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Live CDs, immediately after the concert. Many times after I've seen a great show, I've wished I could have a recording of the evening. Now, using CD Burners hooked up to the sound boards, ClearChannel is beta testing a program that would make soundboard quality concert CD's available to audience members immediately after a show ended. I'm torn; it's a great idea, but it's ClearChannel... I want to like it... but I want to hate it, too...
posted by jonson at 11:33 PM PST - 25 comments

You take a toy car, and hold it in such a way so that it looks like it's a real car parked between other real cars, or driving in traffic with real cars. Then you take a picture of it. That's the sublimely simple concept of Parking Spots.
posted by iconomy at 7:50 PM PST - 28 comments

My hero is... found in a series of essays. Maybe we can learn from the lives of each other's heroes. Somewhere is a mention of yours. Where? (Comic and game characters, gyros and other sandwiches need not apply.)
posted by ?! at 6:58 PM PST - 7 comments

"My child is safer at an organized cockfight than she is at a Lobo basketball game" was one of the comments overheard as New Mexico decided to be one of the two states to allow cockfighting. Reasons to keep cockfighting: Watching the bloody sport causes less emotional stress on children than a college basketball game and It's "part of the state's hispanic culture"
Obviously, the opposition to this mounts, but with Oklahoma and Oregon unable to send the roosters to pasture, is Cockfighting destined to remain on the fringes of America?
posted by RobbieFal at 3:55 PM PST - 28 comments

Cells obtained from the well-preserved legs of a mammoth found last summer in Russia's far-northern Yakutia region are "conditionally alive" and could provide the DNA needed to resurrect the long-extinct tuskers.
posted by stbalbach at 2:41 PM PST - 36 comments

The principality of Liechtenstein has thought of an innovative way of rasing tourism revenue: Rent the whole country! Liechtenstein, established by the Holy Roman Empire in 1719 and sovereign since 1806, is among the smallest nations on the planet. It boasts a population around 33,000 living in a nation around 0.9 times the size of Washington DC. Check out the Liechtensteinian homepage. (in German)
posted by elwoodwiles at 2:20 PM PST - 11 comments

Which country poses the greatest danger to world peace in 2003? Isn't Time Magazine typically read by real conservative types? I took the informal survey, with about 348,000 other respondents and was surprised by the percentages.
posted by giantkicks at 10:33 AM PST - 48 comments

John Higgins - Mayor of Amherst and famous race car-driving dingo expert - was born and grew up in Scotland. His online shop sells all kinds of Scottish clothing. As a self-taught artist in drawing and watercoloring, John Higgins illustrated the children's book "Handsome Me." Puppeteer. Linux fanatic. Admitted crier. Known as the "Wizard of Wishaw," in Hong Kong they worship him as a god, but the only thing he ever wanted to be in life was a chef. Send a message to John Higgins. He recently quit his job and stays at home all day playing the sitar. His neighbors are concerned. He may just be the most sarcastic man on Earth, having turned himself in after viewing a marijuana = terrorism commercial.
posted by son_of_minya at 9:55 AM PST - 11 comments

White Stripes capture their 'Elephant'? World famous radio DJ John Peel has been told to stop playing songs from the new White Stripes album, 'Elephant'. Apparently, he was 'interfering with the global marketing strategy by continuing to play the record'. A scheme which involves giving people who aren't fans of the band copies of the album five months before it comes out. The result? It's on Kazaa already, and DJs who love the band can't play the record. There's also some mp3s ( <- note that a link to one there) of Peel talking about the ban.
posted by tapeguy at 8:33 AM PST - 23 comments

Some interesting Q & A with Roger Ebert in the National Post regarding commercials in movie theatres. We assume that the only sure fire way to get your message across would be to walk out and demand your money back, but a theatre manager is quoted as saying Everything else is secondary to making sure all commercials are running -- including customer complaints. Yes, but for how long? And why does it seem that so few people are annoyed by this?
posted by quietfish at 6:36 AM PST - 96 comments

Now that we can Create a Hit Single in less than 2 minutes thanks to Microsoft, more & more people start worrying about music and its destiny. In UK, the 23 years old (and Xtina fan, 'I can't wait till she's number one' he says) Wes Butters takes over the great Radio 1 institution 'the Chart show'. (the guardian article) Can this mean the end of quality music shows? (Nah... Just a beginning downfall.)
posted by Sijeka at 5:57 AM PST - 17 comments

The Modern Antiquarian. Quirky, funny and joyous guide to the folklore and folkloric sites of Britain. There is a weblog too - read about Carmarthenshire standing stones or adventures in Cornwall.
posted by plep at 5:34 AM PST - 4 comments

John Hurt: Although it was not John (wrong sex anyway) who through a gentle voice and pleasant demeanor (yet he had this about him too) served as my primary impetus to play the guitar, it was nevertheless he, and others who played like him - but mainly he who provided me with my first technical model (emotional model to some extent also) for playing the guitar. He was the first I heard who played in the three-finger, non-choking, "picking" style, and he was one of the best. He was in his quiet way, a very great man, and I deeply mourn our loss of him.          John Fahey

                                Mississippi John Hurt

"I just make it sound like I think it ought to"                              (more →)
posted by y2karl at 1:15 AM PST - 41 comments