A politician I could get behind

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/26/world/europe/26iceland.html?src=tptw

I just wish coalitions would be formed on whether their members had seen all five seasons of 'The Wire'. I would also want the Prime Minister to prove he had a Bunkenian philosophy.

Paul McCartney - C-Moon

Brilliant song.
Almost makes me like Paul McCartney.

McChrystal

I've been especially interested in the blow-out from the McChrystal/Rolling Stone brouhaha and I am especially interested to see how much quality analysis as well as sober navel-gazing it has generated from the press. This particular David Brooks article is a great case in point, but there have been many others that I shared through my reader feed (another is the great Ezra Klein collumn on the greatness of the military as an institution).

My take on the whole situation is that it was a mistake by McChrystal, and added to his past transgressions (London speech et al), Obama had no other choice, and I thought handled it very well. His closing sentiments were again testament to his wonderful oratory and Petraeus was an inspired choice.

However, it highlights one thing in modern political discourse (or in discourse in general) - this monumental fuck-up generated some of the most sensible, moderate, balanced analysis of anything on the modern world. Even people who I would have thought usually would have taken the opportunity to score political points, rallied around the issue and produced some thoughtful contributions to the collection of modern thought.

I don't want us to be hippies and all get along, but it makes for quality reading when hyperbole isn't a default option.

Song 14

Great song, I just wish I found a slightly better video to this.

Song 13

Love this song.

Grizz-nix

This is a brilliant little idea, and strangely does seem to work amazingly well...

http://wearephoenix.com/grizzly_bear_remix/

Song 12

Wax Tailor feat. Charlie Winston " I Own You" from SoLab on Vimeo.

I really like this director. The singer looks like a twat. I thought hats were out?

Song 11

Ok, so sometimes, you come across something visually arresting, usually from some director that's kind of known for being a little bit out-of-left-field, and you just think: "Why could you not use those production values on something that doesn't scream 'I'm so out of left-field and visually arresting!' but rather uses a more intelligent and less obvious way to explore emotions so visceral?" And then you realise it's because no idiot on the web is going to put it up on his insignificant little blog unless the material is both 'WTF' and 'NSFW' and he can claim some clever insight into works of art and culture.

Not one for family-viewing, I'll warn you.

HEALTH "We are Water" from Eric Wareheim on Vimeo.

Oh how I used to love maths

For precisely these reasons:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/take-it-to-the-limit/?src=me&ref=homepage

The problem is with age, is that you completely forget the things that you used to find exciting and fascinating when you were younger, because you just assume that you know them. And even if you now have an imperfect knowledge of them, you just assume that it is because you can't really remember them properly. But because it seems like a step backwards to go and relearn them again, you're happy with your imperfect memory of them, mainly because the bulk of your learning is set, your philosophies and priorities are somehow set, and you don't really want to go back and rethink everything. Mainly because it's a massive drag and has no practical application to your life - just as you expected most of school was when you were there.
I don't think I really miss those days when I was young and ignorant of learning, I just wish that I wasn't constantly reminded of how in the world I have no complete knowledge of, and especially how it's a constant Sisyphean task trying to know everything about the world. Even if most of that knowledge may be abstract and wholly impractical, it's real in some way, and it's a shame that with every avenue I venture through and recognise, there is a new, wider avenue that opens up at its end.
I remember once being told that Beethoven, on his deathbed, said something in the sense of the fact that he feels as only he has only begun to understand the world and there is still so much he hasn't yet mastered. And then there are the rest of us, who have to live in the knowledge that if Ludwig so moaned, we really aren't trying hard enough or seem to be content with too little.

Song 10

Note: Never get the singer to direct the video.
Great song though.


Beach House "Silver Soul" from Sub Pop Records on Vimeo.