Evgeny Morozov nails the laughable public internet intellectuals

Evgeny Morozov nails the cult of the Internet Intellectuals in this review of Jeff Jarvis' new book for the New Republic.

The failure of Internet intellectuals actually to grapple with the [intervening] centuries of momentous technological, social, and cultural development is glaring. For all their grandiosity about technology as the key to all of life’s riddles, they cannot see further than their iPads. And even their iPad is of interest to them only as a “platform”—another buzzword of the incurious—and not as an artifact that is assembled in dubious conditions somewhere in East Asian workshops so as to produce cultic devotion in its more fortunate owners. This lack of elementary intellectual curiosity is the defining feature of the Internet intellectual.

History , after all, is about details, but no Internet intellectual wants to be accused of thinking small. And so they think big—sloppily, ignorantly, pretentiously, and without the slightest appreciation of the difference between critical thought and market propaganda.

Monk and Coltrane and the Beat Poet generation

PART Two of the GM podcast sees Tom Rafferty of the Primevals and the Beat Poets wax highly lyrically on the genius of John and Alice Coltrane, Thelonius Monk and what attracts him to the more difficult end of the jazz canon.

EDIT: (To download, click 'share' and then 'link to mp3' download then from DivShare.com)

Songs:

John Coltrane - 'Giants Steps' from Giant Steps

The Beat Poets - 'Exterminator'

Brilliant Corners - 'Blue Monk'

The intro and outro music for the podcast is Lloyd Cole's 'Backwoods (reprise)' available here on download at Amazon. But, fill your boots and shop at Lloyd's online shop, it's full of top quality lovelies from across the decades. You'll find Backwoods on the album etc.

The great American storyteller: James Lee Burke on the misuse of power and the dishonour of Bush

Oh that all of our writers would have this depth of humanity and intellect. He should be our moral barometer.

Podcast: Primevals & Beat Poets guitarist Tom Rafferty on Hendrix, Otis Redding and The Saints

PRIMEVALS and Beat Poets guitarist Tom Rafferty has long played and championed music that comes from anywhere but the mainstream.

Pebbles and Nuggets 60s Californian garage punk was one of the starting points for the Primevals, (a long time prior to their mid-90s re-issue inspired renaissance), while all forms of bebop, big band and classic jazz have inspired the man throughout his musical career. Alice Coltrane sits beside Dick Dale in hugely catholic range of influences.

In this, Part 1 of a two-part podcast, Tom talks about his formative musical influences and learning to play along to Hendrix, Otis Redding and Aussie punks The Saints in his bedroom in Mount Florida in Glasgow.

EDIT: (To download, click 'share' and then 'link to mp3' download then from DivShare.com)

Tracks:

Jimi Hendrix Experience - 'Killing Floor', from Live at Monterey

Otis Redding - 'Respect', from Live in Europe. EDIT: Note that this is the Live in Europe version. Although played, in parts, quite quickly, Tom, quite rightly pointed out, it is considerably slower than the Monterey version - which I don't have!

The Saints - 'I'm Stranded', from All Times Through Paradise (4 CD box set for £8.99 on download!)

Bonus Track:

Alex Chilton & His Beat Poets - 'Respect', from Live on Glasgow Green

Edit: The intro and outro music for the podcast is Lloyd Cole's 'Backwoods (reprise)' available here on download at Amazon. But, fill your boots and shop at Lloyd's online shop, it's full of top quality lovelies from across the decades. You'll find Backwoods on the album etc.