The Morning Dump: irony, Do Rappers Read The Walrus?, ew Cthulhus, Did Warren Beatty bed Woody Allen?
Posted on 08. May, 2010 by theashcan in Morning Dump
- Don’t snark at me for posting a link from Pitchfork. I’m not the one who goes on there to gather a list of cool bands to check out (or, more likely, name drop). I read the writing. The writing is good. For example, Nitsuh Abebe‘s Why We Fight column, which discusses the finer points of music opinions. This week’s “A Brief History of Knowingness and Irony” uses Weezer and the much-maligned James Murphy to discuss self-awareness in both musicians and listeners. -am
- Oh noes! Another Drake profile! The Walrus of all places seems to finally have caught up with the cool kids, featuring a profile of Toronto’s favourite Degrassi alum (sorry Snake). Per usual, The ‘Rus features some stellar word craft, in this case by Toronto freelancer Matthew McKinnon. Yet, something about this feature just feels… off. Perhaps it’s the fact McKinnon draws conclusions about Drake’s success and motivation not based on an interview, but on circumstantial quotes gleaned only from other magazines. Or maybe it’s that the author then draws conclusions about Drake’s lyrics, only to misattribute the words of Lil Wayne instead. Maybe I’m just envious. Who knows. Worth a read, if only to wonder whether your doubts about The Walrus covering hip hop might actually fall prey to all the stereotypes you secretly feared it might, but really hoped it wouldn’t. -sy
- One of my favourite new finds is HiLoBrow, an art and ideas blog whose tagline “Middlebrow is not the solution” is awesome and perfect. Here’s a good, recent piece of theirs on the Cute Cthulhu phenomenon and why the popular tentacled plush toys are so not cute at all. It gets all NSFW at the work end, so good thing it’s Saturday. Unless you’re working today, in which case I salute your hustle, and dedicate this song to you. -jc
- It took me a while to figure out what this New Yorker piece is even about, the headline not really saying much. But after getting to the bottom of the page I realized, oh, it’s Woody Allen writing from the voice of one of Warren Beatty’s many sexual conquests. Yup, for real. -jk-g
Anupa
May 8th, 2010
That Drake piece in the Walrus is mighty fawning.
Simon
May 8th, 2010
Reading 9000 well written words cannot help me unsee the last few images of that Cthulhu essay.