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Do you want to be a writer? This is your tradition. In 1978, Michael Ventura co-founded the 'LA Weekly,' serving as film critic and feature writer until 1983, when (while continuing to write features) he began his biweekly column Letters at 3AM. The column appeared in that publication until 1993; since then, it has been published by the Austin Chronicle.
comment posted at 7:59 PM on Oct-20-10

"The Soft Boys came into my head in Cambridge, in the hot, dry summer of 1976 while punk was being conjured up by a small group of artists and villains in London...."
comment posted at 3:57 AM on Oct-19-10

"These paintings became a way to explore how driving in weather shifts and changes the views outside the car as well how the driving experience informs our basic interpretation of environment." The work of artist Gregory Thielker.
comment posted at 6:53 AM on Oct-17-10

WikiLeaks and 9/11: What if? That is the question posed by former FBI Special Agent Coleen Rowley and former Federal Air Marshal Bogdan Dzakovic.
comment posted at 1:33 PM on Oct-16-10

Laila Kinnunen was very popular in Finland in the fifties and sixties. She sang beautifully in Finnish, but had also the ability to perform in many other languages. As performer Laila was quite versatile, just compare these two performances. Though in her heart of hearts she probably wanted to be a jazz singer.
comment posted at 3:49 PM on Oct-14-10

America's Deepening Moral Crisis - Income inequality is at historic highs, but the rich claim that they have no responsibility to the rest of society. They refuse to come to the aid of the destitute, and defend tax cuts at every opportunity. Almost everybody complains, almost everybody aggressively defends their own narrow and short-term interests, and almost everybody abandons any pretense of looking ahead or addressing the needs of others.
comment posted at 5:06 AM on Oct-14-10

The Mysterious "Mirror Man", aka The Collector by artist Gustav Troger
comment posted at 12:56 PM on Oct-13-10

Back in the 80s when Doctor Who was mired in a creative and ratings slump, the programme's creator Sydney Newman was asked how to revive it. His answer - regenerate the Doctor as a woman.
comment posted at 4:15 AM on Oct-12-10

Graham Greene, Arthur Ransome and Somerset Maugham all spied for Britain, admits MI6 "The authors Graham Greene, Arthur Ransome, Somerset Maugham, Compton Mackenzie and Malcolm Muggeridge, and the philosopher AJ "Freddie" Ayer, all worked for MI6, Britain's Secret Intelligence Service admitted for the first time today . They are among the many exotic characters who agreed to spy for Britain, mainly during wartime, who appear in a the first authorised history of MI6."
comment posted at 9:28 AM on Oct-11-10

Are you feeling blue? Suffer from insomnia? Need career advice? Have dietary concerns? Want to know more about sex? Wonder how the market is doing and your finances? Never fear, Sweet Old Bob is here
comment posted at 9:56 AM on Oct-10-10

Now is the time on MetaFilter when we dance: with GROSSE FREIHEIT, Mera naam Chin Chin Chu (Hindi: मेरा नाम चिन चिन चू, Urdu: میرا نام چِن چِن چو) , and Occult Chemistry - Fire.
comment posted at 6:19 AM on Oct-10-10
comment posted at 6:41 AM on Oct-10-10

Urban archaeologist Scott Jordan has spent his whole life uncovering New York City's remains: I have been digging for New York's artifacts since 1969. My first dig was on Governor's Island, which was my father's duty station, and I stumbled upon a time capsule of New York's military history in the moat of old Fort Jay. In the dirt under the old drawbridge were relics dating from the War of 1812 all the way to the Civil War including buttons, musket balls and bullets, coins, pottery, and even a small cannon ball.
comment posted at 2:39 PM on Oct-9-10

Philip Scott Johnson does morphing
Van Gogh self portraits
60 years of actresses
60 years of actors
women in film
Women In Art here previously; 500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art now with links to original artwork.
comment posted at 8:31 AM on Oct-9-10

Andrew O'Hehir, writing for Salon.com, called Secretariat: "A gorgeous, creepy American myth". Roger Ebert described O'Hehir's review as "insane". O'Hehir responds.
comment posted at 4:54 AM on Oct-9-10

What is working for the music industry and why the top buyers of pop music albums are now those over 60.
comment posted at 3:09 PM on Oct-8-10
comment posted at 3:20 PM on Oct-8-10

The Art Of Film Title Design Throughout Cinema History
comment posted at 3:17 PM on Oct-8-10

Mario Vargas Llosa wrote poems when he was young. His father famously responded by sending the boy to military school—where he spent two ghastly years, gathering inspiration for his first novel—La Ciudad y Los Perros, published in English as The Time of the Hero. The military burned a thousand copies of the book and Vargas Llosa's infamy was secured.

Mario Vargas Llosa, who once ran for president of Peru and once punched Gabriel Garcia Márquez in the face, has won the Nobel Prize in Literature, meaning Ladbrokes dodged a bullet.
comment posted at 6:48 AM on Oct-7-10

Astonishing photos of remnants of the Soviet Lunar program, via Jalopnik, who have more details.
comment posted at 3:59 AM on Oct-7-10

Alexis Madrigal is exploring the history of technology as seen through the archives of The Atlantic Monthly. (previously)
Some highlights:
Oliver Wendell Homes on photography, 1859.
Mark Twain on the telephone, 1880.
Gilbert Seldes on the first sales of TV sets, 1937.
Robert Jastrow and Homer Newell on the Apollo Program, 1963.
James Fallows on the PC, 1982.
comment posted at 1:15 PM on Oct-6-10
comment posted at 3:44 PM on Oct-6-10

Meerschaum pipes are amazing!
comment posted at 8:02 AM on Oct-6-10

Robert Thompson of Syracuse University has provided pop-culture expertise in 150 New York Times stories over two decades. Today's spaghetti-taco article makes Helene Stapinski the 78th reporter to interview Thompson.
comment posted at 7:47 AM on Oct-6-10

Where Young College Grads are Finding Jobs. Government has been the main hirer of young college grads over the past year . And why not? Government jobs are safer, they pay well, and have better benefits than the private sector. The next biggest hirer of young college grads is the broad category entitled professional and technical services, which includes such industries as law, accounting, computer systems design, and management consulting. These industries as a whole have not been expanding, or expanding only slow–but they have been shifting towards better-educated workers. Then comes the distressing category: Hotel and restaurants.
comment posted at 4:51 AM on Oct-6-10
comment posted at 7:53 AM on Oct-6-10

"Teen rebels and bobbysoxers still heralded Johnnie Ray as their hero, but to parents across America, he was Public Enemy Number One. Five years before Elvis Presley evoked a similar kind of mass parental dread, Johnnie had all of button-down America shaking in their boots, fearing for the souls of their children."
comment posted at 11:41 AM on Oct-5-10

Les Niqabitches stroll around Paris fully veiled from the waist up, but in hotpants and high heels waist-down, to protest the burqa ban in France. Also calling themselves Mi-putes, Mi-soumises, a pun on the admirable organization called Ni-putes, Ni-soumises, they believe the ban is unconstitutional, as calls for similar bans occur in other European countries.
comment posted at 4:18 AM on Oct-5-10

In an ideal world, you’d imagine that someone who harmed more people would deserve a harsher treatment: a new paper by Loran F. Nordgren and Mary McDonnell, The Scope-Severity Paradox, suggests people find crime with fewer victims more severe than those with more victims. [PDF link]
comment posted at 2:01 PM on Oct-4-10

The State University of New York at Albany's motto is "the world within reach." But language faculty members are questioning the university's commitment to such a vision after being told Friday that the university was ending all admissions to programs in French, Italian, Russian and classics, leaving only Spanish left in the language department once current students graduate.
comment posted at 4:41 AM on Oct-4-10

Most are familiar with Victor Hugo the author, but perhaps you are not acquainted with Victor Hugo the illustrator. Delacroix wrote that Hugo would have been among the greatest artists of the 19th century if not for his writing habit. He made thousands of drawings in sketchbooks, margins, and letters, but they are surprisingly difficult to find in good quality. Here are a hundred.
comment posted at 4:45 AM on Oct-4-10

Art Inconnu [unknown art] (nsfw): Collected here are works by artists who are forgotten, under appreciated, or little known to the mainstream. The focus here is primarily painting by 19th and 20th century artists but everything is fair game. Different sets of images: Reading l Some Women Painters l Chess l The World in Miniature l Weather l Motherhood l Mixed Bag. Art Inconnu's Flickr set.
comment posted at 7:01 PM on Oct-3-10

World Values Survey -- who wouldn't you mind living next door?
comment posted at 1:13 PM on Oct-3-10

This year at the International Lindy Hop Championship, Andrew Thigpen and Karen Turman’s routine showcased the Evolution of Lindy Hop (a takeoff on the Evolution of Dance) – from its origins as a variation on the Charleston to the Gap Khaki commercial to its current incarnation.
comment posted at 9:39 AM on Oct-3-10

Frank Zappa's 200 Motels has finally seen an official DVD release, presented by co-director Tony Palmer. Sadly, it appears to be kind of a bumpy ride. (Previously)
comment posted at 7:17 AM on Oct-3-10
comment posted at 9:44 AM on Oct-3-10

Top 100 Songs by Canadians
comment posted at 7:36 AM on Oct-3-10

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner was first published 50 years ago & has remained in print ever since. Celebratory events have been happening over the year leading up to the anniversary this coming weekend.
comment posted at 7:33 AM on Oct-2-10

Gunshow
comment posted at 7:38 AM on Oct-2-10

Forty years among the Zulus, twenty-five years in Honan, twenty-one years in India, thirty years in India, thirty years in Nyasaland, eighteen years in the Khyber, twice around the world, twenty years in the Himalaya, four years in the White North, thirty years in the Arctic regions, thirty years in Madagascar, five years in a Persian town, eight years in Iran, fifty-three years in Syria, four years in Ashantee, forty years in Burma, five years in the Sudan, thirty years in Australia, forty years in Brazil.
comment posted at 5:14 AM on Oct-2-10

Sorry. Today we put up a mini-movie about 10:10 and climate change called 'No Pressure’. Many people found the resulting film extremely funny, but unfortunately some didn't and we sincerely apologise to anybody we have offended. As a result of these concerns we've taken it off our website. We won't be making any attempt to censor or remove other versions currently in circulation on the internet.
comment posted at 1:55 PM on Oct-1-10

Earlier this week, Toxie, NPR's cutest toxic asset died. One of the mortgages bundled into this asset was an investment property in Bradenton, Florida, which, like many Florida homes, has never been occupied or served as anything other than a financial instrument. Boston.com's Big Picture recently took a look from above at the effects that this (and previous) housing bubbles have had on the development of Florida's cities and landscapes. How do you design a city that nobody plans to live in? (Previously)
comment posted at 8:32 AM on Oct-1-10

Effectology is an ongoing series of videos* that go into exceptional detail on how to use guitar effects pedals*.
comment posted at 8:39 AM on Oct-1-10
comment posted at 8:41 AM on Oct-1-10

Pictorial Janus (SLYT)
comment posted at 4:15 AM on Sep-30-10

World War I will officially financially end this Sunday on the 20th anniversary of the Reunification of Germany (German Unity Day) and 91 years after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles as the last debt is paid.
comment posted at 3:46 PM on Sep-29-10
comment posted at 4:32 AM on Sep-30-10

The Three Stooges Breakdancing (slyt)
comment posted at 3:39 AM on Sep-29-10

Obama in Command: The Rolling Stone Interview In an Oval Office interview, the president discusses the Tea Party, the war, the economy and what’s at stake this November.
comment posted at 1:30 PM on Sep-28-10

The hidden wonders of a British landmark. Long before Pink Floyd floated a pig above its 340ft chimneys, Battersea Power Station was an iconic landmark, described from the start as a 'temple of power': a brick cathedral to rank alongside St Paul's. Its four-pillared outline is as familiar as the building's sad decline since being decommissioned in 1983. After numerous failed redevelopment attempts from various owners, Battersea Power Station is now on the 'buildings at risk' register. Photographer Peter Dazeley set out to document the legendary building as part of a personal project. [via]
comment posted at 4:18 PM on Sep-27-10