A Recent History of Ironic Exclamations for Chuck Klosterman @12:30 PM
Chuck Klosterman's last book, from October, has an attack on the use of the exclamation point as a marker of irony. It's making the rounds today online, since someone is reading it. Klosterman's opinion: It's "idiotic. It’s the saddest kind of failure." Klosterman is talking overall about the rhetorical practices of feigned ignorance, distancing in general and also about the most convenient punctuation markers to make things clear to the reader—though he believes these markers make things ever more unclear. At least, he approvingly quotes Fitzgerald as against exclamation points. Let's look at some recent history! READ MORE 30
Dave Eggers, Wyndham Lewis and Hate @2:45 PM
Wyndham Lewis was the coming man in 1913. Rich parents, Rugby, Slade School, knocked around Paris, talented writer and painter, good-lookin’, etc.
Already he’d been published by Ford Madox Ford in The English Review and shown paintings with Jack the Ripper obsessive Walter Sickert. He also had three paintings in the second Post-Impressionist exhibition with Roger Fry and Clive Bell, members of the Bloomsbury Group. Almost all of those Bloomsbury guys were very what we used to call “fabulous,” by which I mean arch, conceited, clever, stylish, discontented and self-regarding (21st-century virtues all). READ MORE 72
The Original "The Awl," 1843: "Who Owns These Neat and Pretty Houses?" @12:00 PM
It has been brought to our attention that there is another publication called The Awl! Unfortunately, it seems to have ceased publication sometime in the mid to late 1840s, even though it was only first published in 1843. Documented in Norman Ware's fantastic The Industrial Worker, 1840-1860: the reaction of American industrial society to the advance of the industrial revolution, which was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1924. This bit of history was brought to our attention by the widely-read Aaaron Swartz, praise his name. Let's do some reading! READ MORE 21
"Paris Whitney Hilton was 'just another baby' at a time when it seemed America might soon be burning babies for heating fuel — but that’s not why, ultimately, she became a superstar."
—HISTORY OF THE DAY! @2:25 PM 4
Rich People Things: Richard Epstein's Revisionist History Leads To Revising of History @11:17 AM
Today’s market idolators don’t know much, but they know what they hate. Take libertarian University of Chicago law professor Richard Epstein, who in his reliably hallucinatory Forbes.com column uses a wonky John Judis defense of the Obama White House’s approach to regulatory policy to divine all sorts of pernicious motives in the Progressive vision of law and policy making.
If this all sounds a bit of a Byzantine route for the sake of some rather pro forma offense-taking on behalf of the molested free market, well, you haven’t seen anything yet. READ MORE 7
Ye Olde Sex Scandals: Grover Cleveland's Love Child @2:45 PM
Oh, to be a governor of New York–if you're not dealing with a sex scandal, you're not doing it right. Take the case of our 22nd and 24th President, Grover Cleveland. (The only guy to serve two nonconsecutive terms, and the second bachelor–but not for long–to take office.) If there's one thing that's true, it's this: a bachelor politician equals girl trouble for sure. READ MORE 18
Very Recent History: The End of Apartheid @10:30 AM
The Independent talks to former South African President F.W. de Klerk. Twenty years ago today de Klerk delivered an opening address to Parliament. "When he sat down 30 minutes later, the ANC and 30 other political parties, including the Communist Party, had been unbanned unconditionally; the death penalty was suspended; the state of emergency was lifted; trade unions were allowed to function freely; all political prisoners were to be released immediately and restrictions on political exiles were lifted; and, perhaps most importantly of all, de Klerk opened the way for South Africa's first fully democratic election in 300 years by promising 'a totally new and just constitutional dispensation in which every inhabitant will enjoy equal rights, treatment and opportunity'." 15
Flicked Off: 'When In Rome' @12:25 PM
Somehow, we ended up at this movie over the weekend, just us and some girls who were really lonely. And a few really angry boyfriends. You guys. Little Kristin Bell, barely there. Josh Duhamel, a lunk with a nice brow. A plot (magic love fountains!) that not even Annie Hathaway could paste together with her face. And, what's more, a ghostly drive-by from Judith Malina. Born in the 20s, the daughter of German rabbi who emigrated to America in 1929, the twice-widowed avant-garde theater superstar has not had a film or TV role since the 69th episode of The Sopranos, broadcast in April of 200—as Paulie's nun-aunt who reveals that she is actually his mother, causing him to flip out. (Then she dies.) READ MORE 8
Very Recent History: The Greensboro Sit-Ins @9:20 AM
Before we move on to the minutiae of the day, let's take a moment to recognize a rather significant anniversary: It was 50 years ago that four African American college students took seats at the whites only lunch counter of the Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina, and asked to be served. The Greensboro sit-ins were a vital part of the civil rights movement. READ MORE 5
The 2009 GDP? It's the Worst Since 1946–And 7.6 Million Jobs Disappeared in Two Years @10:20 AM
We're going to talk about math and finance here, so take a deep breath. I'll go slow for you! The big headline today is that, from 2009's third quarter to the fourth quarter, the gross domestic product increased at an annualized rate of 5.7%. This sounds really big! So many big headlines about it. But may we put it in perspective? One of the short versions is that people had more cash, and spent more, in the final three months of the year, that they did in the previous three months. So when the Times trumpets that the "U.S. Economy Grew at Fastest Pace in 6 Years Last Quarter," what they mean is that, in six whole years, this is the largest quarter over quarter contrast. Is this shocking? Actually it is because the previous quarter was kind of garbage. Let us instead compare to years previous. The government says: "GDP decreased 2.4 percent in 2009 (that is, from the 2008 annual level to the 2009 annual level), in contrast to an increase of 0.4 percent in 2008." So, you know, another way to headline this announcement would be something like: "U.S. Economy Ended 2009 Only 2.4% Worse Than 2008." Here's how Bloomberg expressed that idea: "For all of 2009, the economy shrank 2.4 percent, the worst single-year performance since 1946." READ MORE 27
Very Recent History: The Lonesome Death Of James Zappalorti @10:50 AM
It was twenty years ago today that James Patrick Zappalorti, "an eccentric, simple man who was loved by his neighbors," was killed in the tiny hut he had built by the water on Staten Island by two locals who had constantly taunted him because they thought he was gay. Zappalorti, a disabled veteran who served in Vietnam and was discharged after suffering a mental breakdown, "spent much of his days by himself, his father said. His mother, bedridden for years with heart disease, was closest to him. He cooked and washed for her and vacuumed the house." There are obviously plenty of stories like this one, but for whatever reason it has stuck with me since the day I read it twenty years ago and it still breaks my heart every time. Each detail is agonizing, and I still cannot read the final words of the Times' coverage—a quote from Zappalorti's father, whose refusal to accept that his son might be gay is equally tragic—without tearing up: "He was my baby," he said. "When he was a little drunk, he'd hug me and say, 'I love you father."' 15
John Del Signore: When I Was Santa (In Conclusion: All I Want Is My Fair Share) @12:55 PM
Previously in our tale of seasonal Santa-employment: Part Two, Part One.
The P.A. system at Saks played a twenty-minute loop of holiday music, providing ample opportunity to fall in love with each of those timeless classics again and again. And then again! Have you every wondered how many times you'll have to hear 'Holly, Jolly Christmas,' 'Feed the World' or 'Hark! The Bells,' before you can die? Well, put on some coffee because I'm living proof that you've got quite a bit more "Oh by golly have a holly jolly Christmas! This year!" to go. READ MORE 7
New Old Video Footage: Neutral Milk Hotel, "The King Of Carrot Flowers" @3:00 PM
There's further footage from that amazing 1998 Neutral Milk Hotel concert we were lucky enough to get a back-in-time glimpse of last week through Youtube. Pitchfork has three more songs: "Oh Comely," "The King of Carrot Flowers" and "The Fool." Neutral Milk Hotel. Has there ever been a greater band with a lamer name? 13
et alS, with Cord Jefferson: Obama's Kinda Meh First Year @3:40 PM
What were you doing over the Thanksgiving break, friend? Drinking? Eating? Pitying your one cousin who could have been totally cool if your aunt wasn't such a Christian whackjob? Of course you were—and good for you! That's what people do.
Me on the other hand, I'm not a person, I'm a vegan, from even before that neon green book came out. So I was doing what all vegans do when you sickos annually sacrifice poultry to long-dead Puritans: straight up fuming, about absolutely everything. Here's a fume about how hard it is to find grocery store stuffing that doesn't use chicken broth. There's a fume about how Lil Wayne actually sucks, and just the general idea of Nike. And of course, right here's a fume about Slate, a website that I love, but also one that tests my patience from time to time. READ MORE 20
Where Were You When the Berlin Wall Fell? @11:25 AM
Where were you when the Berlin Wall fell on this fine day in November of 1989? I remember it vividly. That was the year they were playing "Nothing Compares 2 U" all the time. I lived in a one bedroom apartment two blocks off Hollywood Boulevard, in the city of golden dreams, with a nice young former waitress named Dawn, who right around that time received a free roundtrip ticket to Hawaii from the apartment building manager/hooker who lived with his wife and child and sometimes his male lover across the courtyard. READ MORE 85
John Del Signore: Bite Me, Kanye! I Bum-Rushed the MTV Video Music Awards—Ten Years Ago This Week @4:00 PM
On November 9th, 1999, my morning to-do list included such items as "Make a list," "Pick up stuff from storage," and "Attend MTV awards, jump on stage, yell something nonsensical." I never made it to my storage unit in Park Slope that day, but the NYPD, while studying the list later that night, would crack wise about my busy day. They were also very curious about that storage facility.
I was 24 years old at the time, and bursting with vaguely grandiose ideas in that special way that only twenty-somethings smoking expensive, kief-encrusted weed can be. One of these ideas was a concept for a late-night, fake-reality TV series that would explore the mysterious lives of twenty-somethings living in New York City. It was to be sort of like The Blair Witch Project, but set in the city instead of the woods, and with navel-gazing instead of murder. The horror! In broad strokes, the idea was to make a Stonervision TV alternative for inebriates arriving home in the middle of the night. In truth, it was barely half-baked, but I saw no reason why that should stop a major network from broadcasting it, whatever "it" was, ideally at 3 a.m. Well. Need I tell you now that some very humbling video follows? READ MORE 11
Elements of Stale, with Luke Mazur: The Mayor of Lovejoy @1:53 PM
So last week I was wondering to what extent, geographically speaking, Beggars' Night was celebrated. Growing up in Buffalo, we always went trick-or-treating the night before Halloween, October 30th—Beggars' Night. And on Halloween…well I don't really remember what we did on Halloween. Watch Home Alone? Maybe we went trick-or-treating again? As a kid, I pretty much thought that the way we lived was the way everyone did. Our nasal, elongated vowels. Ordering chicken wings together with pizza. Living in the same place as basically all of your relatives. Six-years-old-me believed Beggar's Night was everywhere. READ MORE 16
Our Legendary Fake History @11:10 AM
Are you following this Errol Morris investigation into the photography of Walker Evans and pals? A new installment, part 3 of 7, went up last night and it is BONKERS. Basically it is about alterations—suspected or proven or even wildly obvious, in retrospect—in 1930s documentary work of the FSA photographers (Evans, Dorothea Lange, et al). Essentially, much of what we view now as documentary—and what we see in our minds as the visuals of recent American history—was actually pretty close to propaganda. READ MORE 25
Very Recent History: The Rock Critical List, Ten Years Later @11:20 AM
It's been ten years since the Rock Critical List—a zine, of sorts, a paper-published one-time complaint about rock music critics—made the rounds, and today The Morning News takes a thorough look back. The screed was vicious, if sort of meaninglessly so, and anonymous. Although the author has never come forward, he was fingered as longtime Spin editor (and former long-time Awl neighbor!) Charles Aaron. (I'm still not sure I agree with this, by the way. I have other suspicions!) Anyway, Aaron worked at Spin then and he works there now, which, let's be honest, is a hard place to be critical from these days. Anyway, the good point of the piece is: ha ha, wow, what changed since? Not much, except some people no longer have jobs I guess. 6
Urusula Nordstrom, Sendak's Editor, on "Wild Things," 1964 @9:02 AM
On December 1, 1964, Ursula Nordstrom wrote a letter to Nat Hentoff, who was on assignment for the New Yorker. (Hentoff's piece on Maurice Sendak ran January 22, 1966—well over a year later.) Nordstrom—who had never been a teacher, a librarian or a college graduate—published Sendak, Gorey, Silverstein, White, Wilder and Brown from 1940 to 1979, at which time she and her partner Mary moved up to the country. READ MORE 15
Toby Young Nuzzles Hand That Once Bit And/Or Fed Him @1:40 PM
Huh! Toby Young, writing on Gawker—and billed as a "friend" of Gawker. Who thought that day would ever come? The former New York Press columnist and current Top Chef judge filed his Emmys report for the august webzine… which was published on Tuesday afternoon. This tardy report, thoroughly amusing, revealed little. Maybe if Top Chef won an Emmy, he would rush the stage! Maybe if it didn't, he would pull a Kanye! Neither happened. Most amusing: the sidebar of "related posts" on Gawker, in which Young is referred to as "vaguely annoying" and a "professional annoying person." (Disclosure: I can't even remember why I dislike Toby Young! He took some needless swipe once? He is probably a swell fellow, and God bless him for torturing Graydon Carter. (Although! Flashback! "One of the things that struck me about Toby Young's book on his experience at Vanity Fair was that all the best lines were Graydon's.")) 11
