Tim Wu, via Slate, on why China has been getting so much embarrassing press during the Olympics, even though they’re trying so hard to be good hosts: China’s idea of what makes for a better Olympics for foreign consumption—tightened security and cleaning up marginal elements—is exactly what makes Western reporters crazy…you want to clean things (More…)
Posts tagged 'culture'
Feb 4, 2009
On Plagiarism
Whatever charge of tastelessness or trademark violation may be attached to the artistic appropriation of the media environment in which we swim, the alternative—to flinch, or tiptoe away into some ivory tower of irrelevance—is far worse. We’re surrounded by signs; our imperative is to ignore none of them. [The ecstasy of influence: A plagiarism by (More…)
Nov 28, 2008
Deconstructionist Economics
The New Yorker has a recent writeup on the financial crisis titled “Melting Into Air” with the tagline “Before the financial system went bust, it went postmodern.” The article draws a surprising (and possibly slightly facetious) parallel between “derivatives,” a type of financial product whose value is “derived” from another transaction of an actual product, (More…)
Oct 15, 2008
Synecdoche, New York
On Sunday I went to an advance screening of Charlie Kaufman’s new movie, Synecdoche, New York (trailer here), in Harvard Square. Wow! Advance screening, you say! How many hipster points is that? I don’t know. Elsa will have to claim them, because I didn’t realize that this movie existed or that it was showing here (More…)
Aug 31, 2008
Three Links About Starcraft
1. A writeup about Starcraft and the community portal SC2GG.com in Escapist Magazine, a gaming/digital culture e-publication. The author identifies himself as an English-speaking, American-born Chinese “artist’s soul living in an engineer’s mind.” Which probably explains why his article seems to accomplish what I tried to do earlier on this blog. At one point, the (More…)