• nonstalgia

    'NYT' Writer Bemoans Technology, Longs for Scummy Old New York

    Oh nuts. Technology is ruining NYC. You see, according to the Sunday Times, no one will get lost in the city and discover awesome new "foreign" neighborhoods by accident anymore because kids have GPS on their cellphones and cabs have interactive touch-screens and the magic is gone, and that is really, really meaningful... For instance, never again will you get some of this crazy only-in-New-York-ness: "You go for a few blocks, unsure, your senses on the alert. In this fog of momentary disorientation, you are nonetheless aware of various clues: a whiff of halal spices, both foreign and familiar; a heated conversation in Polish in your left ear; a taxi driver cursing in Caribbean Spanish in your right." Wait. We'll all speak one language? It's Babylon! God will smite us! More »
    10/04/08
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    Comment by lionel-mandrake: I haven't gotten lost in New York, in oh...ever. It's a grid, you can't get lost. 10 Responses | Other threads

  • nonstalgia

    Guide to Recognizing Your Golden Ages

    It can be difficult to know you're in a golden age. You might be too busy working. You might be too caught up in the hum of everyday life. You might live in Omaha. But here's a hint: there are usually a lot of white guys in bow ties smoking indoors. The Golden Age of publishing was no exception. In today's New York Times Book Review, novelist and screenwriter Bruce Jay Friedman reviews The Time of Their Lives by Al Silverman, about publishing's best years, which he defines as from 1946 to the early 80s. (Bad boy book editors Morgan Entrekin and Gary Fisketjon just make the cut.) Granted, there were many great books published in those years, but there have been many published since. Maybe Friedman and Silverman are just old guys trying to mythologize their past, since it always looks good over your shoulder, the farther over the better. But maybe not. More »
    09/14/08
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    Comment by suzyO: further, not farther. 5 Responses | Other threads

  • nonstalgia

    4 Reasons Sarah Palin Is Making The Media Miss Laura Bush Already

    Know what's kinda funny? Just as the whole Republican convention has transpired with basically negative five mentions of George W. Bush because he is so grotesquely unpopular even among all weird hat people, the bleeding-hearts of the Media Elite are having a moment of premature nostalgia for his wife thanks mostly to Curtis Sittenfeld's epic new work of Laura Bush fan fiction American Wife. Because, as the novelized Laura says: "All I did is marry him. You are the ones who gave him power.” And, “the single most astonishing fact of political life to me has been the gullibility of the American people…[What] caught me by surprise was the way the American people and the American media egged him on, how complicit they were in Charlie’s cultivation of a war-president persona…Even in our cynical age, the percentage of the population who is told something and therefore believes it to be true — it’s staggering." I know, right? I really want to believe the real Laura Bush would say the same thing. But would she? More »
    09/05/08
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    By Moe

    Comment by SinisterRouge: 3. Laura Bush raised Jenna Bush. This is a good thing? One book about her time with those poor underprivileged... 12 Responses | Other threads

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