watching civilisation crumble

Waiter Rant: The Stink
When I first heard about the smell which has been permeating New York, I knew it had to be a local factory, because Edinburgh also has similar issues, or at least it did when I visited. There it's the process from the whiskey local distillery and though I can imagine it must irritate if you have to live with it all of the time, as a tourist it was just another element which made that an unforgettable week.

Grooveshark: Listen to Free Music
I was really interested in this until I read the first paragraph of their 'About Us' page: "Music compels all of us--individually, in our own way. It fills our moments, our cars, our movies, and our thoughts. Grooveshark started with one question: how could we be enriched by changing the way we find and listen to music?" For some reason, on reading that, I thought of Simon Bates, the Our Tune music, and the next paragraph beginning: "Then Spotify entered our lives..."

Librarian quarantines books
It's like we're watching civilisation crumble in slow motion.

Carmina Burana: alternative lyrics
"Old Spice ... for old aged pensioners..."

Where have all the good women gone?
Useful analysis of what's gone wrong with the portrayal of women in romantic comedy. Best bit: when Kira shows When Harry Met Sally to a youngling (who wasn't even born when it was released, ouch) and she gets it; that film works because we're presented with two characters as complex as you might find in a drama within the context of a rom-com. That doesn't happen any more, everything is in broad stokes, which is why that genre seems so inferior these days. Proof that films were better in t'olden days.

The Guardian: 1000 novels everyone must read: Readers recommend
When The Guardian's original list was published, I was deeply unimpressed to see that it included precisely nothing from shared universes or tie-in fiction, considering how important they are to the genre. These reader suggestions do nothing to redress the balance. These books are not without literary value and deserve to be highlighted in a wider arena. How about it?

1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die
What looks like the full text of the book available online. All musical life is here. Currently listening to "The Best of the Classic Years" by King Sunny Ade which has a rich acoustic sound.

The Best of LIFE: Married actors Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth pretending to...
You'll just have to click and find out. But it's not something you see every day.

Five barriers to journalists using Twitter
Not that relevant to me (yet!) but I do know that most of my favourite journalists use Twitter (now!) which must mean something...