MetaFilter

The recession has hit the theatre world (and the arts scene in general) very hard - but some argue that theatre practitioners aren't doing themselves any favours when seeking funding. The main question insufficiently addressed is "who is the funding for?" - hint: it's not about you. Approaching theatre as a product isn't working, not when MFA acting programs don't often allow its graduates to earn enough to earn back their debt. So now the question is: how can the economics of theatre be changed?
comment posted at 5:58 PM on Mar-29-09

Contenders for this year's Badass of the Year award will have a tough time topping Italian surgeon Claudio Vitale, who completed a delicate brain surgery despite having a heart attack during the procedure. He pushed himself to complete the surgery when he realized that his patient was unlikely to survive if he halted the operation.
comment posted at 5:01 AM on Mar-27-09

Ed Piskor became interested in alternative comics at the tender age of nine [according to Wikipedia] after watching Harvey Pekar reading one of his stories in a documentary [most likely this one]. Fast-forward a decade or so, and Ed's getting the call from Pekar himself, asking Ed to draw some comics for him.
comment posted at 12:08 PM on Mar-20-09

Actress Natasha Richardson died yesterday at the age of 45 after a fall while taking a beginner's lesson at the Mont Tremblant Ski Resort, located 80 miles northwest of Montreal in Quebec, Canada.
comment posted at 4:20 AM on Mar-19-09

Sitcom Maps from DanMeth.com
comment posted at 2:51 PM on Mar-18-09
comment posted at 3:34 PM on Mar-18-09
comment posted at 7:36 PM on Mar-18-09

Wonder how many of the original Woodstock performers are still alive? The Woodstock Death Count reveals that the percentage is not as low as one might imagine after Jeff Kay steps up to the plate and crunches the numbers, again. FYI: He is also responsible for counting the number of f-words in the HBO series Deadwood (which Drudge Report linked to) and this (previously mentioned) internet sensation.)
comment posted at 4:17 PM on Mar-17-09

Research shows that a new trend for pre-teens is posting how-to videos explaining the finer points of crushing up smarties, inhaling the dust, and then puffing out powered sugar.

Smarties: America’s favorite candy wafer roll! Of course you can eat them. But did you know kids are smoking them? How to smoke Smarties with the best! What do you do in the face of such unwelcome PR? Perhaps the best option is silence. Learn in 7 easy steps, Better than candy cigarettes. Some of these videos have been around since 2007 so why are they catching on now? This is the American candy, not to be confused with the European chocolate confectionery. (via and via) (related previously)
comment posted at 4:25 PM on Mar-17-09

Art Spiegelman, author of award-winning graphic novel series Maus and the man behind upcoming McSweeney's release Be a Nose!, "was once banned from Robert Crumb’s house, loves chicken fat and hates the term 'graphic novel'".
comment posted at 4:02 PM on Mar-16-09
comment posted at 4:28 PM on Mar-16-09

The Musical Mystery of Connie Converse
"To survive at all, I expect I must drift back down through the other half of the twentieth twentieth, which I already know pretty well, the hundredth hundredth, which I have only read and heard about. I might survive there quite a few years - who knows?"

This was the cryptic note Connie Converse left her family in 1974, and no one heard from her again. She had spent the 1950's in New York City, trying to promote her music- haunting, melancholy folk tunes, but never made a go of it. Her songs very nearly disappeared into the ether, but thanks to Lau derrete Records, her first album is now available to the public, fifty years after the songs were recorded. (via Spinning On Air)
comment posted at 6:42 PM on Mar-15-09

"America's Lost Band"...1964...The Remains. Opening act for The Beatles first US tour. One of the great what-might-have-been (but didn't) stories of American music of the 60’s.
comment posted at 3:23 PM on Mar-13-09
comment posted at 3:26 PM on Mar-13-09

For 40 years starting in 1950 the huge - 18 x 60 foot - Kodak Coloramas hung in the east balcony of New York's Grand Central Terminal. Photos were enlarged onto successive strips of Ektacolor print film, each 19 inches wide and about 20 feet long, and after processing, 41 such strips were spliced together with transparent tape to make one, giant 18 x 60 foot display transparency.
comment posted at 4:09 AM on Mar-13-09

"Notes and Queries: A Medium of Communication for Literary Men, General Readers, etc." Notes and Queries is a long running journal which printed the, well, notes and queries sent in to them by readers. Google books seems to have full view available for most, if not all, of the issues from the founding in 1849 up through 1908.
comment posted at 4:39 PM on Mar-7-09

A visualization of the estimated 1.4 million deaths resulting from the Khmer Rouge. (Single Link Big Picture) There is no "more inside", thank goodness.
comment posted at 6:53 AM on Mar-7-09
comment posted at 5:08 AM on Mar-9-09

Ötzi the Iceman. Up close and personal.Really close.
comment posted at 4:12 PM on Mar-6-09
comment posted at 4:56 AM on Mar-7-09

A thing called love.
comment posted at 3:59 PM on Mar-6-09

Spoiled: Organic and Local Is So 2008 - Mother Jones asks what sustainable agriculture should really look like. Is it about food miles or should we all just eat less meat?
comment posted at 4:10 PM on Mar-5-09

"Members of Quilters of South Carolina have created one-of-a-kind bras for Breast Cancer Awareness. The exhibit consists of fifty original works of art which are unique, entertaining, humorous, and beautiful to make the public aware of breast cancer, to memorialize those lost to the disease, and to honor survivors." via
comment posted at 8:04 PM on Mar-4-09

Kutiman, the masterful Israeli funk musician and producer, outdoes himself by creating Thru-You: Multiple YouTube clips (mostly instructional and performance videos) edited into slick mega-mashups. They're not just patchwork assemblages, they're sample-based original creations that coud hold their own on anyone's album... Plus they're 100% audiovisual! It's a work of next-level genius.
(sorry for the hyperbole, but my mind has just been blown)
More Kutiman here. Music video here. And for you Pitchfork aficionados, here.
comment posted at 4:13 AM on Mar-4-09

QWERTY rock.
comment posted at 7:29 PM on Feb-27-09

Louis C.K. gives us all a little dose of perspective.
comment posted at 4:11 AM on Feb-27-09

There's the fascinating autistic musical savant Blind Tom Wiggins. There are musical clowns and minstrels, and poignant images of child musicians. There are tantalizing and truly exotic images of musicians from far-flung corners of the world: India, Persia, China, Japan... all this and more at the Vintage Musicians Flickr group. Oh, and who's that critter with the banjo? Why, that may just be the ORIGINAL LOL CAT.
comment posted at 3:59 PM on Feb-26-09

"Take 20" of the Beatles'"Revolution 1" has found its way online. Although the authenticity of the online leak is still to be officially confirmed, the 10 minute recording has been previously documented by Beatles expert Mark Lewisohn and appears to be the gap between the White Album's "Revolution 1" and "Revolution 9".
comment posted at 4:44 AM on Feb-25-09

Cincinnati's Union Terminal has been named one of the top 50 architecturally significant buildings in America by the AIA. It was a major train station, abandoned, turned into a shopping mall, and now it currently houses the city's Museum Center. One problem, it's falling apart.
comment posted at 8:51 PM on Feb-23-09

Binyam Mohamed will shortly be released from Guantanamo, where hunger strikes and beatings still continue.
TPM attempts to assesses the level of President Obama's apparent commitment to transparency, accountability for Bush administration officials who may have committed crimes, and adhering to the rule of law. It highlights Glenn Greenwald's recent article:
There is simply no way to argue that our leaders should be immunized from criminal investigations for torture and other war crimes without believing that (a) the U.S. is and should be immune from the principles we've long demanded other nations obey and (b) we are free to ignore our treaty obligations any time it suits us.
comment posted at 3:01 PM on Feb-22-09

"He was one bad dude, strutting across the stage like a harp-toting gangster, mesmerizing the crowd with his tough-guy antics and rib-sticking Chicago blues attack." - All Music Guide. He was also a sharp-dressing mofo who, at the end of his storied life, was buried in "his creaseless sky-blue silk suit and matching homburg, a shiny trove of harmonicas laid out beside him, a pint of gin nestled nearby to ease his journey home". In the opinion of many, he was the greatest blues harmonica player of all time.
comment posted at 3:09 PM on Feb-22-09

BABIES’ skulls dashed against rocks; attempts to twist off the heads of toddlers. Girls, their mothers and grandmothers (and sometimes male relatives too) raped at knife- or gunpoint, the weapons then used to inflict mutilation. Women hauled off to camps or just tied to trees and gang-raped. Thousands of children, some as young as nine, snatched or recruited by armed gangs (or regular forces) and made into drug-crazed killers, the girls among them often serially abused or taken by commanders as “wives”. Such are the horrors reported from some recent conflict zones...
comment posted at 10:24 AM on Feb-21-09

Dancing Japanese Street Gangs - mov
comment posted at 12:11 PM on Feb-21-09

'If you value nothing, then nothing you value can be taken from you.' William Donaldson, the author of the infamous Henry Root Letters led a life more colourful than any of his literary inventions.
comment posted at 4:10 PM on Feb-20-09

There is a remarkable collection of books partially exhibited online at the Richter Library at the University of Miami. The library's physical exhibit includes a sample display of books on spiritual photography, clairvoyance, and a nice run of FATE Magazine. The collection contains over 1700 books and there is a full bibliography. You might ask, what's so special about this collection? Well, the books are all From the Library of Jackie Gleason.
comment posted at 4:05 AM on Feb-19-09

A detailed history of miniature golf, from it's genesis in the Ladies' Putting Club of St. Andrew's to the creative and extravagant future.
comment posted at 3:56 PM on Feb-17-09

Danish photographer Simon Høgsberg has made several updates since we last visited, including Faces of New York and The Low Fat Diaries. Digital Photography School interviews Høgsberg about his latest project We're All Gonna Die - 100 Meters of Existence.
comment posted at 11:56 AM on Feb-16-09

"Let them arrest me". Vehemently anti-Islamic Dutch MP Geert Wilders was scheduled to travel to London tomorrow to attend a screening of his controversial short film Fitna (wiki, mefi). Yesterday however, the UK's Home Secretary notified Wilders that his presence in the UK would pose a "serious threat to [...] public security" (PDF), presumably intending to refuse his entry into UK. Wilders plans to board the flight anyway, daring British authorities to arrest him.
comment posted at 6:50 PM on Feb-11-09

World's Mightiest Ship Was Lost Without a Trace in 1744 "In July 1744, she set sail to rescue a Mediterranean convoy blockaded by the French Brest fleet in the River Tagus at Lisbon. After victoriously chasing the French fleet away, she escorted the convoy into the Mediterranean Sea as far as Gibraltar, then set sail to return to her home port in England. During the course of the voyage, her fleet captured a number of valuable prizes, and she was also reported to have taken on board a consignment of 400,000 pounds sterling for Dutch merchants. On her return trip to England, HMS Victory was lost with all hands in a violent storm on October 5, 1744." [pdf]
comment posted at 4:11 PM on Feb-11-09

That Buzzing Sound: The mystery of tinnitus.
comment posted at 4:42 AM on Feb-11-09

Braddock, Pennsylvania has been classified as a "distressed municipality." This may be an understatement: From a high of around 20,000, its population has dwindled to below 3000, many of those people unemployed. Braddock's is a landscape so grim ("a mix of boarded-up storefronts, houses in advanced stages of collapse and vacant lots") that it was selected to serve as a backdrop for the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel, The Road. Its mayor, John Fetterman, considers Braddock “a laboratory for solutions to all these maladies starting to knock on the door of every community.”
comment posted at 8:39 AM on Feb-8-09

Yet another study says the middle class are fleeing New York City. What happened to the previous studies and solutions? Bloomberg to Middle Class, "Get Out."
comment posted at 6:04 PM on Feb-6-09

Spinal Tap reforms to record a new album. Entire planet quivers in anticipation.
comment posted at 4:27 AM on Feb-5-09

Lux Interior, lead singer of The Cramps, dead at 52.
comment posted at 5:46 PM on Feb-4-09

The founder of an international nonprofit group has passed away.
comment posted at 4:48 AM on Feb-4-09

"The biggest problem with the metal bikini, was that it wasn’t metal. ——Not that metal would’ve been an improvement over what it was actually made of, which was kind of a hard plastic. Whatever it was, it didn’t adhere to one’s skin. MY skin. My young, soon to be popular, unlucky skin. SO, when I was relaxing leisurely against Jabba the Hutt’s gigantic, albiet grotesque stomach, my hard, plastic bikini bottom……….well, it had the tendency to make my now not so private privates quite public. Especially for the actor standing behind Jabba playing Bobba Fett—–I believe his name was Jeremy—–from where Bobba/Jeremy stood, so straight and tall and severe behind his mask——to put it simply and weirdly, Jeremy could see beyond my yawning, plastic bikini bottoms all the way to Florida."

- Carrie Fisher goes from writing the occasional book to daily blogging, from substance abuse to abusing punctuation
comment posted at 3:16 PM on Feb-3-09

The Canadian Journalism Project (CJP) and its websites, J-Source.ca (English) and ProjetJ.ca (French), provides a source for news, research, commentary, advice, discussion and resources about the achievement of, and challenges to, excellence in Canadian journalism.
comment posted at 4:34 AM on Feb-3-09

"I am Russian so, obviously, I like this film. It has typical Russian humor, it is a farce, so do not look for higher meanings in the jokes, it makes fun of the social standards of the Soviet regime as well as the people who served it so well. It features some of the best Russian actors that we love seeing and acting; they sing in the movie and it is lovely as well. If you are a tough judge of movies, then please make sure you know Soviet history a bit and understand that the humor differs from what you see in American movies before you call it crap."
comment posted at 3:49 AM on Feb-2-09

Feeling Good by Nina Simone with a video by mrfnk l Feeling Good by Gilbert Price, age 23, who sang it first as a spiritual. More info on joannao's blogspot l Feeling Good by Muse l Feeling Good by My Brightest Diamond.
comment posted at 6:53 AM on Feb-1-09
comment posted at 6:56 AM on Feb-1-09