stuff

My life’s been busier than usual the past few months. First, since the beginning of March I’ve been in down at Rogers HQ in Toronto working as an editor at Canadian Business. It’s a pretty big change from daily print journalism and I’m still finding my way around the parking lot, but I’m excited about it. Two long-time Maclean’s folks are running the place, Steve Maich is the editor, and Lianne George is the deputy editor. If you like Maclean’s, you’re going to like CB. We have a great slate of writers over here and we’re going to be doing lots of fun and interesting stuff.

A few weeks ago, Tyler Cowen challenged bloggers to list the books that have influenced them the most. It’s become a hot little blogospheric meme, but like a few others, I’m skeptical of these sorts of exercises as true measures of intellectual influence. One reason is that, like one theory of quantum mechanics I remember reading about once, the very act of consciously trying to make the list has a distorting effect. There’s also a lot of post-facto rationalization going on, interpreting past reading interests in light of current beliefs and dispositions.

1. Elizabeth Kolbert trashes Superfreakonomics:
To be skeptical of climate models and credulous about things like carbon-eating trees and cloudmaking machinery and hoses that shoot sulfur into the sky is to replace a faith in science with a belief in science fiction
2. Tracey Emin can’t figure out why she isn’t more popular in America:
She has produced works and shows titled “The Tracey Files,” “The Tracey Emin Museum” and “CV,” which stands for two words — the second of them is “vernacular” and the first is unprintable. She has made hundreds of nude self-portraits, including “I’ve Got It All,” a photograph in which her loins are obscured only by piles of money, which she is either giving birth to or forcing inside her vagina.
3. Putin gives advice to Russian hip-hoppers:
“I do not think that ‘top-rock’ or ‘down-rock’ breakdance technique is compatible with alcohol or drugs,” Putin told cheering hip-hoppers who responded with chants of “Respect, Vladimir Vladimirovich”.
4. Jim Carrey’s website will blow your mind (Via AnimalNewYork)

(Seriously, spend a half hour with it. Easter eggs wrapped in easter eggs.)

 

1. The end of Hipsterdom: An Ontario-themed bar in Williamsburg

1. David Eaves chipping in on the debate between Lawrence Martin and Alison Loat over our apathetic youth.

1. I’ve been listening to Dave Bidini’s new album The Land is Wild, from his new band called, er, Bidiniband.  The songs revolve around familiar themes — rock music, hockey, wild animals, Canada — and the musicians he’s put together are great. I remember hearing some of these tunes the last few times I saw the Rheostatics in 2004/05 (We Like to Rock, The Land is Wild, Pornography), and they’re the best songs on the album. The chorus on The Land is Wild, in particular, is gorgeous.  If you like Dave’s Rheostatics songs, then you’ll like these ones, although I find it a bit hard to listen to Dave’s reedy singing voice for a whole album (BTW, how’s that Tielli subscription series coming, Six Shooter?). What strikes me most is how much more it sounds like a Rheostatics album than either Tim or Martin’s solo albums do, which indicates how much the Rheostatics was Dave’s band in the end.

William Watson had a good column today