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"In a sense, living alone represents the self let loose. In the absence of . . . “surveilling eyes,” the solo dweller is free to indulge his or her odder habits — what is sometimes referred to as Secret Single Behavior. Feel like standing naked in your kitchen at 2 a.m., eating peanut butter from the jar? Who’s to know? . . . What emerges over time, for those who live alone, is an at-home self that is markedly different — in ways big and small — from the self they present to the world. We all have private selves, of course, but people who live alone spend a good deal more time exploring them."
posted by Jasper Friendly Bear at 10:17 PM PST - 100 comments

No musician of Bud Powell’s era had such capacity for improvisatory excellence and was so ready to unleash it, instantly, in such concentrated form onstage. [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 8:50 PM PST - 8 comments

HI! I'M ELIZA. WHBT'S YOUR PROBLEM? [via mefi projects]
posted by chunking express at 8:34 PM PST - 40 comments

Paint your own nebula
posted by rebent at 8:05 PM PST - 24 comments

The NME - 60 years of rock history ... and four front covers that define their eras
posted by Artw at 7:49 PM PST - 18 comments

Stephanie Coontz: The M.R.S. and the Ph.D. "Is this really the fate facing educated heterosexual women: either no marriage at all or a marriage with more housework and less sex? Nonsense. That may have been the case in the past, but no longer. For a woman seeking a satisfying relationship as well as a secure economic future, there has never been a better time to be or become highly educated... The most important predictor of marital happiness for a woman is not how much she looks up to her husband but how sensitive he is to her emotional cues and how willing he is to share the housework and child-care. And those traits are often easier to find in a low-key guy than a powerhouse." [more inside]
posted by flex at 7:14 PM PST - 51 comments

ILU-486, a chilling short story by Amanda Ching, in the vein of dystopian classics like The Handmaid's Tale and inspired by recent events in Virginia, has been sweeping the blogsphere. [more inside]
posted by suburbanbeatnik at 6:40 PM PST - 67 comments

A new study shows that the nature of a person's Facebook profile can help predict the person's performance as an employee.
posted by reenum at 5:56 PM PST - 51 comments

Music billboards on the Sunset Strip from 1974-75. (SLFlickr, but oh what a Flickr!) An amazing series of photos scanned from 35mm slides and negatives of music-related billboards on the fabled Sunset Strip from 75-75. A beautiful collection of artwork incorporating more than just promotional flats and album blow-ups. I believe some of these are even painted by hand. Enjoy!
posted by Senor Cardgage at 4:31 PM PST - 38 comments

Dmitri Nabokov the son of Vladimir Nabokov, who tended to the legacy of his father with the posthumous publication of a volume of personal letters, an unpublished novella and an unfinished novel that his father had demanded be burned, died on Wednesday in Vevey, Switzerland. He was 77.
posted by chavenet at 4:08 PM PST - 15 comments

Dixie Square Mall, Chicagoland's rotting eyesore, urban archaeology mecca. and site of a Blues Brothers chase scene, is finally being demolished. For real this time. It sat vacant and rotting since closing in 1979, slowly becoming the grim epitome of dead malls. (Previously)
posted by Yakuman at 3:24 PM PST - 36 comments

While digging through the archive of the State Library of New South Wales, I came across these stunning public domain images of early 20th century bike culture in Australia, equal parts sweet (all those tandems!), inspirational (a record-breaking ride from Sydney to Melbourne in 3 days and 7 hours!), and scandalous (NB: Annie is wearing trousers!)
posted by zamboni at 1:35 PM PST - 15 comments

Teller Reveals His Secrets
posted by Meatbomb at 12:55 PM PST - 58 comments

Wonderful photos of cars being reclaimed by Nature | the photographer is Peter Lippmann, his website has other alluring and intriguing images of impermanence | historical women with anachronistic fashion accessories [nsfw] and other things. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye at 12:36 PM PST - 15 comments

Metafilter likes cats and Downton Abbey, right? I present Downton Tabby (SLYT)
posted by lizjohn at 12:11 PM PST - 21 comments

Theramin Badger Doesn't Give A Ooo-Eeee-Ooooo
from gadgetmaker/musician David Cranmer, aka Nervous Squirrel whose other projects include Brian the Penguin and the Programmable Musical Pig, seen in performance with the band Nine Owls in a Baguette. Because... well, why the owl not?
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:09 PM PST - 13 comments

Reaction shots of losing (and winning) an Academy Award. In .gif form.
posted by graventy at 11:15 AM PST - 40 comments

Interpretations of Bach-Busoni's Chaconne.
posted by klue at 11:06 AM PST - 9 comments

Dergin Tokmak contracted polio as a child and lost much of the use of his legs. This did nothing to stop him from becoming an astonishing dancer.
posted by quin at 10:57 AM PST - 13 comments

Linda Stewart has a mission. After discovering discrepancies in the water billing for two of her Baltimore properties, Linda Stewart, also known as "WaterBillWoman", began to look more closely at billing across the whole city. [more inside]
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 10:29 AM PST - 20 comments

The Poetry Of Ally Sheedy: A Look Back
posted by gleuschk at 10:00 AM PST - 11 comments

Hey remember Lindsay Ellis' The Nostalgia Chick (previously) and her reviews of all things nostalgic and girly? She's done a lot more since then - Cruel Intentions- Jem! - The Craft - Mulan - and the Ne Plus Ultra of wish fulfillment Meg Ryan movies Kate & Leopold.
posted by The Whelk at 9:18 AM PST - 27 comments

What if Star Wars: Episode I was good?
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:57 AM PST - 117 comments

Almost immediately upon my arrival in my first teaching job, I became the go-to guy for the Holocaust. Of course, this was partly due to my dissertation, but in larger part, I suspect, because of my Jewishness. This was fine with me for a number of reasons. First, as a junior faculty member, this identification, though merely professional, could only help in my quest for tenure. An expert on the Holocaust carried infinitely greater weight, I thought, than an expert on ministerial instability during the French Third Republic.

Dissolution: My life as an accidental Holocaust expert—and why I decided to quit
posted by timshel at 8:50 AM PST - 15 comments

Why the super-rich love the UK.
posted by Smart Dalek at 8:30 AM PST - 60 comments

Faux Philosophy News remixes stories from Leiter Reports and New APPS in the Horatian style popularized by the Onion.
posted by anotherpanacea at 8:04 AM PST - 9 comments

I present to you a page by page review of the novelisation of the movie Back to the Future. The review is being undertaken by Ryan North, who also creates the very funny webcomic Dinosaur Comics.
posted by Effigy2000 at 4:38 AM PST - 26 comments

British sf tabletop miniature wargame Warhammer 40,000 is 25 years old today, British sf anthology comic 2000AD is 35 years old tomorrow [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:11 AM PST - 85 comments