David Foster Wallace wrote a long-winded review of a new Jorge Luis Borges biography in this Sunday’s New York Times Book Review. And it was filled with – what else? – copious, runny, unnecessary, pretentious footnotes! When was the last time the NYTBR published a book review with friggin’ footnotes in it?
Day: November 9, 2004
Denial
Sometimes I wonder who’s living in more of a state of denial, the right or the left. Just two examples from today’s Michigan Daily: One community activist is quoted thusly: “It’s very clear that the real public needs their voice heard. The Democrats do not represent the real people, nor do the Republicans.” Okay, so…
Threats and Jokes
So the backlash mounts in intensity: evangelical Christians in Westland (just 20 miles from Ann Arbor, as the crow flies, which says nothing, really, because evangelicals interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle in Concord said the exact same thing, basically, and Concord is 30 miles from downtown San Francisco) interviewed by the Detroit News saying…
Standards
On that same subject, I think the sudden popularity of old pop standards (as in recent albums by Michael McDonald, Rod Stewart, and even Queen Latifah) is an intriguing cultural happening. Why is it, for instance, that people are ready to accept Rod Stewart as an interpreter of Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hammerstein, but…
Winter on the Way
Supposed to go down to 22 degrees tonight … I definitely felt walking home tonight the fact that I hadn’t brought gloves or cap with me … it was a quiet, beautiful, starlit night, so still you could almost hear the stillness … winter’s coming.