March 21, 2015
Never mind the bollocks...
I Envy Those Who Have Not Read P. G. Wodehouse And Are About To
Lev Grossman has this to say about P. G. Wodehouse: "As it turns out, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse — what else would the P.G. stand for? — was an English writer born in 1881. He was a comic writer in an age of serious aesthetes: he was of the generation of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, and the toweringly serious works of his famous coevals have gone a long way towards obscuring Wodehouse’s enormous gifts as a stylist. His subject was the foibles of the pre-war English aristocracy, which sounds limiting, but it was his subject the same way marble was Michelangelo’s subject. He could do anything with it. (He also co-wrote the book for Anything Goes. True fact.)" [more inside]
I'm only happy when it...
Rainworks are positive messages and art that only appear when it rains. Peregrine Church watched a video showing off the properties of superhydrophobic coatings and got an idea uniquely suited to his environment: famously rainy Seattle.* Using a spray-on coating, he did a stencil at a bus stop. It's invisible in dry weather, but as rain hits it and the wet concrete darkens, the writing and art becomes clear. Since then, more have been added: tentacles, hopscotch grids, environmental messages, lily pads, and more. [more inside]
"Why is empathizing across groups so much more difficult?"
The Brain’s Empathy Gap: [New York Times]
Can mapping neural pathways help us make friends with our enemies?
The improbable story of one of America’s first same-sex marriages
"In their youthful days, they took each other as companions for life, and... this union, no less sacred to them than the tie of marriage, has subsisted, in uninterrupted harmony, for forty years, during which they have shared each other’s occupations and pleasures and works of charity while in health, and watched over each other tenderly in sickness."
Era Diferente
Los Tigres del Norte have been recognized by GLAAD for the song Era Diferente from their latest album, the first Norteño song about gay love. [more inside]
"Stuff happens," "Freedom's untidy."
Islamic State Pursues Apocalyptic Logic.
All of this didn't begin in February 2015 or in 2013, when Islamic State first appeared on the radar of Western media.
It began on March 20, 2003, when the American-led "Coalition of the Willing" invaded Iraq.
All of this didn't begin in February 2015 or in 2013, when Islamic State first appeared on the radar of Western media.
It began on March 20, 2003, when the American-led "Coalition of the Willing" invaded Iraq.
Go Home.
"We decided that our first record of the '90s ought to be different."
Twenty-five years ago this week, Depeche Mode released their classic and best-selling album Violator. When the band scheduled a singing at a Wherehouse record store near the Beverley Center in Los Angeles on the day of the album's US release, thousands of fans showed up, many having waited days. It went about as well as you might imagine. These 18 minutes of local news footage interspersed with non-broadcast interviews of fans in line (Part 1, Part 2) of the "near-riot" caused by thousands of DM fans is the best way to transport yourself back to 1990s America until a time machine is invented. Bonus: lots of local news anchors mispronouncing the band's name and city councilman outrage about who should be responsible for the price tag. [more inside]
Just in time for the baseball season...
Baseball behind barbed wire The year was 1944. A playoff series between two all-star baseball teams generated ample excitement. Gila River fought Heart Mountain in thirteen games to win the series. The players described it as exhilarating. But the players taking part in this all-American pastime did so in dire circumstances. Gila River and Heart Mountain were both Japanese incarceration camps (previously known as internment camps), and these athletes were among the tens of thousands of Japanese Americans imprisoned there.
When a gun store doesn't sell guns
"Last week, sandwiched between a row of shops and apartments, you may have noticed that a store hawking firearms miraculously opened for two days on Manhattan’s Lower East Side."
The sales pitch was not what folks expected. Customer reaction was interesting...
Whatever could Charlie Brown & Charlie Hebdo have to do with each other?
"The relationship between Charlie Brown and Charlie Mensuel was nevertheless an odd one. The first cover of Charlie Mensuel may have featured Snoopy snoozing on his doghouse, but by the second issue one could already sense the bawdy direction in which the magazine would be heading. Drawn by Al Capp, it features an orange seal, grinning. Look at it again, and you'll see that it doubles as a smiling phallus. The next two covers featured cartoons by Schulz—Linus with his security blanket, Charlie Brown with a valentine. But by the sixth cover, it was back to bawd: Wolinski, maker of many dirty pictures, drew the face of a smiling man with a tiny, scantily clad lady riding on his nose." (SLAtlantic)
"At the age of 22, I fell in love with my boss..."
"...and at the age of 24, I learned the devastating consequences." Monica Lewinsky takes a look at our “culture of humiliation” from the TED stage. (previously 1, 2, 3)
Good evening, Europe ... and Australia!
With all of the national selections now made, let's take a look at how the Eurovision Song Contest's 60th anniversary is shaping up. Terribad songs ahead; enter at your own risk. [more inside]
Graeber on Gawker, on extractive democracy
"This is a profound transformation, and one we barely talk about. " Anarchist anthropologist David Graeber sees the FBI Ferguson report as a window into how American democracy is changing. [more inside]
Together, they fight crime!
Tanja Brandt is a German photographer who has dedicated her career to photographing animals and wildlife. In one of her most recent projects, Brandt shot photographs of a highly unlikely pair of friends: Ingo, the Belgian shepherd, and Poldi (Napoleon), the one-year-old owlet.
(Big) CAT scan
HTML5 drum machines
"I think society is in trouble when culture is ignored"
Have you ever fantasized about what you would do if you won the lottery? In June, Roy Cockrum of Knoxville, TN won the Powerball jackpot, taking home $115 million after taxes. Cockrum, whose varied career has included stints as an actor, stage manager, and Episcopal monk, has announced that he plans to use his new wealth to support ambitious productions by American non-profit theaters. [more inside]
« Previous day | Next day »