१२ जानेवारी, २००९

"Read Bono's column and, in 20 words or less, explain its theme."

Says Dan Drezner, who thinks the column is insufferable nonsense, and enters his own contest with: "Did you know that I knew Frank Sinatra?"

I'll enter the contest: Art is in the moment.

***

Here is yesterday's post on the Bono column.

४३ टिप्पण्या:

Michael Haz म्हणाले...

Frank was important. I am trying to be as important as Frank. I write in jazz-cadenced sentences. It's crap.

Mark O म्हणाले...

"IT'S ALL ABOUT ME. EVEN FRANK."

Expat(ish) म्हणाले...

Where is my hat? Bring me my hat!

-XC

(Inside joke about faux enviro stars.)

George M. Spencer म्हणाले...

Theme: "Drunkenness"

What else do you expect from an Irish singer at New Year's?

Bissage म्हणाले...

Bono’s theme explained:

“I am awed by the fact that Frank Sinatra once cored a head of iceberg lettuce with his penis.”

traditionalguy म्हणाले...

20 words right.I hear the theme of auld lang syne sung to the old stable days of Pax Americana.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

@Bissage -- ah, yes, the selfishness theme!

Host with the Most म्हणाले...

Love Sinatra's music

Love Bono's music.

Bono writes songs. He can't write long form worth shit.

chickelit म्हणाले...

Pro Bono ad nauseum est.

Ron म्हणाले...

"I wish I'd slept with Ava Gardner."

ZZMike म्हणाले...

Bono's piece is a nice blog entry. It fits in with blogs that rank around #237,000.

If anyone - anyone - else had written that and submitted it to the Times (or probably any other newspaper), they'd have tossed it, after the third paragraph.

Yes, Sinatra was one-of-a-kind. Most of us know that already.

SteveR म्हणाले...

Almost without exception an artist gifted in one arena falls short in any other. Or it is perhaps better to say that anyone who expects Bono to write an article any where close to as well as he writes and performs music, is not very realistic.

Anyway:

Frosted Lucky Charms, they're magically delicious

अनामित म्हणाले...

I though "come on, it can't be that bad." and it's not. But what it is, I haven't a clue. Was he writing a song and it became an essay... or was this some diary entry gone wrong? Perhaps a movie plot outline that didn't work?
Somebody probably told him to make it sound important. To him it probably does.
An admission here: I couldn't stand to read it all. I just couldn't.

Ralph L म्हणाले...

"I wear rose-tinted glasses to make you look better, not to hide the wrinkles around my eyes."

Jason (the commenter) म्हणाले...

No one reads this paper anyway, so I can write whatever I want. P.S. I fell off the wagon.

Palladian म्हणाले...

He obviously still hasn't found what he's looking for: the point.

reader_iam म्हणाले...

Oh, OK, I take back what I wrote on the comment community thread: I'll nominate Palladian's just previous comments. Oh, hell. I'll nominate this thread.

LOL.

(And I like Sinatra's work and Bono's, though the former more than the latter, not that I'd typically compare them or choose between them, and why should I, anyway?

Bono's column was a hard-go, I confess. What mydismalswamp said, in addition to Palladian's quip.)

author, etc. म्हणाले...

This why the blogosphere can be so enlightening: I started reading Bono's piece in the Times and immediately balked at the looming prose thicket and fled back to the NY Post sports coverage. I doubt I would ever have thought about the piece again had it not been cited on Althouse. Now I know what I missed, or didn't miss.

I hear next week Bono will be riffing on Laurence Olivier. I want a full report from someone out there, please.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

Dog and UFO.

Compare to a thousand words.

John Burgess म्हणाले...

-- "Art is in the movement"


Is that like "Elvis is in the building"?

KCFleming म्हणाले...

"...a fresh canvas and never overworking the paint."

According to the EFS&MB in Zürich, with this article Bono now regains the title, weighing in at 101.5 courics.

lowercase म्हणाले...

Couldn't make it all the way through even for the pleasure of snarking on Bono.

Roberto म्हणाले...

Oh, please.

Sinatra could sing.

Period.

He was mostly an egotistical asshole.

Do any of the people who are regularly here ever actually READ books?

I swear, you sound like small children.

Alex म्हणाले...

Bono hasn't done anything special since the early 90s anyways.

reader_iam म्हणाले...

Do any of the people who are regularly here ever actually READ books?

This follows from the sentences preceding it how, exactly?

the wolf म्हणाले...

The folks at major newspapers moan about bloggers but then they have friggin' BONO writing a column. That's rich.

chuck b. म्हणाले...

Oh, Bono. You're not the smartest man that I've ever met. And every word you ever said I won't forget. And so I guess that's why until the day I die, when you're bad and make me sad...you're still my guy. 'Cuz it's the little things oohh, that mean a lot. Not what you say, not what you got.

The Dude म्हणाले...

I knew a woman named Bono. She was nice.

Daryl म्हणाले...

Here's my summary:

"What Frank Sinatra taught me about art, innocence and experience."

In just 10 words.

Of course, I'm not a slave to Times Select (no way in Hell am I going to send money to those Nazis, I'd rather stab myself in the leg) so I can't read Bono's column, only the teaser sentence. So I kind of cheated.

DaLawGiver म्हणाले...

Bissage gets my vote just for the mental imagery it evokes.

I can envision the rat pack all drunk as hell trying to core iceberg lettuce with their dongs but Frank is the only one who can pull it off.

Wince म्हणाले...

Like I said, it comes down to ten simple words:

I got chunks of guys like you in my stool!

Donna B. म्हणाले...

I don't have Times Select as I'm not giving them a dime for anything, but the Bono piece was available to me.

That's strange, no?

Even stranger, I sort of liked it. Yeah, it has a bit of "I knew Sinatra" in it, but it also had quite a bit of respect for Sinatra's talent, which I appreciate.

Chip Ahoy म्हणाले...

I don't know what all this whoop-dee-doo is about Sonny Bono.

Wut?

chuck b. म्हणाले...

Wut? Another there's another Bono?

Ralph L म्हणाले...

In Churchill's immortal phrase:
This pudding has no theme.

Bissage म्हणाले...

Althouse said . . . [A]h, yes, the selfishness theme!

Exactly. But this is not to say that Mr. Sinatra was the master of all masters in this regard.

The Chairman of the Board could have learned a thing or two from the Godfather of Soul.

Behold . . . the confessions of a Greedy Man!

LINK.

(Notice: In the event this video had remained available on YouTube, you would now be watching “I’m a Greedy Man” and be experiencing a heightened state of extreme grooving funk. Batteries not included. All rights reserved. This offer void where restricted or prohibited by law. Your results may vary. Consult your physician to see if extreme grooving funk is right for you. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.)

Bissage म्हणाले...

Lawgiver . . . EXACTLY!!!

In my version they're all drunk in a Vegas hotel room and Frank Sinatra is standing on a coffee table giving a demonstration how it's done.

Extra bonus hilarity for picturing Mr. Sinatra in a wife-beater and boxers, still wearing his hat, with black socks and garters.

Ha!

P.S. He should also be smoking absent-mindedly as he goes to town on the poor thing!

AllenS म्हणाले...

Bono: "I have an ear ring, and Frank doesn't."

Eight words.

bearbee म्हणाले...

Wasted words.

“Miles Davis never wasted a note, kid — or a word on a fool.”

NYT attempting to boost readership?

He might try his hand at writing financial advice.
U2 avoids taxes, raising ire in Ireland

U2: Prattling Bums

Dust Bunny Queen म्हणाले...

"I'm Irish and wish I were James Joyce or Sinatra or something, where's my wine glass"

Henry म्हणाले...

"Hey Edge, beat this."

Four words.

It's not such a bad effort, even if garbled and trite. Music appreciation is very hard to write.

And Pavaroti's voice didn't improve with age.

Neuroskeptic म्हणाले...

Can the word "wank" repeated 1000 times count as just one word? If so that's my entry.

अनामित म्हणाले...

The ecstatic reverie of living have-lived in the moment will outlast the hang-ups and hangovers of our times.