Top Singles And Albums, First Half 2008

( My usual hemming and hawing about Ashlee Simpson )

The story of the year is r&b putting forth gorgeous gobs of harmony. Danity's batshit polyphony keeps leading to these harmonic gobs; so does Vanessa Hudgens' multi-tracking, so does Rihanna's "Disturbia."

Wikipedia has promised that "Bad Girl" is going to be the next Danity Kane single. If it's not, I may never trust Wiki again.

Top 31 Singles First Half 2008

1. Rihanna "Disturbia"
2. Ashlee Simpson "Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya)"
3. Ashlee Simpson "Little Miss Obsessive"
4. Gwen Stefani "Early Winter"
5. Heidi Montag "No More"
6. Robyn "Be Mine!"
7. Robyn "Who's That Girl?"
8. Britney Spears "Break The Ice"
9. September "Cry For You"
10. Buraka Som Sistema "Kalemba Wegue Wegue"
( 11 through 31 )

( Albums )

( Country Singles )

Long Meme Shortened To Its Essence

53. WHAT CD ARE YOU MOST EMBARRASSED TO HAVE ON YOUR SHELF?
The concept of "shelf" is alien to CDs, which exist scattered about or in piles.

Relativism: So What? (Part Two)

My guess is that someone who derides "relativism" would consider me a relativist if he knew my philosophical views. But my intuition here is to call the conversation - relativism, pro or con - a stand-in issue. That is, my relativistic views have no bearing one way or another on whether or not in a specific instance I feel that I need to learn more about someone's context, or whether I think an accepted truth needs to be reexamined or a truth that's under attack needs defending.

In my book I say, "As a relativist I can say, 'Nothing exists in isolation,' and two minutes later say, 'I grew up in an isolated village,' without contradicting myself, since the standards for isolation are different in the two sentences." My point was that the philosophical position addresses nothing of concern to the village, i.e., addresses no human concern.

But actual villagers - actual humans - do say "nothing exists in isolation" and other relativistic equivalents, even if I think the isolation the sentence addresses has nothing to do with the isolation that concerns them. They think otherwise.

( What are you trying to justify, and whom are you trying to justify it TO? )