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Art, Politics, Philosophy, Science. Mostly Philosophy.

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    Category: Jon Cogburn

    • Towards a unified theory of why it’s nearly impossible to cover Beatles’ songs

      I still keep wondering why even pretty good bands so reliably founder on Beatles' covers. Maybe it's as simple as this: Because of their experiences in Germany, the Beatles were one of the best live bands in rock history, When added to the complexity of their melodies this sets a very high bar for covers,…

    • In praise of anti-anti-ableism

      Increasingly, when I see someone accused of "ableism" because of some inartful (or perfectly fine) turn of expression, I become angry. It just strikes me as Forrest Gumpism. Everything is really peachy, as long as we confine our discourse to positive platitudes (and attacking those who don't so confine themselves).* But all else being equal,…

    • The scariest thing about Stephen King’s 11/22/63

      There's not much new that one can currently do to add to the variety of possible time travel metaphysics explored in literature. Try-to-improve-stuff-make-other-stuff-much-worse is a pretty reliable trope by this point. Stephen King's 11/22/63 (in addition to being a great novel) is still philosophically interesting though.  What 11/22/63 makes distressingly clear is that in King's…

    • Cassandro’s Big Fight (hat tip Andrew Sullivan)

      Fantastic New Yorker article here about gay luchador Cassandro, with an explanation of the exótico wrestling arechetype and how it fits into lucha libre. The video at right is great too.

    • Wow, Eddie Vedder has a good pair of pipes

      When I watch this I realize how stupid I was to take to heart Cobain's* claim that Pearl Jam was the 90's version of Boston. In this performance he's not doing that Jim Morrisony thing that he did in Pearl Jam's first album and that the lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots did too. It's…

    • Happy Labor Day (hat-tip Mark Silcox)

    • youtube channel for all Wooster piano performances

      This is what the internet was invented for. Twenty or so years ago some friends and I voted over and over again to try to get Wodehouse listed in the infamous Modern Library reader's choice of top 100 novels of the twentieth century. Due to our labors, for a week or so "Bertie Wooster Sees…

    • Monk on scientism and Wittgenstein

      Nice discussion here. Since I'm not a naturalist, I'm sort of on Monk/Wittgenstein's side, but I find some of the dichotomies to be a little bit tendentious. Monk opposes "non-theoretical understanding" to the kind of understanding proper to science, and argues that naturalizing programs in philosophy all fail because they don't realize that the domains…

    • The Church – Endless Sea (Orig. Iggy Pop)

      The guitarist is playing with an "EBow"! Does anybody remember those? They peaked in the 1980s. I love this song (and this is a credible, if truncated, cover), but I'm kind of glad we're back to using the fingers of our left (right for Cobain, Hendrix, et. al.) hand  to get the strings vibrating. I'd…

    • Reverend J. Herbert Nelson, II (Director for Public Witness, PCUSA) on the killings of African-American boys and men

      The call to action: So, the response must be multi-faceted. It isn’t enough to feel outrage, but do nothing. Or to feel fear, but do nothing. Or to feel utter, bone-crushing grief, but do nothing. We must institute policies that limit access to guns. Weapons of war have no place in our homes, communities, or…