Friday Media Roundup
Stuff I’ve read, watched, or listened to that’s good enough to recommend.
Yeasayer / “2080″ (music): Yeasayer is a difficult band to describe, which is a good thing. I can’t imagine anyone agreeing with this, but “2080″ reminds me of music that would play in a movie about an optimistic, post-apocalyptic future.
The whole album has an aura of oddly familiar strangeness. It’s like the music skipped a few stages of evolution, so it’s difficult to see where it came from, but it’s still recognizable enough to enjoy.
How about this: (World Music)^2 ? I give up. Great band, regardless.
The Real All-Americans (book): I’m not a huge sports fan, but I found Sally Jenkins’ book on how Native Americans were integral to the development of collegiate football fascinating. I’m surprised I never heard of Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an experiment in assimilating Native Americans by a well-meaning but perhaps misguided army officer, or knew that it was the source for a lot of what we now consider basic parts of football, like the forward pass,
reverses, and training dummies.
The book also brought light to some names I only heard in passing, like Jim Thorpe and Pop Warner. It’s worth checking out from the library or buying for anyone with an interest in sports history.
