Sunday, December 13, 2009

Playlist for a Legal Interpretation Take-Home Exam

1. One Reason - The Hospital

2. Chixdiggit - Summer Please
3. Smoking Popes - No More Smiles
4. Off With Their Heads - Die Today
5. Ann Beretta - Not Invited
6. Eef Barzalay - Could Be Worse
7. The Hi-Fives - Transistor Sister
8. The Ergs - Ben Kweller
9. Good Luck - 1000 Open Hands
10. Superchunk - Learned to Surf
11. The Lawrence Arms - The Slowest Drink at the Saddest Bar on the Snowiest Day in the Greatest City

Absolutely perfect compliment to arguing that Ronald Dworkin's views on constitutional interpretation in Freedom's Law are not entirely consistent with his general theory of interpretation in Law's Empire.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

R Kelly

So, let's recall that Ignition (Remix) is among the best four or five things in the history of Western Civilization. And we should include Trapped in the Closet on any list that deals with weird and awesome and completely outside-the-box artistic endeavors. And then that song Real Talk is, well, I'll just say it's something else.


But now he comes out with Pregnant. And, yikes. I think we can go ahead and give him whatever it is you get when you become the most interesting R & B artist of all time.

A lot of people are going to try to say that he's crazy or stupid or completely out of touch, but know better. Kels is completely self-aware and the only people who claim otherwise are utterly unfamiliar with his work. If you've been paying attention, you know that for R. Kelly, being real and being goofy aren't mutually exclusive, and there's nothing wrong with R&B being fun and over-the-top.

Pre-Christmas Update

After a two year absence, in which I wrote two issues of a quarterly print zine (you can try to do the math, but you won't come away with anything coherent unless you also take into consideration that I've been doing this other project called "law school," and it's taken a fair bit of my time over the past two years) about music and other things, and I still find print to be a vastly superior format to blogging, not least among the reasons being that the term "blogging" leads me down the dark path to dystopian hate for an echo chamber of . And print keeps me honest. And allows me to say and do things that blogging could sit around being jealous of.


But, technology being the easy, convenient thing that it is, I figure I'll at least supplement the zine (which by the way is called Coins! and you can get yourself a copy if you email coinsquarterly at gmail dot com) with random and passing thoughts on music that aren't permanent enough for print, thoughts like, "man that new John K. Samson solo seven inch is great, and the first song sounds like the sequel to One Great City."

So to recap:
1. I'm back on the blog because fuck you, you know?
2. Still doing the zine, although this semester has been incredibly busy, but that ain't nothing because I take the bar next summer.
3. Email me if you want a copy of Coins! Two issues are out, and a third is nearly complete and will hopefully be out by Christmas.
4. John K. Samson's solo record is great. Seriously.
5. The Lawrence Arms seven inch, which is called Buttsweat and Tears, is much better than the unfortunate title would suggest.
6. Barring a fourth quarter miracle, Dear Landlord's "Dream Homes" is my favorite record of the year.
5. Half the stuff in the recap was actually new information not found in the pre-recap text. Precap?