1. Another superb volley in David Brooks’ crusade for a more compassionate view of human fallibility appeared in The NY Times this week, “Who You Are,” in which he salutes Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman’s invaluable contribution to social psychology. Brooks goes so far as to call Kahneman and his research partner Amos Tversky, “the Lewis and Clark of the mind.” Kahneman’s new book, which sounds like it has Mockingbird written all over it (wouldn’t that be the day!), Thinking, Fast and Slow comes out on Tuesday. In the meantime, I defy you not to issue an ‘are you kidding…
Children / Literature / Music / Psychology / Relationships / Religion / Social Science / Week In Review
Another Week Ends: NeuroLewis and NeuroClark, Common Enemies, Absent Fathers, Zombie Fiction, Jarvis Cocker, Noel Gallagher, Sacred Facial Hair and Pixar
October Playlist
With a little help this time from SVC:
Total Serendipity – Mates of State- Sydney (I’ll Come Running) – Brett Dennen
- Avenging Annie – Andy Pratt
- Me and Bobby McGee – Willie Nelson
- Arms Like Boulders – The War on Drugs
- Nothing But Our Love – Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr
- That’s The Way Love Goes – Lindsey Buckingham
- Hero Takes a Fall – The Bangles
- When I Was a Boy – The Who
- I Can’t Explain – David Bowie
- If I Had a Gun… – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
- Sunshine – The Gun
- Give Peace a Chance – Louis Armstrong
- The Lord Will Make a Way – Al Green
- The Great Beyond – R.E.M.
- Hold on Hope – Glen Campbell
- Save Me Jesus – Bobby Charles
- Mockingbird Time – The Jayhawks
September Playlist
Big Sky – The Kinks- Song of a Baker – Screaming Trees
- Back to the Lake – Guided By Voices
- Enjoy the Silence – Nada Surf
- You Were So Warm – The Dwight Twilley Band
- Warm Self Sacrifice – Emitt Rhodes
- Strangers Getting Stranger – Dawes
- Maidstone – Squeeze
- I’ll Cry Alone – The Flamin’ Groovies
- I Found a Reason [demo] – The Velvet Underground
- Black Star – Gillian Welch
- The Death of You and Me – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
- My Mistakes Were Made For You – The Last Shadow Puppets
- You Put Something Better Inside Me – Rod Stewart
- Heavy Church – Three Dog Night
- A Quick One, While He’s Away [live] – The Who
- The Postcard – Stephen Duffy
- Rainbow Connection – Willie Nelson
Noel Gallagher Brings it on Down to Pressure Pressure Pressure
Leave it to Noel Gallagher. The man is not only an open book, he’s an open page-turner. That is, interviews with the erstwhile Oasis songwriter are rarely boring – Noel was Russell Brand’s inspiration for the half-outrageous/half-outrageously wise Aldous Snow after all – and with his first solo album on the horizon, they’ve been easy to come by these past few weeks.
The first post-break-up album by a major talent is always a watershed, with all sorts of fascinating reactivity at work. It’s notoriously difficult to avoid the jumble of scrutiny and judgement: how will Noel’s record stack up against that…
The Death of You and Me – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
The video for the first single from Noel’s forthcoming solo record hit the web this morning. Great song, somewhat in the vein of “The Importance of Being Idle,” and surprisingly baptismal clip:
America / Bible / Film / Humor / Music / Psychology / Relationships / Religion / TV / Week In Review
Another Week Ends: Divorce Delusions, FNL, KJV, Natural Family Planning, Pastafarianism, Harry Potter and 30 Rock
1. New Mbird favorite Heather Havrilesky hit another home run in this past Sunday’s NY Times Magazine with her column “The Divorce Delusion,” in which she exposed the current sunny pop-climate about divorce for what it is, namely, delusional. Or at least very naive. She also took the opportunity to muse on the underlying narcissism:
The moral to this modern divorce story? If everyone involved doesn’t emerge stronger, happier and more productive, well, then, in the vague parlance of today’s progressive preschool, someone is making bad choices.
The notion that there’s some “right” choice for every life challenge fits neatly into the…
What Noel Gallagher Is Not Supposed To Feel
It’s high time we reappraised Oasis’ underrated fourth album, the hungover Standing on the Shoulder of Giants. When it was released, the expectations were astronomical – Oasis were still the biggest band in the (rest of the) world, albeit weighed down by/wrestling with the question of how to follow-up the relative “failure” of Be Here Now (it only sold eight million copies), a record which has rightly come to symbolize the utter hollowness of 90s Britpop hubris/excess. If you’re Noel Gallagher, you toss your brother a few swaggering anthems and spend the rest of the disc getting introspective.
There’s always been…
(Don’t) Take A Look At Me Now: Phil Collins Is Tired of Criticism
Poor Phil Collins appears to have been having a 2 Cor 3:6a moment in Rolling Stone, and it’s hard not to have compassion for (and maybe a little chuckle at) the guy, regardless of what you think of his music. He sounds like a defeated man, very much ready for 6b. Apparently Tyson’s drum solo in The Hangover did nothing to lift his spirits. And it’s really too bad they haven’t been able to get that Genesis reunion off the ground – it would go a long way in terms of restoring his cred. Not that fulfilling the Law of…
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