January 3, 2015
Carole King- Library of Congress Gershwin Prize
Carole King- Gershwin Prize 2014 You've got a friend.
Geomantic Information Systems
The Occult Street Plan of Chico, California
Chico, California, like Santa Rosa is a beautiful small California city that enjoys a mild Mediterranean climate. Chico is tucked in neatly on the east face of the interphase of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges. It says "The city of roses" with a silhouette of John Bidwell, Chico's founder, on the original crest of Chico. The city has recently changed the crest to a more modern design that hides the estoteric meanings of the old one. This has also been happening also at many major universities and colleges. The new crest does have a nice big oak tree which can be interpreted in Celtic lore as the center of the world or a version of the Roman Axis Mundi. The city of Chico is also a model of occult or Masonic city planning that is oriented on a ley line (latitude) of ancient origin and symbolism.[more inside]
On finding unexpected things
Fools and their money...
If your choice of hard drive is affecting the sound of your music, perhaps you can fix it up with an ambient field conditioner. [more inside]
Pressing the equality button
"Women and men should have equal prize money". Helen Wyman, UCI pro cyclist and newly-minted UCI commissaire, has been working diligently this year in her new role to ensure, among other things, gender equality in pay and treatment for women in the demanding and rapidly growing sport of cyclocross. [more inside]
"Do you want the truth, or what I said?"
Anna Broinowski's acclaimed documentary Forbidden Lies, about literary hoaxer Norma Khouri, is available on YouTube. (TW: family violence) [more inside]
This is no time for a flat tire.
Wheels on Mars. "There are holes in Curiosity wheels. There have always been holes -- the rover landed with twelve holes deliberately machined in each wheel to aid in rover navigation. But there are new holes now: punctures, fissures, and ghastly tears." A detailed look at the condition of the wheels on the Curiosity rover.
The Last of the "Creative Moderates"
Edward Brooke, the first African-American to be popularly elected to the U.S. Senate, has died at the age of 95. Immediately a prominent media figure after his election in 1966, he served for two terms. After leaving office, he became known as an advocate for male breast cancer awareness. Although a loyal Republican to the end, in 2004 he found cause to criticize his party for its close-mindedness. In recent years he received renewed media attention when Barbara Walters revealed in her autobiography that she and Brooke had had a secret affair.
Magicians of the Miniature
Matte Shot (previously) presents: Magicians of the Miniature, an overview and image gallery of miniature effects work.
Fan Art Friday: Disney's The Haunted Mansion
"Disney's Haunted Mansion has a devoted fan following. I get it. It's a classic attraction packed with beautiful artwork, memorable and creepy characters, and grand rooms with tons to look at. Even though I've gone on the ride dozens of times at Disneyland, I still come across new things. The ride is deserving of piles of fan art so I've gathered not quite 999 spooktacular examples from around the web. From Ghost Hosts, to Hitchhiking Ghosts, to Madame Leota – it's all right here. Ignore the hot and cold running chills and browse the below gallery." [more inside]
"A Terrible Scene With Lingering Bad Feelings"
In 1981 Vivabeat was a new wave pop rock band with a college station hit "Man From China." The rest of their story can be found in a wonderfully entertaining internet cul-de-sac:
"Vivabeat's is the uncanny story of a band that helped define the sound of an era; a band that experienced remarkable strokes of good fortune and tragic twists of fate; got a taste of the best the record industry could offer, and also the very worst. They left behind a hit dance single, an album on Charisma records, an impossibly rare European EP, and a clutch of unreleased tracks."
Radioactive blood
Nerdist talks to Sam Raimi about fruit, his career in retail sales, how he got started making movies, the links between comedy and horror, the Evil Dead TV show and of course why Spider-Man 3 was "awful".
The New(ly discovered) Animals of 2014
Last year wasn't all bad. Scientists discovered/confirmed 15,000 new species of living things, including the bone house wasp and four kinds of carnivorous sponges. Mental Floss thoughtfully rounds up the best of the best for us. (Warning: big picture of punk rock sea snail.)
Chapstep
Mr B, The Gentlemen Rhymer - who you may know for his chap-hop ditties 'Chap-Hop History', 'Songs For Acid Edward and Hip-Hop Was To Blame After All' has a side project as The Gentlemen Selector with Acid Ragtime and has dropped the first gramophone platter 'Vegetables' [more inside]
Every Beatles Song. In order.
Every year a bunch of musicians in Columbus, Ohio get together and play every officially released Beatles song, in order, in about 12 hours. [more inside]
"Simple four-stringed lute set to invade North America"
Possible Supreme Court cases that could rein in the NSA in 2015
If the Supreme Court tackles the NSA in 2015, it’ll be one of these five cases. Detailed, thoughtful piece with lots of links from Ars Technica.
I'm not your buddy, bro. I'm not your bro, dude. I'm not your dude, pal
Texas is bro country. But the term also covers the entirety of Oklahoma, and almost all of Louisiana and Arkansas, plus good chunks of Kansas and New Mexico. A mid-sized gathering of bros straddles the Michigan-Indiana border, and a tiny bro community lives by the seaside on either side of the Virginia-North Carolina state line.American regional variations in what you call your male best friends. By Frank Jacobs.
"How the ancient poets of Greece and Rome were imagined and re-imagined"
Living Poets is a Durham University website with short guides to various ancient Greek and Latin authors, such as Homer, Orpheus, Anacreon, Catullus, Ovid, and Virgil. The guides focus on the extant sources and how the authors were received in their lifetime and by later generations, avoiding the "perils of autobiography."
Cara Ellison and the Poetics of Space
In Kentucky Route Zero Act II Shannon asks Conway, "Are we inside or outside?"
Shannon's line is a reference to Gaston Bachelard's "The Poetics of Space" written in 1958.
Bachelard's "Poetics of Space" is probably the most important book that most game designers have never read; it explicitly connects architecture to how people will experience it, rather than the trend in 1958, which was to treat architecture like spectacle. Bluntly speaking, Bachelard said back in 1958 that games are not just graphics. They are architecture that create an experience.
He would have made an excellent level designer.
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