Bon Iver covers "Your Love" by The Outfield

via muzzle of bees

Lovely reincarnation of "I Don't Want To Lose Your Love Tonight" from Bon Iver's sold out show at The Barrymore Friday night. Wish I coulda been there... then again, I got to see him play for free last year in the basement coffee shop of my old school.

Happy holidays, all!

And now for something completely different...

Although this isn't exactly Madison-related, Milwaukee native Max Estes runs a great comic, My Life As A Bunny, that I find contagiously cheer-inducing even in weather like this. If you like his artwork, I'd also recommend checking out his store for gift ideas!

The Ecstasy of Campus Pundits

If you follow any campus news blogs, (Critical Badger, Fearless Sifting, or the newly founded University and State, for example) you have doubtlessly witnessed discussion of the biggest controversy at UW: the rivalry between The Badger Herald and The Daily Cardinal.

Though CB often draws rightful conclusions about the Herald's superior news coverage, (no-brainer: it has the funding and the space needed for additional, reliable coverage) it often draws focus away from the content. One example was CB's mistake in following the Herald's mistaken report of UW Band Director Mike Leckrone's retirement. While CB scolded the Herald for their premature report, he absolved himself of drinking the Kool Aid with no cross-checking.

If bloggers want to be respected as knowledgeable authorities on campus news, they should not be drawn in by the prospect of adding a tally to the Herald/Cardinal scoreboard.

Similarly, from Suchita of University and State:
"I thought about writing a vehement LTE to the Daily Cardinal disagreeing with this editorial but figured no one really reads the DC."

Is this type of commentary necessary? While perfectly exemplifying the classic bloggier-than-thou attitude, it encourages apathy, not action on issues. Do students need more encouragement to reject participation as futile? I'll readily admit that I have a pro-Cardinal bias, but I think DC or BH-bashing is equally irrelevant, not to mention tiresome.

I'm not trying to blame just the bloggers, (that's the job of...everyone else) but when they invoke the long-standing rivalry between the papers in hopes of livening up their posts, or worse, trying to incite a comment war, they are neglecting their supposed roles: independent arbiters of campus news that encourage student action, not faction.

What up.

I took these screenshots while talking on Skype with my tech savvy grandma--she always points her webcam to show just the top of her head.