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Glamour photography of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Ingrid Bergman, etc. [NSFdialup]
posted by Trurl at 7:48 PM PST - 55 comments

Vance Gilbert is, in his own words, "big in the music business like a barnacle is big in shipping". Performing solo with acoustic guitar, his original music (including songs about Old White Men, Gilligan and the planet Pluto) and some well-chosen covers, as well as his on-stage banter, have charmed audiences all over* for umpteen years. He has made a reply to CeeLo's infamous song, performed alongside Arlo Guthrie while having an attack of gout and in his spare time, he makes free-flying models of antique airplanes. But sadly, he has just gotten the most publicity of his career... as an unwilling participant in one airline's Security Theater. (Story picked up by The Consumerist, the Economist, and James Fallows at the Atlantic.) [more inside]
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:52 PM PST - 55 comments

The woven photographs of Seung Hoon Park New works from South Korean photographer Seung Hoon Park. Park uses a process to overlay or weave together film strips, however this appears to be a single print.
posted by the noob at 6:31 PM PST - 8 comments

A unique (to say the least) musical voice from the past emerges, with a timely tune to those along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Yes, friends, it's Nervous Norvus, with Evil Hurricane. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:14 PM PST - 19 comments

So you come across the free IamOmni album, and you'll probably think one of two things: hey, it's a new direction from underground L.A. MC, Omni; or wow, it's an album produced by UK musician Tricky. Both are true! Omni tells his story of connecting with Tricky in a few minutes, and Rap Reviews ties Omni and Tricky together through other routes, going back to the 2002 album, Sunch Punch, by Gershwin B.L.X. (Bassline Xcursionists). Lo and behold, that album is also free on Bandcamp.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:46 PM PST - 11 comments

A short history of New York City's sirens. In the first years of the twenty-first century, New York City police officers had six different siren noises at their fingertips to alternate and overdub as they attempted to bore through stagnant traffic. The “Yelp” is a high-pitched, rapidly oscillating, jumpy sound that suggests a small dog with large teeth has hold of your thigh and is not about to let go ..... . From Cabinet Magazine.
posted by Rumple at 4:23 PM PST - 28 comments

Between 1967 and 1973, a program called The Foundation Years brought fifteen young African-American men from Chicago's West Side to Dartmouth College. The students were gang members, most of them Vice Lords.
posted by catlet at 3:29 PM PST - 19 comments

Tired of the D&D Stereotypes of what constitutes armor for women? Tumblr is (of course) to the rescue! Women Fighters in Reasonable Armor.
posted by Navelgazer at 2:11 PM PST - 157 comments

Fishy Fishy, Shrimpy Shrimpy, Taco Ensenada
Basic fish aint that delish so I don't even bother [more inside]
posted by finite at 12:11 PM PST - 31 comments

The "nymwars" rage on. Despite a passionate post on their own public policy blog earlier this year, outlining all of the reasons that Google is a strong supporter of the use of pseudonyms on the internet, Google is continuing to take an uncharacteristically draconian approach to the use of pseudonyms on Google+. Google+ users with pseudonyms not only risk losing access to Google+, but also access to other Google services including Picasa and Google Reader as well. Naturally, this is a significant inconvenience for users who are known primarily by their pseudonyms, and a more significant inconvenience to users who use pseudonyms to protect the physical safety of themselves and their families. [previously] [more inside]
posted by luvcraft at 11:17 AM PST - 153 comments

Jezebel's venomous coverage of the show Dance Moms is a thing to behold, but one detail that all parties involved seem to have missed: the song featured in the problematic "LaQuifa" dance number is based on a character ("the post modern pimp-ho") that Shangela Laquifa Wadley unveiled for the stand-up comedy episode of RuPaul's Drag Race. [more inside]
posted by hermitosis at 11:11 AM PST - 53 comments

Walking Wall of Words is the new website from Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum. Mangum has been staging a comeback recently, first with the Tall Dwarves cover Sign The Dotted Line, and later by announcing a string of northeast tour dates (previously). Walking Wall of Words promises that more tour dates around the world will be announced. Hear Mangum's new podcast, where he curates obscure and unique music. You can also listen to previously unreleased recordings of live NMH staples "Oh Sister" and "Ferris Wheel on Fire." Read about the new NMH vinyl boxset, filled with rare material. [more inside]
posted by JimBennett at 11:04 AM PST - 33 comments

The Third Wheel. Australian photographer Jackson Eaton offers a series of photographs about the awkwardness of being the third person that alternate between hilarious and creepy. (Via)
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 10:59 AM PST - 37 comments

This is how it will happen. Let’s pick a day: June 22, 2012. It’s a gorgeous Friday afternoon in the Pacific Northwest, 75 degrees and sunny. It’s been raining for weeks, and in Seattle the freeways are jammed with people fleeing the city to ­enjoy the rare sunshine. Same story in Portland. Out on the coast, the beach towns are thrumming with tourists. How a monster earthquake and resulting tsunami would affect the coast and cities of the Pacific NW.
posted by jontyjago at 9:27 AM PST - 152 comments

Several commentators are advocating the deregulation of the practice of law.
posted by reenum at 8:09 AM PST - 126 comments

Why Shutting Down Cell Service Is Not Just Against The Law, It's a Really Bad Idea (previously)
posted by j03 at 7:51 AM PST - 161 comments

The last horse fishermen of Belgium. [more inside]
posted by kuujjuarapik at 7:46 AM PST - 13 comments

"I finally said, you know what, I'm going to tell my story. The first American injured in the Iraq war is a gay Marine. He wanted to give his life to this country." ~Eric Alva, 40, former Marine and veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom

Tell: An Intimate History of Gay Men in the Military [more inside]
posted by zarq at 7:22 AM PST - 29 comments

'It was an instant success,' Stan says. 'It's not surprising, because it meets all the criteria of a good gag. It's very cheap to make, so you could make a decent profit on it. It sells for a very cheap price, so it's easy to sell. And people just went after it. The numbers we hear tend to vary, but the story is it initially sold about 100,000 units a year, which, at the time, was a lot. Fishlove did very well with it.' The Inside Scoop on the Fake Barf Industry.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:55 AM PST - 29 comments

Tim Hardin : underrated singer-songwriter of the '60s and '70s, or the most underrated singer-songwriter of the '60s and '70s? Known mostly for more famous singers covering his work, his songs were sung by a plethora of people, from Bobby Darin, Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, Rod Stewart to Astrud Gilberto, Bob Dylan, Robert Plant and Echo & the Bunnymen, while he remained a very little-known but widely loved figure in folk music. He music could be painfully honest (Reason to Believe, Don't Make Promises), or slow and hypnotizing (Misty Roses). Sadly, 6 days after his 39th birthday, he died from a heroin overdose in 1980. [more inside]
posted by Drainage! at 6:31 AM PST - 18 comments

A History of Ireland in 100 Objects is an interesting series by the Irish Times, with many of the objects taken from the National Museum of Ireland: it's clearly inspired by the BBC/British Museum History of the World in 100 Objects, and is now about a quarter of the way through its run.
posted by Segundus at 6:08 AM PST - 15 comments

How to be black in America was the challenge for spirited young men of colour who found their way to Harlem in the troubled years of the 1940s, when music, poetry, dance and art were giving way to drink, drugs, street crime and sex for money. Malcolm Little’s first impulse was to cut loose in the big city where he found himself soon after his 17th birthday in 1942.
posted by veedubya at 5:45 AM PST - 13 comments

Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Courage' rally in Jerusalem (24.8) only brought together a few hundred supporters, according to +972 Magazine, an independent web zine from Israel. The low numbers could mean a lethal blow for Beck.
posted by alon at 5:05 AM PST - 76 comments

The Crimes of Col. Qaddafi An original essay by Christopher Hitchens, that starts: In George Orwell's 1939 novel, Coming Up for Air, his narrator, George Bowling, broods on the special horrors of the new totalitarianism and notices "the colored shirts, the barbed wire, the rubber truncheons," but also, less obviously perhaps, "the processions and the posters with enormous faces, and the crowds of a million people all cheering for the Leader till they deafen themselves into thinking that they really worship him, and all the time, underneath, they hate him so that they want to puke."
posted by growabrain at 3:11 AM PST - 59 comments

While Hulk Hogan may have been professional wrestling's biggest box office star of the past generation, from a critical standpoint, Ric Flair is widely regarded as the most talented wrestler of the modern era in terms of actual in-ring ability, as well as being known as one of the best promo men (the ability to give entertaining interviews promoting upcoming matches) in the history of the business. In recent years, however, Flair's legacy has been tarnished, with his name more likely to be making news for any number of embarrassing out of the ring incidents and dire financial situation as for his in-ring exploits, to the point where comparisons to Randy “The Ram” Robinson are not out of place. Grantland explores Ric Flair's fall from grace in "The Wrestler in Real Life".
posted by The Gooch at 12:50 AM PST - 40 comments

Color Scheme Designer 3 allows a user to create harmonious color schemes using their choice of one of six customizable combinations from the color wheel. There is an option to show what a given scheme would look like to users with various types of colorblindness. The resulting scheme can be exported in several formats including HTML+CSS and Photoshop ACO, and a given scheme can even be shared as a link.
posted by ob1quixote at 12:13 AM PST - 18 comments