Author: e.b. madsen
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Failed Academic
Whenever I meet someone and conversation reveals that I have a doctorate in music, the other person says: “Oh!” [Furrows brow.] “Are you… doing anything with that?” The other person asks this because I’m not doing anything with that. I mean, I am perpetually about to launch a band you will never hear about, but…
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Sportsball
I live in Philadelphia. I’m going to stop you right there with the fake condolences – we’re not just litigious police-horse-assailants! It’s kind of cool here! And if you don’t like it then you can die in a hole. Like I was saying: I live in Philadelphia. Because I live in Philadelphia, and also because…
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The Hottest Take: Avengers: Infinity War Is an Avant-Garde Masterpiece
By now, you’ve heard of Avengers: Infinity War, if you haven’t already seen it twice. The movie took the record for largest U.S. opening from The Force Awakens. It’s dominating the overseas game. It is, according to its makers, the most ambitious crossover event in history. It is a massive spectacle that cost about half…
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Both Yanny and Laurel are Right
Is it “Yanny” or “Laurel”? This question was pondered by Descartes. Thomas Paine wrote a stirring pamphlet about it. Foucault said that Yanny was exerting power over Laurel in their relationship. Now, Twitter is wailing in sackcloth and ash as it investigates something even more important than Hillary’s emails: Is the voice in this audio…
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Why’d you have to go and make things so complicated?
My girlfriend told me recently that she thinks I’m making up my taste in complicated music because I’m an elitist snob. This was disturbing to hear. I mean, I am definitely an elitist snob. But I didn’t want her to know that. I thought that my status as a Troubled Musician™ with Feelings® who makes…
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This is a Collage (and also America)
The internet hive mind has decided to go nuts over Childish Gambino’s new music video for his new single, “This is America.” TIME called a musicologist to talk it over. The Washington Post has ideas. The Canadians think the whole thing is just so impolite. YouTube channels are falling over themselves to demonstrate that they…