January 29, 2015

Fire up the retro rockets

NAMM , the big music equipment show in Los Angeles, featured a remarkable retro trend in synthesizers this year. The legendary synth company Sequential Circuits is back with a Prophet 6! Oberheim is back. Korg is making updated versions of the ultra-cool ARP Odyssey synth from the 70s. In fact, because the ARP designs are effectively public domain, anyone can make an Odyssey, so Behringer is also talking about making their own cheaper version. The really big news though was is that Moog is restarting production of their massive modular synthesizers from the early 70s albeit at matchingly massive prices.
posted by w0mbat at 9:39 PM PST - 68 comments

OMG, it's full of cars!

Babies going through tunnels in cars {SLYT}
posted by pjern at 9:19 PM PST - 34 comments

games about killing should probably make you uncomfortable

"[...] She kills for a living, and her mission cannot be overlooked as you make her traipse through the maze. She’s not the type to nuke a planet from orbit. No, Samus is hands-on: she likes to explore and kill to her satisfaction. She insists on landing on a planet’s surface and fucking-up whatever network of bubblegum and barbed wire is holding the entire planetary house of cards together—usually doing this so thoroughly that the world collapses around her ears as she just barely escapes. It’s a singular talent of hers." Rei writes about homelessness, genocide, and Metroid II: Return of Samus on SelectButton.net. (SelectButton previously.)
posted by jsnlxndrlv at 8:10 PM PST - 50 comments

Gender and the Production of Islamic Urban Space in Iran

What does an Islamic urban space look like? This question has dogged intellectuals and authorities in Muslim-majority lands for centuries, but in recent decades has acquired a renewed sense of urgency amid the emergence of modernizing Islamist political movements. These groups have not only articulated new visions of the public sphere, mass politics, and economy, they have also increasingly found themselves in positions of authority to shape the cities, regions, and lands they work in. As these groups have found themselves in control, the revolutionary mandate (and widespread protest slogan) to imagine a politics “neither East nor West, but Islamic” has taken on new meanings, forcing leaders long focused narrowly on legal or constitutional change to recognize the more diffuse and institutional nature of power, and how much the production of space is a part of it. [more inside]
posted by standardasparagus at 7:15 PM PST - 4 comments

Andrew Sullivan retires from blogging.

"It’s been a strange relationship, hasn’t it? Some of you – the original white-on-navy ones – went through the 2000 election and recount with me, when I had to explain the word “blog” to anyone I met; we experienced 9/11 together in real time – and all the fraught months and years after; and then the Iraq War; and the gay marriage struggles of the last fifteen historic years. We endured the Bush re-election together and then championed – before almost anyone else – the Obama candidacy together. Remember that first night of those Iowa caucuses? Remember the titanic fight with the Clintons? And then the entire arc of the Obama presidency. You were there when it was just me and a tip jar for six years, and at Time, and at The Atlantic, and the Daily Beast, and then as an independent company. When we asked you two years ago to catch us as we jumped into independence, you came through and then some. In just two years, you built a million dollar revenue company, with 30,000 subscribers, a million monthly readers, and revenue growth of 17 percent over the first year. You made us unique in this media world – and we were able to avoid the sirens of clickbait and sponsored content. We will never forget it." [more inside]
posted by bookman117 at 4:56 PM PST - 139 comments

An ode to libraries

A toronto artist, Daniel Rotsztain, (video) is drawing all of Toronto's libraries. Current count, 46/102.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 4:21 PM PST - 20 comments

The Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental to Replace Air Force One

The United States Air Force (USAF) announces the long-awaited decision of what aircraft will serve as the replacement for the presidential transport, known as Air Force One (when the President is on-board). The aircraft is still years away from being fully designed and certified; it doesn’t even have a USAF designation yet (like VC-25A, for it’s predecessor). The aircraft will be heavily modified to fulfill the requirements of not only the Air Force but also the U.S. Secret Service.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 4:08 PM PST - 42 comments

The Fire on the 57 Bus in Oakland

This happened where I work and live, it's a devastating read about ignorance, healing and forgiveness Well balanced NYT article about Sasha Fleischman, an agender teen who fell asleep on a city bus and was set on fire by a 16 year old named Richard Thomas.
posted by bobdow at 2:59 PM PST - 83 comments

A bad day and a dark, dark tango played on the accordeon, out of a boat.

Mal día - Pascuala Ilabaca (SLYT)
posted by ipsative at 2:45 PM PST - 6 comments

Head-butt Victims: 2 Goblins (Pig Men?)

The Head-butts Of Our Lives: The Filmography Of Jason Statham
posted by brundlefly at 2:43 PM PST - 19 comments

Buy high, sell low

Treading Water by Laura Parker [National Geographic]
Phil Stoddard, in his third term as mayor of South Miami, is one of the few politicians willing to talk about when that time might come... He drew a graph with three lines that show population, property values, and sea level all rising. Then abruptly, population growth and property values plummet. “Something is going to upset the applecart,” he says. “A hurricane, a flood, another foot of sea rise, the loss of freshwater. People are going to stop coming here and bail.”
[more inside]
posted by overglow at 2:30 PM PST - 33 comments

It was called the Golden Age of Civilization for a reason

Women Murdering Men in Western Art History: "The Venn diagram of “female devotees of Dionysus who savagely tear apart Orpheus” and “parties I would love to attend” has an overlap of roughly 100%."
posted by Conspire at 2:27 PM PST - 35 comments

"oh my god your life is a slim erotic novel..."

"Realizing you were gay/bi" - Anecdotes shared via Twitter to Mallory Ortberg (The Toast, @mallelis) about realizing the first time that you were gay or bisexual. This is a Storify piece assembled by AKATheReader (@akaTheReader).
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 1:50 PM PST - 87 comments

The Cuervo Gold, the fine Columbian

"And forget the relaxed cheeriness of the context that slotted them into the yacht-rock ranks with Loggins & Messina and the Doobie Brothers — shared sessionman personnel and L.A. neighborliness notwithstanding, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were New York to the core, all Brill Building gone Burroughs, using the language of pop as their foot in the door to ease in creepier, more unsettling things. No amount of multi-tracked studio trickery, woodshedder scrubbed-up arrangements, or perfectionist, precise ultra-virtuoso slickness could really obscure the existential dread and hip-panic self-consciousness that made their lyrics resonate. So they piled on as much gloss as they could, stitched together all manners of hopped-up jazz and rhythm & blues permutations into the weave of their sound, and infiltrated the subconsciousness of future yuppies everywhere like some kind of Manchurian Candidate virus to make them eventually realize there’s futility in optimism." Steely Dan albums from worst to best. (You're seeing them at Coachella this year, right?)
posted by naju at 1:41 PM PST - 111 comments

How the War on Drugs targeted Billie Holiday

The Hunting of Billie Holiday. "How Lady Day found herself in the middle of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics’ early fight for survival." [more inside]
posted by homunculus at 1:10 PM PST - 9 comments

Second, you will have stomach issues.

Andy Jones-Wilkins writes A Letter to the 2012 Western States 100 Runners
Now, while you’re out there running, even though you’ll be enjoying what is forecast to be the coolest day the race has seen since 1997, remember that things can, and likely will, go wrong out there. With that in mind, here are a couple of last minute pieces of advice: First, try not to blame your pacers or crew for your mistakes. I’ve seen it happen often and it is true that sometimes crews and pacers actually forget who the runner is but remember, it’s “autopsies without blame” out there. The goal is finishing and anything that is said or done on Western States weekend, especially after about 6:00 pm Saturday night, should be quickly and completely forgotten.
[more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:30 PM PST - 7 comments

If You Want, We Can Pretend To Be Crows. No? Okay.

Jeff Bridges (The Dude himself) has released an album called Sleeping Tapes. It's a collaboration with Squarespace to raise money for No Kid Hungry. It's also deeply, deeply weird.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 11:38 AM PST - 61 comments

[GREEN] JOBS FOR ALL

Let Us Face the Future - "All parties pay lip service to the idea of jobs for all. All parties are ready to promise to achieve that end by keeping up the national purchasing power and controlling changes in the national expenditure through Government action. Where agreement ceases is in the degree of control of private industry that is necessary to achieve the desired end. In hard fact, the success of a full employment programme will certainly turn upon the firmness and success with which the Government fits into that programme the investment and development policies of private as well as public industry." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 11:11 AM PST - 10 comments

The men in hoodies and crocs

"I want to decide what to do when. That is a major reason why I decided in 2005 to self-publish rather than chase after a record deal. I am independent because I didn’t want a bunch of men in suits deciding how I should release my music. For 10 years I have managed to bushwhack a circuitous path around them, but now I’ve got to find a way around the men in hoodies and crocs."

Cellist Zoë Keating (previously) on the new Youtube music services agreement.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 10:57 AM PST - 45 comments

if only Soundcloud was higher quality than 128kbps

Aphex Twin is (apparently) unloading over 100 rare and unreleased tracks from his 20+ year vault, now streaming for free on Soundcloud. [more inside]
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 10:37 AM PST - 77 comments

Tick Tick Boom

Along the western coast of England, under a half-moon hidden by clouds, a dark Audi sports car with fabricated plates followed an empty road toward a Barclays bank. Inside were five men, dressed all in black, and their gear: crowbars, power tools, coils of flexible tubing, and two large tanks of explosive gas. It was 1:51 a.m. The job would take just under seven minutes.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:03 AM PST - 39 comments

Do not look directly into the eyes of the World Science Fiction Society.

Worldcon is the "world science fiction convention." It's been around in one way or another since 1939 and is typically hosted at a different existing convention every year. (The Hugo awards are voted on by Worldcon members.) Last year it was in London; this year in Spokane. To get the event hosted at your convention, there is an elaborate bidding process. There is a long tradition of hoax con bids (which sometimes take on a life of their own, as in this Westercon story). The latest in the tradition: Nightvale Worldcon. If you have further questions regarding the bid, please contact the Help Desk with your bloodstone. [more inside]
posted by wintersweet at 8:40 AM PST - 27 comments

Do not add "bruh" or "fam" to your post title just to sound black.

Almost five years ago Metafilter was introduced to Black People Twitter, but Metafilter has no chill. Since then Black People Twitter has become hot af. Compilations of black people being hilarious on twitter that were posted to reddit and a Black People Twitter subreddit was created, and has since grown to over 165,000 subscribers. [more inside]
posted by ND¢ at 8:38 AM PST - 46 comments

“I can’t breathe,”

On Trial for Rape by Ann Brocklehurst [The Walrus Magazine]
"Late last year, in a Toronto courtroom, a young woman faced off against the university student whom she accused of raping her in a school parking lot. The media ignored the story. This is a series about a criminal rape trial that took place in Toronto late last year. The trial lasted eight days; the judge announced his verdict earlier this month." —Ann Brocklehurst
[more inside]
posted by Fizz at 8:30 AM PST - 78 comments

Piratenpartei accessing to Berne?

Piratenpartei MEP Julia Reda’s draft report on copyright (pdf) has been heavily criticized by former Swedish Pirate Party MEP Amelia Andersdotter (previously).
posted by jeffburdges at 7:41 AM PST - 7 comments

Theatre should be written on water.

Iain talks about how it feels when a show closes (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:29 AM PST - 3 comments

punchlines for a global audience

Last summer, Tilbury, Essex became Grimsby, North Lincolnshire. Detritus was strewn across the streets to affect the temporal change. Caricatures of slags and obese scroungers marauded up and down the road. Across one of the pulled-down shop shutters was scrawled "HULL R WANKERS", a rivalry that might have made sense a four-hour drive north.
Tim Burrows asks, When Are We Going to Stop Laughing at 'Shit Britain'?
posted by MartinWisse at 3:48 AM PST - 50 comments

Offline underclass

75 million Americans don’t have internet. Here’s what it’s like.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:40 AM PST - 143 comments

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