September 20, 2014

ATARI JAGUAR INFOMERCIAL

ATARI JAGUAR INFOMERCIAL
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:34 PM PST - 47 comments

Havana Bikes

Bicycling took off in Cuba in the 1990s during a period of oil scarcity, and became an important means of business and daily travel. Since then motor vehicles have returned to prominence, and new bicycle parts are in short supply. A small network of mechanics trades used parts and applies their ingenuity to maintain Cuba's aging fleet.
posted by domnit at 6:02 PM PST - 5 comments

it's alright cause I'm

Go Bayside is a podcast wherein comedian April Richardson and a weekly guest watch every Saved By the Bell episode and discuss/critique them. She's almost done with the over 80 episodes (not including the larval form Good Morning, Miss Bliss or the College Years sequel), but you should probably start from the beginning. [more inside]
posted by likeatoaster at 5:15 PM PST - 14 comments

Lost But Not That Lost

11 of the most accessible (and interesting!) ruins in NYC
posted by The Whelk at 1:52 PM PST - 31 comments

The Ultra Heavy Beat

Legendary industrial music pioneers, KMFDM's 30th anniversary this year, saw the release of a live album and tour called "WE ARE". Sascha Konietzko took some time to provide insights about his friendship with Ministry's Al Jourgensen as well as the last thirty years, and his philosophy on making music. [more inside]
posted by quin at 1:01 PM PST - 35 comments

“Oh, this is where the science I like is.”

How Long Does It Take to Get to Tatooine? [The New Yorker] "We use much more brainpower on subjects that interest us."
posted by Fizz at 12:19 PM PST - 17 comments

"distinctly queer and contemporary, as if retrofitting a classic car"

"Longings and Desires", a Slate.com book review by Amanda Katz:
[Sarah] Waters, who was born in Wales in 1966, has carved out an unusual spot in fiction. Her six novels, beginning with Tipping the Velvet in 1998, could be called historical fiction, but that doesn’t begin to capture their appeal. It is closer to say that she is creating pitch-perfect popular fiction of an earlier time, but swapping out its original moral engine for a sensibility that is distinctly queer and contemporary, as if retrofitting a classic car.

Her books offer something like an alternate reality—a literary one, if not a historical one. There may have been lesbian male impersonators working the London music halls in the 1890s, as in Tipping the Velvet, but there were certainly not mainstream novels devoted to their inner lives and sexual exploits. Waters gives such characters their say in books that imitate earlier crowd-pleasers in their structure, slang, and atmosphere, but that are powered by queer longing, defiant identity politics, and lusty, occasionally downright kinky sex. (An exception is her last novel, The Little Stranger.) The most masterful of these books so far is Fingersmith, a Wilkie Collins-esque tale full of genuinely shocking twists (thieves, double-crossing, asylums, mistaken identity, just go read it). The saddest is The Night Watch, a tale told in reverse of a group of entwined characters during and after World War II. But among many readers she is still most beloved for Tipping the Velvet, a deliriously paced coming-of-age story that is impossible to read in public without blushing.
[more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 11:02 AM PST - 29 comments

The Discreet Charms of LA's Discount Wonderland

My father was introduced to the Fashion District by his gay cousin, Napoleon Garcia, who would drag him to get yards of fabric at wholesale stores downtown. "Tito Nap," as I used to call him, was a fabulous man who was as fun as his colorful fashions.
posted by ellieBOA at 10:08 AM PST - 5 comments

Rhymes with Curmudgeons and Cragons

Toward a Unified Theory of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood Kim Kardashian—and maybe Kim Kardashian alone—has figured out how to make a fortune on the countless hours of emotional labor most women are expected to perform for free: smiling, looking pretty, being accommodating, being charming, being a good hostess.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 9:52 AM PST - 45 comments

Mandolin Srinivas (1969-2014)

Indian classical music mourns the untimely death of a child prodigy who grew into a graceful maestro. Srinivas -- who introduced the mandolin to Indian classical music -- was one of the giants. Shockingly dead at 45, gone just far too young. The tributes are pouring in. [more inside]
posted by rahulrg at 9:20 AM PST - 7 comments

First!

"At best, the lines for iPhones are undignified. This film by @CaseyNeistat shows they can be sad & creepy, too." SLYT via @ihnatko.
posted by eugenen at 8:41 AM PST - 107 comments

the inspiration for this version of Robin Hood isn’t actually Robin Hood

Disney’s Robin Hood: A Bit More Medieval Than You Might Think [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:28 AM PST - 52 comments

Then he went back into the world

TOP 10 STUPID QUESTIONS OF THE MONTH
posted by threeants at 8:20 AM PST - 56 comments

The Machete Project

Photographer Vanessa Ahlsborn's Machete Project "is an ongoing portrait and object archive that showcases the diversity of this blade style and the beauty of its users. Despite their fearsome reputation in western news media and popular culture, the machete is an extremely versatile and commonplace asset for many people across the world. By documenting the everyday user for whom the machete is an invaluable tool, the project seeks to question the viewer's assumptions about the machete, and by extension, the people who use it." [more inside]
posted by Dip Flash at 6:28 AM PST - 24 comments

All play and no work makes Stanley a dull boy.

Stanley Kubrick’s Photos of New York Life in the 40s.
posted by Room 641-A at 5:39 AM PST - 13 comments

Why doth ambition so the mind distress to make us scorn what we possess?

Direct your eye-sight inward, and you'le find / A thousand regions in your mind / Yet undiscover'd. Travell them, and be / Expert in home Cosmographie. / This you may doe safe both from rocke and shelfe : / Man's a whole world within himselfe. - Habington, 1635
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 5:24 AM PST - 4 comments

Monsieur, the pilot is never wrong.

Should Airplanes Be Flying Themselves? William Langewiesche examines the ways in which airplane automation, entrenched cockpit culture, and difficult flying conditions led to the 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447, resulting in 228 deaths. [more inside]
posted by Sheydem-tants at 5:16 AM PST - 65 comments

Fruit Cake - the secret ingredient

The secret ingredient in Geoff Beattie’s rich dark fruit cake. Need a heartwarming story? "Geoff Beattie had arrived. Show after show, city after city, state after state, word began to spread about the mysterious widowed dairy farmer who was toppling the greats of Australian show cooking." Might you or someone you know have had a similar experience?
posted by gusset at 3:19 AM PST - 43 comments

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