June 28, 2016
Sad Boner Confessionals
"You can tell you’re reading a Sad Boner Confessional when a man is describing the worst trauma of a woman’s life purely in terms of what it means about him. " After the Huffington Post picked up "self-described "Media Activist" Ian MacKenzie's blog post "Love Will be the Death of Us" (warning: Huffpo), author Alexandra Erin (previously, previously) had some thoughts on the narcissistic and self-serving genre of author confessional.
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The Spherical Droste Effect, with added twist and recursion
Threshold of Revlation
An Oral History of Angels in America. Isaac Butler and Dan Kois interview Tony Kushner, Oskar Eustis, actors, and other participants in the original production of Angels in America.
How to Build a Straw Bale Garden
When I moved into my new Philadelphia rowhouse, I was determined to grow the vegetable garden that had eluded me all those years in a cramped Manhattan apartment. But reality struck with the first thrust of my shovel: my soil — a cocktail of concrete shards and construction debris mixed with a bit of sand and dirt — was useless. Faced with the expense (OK, and effort) of building raised beds, I decided instead to go cheap and easy: a straw bale garden. [more inside]
Like a warm hug made of syrup and pie...
A Movable Feast
The Surprising History of the Infographic
Clive Thompson and Smithsonian magazine bring us a history of data visualization, including classics from Florence Nightingale to the red-and-blue state divide. Via Kottke.
Place your cat in front of the screen
Cat Game: Mouse Hunt (SLYT)
In Training, photographs of bonsai trees
The Art of Alexander Paulus
The Art of Alexander Paulus - for example: This season on Buy My Shit You Stupid Idiots; A very lucky boy; More trainer please; Tom devouring his Jerry. Some are NSFW.
The Florida Highwaymen, Jim Crow era painters who captured old Florida
If you lived or traveled through the Fort Pierce region of Florida in the late 1950s and throughout the 60s, you may have had the chance to buy a landscape painting from an African American man, with Upson board as the canvas and crown molding as a frame, and the paint might have still been wet. Unable to get their art into local galleries, this rough collective of 26 self-taught artists peddled their wares to local businesses, through neighborhoods and to tourists. Their style fell out of fashion into the 1980s, but some of the painters persisted. Their style gained new recognition in the 1990s, a handful continue to paint to this day. They are known as The Highwaymen, and their art captures the natural, and somewhat lost Florida of the past. [more inside]
When you wish upon a bra...
Victoria Coren Mitchell ponders the unrealistic purchases most women make. Especially the fancy bra.
World's Laziest Wolf Howls
Alawa (the lazy howler) is a captive-born Canadian/Rocky Mountain gray wolf at the Wolf Conservation Center (WCC), a 501c3 non-profit organization, in South Salem, NY. She is one of the four 'ambassador wolves' at the WCC that help teach the public about wolves and their vital role in the environment. [more inside]
Guaranteed to feature a basset hound somewhere
Top Ten Mamoru Oshii Films (that Are not Ghost in the Shell): does what it says on the tin, ten movies, animated and live action, which were directed by Mamoru Oshii, all of which probably offer better entertainment than the Hollywood adaptation of Ghost in the Shell could.
National, just smaller
"I think now is the perfect time to start (or restart) a local digital news operation. There are few greater gifts in journalism than a blank sheet of paper." In CJR, editor and entrepreneur Jim Brady (@jimbrady) on why and how now might finally be the time for local journalism in the USA to find a business model that works. [more inside]
Of course, none of them compare to "Big McLargeHuge"
To commemorate the 100th episode of "Comedy Bang! Bang!" on IFC, here are the 100 names of Scott Aukerman.
Soviet ingenuity at its finest!
The unintended consequences of tenure timeouts
The bombshell finding was that, when comparing candidates for tenure, the success rate for male candidates increased by 19.4 percentage points after stopping the clock was offered. For women, the rate fell by 22.4 percentage points. [more inside]
My Apartment: George Lois
Video tour of legendary designer George Lois's Greenwich Village apartment. Also in the series so far: Florence Welch, Glenn O'Brien, others.
Legal Troubles
As the rich get richer, trouble continues to brew for law schools in the United States. [more inside]
MONEY FOR NOTHING
Pat Summitt
"The story of women’s basketball is so incomplete without Pat Summitt, it’s almost not worth telling. Not just the winningest coach in D1 history, Summitt is the modern game, her success mirroring its rise, her ascendancy propelling the sport out of obscurity. And now she’s gone." [more inside]
இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—
The Game of Thrones Graveyard [Slate] [Spoilers] If you watch Game of Thrones, chances are you’ve watched the show kill off a character who mattered to you: a lord, a sellsword, a queen, a knight; someone you loved, or someone you loved to hate. It’s so hard to say goodbye, even when the deceased are fictional. That’s why we’re opening the Game of Thrones Graveyard, where the show’s most well-known characters rest for eternity. Buried in this sacred ground are brave souls who George R.R. Martin took from us too soon, likely by beheading them, filling them with crossbow bolts, slitting their throats, or all of the above. Others lasted far too long and died far too easily considering their depravity. But good or evil, they all touched our lives in some way. Leave a flower for a fallen character.
A plate of Björk and beans
In 1997, Björk interviewed musicians Alasdair Malloy, Mika Vainio, Tommi Grönlund, and Arvo Pärt in a two-part BBC documentary entitled Modern Minimalists - part I | part II
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