott!

Finally, if you haven't blown too much time getting stuck down the Shallow Rewards rabbit hole, try this quiz to figure out your accent. A secretary at work made me take it. I don't know why it took me so long to officially categorize my regional accent? Sadly, my accent is “the lowest common denominator of American speech.” The West. Anyone care to share if you get something different? I'll try not to be jealous.

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8 responses to “Thursday playlist: latest online enthusiasms”

  1. Rachel says:

    Well, I guess it’s official. “The inland North” just barely edges out “The Northeast” as my accent.

  2. FPS says:

    Predictably, the Midland accent. La di da. The quiz thinks I could be a newscaster. But I’m not.

    After years in the Northeast I think I finally get how to say Mary, merry, and marry distinctly.

  3. LP says:

    w00t w00t! My accent is “as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak!” I love how very specific that is… and how very incorrect! Of course, being a military brat means you’re from nowhere, really, so it’s hard to blame the quiz. Philly: I’ll take it.

  4. Tim says:

    I got Northeast, with a high likelihood that anyone meeting me would know that I’m from New York or North Jersey. To me this seems inaccurate, but what do I know? I found it interesting that the questionnaire didn’t ask anything specific about consonant sounds. “When you say it, does ‘New York’ rhyme with ‘talk’?” seems to me a crucial question, or “When you say them, are ‘wicked’ and ‘wicket’ indistinguishable?” Maybe these are indicators of class, rather than regional accent.

    Thanks, too, for the other stuff, Mr. Fawcett! I’m looking forward to the mixes. Which Mekons song is it that you mention? They are a wicket awesome band.

  5. farrell fawcett says:

    TIm, first off, I am hardly a Mekons cheerleader, much less a chronologist–hell, I only know a few of their songs–and they have A LOT of songs. The song on the mix is “After Six” which on a Wiki search did not show up on any of their albums and is not available on itunes (and there are like >200 songs on there). I think it’s a John Peel session? Anyway, here’s a youtube link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkizGOS6H0g

    That regional accent test is definitely imprecise (i think any quiz from the “gotoquiz” website is going to be suspect.) Does it really only take 15 whatever questions to pinpoint an accent? And do you need to know someone’s age and gender to get there? Weird. And LP with a Philly accent? Sadly, no. But it’s wicket fun!

  6. Josh K-sky says:

    I got Inland North with Northeast second and Philly third. I’ve never been suspected of a Chicago accent, so I’m guessing I answered one question wrong that bumped IN over NE. I grew up near Philly but somehow avoided the “wooder” (water) curse.

    I’ve come close to putting on a Cary Grant mid-Atlantic thing. Once I stopped to talk to hikers somewhere in CO. They asked if I was from England. “Nope,” I said, “just pretentious.”

  7. FPS says:

    Oh hey K-Sky have I told you the one where my friend M and I were tromping around on someone’s property, a horse farm near my parents’ house, and the cops pulled up and pestered us for a while, and one cop said to me after a few questions “where are you from?” and I pointed and named our suburb, and he said “no but I mean where are you from? You sound like you’re from Liverpool or something!” The proper answer would have been “nope, just pretentious.”

  8. josh k-sky says:

    Heh. Just saw this. Use it next time!