I’m not sure how I first learned about The Week. I think I received a trial issue in the mail. But after just one or two issues we were hooked. The Week is a comprehensive newsweekly, although it offers virtually no original reporting. It collates news stories and offers opinions from a variety of sources: newspapers, online magazines, political journals etc. And it provides opinions from across the political spectrum.
Each issue has the same set up (although they recently had an image makeover: a new cover design and some unexpected font changes in a few sections, which I suppose does lend to an easier read).
Each issue starts with The main stories… …and how they were covered. The first article is a look at whatever major story captivated the editorials that week. (The growing gloom in Afghanistan). And in a general sense of what you get for long articles (the long articles are about 3/4 of a page) You get WHAT HAPPENED, WHAT THE EDITORIALS SAID, and WHAT THE COLUMNISTS SAID. The What Happened section is a paragraph or two summary of the story. The editorials offer a one or two sentence summary from sources like USA Today, L.A. Times and The Financial Times, while The Columnists are from The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and Time.com, for example. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-SYR 7: J’accuse Ted Hughes/Agnès B Musique (2008).
It took me going to Seattle to learn about 
ten. For reasons known only to my head, I was convinced that Sasha was a black woman. Little did I realize that he is not. And that he was in a band that I have a CD of called Ui. He is an excellent resource for all things music, whether I like the artist he’s talking about or not. Some entries are 
SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-Washing Machine (1995).
After the short blasts and diverse collection fo songs on Experimental Jet Set Trash and No Star, Washing Machine sounds like almost a different band. For although there are a few shorter pieces here, they also give us the 9 minute title track and the, brace yourself, almost 20 minute “The Diamond Sea.”
SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-Bad Moon Rising (1985).
nother Sonic Youth record, another record label. Bad Moon Rising is a pretty big leap from Confusion is Sex, in that there are actual songs. Well, that’s not fair, what I mean is that the songs have structure like proper songs do. In fact, “Death Valley ’69” (with vocals by Lydia Lunch) is quite catchy!
SOUNDTRACK: MOXY FRÜVOUS-Thornhill (1999).
The final “proper” Moxy Früvous disc is something of a return to the days of Wood (see, the cover art isn’t silly at all, and it’s a photo not a drawing). It’s not as dire and claustrophobic as Wood but it also doesn’t really have too many silly moments.
SOUNDTRACK: The Core: WVPH, 90.3 FM.
SOUNDTRACK: MOGWAI-The Hawk is Howling (2008).
I’ve been a fan of Mogwai since I first heard of them back in 1997 with their Young Team debut. They have progressed their sonic explorations of instrumentals into unimagined complexity and sonic booms.
SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-In aPriest Driven Ambulance (1990).
This is where the Lips really hit their stride. While they are still experimenting with sonic noises, the dedication to songcraft takes precedence. It’s as if they wrote cool songs first and then fiddled with them, rather than using the fiddling as the main focus. The album is divided into two sides: Smile Side and Brain Side. Amusingly all songs are listed as being 3:26 long, and yet none of them actually are.
SOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS–Ding! Dong! Songs for Christmas Vol. III (2006).
Disc Three of the Sufjan Christmas collection is my favorite. It returns to the more mellow, folksy style of the first disc (and is replete with banjo!). It opens with some thing of a reprise of “O Come, O Come Emanuel” (only a minute long). It’s piano and vocals and very pretty. It proceeds to his boppingest, Christmas song on the whole set: “Come on, Let’s Boogey to the Elf Dance” with multiple singers and lots of instruments (and a fugue pattern of voices, too). It continues with two traditional songs: “We Three Kings” (possibly the best version I heard all season) and “O Holy Night.” I’ve mentioned that “O Holy Night is one of my favorite Christmas songs, and this version is quite good, with lovely harmonies (from different people listed although, no one credited specifically for the track) and the way it builds to such a full song by the end.
I Just Read About That... 