It’s that time of the decade again. Making lists of favourite things from the past ten years. 

So, I’ll start with my top songs… note this will be subject to change…

1. Doves – There Goes The Fear (2002)

2. Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies) (2005)

3. Modest Mouse – Float On (2004)

4. Ian Brown – F.E.A.R. (2001)

5. Elbow – Forgot Myself (2005)

6. Sigur Ros – Hoppipolla (2005)

7. Glasvegas – Geraldine (2008)

8.  Radiohead – There There (2003)

9. Interpol – Not Even Jail (2005)

10. Charlatans – Oh Vanity (2008)

11. Arcade Fire – Neighbourhood (Power Out) (2005)

12. Arctic Monkeys – A Certain Romance (2006)

13. The Coral – Goodbye (2002)

14. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Whatever Happened to my Rock n Roll (punk song) (2001)

15. Libertines – Don’t Look Back Into The Sun (2003)

16. The Strokes – The Modern Age (2001)

17. Sufjan Stevens – Chicago (2006)

18. The Shins – Mine’s Not A High Horse (2003)

19. The Delays – Long Time Coming (2004)

20. Arcade Fire – Wake Up (2005)

21. Doves – Pounding (2002)

22. Radiohead – Everything in it’s Right Place (2000)

21. Four Tet – Unspoken (2003)

22. Bon Iver – For Emma (2008)

23. Badly Drawn Boy – The Shining (2000)

24. Elbow – One Day Like This (2008)

25. TV on the Radio – Wolf Like Me (2006)

26. M.I.A. – Paper Planes (2008)

27. South – Paint The Silence (2001)

28. The Music – The People (2002)

29. Grandaddy – Now It’s On (2003)

30. Oasis – Falling Down (2008) 

31. The Cribs – The Wrong Way To Be (2005)

32. Justice vs Simian – We Are Your Friends (2006)

33. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Zero (2009)

34. New Order – Crystal (2001)

35. Ranconteurs – Steady As She Goes (2006)

36. Kasabian – LSF (2004)

37. Queens of the Stone Age – No One Knows (2002)

38. Kings of Leon – The Bucket (2003)

39. Portishead – The Rip (2008)

40. U.N.K.L.E. – In A State (2003)

41. U.N.K.L.E. and Ian Brown – Reign (2003)

42. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood (2005)

43. The Electric Soft Parade – Silent to the Dark (2002)

44. The Verve – Love is Noise (2008)

45. The Killers – Mr Brightside (2004)

46. The Courteeners – Not Nineteen Forever (2008)

47. Mansun – I Can Only Disappoint U (2000)

48. Lupe Fiasco – Kick Push (2007)

49. Richard Ashcroft – C’mon People (Making it Now) (2000)

50. The View – Wasted Little DJ’s (2006)

Stunning yeast bread creations

Wild Yeast

Il y a quelques semaines, j’étais agglutiné dans mon lit à regarder la télévision de façon larvaire. Je passais en revue toutes les chaînes, un zapping psychotique face au néant cataclysmique menant à un ennui anxiogène. Vous trouvez que cette phrase est remplie de mots qui font genre et qu’elle ne sert à rien, c’est normal car fait de manière totalement consciente. Lors de ce passage rythmique d’un canal à l’autre à l’aide de ma télécommande, quelques images retiennent mon attention quelques secondes sur un clip des années 80 diffusé sur la chaîne Virgin 17 dans le cadre d’une émission rétro-nostalgique repassant tous les tubes top 50 de mon enfance. Après un Desirless et son Voyage, Voyage et un A toutes les filles qu’on a aimé avant de Barbelivien & Félix Gray, sonne l’heure de Tristan avec Bonne humeur ce matin. En le revoyant, je me souviens que Vincent Cassel y fait une de ses premières apparitions en tant que chœurs/danseurs dans le clip donc impossible de passer à coté, je veux revoir ça.

Premier constat incroyablement triste, Tristan a un look à la mode d’aujourd’hui et ça c’est terrifiant quand on pense que les années 80 sont l’abomination, l’infamie du fashion, du beau et de l’esthétique (cf. la coupe de cheveux de Desirless ou le maquillage de Jeanne Mass). Tristan se lève de bonne humeur ce matin, et décide d’aller faire du vélo, un synopsis haletant et excitant. Sauf qu’il est pas un mec comme les autres, comme il est de bonne bonne humeur ce matin, il prend une plateforme de déménagement pour descendre de son appart, chose tout a fait normal un dimanche à Paris. En bas dans la rue, ses potes choristes chantent au milieu du bitume avec un T-Shirt blanc Batman so chic.

Le clip aurait pu être oublié de tous mais le temps a fait qu’il est un have-to-be-seen car Vincent Cassel, César du meilleur acteur en 2008, est devenu célèbre mais aussi parce que même si ce n’est pas écrit dessus, la réalisation est signée Mathieu Kassovitz, sa première oeuvre télé-diffusée.

Pour la petite histoire, Tristan était à la fin des années 70 le leader d’un des plus gros groupes de punk parisiens de l’histoire : Guilty Razors. (Même époque que Metal Urbain ou Asphalt Jungle). Tristam Nada, de son vrai nom, s’est forgé un nom dans les nuits branchées parisiennes dans les années 80 car grand ami de Eric Cantona, Mickey Rourke et toutes la scène alternative parisienne. Il restait dans le buzz car il était aussi “artiste urbain“, comprendre ici graffeur de rue, appartenant au collectif  “les musulmans fumants ‘“, adepte de la libre figuration. Tristam est encore aujourd’hui un artiste actif qui continue la composition musicale via son Myspace mais aussi la peinture dans des salles d’exposition parisiennes.

C’est peut être une chanson débile mais je suis attendri quand je l’entends. Un hymne positif sympathique qui sent bon le Marc Toaesca et les années Mitterand.

This award cracks me up. I usually don’t care about this kind of stuff, we do our own thing and that is all I know. So out of the Top 50 Blogs in the wonderful state of IN, we are the worst.

I liked the contest because I was able to check out some pretty cool blogs that I didn’t know about. However, there are some of them that are rarely updated and are really pretty…okay, I am not going to say it…

WIBIA is not bitter, just confused. Plus, there are a few great blogs that didn’t make the list. Further proving the point, this exercise is kinda cool, kinda bogus. Starting to wonder if I would say it was bogus if we won…hmm…I think we all know the answer…”hell no!”

So 9 months into a very pointless blog, 250+ posts, 130+ reviews and a ton of fun in between…I just wanted to take the time to thank all of our wonderful readers for reading, voting and getting us on the map…in last place!

-WIBIA

Ahh…the stuff we post on weekends.

If this kind of content doesn’t get us in the top 50 on  Top50IndianaBlogs.com (vote for us!), I am not sure what will!

Btw, if you are into drinking a few suds form time to time … check out my favorite beer blog… Hoosier Beer Geek

-WIBIA

[Editor's Note:  The video seems to have been removed from YouTube for some unknown legal reason, so you'll just have to take our word for it on this one.  The video was hilarious.]

Gold digger ALERT!

Check it out ladies. Successful belters that go that extra step further to make sure they look good enough to walk down the red carpet (with you of course).

GQ Magazine has released its annual  list of the 50 Best Dressed Men in South Africa. Here are the top 10

1. Jon-Paul Bolus: Owner of Loading Bay and Blue Blood
2. Olé Ledimo: Fashion Designer and founder of House of Olé
3. Sandile Msimango: Senior Manager, Mergers & Acquisitions at MTN
4. Sizwe Dhlomo: MTV Base VJ and YFM DJ
5. Mark de Mendez: Drummer, The Dirty Skirts
6. Thabang Skwambane: Director,  Kaelo Consulting
7. Tshepo Molale: Director of SoftAudit consultancy
8. Anthony Keyworth: Co-owner of Paul Smith and Antanna
9. Mandla Sibeko: Chairman of Seed Capital Investments and Netflorist
10. Devon Brough: New Media strategist at Curious Pictures

For the entire list and interviews with the top 10 visit Media Update.

Would you look at that… Thabang Swkambane ( Banger as we know him)  in at Number 6. Always knew that boy would make something of himself one day. I remember him explaining on a sports tour in the UK , while singing a Milli Vanilli (his favourite band of all time) song , how he could use his bent crooked finger ( if you see him ask him to show you) to his advantage. There is also a rumour that he once led a BBC charge (don’t ask)  that went horribly wrong, but he’ll need to confirm that one.

Good times hey Banger…and now look at you.

Wanna learn more about Thabang’s company then head on over to Kaelo, recognized as a leader and expert in corporate health and HIV/AIDS solutions.

Music fans absolutely live for year-end lists, which in all honesty are completely irrelevant in defining a great album… I mean who after all has the right to say one album is better than another?

Certainly not some self-righteous music journo sitting on their golden throne in some dingy British office…

This being said, fans and other critics alike will spend days picking at big-name editor’s dodgy choices, telling their mates how they’d heard a certain album, ‘way before it got big’, yours truly being one of those included….

With the festive season just around the corner, year-end lists are closer than one might expect, giving late-entrants only a few weeks to blitz unruly music journos…

Disseminating these lists before they go into production is always a fun task and one that I have risen to the occasion of in the good name of useless blogging….

The sources for this highly important study come purely from the cyberweb and are websites certainly worthy of your precious time:

http://www.metacritic.com/music/ basically like a ‘rottentomatoes’ for music….

“Metacritic compiles reviews from respected critics and publications for movies, DVDs, music, television and games. Our unique Metascores show the critical consensus at a glance by taking a weighted average of critic grades.”

http://www.bestalbumsof2009.com/ a brilliant blog that offers a well rounded opinion on the best albums of the year…

“This is your source for news and reviews of the most critically acclaimed and eclectic albums of 2009. Genres include alt-rock, indie-rock, post-rock, metal, industrial, hip-hop, rap, country, folk and much more.”

http://www.besteveralbums.com/ I don’t really understand how this site works… But I believe in it!

“This web site’s purpose is to achieve a means of establishing the greatest music albums of all time by using legitimate critical sources and calculating a ranking based on the rank and number of times an album has appeared in a ‘greatest album’ chart and then ranking the albums according to their aggregate performance.”

The List

The two most popular lists are published by the NME and Rolling Stone, although The Wire always throws together an amazing list, the obscurity of the albums among it means it would be be harder to predict than a drunk AFL stars next dickhead movement. Rolling Stone’s lists seem to be getting crapper and crapper as the magazine becomes a hommage to the shitty country of its birth and while NME’s list all by no means perfect, it is possibly the most respected among music fans and is the one, which I have attempted to tackle today…

The best way to decipher how the list is going to go down is to cross-reference the scores from Metacritic and similar sites, with scores and coverage within the magazine itself, mix that in with choice decisions from the years before and you’ve most likely got a useless equation that will not prove anything.

This however, is the best method on hand and my scewed findings are as follows.

1. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion The brilliant debut release from the Baltimore 4-piece has received glowing reviews worldwide. It also has the key elements, of other NME  chart-topping successes of years gone by such as the Klaxons, the Arctic Monkeys and MGMT. It is new, its original, its heralded as hip by the indie crowd, its wormed its way into the mainstream and most importantly the NME said it was great first.

2. La Roux – La Roux The NME called this “one of the finest forward-thinking British pop albums of recent memory”, there is no doubt the album was good, but 9 out of 10 and a great deal of self-gratification for aiding her rise to stardom, was a bit full-on. The album was generally positively received, however nobody else went as far as the ass-licking that the NME gave it, which is perhaps even more of a reason to push it up the rankings of great records this year. This and the fact that in these politically correct times the NME have never placed a female solo artist any higher than seventh… The times they are-a-changin’.

3. The Horrors – Primary Colours This album may find its way to the number 2 spot, maybe even number 1, it has been heralded all over the globe as a masterpiece and has inspired a resurgence among Joy Division imitators. Although Curtis and co reside in the albums inspiration there is a lot more to take from it than a morbid goth-rock revival and the lads have already missed out on a Mercury due to the dubiously picked Speech Debelle, surely they deserve something for such an epic release???

4. Yeah Yeah Yeah’s – It’s Blitz In some lists including Rolling Stones this beast will most likely hit number 1, completing a trilogy of remarkable albums, Karen O’s three-piece may have hit a commercial chord on the record but there are moments of utter genius throughout. With an American band at number 1 it is unlikely the British NME will rank this any higher, but it certainly deserves a lot more respect than La Roux, this is dance-floor indie at its best

5. Arctic Monkeys – Humbug

The Arctic Monkeys are back, woop wop, they’ve taken a dangerous new step forward with their album… Brilliant…. But who really gives a shit? There was something fierce and fresh about the Monkeys in 2005 but four years down the track they just seem tired in the way that Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand and the Cribs do. Alex Turner and the lads still have certainly created a lovely album, but so have a hundred up-and-comers that won’t even get a mention in end-of-year lists, this being said we’ll still see the Monkeys in the top five…

6. The XX – The XX

The XX have taken all the hype in their stride and crafted a stunning debut that basks in the blissful minimalism many bands fail to grasp in an entire career. The London teenagers album is ranked higher in the data compiling sites than any other band on this fictitious list besides Animal Collective, but the album seems to have flown under the radar a little too well to make a larger dent than the big names dominating the top five.

7. Silversun Pickups – Swoon

The Silversun Pickups are certainly not the most exciting indie band to emerge from the US in recent years, but the NME has chosen this lack-luster piece as their ‘we still care about American music’ album of the year. It holds none of the traits of winning NME bands, it’s more Smashing Pumkins than Libertines, but its a shit load better than Kings of Leon so lets not complain too much…

8. Manic Street Preachers – Journal for Plague Lovers

The Manics will never die, they are one of those brilliant bands that smugly sit at the back watching leaders of their times make utter dicks of themselves in front of the world than fall into the great abyss. ‘Journal for Plague Lovers’ is by know means the ‘Holy Bible’, but it was a damn good effort at proving the band still have it. While Rolling Stone, will put a shitty album from someone who was amazing thirty years ago in their top ten, lets hope the NME will be smart and put an album in from a band who were amazing fifteen years ago and are still amazing now.

9. Jay Z – The Blueprint 3

The album was shit, Jay-Z has gotten a totally shit, but every list needs a hip-hop entry and as far as rich black superstars of a genre none of their readers care about Jigga is NME’s darling (he did play Wonderwall at Glastonbury remember). They also gave this over-hyped piece of garbage 8 out of 10, which was a bit rich for a magazine that only produced about four hip hop reviews over the entirety of the year. Critics in other regions of this world have called this a failed attempt at igniting his nineties glory, but NME have put consistently shit albums in their number 9 spot for the last three years: Kasabian’s Empire, Kings of Leons’ Only by the Night and The Cribs’ Mens Needs.

10. Bats For Lashes – Two Suns

One of the most beautiful releases to pass under the commercial radar, the sophomore piece, which highlights the insatiable talent of British songstress Natasha Khan certainly deserves a higher ranking than Jay Z. It is most likely that Two Suns may not even place in the top twenty, but this band deserve to be there so fuck it, they are.

Conclusion

These are my findings and I’m sure everyone else (including myself in a days time) will disagree, but what the hell, I gave it my best shot and we’ll have to see how close i am when things are revealed in December…

Pitchfork’s top 200 albums of the decade (2000-2009) have been unveiled, and regardless of your opinions regarding what was included and what was left out, one thing is certain: numbers don’t lie. Pitchfork has been reviewing albums and compiling year end lists all decade and the 200 albums they feature on this list have been elevated to a place on the popular music canon, at least for a certain segment of the population.  So let’s take a closer look at the numbers behind this list and see what we discover.

The Best Year of the Decade

The chart above shows how the top 200, top 50, and top 10 albums break down by year.   2001 comes out ahead for in all three breakdowns and the years 2000-2004 totally dominate the entire list, with 117 of the top 200 albums released in the first 5 years, 31 of the top 50, and 9 of the top 10.  It only makes sense that 2009 would have the fewest showings (and none in the bottom 100); not only is the year not yet over but the impact 2009 has on the musical history of the decade is sure to be minimal when compared to the legacies of earlier years.  Ditto 2008, although that year seems to have made a much stronger showing than 2003, a year which didn’t crack the top 10 and only saw 2 albums make the top 50.  Ultimately, the argument for ‘which year was best/worst’ can’t be settled by this list but there is plenty of ammunition here for any side to use.

Comparing Changes in Pitchfork’s Rankings and Lists

The P2K Top 200 Albums highlights how Pitchfork, as a publication, has changed focus over the past decade.  Many albums which were originally met with average or poor reviews, or were never reviewed at all, are included on this list.

Obviously higher-rated albums still dominate the list, but over 20% of the list is devoted to albums with average-to-low reviews.   Andrew W.K.’s I Get Wet takes the prize of lowest rated album to appear on the list; it was originally given a 0.6 rating in a review by Ryan Schreiber himself.  Certainly there have been albums with a lower review (there have been a few 0.0’s in the past), but going from an abysmally low original rating to a place in the top 200 albums of the decade marks a decided shift.  Basement Jaxx’s Rooty takes 2nd place in lowest original score with a 3.8 original rating, but it has the good fortune to land in the top 50 category of the P2K list (it was also featured at 65 on the ‘Best of 2000-2004′ list, making it not quite as big an anomaly as the Andrew W.K. album).  10 albums are featured on the P2K Top albums list with an original rating of less than 7.0, and none of these 10 albums were released after 2003.  Thus we can assume 2 things: The Pitchfork of 2003 would hate this list, and the Pitchfork of 2009 is substantially different in taste, tone, and quality assessment than its earlier incarnation.

Since the original reviews were the product of one writer and there probably was not much editorial oversight in assigning ratings, the original year-end lists provide a clearer point of comparison with regards to the changes in Pitchfork over the past decade.

Here we see 28% (55 albums) of the P2K top 200 albums did not appear on the site’s original year-end list for their respective year.  This would seem to comply with the comparison to the original ranking list.  Just as interesting, though, is the fact that 17 former top 10 albums do not appear on the P2K list at all. 5 albums ranked 10 on their original year-end list are missing altogether here, with the most recent being 2006’s The Drift by Scott Walker.  The highest ranked album to be left off the P2K list is The Lemon of Pink by the Books, which was the number 2 album of 2003.

Pitchfork provided a ‘Top 100 albums of 2000-2004′ list that also gives a point of comparison in assessing how this list differs from their earlier assessments:

While 44 of the top 50 albums of 2000-2004 appear on the P2K list, 42 albums that weren’t included in that list make the cut here.  This makes sense considering 76 of the top 100 albums are on this list and the relevant years make up 117 of the total 200 albums.  Only 6 top 50 albums from the 2000-2004 list aren’t featured on this list, which must suck for those 6 artists.

Before we move to the next category, it’s also interesting to see how Pitchfork’s ‘Best New Music’ selections ranked on this P2K list.

The ‘Best New Music’ designation was instituted in 2003 and was awarded to most, but not all, albums with a rating of 8.3 or higher (and some 8.0-8.2 albums).  31 albums reviewed by Pitchfork from ‘03-’09 appear on the P2K list but did not originally receive the Best New Music Designation.  If we say that every album released before 2003 with a rating of 8.3 or higher would receive ‘Best New Music’ status, that still leaves 70 albums that do not qualify for Best New Music status.  Again, some of this makes sense:  Pitchfork didn’t really review as many rap, pop, or dance/techno/electronica albums before 2002 and in the early years they were especially critical of otherwise-popular acts like Bright Eyes, Elliott Smith, Andrew W.K., and Daft Punk.  Still, this stands as evidence that ‘Best New Music’ is not necessarily the same thing as ‘Music with the Best Staying Power’ or ‘Most Important Music.’

Comparing Pitchfork to Other Critics

A common complaint I hear regarding Pitchfork is that they are often contrary to both popular and critical opinion; that their reviews, scores, and lists set the site apart from other critical sources and popular opinion as radically different.  When we compare Pitchfork’s P2K top 200 albums with the critical consensus compiled on Metacritic, though, this argument starts to break down a little:

Here we see the majority (110 albums) of the P2K top 200 albums were reviewed comparably by other critics.   Only 40 albums on the P2K list were rated with more than 10 points difference on Metacritic.  Perhaps just as telling is the fact that, of the 200 P2K top albums of the decade, 76 appear on Metacritic’s top 200 of the decade list.

So while Pitchfork might maintain some “outsider status,” by reviewing albums that slip past the other mainstream critics Metacritic compiles (46 albums were reviewed by Pitchfork but not by Metacritic) only 18 of these ‘outsider’ reviews are for albums from 2004-2009; either Pitchfork has become more mainstream or Metacritic has become more ‘outsider’ (probably both are true; indie music has become increasingly popular throughout the decade and Pitchfork has increasingly given positive reviews to more mainstream music).

Conclusions

This list of the top 200 albums features some glaring omissions and some surprising inclusions, especially considering the source.  But, more importantly, it documents a clear change in the type of music review coverage Pitchfork provides over the past 10 years; several albums that were not reviewed early in the site’s life are placed favorably on this top 200.  Similarly, albums that received negative or average reviews originally- or were not included on their respective ‘best of the year’ list- are included while albums that were lauded at the time saw steep declines.  The most obvious thing we can take away from this list is that the Pitchfork of 2009 has a very different voice than the Pitchfork of earlier in this decade.

For more data, see my database of the Pitchfork Top 200 Albums of the Decade

We asked and you responded. Here’s a list of your all time favorite Broadway musicals, in no particular order:

1. Les Miserables
2. Rent
3. The King and I
4. Sunday in the Park with George
5. Wicked
6. Guys and Dolls
7. Sweeney Todd
8. Ragtime
9. West Side Story
10. In the Heights
11. Phantom of the Opera
12. Into the Woods
13. Next to Normal
14. Cats
15. Parade
16. Company
17. Chess
18. A Chorus Line
19. Man of La Mancha
20. Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
21. Rocky Horror Show
22. The Music Man
23. My Fair Lady
24. Mame
25. Jersey Boys
26. The Last Five Years (technically off-Broadway, but enough of you voted for it that I had to include it)
27. Candide
28. The Drowsy Chaperone
29. The Sound of Music
30. Spring Awakening
31. Little Shop of Horrors
32. The Wiz
33. Miss Saigon
34. Hair
35. Billy Elliot
36. Gypsy
37. Assassins
38. Rock of Ages
39. Hello Dolly!
40. Cabaret
41. The Lion King
42. Hairspray
43. Grease
44. Avenue Q
45. South Pacific
46. Evita
47. The Producers
48. Pippin
49. Chicago
50. Dreamgirls

Is your favorite not on the list? Add it in the comments below!

Glenn Beck’s recent “Arguing With Idiots” video (made to promote his book by the same title) promotes itself as “truth for those who care to look” (in its opening theme song). But how much ‘truth’ does it actually contain? First, give the video a view.

Done? Good. Let’s break down the all of the claims into individual chunks and see which hold water.

• Claim: “In 2006, the top 1% payed almost 40% of the country’s income taxes.”
  Status: True. (Link leads to IRS data cited in Beck’s video) — Of course, this is without a context, and is, thusly misleading. Why is it misleading? Let’s see. The same set of data Beck uses also lists the top 1%’s share of the entire country’s wealth at a whopping 22.06%, a couple points away from a fourth of the entire country’s income, in the hands of 1%. Now, some people may be arguing that 22.06% share they own is not equal to the 39.89% share of tax burden they bear. But think about it another way:    

  Say, for instance, you have two friends that owe you money, John and Bob. John has $10 and Bob has $100. Both owe you 10% of their money. So John ends up giving you $1 while Bob gives you $10. John has paid 9% of the total amount you now have. Bob has paid 91% of what you now have (by the way, you now have $11). How did this happen? Well, Bob simply earns more money than John, so of course he’s going to end up paying more — even in this system where we’ve used a flat tax rate of 10% for both of them! And look, after the money has been paid back, John has $9 left, and Bob still has $90. Now, if you take the same example and apply a progressive tax system, you can easily see how the top 1% has paid so much in taxes. Because they earn so much money, so of course the percentage taken for taxes is going to be a large amount, since there’s more money to tax. It makes sense. 

  So how much in taxes do the rich pay? Well, according to this New York Times blog, which cites the liberal organization “Citizens for Tax Justice“:

 in 2008 the share of total federal, state and local taxes paid by each income group was relatively close to the share of income that that group brings in, at least as compared to  comparable 2006 numbers for effective federal tax rates:

(Horizontal axis shows the income group. Taxes include all federal, state and local taxes (personal and corporate income, payroll, property, sales, excise, estate, etc.). Incomes include cash income, employer-paid FICA taxes and corporate profits net of taxable dividends.)

So, this chart attempts to balance all the taxes (not just federal) the various income groups paid against the share of the total income each group holds. Does the top 1% pay more, according to this chart? Yes. But it also pays a comparable amount. Why is this?

From a New York Times blog:

State and local taxes tend to be more regressive if they rely more heavily on sales and excise taxes, do not have a broad-based personal income tax, or have a personal income tax that is structured in a less progressive way (e.g., a flat-rate income tax).

So there’s the inclusion of state/local taxes (which vary according to area — some states do have progressive tax systems while others have a flat tax rate). Another reason could be payroll taxes for Social Security:

Officially known as a “contribution,” the Social Security tax brings in almost as much revenue as the individual income tax, and is catching up. By June 2009, annual revenues for the payroll tax collections had reached almost 90 percent of individual income tax collections.

The Social Security part of the payroll tax is about 12 percent of the first $106,800 of employee earnings in a year. The Medicare part is about 3 percent of all payroll earnings (regardless of whether and how much employees make over $106,800).

As a result, people earning over $106,800 pay a lesser percentage of their earnings in payroll taxes than do people earning less than $106,800.

The highest-earning third of United States households pay more individual income tax than payroll tax. But the other two-thirds are paying more payroll tax than income tax.

Higher earners are still responsible for a disproportionate fraction of total taxes, but their share becomes less disproportionate as payroll taxes grow and individual income taxes shrink

 Also, although high-earners pay less of their income in Social Security payroll taxes, they often make out better in Social Security than lower-income workers. From “Putting Our House In Order: A Guide to Social Security and Health Care Reform” by George Shultz (a former Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan, and a Secretary of the Treasury under Nixon) and John Shoven:

Social Security discourages long careers because its system, which is designed to help low-income Americans, winds up helping high-income workers who have short careers. An individual who earns just above the minimum wage over the span of a long career will be correctly identified by the Social Security system as having low lifetime earnings. However, an individual with relatively high earnings per year over a short career span would also qualify as a low average earner by Social Security calculations. This inconsistency occurs because Social Security figures out average earnings on the basis of the highest thirty-five years of earnings, which would include zeros for those years in which an individual had no earnings. 

So high-income earners get to retire years ahead of low-income earners, and still receive the benefits, though since they are not working anymore, they’ve stopped contributing to the workforce. Whether or not this is fair or unfair, you’d expect to hear both sides yelling about it all the time, the same way you hear them yelling about federal income tax burdens. But you don’t. And why is that? Because it’s easier to throw up a chart that says the top 1% pays 40% of taxes and the top 10% pay 71% of taxes and watch people get all riled up. They don’t look at the actual data. They don’t use common sense (which would say that someone who has $10 would only be giving $1 if 10% is being paid, whereas someone with $100 would be giving $10). They just get all angry. 

So Beck’s right. But incredibly misleading. 

• Claim: “The top 50% of earners paid 97% of the entire income tax bill.”
   Status: True. Again, though, the same exact data Beck uses also states that the top 50%’s share of the income is 87.49%.
• Claim: The middle class only paid 3% of the tax burden.
   Status: False.     

  First, we need to define what the middle class is. It’s kind of an amorphous term, so stick with me. FactCheck.org gives a lengthy discussion of what the middle class may be. Take a look:

 It’s possible to come up with a definition of what constitutes “middle income,” but it will depend on how large a slice of the middle one prefers. If we look at U.S. Census Bureau statistics, which divide household income into quintiles, we could say that the “middle” quintile, or 20 percent, might be the “middle” class. In 2006, the average income for households in that middle group was $48,561 and the upper limit was $60,224. But we could just as reasonably use another Census figure, median family income. In 2006, the median – or “middle” – income for a family of four was $70,354. Half of all four-person families made more; half made less…

But others could have different definitions. Baker interviewed a man who earned about $100,000 a year and a woman who made $35,000, both of whom said they were middle class. 

Public opinion polls show how slippery the term can be. An Oct. 2007 poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Harvard School of Public Health and National Public Radio asked 1,527 adults what income level makes a family of four middle class. About 60 percent said a family earning $50,000 or $60,000 fit that description. But 42 percent answered an income of $40,000 and 48 percent said $80,000 were both middle class…

Republic candidate Mitt Romney…defines “middle class” as anyone with an adjusted gross income of under $200,000…

Here, you can see a thinker from the conservative Heritage Foundation arguing that people with $250,000 incomes aren’t wealthy. Does that make them middle class?

So there’s a lot of debate on who, exactly is middle class. The site notes that politicians often change the term to fit their needs. Because of this, and because $200,000 seems a bit high, let’s bypass Mr. Romney’s definition. In fact, let’s give Mr. Beck the benefit of the doubt. Let’s find the lowest number there, and we’ll use that to define the floor of middle class. $35,000 looks like the lowest number up there to me. We’ll use that as the floor. So, in our definition, you need to make above $35,000 to be middle class. 

Well, according to the data Beck uses, the top 50% (that non-middle class portion he’s talking about that pays 97% of America’s taxes) begins at $31,987. Which is below one of the lower figures we used to define middle class. Needless to say its much below some of the other proposed figures up there (notably those of Mitt Romney and the Heritage Foundation). 

Now let’s take a look at tax brackets. If you make $31,987 or up and are filing singly, you’re either in the 25%, 28%, 33%, or 35% tax bracket. That’s right, out of the 6 tax brackets, you could be in 4 of them, depending on how much you make.

Some of what Beck says is true. Some is not. But pretty much all of it is misleading.

Cea mai tânără business woman din top are 32 de ani şi se află aici şi datorită faptului că a moştenit o avere destul de măricică de la tatăl ei. Cea mai în vârsta are 74 de ani şi e …japoneză.

Topul a fost realizat de Financial Times şi poate fi găsit aici.

Rottontomatoes.com has issued a list of the 100 worst movies of the last 10 years. I’m kind of a movie snob. Not the kind of snob that only watches foreign or “artsy” film. I just have to really want to see a movie to invest 2 hours of my life into it. As a result I’ve only seen one movie on the list (Envy), but I really do love movies and I’m a list junkie so I had to share.

Like any list I have issues with what movie is ranked where, but IMHO there certainly isn’t a movie on this list that doesn’t deserve to be.

How many have you seen? I won’t judge you…

I’ve just been lucky enough to come across a list of the 50 Most Interesting Articles on Wikipedia, according to Ray Cadaster. Ever wanted to be full of interesting facts? Here’s your chance! And no, you can’t have the hours you’ll spend on this back. The list:

1. Marree Man
2. War Plan Red
3. Vela Incident
4. Tybee Bomb
5. United States Numbered Highways
6. Wow! Signal
7. Tube Bar Prank Calls
8. Kola Superdeep Borehole
9. Back to the Future Timeline
10. Year Without a Summer
11. K Foundation Burn a Million Quid
12. Sokal Affair
13. Blue Peacock
14. Veerappan
15. Person From Porlock
16. Eternal Flame
17. U.S. Color-Coded War Plans
18. The Wedge (Border)
19. Mohave Phone Booth
20. Stanislav Petrov
21. Valery Sablin
22. The Man on the Clapham Omnibus
23. Special Atomic Demolition Munition
24. Piracy in the Strait of Malacca
25. Prometheus (tree)
26. Zone of Alienation
27. Fan Death
28. Outlawries Bill
29. Raymond Robinson (Green Man)
30. Scoville Scale
31. Kardashev Scale
32. Larry Walters
33. Joshua A. Norton
34. Fabergé egg
35. Issei Sagawa
36. Joseph Jagger
37. Traumatic Insemination
38. James Joseph Dresnok
39. Ivy League Nude Posture Photos
40. Jim Corbett (Hunter)
41. Just-World Phenomenon
42. Nicholas Bourbaki
43. Humanzee
44. Old Man of the Lake
45. Alexamenos Graffito
46. Fairy Chess Piece
47. Michael Fagan Incident
48. ETAOIN SHRDLU
49. Palomares Hydrogen Bomb Incident
50. As Slow as Possible

[via Copybot]

I don’t know about you but Grease, West Side Story, Fool’s Gold, and Pretty Woman are NOT the worst romcoms of all time.
Fool’s Gold isn’t amazing, but it’s still a pretty good romantic comedy.
Go here for to see the rest of the top 50!

Então é isto. Ninguém pediu, ninguém quer saber e suspeito que uma parte pequena dos leitores deste blog se sinta ofendida com este tipo de lista – mas, contra tudo e todos, começo hoje uma série de posts com os meus 50 discos preferidos da década. Adianto: selecionar os “vencedores” foi um drama sangrento. Admito que não estou satisfeito com o resultado e que, para fazer alguma justiça a tudo o que ouvi nesse período, a lista deveria conter mais ou menos 250 álbuns. Ainda assim, seria cruel.

Pensei em escolher 100, mas depois achei mais interessante o desafio de cortar na carne. Taí. Como critério para impor alguma ordem no cortiço, determinei o seguinte: só vale entrar um disco de cada banda/artista. Essa regrinha aparentemente simples é dolorida, já que não consigo imaginar uma lista de melhores da década sem a inclusão de pelo menos dois álbuns do Radiohead e três do White Stripes. Ainda assim, resisti aos impulsos destrutivos e segui com fé na cartilha.

Outra restrição (que nem me incomoda tanto): não entram discos brasileiros. Isso só serviria para confundir o que já está bagunçado. Mas fica o desejo quase secreto de, em outro momento, compor um top verde-e-amarelo, para delírio da nação. Prometo que, se vocês pedirem com carinho, pensarei no assunto.

Antes de começar os trabalhos, um ato de justiça: aí vão discos que quase, quase entraram na lista e foram cortados por alguns centésimos. Fica meu abraço para (sem ordem de preferência) United, do Phoenix, Whatever people say I am, that’s what I’m not, do Arctic Monkeys, Cross, do Justice, Gulag orkestar, do Beirut, Bitte orca, do Dirty Projectors, Relationship of command, do At the Drive-In, Vespertine, da Björk, Gorillaz, do Gorillaz, Vini vidi vicious, do Hives, Brighter than creation’s dark, do Drive-by Truckers, The greatest, da Cat Power, The warning, do Hot Chip e… quando eu voltar para a próxima parte da lista, e antes que isto se transforme numa enciclopédia, continuo com os outsiders, ok?

50. Toxicity – System of a Down (2001)

Lançado exatamente em 11 de setembro de 2001 (juntinho de Glitter, de Mariah Carey, mas isso não ajuda em nada no meu argumento), este disco-bomba-relógio-trombeta-do-apocalipse ainda soa premonitório e perturbador, mesmo nos momentos mais estúpidos (e não são poucos, mas duram menos de dois minutos!). É o mais enlouquecido e enloquecedor dos álbuns de new metal – e, brilhante!, o artefato explosivo que detonou o new metal em centenas de pedaços minúsculos. 

49. Rubies - Destroyer (2006)

Não tenho muitos argumentos contra aqueles que acusam Dan Bejar (o Sr. Destroyer) de sempre gravar um mesmo álbum. Acontece. Mas Rubies é tão luminoso que quebra até esse tipo de birra: aqui, Bejar continua a produzir novas versões de si mesmo, mas com uma novidade sutil: se deixa polir por uma banda em estado de graça e por uma produção que evita todas as estranhezas fáceis do lo-fi em busca de uma sonoridade elegante, resistente ao tempo e ainda assim absolutamente particular. A dangerous woman up to a point e Watercolours into the ocean reluzem.

48 – Stories from the city, stories from the sea – PJ Harvey (2000)

A última obra-prima de Polly Jean Harvey refina algumas das principais características da compositora (a tensão sexual, a insatisfação amorosa, a agonia à flor da pele) numa atmosfera urbana, sob luzes calorosas e até algum sinal de satisfação e êxtase. A participação de Thom Yorke em The mess we’re in é uma das melhores performances dele na década (e a competição é dura…) e cada canção parece a definitiva. A começar por Big exit, o hino suicida que Harvey sempre tentou escrever. Mas é uma love song, de algum modo perverso e estranho.

47. Person pitch – Panda Bear (2007)

Soa simultaneamente alienígena e familiar, como um álbum do Beach Boys transmitido de uma frequência irreconhecível, sabe-se lá de que cidade. Talvez exista mesmo um lado excessivamente racional nas experiências de Panda Bear e isso tenha me afastado um pouco do álbum, pelo menos num primeiro momento (compare com Feels, do Animal Collective, e tire a prova). Ainda assim, a colagem sonora é de uma doçura que deixa qualquer um desarmado. Lá pela décima audição, digo.

46. Boxer – The National (2007)

O disco anterior do National, Alligator, era um city tour atormentado nas madrugadas de Nova York. Em Boxer, eles criam um tipo mais silencioso e intimista de pesadelo: são canções de amor que podem ser interpretadas como canções de horror, de um jeito delicado e sombrio que só Leonard Cohen sabe fazer (mas com um tino pop que parece até criminoso – eles teriam o direito de soar tão… humanos?). Canções como Start a war, Slow show e Mistaken for strangers já nasceram standards – para um mundo não tão fácil, no entanto.

45. Echoes - The Rapture (2003)

Outro disco que soa como uma premonição - mas, ao contrário do System of a Down, o Rapture viu no frenesi pós-11 de setembro uma chance de explorar sonoridades tão instáveis e confusas quanto o tempo em que vivemos (e levá-las para as pistas de dança, quando possível). Daí este disco confuso – um dos mais confusos da década, e eu entendo perfeitamente a reação desanimada de parte da crítica à época do lançamento -, que contém um dos hits mais poderosos que já ouvi (House of jealous lovers), mas não quer saber de seguir as próprias fórmulas. Erra graciosamente. James Murphy e Tim Goldsworthy produzem. 

44.It still moves – My Morning Jacket (2003)

O destino é um tanto injusto com alguns discos. Este, por exemplo, periga ficar conhecido como o último suspiro comercial do country alternativo. Na trilha do Wilco, o My Morning Jacket também abandonaria lentamente o gênero para procurar uma sonoridade mais ambiciosa, com ares de rock progressivo. Mas não conseguiriam gravar um disco tão surpreendente quanto It still moves, um álbum-de-estrada que não se decide entre o country rock, o hard rock setentista e a psicodelia. Faz tudo ao mesmo tempo, como se fosse a última vez - e com uma honestidade tocante.

43. A grand don’t come for free – The Streets (2004)

Um dos discos de hip hop mais inusitados da década veio da cabeça mais-ou-menos-ordinária de Mike Skinner, um inglês branquelo que escreve rimas tão francas quanto posts de blog – o cotidiano cru (e hilariante) de um zé-ninguém. Um chapa. Ao contrário de Eminem, Skinner cria um personagem cômico que ri da própria insignificância, sofre na mão de mulheres insensíveis e aceita ser tratado pelo fã como um amigo próximo. Dry your eyes é o hino de uma geração de adoráveis perdedores.

42. I am a bird now – Antony and the Johnsons (2005)

Um dos discos mais precisos e puros da década: bastam alguns acordes para que qualquer um perceba toda a carga de desespero que envolve a arte confessional de Antony. E melhor: para que se perceba o quão genuína ela é. São canções sem meios-termos: páginas arrancadas de um diário proibido, poesia pop interpretada como hinos religiosos. As participações de Rufus Wainwright, Boy George e Lou Reed soam quase discretas perto do peso emocional que Antony imprime a cada canção. Hope there’s someone é brutal. 

41. Bang bang rock & roll – Art Brut (2005)

O rock inglês começou o século dividido entre a grandiosidade dos épicos para estádios (Muse, Coldplay) e um revival dançante do pós-punk (Libertines, Arctic Monkeys). O Art Brut é um caso a parte: a banda assumiu a função de cronista e chargista de uma geração. O primeiro disco ainda soa como uma piada divertidíssima, que tira sarro de tudo o que se move no mundo pop (da empáfia dos semanários britânicos à vida fútil das celebridades). Do segundo em diante, eles descobririam que tudo é um pouco mais complicado. Não sem perder a graça.

Não sei quando, mas depois tem mais.

… der besten Audio Podcasts des itunes Stores ist 2080 soeben auch angekommen.

So on Digg I came across Matthew Moore’s article 50 things that are being killed by the internet from England’s Telegraph Newspaper. It’s a Top 50 list of things that are dying, diminishing, or being forgotten due to the internet.

50 Things That Are Being Killed By The Internet

This is kind of a neat read, because for the most part, everyone post baby-boom is online and can relate to some of these entries. Enjoy!

-”It’s ya boy!”

(Figured I needed some reference to Jay-Z in this post)

Complex has released a list of what THEY believe to be the greatest Nike dunks of all time. Although you might disagree with some of these, Nike has made a great legacy shoeline nonetheless. Peep the full list HERE.