that was probably awkward

Other "Blog's" That Literally Do My Job For Me

There are three profoundly annoying grammatical/semantic errors in the title of this post.  I've wanted, at various points, to write lengthy, rant-filled diatribes here about them, and how I think these abuses of the English language really speak to the downfall of Western society.  You, dear readers, are forever spared these moments (from me, anyway), since there are apparently entire blogs devoted to pointing out

the misuse of literally
the use of apostrophes in plural words (seriously, when did this horror begin?)
and my favorite, unnecessary quotation marks

All three blogs have links to other majestically stupid grammatical wrongs, and I urge you to prolong your procrastination by checking them out. 

And Ron Paul is Linux...

Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC? In a previous review for a different site I praised the design on Barack's site for resembling the "gumdrop"/Aqua interface of the Mac OS. His My Barack Obama site riffs on Facebook or MySpace. Obama is clearly the candidate of the new and the now. But what does this make Hillary? McCain? Huckabee?

All I know for certain is that Ron Paul is Linux. Oddly beloved by nerds. Looks good from afar but the more you learn about it the less you like it. Believed in by a very small segment of the population who are incredibly vocal.

I just hope Obama doesn't have the same life cycle all my Apple products do -- Six months of joyful perfection, then a random traumatic breakdown after which it never works right again.

We're Not a Posh and Becks Blog But: What Is Up With Google Today?

HT here.  Still on my self-imposed hiatus from PA, but I needed to just pop in here with the following huh thought:

So checking our site logs this morning, I discovered that about 90% of folks coming over to PA today had all been doing Google image searches for David Beckham and Posh Spice.  I first thought that maybe Posh and/or Becks had died, prompting the sudden flood of image inquiries.  But no, they're alive and well.  Nope, it just seems that everyone wants simply to look at the photos posted here and here.   And for whatever reason, PA is suddenly showing up pretty high in Google image searches for these characters.

Sigh.  I mean, I'm happy for the page views, and as a social theorist I find the Posh and Becks phenomenon fascinating, and it's nice to be able to have a front row seat, via the blog and our site logs, for the unfolding of this craze.   (Also, I won't lie: David Beckham is a hot, hot man.)   And hell,  it's not like PA ever regarded itself as a highbrow blog that only used big words and fancy images, with an audience of cosmopolitan gliterati types.  But today's particularly odd spike in blog visits by Beckham lovers is causing me mild duress, such that I feel compelled to not only blog in the middle of my self-exile, but also to throw in a couple of photos of my own -- ones that won't ever end up in a Google search, but which are just as deserving of everyone's ogling.  And heck!  They were taken with real film, on a real live 35-mm camera and everything.  Enjoy them alongside your daily helping of David and Victoria.

Top: JT | San Francisco, May 2002.
Above: TS | Atlanta, June 1996.

Errata: We've Been Lying to You All

If this 2005 Pitchfork article Twee as Fuck is to be believed -- and well, Pitchfork usually gives me pause, and then a touch of indigestion as it is -- then we here at PA aren't really into indie pop at all.  (See our 'Ahem' sidebar to the right.)  If we're going to be exact about this, we'd have to tell you that we were into indie *and* pop.  But not indiepop.  And really not all that twee, when it comes down to it.   Our less-than-appropriate dancing at our friend MJP's wedding back in July would probably confirm to everyone that we are perhaps as far from twee as two people can be.   Also, JB points out that I drink way too much to ever be properly twee.  I also apparently don't look upon squirrels with appropriate levels of curiosity and joy.

The list of essential indiepop tracks included at the end of the *very lengthy* Pitchfork piece gives me additional pause, because I think I only know 2, maybe 3 of those songs, much less own them.  I don't really care one way or another -- I'm not out to establish my credibility in indie, pop, or indiepop spheres, because I have no music credibility, unless listening to an eight-minute-long jangly bit of musical melancholy and crying on the spot counts for something other than unyielding masochism in the face of shimmery guitar/lyrical wonder.  (And unless you already know me, that song shall remain nameless.  And no, I don't really think that that sort of love of a song makes me anything other than slightly nuts.)   

I will point out that my street cred extends pretty much exclusively to Walter Benjamin, green curries, and the uisce, which gives me little time or mental wherewithal to smell the proverbial flowers.  My point?  Nothing, really.  Just wanted to clarify a few things about PA, since folks seem to have a few funny ideas about what this blog is about.  (We're not a David Beckham blog, no matter what these photos might suggest.)   Oh, and while we're at it: MD likes Ayn Rand.  I, again, like Walter Benjamin.  Rand and WB are pretty much mutually exclusive, though MD and I are not -- hence the luminous, collective brilliance that is Probably Awkward.   And there you have it.  Proceed with your Tuesday accordingly.

[MD: HT and I find ourselves very much on the same page again -- in a post coming this afternoon [PST] I apologize for my love of bad europop -- I blame it all on David Beckham being married to the former Posh Spice.

My street cred extends towards gadgeteering, this-side-of-the-Atlantic-city-comparison, brand marketing, low-fi-electro folk and Lovecraft (author and skill set).

I actually own three of the songs/albums referenced towards the middle of the article but I will leave which ones to the imagination.]

The War Blog on Terror

It's not that I'm being lazy and can't be bothered to post something with actual paragraphs and insightful critical analysis of Our World, but I think this trumps just about anything I could possibly give PA readers today:  The TSA -- yep, the Transportation Security Administration, the folks responsible for the surreal security screening measures at stateside airports -- has a blog.  No, seriously: it's called Evolution of Security, and the tagline is -- are you ready? -- Terrorists Evolve.  Threats Evolve.  Security Must Stay Ahead.  You Play A Part. 

Ahem.  Go forth and see for yourselves.  Back to real paragraphs and slightly-less-fearful ruminations tomorrow. 

It's Awkward What You Probably Think About Us

I'm scared that my return to PA may mean a return to the navel-gazing, self-satisfaction of some of our (my) early posts. One of our readers may fear the same thing, but had some incredible (and, in fact, incorrect) insight to who we might have been in our early days. For the record, my cats are named Gunnar and Matthew [md]:

The other day I suddenly remembered my first impression of PA, which I was going to tell you. Odd.  Vaguely... I think I can only sum it up by saying I had an idea it was run by a depressive lesbian. Or maybe two depressive lesbians? I no longer think this was an accurate view.

Maybe there was a kind of austerity and restrained invisibility about it, in a way, not showing who you were, etc, that seemed possibly untypical of what an exhibitionistic / glamorous / self-promoting straight chick would do? (We need not take that wild generalization too seriously - I am just struggling to remember what those constituent parts might have been.) It seemed very arty ... very design-conscious ... fairly obscure.

I also had some kind of idea that it was all based somewhere in NY State, but not in NYC - maybe in some little town a few miles out, in Long Island or Albany or wherever, where maybe the dykes spent their time designing fonts and cooking things in a fancy, well-appointed modern house in the woods. Probably with a couple of cats and dogs. called, um ... Bryher and Vita ... Djuna and Gertrude.

[Update: For the record, my cats are named Busby and Dziga.  (ht)]

We're Not a Filter Blog, But: Postcards from Poland

I find myself endlessly amused by this.   A fellow named Brian Sack is traveling to Poland for the holidays, and has set up an eBay auction for folks who would like him to send random, slightly incoherent, anonymous postcards to a specified (un)loved one, from the small Polish town where he'll be staying.  Here's his website about the project; here's the ebay listing.  (The Q&A on the eBay page is pretty hilarious.)  The bidding is currently at $255; but if anyone can pay that much to have someone else send them postcards from Szczeczinek, Poland, they can probably afford to fly there and send the postcards themselves. 

The Strangest Thing ...

The spam filters over here are, for no particular reason, on high alert today.  If you've been trying to add a comment, only to have typepad tell you that it was flagged as potential spam -- we at PA apologize.  We know you're not trying to tell us that we should order your Megadik pill, or that you've got some awesome 'Rolex' watch to sell.  But the spam police seem to be flagging everyone today, and we're still trying to get to the bottom of this.

If this comment filtering is happening to you, please drop us a line -- probablyawkward at gmail dot com.   Your comments are actually just held in a limbo on our end, and we just need to manually clear them.  Sorry about that!

Books: Luc Sante? Anyone?

The other day, I'm not sure how, I stumbled upon Luc Sante's brand spanking new blog, Pinakothek, which states that  it is  "a blog about pictures.  All kinds of pictures."  Indeed, the handful of posts each contain an image (sometimes two) and commentary -- sometimes philosophical/historical musings, sometimes prose.  I put the blog's feed in my Google Reader, so it's nice to have a random image flit past my screen every day or so -- not quite detritus a la Walter Benjamin, seeing as how someone else is doing the picking-through-the-past for me, but close enough when one's got a day job that precludes real flanerie. 

But this morning it occurred to me: I've never read any Luc Sante before.  I know he's got a book about the Lower East Side, and a memoir, and a bunch of other collections, as well as translations of Belgian writers.   But I don't know where to start.  I've already got a holiday reading project (more on that later), but for the new year: anyone got any Sante suggestions for me?    And does any of his other stuff have this kind of Sebald-esque image/text quality to it?  I need more of this in my life. 

Flotsam, jetsam: Advertising edition

I don't know how to describe this entry except as "mainly miscellaneous" which makes me feel like the worlds worst archivist. Basically, though, they all deal with ads and promotions.

1. 80 Metropolitan is back in the news. Signs for it have been vandalized all over Brooklyn. What makes this the condo everyone loves to hate?

 

2. I stumbled upon what might have been one of the first overtly gay themed ads ever. Where? In a 1990 issue of a prominent (hetero) sports magazine. [Thanks to 10 Years Ago in Spy for illustration.]

3. I was hiking Sunday with AH when we split a plum open only to discover its amazing resemblance to a... Umm... Butthole. I was grossed out, threw the pit in the water, and went back to eating a peach. Apparently we weren't the first people to notice this.

<Fruit-o-phile advertising campaign below jump>