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"What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "To smoke," he [Holmes] answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes."
Jul
6th
Sun
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Voicemail is dead. Please tell everyone so they’ll stop using it.
Jun
19th
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Recently, he confessed, he has been thinking about quitting medicine altogether and opening a convenience store.
Jun
13th
Fri
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Jun
11th
Wed
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Jack Teagarden Sings Stars Fell On Alabama (via pinkieldred).  Friends, this is what it’s all about….
May
18th
Sun
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The highest aspiration of the modern individual is biological survival, complemented by the state of bovine contentment celebrated as ‘happiness’
May
2nd
Fri
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Go Boris, Go!
Go Boris, Go!
Apr
26th
Sat
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It’s no secret that Jazz Fest caters to the gray-goatee crowd
Apr
25th
Fri
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When the Muses Smiled on Britain

Josef KI am everyday amazed at the quality and depth of pop music that come out of Great Britain between 1977 and 1988. This torrent of musical brilliance is absolutely unmatched in music history. As a young hipster of that time, I thought I knew everything about 80s British music, but to this very day I still discover new acts from the time who are totally unfamiliar to me…and brilliant!

Just to flash my credentials, the greatest regret of my teenage years is that I was grounded (for reasons I simply cannot remember) the night the Smiths played at Tulane’s McCalister Auditorium in 1985. I purchased an import single of Adam and the Ants featuring “Lady” and “Young Parisians” at Leisure Landing on Magazine St. before the Ants ever had a U.S. record deal. I remember when U2 played at Ol’ Man Rivers which was, I believe, on Oak Street. Enough said.

As I said, believing myself all-knowing, I continue to make new discoveries. I heard the Railway Children for the first time six months ago. This was a great band, to be sure. Here’s a free sample. And then, today (yes TODAY), I heard Josef K for the first time. Their song “Sorry for Laughing” was notably covered by Nouvelle Vague, but I had never heard the original before. Here it is, and just fabulous it is.

So, when I hear “new” bands these days (Vampire Weekend, this means you) I am reduced to the Old Man’s Lament: “Son, it’s been done before… and better.”

Apr
22nd
Tue
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Take Stacy Head Bowling

Looks like the boys in Respek have released a new one called “Take Stacy Head Bowling.”  It’s funny, but I liked “Chocolate at the End of the Day” better.
Apr
17th
Thu
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Eric Kandel, probably the most eminent psychiatrist in this country, writes a lot about the social influence on genes. This can be very dangerous to think of in such simple terms. In psychiatry in particular, it sets up this division of a house divided against itself: genes versus environment, psychotherapy versus drugs, or nature versus nurture. The sophisticated thinkers understand that these things work together in an infinite dance.