SOUNDTRACK: Random songs at the roller rink (December 29, 2013)
We went rollerskating on Sunday and they played all kinds of pop hits. They played “Dancing Queen” and “YMCA,” sure, but they also played a lot of recent big hits. And I said to myself either I have grown more tolerant of pop songs or pop songs are simply better than they were in the 80s and 90s.
Because I thoroughly enjoyed hearing “Gangnam Style” (perhaps a pop song where you don’t know the words is really the way to go) and “What Does the Fox Say?” (or perhaps when the words are so preposterous). “Blurred Lines” is incredibly catchy (although it would be better without the offensive lyrics). I also enjoyed “Call Me Maybe” which is treacly sure, but the melody is super catchy and “Rolling in the Deep” because Adele kicks ass.
Of course when I looked at the list of #1 hits for 2013, I literally didn’t know any of them (except “Blurred Lines” and “Royals,”) so maybe pop is not what I think it is. Maybe I just like YouTube sensations.
Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding! Happy New Year.
[READ: December 27, 2013] Five Dials #30
I was surprised to get this issue of Five Dials just as I was reading the other recent ones. It allowed me to finish up Five Dials and the year at around the same time. This issue introduces a new graphics editor: Antonio de Luca and he really changes the look of the magazine. (He also used to work for The Walrus). Rather than pictures being centered in the page, they spread from one page to another (which works well online but less so if you print it out). The illustrations are also much bolder.
This is a short issue (which I appreciated). And it does what I especially like about Five Dials–focusing tightly on one thing, in this case Albert Camus, who I like but who I have not read much. It’s his centenary and many things have been said about him, so what else is there to say? They find two things worth saying.
CRAIG TAYLOR-A Letter from the Editor: On Tony, On Dean, On Camus, On Algiers
Taylor talks about the illustrations of the issue–they were spray painted on walls by an Algerian-French collective known as the Zoo Project. The new editor took photos and then Photoshopped away the extraneous stuff to leave us with just the graphics–giving them a permanence that they would normally not have. Taylor also says goodbye to Dean Allen, the outgoing art director. Then he gets to the heart of this issue: Albert Camus and Algiers (where Camus is from). Curtis Gillespie decided to go to Algiers to find out how much the people there know and love Camus (and he found it to be a much more difficult trip than he imagined). (more…)
I Just Read About That... 