October 9, 2015
What's the frequency, kid?
A Highly Irregular Children’s Story: David Gates reviews The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine, a children's book by Donald Barthelme. [Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring 1976]
The Rhythm of Life
Because, at 1:32 am, you need to feel a bit of the Rhythm of Life.
#15Girls: 15yr old girls seeking to take control and change their fate
Refuse to share a pencil, reject a boy, say no to your imprisoned dad — all of these can get a teen girl killed in El Salvador's gang war - "Aby, whose best friend disappeared, is still staying at home. Her latest aspiration is to be the director of NASA." Warning: Some of the depictions and images in this story are graphic. [more inside]
HUNTING THE DECACORN
Mother Jones wins suit against wealthy political donor
For three years, Mother Jones has been litigating a defamation suit over a piece that drew attention to the political activites of wealthy billionaire Frank VanderSloot. "This was not a dispute over a few words. It was a push, by a superrich businessman and donor, to wipe out news coverage that he disapproved of. Had he been successful, it would have been a chilling indicator that the 0.01 percent can control not only the financing of political campaigns, but also media coverage of those campaigns." [more inside]
Corner coup
In August, Mara Willaford and Marissa Johnson disrupted a Social Security rally in Seattle and upstaged Bernie Sanders. This week, they gave their first local interview to Real Change, a weekly progressive newspaper sold by self-employed vendors, many of them homeless.
The tragic tale of Mt Everest’s most famous dead body
The tragic tale of Mt Everest’s most famous dead body is part one of a two part BBC article centered around the story of Tsewang Paljor, known as "Green Boots", whose body has remained for 20 years near the summit where he died.
Part two is Death in the clouds: The problem with Everest’s 200+ bodies [more inside]
Judgemental Reviews Of Common Pasta Shapes
MeFi's own The Whelk reviews common pasta shapes for The Rumpus. I can only assume he recused himself from judging conchiglie due to the family resemblance. [via mefi projects]
Grievances
Kowloon Walled City exist in the space between the atmospheric gloom of Neurosis, the sludgy twang of late-period Godflesh, and the echoing space of Low. Kurt Ballou of Converge interviews Scott Evans of KWC on the process of recording their excellent new album Grievances.
"This is the guy you’ve been talking about in all those pages."
Jason Baca has been the cover model for over 400 romance novels. What is his life like? "Things get a little weird" he admits. [more inside]
Do what you can with the time you have.
In Case You Aren't Paranoid Enough About Social Media & Privacy
"One broader implication of this is that no one should take the NSA seriously when they say they are only collecting “metadata” on whom someone contacts, rather than the content of the communication. Social network metadata is incredibly powerful."
How to tell whether a Twitter user is pro-choice or pro-life without reading any of their tweets
This Could Be Bad For Movie Stars Everywhere!
Chick-fil-A and the Politics of Eating
Chick-fil-A and the Politics of Eating: In recent days, the complicated politics of urban consumerism have been playing out most visibly, with the arrival of Chick-fil-A, a totem of red-state habits, in New York City. Created by a conservative Christian child of public housing, S. Truett Cathy, in Georgia, in the mid-20th century, Chick-fil-A has come under fire during the past few years over comments made by the founder’s son Dan Cathy, the company’s president, in opposition to same-sex marriage. [more inside]
Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
The 2015 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet "for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011." [more inside]
Reel-to-reel tape is the new vinyl
In case you have any spare cash lying around. "I could hear the pedal squeak every time John Bonnam hit the bass drum."
One Square Mile at a Time
Prince, too, seemed a little awestruck by Madge
We found love in a Hopeless Pass
@sadtopographies: An Instagram account cataloging the most unfortunately named places on Earth, from Shades of Death Road in New Jersey to Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya (or "Where the devil urinates") Hill in Australia and everywhere in between.
But I don't know anybody in New York and I'm on Grinder, so...
On Pop-Up Porno, dating horror stories are lovingly animated as pop-up books.
Happy seventy-fifth birthday, John Lennon
“What's past is prologue.”
Oregon Shakespeare Festival Launches Three-Year Shakespeare Translation Commissioning Project [Oregon Shakespeare Festival]
OSF is commissioning 36 playwrights and pairing them with dramaturgs to translate 39 plays attributed to Shakespeare into contemporary modern English between now and December 31, 2018. By seeking out a diverse set of playwrights (more than half writers of color and more than half women), we hope to bring fresh voices and perspectives to the rigorous work of translation. Play on![more inside]
The Fluffernutter
Did you mark Fluffernutter Day yesterday? Part of the cuisine of New England, a fluffernutter is a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow fluff, usually served on white bread. The name was invented by an ad agency in 1960. Also called a Liberty Sandwich, it been proposed as the official state sandwich of Massachusetts. There are many variations e.g. Reese's Pieces and Nutella, and... [more inside]
The music stuck in my head.
Jim Dickinson was a musician, producer, and writer based in Memphis. A lifelong curator and steward of American music until his death in 2009, he fronted the band Mud Boy & the Neutrons and contributed to albums by Sleepy John Estes, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Albert King, Big Star, the Replacements, and many others. [This] essay...was adapted from his memoir The Search for Blind Lemon. [more inside]
Wishing Well
I’ve been given instructions for my meeting with Sananda Maitreya. 1. Please don’t mention the name “Terence Trent D’Arby”, as it is painful for him. 2. Please don’t make any comparisons with Prince regarding his name change, which occurred in 1995 after a series of dreams. 3. Please don’t ask him things like, “What songs do you think would make a good single from your new album, Rise of the Zugebrian Time Lords?”
“I was killed when I was 27”: the curious afterlife of Terence Trent D’Arby
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