October 25, 2021

"The 73962! That's it! That's it!"

"I'm staying up extra late tonight to see a test train pull into Brighton Station." Francis Bourgeois is unapologetically joyful about trains.
posted by clawsoon at 10:31 PM PST - 21 comments

"You can always tell a good luthier because they can count to 10"

Over the course of a week (and a 2 hour video), musician, guitar YouTuber, and weird instrument aficionado Rob Scallon builds a guitar from scratch with professional luthier Marshall Bruné. [more inside]
posted by redct at 10:15 PM PST - 4 comments

A History Buried - the Chinese Massacre of 1871

The Chinese Massacre in Los Angeles was one of the worst atrocities to happen in the city. In the end, as a result of an accidental shooting, five hundred local white men killed 19 Chinese men and boys. Only a plaque currently memorializes the terrible event that occurred. Although some men stood trial, their charges were overturned and they were never retried. [more inside]
posted by toastyk at 9:49 PM PST - 8 comments

Playlisting 180 hours of music from 1981

Music writer Brad Shoup explains why he makes exhaustive year-specific music mixes on Spotify: "With each new mix, my research methods improved - as did the source databases - and now, any playlist from 1969 on routinely features 1500 tracks, minimum." [more inside]
posted by filmvisuality at 6:47 PM PST - 21 comments

'The Shop on Main Street'

'Obchod na korze' y/t. [more inside]
posted by clavdivs at 6:12 PM PST - 4 comments

Taking to the Skies

Bike trials legend Danny MacAskill (previously, previouslier) visits a wind turbine factory, while content creator Danny MacAskill shows the youths how much energy is generated by renewable sources.
posted by box at 3:03 PM PST - 15 comments

A purple nurple for the Purple Rose

Former cast and crew of Michigan's Purple Rose Theater are coming forward to share their experiences under long-time artistic director Guy Sanville. Among their personal stories are claims of abuse, misogyny, racism, homophobia, and more. Is time up for Guy Sanville at Jeff Daniels's home theater?
posted by custardfairy at 2:52 PM PST - 14 comments

You Can Do It (Caribou)

If Monday is grinding to an end and you need energy, dogs, and a little boost to your day More about Caribou/Dan Snaith, and one more sample of something very good from Caribou.
posted by elkevelvet at 2:49 PM PST - 19 comments

Intergalactic planetary, planetary intergalactic

Just thirty years ago, we could only speculate what planets might exist around other stars. That changed in 1992, with the first confirmed detection of an extrasolar planet. Since then, progress has been rapid: there are now 4,843 confirmed exoplanets in 3,579 planetary systems. So far, all of these have been relatively nearby. But a new paper, published today in Nature Astronomy, reports the first evidence of a planet in a whole other galaxy. The potential planet, 28 million light years away, was detected as it passed in front of a bright X-ray binary star in the M51 galaxy, causing a three-hour blip in its X-ray emissions. BBC article and link to the paper itself.
posted by automatronic at 2:21 PM PST - 19 comments

And what have you learned? The girl that you knew Will never be yours

Please listen to, enjoy and maybe discuss Flux.
Poppy —singer, songwriter, musician, youtube performance artist and serial bible reader — has followed up last year's neo-nu-grindcore-metal masterpiece I Disagree with a less nu- and more alt- album, which NME calls: "determined, fun-filled and perception-defying alt-rock". [more inside]
posted by signal at 2:15 PM PST - 10 comments

Possibly Real Copy Of ‘Fairies’ by Andy Warhol

1000 MSCHF ARTWORKS FOR SALE: One original Andy Warhol (worth $20K) mixed at random into a stack of 999 exact MSCHF forgeries. "By forging Fairies en masse, we obliterate the trail of provenance for the artwork. Though physically undamaged, we destroy any future confidence in the veracity of the work. By burying a needle in a needlestack, we render the original as much a forgery as any of our replications." [more inside]
posted by storybored at 1:42 PM PST - 26 comments

Noah Smith on David Card and the credibility revolution in economics

Noah Smith: The Econ Nobel we were all waiting for. "David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens have made economics a more scientific field." David Card is best-known for his research with Alan Krueger showing that a minimum-wage increase in New Jersey caused employment to rise rather than fall. A profile from the Globe and Mail. Bonus: This year's econ critics make a few good points.
posted by russilwvong at 11:22 AM PST - 42 comments

Blurring the lines between play-acting, ritual and reality

Florence Farr was a muse and lover of George Bernard Shaw and William Butler Yeats
She was an English actress, occultist, and an important member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and a writer whose ''The Dancing Fawn'' had a cover by Aubrey Beardsley
posted by adamvasco at 10:42 AM PST - 3 comments

*maniacal chuckle* *ominous organ fugue playing*

Many years ago, Brian David Gilbert made a shocking realization about a famous Swedish pop group. Their melodies were impeccable. Their lyrics remarkable. Their style? Divine. And yet, just below the surface, a sinister truth lay hiding. With very little alteration, nearly all of their hits could be performed by Halloween villains. Frightened of what he learned, Brian buried his discovery in the dark recesses of his mind and swore to never share it with the world. Until now. [more inside]
posted by simmering octagon at 9:33 AM PST - 16 comments

scary nonprofit stories to tell in the dark

From Vu Le at Nonprofit AF: "it’s time for this year’s crop of spooky stories set in our sector"! (Previously.)
posted by brainwane at 8:42 AM PST - 8 comments

Society wasn’t ready for us

The Story of Native American Metal Band Winterhawk. “The way we would get in the door at these boarding schools—and it would take some time for the faculty to grasp the idea—was [that] we used the tool of music, mainly heavy metal, because at the time, that was the music of choice,” Kolb continues. “Through that key, we opened the door to access the children to get them to open up to us. And [Nik] would tell me, ‘You’ve gotta be good at your stuff. You’ve gotta practice, because when we go there, they’re going to be amazed at the way you drum and the way I play guitar. That’s what’s gonna take down the walls, and they’re gonna wanna talk to us, and that’s when we’ll get to hear their problems, because no one else is listening to them.’”
posted by Alex404 at 6:47 AM PST - 9 comments

« Previous day | Next day »