July 14, 2013

Who Ruined the Humanities?

So you see, I am not making a brief against reading the classics of Western literature. Far from it. I am against taking these startling epiphanies of the irrational, unspoken, unthought-of side of human life into the college classroom and turning them into the bland exercises in competition, hierarchy and information-accumulation that are these works' mortal enemies. An essay by Lee Siegel (SLWSJ)
posted by chavenet at 11:41 PM PST - 128 comments

anthropomorphised animals

In his series Zoo Portraits, Barcelona artist Yago Partal digitally clothes animals.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 10:59 PM PST - 21 comments

Good evening, boils and ghouls!

Spooktacular is a blog dedicated to preserving the history of the Horror Host, old and new.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 9:58 PM PST - 18 comments

PBJ 2.0 & the chick-check apple

My dad made me a pbj 2.0 when you close it you get 9 different flavor combos. 1

My brother uploaded the pic of the PBJ 2.0 yesterday, here's another creation my dad always made for us, the "chick-check" apple 2 [more inside]
posted by not_on_display at 9:09 PM PST - 101 comments

The Build

Explore the world of custom motorcycle making through the stories of three independent builders in Portland, Oregon [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:38 PM PST - 10 comments

To get married, they left Ohio

New York was the closest to drive to, but they’d both need to be there for the license and return for the wedding. Out, they decided. California and Washington, and the knot of northeastern states that have legalized same-sex marriage, were too far. Maryland required only one partner to come for the license. Then a 48-hour waiting period. It was an hour and 10-minute flight. This might work, they decided: A destination wedding in Baltimore.
posted by hoyland at 6:02 PM PST - 55 comments

COMEDIANS IN CARS GETTING COFFEE

It has been mentioned before around these parts, but COMEDIANS IN CARS GETTING COFFEE is now into Season Two, and it's just wonderful. Concept: Each episode, Seinfeld picks up a friend in one of his many, many cars, they go get coffee, and along the way they talk. And that's it. My favorite episode: Alec Baldwin.
posted by JPowers at 3:58 PM PST - 92 comments

Turn Around, Go Home, and Never Return to This Place

What we saw was... something else. A drugged-out looking dancer in a white thong, white athletic socks, and white sneakers marching in place on a lighted platform. Just marching, marching. Sometimes he would lift his stiff arms and make grabby hands at the old dudes watching him. The best part was the CD player was broken, so "Don't Cha?" by the Pussycat Dolls played on repeat. Marching, marching, marching. One Star Yelp Reviews Of Strip Clubs
posted by mannequito at 3:37 PM PST - 117 comments

Are you being served?

A survey by a high-end estate agent has revealed that there are more domestic servants in the exclusive London district of Mayfair now than 200 years ago, and indeed, in the élite London neighbourhoods which have been bought up by absentee oligarchs, often only the lights in the servants' quarters are on at night. For those who fancy a life of serving the super-rich, there are courses to prepare them for catering to their masters' exacting whims. But it's not all rosy at the top; the prices of luxury goods (including foie gras, Patek Philippe watches, paintings by artists such as Cézanne and Rothko) in the basket used to calculate the Affluent Luxury Living Index have been rising at a rate exceeding inflation.
posted by acb at 11:15 AM PST - 54 comments

The 14th July 14th

Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:57 AM PST - 139 comments

The jury's in... and they can't deny that view, either.

A month after its release, Naughty Dog's sweeping interactive epic The Last of Us is being hailed as one of the best games of all time, with perfect scores even from notoriously demanding critics. Inspired by an eerily beautiful segment from the BBC's Planet Earth, the game portrays an America twenty years after a pandemic of the zombiefying Cordyceps fungus (previously), leaving behind lush wastelands of elegant decay teeming with monsters and beset by vicious bandits, a brutal military, and the revolutionary Fireflies. Into this bleak vision of desperate violence journey Joel, a gruffly stoic Texan with a painful past, and his ward Ellie, a precocious teenager who may hold the key to mankind's future. Boasting tense, immersive gameplay, compelling performances from a diverse cast, a movingly minimalist score from Oscar-winning Gustavo Santaolalla, and an array of influences from Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men to Cormac McCarthy's The Road, it's already being slotted alongside BioShock Infinite and Half-Life 2 as one of modern gaming's crowning achievements. And while it's hard to disentangle plot from action, you don't have to buy a PS3 to experience it -- YouTube offers many filmic edits of the game, including this three-hour version of all relevant passages. And don't miss the 84-minute documentary exploring every facet of its production. [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 9:56 AM PST - 81 comments

Just Run That Escape Plan By Me Again....

"It's almost tragic that the most badass escaped slave story most people know is Django Unchained. Because in real life, not only did slaves frequently escape, but they often did it without help from free whites, and without murdering several hundred people. Instead, what they had was cleverness and the audacity to try ridiculous plans that by all rights should never have worked." [SLCracked but a decent effort]
posted by marienbad at 9:56 AM PST - 25 comments

He Loves It That Way

What happens when the executive director of your lobbyist organization is hosting the national conference with a technical theater degree burning a hole in his pocket? A bewildering and Christopher Guestian piece of musical theater called "I'm In Payroll."
posted by Shadax at 9:27 AM PST - 21 comments

First!

"Just setting up my twttr". This Was First archives the first posts on some of the world's biggest websites. (Metafilter is sadly absent from the archive.)
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 12:55 AM PST - 27 comments

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