Okay, I've had my share of issues with Paul Krugman, and I'm a big fan of Suzanne Vega. (Well . . . her first two albums, anyway). But this is just. not. right.
Oh my God. How could I have missed the fact that Suzanne Vega is blogging for the Times?In my next life I want to be a songwriter — precisely because I can’t imagine how it’s done. I’d give up the whole first page of my Google Scholar listing to have written “The Queen and the Soldier.”
Paul Krugman is a much, much better economist than Suzanne Vega is a musician. The Queen and the Soldier, which I have listened to just about one squillion times, is not as good as strategic trade theory. And I take nothing away from Suzanne Vega when I say that.
I must leave it to you to judge Krugman as an economist, but as someone who can do more than imagine how songwriting is accomplished, there are many things I would give up in my life to go to sleep at night knowing I was the writer of any of at least a couple dozen of her songs. Her best work not only has an arresting immediacy, but an impossibly long finish. I can think of better overall musicians, but not better songwriters.
After such rave reviews, I looked the song up on youtube. I couldn't make it through listening to it once, let alone a million! It's incredibly pretentious and boring.
I'll never understand why people like the songs that they do.
sam,
that's why Men & Markets were meant to rule, not Governments and their arbiters..
ar·bi·ter (ärb-tr)
n.
1. One chosen or appointed to judge or decide a disputed issue; an arbitrator.
2. One who has the power to judge or ordain at will: an arbiter of fashion. See Synonyms at judge.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Middle English arbitre, from Old French, from Latin arbiter, of Phoenician origin; see rb in Semitic roots.]
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words AntonymsNoun 1. arbiter - someone with the power to settle matters at will; "she was the final arbiter on all matters of fashion"
supreme authority
expert - a person with special knowledge or ability who performs skillfully
2. arbiter - someone chosen to judge and decide a disputed issue; "the critic was considered to be an arbiter of modern literature"; "the arbitrator's authority derived from the consent of the disputants"; "an umpire was appointed to settle the tax case"
arbitrator, umpire
evaluator, judge - an authority who is able to estimate worth or quality
third party - someone other than the principals who are involved in a transaction
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/arbiter
Krugman's earlier stuff was better. Whenever he starts anything after 2003, that's when I get a beer.
Sam -- "The Queen and the Soldier" is relatively juvenile effort with some of her clumsiest lyrics (although _still_ a wonderful song -- the IImix to IImin motion on "It cuts me inside and often I've bled" (and similar places) is a chord progression that's apparently directly wired to my tear glands). Maybe try "Song of David"? Or maybe she'll never do anything for you. Hey, I don't really care for Leonard Cohen.
This post has been deleted for containing content that would make my grandmother cry. This is a family blog, people--specifically, my family. Thanks.
Hear hear Margalis! Certainly that is bound to bring in the readers moreso than Constitutional humdrummery or executive overreaching pomposity! :)
shtick
Main Entry:
shtick Listen to the pronunciation of shtick
Variant(s):
also schtick Listen to the pronunciation of schtick or shtik \ˈshtik\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Yiddish shtik pranks, literally, piece, from Middle High German stücke, from Old High German stucki; akin to Old English stycce piece, Old High German stoc stick — more at stock
Date:
1959
1 : a usually comic or repetitious performance or routine : bit 2 : one's special trait, interest, or activity : bag
It's always very funny when Megan takes people literally. The dumb it burns.
I would have thought that Megan would dig downloading herself into her robotron to shake her can with Der Ole Perfesser while listening to Vega since she is the first the first major recording artist to perform live in the Internet-based virtual world, Second Life. The event was hosted by John Hockenberry of public radio's The Infinite Mind, in August, 2006. It's almost country, like Der Ole Perfesser Maybe they should meet at the Jefferson Monument there, next time.
I lost my mind on that song for about 2 months. But I was 16, and it had just come out. In retrospect it's kind of pretentious and has a certain D+D flavor. I think the problem is the earnest delivery; Dylan's medieval-themed songs weather well because of the huge irony he infuses them with.
It is funny how many stunning brilliant people seem to have poor or undeveloped tastes in other fields. I just was obliged by politesse to skim the favorite book of a brilliant doctor, public health officer and amateur concert cellist, which he recommends to everyone he knows. It's a 10-year-old paperback bioterrorism thriller called "The 11th Plague". Totally ridiculous.
While "The Queen & The Soldier" is good, "Marlene on the Wall" and "Small Blue Thing" are better songs from the debut album. (Best SV song overall is "Blood Makes Noise," IMHO.)
Wildly off-topic, Megan, so I hope you will forgive me, but could you please tell us where you see zinc prices going over the next 12 months or so? Thanks.
Brooksfoe: Yeah, I was a college freshman when I played that album to exhaustion.
Fred: I see three possibilities.
1) They will go up
2) They will go down
3) They will remain about the same
I'm afraid if I had any great insight into the commodity markets futures, I would be trading on them, and jealously hoarding my hard-won knowledge.
Krugman has consistently beclowned himself in the pages of the Times. His best days were left at Enron. He says nothing of use or importance. P Krug vs Vega? P. Krug wins; P. Krug vs Jay Z, rapper in a bitch slapping walkover. His talents are dulled, quickly approaching the point of worthless and weak.
Love your take on Zinc, I'd lean to the deuce but anything is possible in commodity land.
Why in the world anybody would want to admit they don't like Leonard Cohen in public is a mystery to me. One would do less damage to that bond of fellowship that we all should share by admitting to molesting infants.
I'm not very familiar with Vegas's work, but I looked up that song cited and liked it very much. She has also covered at least one Leonard Cohen song, so she automatically gets a good helping of respect. That's how I got to like Tori Amos, and the only reason I tolerate Bono.
Meg,
Well now you're just disagreeing with Krugman for consistancies sake!
*wink*
Someone up there knocked Leonard Cohen (@6:07). For shame. He is the voice of God, and transcends our like or dislike of him. Just had to say that.
I like the Queen and the Soldier. Is it about politics? Anti-war? Or mere disillusionment? Disillusioned statuatory rapist? The fickleness of young women? Does he force a bj mid song? Is it about loneliness? Or is it about what men do for women who dominate their imaginations? What is a burning thread?
I was really big on her back in my high school days in NYC in the 1980's. Vega, Shawn Colvin, and Lucy Kaplansky were my holy trinity.
Megan,
There's no chance you can use your exalted position at The Atlantic to ask a commodity expert such as Jim Rogers?
Isn't Jim living in Singapore now? Why don't you just email him off his website and see if he or a proxy answers.
Krugman should get his own MySpace Page if he's going to write like a twelve-year-old girl.
Or at least decorate his Times blog with unicorn stickers.
Finn,
Yes, he moved to Singapore. Good suggestion -- I just e-mailed him. I'll let you folks know if he writes back.
Good advice for Megan as well, to get her own MySpace Page if she's going to write like a 12 year old girl. This is The Atlantic, and even though it's total crap now, it could still find its way back to relevance with a serious and more mature writer for this column. Megan could then decorate her MySpace Page with unicorns and ponies. At least they won't let her do that here. It's enough they allow her to write about incipient ponies that inevitably fail materialize as a result of her unrealistic and hare brained ideas.
Believe it or not, Jim Rogers was nice enough to e-mail me back, but he wasn't much more definitive than Megan. Nothing specific about zinc, but Rogers reiterated his thesis that we are in a secular bull market for commodities, although there will be pullbacks along the way, and he referred me to some ETFs that track his commodity index.
Fred at 12:07:
That's neat. I guess in his position he has to be somewhat guarded too in terms of what he says and does.
@8:12
This is a blog. Little more room to drift. Sometimes serious and mature by everyone all the time is boring.
So while Megan is talking unicorns I am sure one of the other bazillion bloggers on the planet will be sufficiently weighty, and when unicorns and soldiers and maiden talk is done, you can drift back and further debate serious stuff on this blog (to which the ultimate real life weight of all that discussion will add up to... ZERO).
It is neat, though he's always been delphic like that, as far as I'm concerned.
@3:13 AM
Actually, no, this used to be The Atlantic Monthly, you immature and insipid person with no concept of taste or import.
It was once described thusly:
The Atlantic Monthly (also known as The Atlantic) is an American magazine founded in Boston in 1857. Originally created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine, its current format is of a general editorial magazine. With content focusing on "foreign affairs, politics, and the economy [as well as] cultural trends", it is primarily aimed at a target audience of "thought leaders".
The magazine's founders were a group of writers that included Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., and James Russell Lowell (who would become its first editor).
You can read through archives here and here:
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/browse.journals/atla.html
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/The_Atlantic_Monthly_%28Bookshelf%29
But you won't and wouldn't appreciate it if you did.
Now it is vacuous drivel (except for Fallows) read by insipid people like you who don't know and don't care to know any better. At least we still have Harper's. "Thought leaders?" These arrogant fools may think they are "leaders," of what we can't be sure. They are wrong. It's not even certain they are capable of actual and original thought, an original thought would die of loneliness here. This is merely mental onanism. It's stimulating the same way YouTube porn is stimulating.
Jack: Good call on Blood Makes Noise. That whole album is really under rated, even though she admitted it was all inspired by pretty hate machine, she managed to pull of a much more mature realisation of that sound than reznor was capable of at the time.
Megan: Thank you for the post, you're completely right on this one.
Well, I guess I now have a better understanding of the role the marketplace plays in determining "news" content.
To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as “military analysts” whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.
Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.
I made it through the first 15 seconds of The Queen and the Soldier before turning it off, which is more than I can say for a Paul Krugman column.
Advantage: Suzanne Vega!