November 2011
3 posts
Chicago Reader: A formal introduction →
chicago-reader:
Hi, I’m Tal Rosenberg, the digital content editor of the Chicago Reader. I used to tumbl here, and also run this; I twitter here.
I love Tumblr: Its functionality, the often appealing design templates, and the ability to communicate with and respond to people all over the web. However,…
I’ll be writing over here for the foreseeable future. I’m going to keep...
“Everybody is outnumbered, because everything in your wallet represents all these...”
– Louis C.K.
“On the first single of his posthumous career, Pac poses a question that he would...”
– Rob Kenner, “The 100 Best 2Pac Songs” (Complex)
October 2011
12 posts
“The tents had been raised in the northeast quadrant of the park but, according...”
– Frank Kogan
“Anonymous,” a costume spectacle directed by Roland Emmerich, from a script by...”
– A.O. Scott
Bridesmaids
What struck me about Bridesmaids was that it was very sad. Based on everything I’d read or been told about the movie, I was expecting a ribald, sentimental film about female camaraderie, like an estrogen-infused version of The Hangover. There were moments when I laughed, like the competitive speech tradeoff pictured above, but I laughed a lot less than I thought, and at times I felt...
“The most difficult challenge in writing about the Iranian Terror Plot unveiled...”
– Glenn Greenwald. Gambits!
“From scene to scene—Carlos preening naked in front of a mirror, the takeover of...”
– Greil Marcus
Making digital music social: Spotify and... →
chicago-reader:
The ubiquitous combination of iPod and iTunes (and other similar pairings of MP3 player and software) has made solo listening a bigger chunk of people’s overall listening time, and cuts them off from any music they might overhear. There are exceptions, of course—if you’re the type of person to share a set of earbuds with your bestie, for instance, or to play your tunes full...
Thinking the Unthinkable About Steve Jobs
My first post for the Reader is about my conflicted feelings surrounding Steve Jobs’s death.
3 tags
September 2011
4 posts
When I was in high school, I would rush out on Thursday afternoon and make sure to grab a copy of the Chicago Reader. Starting Monday, I get to rush out of my apartment to its offices, every day, and go to work.
2 tags
1 tag
August 2011
3 posts
1 tag
The Weeknd/"Real" R&B
WHO CARES?!?!
The dead kings of Wimbledon →
imathers:
Why is there so much great tennis writing out there these days?
(via Flashes of Quincy)
via me on Facebook. The best assessment of current men’s singles tennis I’ve yet read.
July 2011
11 posts
“The fact that you use the word “care” is interesting to me. I know...”
– Chuck Klosterman
“Hunter S. Thompson’s 1971 account of taking drugs and behaving like an asshole...”
– Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas.”
While We're Here
(via Tom)
It’s nothing but love, friends, but come on.
June 2011
17 posts
“Art without accomplishment becomes a form of faith, sustained more by the...”
– Adam Gopnik, “Life Studies.” Unfortunately, not available online.
Just North of Something Important: Bon Iver: A... →
barthel:
R: Am I supposed to like Bon Iver? M: Not really, no. R: Good, because I think I might actively hate him. He does look like someone I would sleep with as long as I didn’t hear his music first, then he would not like me because I would make fun of his vagina music. M: He’s so close to good but then…
Mildy Upset
Because I don’t think there’s any chance that The-Dream’s “Body Work/Fuck My Brains Out” is going to be a massive hit single, even though it totally deserves to be. Right now, Terius is the king, taking Prince and Michael Jackson and R. Kelly and even The Lonely Island and ordering them into line, the minions of his cerebral pop empire.
“If Rimbaud anticipated the Surrealists by decades, Ashbery is said to have gone...”
– Lydia Davis, “Rimbaud’s Wise Music,” The New York Times Book Review, June 9, 2011.
“What makes the Anthony Weiner story somewhat unique and thus worth discussing...”
– Glenn Greenwald, “The Joys Of Repressed Voyeuristic Titillation”
The Top 100 Albums Of The '70s
Same Prince problem, this time with Miles Davis.
1. Van Morrison – Veedon Fleece (Warner Bros., 1974) 2. Rolling Stones – Exile On Main St. (Rolling Stones/Atlantic, 1972) 3. Miles Davis – Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970) 4. Gilberto Gil & Jorge Ben – Gil e Jorge (Verve, 1975) 5. Fleetwood Mac – Tusk (Warner Bros., 1979) 6. Eno – Another Green World (Island, 1975) 7. Nick Drake – Bryter Layter...
The Top 100 Albums Of The '80s
Notes!:
The one album per artist rule altered this list more drastically than even the ’90s list, and for no one more than Prince, who might have three of the top 10 slots, and maybe five of the top twenty, if I could have included more than one of his albums on this list. I went with Dirty Mind because it’s my favorite of all his albums, but also because I think it’s the most...
Already Realized
I forgot Spacemen 3’s Recurring. These are the kinds of things that drive me crazy, and yes, I am a sick person.
The Top 100 Albums Of The '90s
…according to me, of course.
In this case, listing what didn’t make the cut would be a list in itself. Same rule applies as before: One album per artist. ’80s, ’70s, and ’60s to come.
1. Wu-Tang Clan – Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers (Loud, 1993) 2. De La Soul – De La Soul Is Dead (Tommy Boy, 1991) 3. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless (Creation, 1991) 4. NaS – Illmatic...
The Top 100 Albums Of The '00s
Some notes:
I submitted a Top 50 Albums of the ’00s list for The Stylus Decade. As with all lists, I wasn’t happy with the timing: Lists that evaluate a time period need some distance from that era, otherwise earlier albums, which the evaluator/listener has had time to process already, will be viewed more favorably. I think a year and a half is a pretty good bit of time to sit back...
