Nitsuh, reasonable as always, dissects the clash of rockists, 'true' fans, and people who write about topics outside their wheelhouse and why it bothers us.

We can't all be great writers, but we can be better writers. This advice is for everyone. And I put particular importance on number 3.

This isn’t a recovery, in any sense that matters. And policy makers should be doing everything they can to change that fact.

"To mark the publication of rock critic Rob Sheffield’s second book, an 'I Love the 80s'-style tribute to the music of his youth called Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, eMusic’s Michaelangelo Matos took a unique approach to the author interview: a jukebox jury in which music critics, rather than songs, were the focus of discussion."

A short essay on Ghandi's faith. Intriguing. I would like to study this further at some point.

This is pretty traditionalist but she's pretty right.

"Let me think about that." In other words: with a glut of information, we're trying to form opinions and take action on it all just as fast as it's coming in, and we're suffering for it.

Is Lil Wayne's 'Rebirth' really that bad?

Getting politics wrong and getting pop wrong.

Humanizing and well-written. Spoiler: she doesn't have a penis.

A very good, very important list.

On whether Best Coast's guys-treat-me-like-shit-but-I-just-keep-crawling-back lyrical content is hindering the female experience. Read all of the follow-up Tumbls and comments to get the full perspective. It would be interesting to hear Bethany herself comment on this.

Nitsuh Abebe on why being wrong doesn't make you a bad person, and why 'support' is weak sauce.

This is brilliant music blogging. Details are what make me love music.

"An article with a ridiculous conspiracy theory propped up by selective and dishonest quoting. Presented to us by a publication that can’t be bothered to do elementary fact checking. This is the face of climate change denial."

Full-text transcript of President Obama's recent commencement speech at Arizona State University. This man can be downright inspiring.

On the place of an "innocent reminiscer" in today's indie pop-rock landscape, and how it all began with Jonathan Richman.

This! This is so good. This is what I want to be writing.

A stylish, simple, infographical, curt, and summarily realistic at the world in which we currently live.

The ones in the comments are better than the ones in the article. Laughed until I cr*ed y'all!

"I spoke to an economist friend about the city’s problems. 'We don’t make anything,' he said. 'We don’t produce anything. We're a service economy, and no one can afford the services.' What happens after that? I asked. 'Anarchy,' he said. 'Basically, Gaza. If only we had something to rail against except ourselves, as Arab peoples do. What a relief that must be!'"

"There are many terms which refer to a state of relating to or pertaining to a certain thing or category of things. Instead of using a phrase such as 'pertaining to buttercups', you can substitute the adjective 'ranunculaceous'. Using the admittedly invented phrase 'adjectives of relation', I have compiled 842 such terms."

Twenty seconds of a song as the perfect college girlfriend.

"You can try to know, and own the fact that there are things you do not know, or you can be knowing, and hide your own ignorance with sideways shots of been-there done-that familiarity. You can understand that shit happens and try your best to keep things together and accomplish something against all odds — YOU CAN DANCE, as this album begins — or you can blow up the hospital just to show everyone that at any moment anywhere, a hospital can blow up for no fucking reason whatsoever."

"I wrote the words 'a grain of sand' upon a grain of rice/She baked a pie of very shy laboratory mice."

What will call these new forms, these non-books, these "texts"? Hmm, that could work.

Excellent pieces on Deerhunter's Microcastle, M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes", and Wale's "Mixtape About Nothing." Easily one of my favorite music writers. I think it's the ethnomusicology background.

"My wifesd*porcupine hot pix for u."

Typically disinterested in the tourism of Maine's lobster festival, DFW gives a great history of the lobster. The bulk of the article, most interestingly, is dedicated to the ethics of boiling a living creature alive (or otherwise killing it) in order to eat it.

Good story, personal writing from one of the more entertaining and interesting blogs out there. (And four tracks from the new Andrew Bird album.)