Hilary Clinton: Good Writer?

The New York Times has published pieces of personal correspondance between Hilary Clinton and one of her college friends. The sophistication and the intelligence behind them are both striking.

The Results Of The Social Sciences, In A Nutshell

That WSJ graph I linked to last time spurred some academic infighting with economists and sociologists comparing the relative sizes, and the scientific valdity, of their, uh, "departments." I'd link to that, except this parody of economics is much more interesting.

Laffter Curves

Think of the great cosmic questions whose answers continue to elude us: What's the deal with the cosmological constant? How do we deal with qualia? Where does language come from? Why is there something rather than nothing? What is consciousness? Why did evolutionary forces favor senescence? Are the laws of logic inviolable? Alongside these, few look more important by comparison, but there is at least one, both more puzzling and more pressing than any of them: How does the Wall Street Journal maintain such a great news section and such a terrible editorial page at the same time? Case in point.

Look, I'm not anti-economics by any means. I'm not anti-neoclassical economics. I am not a socialist. And I believe there's obviously some elasticity of income relative to tax rates, so the Laffer curve almost certainly exists somewhere and to some extent, but it ain't the curve on that graph, and the WSJ's assertion otherwise would be offensive if its mendacity wasn't so hilariously obvious. Like Sauron's ring, it wants to be found.

The White Stripes Go Bowling

Yes, I work there. No, I wasn't able to attend. I was out of town at the time, although I did attend the concert proper, which was fantastic. One of my coworkers got a bowling pin signed by Jack White, and I'm going to try to convince him to give it to me. Regardless, I did get one of the bowling balls he used.

At The Buddy Guy Concert

"Would you shut the fuck up. You ain't gonna learn shit if you don't let me talk." Buddy Guy said this to an obnoxious fan, although he was nice about it and he let the drunken lout stay. The crowd, also annoyed by the guy, responded with rapturous applause.

"He's as good as B.B. or Clapton." Fans sitting behind me said this at the show. Buddy Guy is a good guitarist, but he's not as good as B.B. King or Eric Clapton. Those two are in the top five of all time; Buddy, as great as he is, isn't. Still, it's a credit to his showmanship that he can conjure up this sort of hyperbole to the minds and in the mouths of his audience.

50,000 Songs Later II

According to last.fm, my most played song is Alejandro Escovedo's "Five Hearts Breaking." The live version on More Miles Than Money: Live 1994-1996 is the best I've heard. My second most played song, amusingly enough, is William Shatner's "Real." I tend to listen to entire albums rather than individual songs, so this list isn't as meaningful, but I thought those two songs were worth noting.

50,000 Songs Later

For almost three years now, last.fm has logged the music I've played on my computer and on my iPod. The website generates personalized charts, recommendations, and radio stations based on its users' listening habits. And like every other website these days, there are plenty of social networking features thrown in. Anyway, the number of tracks recorded on my profile just exceeded 50,000. So I thought it'd be a good time to take stock. Here are my top 15 artists:

Bob Dylan
Lucinda Williams
Townes Van Zandt
The White Stripes
Bruce Springsteen
Alejandro Escovedo
Rodney Crowell
Ryan Adams
Feist
Dwight Yoakam
Patty Griffin
The Hold Steady
Emmylou Harris
Guy Clark
Frank Zappa

Ryan Adams would be right near Lu Williams if you added all of his myriad incarnations together. I've no doubt that Albert King would be on the list if only I'd discovered him a year earlier. Lastly, while I listen to a lot of indie rock, the flavor-of-the-month aspect to it means that, with few exceptions, you don't see it show up anywhere near the top of the list.