Reactionary Century wants your lists!

By Ryan

The end of the decade is fast-approaching.  For those of us in the blog world, this means lists.  Copious amounts of unnecessary—but, ultimately, fun—lists.  But I’m sick of all these lists-by-committee, a process that ends up synthesizing everyone’s tastes so that you read about how important Bowling for Columbine was (pretty important) right after reading about how fun The Dark Knight was (pretty fun).  Besides, there are enough lists touting Radiohead, the Cohens, Gladwell, et al.; I want lists that drip with the personality of their creators.  Because what is a decade if not a window into the way we lived our lives?

With that in mind, I’m putting out a call for best-of-the-decade lists from everyone who regularly reads this blog.  Anyone, really.  Send me your top 10, 25, 50, whatever picks in any category you choose (be creative! [or don’t]).  Please type them up in Word format, with optional commentary, pictures, videos, etc.  Email them to me by December 4, and we’ll begin posting them December 7.  These lists will take the place of our regular features for the remainder of the year.

Reactionary Century’s best of 2009 lists will come in January, courtesy of the RC staff (me and Anna).

This week on the internet: 112009

Compiled by Ryan

The links:

-Paste keeps pumping out these “Best of the Decade” lists, and they keep being fun: here’s their list of American breweries, and here’s their favorite live television moments.

-Probably the best, fairest, most-balanced albums list I’ve read so far is that of the AV Club.

-It was only a matter of time until Vanity Fair got their hands on those prepsters Vampire Weekend.

-With digital Lifter Puller releases on the way, along with a book about the band, Craig Finn talks to Pitchfork about his Minneapolis crew before The Hold Steady.

-On the heals of an event at The Paley Center in LA, Parks and Recreation is finally getting some respect, along with speculation about what surprises this season holds.

-If you’re feeling nostalgic, NPR takes us back to the way music blogs were ten years ago.

The YouTube highlights:

One of my new favorite comics is Kumail Nanjiani; check him out on Letterman:

New music spotlight:

Destroyer – Live on CBC Radio 3

I haven’t been listening to much new music this week, so I’ll highlight the one thing I did add to my collection: some solo Destroyer performances.  You can listen to the entire set here, or just check out this new track entitled “Chinatown”:

Destroyer – “Chinatown,” live on CBC Radio from the Ukrainian National Federation in Montreal

The Cigarette Noise: Grow up, AT&T

By Ryan

I hate advertising that directly attacks the competition.  Subway’s ads are notorious for taking on McDonald’s, which seems extremely silly, because Subway’s main contention is that their food is healthier, a fact that almost everyone already knows and agrees upon, but still chooses to eat McDonald’s over Subway’s anyway.  To me, it’s a huge imaging mistake for Subway to acknowledge McDonald’s, because to do so is to remind everyone that McDonald’s kills Subway in sales and does so without acknowledging that their competition even exists.  Judging by their ads, McDonald’s is all the Subway folks think about.

Of course, if McDonald’s were to suddenly start making public claims refuting Subway’s attack ads, it would seem petty and childish.  Even though Subway drags their image through the mud, McDonald’s would only do it worse by acting publicly offended by that lardass Jared.  This is a lesson that AT&T hasn’t learned.

If you haven’t heard, AT&T is suing Verizon over ads that the latter ran comparing the 3G networks of both carriers.  The ads point out that Verizon has five times more 3G coverage in the continental United States than does AT&T, a company that dominates the smartphone market on the basis of its iPhone-exclusivity contract.  AT&T claims that the ads are misleading, because they say that viewers may think that the white areas on the AT&T map have no coverage, when in fact most of it is covered by the 2G (“Edge”) network.  This might make sense if not for the fact that the ads are explicitly about 3G coverage.

The bigger problem here is that AT&T has a notoriously bad 3G network that is too small in coverage and often overcrowded in areas where there is coverage.  And instead of devoting energy to improving their coverage (the best option), or responding to the ads by claiming they are continually improving coverage and leave it at that (second-best option), they draw attention to their horseshit network by making a national story out of a petty lawsuit (the second-worst option, the worst being hiring a guy because he used to be fat and never second-guessing that logic).

Most people don’t pay attention to television commercials, but many people do pay attention to news stories involving two of the biggest telecommunications companies in the country.  Doesn’t anyone at AT&T realize this?  Take a page from the McDonald’s playbook next time: take the high road by ignoring the petty attack ads, and instead get revenge by dominating in sales.  Or do it your way: make a little problem a big problem, and deflate your own branding and image in the process.  Grow up, AT&T.

An Altruistic Angle: Sanitation Solutions

By Anna

She sees the young boy everyday around this time. He squats on his hams a few feet in front of her work place, which doubles as the house for her family of eight, and defecates.

The slums have some sectioned off areas for pooping, but it’s not required. She refuses her body’s function until the cover of night, as many women do. She exists in Nairobi, Kenya. In Tijuana, Mexico. In Mumbai, India.

The struggle to sanitize water isn’t a technological or scientific one, but comes with political unrest and resource availability. Ecotact began to solve the problem of open defecation. It provides a city with pay-per-use public toilets, according to Good. The facilities cost three cents to use and provide 11 people with jobs at each location.

Even if open defecation decreases, water must still be sanitized. The Manna Energy Foundation and Engineers without Borders partnered to create “a rainwater-collection-and-filtration system that pumps the water through a solar-powered UV light to kill bacteria,” according to Good. The system is energized from biodigested kitchen and toilet waste. Manna uses carbon credit sales to pay for the 20 million dollar investment.

Finally, once water is far-and-away from defecation and cleaned with UV light, it still has miles to travel since few people live near their sanitized water source. What better way to transport water than with a Hippo Roller? The wheel shaped bucket can be ROLLED!  (hipporoller.org) Though the concept derives from our Neanderthal ancestors’ invention of the wheel, it took long enough to apply to developing countries’ needs.

The technology and resources are available. Even when governmental greed precedes elected office, humanity coexists on what remains of our eroding earth and must constantly protect one another in order to sustain, which requires, from those who are capable, a willing imagination to progress and money to sustain the progression.

We don’t need government permission to roll a hippo.

This week on the internet: 111309

Compiled by Ryan

The links:

-Fantastic Mr. Fox opens in NY and LA today, and Variety Fair has a Wes Anderson interview, while HitFix has some exclusive video of Anderson acting out the characters by himself.

-Aziz Ansari talks to Entertainment Weekly about his upcoming standup special.

-LA Times ponders the success of Funny or Die.

-Lifter Puller, the former band of Craig Finn and Tad Kubler of The Hold Steady, will finally get a proper digital reissue, along with a new book.

-Google will provide free WiFi at select airports this holiday season.

-There will be a cat…