Blogs I'd Like To See #3

[thomascolthurst]

 Highbrow/lowbrow.  As the name suggests, the posts on this blog would strictly alternate between high and low culture.  Example sequence:

• John Adams is a modern day Bernstein, an ultimately minor composer wildly overrated simply by virtue of being the best among Americans. Besides On the Transmigration of Souls, what works of his will be listened to fifty years hence?  And don't say Nixon in China -- Donal Henahan got it right when he reviewed that work, saying "Mr. Adams does for the arpeggio what McDonald's did for the hamburger."
• Sometimes after a good #2, I like to sing, "Poop!  There it is!  Poop!  There it is!"
• When one thinks of Susan Sontag, "philistine" is perhaps the last word that comes to mind, but consider this:  when she and Black Swan author Nassim Taleb met at a BBC studio, Sontag initially was interested in talking to Taleb up to the moment she discovered that he worked as a market trader, at which point Taleb reports that "She turned her back to me as I was in mid-sentence."  It is hard to reconcile that sort of close-mindedness with the roving intellect behind Against Interpretation, but I suppose we all contain multitudes.
• [embedded youtube video showing a toddler pushing over two cats]

Comments

[megmuck.livejournal.com]

But does the toddler sing "Poop, there it is?"

And is the post about Susan Sontag really highbrow, or does it merely refer to highbrow celebrities? Highbrow, lowbrow, celebrity gossip might be a nice combo.

[(Anonymous)]

1) No.

2) It is a fair point. I guess I take the view that "highbrow" refers both to things that are intrinsically highbrow, and to things that are associatively highbrow, such as gossip about highbrow celebrities. For example, I think of Plutarch's Lives as decently highbrow, and an awful lot of that is "charming anecdote and incidental triviality", as Wikipedia so nicely puts it.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I listen to "The Chairman Dances" over and over again, because it fills me with wonder. So there, Mr. Poop Thereitis.

Also, Taleb is just a little overrated himself, don't you think? HMMMM?

[thomascolthurst.livejournal.com]

I should come clean: the opinions expressed in the Highbrow/Lowbrow example posts are not my own. It is just that when I tried to think of something quintessentially highbrow, taking John Adams down a peg is what popped out.

In truth, I'm not really a fan of classical music of any sort, and have no view on John Adams other than that his music in Civ 4 is harmless enough.

Re: Taleb, it really depends on which reference class of raters we are considering. IMHO, Taleb is underrated by professional economists, almost all of whom think he is a buffoon. On the other hand, he is monstrously overrated by himself -- the fact that he gets along with Mandelbrot speaks volumes in that regard.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Ah, but how does he get along with Wolfram?