Stuff I read whilst not posting

Here are some quotes from my journeys around Blogistan whilst following my strict regimen of not posting. These are partial quotes; to get the context, you gotta click through. Which you should. Because to my immense consternation, Blogistan didn't grind to a major halt in my absence. Betrayer most foul, says I!

Er, the quotes...

Alex Ross on Film Music:

The my-time-will-come mindset was especially widespread in the twentieth century, with composers believing that if they invented a new sound or came up with a "big idea" they would win their place in history. The result was a great deal of superficially difficult, emotionally disposable music, whose ultimate historical value is now very much in question. By contrast, it seems certain that in a hundred years people will still be talking about Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo, Goldsmith's Chinatown, Raksin's Laura. They have gone down in history, because they found a way to make their music matter.

Greg Sandow on problems facing classical music:

Why doesn’t classical music get closer to pop?

Yes, some pop is cheap and commercial. But some of it is deeply serious.

And if we don’t understand that, we don’t understand the modern world, and we especially don’t understand the new audience we’re trying to attract. Smart, serious, educated younger people listen to serious pop, and we won’t impress them if we insist we’re the only artistic music around.

Lynn Sislo on fashion:

First of all, why does everyone always pick on the 70's? How were the 70's any worse than the 60's or the 80's? What did people wear in the 80's anyway? I can't remember. Starting around that time, fashion, for me, became nothing but one long, undifferentiated blur of empty trendiness. The latest fashions are always tasteless. The very idea of fashion is tasteless, not to mention, slightly creepy.

Michael Lopez on Wal-Mart:

I boycott Wal-Mart, too. I boycott Wal-Mart because it doesn't represent what is good in America. It represents what is expedient in America. Messy shelves strewn with boxes and bins of cheap trinkets for the purchase at basement prices. Employees who are given a bare subsistence wage and kept just under the legal limits for the provision of benefits. I boycott Wal-Mart because I distrust centralized power, and I don't want to see anyone ultimately win the great economic competition.

(And follow Michael's links to earlier posts in which his co-bloggers had a lively debate about Wal-Mart.)

Bill Altreuter on participating in a mass-nude photograph in Buffalo:

If we were all naked all the time we would all have better posture. If we were all naked all the time, we would all feel more beautiful, I think. Everyone in there looked great.

Kevin Drum on the Swift Boat Veterans:

They were either lying then [when many of them praised John Kerry in years past] or they're lying now [when they've suddenly all recovered their suppressed memories and attacked Kerry]. Take your pick.

Yup.