Ordinary Sunday Brunch: Culture Quick Links
Ordinary Sunday Brunch
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgdbZhnFD5g&w=560&h=315]
Music Links
[Mu1] How British/European “library music” was never supposed to be released commercially, and made it the perfect backbone for American hip-hop sampling. “‘The Champ’, which has gone on to be one of the most sampled tracks in hip-hop history (whosampled.com lists 661 uses, from Afrika Bambaataa in hip-hop’s earliest days, to Frank Ocean and Nicki Minaj today).“I can never understand why anyone goes ape about three organ notes I play in ‘The Champ’,” he says.”
“They’re the right three notes, Alan,” Bennett replies, gently.
[Mu2] Rare bipartisanship in DC, but it was achieved over the much discussed Music Modernization Act; ““For the modern U.S. Senate to unanimously pass a 185-page bill is a herculean feat, only achievable because of the grit, determination and mobilization of thousands of music creators across the nation. The result is a bill that moves us toward a modern music licensing landscape better founded on fair market rates and fair pay for all.”
[Mu3] Discover New Talent At Umbria Jazz, One Of Italy’s Top Music Festivals
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L098wh3Os28&w=560&h=315]
Art Links
[Ar1] Fine art is having a good run lately in pop culture.
[Ar2] “This arrestingly unequal pattern of global income distribution has become known, famously (at least to economists), as the elephant graph. What does this have to do with the art market? Well, pretty much everything.”
[Ar3] The Art of Puzzle-Making
History Links
[Hi1] Galileo had evidence suggesting that Earth orbits the sun (not the other way around), but he also knew it was a dangerous claim.
[Hi2] How to write a story intro; “The oldest known animal in history has been discovered thanks to some well-preserved animal fat that’s been sitting in northwest Russia for the past 558 million years.”
[Hi3] “Their mother consented and the sisters’ agreed to join. ‘Only later did he tell us what we’d actually have to do: sabotage bridges and railway lines,’ Truus told Jonker. ‘And learn to shoot, to shoot Nazis,’ he added. ‘I remember my sister saying: ‘Well, that’s something I’ve never done before!’
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IJzYAda1wA&w=560&h=315]
Food Links
[Fo1] About time: a concerted effort to fix hospital food into something edible.
[Fo2] KFC sells some really cool stuff; just not in the USA.
[Fo3] It Will Soon Be Legal to Sell Home-Cooked Food in California: The Homemade Food Operations Act launches a permitting system regulated by California counties on January 1.
Sports Links
[Sp1] “Nike shares have surged 36 percent on the year, making the company the top performer on the Dow’s index of 30 blue-chip stocks. The run-up includes a nearly 5 percent increase since Nike’s Labor Day announcement that Kaepernick would be featured in its campaign, adding nearly $6 billion to the company’s market value.”
[Sp2] Sam has been on the MSU scandal, but this columnist points out the Big Ten has more than one problem right now.
[Sp3] Show Me The Money: Sports Betting Off And Running.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ActoDrxhl1E&w=560&h=315]
F2: Americans who travel know that fast food and snack food tends to be a lot more adventurous outside the United States.Report
Ar1: Links to a story about an Umbrian jazz festival. Andrew pulled a Will.
F2: What Lee said. They seem to be catering to local tastes. How are unique and creative ice cream flavors doing outside of major cities with substantial hipster-foodie-bougie combinations. Green Tea is old hat for places like SF, Portland, and NYC. Salt and Straw has a Matcha and Black Raspberry ice cream that I like a lot. But do the unique ice cream places exist outside of college towns and major cities?
Pitchfork gives us their take on the top 200 albums of the 1980s:
https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-200-best-albums-of-the-1980s/
I always think these lists are interesting for what they say about the people who make them rather than what people listened to in the 1980s. In this case, I’m guessing the compiler are mainly hipster-indie types in their 20s and 30s. Maybe some get up their early 40s. I love New Order but my understanding is that they were not that big outside of the UK in 1980s except in certain college markets and/or the rare city with a Modern rock radio station like KROQ in LA or WLIR/WDRE on Long Island. They seem to be getting a lot of revisionism by the cool kids. There are the proto-indie rockers and hardcore acts which would be typical of the hipster set like the Pixies, Sonic Youth, the Smiths, Husker Du, Talking Heads, R.E.M., Galaxie 500 (never heard of them before but you could tell me that they were from Brooklyn crica 2010 and I would think it plausible), Big Black. 40-50 percent of the list appears to be hip-hop from the super famous (Salt n’ Peppa, De La Soul, N.W.A.) to a lot of really obscure stuff that I’ve never heard of before. There are the really big and obvious 80s stuff from Michael Jackson, Prince, Guns n’ Roses (Appetite for Destruction seems to be included because it is ur 80s hair metal band and the copy reads as such), Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston. There is even some World Music. No country though, not even Bonnie Raitt.Report
I might have skimmed too fast but I did not see any Suzanne Vega or Traci Chapman. This might be mistaking popular/iconic for best but I think of Tom’s Diner and Fast Car to be too of the ur songs of 80s folk rock and leading the way for Ani DiFranco, Dar Williams, etc. Then again I went to a college in the later 1990s and early aughts where it seemed mandatory for nearly every woman to listen to Ani DiFranco and Dar Williams. Dar Williams played my freshman year.Report
This goes into Elijah Wald’s argument that most histories of popular music are really what the critics believe are important rather than what most people actually listened to. Elijah Wald takes the statement “a million Connie Frances fans can’t be wrong” seriously. Popular music writing should try to grapple with what the masses listened to.Report
I’m pretty sure that a million Connie Francis fans can be wrong.Report
The list is definitely a critic’s list but with enough genuinely popular music on it to counter the argument it is a critic’s list.Report
Link fixed, thank you Saul. Report
Fo3: Good. I appreciate the need for regulation in the name of food safety, but when the regulations basically become protections for restaurants and caterers, it stops being justifiable.Report