#27: Living in Sin, The Nuances of Tipping, 7:11, & Kelley Stoltz.It was surprising to see how much mainstream media attention was devoted to this New York Times article from yesterday's paper. It discusses findings by the U.S Census Bureau's 2005, which revealed that the percentage of households with married couples is at an historic low and, for the first time, married couples do not constitute the majority of households in the country.
Of course, that doesn't mean that marriage has been devalued in our culture, as some reactionaries might have you believe. Indeed, the article points to many factors contributing to the decline: increased longevity in the widowed population, folks getting married later in life, a rise in premarital cohabitation, and an increasing public acceptance of homosexual partnerships.
Before we started our project together, Nina and I were a little fearful about how our idea would be received in more conservative areas where our premarital cohabitation might be frowned upon. However, it seems we've got a lot of company. Also on the plus side, it seems that parents of all types are spending more time with their kids, and that can only be a good thing.
When we go out to bars together, Nina frequently mentions how tipping someone a dollar to open a bottle of beer raises her hackles. It doesn't bother me quite as much--I guess I'm one for the tradition--but here's a great little entry from the Freakonomics folks about a curiously undertipped occupation.
Slurpee purveyor 7-11 might be severing their ties to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, but they've got an ace up their sleeve. Personally, I think the 25,000 free Slurpees would have been much cooler (no pun intented).
Multi-instrumentalist Kelley Stoltz put out his first release in 1999, but I didn't have the pleasure of hearing his music until he released an EP on SubPop records last year. His subsequent LP, Below the Branches, has been one of the most under-appreciated records of the year. I'll accede to the critics that his sound is nothing new, but his revisionist pop pastiche is so difficult not to enjoy. On "Ever Thought of Coming Back," Stoltz infuses his lo-fi sensibilities with melodies out of the Beach Boys/Beatles canon:
xoxox
Danny
PS - The only person who has been fired for the melee I wrote about yesterday is an announcer.
Labels: Music video
posted by Danny&Nina @ 10/17/2006 11:13:00 AM
4 comments
4 Feedback:
danny this is a great link - his comments are crazy and just go to show that football is about blood, which is why we like it so much unfortunately. those guys are trained to rip heads off. the only surprise is thath brawls are containable at all during games
Be warned: long-winded football comment below:
Glad you liked the link and thanks for the feedback.
I do think you hit the nail on the head about the spectator experience, "why we like it so much." If you YouTube some of the footage shot by people in the stands, the most noticeable thing is the audio--everyone in the crowd was exacerbating the situation by chanting, hooting, and demanding an escalation of the fracas.
Honestly, I wonder if I would have done the same thing. I know that I have no qualms with rooting during fights at hockey games; however, as anyone who follows hockey knows, there is an ENORMOUS different between a two player, run of the mill glove-dropping and a sideline-clearing brawl.
I disagree with the assertion that players are "trained to rip heads off" though, I think that's a common misconception. By and large, college and pro atheletes are very disciplined individuals who receive years of instruction to refine their skills. If you think about former players who become analysts, it's quite impressive how many of them (A) are very articulate and well-spoken and (B) display a thoroughly intellectual understanding of their sport.
Players get excited, they take pride in besting their opponents, and occasionally the bragadoccio spills over into excess. It's something we all do. The announcer who was fired was obviously an exception to the impartial, detached norm, but I don't think he was really out for blood.
Should he have been fired? Absolutely. His comments were utterly irresponsible and his obligations as a media member should have clearly trumped his personal passion as a fan. But as a former player, I believe he merely got swept up in the fervor exhibited by the rest of the mob in the stands. That distinction--between commentator and spectator--is what he unfortunately lost sight of.
Do a little reseach. 7-11 has been planning to end its relationship with Citgo for some time. The company had planned for some time to go with its own brand of gas and end the relationship with Citgo this year.
The company has taken advantage of the furor over Hugo Chavez's speech to buff up its patriotic image, by acting as if the move were in direct response to Chavez.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/citgo.asp, with plenty of links to outside sources.
Thanks for shharing this
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