Best of 2010
|The Best Of 2010
[ Comments Off ]Posted on December 28, 2010 by admin in Best of 2010
Tuesday, December 28th, 2010By including the best list of the Best of 2010 lists, can we bring you the best list of Best of 2010 lists? Probably not, but we can bring you the best of Dissociated Press in 2010. What do YOU think was the best of 2010?
One reason I’m looking forward to the end of 2010 is because it will mean the end of the depraved and senseless orgy of “Best of 2010″ lists. Which is why we thought it was time to wrap things up neatly with the best Best of 2010 list. Which is ironic, because we’re always bitching about how stupid lists like this are. So how is it that we can lay claim to the best list? Well, arguably the best collection of 2010 lists otherwise is over at Fimoculous, so by including their list in our list, we supersede their “bestness”. See how that works? Unless they create some kind of “best of” Hasselhoffian recursion by including our list in theirs, we’ve kind of cinched it. But in reality, this is part two of the best of Dissociated Press (part one was back in July), which will by default include at least our best of the year, covering topics like Clean & Green, Lifestyle & Culture, Music, Politics, Pop Media, and Technology. Which is mostly a good way to dig deeper into our site if you haven’t before. We’ve been serving up fresh linkage and unsolicited commentary since June 2008, and even if you don’t enjoy it, a year end review serves two purposes for us; it lets us review content so that our information-damaged brains don’t repeat material next year, and it provides excellent filler content on a day when we really have nothing of interest to say. On a side note, we’re not joking about the “information damaged brains”; there’s only one of we, and it’s me. Something we hope to rectify in the coming year, so I can stop talking like I’m the freakin’ Queen of England or something. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts for some of the best of 2010. It’s been a fun year, with all the oil and information spills and fascism and whatnot. With any luck, things’ll be even oilier, leakier, and more oppressive in 2011! Read the rest of this entry »
Pitchfork Media & The Annual Torrent Of Best Of 2010 Lists
[ Comments Off ]Posted on December 3, 2010 by admin in Best of 2010
Friday, December 3rd, 2010With the first Best of 2010 lists appearing as early as June this year, we’ll be looking forward to the Best of 2011 lists around January 1st. Plus: FluxBlog’s 2010 Survey Mix with a “buy” option, and some thoughts on bittorrents.
Yes, it’s that time again. Only this time, it’s that time earlier. A long time ago, Dr Science outlined the problems that would arise if the speed of light were sixty miles an hour, pointing out, for instance, that people would always be speeding in an attempt to stay young. I think we’re experiencing a similar relativistic effect recently, thanks to the ever-increasing amount of information we’re trying to process at higher and higher rates. While it used to be that it was generally agreed that you couldn’t decide what the best things in a given year were before it was at least eleven twelfths over, it seems the ground rules have changed. One of the earliest offenders this year was Time, posting their first Best of 2010 way back in June. Not to be outdone, we of course offered up the Dissociated Press Best of 2010 a few weeks later. And as of this writing, a google search for Best of 2010 yields 1,360,000,000 results! Clearly, someone besides Santa has been busy making lists. Over the last few years, one of the only “Best Of” lists that I personally looked forward to with any eagerness was the “Pitchfork Media Best Albums” lists. They would save me an incredible amount of time when looking for cool new music to listen to. We would even reformat their lists with torrent and Amazon links here on Dissociated Press But this year, I’m much less interested in Pitchfork’s lists, and in a strange turn, even less interested in torrenting music. And here’s why: First of all, I wasn’t especially taken with Pitchfork’s list last year; in spite of remaining an awesome resource as a site in general, I think their “staff picks” have gotten a little self-indulgent and gone askew of a more broadly agreed upon “Best Of”. But more importantly, I feel that the indy market has developed in a way that makes it so easy to find, preview (which was the only legit reason for torrenting) and buy the artists’ music that it seems almost inexcusable to not use the channels available and put some money in their pockets straight away. It’s easy to find collections like FluxBlog’s 2010 Survey Mix and download 10 hours of the year’s music without spending a penny. FluxBlog even throws in a side note that says “Please buy the records from the artist if you like what you hear“, but here’s a challenge I’ll throw down. Given the choice of doing that or buying the same songs with the links below – which will provide both me and the artist with revenue – which would you do? No judgment here; enjoy some great indy music either way. And in any case rest assured that we’ll be back with more opportunistic and offbeat Christmas gift ideas, as well as a round up of the more amusing “Best of 2010″ lists as they roll out. Feel free to share any you know of and we’ll consider them for inclusion. Links for the FluxBlog compilation below.
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Dissociated Press Best Of 2010
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on July 18, 2010 by admin in Best of 2010
Sunday, July 18th, 2010Yeah, it’s only July. But this will sure make things easier in December.
After two years of daily articles about Lifestyle & Culture, Music, Politics, Pop Media, Technology, and Green Living , we’re taking a little break while we make some major site changes. In the meantime, whether you’re a regular visitor or have never been here before, there are over 800 posts for you to peruse, so we thought we’d round up some highlights from 2010 to help you get a feel for what Dissociated Press is about while we enjoy our little staycation. We’ll be back with a different format in the near future; learn more here if you’re interested. So here’s the best of 2010 so far…
A Better Apocalypse Through Technology
Having grown up with entertainment like Star Trek, Star Wars, 2001, Blade Runner, and the movie Brazil, I find a lot of entertainment in doom and gloom scenarios, and live in a constant state of technological ennui. That’s why I’m always eager to point out how too much information is making us crazy, and how the personal computer will bring the end of the world, with a little help from you and the Internet. Oh, and did I mention? Your robot sucks.
If You’re So Hip Why Aren’t You Rich?
 If you were REALLY hip, you’d outsource yourself |
In spite of everybody I know being a sex god and social media guru or brand expert that’s completely aware of the impending demise of their ironic hipsterism, they still seem to be pretty clueless, masochistic consumers who are always too busy to just hang out, or at least trying to look that way so they can stay employed. That’s why we offer tools and solutions like how to disarm your enemies with psychobabble, and advice on how to outsource your life, because when smart bosses know the most productive employees are crazy and underpaid, who wants a job?
That Elephant In The Room Is A Fat White American
As you can see, a “dreadneck” is nearly |
Unlike most pop culture/pop media sources, we have no idea why you care about how rich and famous people live (though we love the Famous & Fugly), which is why we like to get to the meat of the matter – which in this case means white meat – and why we did an extended series on the “real” white American, exploring things like the zen of being redneck and how there’s more to being a hillbilly than marrying your sister. We also tried to bring a little pride to white trash culture by giving it a more respectable name. And don’t forget that other white minority, Albinos.
How I Went From A Starry-Eyed Obama Supporter To A Teabagging Dick Tuck
If you’ve followed my articles about politics, you’ve watched me go from a liberal lifestyle, fiscally conservative, otherwise split ticket, starry-eyed Obama supporter to a Teabagging Dick Tuck in just over a year, as I learned about agency capture via Washington’s revolving doors, explored the joys of fictitious capital, and pondered not only where your tax dollars go, but showed you what a trillion dollars looks like. I also pointed out that if America were a hundred people splitting a hundred dollars, one guy is being a real prick about things. In the end, I’ve learned what more intelligent people knew along, which is that most people are too stupid to vote, and we may as well just watch them start the Red vs Blue Civil War. It’ll be good for a laugh. We Americans take politics way too seriously anyway. So as a concerned citizen of the Land of the Free and Home of the Brazen, I will from now on only ask the important questions, like Is That A Bomb In Your Underpants, Or Are You Just Happy To See Me?
Up The Creek Without An iPaddle
Sometimes it’s easy to predict the failure of a major product rollout, like we did when we suggested someone notify Kin’s next of kin. But back in January, we awaited the as-yet-unnamed and mysterious new Apple product with breathless anticipation, pointing out that “iSlate” would be the perfect name, because it wasLate. So would Steve Jobs wear an iPatch to introduce one of these innovative iProducts? Well, it quickly became apparent that Apple is the new Evil Empire, and that the iPad was a marketing platform, not a cool computing tool. Which led us to ask What Do Kate Moss And An iPad Have In Common? And while the tech blogs tore the iPad to pieces, we came up with creative new uses for it, and suggested a list of iPad alternatives.
I’m With The Brand
I have no desire to be a music critic, so when I touch on music, it’s usually to share an obscure artist, talk about marketing, or rant incessantly about what litigious morons they are in the film & music industry. In the obscure artist department, we explained how Aussie punk rock bagpiper Cam McAzie gives new meaning to “down under” when he dons his kilt and combat boots, and took a look into Hungarian Hip Hop and American Hick Hop. We also exposed you to the Relentless Terror of Loituma’s Ievan Polkka. And regarding marketing, we took a look at the sad spectre of middle-aged white men from Ohio making a comeback, and realized it’s truly over when Iggy Pop Licenses “Lust For Life” to Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.