January 7, 2022
OFF BOOK
OFF BOOK: The Improvised Musical is a podcast where Jessica McKenna & Zach Reino accompanied by Scott Passarella, Brett Morris, and Dana Wickens create an improvised musical every episode. They recently featured on dropout.tv's Gamechanger show (paywalled, but songs on YT here) but what I'd like to draw your attention to is this live show from 2018 wherein you can learn more than you ever thought you wanted to know about high school mock trials.
Not 100% Sure Ball Is In Rectum
Beethoven X: AI
The philosophical and musical failings of the "DeepLudwig" project to complete Beethoven's last symphony. [more inside]
Revolutionize gaming again!
Many found The Matrix Resurrections surprising with its irreverently metatextual approach, but it was probably less so for anyone who played Shiny Entertainment's video game tie-ins: Enter the Matrix and The Matrix: Path of Neo. Read the oral history of their development and learn how close we came to a Godzilla crossover. [more inside]
"He will walk with kings."
On Max Headroom: The Most Misunderstood Joke on TV
Like the show it uses as a jump-off point, the YouTube video "On Max Headroom" is not just about one pretend-robotic talking head. It's about pretending, about talking heads, and about the media landscape 20 minutes into the future. [more inside]
Life, no parole, +20; Life, no parole, +20; Life w/possible parole
The definition of eternity
"Ham is a lifestyle, one that requires you to be a responsible steward of this preserved leg. Just because you think you can eat that much cured pork in a reasonable time doesn’t mean you’re ready to go quarter hog. You really don’t know the impact of having a preserved animal leg on display in your home until it’s there, but it’s kind of awesome. You can walk up and slice your daily ham ration or bring a platter-full to a party or carve a huge chunk to simmer for broth, and somehow there’s still ham left."
It is '69 and you have $4.20 ⛳. Pump it exactly.
SLTimeWaster: Gas Pump Golf.
Unreal corkers
In the 1700s, there was a vogue for carving fantastically exact models of ancient buildings in cork. Sir John Soane's Museum in London maintains a large collection of cork models, including an 8 foot square Pompeii; the ruins are depicted exactly as they were in 1820, in an early phase of excavation. The Museum offers a 3D virtual tour, which means you can view models of models of buildings within a model of building. [more inside]
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Top 200 most common passwords compiled by VPN provider NordPass
Vinyl crate-digging on single-digit budgets, in podcast form
I'd Buy That For a Dollar is a podcast about “inexpensive, common and underappreciated records that are waiting to be rediscovered.” Hosts Sean Hartman, Peter Cook and Jeremy Ruggles (plus guests) plunder the vinyl discount bins for gems of all genres, mostly from the 70s and 80s. Recommended episodes inside! [more inside]
Is that QR code a scam?
According to Click2Houston: Houston is warning the public about a scam they’ve learned about in Texas cities and may be affecting people using on-street parking stations in Houston. Officials said Wednesday that fraudulent QR codes are being affixed to on-street parking pay stations. These fraudulent QR codes link to a non-city-affiliated website or a fake vendor. In the past three weeks, Houston officials say parking enforcement officers in both San Antonio and Austin discovered fraudulent QR codes affixed to on-street parking pay stations. [more inside]
Johan Huizinga -- Homo Ludens
Homo Ludens is a book originally published in Dutch in 1938 by Dutch historian and cultural theorist Johan Huizinga. It discusses the importance of the play element of culture and society. [more inside]
Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously
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