February 28, 2008
Monkey Does Handstand on Tight-Rope Walking Goat
Papa Palmérino Sorgente, the Pope of Montréal
Robert Petway - Catfish Blues
And here we have a couple of YouTube productions, screensaverish animations of photos and lyrics to the original recordings: Robert Petway - Catfish Blues and Tommy McClennan - It's Hard To Be Lonesome. This is mostly about Petway and Catfish Blues but you can't mention Petway without mentioning McClennan, as they ran together in their time and as both did versions of Catfish, a song canonical in Delta Blues, recorded and performed by nearly everyone--Muddy Waters - Rolling Stone, for example. Petway just happens to be the first person to record Catfish, and quite possibly the person who wrote it and certainly. to my mind, at least, the person who nailed it... in the uptempo version at the very least. [more inside]
dubstep
The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nation's Millennium General Assembly
Internet Troll Moves to Quash Subpoena Designed to Uncover their IRL Identity
Two Yale Law School graduates who allege they were subjected to a campaign of online harassment file suit against the site's owner and two dozen internet trolls for copyright infringement, defamation, and a variety of other tort and IP claims. In the latest developments, the website's owner was dropped from the lawsuit, and another defendant moved (seemingly pro se) to quash a subpoena served originally on their ISP to reveal their identity. [more inside]
Serving Bowls Made From Bacon
Bacon Cups are sure to make your next party a hit.
Improved Billboard Touts AT&T and NSA Collaboration
"The Billboard Liberation Front today announced a major new advertising improvement campaign executed on behalf of clients AT&T and the National Security Agency. Focusing on billboards in the San Francisco area, this improvement action is designed to promote and celebrate the innovative collaboration of these two global communications giants." [Via Threat Level.]
Cesar Millan Ain't Got Nothin' On Me
What do a balding man with a unique talent, shopping carts, and Extended Validation SSL Certificates have in common? Well, this: Liberty Fillmore: The Cart Whisperer (YT). Won't you think of the carts and visit No More Abandoned Carts today?
I'm Barak Obama, and yes, I've got four quarters.
Youtube Political Post Mike Nelson of Rifftrax and Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame riffs on six political ads.
Just Like Rudy if He Had Been a Bike Wheel
I Finally own a Zipp Wheel… A little story of how a bike racing fan came to own a fancy, schmancy carbon race wheel during the recently concluded Tour of California. [more inside]
Ikonoklast Panzerism
Rammellzee***
Ramellzee, Toxic C1, and Basquiat @ the Rhythm Lounge 1983***
David Brunner Mix video live printemps de septemb
Rammellzee (or RAMMΣLLZΣΣ, pronounced "Ram: Ell: Zee", born 1960 in Far Rockaway, Queens), is a graffiti writer, performance artist, rap/hip-hop musician and sculptor from New York. [more inside]
1 in 99.1
1 in 99.1 American adults are now incarcerated according to a new Pew Center study (pdf). Some interesting numbers from a NYT article on the report: 1 in 36 Hispanic adults are incarcerated, 1 in 15 blacks, 1 in 9 black men aged 20-34, 1 in 355 white women aged 35-39. Some context from the World Prison Population List (pdf).
It's this week's lolcats
Fail Dogs. That is all.
Penn and Teller ripped off by Koreans
Today on Penn Jillette's video blog he mentions a hilarious crew of Koreans have ripped off an old Penn and Teller trick.
Bringing back the warmth to the ground
What does it take before a song becomes a pop standard? Does a recording by four different generations of performers count? When originally recorded, Rolf couldn't play digeridoo, so the instrument was simulated with eight bass fiddles. On release it made number 2 in the charts and was kept from the number one spot by Elvis Presley's Return To Sender. [more inside]
Whisker, Quill, Feather, Gill
The Fantastic Menagerie: a literally beastly Tarot deck resplendent with 19th century artwork by J.J. Grandville, which you can find plenty more of here [Projects]. [more inside]
It's an Attention Economy, we just live in it
Some say economics is changing so radically that attention is of more value than money or material wealth. If that's true, then should Paris Hilton and Britney Spears be considered role models? Must we each be stars in order to be a success, to get anything achieved, or to gain even the slightest traction?
Stroll Down 35W bridge
Take a stroll down the Minneapolis 35W bridge using Google's street view (now with more cities) [more inside]
McCain's extraterritorial birth
Is John McCain eligible to become president of the U.S.? He was born on a military base in the Panama Canal zone, which was not sovereign US territory. The Constitution provides:No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. Is McCain a natural born citizen?
Alan Dargin RIP
Master of the 'didge' - after veins burst in his throat some years ago while he was playing the didgeridoo, doctors warned that continued playing would threaten his life. Admitted to hospital last week with bleeding on the brain, he died on Sunday from a brain haemorrhage. He was 40. [more inside]
Phone Porn
The Nokia Morph concept phone is currently featured in The Museum of Modern Art “Design and The Elastic Mind” exhibition (warning: flash interface). This 'self-cleaning' shape-shifting mobile follows Nokia's other recent phone concept, the environmentally-friendly Remade, unveiled at Mobile World Congress earlier this month.
Joe Maphis, King of the Strings.
I tell you what, buddy, that ol' Joe Maphis fellow outta Bakersfield, he was one fast picker. Yup, fast as greased lightning and smooth as gaht-damn silk on that double-neck Mosrite guitar. He and the missus have a little advice for you, too: Don't Make Love In a Buggy. And though Joe was mainly a picker, he did pen one memorable little country ditty which you might've heard in some honky tonk along the line: Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (and Loud, Loud Music). [note: see hoverovers for link descriptions] [more inside]
Cities of God
RIP Boyd Coddington.
John McCain's Sweet Ride
The lavishly-furnished custom Boeing 727 figures in the current tempest over his relationship with female lobbyist Vicki Iseman who provided and flew with McCain on the plane. Lots of colorful background in this investigative report by Daniel Hopsicker, the best muckraker since Gary Webb [more inside]
I think I'm in Love
Love is everyone. Love is a not so massively multiplayer game that uses Verse. Worlds are built on top of a procedural engine (like Spore) and content creation is done in real time. Someone recently took a look at Love and it was good. Did I mention it was open source? And written by one guy, Eskil Steenberg. [more inside]
Stage 6 to Shut Down Today
Stage 6, recently linked in a popular FPP, has announced it will shut down today. Rumors about why include their battle against UMG to a "ridiculous battle of egos."
haramaki, waist warmer
In Japan haramaki were originally worn as part of samurai armor to protect the stomach and kidneys. They have evolved to become a handy winter fashion accessory, which keeps the whole body warm. [more inside]
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