A thread for Momus' NYT column

Ten years ago, we might have been filing breathless reports about Cool Japan — its vibrant street fashion, its inventive pop music, its funky gadgets. Times change; these days Japan is less about the cool, more about the _________

fill in the blank!

NYT should have just bought rights to MOMUS MOMUS MOMUS

Your favourite jokes about Momus

Q. What is Momus' least favourite kind of tap water?

this is pretty surreal

Having just read through a couple of these columns, I found them a bit bland. His own blog is better.

Q: Who is Superman's favorite one-eyed Japanophile?
A: He doesn't have one!

Q: In what land would Momus be king?
A: The land of the blind! (Momus wears an eyepatch)

Ten years ago, we might have been filing breathless reports about Cool Japan — its vibrant street fashion, its inventive pop music, its funky gadgets. Times change; these days Japan is less about the cool, more about the _________

fill in the blank!

I gotta go with "schoolgirls" here.

while it takes him a minute to say it (the initial answer is 'cooking') it does relate to sex with japanese people, eventually

What is Momus's favourite Marlon Brando movie?
One Eyed Jacks (Momus only has one eye)!

Q. Why was Momus seen running out of an Indian restaurant pursued by angry waiters?
A. He'd nicked a curry (Nick (it's slang for 'steal' in his native land) Currie (like 'curry', the spicy dish) is Momus's real name)!

I hope you guys are still proud when deeznuts is still doing that a month from now

Why do people think Momus is dishonest?
Because he's two-faced (the Roman god Momus had two faces)!

David Brooks vs. Bill Kristol vs. Momus poll

I like these!
http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/the-post-materialist-a-patterns-math-magic/#more-3021

"What interested Tokolo, though, was the way each tile could have a completely unique shape, and yet be made to link harmoniously to all the others — an unexpected harmony, perhaps, between Western individualism and Eastern collectivism."

I'm being totally honest in saying that I love when math gets used to support this kind of bullshit. It was this kind of thing that got me hooked on math back in the day.

Love those magnets. But the Momus talks to much about amazing math behind it. It is the math of graph paper, equidistant lines.

Yeah, I was about to post something along those lines. I'm sure there's something in the design of the patterns that's built to suit that, aesthetically, but yeah, the mere fact of the edges aligning does not seem like something that requires complex calculation.

I think you can do it by trial and error, but if you want to get complex systems of these linkages in a systematic way, math can help. Or something like that.

yeah those tiles are just edges of alternating black and white, whatever geometry happens in the middle doesn't matter at all to the way the tiles go together. The attached PDF of older patterns is actually about finding the repetition rather than the lack thereof.

"What interested Tokolo, though, was the way each tile could have a completely unique shape, and yet be made to link harmoniously to all the others — an unexpected harmony, perhaps, between Western individualism and Eastern collectivism."

also I would like to add here that the completely unique shape each tile has is known as a square.

Man like Momus's column has been cancelled now. I think that's the last one.

(xpost) squares with squiggly designs on them...

Man like Momus's column has been cancelled now. I think that's the last one.

― Enrique (Raw Patrick), Tuesday, January 13, 2009 12:45 AM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

good

Cold.

Momus, a British musician-turned-performance-artist, has teamed up with Aki Sasamoto, a recent graduate of Columbia University’s M.F.A. program in performance, sculpture, dance and installation, and, apparently, an all-around natural in terms of stage presence.

From 2 to 6 p.m. on weekdays and noon to 6 p.m. on Saturdays, Ms. Sasamoto will draw diagrams on the wall and perform various tasks that include tossing potatoes attached to bungee cords and dicing grapefruits with Japanese ice skates, while breaking into monologues that have a wile and wildness all their own.

Filling in the silences, Momus alternates between the role of commentator (art critic, according to the news release) and spurned lover. Dressed as a Kabuki stagehand in head-to-toe black, wielding a clip-on lamp and occasionally mounting a ladder, he tracks every move Ms. Sasamoto makes, only to be ignored in return, as any Kabuki stagehand would be.

these darn artists -- what'll they think of next?

maybe they should think of getting a job!

i hear starbucks is hiring MFAs