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Archive for the ‘Dystopia’ Category

McSweeney’s #5 [Timothy McSweeney's Small Trembling Thing That You Hold in Your Hand and Pet Slowly with Your Dirty Fingers/Timothy McSweeney's Small Box Half-Full of Shiny Gems and Itching/Timothy McSweeney is Satring Like That, Why Does He Keep Staring?/Timothy McSweeney's Fervent Hop That ThingsBuild from Hereand Stay Good for You and Those You Love/Sometimes Not Believing How Great This All Is/Ted Koppel's Very Very Special Thing] (2000)

Posted in 6500, Alastair Reed, Ann Cummins, Ben Greenman, Ben Marcus, Bible, Bob Mould, Books about writers, Chad Willenborg, Colleen Werthmann, Consuetudinary, Consumerism, Courtney Eldridge, Daniel O'Mara, David Foster Wallace, Denis Johnson, Donald Barthelme, Dreams, Dystopia, Elizabeth Klemm, Essays, Flash Fiction, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Grant Hart, Husker Du, J. Robert Lennon, Jason Ockert, Joshua Bearman, Joshuah Bearman, Lawrence Weschler, Lydia Davis, Marcus Aurelius, Marie Curie, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Meta, Minnesota, Neurotics, Newsweek, Outer Space, Paul Collins, Paul Maliszewski, Rodney Rothman, Sarah Vowell, Sex & Violence, Short Story, Steven Barthelme, Susan Minot, Ted Koppel, The Day the Earth Stood Still, This American Life, Uganda, Unlikable main character, Unreliable narrator, Violence, Wikipedia, Work on July 1, 2009 | 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-Metal Circus EP (1983).
After the insane hardcore mess of Land Speed Record, this EP is a bit of a change.  It’s still pretty hardcore, but now you can tell that the noisiness of the guitar is deliberate.  Bob Mould is playing around with multiple layers of feedback and distortion to create a wall [...]

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 1] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Big Books, Boston, MA, Canadian Content, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Drugs, Dystopia, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Husker Du, Infinite Summer, Minnesota, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Suicide, Unreliable narrator on June 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-Land Speed Record (1982).
Mentioning Hüsker Dü during the Replacements reviews made me bust out their records too.  Land Speed Record was their first release, and it always amazed me that their first record was a live record.
It is an amazing blast of hardcore punk.
It is poorly recorded, stupidly fast and impossible to follow.  [...]

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Georgi Gospodinov–Natural Novel (2005)

Posted in Books about music, Dystopia, Foreign Books, Funny (strange), Georgi Gospodinov, Marriage Trouble, Meta, Minnesota, Natural Novel, Postmoderism, Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino, Replacements, Reservoir Dogs, Short Books, Toilets, Unreliable narrator on June 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK-THE REPLACEMENTS–All Shook Down (1990).
And here we come to the end of the recorded history of the Replacements.  7 albums (and an EP).  4 and a half hours of recorded music.  And a steady maturation from drunken punks to elder statesmen.  Or really statesman (Paul Westerberg at the ripe old age of 31!).   All of [...]

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McSweeney’s #31

Posted in Anachronisms, Biji, Bill Cotter, Books about writers, Charlie Chaplin, Consuetudinary, Corporate skewering, David Thomson, Death, Digression, Douglas Coupland, Duan Chengshi, Dystopia, End of the World, Ernest Hemingway, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), George Barr McCutcheon, Graustarkian Romance, History, James Hannaham, Jessica Anthony, John Brandon, John Cusack, Joy Williams, Legendary Saga, Mary Miller, McSweeney's, Meta, Miguel de Unamuno, Minnesota, Nicolas Chorier, Nivola, Oddities, Orson Wells, Pantoum, Plato, Poetry, Religion, Replacements, Say Anything, Senryū, Sex & Violence, Shelley Jackson, Short Story, Sight & Sound, Smarty Pants, Socratic Dialogue, Supernatural, Susan Sontag, Threats, Violence, Virginia Woolf, Virginity (Loss of), War, Whore Dialogue, Will Sheff on June 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Hootenanny (1983).
This is the second full length from The Replacements.  For a band that just released two punk albums (one’s an EP), naming your new one Hootenanny is pretty ballsy.  As is the fact that the first track sounds like, well, a hootenanny (even if it is making fun of hootenannies.)
However, the rest [...]

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My Great Depression: Ten dispatches from the near future (Harper’s, June 2009)

Posted in Anachronisms, Barack Obama, Ben Katchor, Ben Marcus, Colson Whitehead, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, David Rees, Dilbert, Dystopia, Family Circus, Garfield, Get Your War On, Harper's, Husker Du, Jamaica Kinkaid, Kevin Baker, Minnesota, Ruben Bolling, Sherman Alexie, Short Story, Simon Critchley, Technology, The Replacements, Thomas De Zengotita, Tom McCarthy, Tom the Dancing Bug on June 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash (1981).
Since I’ve been talking about The Replacements so much, it made me want to go back and listen to their stuff.  The Replacements are the quintessential band that “grew up” or “matured” and for better or worse sounds utterly different from their first album to [...]

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Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith–Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009)

Posted in 19th Century, Adventure, Art Brut, Dystopia, Funny (ha ha), Jane Austen, Marriage (Happy), Military, Neutral Milk Hotel, Portishead, R.E.M., Seth Grahame-Smith, Supernatural, The Core 90.3 FM (WVPH), The Decemberists, U2, Violence, WRSU 88.7 FM, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me, Zombies on May 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: The Core: WVPH, 90.3 FM.
The Core is also from Rutgers University.  How do they have two radio stations?  Interestingly, the station is shared with Piscataway High School.  For several hours a day Piscataway High School takes over the airwaves.  Although I admit that I have not listened to any of the PHS stuff because [...]

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Philip Roth–The Plot Against America (2004)

Posted in Dystopia, Free Speech, Nazis, Pearl Jam, Religion, Set in New Jersey!, South, Threats, Violence, War on May 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:  PEARL JAM-Live on Two Legs (1998).
This is the first official Pearl Jam live release.  It is compiled from a number of different concerts, yet it flows pretty seamlessly. It highlights how much faster many of the songs became during their live shows.  This increased their power almost uniformly.
This disc also works as, not really [...]

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Oisín McGann–Daylight Runner [Small Minded Giants] (2006)

Posted in Adventure, Dystopia, End of the World, Free Speech, Harry Potter, Irish Writer, Modest Mouse, Oisín McGann, Roddy Doyle, Sci-fi, Set at School, The Smiths, Threats, Violence, YA Books, Yuck! on April 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE SMITHS-The Queen Is Dead (1986).
Years ago, when I was a young metal head, my friend Garry expanded my musical palette by introducing me to a lot of college rock (or whatever it was called back then).  The album that had the most impact on me back then was this one, The Queen Is [...]

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Italo Calvino–”The Daughters of the Moon” (New Yorker, February 23, 2009)

Posted in Consumerism, Dystopia, End of the World, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Italo Calvino, Life, New Yorker, Outer Space, Short Story, Silver Mt. Zion, Supernatural on March 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THEE SILVER MT. ZION ORCHESTRA & TRA-LA-LA BAND-Thirteen Blues for Thirteen Moons (2008).
I’ve enjoyed most of the output by (A/Thee) Silver Mt. Zion (Orchestra (& Tra-La-La Band)) over the years.  So, I naturally picked up this one when it came out.  And I’m torn by the record.
This disc contains 4 lengthy tracks.  But unlike [...]

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Clifford Chase–Winkie (2006)

Posted in Adventure, Clifford Chase, Dystopia, Free Speech, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Futurama, Meta, Nirvana, Political Humor, Pregnancy, Prison, Racism, Religion, Replacements, Short Books, Soiled Underpants, Supernatural, The Flaming Lips, Threats, WMDs, War on January 14, 2009 | 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Oh My Gawd!!!..The Flaming Lips (1987).
The cover of this disc makes a statement.  And it should tell you everything you need to know about the music inside.  It’s got skulls and psychedelic colors and Oh My Gawd!!!  And yet, it doesn’t, exactly.  It’s not quite as out there as the cover might [...]

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