July’s 8

Book – The Ten Cent Plague. In the 30s and 40s, the most popular comic books sold millions of copies and each copy was passed between 6 to 10 kids. The more violent comics eventually led to the comic book scare of the 50s, and one of the first modern censorship pushes.

Gadgetry- Wired just did a story on the Nike + system. As a person who prefers walking (read: lazy person), I never thought about fitness equipment. I tried out the Nike + and I feel compelled to jog every morning. Eventually Ill get workout clothes so Im not running down my street in decade-old cargo shorts.

Blog – The Edit, of course. Ive been doing it for a few weeks. I still feel like Im settling into the pilots chair, but the work is very enjoyable.

Podcast – The Onion AV Club has the best pop culture writing out there, and The Hater column is always a pleasant read. Now theres a podcast of it. (feed link)

Colleague – In the old Hwy61 Revised days, Matt Hurst was the Graydon Carter to my Kurt Anderson…or I was the Carter to his Anderson…or we were both Tina Brown. Whatever. Anyway, hes doing cool things now. Look at his website.

Frustration – People who tweet about how to use Twitter may as well write a book on how to read.

Revisitation – After hearing Bun B on The Sound Of Young America, Ive been listening to old UGK albums. The clerk at the record store called Ridin Dirty (not that song that came out a couple years ago) old school. At what point did 1996 become old school?

Idea – Id like to start a website that combines Metacritic with Allmusic and Amazon to provide a giant list of all media, ranked in greatness by users, professional critics and the sites editors. For example, if you want to read a David Foster Wallace book, this site would say which one is the best (Brief Interviews With Hideous Men). It would also say which Beck album rocks the most (Midnite Vultures) and which Fellini movie you should rent and reference in blog posts so people will think youre smart (8 1/2 probably). Asa Nisi Masa.