We’d all benefit if there was more posting on Metafilter, even if it wasn’t perfect. It’d help if it wasn’t often so discouraging to submit posts, though. Here are some thoughts on how we could achieve this.
posted to MetaTalk by adrianhon at 4:08 PM on January 14, 2021 (142 comments)

Hello son, this is booking agent Bobby Romeo and I'm calling to offer your band Yo La Tengo an opportunity to open for the reunited Beatles!
posted to MetaFilter by carsonb at 10:23 AM on May 28, 2020 (10 comments)

crouton petting, n.

1. the state of feeling or expressing an anthropomorphized fondness, affection, or compassion for inanimate objects
2. the state of just literally petting some actual croutons

MetaFilter has only been able to accommodate that first definition (cf. this discussion among others)...until now. Thanks to recent improvements in both baking and recombinant genetics, we're happy to announce the opening of the world's first interactive Crouton Petting Zoo.
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 2:31 AM on April 1, 2019 (296 comments)

Nightrecordings & I got hitched today! MetaFilter brought us together and we wanted to share our joy with all of you.
posted to MetaTalk by Fizz at 6:38 PM on March 23, 2019 (170 comments)

After a short twenty-year breather, former WFMU DJ The Hound, featured previously on Metafilter here and here, is back.
posted to MetaFilter by thursdaystoo at 7:26 AM on May 1, 2017 (7 comments)

Oh hey. I guess I've been here for ten years and counting.
posted to MetaTalk by showbiz_liz at 4:31 PM on October 22, 2017 (52 comments)

Scharlette Holdman has died at 70. She tirelessly fought to save those facing the death penalty. You can read about her and her work in books and articles, or listen to a radio program. I had the privilege of meeting her in the 90's in San Francisco. She was dedicated, smart, angry, and hilarious - and all to a degree most people I know never approach. RIP. There is more justice in the world because you were here.
posted to MetaFilter by mzurer at 4:50 PM on July 13, 2017 (14 comments)

Nintendo trademark suggests Nintendo 64 Classic Edition [Polygon] “Nintendo may be planning to release the next iteration of its “Classics” console series: the Nintendo 64, if recent European trademark filings from the company are any indication. On July 18, Nintendo filed four graphical trademarks with the European Union Intellectual Property Office. Each one is a simple piece of black-and-white line art, a 2D graphical representation of a Nintendo console or controller.”
posted to MetaFilter by Fizz at 9:17 PM on July 21, 2017 (38 comments)

"Ever since two or more machines found themselves exchanging information on a network, they’ve needed a way to uniquely identify things."
posted to MetaFilter by jenkinsEar at 2:03 PM on June 9, 2017 (18 comments)

I'm proposing a "Brand New Day" reset on grudges, grievances, and gripes. After that, the mods will apply stronger penalties for offenders.
posted to MetaTalk by Gamblor at 9:46 AM on February 8, 2006 (149 comments)

Back by moderately popular demand, it's the MetaFilterMusic podcast! Check out episode 2 on Soundcloud!
posted to MetaTalk by greenish at 2:29 AM on March 6, 2016 (27 comments)

An hour and a half east of Mount Rushmore, and four hours west of Sioux Falls, you'll drive by Wall, South Dakota, population 800 or so. 84 years ago, the population was 326 people, but it was located on Interstate 90, so there was steady traffic of people driving past the town, even in the Depression. Wall Drug Store was just another quiet shop run by Ted Hustead, who watched all the traffic drive right on by, until his wife Dorothy hit upon a big idea: put up billboards telling people they could stop in and get free ice water. This is the origin of Wall Drug's fame, putting the store on the map.
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 12:50 PM on August 4, 2015 (44 comments)

@mothgenerator is a Twitter account from poet and artist Katie Rose Pipkin and game maker Loren Schmidt that shares their fantastic bot-generated digital moths. Boingboing article here.
posted to MetaFilter by taz at 6:09 AM on July 24, 2015 (8 comments)

So, mathowie, you are still with us for one last night, as a so-called moderator. Interesting. Beguiling, even. Show us then: what are the uncouthnesses, insubordinations and downright fripperies up with which you will not put, while you are still in power?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso at 1:57 PM on March 6, 2015 (615 comments)

"If you want to hear music, you know what you do - you turn on the radio, put on a CD, or even go to a concert. But as the age of the info superhighway inches forward, you can even get music from your own home computer." That's the intro to a short CNN segment on IUMA, the Internet Underground Music Archive, which opened in 1992 as an effort for unsigned bands to share their music on the world-wide web, for free. Unfortunately, it fell the way of many early 1990s online entities: it was bought out, then the new owners couldn't keep up with changing times, and the site went dark. Except before IUMA disappeared, John Gilmore grabbed much of the material and backed it up on tapes, and turned to (MeFi's Own) Jason Scott and Archive.org to bring back IUMA. They did, and you can now browse through over 45,000 bands and artists, and more than 680,000 tracks of music.
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 10:33 AM on November 10, 2014 (35 comments)

MetaFilter is participating in the Battle for Net Neutrality on September 10, 2014. For the duration of September 10, you'll see a small modal window linking to a site explaining Net Neutrality and giving you ways to take action. You can also hide it by clicking the [x] and you shouldn't see it again on the site for the rest of the day.
posted to MetaTalk by mathowie at 2:39 PM on September 9, 2014 (72 comments)

The internet and Metafilter are abuzz over Maddie & Tae, the teenage country duo whose first single strikes back against the pervasive and much-maligned trend of "bro country" sweeping the country charts. But Maddie & Tae are hardly the first female country singers to bring a decidedly feminist message to the genre. Here are some highlights, in chronological order, for your listening pleasure.
posted to MetaFilter by zeusianfog at 3:36 PM on August 8, 2014 (48 comments)

5TFU is a simple web radio station. Its content is completely anonymous; upload a track, and it's on the radio, identified only by a numeric string. Don't like what you hear? Click 5TFU! and it's gone.
posted to MetaFilter by mkb at 12:57 PM on January 19, 2014 (45 comments)

It's gonna be a blue Christmas: Merle Haggard - If We Make it Through December
posted to MetaFilter by byanyothername at 10:29 AM on December 25, 2013 (22 comments)

The Best Of All Possible Worlds - "A public art contest in Evansville, Indiana becomes a debate over race, class, and good taste."
posted to MetaFilter by the man of twists and turns at 7:13 PM on November 7, 2013 (25 comments)

Thursday, September 21st, 1939, radio station WJSV in Washington, D.C., recorded their entire broadcast day -- from sign on, to sign off. The entire day is available here.
posted to MetaFilter by PHINC at 1:49 PM on September 21, 2013 (46 comments)

I speak "flatly", with little inflection, tonal variation, or expressiveness. How can I change?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 7:21 PM on July 25, 2013 (12 comments)

So, I'm trying to get some opinions here: My fiance and I have been engaged for 4 months and are in our mid-20s. We are both in school (undergrad for him, grad for me), but due to my income, we wanted to wait one more year, so that it would be financially better for us (e.g., paying tuition, etc). We are both interested in having children, however, something has come up for me health-wise (ulcerative colitis) that would make it less safe (because of medications) to have a baby later on, compared with now. Here are my questions for you: 1) Would you have a baby before marriage? What would be the reasons? 2) Has anyone actively planned this before? How did it work out? I know some would say suck it up and push up the wedding, but it would save us a good 20K or so.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by queenba at 8:32 PM on March 16, 2013 (48 comments)

Here's Stevie Wonder playing some drums.
posted to MetaFilter by empath at 1:46 PM on June 21, 2012 (25 comments)

Snap Judgement is a radio show airing on NPR stations; you can also listen to all of it online or via iTunes. The show bills itself as "storytelling with a beat".
posted to MetaFilter by curious nu at 2:02 PM on September 3, 2011 (18 comments)

As discussed over the weekend, in less than two weeks the millions of videos uploaded to six-year-old erstwhile YouTube competitor Google Video will no longer be viewable. Though a download button has been added to each video page for easy back-up, that will only be available though May 13th, and the company will not be offering transfer service for users with YouTube accounts. The search giant has been slowly winding down the service over the years since their billion-dollar buyout of YouTube, controversially revoking purchased content (with a refund) in 2007 and disabling new uploads in 2009. The shutdown is a big blow to the web video ecosystem, as Google Video was one of the few major services to allow free hosting of long-form video, including the content for many popular MetaFilter posts. But all is not lost! Reddit users have organized a virtual potluck to share the most interesting and unique videos not available anywhere else, and the Archive Team, preserver of doomed web properties like Geocities (previously), is partnering with Archive.org to back up as much content as possible. In that spirit, click inside for a list of some of the most popular Google Video-centric content posted here over the years.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 1:32 PM on April 18, 2011 (53 comments)

Years after its final broadcast, the award-winning, pond-hopping, cult comedy hit Whose Line is it Anyway? is returning to television! Sort of! Tonight in just a few minutes, Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza (promo, sample segment) makes its debut on GSN, reuniting Carey with popular "Whosers" Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, Greg Proops, Brad Sherwood, Wayne Brady, and many more. Though the show will air every weekday, you don't have to wait around for new episodes to get your improv fix -- in spite of the lack of DVD box sets, there's a veritable treasure trove of past content available free from multiple online sources, including the complete run of the American Whose Line on both YouTube and fansite WatchWLIIA along with every episode of the original UK run from Channel4's official YouTube channel and their streaming video site 4oD. Too much content? Look inside for selections of the show's most hilarious moments as sampled from the show's burgeoning TVTropes entry. See also: Fan guide - American episode guide (UK version) - List of game types
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 5:00 PM on April 11, 2011 (48 comments)

Streetview Zombie Apocalypse!
posted to MetaFilter by brundlefly at 1:27 PM on February 25, 2011 (25 comments)

Originally published in Guitar Player magazine in 1990, here is Jas Obrect's interview: Ry Cooder – Talking Country Blues and Gospel -- I only wish it was online when I made my Dark was the Night post. Now is it is part of the Jas Obrect Music Archive, where you can also find ''Rollin’ and Tumblin' '': The Story of a Song (See also Hambone Wille Newbern - Roll and Tumble Blues for the first recording of those lyrics) -- not to mention Jerry Garcia: The Complete 1985 Interview and Bob Dylan’s ''Highway 61 Revisited'': Mike Bloomfield v. Johnny Winter and Blues Origins: Spanish Fandango and Sebastopol among many, many others. There is quite the cornucopia of interesting, informative music articles there. Check it out--you will dig it.
posted to MetaFilter by y2karl at 11:24 AM on December 24, 2010 (8 comments)

Intelligent YouTube Channels. A large collection from many sources, such as the Richard Dawkins channel l The 92nd Street Y l Big Think l Philip Scott Johnson's collection of art videos l MoMA l Vanity Fair l Yad Vashem a leader in Holocaust education l KQED Public Media l The Research Channel l YouTube EDU, which centralizes all of its educational/academic content. This is the best place to start if you’re looking for lectures and courses l The Spoken Verse l universities like Stanford and Cambridge. Previously.
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 10:20 PM on September 26, 2010 (15 comments)

Eighteen years ago, 11 year old Randy Neuenfeldt raced Henry the Puffy Taco mascot of the San Antonio Missions minor league baseball team in the usual 7th inning race. Through a series of unfortunate events, the taco won. On June 24, 2010, Randy Neuenfeldt got his revenge. Also, here
posted to MetaFilter by Leezie at 1:58 PM on June 25, 2010 (36 comments)

Bluegrass, it's said was invented by Bill Monroe,(yt) but where would bluegrass have been without the banjo style of Earl Scruggs?(yt) Together they created a sound that has become known as Bluegrass. In 1945 George Elam Scruggs joined up with Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, two years later Scruggs left to form a group with Lester Flatt(yt), but not before gifting Monroe with the amalgam that was and is Bluegrass. Other players like Chubby Wise born 1915, Lake City, Florida(yt), and bassist Howard Watts became known as the "Original Bluegrass Band".
posted to MetaFilter by nola at 8:21 PM on February 28, 2010 (18 comments)

Folk America: Excellent BBC 3-part documentary tracing folk music from the '20s to the folk revival of the '60s, encompassing the depression and the civil rights era. part 1: Birth of a Nation (59.21) part 2: This Land is Your Land (59:30) part 3: Blowin' in the Wind (58:49)
posted to MetaFilter by madamjujujive at 10:42 AM on February 21, 2010 (13 comments)

The Cotton Patch Gospel is a bluegrass adaptation of the life of Jesus, set in Georgia.
posted to MetaFilter by whimsicalnymph at 4:22 PM on February 2, 2010 (15 comments)

The Nine Eyes of Google Street View "It was tempting to see the images as a neutral and privileged representation of reality—as though the Street Views, wrenched from any social context other than geospatial contiguity, were able to perform true docu-photography, capturing fragments of reality stripped of all cultural intentions."
posted to MetaFilter by dhruva at 5:15 PM on January 7, 2010 (33 comments)

Ah! The Hopeful Pageantry of Bread and Puppet documents the radical puppet theater's Domestic Resurrection Circus, held every summer on its Glover, Vermont grounds from 1975 to 1998, and which featured puppeteers from around the world. They no longer hold the yearly festival, as the crowds grew out of control, but they are still active [ 2009 documentary | part 2 | 3 ], and as always, serving free bread and art as panacea. There's plenty more Bread and Puppet Theater on Youtube.
posted to MetaFilter by not_on_display at 7:46 PM on December 8, 2009 (19 comments)

Chanteur puissant à la voix rocailleuse. And here is bluestab's blog And here, via Babelfish is bluestab's blog in an English of sorts. Then, while, looking for mp3s to match the tabs, I came across the universe of African American history and culture that is AfricanAfrican aka NegroArtist.com, a site so big it has two URLs. [Billy Mays] But, wait--that's not all! [/Billy Mays]
posted to MetaFilter by y2karl at 3:20 PM on October 23, 2009 (12 comments)

Missed the era of video dating? Fear not, here's a taste.
posted to MetaFilter by piratebowling at 9:43 AM on September 18, 2009 (51 comments)

...The narrative of the blues got hijacked by rock ’n’ roll, which rode a wave of youth consumers to global domination. Back behind the split, there was something else: a deeper, riper source. Many people who have written about this body of music have noticed it. Robert Palmer called it Deep Blues. We’re talking about strains within strains, sure, but listen to something like Ishman Bracey’s ''Woman Woman Blues,'' his tattered yet somehow impeccable falsetto when he sings, ''She got coal-black curly hair.'' Songs like that were not made for dancing. Not even for singing along. They were made for listening. For grown-ups. They were chamber compositions. Listen to Blind Willie Johnson’s "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground.'' It has no words. It’s hummed by a blind preacher incapable of playing an impure note on the guitar. We have to go against our training here and suspend anthropological thinking; it doesn’t serve at these strata. The noble ambition not to be the kind of people who unwittingly fetishize and exoticize black or poor-white folk poverty has allowed us to remain the kind of people who don’t stop to wonder whether the serious treatment of certain folk forms as essentially high- or higher-art forms might have originated with the folk themselves.

From Unknown Bards: The blues becomes apparent to itself by one John Jeremiah Sullivan. I came across it while browsing Heavy Rotation: Twenty Writers On The Albums That Changed Their Lives. For Sullivan, that album was American Primitive, Vol. II: Pre-War Revenants (1897 - 1939), which is my favorite CD of the year. Which came out in 2005 while I just got around to buying it this year. Foolish me. It is a piece of art in itself in every respect--all CDs should have such production values.
posted to MetaFilter by y2karl at 11:08 AM on August 6, 2009 (50 comments)

YouTubeFilter: The Monty Python Channel: "No more of those crap quality videos you've been posting. We're giving you the real thing - HQ videos delivered straight from our vault." l a feast of vids 70 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube ( Smart Video Collections) l Book TV on YouTube l Computer History Museum on YT l 100 Awesome Youtube Vids for Librarians l Top 5 Most Inspirational Videos on YouTube l Top 10 Amazing Animal Videos l Top 10 YouTube Hacks l a couple of good YT member collections: TEDTalksDirector's YT vids and Basic Computer HowTo by Help Me Rick on YT l Amazing YouTube Video Tools Collection l Is YouTube the Next Google?
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 1:22 AM on November 19, 2008 (23 comments)

Pinetop Perkins survived being hit by a train. Bukka White was a professional boxer, a Negro League pitcher, and hobo. Sunnyland Slim was a hustler. Johnny Shines toured with Robert Johnson, and Honeyboy Edwards saw Johnson poison himself. Skip James was a laborer and bootlegger. Son House started out as a preacher but went to prison for killing a man. R.L. Burnside also killed someone, but said "I didn't mean to kill nobody, I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head." Big Boy Crudup's songs were stolen by Elvis Presley. Mississippi Fred McDowell did not play no rock 'n roll. To get more recording contracts, John Lee Hooker also called himself John Lee Cooker, John Lee Booker, Texas Slim, Birmingham Sam & His Magic Guitar, Delta John and Sir John Lee Hooker. Big Joe Williams was King of the 9 String Guitar. Snooky Pryor began his musical career as an Army bugler. Mississippi John Hurt learned to play guitar in secret. Paul Pena wrote Jet Airliner, knew Tuvan, and could throat sing. After a severe case of polio, Cedell Davis learned to play guitar left-handed using a kitchen knife. Earl Hooker was so good he never had a day job. Hound Dog Taylor, who was born with six fingers on each hand but cut off one of the extras with a razor blade, said his epitath should be "He couldn't play shit, but he sure made it sound good!"
posted to MetaFilter by swift at 10:37 AM on December 31, 2008 (37 comments)

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, let's take a few moments to honor those Sesame Street humans overshadowed by their Muppet counterparts. Check out Bob (Bob McGrath) singing Danny Boy in Japanese on a 1966 broadcast of To Tell The Truth or singing a Japanese ballad. Watch Gordon (Roscoe Orman) as the big pimpin' title character in this original trailer for the film Willie Dynamite. See Maria (Sonia Manzano) as a lady trucker on B.J. & the Bear or getting menaced by Jeff Goldblum in the movie Death Wish. And Mr. Hooper (Will Lee) plays Pac-Man in an Atari commercial. Meanwhile, the Muppet stars of Sesame Street have gone some interesting evolutions as well in their career.
posted to MetaFilter by jonp72 at 6:32 PM on March 29, 2009 (39 comments)

"She was a rock star," recalls Ira Tucker Jr., who grew up watching Tharpe with his father's gospel group in the 1940s and '50s. "You know, like Beyonce today and people like that. That's what Rosetta was to us." Sister Rosetta Tharpe wasn't the first one to bring black popular music into the church. (Here's the great Arizona Dranes playing barroom honky-tonk piano on the gospel side I Shall Wear a Crown in 1927.) But her fierce stage presence and her original blend of gospel, boogie-woogie, swing and smoking hot blues guitar was a crucial forgotten influence on what we now recognize as rock and roll. (Many more recordings inside. Enjoy!)
posted to MetaFilter by nebulawindphone at 10:51 AM on July 21, 2009 (18 comments)

Thirty years ago today was the infamous "Disco Demolition Night" at Chicago's Comiskey Park. It didn't go exactly as planned: "In the warm air that night, baseball’s routine and soothing sounds mixed with the tribal cadence of off-color chanting, the drifting scent of marijuana and the sight of vinyl records descending through the summer dusk like Frisbees." It wasn't the first time a 70s baseball promotion went astray. Considered by some "the worst idea ever," "Ten Cent Beer Night" at Cleveland Municipal Stadium five years earlier ended when "a large number of intoxicated fans – some armed with knives, chains, and portions of stadium seats that they had torn apart – surged onto the field, and others hurled bottles from the stands." (Previously on MeFi)
posted to MetaFilter by NotMyselfRightNow at 7:19 AM on July 12, 2009 (96 comments)

Freeware Genius is a large review site for various freeware apps, from desktop organizing tools to philosophical flash games . There are literally hundreds of applications reviewed, as well as a few compilations to get you started.
posted to MetaFilter by scrutiny at 10:36 AM on July 2, 2009 (10 comments)

Passion Pictures has just released Pete Candeland’s gorgeous cinematic for the forthcoming game The Beatles: Rock Band.
posted to MetaFilter by Toekneesan at 7:47 PM on June 4, 2009 (56 comments)

Gather round the microphone, friends, put your headphones over one ear, and wave your hands in the air like you do care, very deeply. It's time to celebrate the benefit song. [MLYT]
posted to MetaFilter by DiscourseMarker at 4:53 PM on May 22, 2009 (24 comments)

Timepieces! Ancient calendars, ancient clocks, beautiful clocks, atomic clocks and the clocks built into your brain that determine how you perceive time and form memories. All the good stuff is inside:
posted to MetaFilter by metaBugs at 2:45 PM on May 18, 2009 (16 comments)

Because I have no shame, I have used an accordion to cover Journey.
posted to MeFi Music by uncleozzy at 6:11 AM on May 2, 2009 (20 comments)

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has put 675 reels of archival 16 mm film online via the Internet Archive. Most of the film is unedited, and stems either from Museum research, or was donated by interested amateurs. Much of it is silent, reflecting the technology of the day. One highlight are the four surviving reels of the long-running TV show 'What in the World" (look for the episode starring Vincent Price), but the archive is full of other hidden gems, such as the 1950s archaeological expedition to Tikal, a 1940 film "A 1000 Mile Road Trip Across America", and Glimpses of Life Among the Catawba and Cherokee Indians of the Carolinas (1927). The films are downloadable in various formats, including MPEG2, Ogg Video, and 512Kb MPEG4. Happy browsing! via.
posted to MetaFilter by Rumple at 1:28 PM on May 3, 2009 (12 comments)