Apple listens to the opera and disco queens
Do my eyes deceive me, or does iTunes say it's loading gapless playback information? Very exciting....
21 October 2006
I said, "In these shoes? / I doubt you'd survive"
An old friend sent me a link to this column from the St. Paul Pioneer Press. I agree with her that the angle it takes is interesting:
Of course, that still begs the question of what "equality" looks like, and I don't think that Westover's seeming conclusion that it requires the legalization of gay marriage follows very well from his own argument. Nevertheless, one useful thing he does is to consider the push for SSM in the larger context of the American entitlement mentality and how interest groups jockey for government goodies. (Reading some opponents of gay marriage, you could get the impression that decent Americans were all self-effacingly going about their business when all of a sudden the fags and dykes burst in and introduced self-centeredness into public policy debates.) Anyway, it's worth a read if you're not heartily sick of the subject already.
*******
Speaking of tired subjects, music today is apparently tuneless, witless, and derivative. This is the opinion of Sting, which is pretty rich, considering the upscale adult-contemporary crap he's shoveled at the public on most of his releases over the last ten years. Boring and pretentious--not exactly a winning combination.
I guess I don't buy a whole lot of new music by musicians I don't already like, either, anymore. I was pleasantly surprised that Cassie's album lived up to the hype--though "Me & U" is getting the seriously-overplayed treatment here in Japan at the moment. The new Janet is okay, but the last week or two has been mostly a Full-Figured British Diva moment in my household: Alison, Kirsty, and some Gabrielle.
In every movement to right a perceived social wrong, a fringe element with no apparent social upside (who hence emphasize their differences from the traditional) becomes the image of the enemy to supporters of the status quo. In this case, these are the leather- and tutu-clad lads who wind up in defense-of-marriage literature and DVDs. Only after a movement has gained some visibility, some credibility and some respectability do suit-and-tie supporters, people invested in society with something material to lose, risk identifying with it.
Here's where the paradox of rising expectations kicks in. Even as overt public discrimination against same-sex couples grows smaller, the inequities of law loom larger. The Williams Institute study suggests same-sex couples are more at ease declaring their relationships. They do so, however, with expectations of expanding their participation in society on equal terms with heterosexuals. Taking a risk, they are impatient with barriers to fulfillment of expectations of equality.
Of course, that still begs the question of what "equality" looks like, and I don't think that Westover's seeming conclusion that it requires the legalization of gay marriage follows very well from his own argument. Nevertheless, one useful thing he does is to consider the push for SSM in the larger context of the American entitlement mentality and how interest groups jockey for government goodies. (Reading some opponents of gay marriage, you could get the impression that decent Americans were all self-effacingly going about their business when all of a sudden the fags and dykes burst in and introduced self-centeredness into public policy debates.) Anyway, it's worth a read if you're not heartily sick of the subject already.
*******
Speaking of tired subjects, music today is apparently tuneless, witless, and derivative. This is the opinion of Sting, which is pretty rich, considering the upscale adult-contemporary crap he's shoveled at the public on most of his releases over the last ten years. Boring and pretentious--not exactly a winning combination.
I guess I don't buy a whole lot of new music by musicians I don't already like, either, anymore. I was pleasantly surprised that Cassie's album lived up to the hype--though "Me & U" is getting the seriously-overplayed treatment here in Japan at the moment. The new Janet is okay, but the last week or two has been mostly a Full-Figured British Diva moment in my household: Alison, Kirsty, and some Gabrielle.
16 October 2006
磁場
I'm not nearly the science geek that this guy is, but I still greeted this site like a long-lost friend when a commenter at Hit & Run linked to it. Atsushi's home for the weekend, and we went to see the Lille Museum of Modern Art exhibition at Bunkamura. Then tea at Wedgwood. Tie shopping, scone shopping.
Anyway, all the preciousness was threatening to suffocate us, so we decided to compensate with a Lite, brain-cell-eating DVD with pizza for dinner: The Core, which I'm pretty sure I saw on an airplane once. And lo, it is a thing of Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics beauty. I have to say, I don't mind implausible scientific stuff when it's skated over quickly and used to fuel fantasy that's genuinely entertaining or to ask interesting questions about human nature. (My inner lit. major is much more annoyed by Insultingly Stupid Out-of-Character Movie Behavior for Cheap Plot Compliance, which is too massively indulged in by Hollywood to be done justice by a single website.) But lazy internal inconsistency of any kind is annoying. Using the tremendous pressure inside the mantle as an explicit reason something or other is impossible at one point and then expecting us to believe, a half-hour later, in a giant amethyst-lined cave in the mantle in which people in space suits can gambol around freely--that's unforgivable. Two of the chief science-geek types in The Core also seem to think that one is a prime number, unless I misheard.
Speaking of video art that leaves me cold...yeah, I've seen the video for "Jump," the new Madonna single and my favorite song on the most recent album. I kind of like the way her outfit and dancing recall "Lucky Star," but she has to get over this idea that simply intercutting shots of her with those of significantly younger and more agile dancers will camouflage the fact that she's getting older. Also, while "free running" may be a phenomenon, it's not exactly interesting to watch...especially since the video is set in Tokyo. The footage for the first jumps, before Madonna begins singing, was filmed right in the same neighborhood as my office, and one thing I will say is that it portrays Tokyo the way it actually looks when you're here: grey and brown and full of gnarled power and telephone lines.
Anyway, all the preciousness was threatening to suffocate us, so we decided to compensate with a Lite, brain-cell-eating DVD with pizza for dinner: The Core, which I'm pretty sure I saw on an airplane once. And lo, it is a thing of Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics beauty. I have to say, I don't mind implausible scientific stuff when it's skated over quickly and used to fuel fantasy that's genuinely entertaining or to ask interesting questions about human nature. (My inner lit. major is much more annoyed by Insultingly Stupid Out-of-Character Movie Behavior for Cheap Plot Compliance, which is too massively indulged in by Hollywood to be done justice by a single website.) But lazy internal inconsistency of any kind is annoying. Using the tremendous pressure inside the mantle as an explicit reason something or other is impossible at one point and then expecting us to believe, a half-hour later, in a giant amethyst-lined cave in the mantle in which people in space suits can gambol around freely--that's unforgivable. Two of the chief science-geek types in The Core also seem to think that one is a prime number, unless I misheard.
Speaking of video art that leaves me cold...yeah, I've seen the video for "Jump," the new Madonna single and my favorite song on the most recent album. I kind of like the way her outfit and dancing recall "Lucky Star," but she has to get over this idea that simply intercutting shots of her with those of significantly younger and more agile dancers will camouflage the fact that she's getting older. Also, while "free running" may be a phenomenon, it's not exactly interesting to watch...especially since the video is set in Tokyo. The footage for the first jumps, before Madonna begins singing, was filmed right in the same neighborhood as my office, and one thing I will say is that it portrays Tokyo the way it actually looks when you're here: grey and brown and full of gnarled power and telephone lines.