Delicious, Bring More

Here goes for momentous first post...

Points of interest of the last week, listed in no particular order

MUSIC
AC - Merriweather Post Pavilion: EVER HEARD OF IT. I'm not yet convinced that this is one of the best albums of the decade, as some reviews have called it (this fact has piqued my interest in whether it is even justly possible to call any piece of art "classic" without a proper historical context, both past and future (interesting connetion regarding this later). That being said, it sounds so far like it may well be my favorite AC album, and "Summertime Clothes" is a total jam.

Arthur Russell - Calling out of Context: I only heard of this dude because Jens Lekman loves him. Apparently, he was a major disco producer/amazing cellist/avant-garde musician. This album is pretty neat, with lots of drum machine complemented by his beautiful vocals. I don't know how I would classify it. It isn't disco or anything, although I think the album gives you a sense that he could be involved in that scene. Any term I give it will probably be hideously artificial and, moreover, lame/elitist-sounding (i.e., I was thinking of saying avant-pop), but I'll just leave it with it is nice to listen to and certainly deserving of your time.

The Presets - Beams: They're on the Modular label (aka, Muscles' label), and that was enough to convince me to get it. I can't for the life of me tell who they remind me of, but they're pretty rad. The songs are kind of hit or miss, but a few are killer. Dance music with heavy bass and effected vocals...oh efff...I just realized that I think it is the Killers that they remind me of (sick!!!) because of the way he sings and the effect they use is very similar to the one used on the Killers' first album. The music itself is more house-based than the Killers (at least it better be because I've got to try convince my hipster self that liking the Presets is still OK), with no guitar and just heavy bass, drums and synth.

BOOKS
David Foster Wallace - Consider the Lobster: This is a collection of some essays that he did, and they are universally rad. He has a way of writing about seemingly anything that is incredibly intelligent yet accesible and all the while he never comes off as pretentious in the least. This is particularly evident (considering the amount of subtlety required to pull off said trick) in one piece that he wrote about the war over usage and grammer in the English language (which was seriously fascinating). I just started one essay about an English professor who was writing a multi-volume series about Dostoevsky and his works. More to the point, this professor was attempting to demonstrate that to fully appreciate his works, one has to understand the socio-historical context they were written in and how they both reflect and comment upon this context. This is what I was getting at with the point about AC. More specifically, I feel like a classic album must exert significant influence among future artists, and, obviously then, any such designations cannot be honestly made without the benefit of time's revelations.

Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian: This book is about 10 times as BA as No Country for Old Men. Need I say more. And if you are still unconvinced (i.e., aren't a dude), he is an incredibly stylish and brilliant writer, and the way he tells the story is as good as the story (which involves a kid who travels to Mexico and becomes part of a group ruthless mercenaries that kill Indians to get the bounty money for their scalps). Semi-relatedly, I love in No Country the movie when Llewelyn (sp???) asks re: Shigur (see previous parenthesis), "Is this guy supposed to be the ultimate bad ass or something?" Wouldn't that be the coolest title to have, every? Seriously.

TV

America's Best Dance Crew: At least two reasons why this rules. 1) What they do is so beyond my comprehension of Things that are Possible for Me to Do Ever (esp. Ringmaster, much respect). 2) The judging is great and usually hilarious, and I especially love JC because rather than spouting off random bull (like Lil Mama and whatever the other dude's name is) he actually has meaningful, pointed criticism. Also, Fly Chicks need to lose. Last time I checked, the show is not called America's Best Ass Shakers (HATE HATE HATE).