Close readings: Sarah Palin’s discandidacy announcement

By Dan Brooks in Close Reading, Uncategorized 5 Comments

"Did you just say pork burrito? It sounded like you said pork burrito."

I follow three people on Twitter: Ben Fowlkes, Iowa legislator/general nutjob Kim Lehman, and Sarah Palin. Yesterday, SarahPalinUSA directed me to Facebook for a “statement on 2012 decision.” The statement is that she isn’t running. She cites the same reasons that have been drifting through her various word-clouds for the last month: that she wants to help other conservatives get elected, that she doesn’t need a title to “restore” America, that no one who owns a TV or has heard of America would even briefly consider putting her in charge of it. That last one is implied, I guess, but the upshot is that even Sarah Palin knows Sarah Palin can’t be President. Most of her announcement is what you’d expect, except for the first paragraph. That’s actually a work of considerable nuance, or at least insinuation, and it’s the subject of today’s Close Reading. Primary source after the jump.

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You should listen to Das Racist

By Dan Brooks in Uncategorized 9 Comments

I had not heard of RapGenius.com until I listened to the new Das Racist album Relax, which contains the following quatrain:

Rap Genius dot com is white devil sophistry

Urban Dictionary is for demons with college degrees

Google ad technology is artificial karma, B

Rick Ross on the radio at the pharmacy

That’s from “The Middle of the Cake,” whose lyrics you can find interpreted on the aforesaid RG-dot-C right here. Das Racist you remember, of course, from like 40 Friday links ago, when they delivered an extremely satisfying interview to Deborah Solomon of the New York Times. They’re the band of one Punjabi guy and one Latin guy who met at Wesleyan, plus one questionably employed hype man. They had a jokey internet hit with “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” in 2009, and now they have a less jokey, more hooky bunch of songs in Relax, which I personally consider the best hip hop album of 2011. You should listen to it. Song after the jump.

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Hank III now second-best Williams

By Dan Brooks in Baby Boomers, Uncategorized 10 Comments

Hank Williams, Jr. comports himself with the dignity of his office.

Hank Williams, Jr. appeared on Fox and Friends yesterday morning to offer his opinion of the 2012 GOP field and managed to compare President Obama to Hitler within the first 90 seconds. To be fair, he was explaining why it was a bad idea for John Boehner and Obama to play golf together—a move he called “the biggest political mistake of all time.” Those of you familiar with his hit song “Don’t Talk to Me About FDR’s 1937 Court-Packing Plan” know that it’s futile to argue with Bocephus about such matters. Hank Jr. did not directly compare Obama to Hitler; he merely said that the joint outing between the Speaker of the House and the President was like “Netanyahu playing golf with Hitler.” Then he added that “they’re the enemy.” When asked who, exactly, he shouted “Obama!” and then immediately endorsed Herman Cain. It makes sense that Hank Williams, Jr. is a Republican. His dad did make him a millionaire. Video after the jump.

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Friday links! Life of the mind edition

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links, Uncategorized 8 Comments

I was maybe eleven years old when I first heard the phrase “life of the mind.” Up to that point I had been living the life of the sweatpants, so the possibility of doing all the same things I had been doing—Dungeons & Dragons, Isaac Asimov novels in which one of a roomful of robots has committed a crime, math—but with the imprimatur of stately pursuit seemed hugely appealing. At school, I calmly announced that I would be living the life of the mind from there on out. Obviously, that would exempt me from life-of-the-school activities like hitting, although I recognized that it also would require certain sacrifices, like never overcoming my fear of talking to girls. Twenty-three years later, the life of the mind is going strong: strangers still express an inordinate desire to hit me/continue to not meet me, depending on gender, and I know more about robots than anyone except people who have actually worked with them. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it. This week’s link roundup is about those intellectual pursuits that make even my life worth living: history, books, awful movies about books, and awful people who wrote plays, which are like movies that have been ruined by books. Won’t you live the life of the mind with me? Or at least keep an eye peeled for jocks while I do?

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Friday links! Ineffability of culture edition

By Dan Brooks in Uncategorized 1 Comment

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4

Behold Nyan Cat, a cat that is also a pop tart flying through space! This video has 35 million views. The ten-hour version has three million views. Nyan Cat is a goddamn cultural epiphenomenon, and I dare you to explain why. As a person who A) thinks Nyan Cat is wonderful and B) loves to analyze created works, I have to admit that here is a place where human reason has no compass. You cannot dissect Nyan Cat and use what you learn of its parts to make something else culturally successful. Sure, broad conclusions can be drawn—the internet likes cats, the song is catchy, rainbows are funny when they come out of animals anuses. But it is impossible, having seen Nyan Cat, to make something that works like Nyan Cat but is different. Its Nyan-Catness slips through your fingers like a disassembled sand castle. American culture is ineffable, even as it appears to be completely effed, and there’s nothing for it but to sit back and let it erase your brain. Won’t you stare in dumb amazement with me?

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