Neutral voice

I heard a linguist talking about blogs on NPR this morning. He wasn't opposed to them, but criticized them for not having a "neutral voice," like newspapers have. This, he argued, makes them less universally accessible. I'm a bit shocked that a linguist would propose something as ludicrous as a "neutral voice". All right: proper grammar, declarative sentences, a certain shared vocabulary lead to greater accessibility, but I think what he was really saying was this: "I've grown up with newspapers, so none of their stylistic quirks leap out at me. I did not grow up with blogging, so their informal tone [which he referred to as 'dinner-table'] strikes me as odd." His implication that blogs share a common voice is similarly striking; if anything, the decentralization of information that has come with the net has produced a profusion of styles. I view this as a good thing; while any one blog might exclude any given person, the totality is more all-inclusive than the standard journalistic mode.

The Actual Tigers

Has anyone heard of the band The Actual Tigers? I finally got results from the iTunes music recommendation service (some guy's senior project; it compares your song ratings to other users' and generates recommendations...slowly). They hold the #3 and #4 positions in my suggestions, but I've never heard of them.

The program also recommended the Aquabats, and I already bought one of their CDs used (The Fury of the Aquabats). They're a lot like Man...or Astro-Man? in that they have wacky superhero personae (like the Baron von Tito and Super Kyu) and play ska-rock that may have been inspired by Hanna-Barbera (with titles like Lobster Bucket and Captain Hampton and the Midget Pirates). Their lunacy is not as inspired as MoAM's, but their songs have more lyrics; I think I'm pleased.

Byrning an Onion

The Onion AV Club interviews David Byrne. ( Excerpts: )