August 23, 2020
The Enduring, Pernicious Whiteness of True Crime
After all, as Walter Lowe told me, you can’t sell a product for which there is no audience. To have more books, features, and podcasts by and about nonwhite people, there must be a demand for them. (There is.) In order for there to be sufficient, recognized demand, he said, nonwhite victims must be seen as people. That part, maddeningly, is not a given. 4000 heavily linked words from Elon Green for The Appeal.
The Illustrated Catalog Of ACME Products — ACCEPT NO IMITATIONS
ACME is a worldwide leader of many manufactured goods. From its humble beginnings providing corks and flypaper to bug collectors ("Buddy's Bug Hunt," 1935 [YouTube, rough copy with unofficial commentary] ) to its heyday in the American Southwest supplying a certain coyote (Wikipedia), from Ultimatum Dispatchers to Batman outfits, ACME has set the standard for excellence. For the first time ever, information and pictures of all ACME products, specialty divisions, and services (from 1935 to 1964) are gathered here, in one convenient catalog. Behold, The Illustrated Catalog Of ACME Products. [Via Mltshp]
The virtual political convention you've all been waiting for
You probably missed it in June, so here is a replay of 3 hours of political debate to get you familiar with the candidates. Or, if that's too much, here's a written introduction to them, including the first Black woman to run for Tory leadership in Canada. Yes, it's time for Canadian Conservatives to choose a new leader, after the last one didn't work out. All of the votes in the ranked ballot, points-per-riding contest have been cast, and the results will be revealed starting at 5:30pm EDT tonight. CPAC stream, CBC stream, Global News live blog.
a kinetic effervescence, with a pulse that shimmered and spangled
The Go-Go's became the first all-female band — who played their own instruments and wrote their own songs — to have a No. 1 album in America. Why aren't they in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
- LA Weekly: you're mostly a bunch of New Yorkers, and New Yorkers have always treated L.A. punk like the bastard stepchild of the New York and London scenes.
- Belinda Carlisle: It’s sexist or it’s political.
- Rolling Stone: Is it because they complained about the time they were on the cover?
Their new documentary makes the case that they very much deserve to be there. [more inside]
- LA Weekly: you're mostly a bunch of New Yorkers, and New Yorkers have always treated L.A. punk like the bastard stepchild of the New York and London scenes.
- Belinda Carlisle: It’s sexist or it’s political.
- Rolling Stone: Is it because they complained about the time they were on the cover?
Their new documentary makes the case that they very much deserve to be there. [more inside]
From the verge of collapse to a 1st Christmas
Miss Girard's Christmas Gift. Lost on a Texas highway on a hot June 2019 afternoon, a young man remembers only one name: his special ed teacher of two decades earlier.
The Intersection is Under Construction
In Solarpunk, “there’s something missing. The intersection with communities of faith is roped off,” argues Rob Cameron in The New Modality. [more inside]
Perhaps "living in the now" isn't a real thing
past-ten asks writers and artists like X. H. Collins, Cal Louise Phoenix, S. Evan Stubblefield, Abigail Thomas, Rex Ybañez, Caleb Curtiss, and Jasminum McMullen What were you doing on this day ten years ago?
Bathtubs: A brief (and limited) history
Search the web, and you're sure to read that America's first bathtub was installed in 1842—December 20, to be exact. It would be nice if such a mercurial vessel had so neat a beginning—even H.L. Mencken, the newspaperman who concocted this hoax as an uplifting wartime news story, would agree. What is true is that no accessory embodies the metamorphosis of bathing equipment (from moveable furniture to plumbed-in-place fixtures) or helps define the use and look of a bathroom in any era as much as the bathtub. (Source link, Old House Journal) [more inside]
Hand signs beyond standard ASL
@thefamilyvocab is an Instagram account showing new hand signs such as creep, Pippi Longstocking, Black Lives Matter, Mermaid, unicorn, Zoom, Star Trek, corona virus.
Skyscrapers for plants: maybe farm/forest arcologies should be things
Wheat yield potential in controlled-environment vertical farms - "Here we show that wheat grown on a single hectare of land in a 10-layer indoor vertical facility could produce ... 220 to 600 times the current world average annual wheat yield of 3.2 t/ha." (via) [more inside]
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