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Fannish vidding, as a creative practice, goes back more than 30 years, to the early days of Star Trek fandom, when people made slide shows set to music. Things are more complicated now. [Lim, Us] [more inside]
posted by suelac at 10:22 PM PST - 25 comments

The Tub Adventure. The Stupid Room. The Gaming Guyz Game (watch their complete animated hijinx here). The Tube Adventure. The Tilted Cart. All by Shmorky (Tumblr, Twitter). [more inside]
posted by BiggerJ at 9:33 PM PST - 13 comments

In 2014, the Montreal Swing Riot hosted a dance-off: Lindy Hop dancers vs street dancers. Teams introduced themselves with a display of their own styles, then traded off dancing in their own style for a few sets. The fun part, though, was the next challenge: each team had to dance to the other's music on the fly. The results are well worth watching.
posted by sciatrix at 8:04 PM PST - 21 comments

Archillect, billed as The Ocular Engine, is a recent project from enigmatic designer Murat Pak. [more inside]
posted by Otherwise at 6:36 PM PST - 4 comments

Three words: Lego. Jurassic. Park.
posted by brundlefly at 6:25 PM PST - 31 comments

A.J. Pero drummer for Twisted Sister during their early eighties peak, the drummer behind "You Can't Stop Rock & Roll", "I Wanna Rock" and of course "We're Not Gonna Take It" (which features some nice drum work) has passed on. Staten Island born Pero, who broke in to rock with the hard rock band Cities was touring with his new band Adrenaline Mob when he was found unresponsive on a tour bus in Poughkeepsie, New York. he was rushed to the local hospital and pronounced dead of an apparent heart attack. RIP, SMF.
posted by jonmc at 5:07 PM PST - 40 comments

And so, while romance is often treated as a static genre, I prefer to think of it as a sprawling, decades-long intergenerational discussion (sometimes polite, sometimes a bare-knuckle brawl) among women about what constitutes love, how one finds a partner that's worth putting up with the occasional tantrums and dirty socks. Scenes that disturb the modern reader nevertheless paved the way for the more sex-positive genre we enjoy today.

Lots of articles are discovering feminism in romance novels, a genre historically neglected as being for women and having such restrictive plot rules that it could never be more than paint-by-numbers.
posted by jeather at 4:36 PM PST - 25 comments

A remarkably balanced, for 1964, Life Magazine feature article on homosexuality in America. “A secret world grows open and bolder. Society is forced to look at it—and try to understand it.”
posted by Short Attention Sp at 4:17 PM PST - 24 comments

Smooth Criminal as played by the Joyous Quartet, aka four small people.
posted by billiebee at 3:42 PM PST - 6 comments

Roy Doty, awesome illustrator, particularly known for drawing the popular, 50-year-running Wordless Workshop instructional comic strip for Popular Science, Family Handyman and syndication, the puzzle page for Make, and also the covers and illustrations for popular Judy Blume books Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Superfudge and Otherwise Known As Shelia The Great, among many other things, has died at 92. This episode of the Danny Dee Show (YouTube 27m) shows off his drawing and narration skills. Here's some illustrations from his website. Here's a sample panel of Wordless Workshop. [more inside]
posted by JHarris at 3:13 PM PST - 19 comments

If we're all quite aware of what it has become, then where did it come from? From Jack White’s guitar of course, and from his fingers and his brain. But what about the sequence of notes? Could they have been hanging around in the universe since the cosmic microwave background splurged into existence, just waiting to be aligned by a malleable composer? Speaking to the BBC last year, Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine said: "It's less a riff that feels like someone wrote it than it was unearthed. It's something that's always been there, and it's something that speaks to the reptilian brain of rock listeners." – Stupid & Sophisticated: The Rise & Rise Of The Seven Nation Army Riff
posted by timshel at 3:12 PM PST - 64 comments

Why are white people expats when everyone else is an immigrant?
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 2:58 PM PST - 58 comments

Hysteria and Teenage Girls - How Justin Bieber, The Beatles, Morrissey, Franz Liszt, the Salem Witch Trials and the invention of the vibrator might all be related.
posted by jillithd at 2:27 PM PST - 20 comments

The Washington Post investigates how chef Peter Chang stopped running and started empire-building:

The pursuit of Chang soon became an all-consuming story among exotic-food hunters: a tale of obsession, devotion and love for one chef’s authentic Chinese fare. The chase narrative transformed a Hubei province farm boy with minimal English language skills into an American cult figure, an image that, years later, still clings to the chef despite his restaurant chain that keeps expanding year after year.

[more inside]
posted by julen at 2:16 PM PST - 6 comments

Once upon a time, Ashley Judd made the mistake of tweeting while watching a sports game. You already can guess what horrible things are happening to her after I said that. But she's fighting back. [more inside]
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:45 PM PST - 28 comments

Are-you-in-trouble?—Do-you-need-advice?—Write-to-Miss-Lonelyhearts-and-she-will-help-you

Miss Lonelyhearts, The Day of the Locust, A Cool Million, and The Dream Life of Balso Snell, all by Nathanael West [more inside]
posted by Iridic at 1:40 PM PST - 11 comments

There is no good way to tell a new guy in your life that you’re going blind.
posted by josher71 at 1:03 PM PST - 17 comments

This afternoon, the Puerto Rican Secretary of Justice announced that Puerto Rico will no longer defend the lawsuit against the ban on same-sex marriage, which is pending at the First Circuit Court of Appeals. [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:28 PM PST - 13 comments

Start your weekend right with this supercut of dance-scenes from 80+ different movies, from youtuber MsTabularasa and set to Walk the Moon's "Shut Up and Dance."
posted by Navelgazer at 12:10 PM PST - 46 comments

Boys Don't Cry

If you take any personality trait—aggressiveness, say—and draw a bell curve for the distribution of this trait in girls and boys, you will find there are many girls who are more aggressive than a number of boys. But when adults buy into traditional masculine or feminine ideologies, they rear their children to conform to those norms. They try to force girls who are aggressive into not being aggressive, or boys who are nurturing into not being nurturing.

Brian Gresko interviews psychologist Dr. Ronald Levant on the evolution of maleness and the sociocultural forces that have long stifled men and fathers. [more inside]
posted by divined by radio at 10:25 AM PST - 77 comments

"Cruel To Be Kind" Official video | Behind the Scenes: Nick Lowe's "Cruel To Be Kind" video | Top of the Pops - 1979 | Countdown - 1979 | Interview with David Letterman | Take 40 Australia - acoustic version | Dig Music, Untidy desk - acoustic version

Song review by Stuart Mason at All Music Guide... [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:10 AM PST - 42 comments

And yet, despite this grave injustice, the state does not accept any responsibility for the damage suffered by one of its citizens. The bureaucratic response appears to be that nobody did anything intentionally wrong, thus the state has no responsibility. This is nonsensical. Explain that position to Mr. Ford and his family. Facts are stubborn things, they do not go away. The Louisiana prosecutor who helped send Glenn Ford to prison for 30 years, for a murder he did not commit, apologizes at length and slams the state for refusing to pay compensation after Ford was finally freed in 2014. [Note: autoplaying video] [more inside]
posted by maudlin at 9:09 AM PST - 43 comments

Wine for Normal People is a podcast and blog where wine lover and expert Elizabeth Schneider discusses geeks out about all things wine. Fun highlights include wine scoring systems and why we should revolt against them, the difference between cheap plonk and well made wine, wine reviews and BS, and offensive ways wines are marketed to women, all peppered with industry insider knowledge from her years working for a big, hulking winery.
posted by gueneverey at 8:45 AM PST - 50 comments

31 Exciting Pizza Flavors You Have To Try. Native New Yorkers should probably not click through and may wish to revisit this thread instead.
posted by Lexica at 8:28 AM PST - 135 comments

Fictional user interfaces in film, TV and games.
Kit FUI
UI BAKA
SciFi Interfaces
VisualPunker: UI
FakeUI
Screens on screen [more inside]
posted by zamboni at 8:24 AM PST - 15 comments

Raising Teenagers: The Mother of All Problems by Rachel Cusk [New York Times]

Children are characters in the family story we tell — until, one day, they start telling it themselves.

posted by Fizz at 8:20 AM PST - 59 comments

"People are always astounded that we still have Michael's matches at the front desks," says restaurant owner Michael McCarty, who offers the once-ubiquitous restaurant keepsake at both his restaurant locations: Michael's Santa Monica and Michael's New York. Although matchbooks are no longer a go-to restaurant souvenir, Michael's offers a classic 1½" x 2 ¼" sized matchbox — emblazoned with the bi-coastal restaurant's signature Art Deco-inspired pale pink script against a dark green background. McCarty posits, however, that his guests' surprise is disingenuous. Truth is, he says, "everybody loves a great box of matches." [more inside]
posted by ellieBOA at 8:13 AM PST - 25 comments

Tomorrow night, the Temple will burn.
Partially funded through a kickstarter campaign, scuplptor David Best has built an intricate, 75-foot wooden temple in the city of Derry, Northern Ireland, where the events of Bloody Sunday took place. The project has a lofty goal of creating a ritual which is "a celebration and ... a healing and understanding". Visitors are encouraged to leave messages and mementos in the structure. Can't visit in person? You can also visit (and leave messages in) a virtual model of the temple in Minecraft.
posted by anastasiav at 7:37 AM PST - 7 comments

Where the Bodies are Buried [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:57 AM PST - 20 comments

Amid a historically crowded pool of candidates exploring bids in the 2016 presidential elections, one might say that there are..... Too Many Cooks.
posted by schmod at 6:30 AM PST - 41 comments

The Pacific Opera Project has mounted a production of a the Star Trek/Mozart mashup that this galaxy so desperately needs. Klingon Opera purists will likely be disappointed, though. It's been a while since Terrans have turned their ears and their eyes to the stars for operatic inspiration, so this work fills a yawning void in the canon.
posted by batbat at 6:21 AM PST - 10 comments

"Without Tony Allen [drumming], there would have been no Afrobeat ¹" - Fela Kuti ^{2 3}
posted by ChuraChura at 6:07 AM PST - 5 comments

Oskar Stålberg makes, among other things, nifty little toys to play with in your browser: Create a block of flats as your desire dictates! - Raise an archipelago from the sea floor by the force of pure will! - Where once there was nothing, bring forth a whole town! Via RPS; all links require Unity
posted by Dim Siawns at 5:02 AM PST - 12 comments

Following the capture of the notorious Horror Owl of Purmerand, another notable Dutch owl is capturing the public imagination. [more inside]
posted by nerdfish at 2:44 AM PST - 21 comments

Two years after the disastrous release of the much-hyped SimCity 2013 and just weeks after its legendary development studio Maxis was shut down by parent company Electronic Arts a new contender has arisen to stake its claim to the city sim crown. Cities: Skylines was released last week and has already garnered record-breaking sales and almost universally positive reviews. [more inside]
posted by Wretch729 at 12:17 AM PST - 95 comments