i tell you, like before, you should say his name the way he said yours.

I was trying - futilely, as it turned out - to do some research on the Mensheviks with this awful ringtone rap/Beyonce + thick-ass beats = profit/churning unremarkable synth-pop anthem party going on outside.  Just boring, reprehensible music.  Here's what I decided to do instead, before holing up in the library:

--This video is a beautiful idea beautifully executed; it's the Platonic ideal of ironic, retrosexual youtube videos.  "Help," by the way, has to be in my top five Beatles songs.  (h/t Videogum).

--Grant Hill seems like a cool guy, and J.A. Adande has a nice piece on what really is an incredible - and tragic, in the traditional sense of the word - story.  Speaking of current Phoenix Suns, Love in the Time of LeBron has some compelling reasons to like Channing Frye, the team's enormous Stephen Curry, and Steve Nash, the most consciously anti-mainstream MVP in any sport.  My favorites:  the most ridiculous man in the world, and the futuristic, web 2.0 commercial for VitaminWater's facebook.  (h/t SB Nation).

--Over at the stalwart Iowa blog Black Heart, Gold Pants, Oops Pow Surprise (Adam Jacobi) has a hilarious Hipster Rundown version of Iowa football.

--Speaking of hipsters:  here's a list of stereotypes by band.  The Fleet Foxes description hit a little too close to home, and I don't know if the Arcade Fire description applies to me or not.  The inspiration for the list, Lauren Leto's stereotypes of readers by author, is even better.  Tom Wolfe/William Faulkner/James Joyce were spot-on for me.  Also, I found this on a cursory look through Leto's blog, and it says just about everything you need to know about Ayn Rand.

--Hate, I've found, is integral to fandom.  I have a special kind of hate for Ohio State, the New England Patriots, the Atlanta Falcons, the Utah Jazz, and the Chicago Cubs.  Notre Dame is at best a distant second to Ohio State for me, but it boasts a similar combination of atavistic snobbery, Midwestern pretensions to wholesomeness, and general lack of redeeming qualities.  That said, though, of all the reasons I've found to hate me some Notre Dame, "making an unholy funk abortion of a pep video" never would have occurred to me. (h/t Dr. Saturday).

--While this piece peters out a little bit by the end, the man can write.  "Beyond-baffling coincidences that take place only in a certain purple dimension Jung called 'synchronicity'"?  That sound you're hearing is jealousy.

--I'll be busy for the next week or so, but after that I'll be able to throw together some album reviews.

--Thanks for reading.