September 29, 2015
"Reading is cool and so are you!"
For nine seasons, (1995-2004) comedienne and actress Kathy Kinney played Mimi Bobeck, the "outrageously made-up, flamboyantly vulgar, and vindictive nemesis" of Drew Carey on the sitcom The Drew Carey Show. Lately, she's been busy with a new role: professional children's storyteller. Welcome to Mrs. P's Magic Library. [more inside]
Horror and chill
For the first time in forever, Halloween will be filled with scary movies.* And while you're here... [more inside]
Hardcore Gaming 101 video articles
Here is the new series of video articles started by the ultra-knowledgeable folks at Hardcore Gaming 101. The first two are up, the beginning of series on Pre-Super Mario platform games and on the early history of JRPGs. Related is the video adjunct to the Game Club 199X Podcast, with over 50 videos. (Previously.)
Candid Yakuza
In 2011 a Belgian photographer was allowed entry into one of Japan’s Yakuza families. Over two years, he captured the lives of those living in the underworld. In 2015 The economist created a short film about that project. [more inside]
Confused about who to vote for in the upcoming presidential election?
Permeable concrete is interesting
(Product video) Topmix Permeable has a claimed average permeability rate of 600 litres, per minute, per square meter. Watch the concrete in a small area of car park soak up 4,000 litres in a minute. An explanation version and a few caveats. [more inside]
Connecting the dots
Discograph generates an interactive visualization of relationships between nearly 5 million artists, bands and labels, based on data from the Discogs.com database.
Examples: The Beatles | The Fall | Neil Young
Examples: The Beatles | The Fall | Neil Young
Japanese Government Asks Universities to Close Social Science Faculties
Short on time? Here are the highlights: Japan’s Minister of Education has asked all national universities to close their social sciences and humanities departments. 26 universities have so far confirmed plans to close affected faculties or convert them to "areas that better meet society’s needs" [more inside]
How to build a medieval LEGO village
Detailed guide to building a medieval village. LEGO builder Luke Watkins Hutchinson / Derfel Cadarn's massive, 300-photo guide to building an intricate medieval scene out of LEGO bricks. [more inside]
The Architecture of Waste
“None of this intends to give Michete a free pass for anything”
[R]ising star Shamir recently gave NME a playlist of his favorite recent musical discoveries, and his most lavish praise was for… Michete and his mixtape Cool Tricks, described as “a gift from the ratchet gods.” It’s a description as compelling as most any Shamir song. … If nothing else, [opening track “Rap Game Kimmy Gibbler”] will cause some outrage when Michete—who identifies as transfeminine (she/her/he/his) —concludes the song by boasting that she is “burning all these bitches like my last name Hitler.”… Cool Tricks offers up the new genre of qrap: the versed ribaldry of poor taste—a crassly mouthed “fuck you” to the gay male archetype of the connoisseur.
Andy Emitt writes about “The Worst Queer Rapper You Need To Listen To” for Pitchfork. [more inside]
Andy Emitt writes about “The Worst Queer Rapper You Need To Listen To” for Pitchfork. [more inside]
Damn Cold in February: Buddy Holly, View Master and the Atomic Bomb
Someday this country’s gonna be a fine, good place to be. Maybe it needs our bones in the ground before that time can come: An essay on the summer of the Atomic Bomb, by Joni Tevis. Originally published in The Diagram
The Geniuses Are Here
The 2015 crop of MacArthur Fellows has been announced, starring Ta-Nehisi Coates, puppeteer Basil Twist, sociologist Matthew Desmond (whose work on eviction has been previously discussed on MetaFilter), and poet Ellen Bryant Voigt. [more inside]
A lesson in value
The Darkness Before The Right
As the twenty-first century gets darker, politics are likely to follow suit, and for all it’s apparent weirdness, neoreaction may be an early warning system for what a future anti-democratic right looks like. (Previously.)
This is The Daily Show
Trevor Noah has delivered his first episode as host of The Daily Show. Reviews are mixed but mostly positive. [more inside]
Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, cultural commentator and patron of the arts
In 2011, Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi (Arabic: سلطان سعود القاسمي) was lauded for his Twitter stream where he provided English translations of news and events of Arab Spring. A year earlier, the cultural commentator started the Barjeel Art Foundation, serving as a patron and promoter for artists from all over the Arab world: Syrian, Iraqi, Kuwaiti, Egyptian, Jordanian, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon. "I don't buy artworks that I think are pretty and aesthetically appealing," he says. "But I buy art that is politically meaningful." Arab Art Redefined: How art collector Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi is trying to change the narrative (2 minute slideshow with narration by Sultan Al-Qassemi on how he collects and shares art).
Banned Book Week is a Crock...?
Ruth Graham, in a Slate piece entitled, Banned Books Week is a Crock, argued that censorship is no longer a problem in the United States. Censorship laws are nearly extinct, and if your local library doesn't have the book...well, you can always find it online.
"This Banned Books Week," writes Graham, "instead of hand-wringing about a nonexistent wave of censorship, let’s celebrate the obvious: The books won."
But have they? [more inside]
Perfect Watch for a CEO? Perfect Leather Daddy Jacket?
115 Ways to Scream 'Status' I thought this would just be a list of expensive things the super-rich have (and there's a lot of that), but also contains really interesting stuff on Broadway singers' throat lozenges, oboe players' preferred reeds, etc.
Welcome to New York City, 1609
DragonCon Cosplay Party
I be change seek- man- fest words
In this acoustic version of Permanent Holiday by Hawaii-based reggae musician Mike Love, a seemingly random assortment of syllables slowly grows into a song over a period of three minutes. [more inside]
I'm not crazy. You're the one who's crazy.
What the American people are angry about is they understand that they did not cause this recession. Teachers did not cause this recession. Firefighters and police officers who are being attacked daily by governors all over this country did not cause this recession. Construction workers did not cause this recession. This recession was caused by a few so-called punk and hardcore bands who charged obscene door cover and priced their merch like it was goddamned Prada—Bernie Sanders (I–VT).Bernie is hardcore. [more inside]
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