johndschneider

Member since July 30, 2009

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Bob Dylan Rankings, #107: Highway 51 Blues
There’s not a whole lot to say about this song: Highway 51 will never be the highway Dylan is best remembered for. As I mentioned last week, Bob Dylan only wrote two of the tracks on his debut album—“Song to Woody” and “Talkin’ New York.” On some of the folk standards that he includes, Dylan [...]
Ranking Bob Dylan Songs, #18: Ballad of a Thin Man
I really like the lyrics to this song. I mean, I get that I probably appear to like Dylan’s lyrics all the time, but I really like them in this song. They’re caustic and clever and cogent. Just the refrain itself is a beautiful piece of simple, forceful poetry: “Something is happening here/But you don’t [...]
Monday Medley
What we read while going for it on 4th-and-2…


It’s been a few weeks since we had an NY Times heavy medley, so we figured we’d catch up on old tricks all at once. Here’s Stephen Pinker’s review of Malcolm Gladwell’s newest collection of essays, which does to Gladwell kind of what South Park did to [...]
Mere Anachrony: The Simpsons Season One
“Sometimes I think we’re the worst family in town.”
“Maybe we should move to a bigger community.”
“Dad, the sad truth is all families are like this.”
This short conversation among Homer, Marge, and Lisa Simpson is, in so much as the longest-running comedy series in television history has one, The Simpsons’ thesis statement. In fact, the episode [...]
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Always Be Yourself

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It’s College Basketball Season!
As we draw toward the unexciting close of what can only be described as a woeful college football season, it’s high time we shifted our sights to the only flawless sport left in America: college basketball. Oh sure, the naysayers point out a deterioration in the quality of play, the untenability of the one-and-done rule, [...]
Ranking Bob Dylan Songs, #95: Talkin’ New York
Greil Marcus once remarked that it is somewhat surprising that none of the puppet masters who got their hands on Elvis Presley ever tried to fabricate or glamorize his upbringing, the way some teen idols did in those days. The simple explanation for this, according to Marcus, is that no embellishment could have improved on [...]
Ranking Bob Dylan Songs, #84: Spanish Harlem Incident
In John Hinchey’s 2002 book, Like a Complete Unknown: The poetry of Bob Dylan’s songs, he makes the argument that Dylan’s songwriting can in some ways be divided into a “mother” phase and a “lover” phase. “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” for example, was “the first in a series of progressively demoralized apocalyptic prophecies Dylan [...]
The Top 173 Things in History: #16. The Fall of the Berlin Wall
A lot of the phrases we use to describe the ends of various injustices are metaphorical. We have to break glass ceilings, tear down barriers, and free ourselves from shackles.
While the Berlin Wall was, in some ways, metaphorical, it was also very real. Unlike the abstract glass ceilings, the wall was very much concrete—in fact, [...]
Monday Medley
What we read while forgetting to vote:


We would enjoy Jane Austen if she had written more about “foot-ball” or if Doonesbury were more appropriately referred to as the “Fiefdom of Metonymy.” And we also wonder what issues arise for a male author with the unfortunate last name of Paglia these days.


We’ve made a little habit [...]
Mere Anachrony: Reservoir Dog
WARNING: This post contains spoilers. You should only read it if you’ve seen Reservoir Dogs, or if you have no interest in seeing the movie but for some reason want to read a review of it.
I was not a fan of Reservoir Dogs when I first saw it.
The first time I saw it was at [...]
Ranking Bob Dylan Songs, #30: Subterranean Homesick Blues
Bringing It All Back Home, the album that begins with “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” marked a major sea change in Bob Dylan’s career, for two main reasons. The first reason is well-known and much-discussed: Dylan went electric. The first side of the album, including “Subterranean,” was all electric, alienating many of his loyal folk fans.
Along with [...]
Monday Medley
What we read while celebrating Ryan Longwell’s return to Lambeau….



We linked a few weeks ago to Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker analysis of football and head trauma. Gladwell’s article brought to the fore some issues that have been latent in football for some time (Wait…you mean this is a dangerous sport?), as seen by the attention [...]
Happy Halloween
In honor of today’s festivities, here is Jerry Seinfeld with some thoughts on Halloween:

Posted in comedy
Monday Medley
What we read while incubating ourselves from the threat of flu…




This is easily our favorite campaign website. You know, Mike Bloomberg does remind us a little of Mary Bailey.


John S talked about the problem of aggregating sites way back in August; now, Craig Fehrman of The Big Money wonders why sports aggregators seem to engender [...]
Monday Medley
What we read while making sure OUR balloons were properly secured….


In case you missed it due to its very subtle and low-key promotion, Where the Wild Things Are came out this weekend and did quite well. Here’s an interview with writer Dave Eggers, director Spike Jonze, and actors Catherine Keener and Max Records. Yes, all four [...]
Ranking Bob Dylan Songs, #121: Nashville Skyline Rag
OK, this is kind of cheating. “Nashville Skyline Rag” isn’t really a song, it’s more like an album interlude. It’s completely instrumental, and mainly serves to pace the album, like Radiohead does with “Treefingers” or “Fitter Happier,” or The Beatles do with several songs on The White Album.
The difference between those songs and “Nashville Skyline [...]
Monday Medley
What we read while trying to remember who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year…



Josh has written about Michael Pollan in the past. In the NY Times Magazine’s food issue, Pollan offers some “rules to eat by”, a preview of his forthcoming eating manual. He goes against type and suggests eating only heavily processed foods. [...]
Monday Medley
What we read while looking for another way to make two million dollars:


Tim was going to make a big deal about calling the Lions upset of the Redskins back before the season, but then he heard this, and had to rethink what it means to make a “successful” sports prediction. 


John Krasinski talks about his film [...]
Ranking Bob Dylan Songs, #62: The Times They Are A-Changin’
Welcome to a new series! You’ve read Josh’s attempts to rank the Bill of Rights. You’ve read Tim’s attempt to rank everything in history. Well, now John’s going to rank Bob Dylan songs. Keeping it manageable, he’s sticking with songs from the 1960s. No live versions and no bootlegs. We’re going with songs from studio [...]
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