16 Comments

  1. I had a dream… about you last night. We were visiting, sitting on your bedroom floor and talking about this site. When I woke up, I listened to Harder, Faster, Stronger, etc… [I can never quite remember]

    “I

  2. “I now had what the self-help books called relationship baggage, which I would carry around for the rest of my life. The trick was to meet someone with similar baggage, and form a matching set..”

    That guy is hilarious

  3. Are you sure there is a fallacy in selloutitude?

    Eggers doth protest too much.

    There are ways and means to remain interesting, edgy, avant-garde. Most people choose not to take them. Its a failing they have to get used to, I’m afraid.

  4. nice articles :)

    and your post reminded me to pick up some fries at the supermarket after work – had cravings since last week…

    yeh!!! french fries + deep fried chicken + baked beans for tomorrow’s dinner (not exactly healthy… but i dun care) – in supersize me servings!

  5. Tamara: It’s nice to be dreamed about, even though the dream sounds like me pretty much being self-indulgent and talking about myself! Ah, that perfect song. I shall listen to it now too.

    James: If you can get your hands on his book Barrel Fever, it has a story in it called The Santaland Diaries which is about the time he worked as a Christmas elf in a mall display. It’s wonderful.

    tsoty04: Fries from SUPERMARKET??!! Go to McDonald’s, man, otherwise why bother? If you’re going to be unhealthy and eat fries, you might as well eat the tastiest unhealthy fries. (I haven’t watched Supersize Me but somehow I doubt it would make the slightest bit of difference to my love for fast food.)

  6. John: Dave Eggers will never be as cool as you, so there’s no point in him trying. :) I don’t actually agree with his article that much, “the fallacy of selloutitude” was just a description of what the article was about, rather than any view of mine.

    What I disagree with most about his article is the “straw hipster” he builds up in order to destroy later eg. “Through largely received wisdom, we rule out Tom Waits’s new album because it’s the same old same old, and we save $15. U2 has lost it, Radiohead is too popular. Country music is bad, Puff Daddy is bad, the last Wallace book was bad because that one reviewer said so. We decide that TV is bad unless it’s the Sopranos. We liked Rick Moody and Jonathan Lethem and Jeffrey Eugenides until they allowed their books to become movies. And on and on.” That is plainly unrealistic. You don’t have to be a bitter reactionary to think Puff Daddy makes bad music.

    But I don’t disagree with his broad point that you shouldn’t say no to new experiences just because of what people will think. And if people want to give you big money for something (assuming that this something is not ethically or aesthetically objectionable to you) you shouldn’t say no just for fear of being called a sellout, because sometimes you need big money to follow big dreams (yes, groan, I know), especially when those big dreams do not seem financially viable on their own.

    One of my favourite albums is rumoured to have been one of the most expensive albums ever made, costing far more than the average indie band could ever afford, and My Bloody Valentine haven’t made an album since. Would I sneer at Kevin Shields if he took big money to make another album just as exquisitely complex? Hell no.

  8. For most burgers, James, I would agree, but you have not had the wonder that is the McSpicy.

    Also, as far as fries are concerned, McDonald’s is much better than Burger King here. BK’s fries are so much better in England.

  9. No way! McDonald’s has wayyyy better fries than BK, whether you’re talking UK or SG. Although this opinion may simply be a function of my preferring floppy to firm. (This being a comment on Michelle’s blog, I hasten to add that this applies only to fries.)

  11. I there was me wasting my time on the literary post when my proper place was here argueing for Maccy D’s.

    The great thing about travel is that it broadens the mind. Oh James, the things I tasted when I was in Singapore; the oreo Mc Flurry, the spicy burger, the prawn sandwich and the wonderful chilli and garlic sauce. Its truelly Asia.

    Burger Kind couldn’t hold a candle to such pioneering fast food.

    I also remember seeing ‘the Ramadan meal’ at, I think KFC, but I couldn’t say for certain.

  12. Alec, your spelling skills are something else.

    ;p

    Back to the post, I didn’t even know that Dave Eggers had been called a sell out. I thought his first novel was great, and the second sucked. But I’ve heard of what he does with his programs for kids and highly respect him for it.

    Patrick made me read “Picka Pocketoni” from “Me Talk Pretty One Day”. Cracked up like crazy. Although to me, Sedaris is always a hit or a miss. Sometimes I just don’t get him, but when I do, I really do.

  13. True, true Kelly. Its been my little cross since I was little. It looks even worse here because of my reluctance to spend time online improving my typing skills.

    You would scarcly believe the jump in my academic standing when I left primary school for secondary and no longer suffered spelling as a testable subject. If only I’d been born in America I could fob it off as some bullshit learning disorder.

    Perhaps its my parent fault. I’ve noticed that kids who do well on TV spelling contests tend to wear oversized glasses. Mine were quite small.

  14. You should watch the documentary ‘Spellbound’.

    I think your spelling is cute. It’s mostly the “e”s that get ya, I seee.

  15. I’ve always dreamed that there might be a girl out there who could love me despite my spelling. Eventually I had to compromise for tolerate.

    To tell the truth and shame the devil, I wanted, in my last comment, to write ‘Spell Bee’ rather than the more cumbersome ‘TV spelling contests’.

    But I just wasn’t sure how to spell the ‘Bee’ in Spell Bee. Was there an ‘e’ and, if so, how many? You might be on to something Kelly.

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