October 25, 2015

It's Autumn on Arrakis

Novelty twitter account @MaudDiBucks posts Dune quotes with the word "pumpkin" strategically inserted. [via mefi projects] [more inside]
posted by isthmus at 9:54 PM PST - 29 comments

Max Beckmann's Self-Portrait in Tuxedo

But even then, Beckmann will be there before you, and seem more at ease. And in how he stands and where he’s chosen to stand, it’s also clear that he can leave, that he can move out the door just to his right. Again, the sense that he belongs here, that he knows better than you how to dress and what to do, gives the impression that you aren’t an audience viewing him, but that he is giving you an audience instead. He belongs, we don’t, or don’t so well as he. Max Beckmann's 1927 Self-Portrait in Tuxedo, appreciated by Harvard art historian Joseph Koerner. [more inside]
posted by escabeche at 8:31 PM PST - 7 comments

How do a bunch of wonky generated tones translate to memorable sounds?

A Beginner's Guide to the Synth is a nice long write-up to the history of the synthesizers, from their origins up to the present, with embedded sound samples. For a deeper dive into the history of the hardware, learn the secrets of the synths from Sound on Sound.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:54 PM PST - 13 comments

Incl. the 1967's "The Analysis of Paneled Plate and Carcass Furniture"

The website of Carl A. Eckelman, Ph.D., Professor of Wood Technology at Purdue University. Probably more than you wanted to know about joinery and cabinetmaking.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 6:55 PM PST - 29 comments

“That one is ridiculed by its fellow-birds for its stupidity”

The improbable emergence of Nell Zink.
posted by holmesian at 3:45 PM PST - 9 comments

Argots and Ludlings

"Though there appears to be no definitive research on gender and gibberish, it became clear to me that girls are drawn to gibberish and the dozens of other secret languages and language games, also called argots and ludlings, because using them builds social bonds." Jessica Weiss, "The Secret Linguistic Life of Girls: Why Girls Speak Gibberish." [more inside]
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:40 PM PST - 59 comments

Hideo Kojima Is the Jonathan Franzen of Video Games

Hideo Kojima's new game, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, is the video game analogue of Jonathan Franzen's books: technically dazzling, but built upon a bed of sophmoric ideas.
posted by reenum at 2:30 PM PST - 75 comments

vision zero IRL

9 Cities Around the World That Are Going Carfree
posted by aniola at 2:21 PM PST - 58 comments

Are the ‘90s already history?

Everything I Needed to Know about Poetry I Learned from #KPOP
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:53 AM PST - 12 comments

Marie's Crisis

The American Theatre Wing presents, Working in the Theatre: Marie's Crisis
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:09 AM PST - 5 comments

“A mix of Japanese pop songs, most of them with a synth funk backbone”

Jen Monroe and Brian Sweeny, the curators of the Listen To This! album blog, have collaborated with Self-Titled Magazine on an eclectic mix of Japanese synth pop that will go perfectly with your personal end-of-Summer / Fall weather: OMG JAPAN (Track list and liner notes)
posted by Going To Maine at 10:42 AM PST - 6 comments

The origins of Deep House and Acid House with some examples

Electronic music 101: What is Acid House? What is Deep House?
posted by josher71 at 10:37 AM PST - 16 comments

the pause that refereshes

In Heaven There Is No Beer, That's why we drink it here...
posted by jonmc at 10:13 AM PST - 9 comments

This day is called the Feast of Crispian

The battle of Agincourt was fought on a muddy field in northern France 600 years ago on Sunday – St Crispin’s Day, October 25th 1415. Legend says Agincourt was won by arrows. It was not. It was won by men using lead-weighted hammers, poleaxes, mauls and falcon-beaks, the ghastly paraphernalia of medieval hand-to-hand fighting. It was fought on a field knee-deep in mud, and it was more of a massacre than a battle. [more inside]
posted by PlusDistance at 9:44 AM PST - 63 comments

The Philips Golden Ears Challenge

"We know that we are not alone in this obsession with sound, which is why we are inviting you to take our Golden Ears challenge..." [more inside]
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:51 AM PST - 19 comments

"And I’m telling you that thing upstairs isn’t my daughter."

That Thing: A True Story Based on The Exorcist (Adam Sturtevant, Electric Literature)
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:41 AM PST - 16 comments

Dealing with allergies in the restaurant kitchen

"In a stunningly short slice of history, we’ve gone from food allergies being met with ignorance or indifference in the restaurant world to their domination of the discussion between server and diner, starting with the greeting and continuing all the way to dessert. ... After witnessing enough diners who make a big fuss about how their bodies can’t tolerate gluten and then proceed to order a beer or dig into their date’s brownie dessert, fatigued chefs and managers are beginning to adopt a less accommodating approach. But the people who may ultimately pay the price for this pushback won’t be the “free-from” fabulists. They’ll be those with serious conditions."
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:40 AM PST - 148 comments

From WHYY In Philadelphia

Terry Gross and the Art of Opening Up
This fall, Gross marks her 40th anniversary hosting "Fresh Air." At 64, she is "the most effective and beautiful interviewer of people on the planet," as Marc Maron said recently, while introducing an episode of his podcast, "WTF," that featured a conversation with Gross. She’s deft on news and subtle on history, sixth-sensey in probing personal biography and expert at examining the intricacies of artistic process. She is acutely attuned to the twin pulls of disclosure and privacy. ‘‘You started writing memoirs before our culture got as confessional as it’s become, before the word ‘oversharing’ was coined,’’ Gross said to the writer Mary Karr last month. ‘‘So has that affected your standards of what is meant to be written about and what is meant to maintain silence about?’’ (‘‘That’s such a smart question,’’ Karr responded. ‘‘Damn it, now I’m going to have to think.’’) [more inside]
posted by Frayed Knot at 8:13 AM PST - 51 comments

Digital poetry - Leaving the ivory tower

The challenge: if people would only know, hear, and see what poets did, then at least some of them would realize too how cool literature can actually be. - Three projects which engage in popularizing, mediating, and digitally archiving contemporary Hungarian poetry. [more inside]
posted by Wolfdog at 6:14 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Keith Richards stranded on desert island

... by the BBC.
posted by Paul Slade at 4:59 AM PST - 7 comments

Courgettes are deadly

In June 2009, the filmmaker Myles O'Reilly nestled Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh in The Back Loft in Dublin, with a camera, a reel to reel recorder, a laptop, a fiddle, a five stringed viola and a hardanger, and what followed was a short series of five beautiful improvisations and a little bit of gardening banter
posted by salishsea at 1:22 AM PST - 5 comments

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