Free Beer!
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 9:17 AM on September 3, 2008

but overall it looks like a fantastic analogy to me.

Of course he, like a rape victim, didn't "deserve it."
However, your analogy would be more accurate if its protagonist went on a trip to the rapiest house in Rapetown, a city where rape is legal and the norm; a house filled with rapists who have raped many and are known around the world for raping; all while wearing an outfit with bright lasers writing "rape me" on... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 1:13 PM on September 3, 2008

I admit that "Give me liberty or give me death" had a nicer ring than "I'm a lousy secret agent", but I suspect that the author of the former would have been disgusted to hear what some people here have to say about the author of the latter.

Seriously? This guy managed to write "Free Beer" on the side of a building, with a fancy laser, from the safety of his hotel room before he got arrested; then blogged about it. It... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 4:30 PM on September 3, 2008

I always mean to enter a Songfight but then I don't.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 10:23 PM on August 26, 2008

Ugly people are funny! Or ugly portraits.
Wait, are we laughing at them or at "ourselves?"
I can't keep track.
I like this one, though, only because I think 1993 is pre-irony. Isn't it? Let me check the dates on my old Spy magazines.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 5:55 PM on August 26, 2008

Funny that some of the horrible hair and clothes is trendy hipster shit now.

You can say that about any era.

As a teenager in 1986, after some scary "New Romantic" years, I was full-on into a hippy/psychedelic/garagey kind of thing and it would bug me when old people came up to me to tell me that they used to have hair down to their ass too, or whatever. That and guys accidentally asking me to dance.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 8:00 PM on August 26, 2008

Thank god I discovered punk rock. There's a look that doesn't age...

No not much.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 8:37 PM on August 26, 2008

Those are great.
And I have to get me a pair of headphones like these.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 11:10 PM on August 24, 2008

But can he spell potato?
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 12:34 AM on August 23, 2008

Please, though...try to make it work...many of us in the rest of the world are crossing our fingers for you, while simultaneously fearing that you will somehow find a way to elect George Bush again.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 12:38 AM on August 23, 2008

Wow. Look at all those lenses. I wonder how much money in lenses that is.
Also, I think those people on the stairs are breaking some kind of fire code.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 5:56 PM on August 22, 2008

I like a bunch of this music, (not so much the ironic covers like Neverending Story) in the way that I think it's a challenge to write engaging songs with a set limit of specific tools and it's quite powerful when it's successful. A great example would be Metafilter Music's jake and songs like his amazing Staring at My Spaceship.
I also like that it really becomes such a genre unto itself.
I do, however, find it sort of lame that it's a "scene," complete... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 9:52 AM on August 19, 2008

And thanks for linking to my tune, that was sweet of you! But there's so much more good stuff out there that pushes boundaries.

What's weird is that I didn't even notice that you posted right above me! Bizarre.
I was writing that as you posted I guess.
I just wanted to mention how great your stuff is and how, for me, it surpasses any kind of novelty-factor, because they are good compositions to begin with.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 10:15 AM on August 19, 2008

god can't get past level 3 enough already i've wasted my day
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 12:13 PM on August 15, 2008

(Jody Rosen is a woman...)

I would have picked a more informed comment to plagiarize, but that was the only one there.

Really?
Jody Rosen is Slate's music critic. He lives in New York City. He can be reached at slatemusic@gmail.com.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 2:49 PM on August 7, 2008

Huh.
Kind of looks like something that would suddenly make a screamy noise and then kill you.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 11:50 PM on July 17, 2008

Happy B-day.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 8:23 AM on July 14, 2008

That was really interesting.
But they're more nicknames within their social groups, no? It seems like the majority of them are given by drunk friends, so it's not like these people are going to go around introducing themselves as "bignose" or "virgin" or whatever.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 6:41 PM on July 7, 2008

Oops, just saw your nicknames tag.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 6:41 PM on July 7, 2008

Does anyone know what/how they were signing in the video? Is there a more up-to-date ASL alphabet?

It's a British story, and Spaceman Spiff remarked upthread about not being familiar with BSL, (and also Nelson, on preview) so I'd imagine that there are differences for sure.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 9:22 PM on July 7, 2008

Also, all y'all hearing folks would have learned about Sign names as 8-year-olds if you had read the Babysitter's Club.

Assuming we're not way, way older than you.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 9:44 PM on July 7, 2008

710.77345 was the answer to some calculator riddle I can't remember.

Ya, that, 710.0553 and BOOBLESS were the big ones in grade 5.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 4:14 PM on July 7, 2008

I heard this on CBC Radio One this afternoon. They played an interview of her speaking and she didn't sound like a Newfoundlander at all, aside from a few "dose" and "dese," so much as slightly rural or someone that works at the local rink or Tim's in a small town. She's from Windsor, what's the diff? It's not like she's suddenly speaking like Bob Marley.
Syndrome!
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 8:49 PM on July 3, 2008

I love the Newfoundland accent. It's like some crazy bastard child of Irish and French with a dash of smalltown rural Canada. I find it just as "distinct society," if not more, than poutine, dépanneurs and la ville de Québec (happy birthday!) which I also love, for sure.

I just really enjoy listening to people speak it; so distinctive.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 12:36 AM on July 4, 2008

I also love this. I did a fruitless search for this music few years ago, tracking down all the places the music was used but never found any copies of it online.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 11:49 AM on July 1, 2008

Sadly, this was the first thing I heard when I turned on the news at 8 this morning. What a drag.

I got Toledo Window Box for Christmas from my older brother when I was 11 years old or so and understood about half of it but laughed at everything. As a kid, all his material about the ridiculous of words or stuff like 'Water sez who cares. "Drink me, I don't give a shit. Put me on your ass! I don't care."' was really... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 7:56 AM on June 23, 2008

I love that Popcorn song. The part where the drums kick in is scrumtrilescent, to quote Will Farrell's James Lipton.

Also, OH MY GOD...
In elementary school we had an organized dance thing we did in P.E. class involving the song "Popcorn" and a giant parachute.
did not everyone in grade 5 do this? Am I insane? This was awesome, in gym when they'd bring out the 'chute and you'd flap it around to the sound of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 7:54 PM on June 20, 2008

I got spanked two or three times when I was a kid and all it did was make me withdraw into my bedroom for the day, seething with hatred for my dad. I can't recall why I got spanked, but the resentment feels fresh when I think about it.
People always drag out the "running into traffic" rationalization, like the "you could get hit by a bus tomorrow" improbability, but grabbing the kid and firmly, loudly disciplining them with words works better and takes a second... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 10:33 AM on June 19, 2008

This is the most accurate thing in the article:

"The most boring thing", I airily said to the psychotherapist Jock Encombe, "is arrogance, isn't it?"
"And what", he replied, "could be more arrogant than accusing other people of being boring?"

But this is unbelievable:

I have only once sat next to a man who wouldn't speak to me at all. I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 7:40 AM on June 19, 2008

Do mares eat oats and goats eat oats and little lambs eat ivy?

What a completely ridiculous analogy.

Anyone will tell you that goats, in that situation, would not eat oats.
Does, however, would eat those oats.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 8:40 AM on June 19, 2008

This always warms my heart.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 8:34 AM on June 18, 2008

Awesome song.
Tired of Being Alone is my favourite Al Green song.
You have to check out this fantastic performance of it.

That said, I hate Chicago with the heat of a white-hot, mellow 70's bonfire stoked with the smooth corpses of Seals and Crofts, Lindsay Buckingham, Pablo Cruise, Rupert Holmes and all of CS and N except Y.
And the spontaneity of it is cringeworthy..."Hey Al, 'd'ya get a chance to see the waterfall?" CUT... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 10:31 PM on June 15, 2008

Oops; damn, flapjax already linked to the other (better) live performance of it. Sorry.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 10:35 PM on June 15, 2008

I kind of love Barack more after seeing this. It's so obvious he was just dying, holding his funk back like that.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 9:01 PM on June 13, 2008

On watching this, I was sentimental for my childhood in the 70's, which was only slightly diminished by the comment, "Elton John gargles cum."

Seriously? Can we just post songs we like now?
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 9:02 PM on June 12, 2008

The chalk dust is probably toxic, the screeching of [anything] on the chalkboard is horrific, and there's no way to capture what's written other than by photograph.

I thought the idea was to, you know, copy it down, into the notes you're taking.

I like blackboards.
I actually much preferred blackboards to the endless handouts of photocopies (without holes punched in them) that nobody ever... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 9:46 AM on June 12, 2008

That was really good.
The bass/scanner is my favourite part but I don't understand how he got it to play the different notes, unless he sampled it.
The video is also beautiful, parts of it look like old reversal film. His other videos are quite nice as well.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 8:35 AM on June 6, 2008

chococat: With the scanners I've used, changing the scanning resolution usually affects the speed of the motor and changes the pitch of the sound.

Ya, I'd thought of that. I remember my scanner just getting way slower and grindier sounding when I bumped up the rez, but not actually changing pitch. You could be right, though...I don't use the scanner much anymore.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 9:36 AM on June 6, 2008

This is about 10 different kinds of amazing. We had a shitload of these when I was a kid, and being the lifelong record hoarder I am, I still have them. My favourite was always Rusty in Orchestraville where the kid dreams he's in a land where all the instruments talk but they were all mad at him because he doesn't practice enough. It both freaked me out and entranced me.
As a teenager in the late 80's, in my sad neo-psychedelic phase, I put clips of Rusty on many a mixtape.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 10:43 AM on June 3, 2008

fade out on bumper...and cue Mary Hart!
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 12:44 AM on June 1, 2008

I want to actually see someone in public shouting "Rock out!" into the DS that's strapped to his or her hand.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 7:25 AM on May 29, 2008

When we got married in 1993 my parents somehow managed to find Eric James who had worked with Chaplin since the '50's as a composer and pianist. I was in film school at the time and a huge Chaplin fan. The night before the wedding, as a surprise at the rehearsal dinner at our place, my dad told me to set up my 16mm projector and then brought out Eric who proceeded to tell awesome stories and play our old Heintzman piano to about an hour of Chaplin shorts. Then his wife Phyllis sang a bunch of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 6:38 PM on May 26, 2008

This was kinda played already, in the Weezer thread a few days ago.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 10:15 AM on May 25, 2008

Yes, citizen, you may return to your harpsichord.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 9:27 AM on May 24, 2008

Don't forget some classic Debby.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 9:08 AM on May 22, 2008

Kind of lame.
But "40 Candles" was a good title.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 5:57 PM on May 21, 2008

These Millenials with their facebooks and their Iraqs know nothing of the horrors of the War in Grenada my generation had to endure.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 8:07 AM on May 16, 2008

Cool.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 6:46 PM on May 14, 2008

He sure was the proto-Austin Powers in that Congratulations song. And what a horrible song.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 7:39 AM on May 12, 2008

I will never, so long as I live, really understand Europeans. How a continent that produces wonderful chocolate and great beer can also be enraptured by the schlockiest, schmaltziest so-called music escapes me. The US still invades other countries, while the Europeans have chosen to sublimate all that aggression into song competitions.

Uhh...American Idol much? And you don't even have the chocolate or beer.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 9:10 AM on May 12, 2008