Ross Douthat: Iggy Azalea, “Fancy”
who dat
who dat
Ross Douthat
Douthat
Maureen Dowd: Bon Jovi, “It’s My Life”
I don’t wanna be another face in the crowd
gonna hear my voice when I shout Maureen Dowd
it’s my life
Paul Krugman: Poison, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”
Every rose has its thorn
Just like every night has its dawn
Just like ol’ Paul Krugman sings his sad, sad song
Every rose has its thorn
Frank Bruni: Jason Derulo, “Talk Dirty To Me”
Been around the world, don’t speak the language
But your booty don’t need explaining
All I really need to understand is
When you talk dirty, Bruni
Talk dirty, Bruni
Talk dirty, Bruni
Talk dirty, Bruni
Nicholas D. Kristof: Taylor Swift, “Shake It Off”
But I keep cruising
Can’t stop, won’t stop moving
It’s like I got this music
In my mind
Saying, “It’s gonna be alright.”
‘Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play
And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate
Baby, I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake
I shake Kristof, shake Kristof
Heart-breakers gonna break, break, break, break, break
And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake
Baby, I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake
I shake Kristof, shake Kristof
Thomas L. Friedman: Bone Thugs N Harmony, “Weed Man”
Keep smokin’
I’m the Friedman, I’m the Friedman, I’m the Friedman
Keep on chokin’ — I’m the Friedman, I’m the Friedman;
Yeah boy, wear corduroy
I’ve gotta keep on smokin
‘m the Friedman, I’m the Friedman, I’m the Friedman
Tags: music, new york times columnists, things mallory does for no reason
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Every time I hear Shake It Off, I hear the line as “Bakers gonna bake bake bake bake bake” and I love it.
Wait, she’s NOT saying “bakers gonna bake bake bake bake”????
Honestly, I think she might be. I know that logically it has to be fakers/fake,and I’ve tried to hear it that way, but it’s bake. It just is.
“If you like Gina Kolota/ And getting caught in the rain.”
And for the New Yorker, “Thank you for being Tad Friend/ Travel down the road and back again.”
“David Brooks brings you back, I ain’t tellin’ you no liiiiie. David Brooks brings you back, and on that you can rely.” *fuckin sweet harmonica solo*
I have a lot of unironic love for that song.
(mournfully)
Nobody knows what it’s like
To be a Gladwell
A Malcolm Gladwell
Behind brown eyes
(mascara’d)
So why don’t you use it?
Try not to bruise it
Buy time don’t lose it
The Remnick is an only child he’s waiting in the park
Dave Remnick is in charge of finding treasure in the dark
(while rippping out a quick twenty minutes on the treadmill)
Evan Osnos, here’s Osnos, here’s Osnos again
Oh, here’s Osnos again
Shoulda known, shoulda known, shoulda known, Evan
But here’s Osnos again
Kind of unrelated but this is the first time I’ve seen that the “Fancy” video is Clueless, and subsequently the first time I’ve had to come to terms with how whoever produced this video totally missed the point of Clueless.
Clueless: Yes, You Are
Clueless: You’re Doing it Wrong
Clueless: Thanks, Iggy Azalea, For Completely Ruining My Favorite Movie for People Too Dense to See the Fallacy of Your Video Production Choices.
I mean, I don’t think they were necessarily TRYING to achieve the same goals as the movie with this music video.
Roxette ‘She’s Got the Look’
1-2-3-4
Walking like a man,
hitting like a hammer,
she’s a juvenile scam.
Never was a quitter,
tasty like a raindrop,
I’m David Brooks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYXczDB8VrY
on an only-tangentially-related note, I am willing to bet that Jason Bateman is always rocking out to Adele like
“Should I give up
or should I just keep Jason Bateman
even if it leeeads nowheeeeere”
and then one day Jason Statham overhears it and so next time he gets into the shower he’s like quietly whisper-singing to himself
“should I just keep on Jason Statham?”
but it doesn’t sound anywhere near as good and he is very self-conscious of the fact.
I worked at [major chain bookstore] when that album came out, and we played it at least once every shift. Since bookstores aren’t necessarily the best environment for listening to music, I spent weeks trying to figure out why she was even chasing penguins to begin with, and why it was so hard for her to stop.
ok the mental picture of a fluffy-earmuff-clas Adele slo-mo-chasing a single emperor penguin around a frozen wasteland is one that I pray never fades from my mind
Thank you for this.
It would be an Adelie penguin, no?
BRAVO!
TBH I still don’t understand why she keeps chasing pavements, or even how one chases a pavement. Chasing penguins makes more sense.
I did not find out until…embarrassingly recently that she was not in fact chasing penguins.
Clueless: Yes, You Are
Clueless: You're Doing it Wrong
Clueless: Thanks, Iggy Azalea, For Completely Ruining My Favorite Movie for People Too Dense to See the Fallacy of Your Video Production Choices.
Jesus Christ, the Toast has my fucking number.
That Taylor Swift song is a goddamn delight.
I’ve taken to riding the freight elevator at work because nobody else does, and it’s large enough to have a Shake it Off dance party each morning. It’s improved my outlook considerably.
GOT HER SAVED IN MY PHONE UNDER MS. BRUNI
Don’t let them in, don’t let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let them know
Well, now they know!
Charles Blow, Charles Blow
Can’t hold it back anymore
Charles Blow, Charles Blow
Turn away and slam the door!
A+ would sing in shower again
The Kristof one is perfect on many levels.
Oh, you read Paul Krugman
Now we know it’s true
Hope you read Paul Krugman
Just like I read you
Oh, oh
Mall-o-ry, Mall-o-ry
Mall-o-ry, Mall-o-ry
I’d read the Toast and Krugman
Eight days a week
The WaPo version, for the columnist voted Most Resembling An Irritated Basset Hound:
Joan was quizzical, studied pataphysical
Science in the home
Late nights all alone with a test-tube ohh oh oh oh
Maxwell Edison majoring in medicine
Calls her on the phone
Can I take you out to the pictures, Joan?
But as she’s getting ready to go
A knock comes on the door
Bang, bang, Charles Krauthammer
Came down upon her head
Do do do do do
Bang, bang, Charles Krauthammer
Made sure that she was dead
Anytime a Bone Thugs song gets mentioned is a good time.
I don’t know how to feel about Iggy Azealea. Is she a good example of a woman making a name for herself in a medium previously dominated by men, or is she a grotesque example of cultural appropriation? Both, I guess.
yeah, I think you just answered your own question with that one. (fortunately thanks to Weird Al’s “Handy,” you can enjoy the infectious instrumentation/hook of “Fancy” without feeling icky.)
I do this with “Word Crimes” and “Blurred Lines”.
Yep, ambivalence! I think you can acknowledge/disavow the cultural appropriation while also enjoying her music to a degree, just like we have to do all too often with pop culture that is degrading to women.
I fall pretty firmly on the cultural appropriation side of things, personally. The heavy fake accent really puts it over the top into minstrelsy.
This is a fun video that makes the point pretty well!
That is a great video – I’ve gone from knowing nothing about her to everything!
Todd’s Pop Song Reviews are a great source of joy in my life, and his One Hit Wonder videos are educational as shit. Love him.
I personally think the cultural appropriation thing is way overblown. All she does is put on a fake accent (of course, I am neither from the South or black, so my perception is skewed). Plus any woman willing to rap this song is a-okay in my book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htfwTyToeDI
(mascara'd)
So why don't you use it?
Try not to bruise it
Buy time don't lose it
The Remnick is an only child he's waiting in the park
Dave Remnick is in charge of finding treasure in the dark
I can die happy now.
(the Maureen Dowd one is KILLING ME.)
I get really sad when I send toast links to my friends and they say “I don’t get it.”
Y’all are my people.
Sending links to people is my love language.
I write my Opinions
All day long
Rockin’ and a-writin’ and a-singin’ my song
All the loyal readers of Section A
Love to read me Thursdays & Saturdays
I’m Gail Collins
(Gail! Gail! Gail!)
I’m Gail Collins
(Gail! Gail! Gail!)
I’m Gail Collins and you’ll love what I wrote tonight
my perception is skewed
… you're right about that. Sorry. And it's not just an accent; AAVE is a distinct variety of English whose native speakers are actually marginalised for using it on a day-to-day basis, so it takes the piss when white people put it on to rap or to sound "sassy". It's contemporary minstrelsy.
When people–especially POC–observe cultural appropriation, please, please listen. It's not so much as way overblown as white people have always done it a lot, and now that the fact of cultural appropriation has entered public discourse, people are calling it out more often for what it is.
You can be a fan and acknowledge some of what Iggy's done is pretty terrible. You can understand that it's not a big deal to you, personally, but it is a big deal to others. More on Iggy here.
Yeah, I obviously can and do acknowledge that Iggy Azalea is pretty damn problematic. I would try to argue with this, but I obviously don't speak the language (wearing a sari just does not compute as stealing a culture in my brain), so I'll just crawl back to my central European cave.
Okay. We're not on the same page as each other about cultural appropriation (I'm really, really not saying it makes me in any way better, it's okay to not know things, of course).
Again–just, please, please listen respectfully to people of colour. We're saying these things for a reason. If an action doesn't compute as stealing a culture in your brain, fine, that is your thought on the matter. Still, these issues and observations are true and important regardless of whether it makes sense to you, and it's a bad idea to even try to argue about it with a PoC.
Hi my name is
What?
My name is
Who?
My name is
Fricka Fricka Dick Cheney
(I am so, sincerely sorry everyone)
I did not find out until…embarrassingly recently that she was not in fact chasing penguins.