If you're not aware of Christian Lander's website Stuff White People Like, then you need to spend some time there browsing, grimacing (in self-recognition) and giggling.  Lander also has a book out called Stuff White People Like, which is a collection of his blog posts.  Basically, Lander identifies the cultural behavior and practices of white people based on what they like and then pokes fun at it.  I should say, he tends to focus more on the priviledged or middle class in white America and he LOVES to go after hipster culture. For example, Lander writes about why white people like dinner parties, modern furniture, girls with bangs, and... public radio!  What makes it genius, of course, is that by just identifying the behavior, he is turning the tables on white folks, who have long thought of themselves as the purveyors of ethnic behavior.  How white people define other groups has been the dominant narrative in our culture and Lander's website flips the switch.

A recent post titled Appearing to Like Classical Music is pretty funny.  He suggests that a lot of white people only pretend to like classical music.  What I like about this post is the way it points out that the value of high culture (symphonies, operas, museums, etc) is a cultural construct.  If we go to the symphony every weekend, we must be cultured.  The motivation to appear cultured is driven by class and social ambition.  Just because an arts event is packaged in an institution or tradition of high art, it is assumed to have worth and immediate cultural cache.  Of course, many great works of art do happen in those spaces, but they're happening in other cultural spaces as well. 

An excerpt from Lander's post:

If a white person starts talking to you about classical music, it’s essential that you tread very lightly.  This is because white people are all petrified that they will be exposed as someone who has only a moderate understanding of classical music.  When a white person encounters another white person who actually enjoys classical music (exceptionally rare), it is often considered to be one of the most traumatic experiences they can go through.

Hilarious. 

After having a three day weekend, I've been scouring the Internets to get my mind back in the swing of things.  By the way, was anyone at Bondi on Saturday night?  I was there, enjoying my dinner, wine and company when out of nowhere, I couldn't stop coughing! Face turning red, gasping for breath, arms in the air, the whole bit. I couldn't even stop long enough to have water.  Then I looked around to discover other patrons coughing.  Suddenly, a hostess started yelling for everyone to evacuate the restaurant.  We all went running outside (my dinner companion does not forget to grab his beer... always thinking, that one!) when fire trucks and the police soon descend on the joint.  Apparently, some knucklehead decided to see what pepper spray smells like.   Nice.  Chalk one up for the knuckleheads. 

Anyway, here's some Tuesday reading...

The new R.E.M. album Accelerate comes (officially) out today.  Here's an interview with Michael Stipe.

Stuff White People Like is now coming to a bookshelf near you... and the blog's author, white boy and unpublished author Christian Lander, is getting paid a reported $300,000 for his musings. 

This is almost unbelievable.  We are banning literary authors from entering our country for reasons of "moral turpitude"?  When will our nation and culture grow tired of our puritanical roots, especially when they are so misguided and hypocritical?  It was the outfit that gave the poor bloke away:  "he was dressed in top hat, long velvet coat and gloves – and detained while officials searched the Internet for information about him and his work."

Another disturbing trend, which we've felt acutely right here in San Diego, with the loss of David Elliott at the Union-Tribune.

David Simon, creator of The Wire, has a couple of different projects in the making.  I've heard rumblings of an HBO series set in New Orleans.  However, this HBO project might be a priority.  I have to admit, the characters in The Departed seem like perfect Simon material.

Here's a review of yet another book purporting a deep anti-intellectualism in the United States.   The book's author Susan Jacoby writes:  "America is now ill with a powerful mutant strain of intertwined ignorance, anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism."

On that cheery note, Happy Tuesday!