July 19, 2008
China Colonizing Africa With Dire Consequences for Africans
China is making a concerted effort to colonize Africa with dire consequences for Africans. In protest to China's involvement in Darfur's genocide, Steven Spielberg has resigned as Artistic Director of the Beijing Olympics.
Festejo
Welding Plastic
Most people are familiar with welding metal, but it’s entirely possible to weld plastic. There are a surprising number of ways to weld plastic, but first you will need to identify what kind it is. The smell of burning plastic is a particularly effective diagnostic. This man is welding with hot air. Many instructional videos are made by companies whose products are featured in the video, like this somewhat surreal demonstration of speed tip welding. Perhaps the most low-tech method is with a soldering iron.
Where Musicians Come to Play
Larry Groce has been producing Mountain Stage in West Virginia for 25 years. This weekly radio and public television program has been broadcasting the best mountain music in Appalachia, usually from the WV Cultural Center. This month NPR began distributing the show nationally in the U.S. Also, last year Mountain Stage began archiving podcasts of the programs ... many, many hours of wonderful mountain music. [more inside]
The Taco Bell Dana Carvey Show
The Dana Carvey Show lasted for only a handful of episodes on ABC in the spring of 1996. but produced more than its share of memorable sketches, thanks to a talented writing staff (with Charlie Kaufman among others), and a cast including Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, and Robert Smigel. Some highlights for the Hulu-impaired: Leftover Beatle Memories - Skinheads from Maine - Germans who Say Nice Things - First Ladies as Dogs - Waiters who are Nauseated by Food
we heart electric bikes
Bicycles are the most efficient mode of transportation; walking is a distant second, followed by crowded vans and motorcycles, with everything else being relatively equal. This may change soon. WSJ online jokingly tests a new plug-in electric bike versus a standard racing model.
Russian poetry and drama
Early Twentieth Century Russian Drama and From the Ends to the Beginning: A Bilingual Anthology of Russian Poetry are both products of Northwestern University Slavic Department. The former is devoted to Russian theater from the 1890s through the 1930s and focuses on the visual aspect of theater, with images of costumes, set designs and photographs of stagings. The latter is a collection of 250 poems, both in Russian and English translations ranging from the 18th Century to the modern day. There are some amazing images from the history of Russian drama, such as Kazimir Malevich's designs for Victory over the Sun and a quicktime video of actors doing Meyerhold's biomechanical exercises. The Listening Gallery of russianpoetry.net has over 75 recitals of poems, including Vladmir Mayakovsky reading his own And Could You? and a reading of Velimir Khlebnikov's famous Invocation of Laughter.
From the Ottoman military to the Balkan Roma
The Mehterhane or Mehter, as they are often known, are thought to be the oldest military marching band in the world. Starting around the 13th century, the band accompanied the Ottoman empire troops (Janissaries, or yeniçeri, roughly meaning "new troops" and were comprised mostly of young men from the Balkans) into battle, spreading their music along the way and influencing western classical composers like Mozart and Beethoven. [more inside]
Yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh
They're coming outta the goddamn walls.
The žižkov television tower in Prague
was pretty weird looking to begin with, since 2000 it's gotten much stranger...
Christie's breaks out in a cold sweat.
Coming in at just under $860,000, the take for the recently auctioned estate of James Brown fell well short of the two million that Christie's had hoped for. You'll want to browse the collection for yourself, of course. If I had the extra scratch, I'd have sure bought this.
The amazing comic book adventure of Brent Rinehart
Meet Brent Rinehart: Conservative Republican. Active Christian. Roads Scholar. NOT a homosexual pedifile. [PDF] The controversial mix of comics and politics are back in the news this week. So are Oklahoma's homophobic politicians, with the amazing comic book adventure of Brent Rinehart. [more inside]
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