Overwhelmingly, I get the impression that the definition of cultural appropriation is "cultural exchange that I don't like".

It's great that the subreddit's gone, but I can't say I like the way things have been handled. For one thing, I don't like that it took so much time and media attention before the decision was made. It pretty clearly shows how reluctant Huffman and the other admins were to take any kind of action, which is exactly why I gave it up in favour of Hubski. Hopefully any former Coontown members that leave Reddit go straight to Voat.

People who use the AllLivesMatter hashtag have always reminded me of the "I'm an egalitarian, not a feminist" crowd, and I'm sure there's a lot of overlap between the two groups. They're misguided at best, and more often hiding behind claims of egalitarianism in order to rail against what they see as "special treatment" for minority groups.

That's the way I'm leaning. When things got really bad for me, Facebook was a top tier time waster.

Finished Oliver Twist a little while ago after reading it off and on for the last few months. I enjoyed the book, but found it very slow going for some reason.

At the moment, I'm reading Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton and trying to get myself started on Karen Armstrong's biography of the historical Buddha.

It amazes me how many people are so attached to ideas of art that have been outdated since before they were born. I can definitely appreciate the old masters for their talent and technique, but it's been a long time since those were the only indicators of an artistic work's quality. There's no way that you can reasonably use the same criteria to judge both David and Rothko. Overall, Florczak's idea of what constitutes "good art" is way too narrow. He discounts decades of European art and completely disregards any non-European traditions, many of which don't adhere to Western ideas of representation. Even his idea of acceptable subject matter is too narrow. I'm not surprised to hear that Prager University is just a right-wing Youtube channel.

I feel like I should also mention that I don't believe his story about the apron. I don't have any instruction on the subject other than a few university art history classes, and it was pretty obvious to me that the image he showed wasn't a Pollock painting. I have trouble believing that graduate art students can't recognize a stained apron when it's shown to them.

There's definitely a basis for criticising cultural appropriation in situations like what you're describing. I think the real problem with appropriation arises when ignorance comes into it. White people making burritos is fine, wearing a ceremonial Native American headdress to Coachella, simply because it looks cool, isn't.

Gary Numan doesn't get anywhere near the respect he deserves for the music he made between The Pleasure Principle and his more industrial albums. I especially like "Berserker".

Odder already said most of what I would have, and put it a lot better than I could.

I just find it strange that psychology seems to get this kind of response so much more than other sciences. Psychologists wouldn't be the first scientists to get something wrong. They wouldn't even be the first scientists to get a lot of things wrong. But how many people call physics "bunk" when a set of results can't be reproduced. We need to remember that mistakes within a field don't necessarily make that field invalid.

I bought Floor Kids on launch day after months of anticipation, and I haven't been disappointed. It's a rhythm game, which I haven't played many of. But I really appreciate Floor Kids' more freeform style and WarioWare-like gameplay loop.

Believe it or not, you're hearing a trumpet and a male voice on this track:

You write the way I wish Tiny Mix Tapes did. Very clear and concise, while still being evocative enough for the reader to get a sense of how the music sounds. You've got a real talent for this. I also love that you're using the blog to discuss some lesser-known music. Here's hoping that the blog becomes as successful as it deserves to be!

A lot of the article seems to take the tone that we definitely know for sure this time, even though we thought we definitely knew for sure before.

It took a few days for me to get into it, but Arcade Fire - Everything Now has really grown on me.

I found this series of videos on samples in popular songs, which led me down a rabbit hole that eventually led to discovering Breakwater - Release the Beast. It was heavily sampled by Daft Punk for Robot Rock, but I really think Release the Beast is a far superior song.

I have basically the opposite reaction. It really rubs me the wrong way when companies use any kind of political ideals, progressive or not, to promote themselves. On the other hand, I think the fact that a piece of art can be responded to and have its meaning changed is what makes it interesting. Of course, not being the artist himself, it's easy for me to say that.

Your second point is where I tend to struggle. I get way too wrapped up in the idea of getting things exactly right the first time, which almost never happens.

I just heard this the other day, and I've really been enjoying it. It manages to do so much with such a stark, minimal arrangement

Urbandawn - Trinidade

Thanks to Courtney Barnett's episode of What's In My Bag, I've started getting into Metz.

Metz - Acetate

It really depends on my mood, but this one is consistently near the top of my list:

The Tragically Hip - Nautical Disaster

The album "Music @ Work" by The Tragically Hip always really resonated with me. When I decided to sign up for Hubski, the song "Tiger the Lion" came to mind, and I thought it might make a good username.

I'm finally getting around to reading Neuromancer by William Gibson. I've already read Idoru and his latest, The Peripheral. Gibson is so good at creating worlds and describing them in a really evocative way. It's easy to get sucked in.

I can't say I'm too surprised that so many sites are doing away with comment sections. Every social media service that articles could be shared on already has its own commenting system. There's really no point in signing up for a site-specific account if you can already comment with your existing account on Facebok, Twitter, or something like Hubski. Especially when the comment sections on so many sites are so poor.

I found out about Eleanor Bond a couple years ago while doing an art history assignment. Most of her paintings are landscapes like this, where the natural and the industrial combine.

Where did I say that it's entirely up to me? Some statements are facts, whether or not you or I believe them.

That's a good point. I'd been thinking mainly of works produced after the neoclassical movement, but dismissing pre-Renaissance art is just as much of a mistake as dismissing all modern art.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think photography is actually what influenced the rise of impressionism and modernism. The idea was to create art that could only exist as a painting. So realistic depictions, and eventually depictions in general, fell by the wayside in favour of works like this.

Dinosaur Comics is a great gag-a-day comic with a sense of humor that strikes me as xkcd-like.

I've never really been one for putting booze in the stuff, but good God do I love a glass of egg nog. For best results, serve with way too much cinnamon on top and a mincemeat tart or two.

Grimes is so good. "Flesh Without Blood" is what got me hooked.

I've been rediscovering a love of jazz lately, and picked up John Coltrane's My Favorite Things.

I usually have to take my time with Dickens, but this last one took months. I just couldn't seem to get into a good rhythm with it.

I like the name, Dragon's Teeth. What's it about?

Historical fiction about the Bone Wars. It's a previously unpublished manuscript, so it's in need of some editing, but I'm digging it so far.

And what's the biography of the Buddha called?

I thought maybe I was forgetting a subtitle or something, but the book's just called Buddha.