October 25, 2008
Aboot time those hoosers let us in EH!
Are you a Democrat who drinks lattes? eats arugula? Does the thought of another Republican president fill you with dread? Canada's E.L.I.T.E. immigration plan is right for you! [more inside]
Thou Shalt Diggeth The Relaxation
"Demonstrations” by Caleb Charland
Caleb Charland's photographs artistically demonstrate the laws of physics. In "Solid, Liquid, Gas," for example, three similar glass-tumbler shapes are positioned on a film of water. One glass is filled with a separation of water, oil and alcohol. Another, overturned, contains an extinguished candle which, having burned up the oxygen inside the vessel, created a vacuum that sucked the water inside. The third vessel and the other pictures are just cool.
Think. Again.
From The Atlantic, a fun bunch of montages of interesting people answering questions like "What is the cost of being a nerd?", "When is evil cool?" and "Are good books bad for you?" (Accompanies a redesign of magazine as well as of the web site. In seeking readers and advertisers, publications like The Atlantic and The Economist, known as thought-leader magazines, have long tried to make up in cleverness what they lack in wallet power.)
The History of Mother 1 (NES)
The History of Mother 1 (NES) In honor of the new fan translation of Mother 3 (or Earthbound for the GBA), I've decided to post an article explaining what ever happened to the English port of the first game in the Earthbound/Mother trilogy.
Waking from "‘the deep slumber of a decided opinion"
Financial Regime Change? Robert Wade, professor of political economy and development at the London School of Economics, "argues that we are exiting the neoliberal paradigm that has held sway since the 1980s" and considers the "causes and repercussions of the crisis, and errors of the model that brought it to fruition." Prof. Wade was making similar predictions last year.
Taylor Negron
I wish I was more like Kenny G. Put a little insanity on your potato. I love smoking a little pot, listening to Joni Mitchell, and eating Grape Nuts without milk. Get the Clorox. Bella, bella, belly button. (all links NSFW, contain gratuitous Taylor Negron)
"Al Franken has written so-called comedy routines about raping women!"
Norm Coleman mails "rape" comic book to kids. Just about the most negative advertising possible, in comic book form, slamming Senator Franken. Not the first use of comic book form to slam opponents, of course. Would be much better if they were used in more positive ways.
African art
Much of the extraordinary variety of traditional art from Africa comes from the countries in West and Central Africa, because of the availability of wood (often called exotic woods) and metal. Hamill Gallery has organized their excellent site to show the materials, including textiles, metals, beads used, as well as the names of the many tribes and categories, such as animals. The images are accompanied by information about the art. The Yale University Art Gallery also has a nice selection of African art with information. The Africa Image Library offers an archive of images, which give a little backdrop to the lives and environment of the artists and artisans in various parts of Africa. [more inside]
Oral History of Black Leadership
Explorations in Black Leadership is a collection of video interviews with prominent African-Americans, focusing on activists of one sort or another. 34 people are interviewed, including Nikki Giovanni, John Lewis, Barbara Lee, Bobby Rush, Dorothy Height and Amiri Baraka. There are full transcripts of every interview. Here's an excerpt from the Nikki Giovanni interview: "The kids today have to have a voice. I'm amazed that they found it. I remember Sugarhill Gang with Sylvia, you know: "Uptown, Downtown, the Holiday Inn." You know, things like that. Then, of course, I remember the explosion of Tupac Shakur. Losing Tupac was a great loss for this generation. I have a tattoo--it says "Thug Life" --because I wanted to mourn with this generation. I don't see how people can knock the kids…paying so little attention. I had deep regrets--and I know Rosa Parks, you know, we don't hang out but I know her--I so regretted that she lent her name to be used against Outkast, because Rosa Parks is a wonderful--is a wonderful tune. And they were giving her problems. If people don't--if the younger generation doesn't sing the praises of the older generation they get forgotten."
I Contain Multitudes
First Person Plural. "An evolving approach to the science of pleasure suggests that each of us contains multiple selves—all with different desires, and all fighting for control. If this is right, the pursuit of happiness becomes even trickier. Can one self bind another self if the two want different things? Are you always better off when a Good Self wins? And should outsiders, such as employers and policy makers, get into the fray?" [Via]
This is Hank William's guitar. I try to do the right thing with the guitar. You don't want to stink with Hank's guitar.
The Martin D-28. You have heard it thousands of times before. Its modest appearance belies its history and influence; there have been several changes in its design and construction over the years, but it remains largely the same since its introduction in 1934. [more inside]
simple minded dream 79-80-81-82-83-84
They got overshadowed by Bono in their interviews, their videos hardly rocked the zeitgeist, their lead singer looked way too much like the weird kid who played little
Hitler in the Boys From Brazil, but for a while in the late
1970s and the early 1980s (before the release of a certain annoying movie), it was sometimes claimed that Simple Minds were the best
band in the entire history of the Universe, if not the world ... and the groove goes on.
What happens at Fantasy Fest stays at Fantasy Fest
It's Parade Day, the culmination of the island's biggest and best party of the year, Key West's Fantasy Fest 2008. It's a small party, (in that Key West is only 4-by-2 miles in size), but it increases Key West's population from 27,000 to over 100,000! What's the attraction? Well aside from the body painting [NSFW], casual debauchery [NSFW, GGW, and possible WTF], great freakin' music, freaks getting freaky over freak nakedness, photo ops [again, NSFW], and a pretty much non-stop outrageous gay-straight-bi-leather-whatever One Human Family sexy fun fun fun [NSFW] celebration, Parade Night is miles and miles/five hours of out-of-this-world partying island festival [possible NSFW, whatchutink]! Come now!
Fear of writing
Derrida's fear of writing. ("I have a nap or something, and I fall asleep" in English, rest in French with subtitles).
Arena
Orson Welles in the Arena, BBC;
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with Jeanne Moreau, Peter Bogdanovich, John Huston, Charlton Heston. More Arena documentaries:
Buddy Holly:
Joe Orton:
Elvis:
Peter Sellers: Superman: David Lynch on surrealism: Philip K. Dick.
Prophecy
Dee Dee Warwick, RIP
Dee Dee Warwick, sister of Dionne and a fine soul singer in her own right, recently passed on to that other shore. This blog entry on Dee Dee features mp3 links to her wonderful cover of the Elvis Presley hit Suspicious Minds and the heartrending She Didn't Know. More: I'm Gonna Make You Love Me, Monday Monday and Foolish Fool.
U.S. Ex. Ex. 1838-1842
The United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 — Authorized and funded by the U.S. government, six ships sailed with 346 men (including officers, crew, scientists, and artists) on a four-year scientific and surveying mission, logging 87,000 miles around the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Two ships and 28 men were lost, and the Expedition's contentious commander Charles Wilkes was court-martialled for his erratic behavior, and was sued by former officers and crew members. During the Civil War in 1861, he boarded a British ship, seized two Confederate agents, and nearly provoked military retaliation by England (he was court-martialled once again in 1864 for insubordination.) Wilkes' 1845 Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition and the Ex. Ex.'s journals were published by Congress, and some 40 tons of Expedition specimens and artifacts became the foundation of the Smithsonian Institution's collections. [Nathaniel Philbrick (video lecture) chronicles this almost-forgotten voyage in his 2003 book Sea of Glory (NYT review).]
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