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Ring the fuller minstrel in
&$!#%
Swear words and profanities from around the world. [CW: swear words and profanities from around the world]
What If You Bought the Lifetime Warranty... every time?
"Rachel knew, early on, that she would keep Charriot for a long time..." (SLYT) This is the short story of someone who buys the extended, lifetime warranty, every time.
Happy viewing, everyone!
The 3 Body Problem is out!
After a failed adaptation in 2017, Netflix has finally released the home-streaming adaptation of Cixin Liu's Three Body Problem trilogy. How will the slow build to epic scope that prevented some readers from finishing the book series fare in the hands of the same showrunners that brought you Game of Thrones? Binge ready for the weekend (trigger warning: starts with violence). [more inside]
From Aardvark to Zyzzyva you don't know SHIT
From TED To PERNOCTATED, Scrabble’s Best Player Knows No Limits by Stefan Fatsis, author of Word Freak
Audio and radio engineer Bob Heil has passed at 83
Bob became well-known for designing the concept of modern rock and roll systems we see today. Bob designed touring sound systems for rock and roll bands such as the Grateful Dead, the Who, and many others. Bob’s career was jumpstarted when the Grateful Dead arrived in St. Louis to play the Fabulous Fox in February 1970 without a sound system. [more inside]
The Generation Gap
Every January, there's a new Australia Day lamb ad. This years is about the generation gap.
CVS BANGERS, a drugstore soundtrack for existential emptiness
“I vividly remember being violently hungover on a cold winter morning in New England, passionate kisses playing loudly in the background as someone’s grandma slowly searched her purse for coupons, fluorescent lights inescapable as I prayed for a swift end to my existence. Hell is real and I’ve lived it.” Passionate Kisses: The Soundtrack at CVS, by Mitch Therieau (The Paris Review). [more inside]
Coercive Diplomacy
Coercive diplomacy [PDF], "where international politics often takes place in a gray region involving no-peace and no-war, wherein the threat of violence – more than its mere application – is the critical variable," is everywhere. China recently published a laundry list of the US' efforts, while China's are also well-known, if less-than-effective. [more inside]
Jesus wept.
One of the most dangerous hours in America is now 11 o’clock on Sunday morning. [CW: guns, violence, killing, religion, wishful thinking]
Postprandial Glycemic Response to Whole Fruit versus Blended Fruit
TLDR: smoothies ok We compared the postprandial glycemic response in 20 young, healthy college students (12 female, 8 male) after consuming whole fruit vs. blended fruit. The fruit included gala apple, with the seeds removed, and blackberries. We used a repeated measures two-way ANOVA with fruit treatment as the within-subject variable, sex as the between-subjects factor, and glucose maximum, glucose incremental area under the curve (iAUC), and 60 min glucose as dependent variables. Glucose maximum and glucose iAUC were significantly lower (p < 0.05) in blended fruit compared to whole fruit and 60 min glucose was marginally significantly lower (p = 0.057) in blended fruit compared to whole fruit. [Lisa T. Crummett and Riley J. Grosso in Nutrients]. [more inside]
Ten Years of Mr. Autumn Man
Ten years ago this day, Mr. Autumn Man strode forth from the pages of The Onion. Earlier this year, Erik Adams reflected on his biggest claim to fame: being the face of Mr. Autumn Man.
P.J. O'Rourke, (1947-2022)
"Giving money and power to politicians is a lot like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys..."
Everyone Already Knows What Owl She's Talking About
How Data Science Pinpointed the Creepiest Word in “Macbeth” (SL Medium) Actors and critics have long remarked that when you read Macbeth out loud, it feels like your voice and mouth and brain are doing something ever so slightly wrong. There’s something subconsciously off about the sound of the play, and it spooks people. It’s as if Shakespeare somehow wove a tiny bit of creepiness into every single line. The literary scholar George Walton Williams described the “continuous sense of menace” and “horror” that pervades even seemingly innocuous scenes.
There is no more important rule than to wear these ... Safety Glasses
The New Yankee Workshop site has 153 episodes of the show (with more to come) available for free viewing. Via.
We’re still at the point of collecting factlets
The brain's representations of the world are surprisingly unstable. Ed Yong at the Atlantic reports.
I get the news I need from the weather report
What Makes The Unicorn Tapestries So Fascinating?
Ugh, symbolism.
"The Great Gatsby" has entered public domain as of 1/1/2021, and a Reddit post suggesting a Muppet Great Gatsby adaptation went viral. Now Redditor Ben Crew has written a 104-page Muppet Great Gatsby adaptation, complete with songs and a poster.
Garden Like Our Lives Depend On It
As habitat for pollinators and other beneficial insects and wildlife rapidly disappears, the argument that it will be up to private landowners to provide crucial homes and corridors for migration thereby rescuing us all from extinction (if the insects go, we all go), is gaining ground. Groups all over the world are providing information and instruction to gardeners and land owners to help them provide resources for the world's dwindling wildlife.
I'd planned to spend a day compiling a list of resources for gardeners by country and post it, but 10 mins of searching brought me to this SubReddit, and I don't think I can do better.
Grab a spoon.
Could it be a Poultrygeist?
Strange things are afoot at TheMERL, and all is not well; I doubt some fowl play, would the night were come.
Auschwitz Is Not A Metaphor
The new exhibition at the Museum of Jewish Heritage gets everything right—and fixes nothing. Dara Horn reviews “Auschwitz: Not Long Ago, Not Far Away" for The Atlantic. [more inside]
The Myth of 'Self Made' and The Role of Privilege
Is Meritocracy A Myth? and Other Awkward Conversations CBC Radio talks about how much privilege plays a role in what we think of as Self Made Success Stories. Is the concept of the American (or Canadian) Dream not only not possible anymore, but was it ever a real thing? [more inside]
In the room the men come and go talking of prostitutes and saunas?
Pete Tong's History of House, a look at classic dance hits
Pete Tong looks back at classic dance hits with from decades past with History of House, talking with the musicians behind those timeless tracks. There are currently 12 segments online: Kings of Tomorrow - "Finally" ֍ The Shapeshifters - "Lola's Theme" ֍ Inner City - "Good Life" ֍ Josh Wink - "Higher State of Consciousness" ֍ Roger Sanchez - "Another Chance" ֍ David Morales - "Needin' U"* ֍ Reel 2 Real - "I Like To Move It" ֍ Mylo - "Drop the Pressure" ֍ MJ Cole - "Sincere" ֍ Felix Da Housecat - "Silver Screen (Shower Scene)" ֍ Candi Staton - "You Got The Love"* ֍ Ultra Naté - "Free" ֍ Bonus links inside [more inside]
Hobbitat for Huge Manatee
Lindsay Ellis takes a look into what went down in the making of The Hobbit trilogy in her long-form retrospective review.
Part 1: A Long-Expected Autopsy
Part 2: The Battle of Five Studios
Part 1: A Long-Expected Autopsy
Part 2: The Battle of Five Studios
Girl Scout confronts neo-Nazi at Czech rally
When I was your age, I got my first guitar....
The Boss (slyt) I realized it wasn’t about how well you played it, it was how good you looked doing it. [more inside]
Ever just want to spend a little time with your idol?
Gone and Sometimes Forgotten (slyt) Adam the Woo visits odd and out of the way places.
Former drummer for Guttermouth. [more inside]
Former drummer for Guttermouth. [more inside]
Hey, that's the O'Nedders
20 years ago today, a little band from Erie, PA took the world by polite shrug in Tom Hanks' That Thing You Do. [more inside]
"The Battle For Cable Street's Mural"
Eighty years on from the day anti-fascists clashed with Oswald Mosley’s blackshirts in the Jewish East End of London, David Rosenberg tells the story of the long struggle to protect the giant mural. Link to the Brick Lane Bookshop's article, and to more info about the founding of Tower Hamlet's Art Project, which still seems to be going in some form in the middle of our current 'austerity'.
The story of the mural touches on world history*, community involvement, political activism, shared values*, spirit of place, and continuity. It's a fine example of the interaction between local and global; and perhaps of the legacy of Britain's now threatened, always contested, post-war socialist idealism. [more inside]
40 years of partying like a punkette
The Story of Feminist Punk in 33 Songs: From Patti Smith to Bikini Kill, the songs that have crushed stereotypes and steered progress (Pitchfork). More than a list of songs, it's an overview of feminist expression through raw music, from 1975 to 2015, with an introduction by Vivien Goldman. "Because nothing beats jamming and singing with your sisters. That is punk. Punk freed female musicians. It is yours. Sing it, play it, live it now." [more inside]
It's just The Tank to us....
You might call it the "small town struggle." The problem tiny communities have with getting noticed. The Tank is an acoustical marvel, a senses-altering experience found nowhere else on earth. A 60′ tall, 30′ across rusted steel water tank – never used – was discovered in Colorado by sound artist and sonic thinker Bruce Odland in 1976. [more inside]
Eerie music from the dark side of the moon
"Astronauts onboard Apollo 10 say they heard mysterious "music" on the dark side of the moon.
They didn't know if they were hearing things and were left wondering if music really was coming from behind the moon.
The answer is - sort of - but not really.
They could hear an "outer space-type" droning musical sound when they went around the back of the moon at the end of the 1960s and say they were worried nobody would believe them". CNN news piece with short clip of the sound.
Where The Wild Things Aren't.
The home of late artist/illustrator Maurice Sendak may or may not become a museum. It may be more difficult to house a wild thing than it would seem. Controversy broils over Sendak's disputed legacy.
I fought the law, and the law won (unless it didn't)
Outlaw songs are at least as old as popular music itself. The image of a gallant loner battling a rigid and unyielding legal establishment has proved irresistible for generations of songwriters. In 1959, Texan Sonny Curtis wrote one of the best, "I Fought The Law." Intended as a vehicle for himself and the post-Buddy Holly Crickets, their single went precisely nowhere.That is, until it was covered -- the first hit cover was by The Bobby Fuller Four in 1965, then another major version came out 14 years later, from The Clash who revived the "oldie" into what is now a "punk anthem." From there, the covers start piling up.... [more inside]
reading comprehension and good-old scene analysis
Playwright Katori Hall responds to a production of her play, The Mountaintop where the role of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been double-cast the role of King with a black actor and a white one.
And now it is time to read the book.
Many have heard of Brian Eno and David Byrne's album "My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts," but perhaps fewer have read the Book by Amos Tutuola, or its companion book "The Palm Wine Drinkard," described as "Aside from the transmogrified strangeness of folk and fairy tales ... unlike almost anything else in print."
How Friendships Change in Adulthood
The voluntary nature of friendship makes it subject to life’s whims in a way more formal relationships aren’t. In adulthood, as people grow up and go away, friendships are the relationships most likely to take a hit. You’re stuck with your family, and you’ll prioritize your spouse. But where once you could run over to Jonny’s house at a moment’s notice and see if he could come out to play, now you have to ask Jonny if he has a couple hours to get a drink in two weeks. [more inside]
A Child Again
Christina in Red
A girl at the beach, one year before WWI. In 1913, Amateur photographer Mervyn O'Gorman took beautiful, vivid photos of his daughter using an early color photography process called autochrome. [more inside]
We are the world...
It's been a long winter, everyone's a little loopy, and that's probably as good a reason as any for the Internet to have delved into the 30th anniversary of "We Are the World" a bit more (and more entertainingly) than strictly necessary: [more inside]
We'll celebrate a woman for anything, as long as it's not her talent.
The celebrated Australian author Colleen McCullough, probably best known for The Thorn Birds, has died at 77. McCullough's contribution to writing contributed well after her most famous book and she will be sadly missed.
What has caused ire has been the way that her obituary was written in the Australian national newspaper, The Australian, where the second line refers to her physical beauty and weight. The Guardian compares this with other obituaries of people who do not have to be classified by weight or beauty or, as you would know them, men.
Catherine the Great's Erotic Cabinet
Catherine the Great had a room decorated with penises and vaginas. The furniture has vanished, but some pictures (NSFW) remain
Cut The Flan
Why "Marsala"? Because we thought it sounded better than "Scab".
Pantone has announced that 18-1438 aka Marsala, is the color of the year for 2015. Here's how they decided, although not everyone approves. Fast Company offers some alternate names.
Pantone Color of the year, previously – 2014: Radiant Orchid, Pantone Color Forecasting
Pantone Color of the year, previously – 2014: Radiant Orchid, Pantone Color Forecasting
You make me days sour and my nights rancid. (SLCH)
The first son is named Royce, the second son is named Preston, the third son is named Lance And Blake (two names for just one son), and the fourth son is the dreaded Laramie. Which one of my toxic sons are you? Take this quiz to find out!
I’m certain I would have become a right nuisance to the Ramones
Steve Albini on the current state of the music industry: "It was the beginning of what we would call the peer network. By mid-90s there were independent labels and distributors moving millions of dollars of records and CDs. And there was a healthy underground economy of bands making a reasonable income owing to the superior efficiencies of the independent methods... So, that was the system as it was. That’s what we lost when the internet made everything available everywhere for free. And make no mistake about it, we have lost it.
But for a minute I want you to look at the experience of music from a fan’s perspective, post-internet. Music that is hard to find was now easy to find. In response I had more access to music than I had ever imagined... This audience-driven music distribution has other benefits. Long-forgotten music has been given a second life. And bands whose music that was ahead of its time has been allowed to reach a niche audience that the old mass distribution failed to find for them, as one enthusiast turns on the next and this forgotten music finally gets it due." [more inside]
Not a witch, not a murderer, and didn't even live there.
Bathsheba Sherman is best known as the Satanic witch who murdered her infant and then hanged herself from a tree, thus cursing her property and all its future inhabitants. The true story of a couple haunted by her demonic presence inspired the 2013 movie The Conjuring. Except how true was the story? Historian J'aime Rubio writes up The True Story of Bathsheba Sherman. [more inside]