About the 4th time I heard it. It went from "this is cool" to "ok what else can I notice about it" to "what are they talking about on NPR now."

I don't think it's an issue of people hating Pink. I don't hate her. What I hate is that the Hear This column has taken a ubiquitous pop song heard every ten minutes on radio, in waiting rooms and every conceivable kind of store, and said, "Hey, give this a listen." That it comes the day after a Katy Perry column is…

It's because of severely cut reporting budgets. I hear a lot of "as originally reported on slate.com.." type stories where they call and interview the Slate reporter. That's what you get when you slash the budget for independent journalism. I would wager in your case someone knew a marine biologist and *voila* there's…

That's the thing. They're not a band. They're a performance art collective. Almost none of their other pieces or protests have involved music, instruments, or songs. I don't know why the U.S. media latched onto the idea that they were a band. Maybe because "performance art collective" was too esoteric.

It's actually the "Read Wedding." Rob discovers that Walder Frey is embarrassed to host the wedding reception because he can't read. Rob spends most of the episode patiently teaching him to read so he can do well at the reception. Everything goes well and everyone is so touched they make Rob King of Westeros. And as…

I'm giving you a down vote for that comment. But not by clicking the actual down vote. I'm chastising you via an anonymous avatar. Like a man!!

Substitute the word intricacy for difficulty and you have a hallmark of artistic merit that can be found in almost any medium and time period. NOT that I think "Shiny Happy People" is a great artistic triumph, but the skill involved in crafting it and not having it come across as a convoluted mess (and remember, most…

Yeah, I actually like "Shiny Happy People." Is it genius? No. Is it profound and deep? No. But it's well written, melodic, texturally varied, and for me at least, fun to listen to. That said, if came on shuffle after a colossally bad day, I would probably throw my computer out the window.

I've driven by that lodge several times. I never remember the exact location, but you definitely know it when you see it.

I'm ok with that.

I think the record industry had to pretend to be completely surprised and incensed at how it's otherwise unassailable integrity had been tarnished. But I also think some of it was real anger. I mean, these guys won a Grammy, which is voted on by industry insiders.

I wouldn't say he disappeared. He gave readings all the time in NYC. While my wife was a student, he read at The New School and was well received by the student body and faculty, many of whom I know are Jewish. It's not like I've never heard him called an "anti-Semitic asshole" before, but your oversimplification of…

His writings on music are fantastic. I'd recommend the book "Blues People" and the essay "Jazz and the White Critic," which can be found here: http://www.historyinperspec…

WKCR has an incredible reggae program Saturday mornings, 8:00-12:00 E.S.T. You can stream it here: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/…
It's great music and really informative.

How do you downvote that? If The Melvins don't rule, you gotta show the math.

If that's the penance for living out every fantasy a man can have for over three decades, well…..

The Mason Dixon line.

I like Rudd and the Avengers movie franchise, but this could be the one where things start to go downhill, even for fans. Either way, they'll still probably get my money for a few more years.

Not if you don't read those stories.

Ok, I edited my response to make more sense. No, I much prefer Spaulding to Bieber. but it seems to me that after the accusation of cultural irrelevancy, the Grammy higher ups went overboard to prove that they weren't by eliminating several categories and by putting less emphasis on critical darlings and more focus…