In keeping with the trend of recent Thursday playlists from Bryan and Rachel, I’ve assembled my year-end mix for your delectation and/or derision. With one or two technical exceptions, all these are songs from 2007. Download the mix here and now. [Downloading closed.] I feel a little squeamish about filesharing, so I’m going to remove […]
Archive for January, 2008
A glutton on either coast
Too jet-lagged and full after a truly debauched trip to New York and Philly, I’m going to let the images of my gluttony speak for themselves. Recommendations: having Trixie or Scotty make you a nice steak, or tracking down wonderful Bangladeshi food in Queens, or indulging in (hangover-cure) dim sum in Brooklyn’s Chinatown. Back in […]
Four legs good, two legs glad
I arrived in San Francisco yesterday afternoon, ready to spend a week working with a client and visiting with friends. I love coming here, as the people I stay with have a lovely home in the Castro, an open-door policy, and a fun and welcoming collective of family and friends. There’s always something going on […]
Year in review: The 2007 Whatsie awards
We’ve made it to the end of our second year with nary a hitch: Yes, a few writers have gone into retirement — only temporarily, we hope — but we’ve gained new ones, too, and had at least one prodigal daughter return. Once again, we’re pretty happy with the amount of (mostly) good text we’ve […]
Objectification of desire: part two
A while ago I started ruminating on the objects that we acquire, what might be termed material culture, and today I continue. One thing I have learned about taste is that it stays close to home. I remember hearing that vintage Poole Pottery is more expensive in the town of Poole in Dorset. That seemed […]
Thursday playlist: BW’s 2006-07 mix edition
Download the mix by clicking here. You can fit it on an 80-minute CD if you want a hardcopy as a keepsake. Playlist 1. Colleen, “This Place in Time” (2007) 2. Joanna Newsom, “Colleen” (2007) 3. Nina Nastasia & Jim White, “Odd Said the Doe” (2007) 4. Sleeping States, “September, Maybe” (2007) 5. Yoko Ono, […]
Straddling offense
Imagine you teach literature (not a stretch for many of you). Now imagine you have a student who’s super pious and often writes about how the texts you select feature filthy, immoral women who aren’t following God’s laws and instead choose to “spill into the volatile meaty mire of raunchy, distasteful choices” and “dip their […]
If your conscience is bothering you…
…you know what to do: help us out, submit your Whatsies nominations. A slight extension: get them in by 5 p.m. Eastern on Thursday and they’ll still be counted. Details here.
Crack for the civic-minded
It’s election time again, and again it’s hard to exaggerate the importance of the outcome for our country and the world. It’s also time for political junkies to admit that from now until November 4 we’re going to be spending an entirely unhealthy amount of time following the news. It’s come to my attention that […]
BW’s top 15 albums of 2007
A surprising number — though not quite all — of my top 15 albums of the year feature woodwinds. I especially love clarinets. 15. Le Loup, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly (Hardly Art) MySpace You may be tempted to ignore this DC collective because of the CMJ buzz […]
