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Intellectual House o' Pancakes Webdiary

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2005-05-18 - 9:41 a.m.

Tomorrow is May 19, the day where I will not be able to stop singing, "May nineteeeen," to the tune of "Hey 19." Yes, it's just annoying as it sounds.


Kids of today: please. Use plural nouns when naming your bands. We were on a roll there with the Strokes and the Hives and the Killers--what happened? Now we've got the Bravery and the Rapture and the Hold Steady, and my latest find, The National.

However, all is forgiven, because the National--from Ohio but living now in god's own borough, Brooklyn--are swell. The lead singer can really sing, and he sings like a man, not a callow youth. The music is exciting and the lyrics are reflective (though a bit on the down side) and the band play well and aren't a bunch of pretty boys.

Apparently, Alligator (which streams at the above link) is their fourth album--now I need to go back and hear the others.


Meanwhile, memoir madness continues, with Peter Carey's Wrong About Japan, a warm and bemused account of the author's travels in Tokyo with his teenage son, on a mission to absorb the culture that produces his son's obsessions: manga and anime.

So far, so good. I expect we will learn some stuff about modern Japanese culture and perhaps be treated to some insights about fathers and sons, although it's a slim volume, so there may not be room for that.

Anyway you slice it, my Netflix queue has been considerably lengthened just from reading the first half. Miyazaki, here I come.


It just occurred to me that I almost never write about books after I've read them, but during. I guess cuz that's when I'm most excited about them, and can accurately display my enthusiasm in the hopes that you'll like whatever I'm reading, too. So it's less a review and more a virtual conversation. And that, I believe, is the difference 'tween publishing and globbing. Globbing is a conversation, publishing is a stance.

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