@aram@aoir.social
@aram@aoir.social avatar

aram

@aram@aoir.social

Writer, professor, musician.

The lesser ½ of Dunia & Aram.
The lesser ½ of https://zirk.us/@RASinn.
The lesser ⅛ of Comm Studies @ AU.

New book from https://mastodon.mit.edu/@themitpress: THE SECRET LIFE OF DATA

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

globalvoices, to random
@globalvoices@mstdn.social avatar

Macklemore Gaza anthem ‘Hind’s Hall’ climbs US music charts
https://globalvoices.org/2024/06/04/macklemore-gaza-anthem-hinds-hall-climbs-us-music-charts/

aram,
@aram@aoir.social avatar

@globalvoices yeah fuck that guy

aram,
@aram@aoir.social avatar

@seachanger @globalvoices lol ok sure whatever

aram,
@aram@aoir.social avatar

@seachanger @globalvoices I'm sure you'd say the same if he had done a blackface routine

aram, to random
@aram@aoir.social avatar

Need some GREAT for a loooooong voyage. Hit me.

aram, to random
@aram@aoir.social avatar
aram, to random
@aram@aoir.social avatar

When #Alito was first nominated by W in 2006, I drew an op-comic for the LGBTQ Task Force presaging his potential threats to American Civil Liberties. 18 years later, I think it holds up.

aram, to DC
@aram@aoir.social avatar

Hey #DC #academic #media #communication folks, I've got a #job to fill at American University:

Looking for and adjunct for Fall 2024 to teach our basic intro to comm studies class. DM or email me aram at american dot edu

JamesGleick, to random
@JamesGleick@zirk.us avatar

Man running for president offers you his holiday greetings.

aram,
@aram@aoir.social avatar

@JamesGleick Imagine reading that and thinking "yeah I want that guy in charge of the country"

aram, to random
@aram@aoir.social avatar

When I was in Moscow in 2011, I met a bunch of Ukrainian reggae musicians, who told me Russians could never play reggae because their way of speaking was so unmusical. Interesting to read this WaPo article about how often music is used as resistance against Russian hegemony.

https://wapo.st/3wMAiZn

aram, to random
@aram@aoir.social avatar

This is why the internet https://www.openculture.com/2024/05/hear-the-song-written-on-a-sinners-buttock-in-hieronymus-boschs-painting-the-garden-of-earthly-delights.html

aram, to random
@aram@aoir.social avatar

The scary thing isn't that Supreme Court justices have anti-democratic political agendas.

The scary thing is that they no longer feel the need to hide it.

aram, to books
@aram@aoir.social avatar

New from me on Shepherd: The best books about data that will blow your mind 🤯🤖📚

https://shepherd.com/best-books/books-about-data-that-will-blow-your-mind

@bookstodon

aram, to random
@aram@aoir.social avatar

Rest in Power the incomparable . Few have ever been so delightfully hateful onscreen, yet still oozing humor and humanity with every gesture. 💔
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/05/17/dabney-coleman-actor-dead-obituary/

pluralistic, to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

As a science fiction writer, I find it weird that some sf tropes - like space colonization - have become culture-war touchstones. You know, that whole "we were promised jetpacks" thing.

--

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/17/fake-it-until-you-dont-make-it/#twenty-one-seconds

1/

aram,
@aram@aoir.social avatar

@pluralistic Lonny Avi Brooks and I did a whole issue of the International Journal of Communication on this a while back. We called those tropes "futuretypes" and a bunch of us wrote collaborative essays about their political and cultural significance. https://annenbergpress.com/2016/11/17/ijoc-publishes-special-forum-section-on-imagining-futuretypes/

aram, to music
@aram@aoir.social avatar

🚨 alert

TLDR: Now that offers audiobooks, they're only paying songwriters based on 50% of their revenue, even though music is still the main offering (and probably the majority of listener hours). So a collective representing composers' rights is suing.

Here's the complaint:
https://www.themlc.com/hubfs/Complaint - MLC-Spotify (2024.05.16).pdf

aram, to random
@aram@aoir.social avatar

Imagine there's no countries

https://dinosaurpictures.org/ancient-earth

aram, to music
@aram@aoir.social avatar

Text-to-music is getting closer and closer to an everyday commodity.

As a songwriter, performer, and lover to my core, I say BRING IT ON

Pop music has been created by committee for decades anyway. At least now the kids will have a seat at the committee table.

Can't wait to hear how this gets fucked with.

https://venturebeat.com/ai/elevenlabs-previews-music-generating-ai-model/

dangillmor, to random
@dangillmor@mastodon.social avatar

Not the Onion (though if it was on that site we'd all have a good laugh at the fine satire).

Sadly, but predictably, it's in the New York Times.

"Stormy Daniels as We Had Never Seen Her

During her time on the stand in former President Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial, the adult entertainer dressed for history — and a jury."

h/t @jeffjarvis

aram,
@aram@aoir.social avatar

@dangillmor @jeffjarvis what an utter embarrassment to the profession of journalism

aram, to history
@aram@aoir.social avatar

Here's a question for all you folks:

Would/could the "inalienable rights" of IHR exist without the intellectual precursor of the "divine right" of kings?

That is to say, did the latter provide a necessary model (or negative model) for the former? And if so, is that why divinity/god-given is still foundational to so much rights discourse?

Also, is there a model for IHR that's not based on a divine creator? eg One based on a Buddhist or other non-theistic cosmology?

aram, to random
@aram@aoir.social avatar

It's a very odd feeling, having played a role in Web 1, 2, & 3, to be mentoring students who only know of those moments via third-party scholarship.

Much of that scholarship is very good. But it's all coalesced around received wisdom & fixed narratives, and those tend to leave out a lot of important details.

I'm always torn about whether and how much to use my own memory/experience of the events to add nuance, or to just let the official story be the official story.

aram,
@aram@aoir.social avatar

@luis_in_brief @davidthewid @henryfarrell

The importance question is exactly what I'm asking.

Of course, all cultural distances are reduced in the rear-view mirror of history. Nobody knows or cares now about mods vs. rockers, OS vs FS, East Coast rap vs West Coast rap, bop vs. swing, AOL vs. FidoNet... and maybe they shouldn't.

But having once known, and cared, it's hard not to add a little bit of context to discussions that treat the camps and concepts as interchangeable.

aram, to random
@aram@aoir.social avatar

Rest in power to the great . Hard to overstate what an important role he played in shaping the sound of American popular music in the 90s. Also his explainer about record contract fuckery is a classic I've included on many a syllabus.

https://pitchfork.com/news/steve-albini-storied-producer-and-icon-of-the-rock-underground-dies-at-61/

aram,
@aram@aoir.social avatar

Read and learn. https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-problem-with-music

Jennifer, to scifi
@Jennifer@bookstodon.com avatar

I need some new science fiction to read, who has some suggestions? I don't like military sci-fi. For reference, my favorite series is the Expanse, I also enjoyed Scalzi's Collapsing Empire, I love Robert Charles Wilson's books. I mostly enjoy space operas and unique stories about technology, for example I really liked the recent book Mountain in the Sea about AI and intelligent octopus. Suggestions from the awesome Bookstodon community? @bookstodon

aram,
@aram@aoir.social avatar

@Jennifer @bookstodon for your consideration https://rebellionpublishing.com/out-now-a-second-chance-for-yesterday-by-r-a-sinn/

aram, to random
@aram@aoir.social avatar

So proud of my brother-in-law for sticking to his guns and sharing his truth in this @nytimes profile. I love you, brother! https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/movies/jar-jar-binks-actor-star-wars-ahmed-best.html

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