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And so here I am. One of those fat, hairy, angry butch lesbians whom everyone seems to hate. Too “radical” for men and straight people, too “normative” for some queer people. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:50 PM PST - 78 comments

If you like electric bass or musicians who can do more than one thing, you might like this video of Tom "Squarepusher" Jenkinson giving a solo electric bass recital in 2007. (From his album Solo Electric Bass 1.)
posted by Going To Maine at 7:41 PM PST - 25 comments

James 'Jimbo' Traficant, colorful convicted ex-congressman, has passed away. No stranger to the blue, Traficant will be remembered for many things, but likely chief among them will be his Star Trek-inspired catchphrase, "Beam me up, Mr. Speaker." His death was the result of a tractor accident.
posted by analogue at 4:56 PM PST - 30 comments

IBM's Selectric typewriter "paved the way for computer printers because the Selectric had an early version of a digital to analogue converter..." called the whiffletree, the application of which here is totally sweet.
posted by stinkfoot at 4:37 PM PST - 43 comments

So when asked if I had any weird habits or quirks, I said “I don’t like cooking a single jacket potato as I think it looks lonely.” Dean Burnett explains what he calls Lonely Potato Syndrome, which Metafilter is quite familiar with.
posted by cmyk at 3:41 PM PST - 62 comments

Lieut.-Col. Newnham-Davis was engaged in 1897 as the restaurant reviewer of the Pall Mall Gazette, and his reviews of London restaurants are collected in Dinners and Diners: Where and How to Dine in London, available online from The Dictionary of Victorian London. Newnham-Davis was a bon vivant, amateur of the theatrical world, and man of parts, and his reviews were equal parts reminiscence of the conversation with his pseudonymous companions and recollections and reviews of his opulent and lengthy Victorian dinners. [more inside]
posted by strangely stunted trees at 3:16 PM PST - 28 comments

How to identify (or misidentify) the hobo spider (pdf). Did you find a hobo spider? Here's an easy, step-by-step guide to determining whether or not you really have one.
posted by bigbigdog at 3:14 PM PST - 41 comments

Two and a half years ago, we returned to the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender with the premier of Avatar: Legend of Korra. On Friday, October 3rd, the final planned season, Book Four: Balance, will air and conclude the story of Korra, a young woman tested by the most brutal enemies and faced with a world that may or may not need or want an avatar anymore. This is its trailer. On Youtube. Spoilerish break down of previous seasons with trailers beyond the fold! [more inside]
posted by Atreides at 2:49 PM PST - 33 comments

Yesterday, the first season of "Transparent" went live on Amazon Prime, starring Jeffrey Tambor as a 70 year old transgender woman who is coming out to her family, and the world, for the first time. [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:10 PM PST - 96 comments

Zero Percent Water. Alan Heathcock visits the Central Valley in California to talk to farmers about the drought, hear their perspective, and see first-hand what the land looks like.
posted by Joh at 1:56 PM PST - 43 comments

"Barajas and the veterans staying with him are establishing a new life in Tijuana — a life after deportation. Their stories are similar: Each was honorably discharged from the military, but was later charged with a deportable offense — for example, drug possession, discharge of a firearm or perjury...Most have spent the vast majority of their lives in the United States and are now starting over in a country they barely know." (Aj Jazeera)
posted by d. z. wang at 1:40 PM PST - 8 comments

It purports to be a fan fiction written by a mother who wanted to make a "family friendly" version of the Harry Potter books... That is to say, one that will not lead to your children "turning into witches". There is currently a lively debate as to whether it is an intentional joke or exactly what it claims to be. Whether it's real or satire, iThe Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles is certainly an entertaining read: "Voldemort doesn't care," Hermione remarked sadly; and she shook her head. "And he is gaining power. The freedom of Christians to practice our faith is disappearing by the day. Soon, it will be like it was in Rome." Lovely, ladylike tears began to roll down her delicate, terrified face. "And I don't like lions!"
posted by kyrademon at 1:10 PM PST - 49 comments

About a decade ago, in the mid 1990s jazz remix era, as heard in the Verve Remixed series, one particular compilation of re-visionings stands out: Bird Up. The compilation featured a range of remixers and producers, including the RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan, Dan the Automator, Hal Willner, Me’Shell NdegéOcello, and Serj Tankian of System of a Down, extended "now-familiar bebop soundscapes into new places that are sometimes strange, occasionally brilliant and always invigorating." [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 12:10 PM PST - 10 comments

"I'm not sure whether it mattered. One young man very kindly said to me, 'You don’t understand, women are holier than men.' I said, 'That’s rubbish and it doesn't excuse the insult,' and then I added that I spent 13 years in yeshiva and there's nothing he could tell me that I haven't already heard. Then the original man, the one who refused to sit next to me, muttered to another man as he was walking away, 'She doesn't understand.' I said, 'I understand everything, and don't talk to me as if I'm not here.' He ignored me, and all the other men turned their backs and did not respond or even look at me." [Similar version at JewFem blog.]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 11:47 AM PST - 75 comments

"This is like the gateway drug of the Jewish foods" - Non-Jews try traditional Jewish food for the first time
posted by The Gooch at 10:47 AM PST - 88 comments

Doug wants to do other things so you had better go while you still can... Previously
Hot Doug's is a Chicago, Illinois-based restaurant specializing in a variety of hot dogs and sausages. The self-proclaimed "Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium" is in its second location at 3324 North California Avenue in the city's Avondale neighborhood. Its first location, on Roscoe Street, closed after a 2004 fire. Hot Doug's is frequently featured in local and national media for its unique menu, and its purveyor and head chef, Doug Sohn, has been noted for his work to create affordable gourmet food.[1] The restaurant is an extremely popular dining destination among both locals and tourists, and at lunch time and throughout much of the weekend customers can expect to wait in lines sometimes exceeding an hour just to get in the door. On May 6, 2014, Doug announced that he will be permanently closing Hot Doug's on Friday, October 3, 2014 (WiKi)
Anthony Bourdain(slyt) [more inside]
posted by shockingbluamp at 9:09 AM PST - 57 comments

Why I hate museums.
posted by shivohum at 7:53 AM PST - 84 comments

Portlandia is a white show for a white audience, and Portland is a very white place, by design. Kiran Herbert writes about the history of race in Portland and its depiction on Portlandia. Via
posted by Dip Flash at 6:43 AM PST - 101 comments

"We were homeless; that’s why we were in the hostel in the first place. We didn’t have anywhere else to go. There were 210 other young women living there. Now it’s luxury flats."

A group of young, homeless mothers have taken over an empty council house in Newham, East London, in protest over the council's plans to rehome them to other parts of the country while selling off social housing and closing the specialist hostel where they were living. The Guardian reports: "For real politics, don't look to Parliament but to an empty London housing estate." [more inside]
posted by Catseye at 4:27 AM PST - 14 comments

"I loathe science fiction," Vladimir Nabokov declared to a BBC interviewer in 1968. A few months later Nabokov published an elaborate sci-fi novel.

Nabokov's Ada or Ardor is one of the works in the Science Fiction in Transition (1958-1975): New Wave & New Directions reading list put together by Ted Gioia, in his day job a jazz critic and music historian. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 2:30 AM PST - 33 comments

Australian journalists must ask what agenda they serve At the end of a week of much media hysteria about terrorism, the Senate passed arguably the most significant restraints on press freedom in Australia outside of wartime.
posted by Wolof at 1:07 AM PST - 32 comments

"Pride", a critically-acclaimed new film given a limited release in the US today, tells the true story of how a small group of LGBT activists became the biggest fundraiser for the year-long British coal miner's strike of 1984-85. The miners faced a pre-meditated, organized, thuggish, dishonest, deceptive, and illegal surveillance and smear campaign by the Thatcher government, which froze all mining union funds, cancelled their unemployment, and denied food and housing welfare to their wives and children, in an attempt to starve them out. For the first time, the British government trained Britain's police into a paramilitary force, bused in at great expense and in great numbers to overwhelm the protesters, using violent, repressive, and corrupt tactics against non-violent protesters, with prolonged police detentions and the indiscriminate arrest of over 11,000 British citizens. The government was supported by the rightwing tabloid media, who used sensationalist, crude headlines to shape public opinion. LGBT activists reclaimed one such headline as the name of their most successful benefit. Although the miner's strike was broken by the Thatcher government, the miners kept their promise to support the LGBT community, by marching alongside them at the front of London's 1985's Pride parade.. Later that year at the Labour Party conference, a motion was tabled that supported adding equal rights for gays and lesbians as part of the Party's platform. This motion was opposed by Labour's executive committee, but the motion went to a vote – and passed, thanks to the votes of the National Union of Mineworkers and their allies.
posted by markkraft at 1:02 AM PST - 37 comments