August 31, 2015
Hey, watch it!
Someone misses all the quick time events in a Heavy Rain chase sequence. Benny Hill ensues. (SLYT)
Weirldy sexual henchman! Burn the village!
Satchmo
When author Stephen Mailtland-Lewis was 12 years old, he wrote a fan letter to Louis Armstrong, and to his surprise, a few weeks later, he received a 4 page response back from the trumpeter.
"What happened next will touch you"... For the next 18 years, until his death, Louis kept corresponding with this fan (As he did with very many others).
“And now you’re you."
Once a Pariah, Now a Judge: The Early Transgender Journey of Phyllis Frye.
Useful resources for participating in the discussion: Ohio U's Trans 101* : Primer and Vocabulary guide; and GLAAD's Transgender Media Program [more inside]
Useful resources for participating in the discussion: Ohio U's Trans 101* : Primer and Vocabulary guide; and GLAAD's Transgender Media Program [more inside]
Literature and addiction
"Here are some books that will not only make you want to quit doing the thing that is killing you, but also offer an interesting narrative structure for writers because they flout the conventional hero journey template. Instead of a reluctant hero emerging from an ordinary world to delve into the tricky landscape of magic and tests, these heroes begin in chaos and emerge from the grungy ashes of last call and plunge into sober, or at least peaceful, life earned by one’s ability to overcome hurdles associated with addiction." (Antonia Crane at Electric Literature) [more inside]
ConspiraSea
Are you ready for the New Life and New Paradigm? Got $2278? If so, pack your bags and board the ConspiraSea Cruise, setting sail next January. Rub shoulders with anti-vaccine crusader Andrew Wakefield! Get up to speed on US politics with 2004 Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik! Hear Sharon Schloss explain how orgone energy can fight chemtrails, electromagnetic fields, and the California drought! [more inside]
the f-stop of the human eye
How companies make millions off lead-poisoned, poor blacks
What happens in these deals is a matter of perspective. To industry advocates, the transactions get money to people who need it now. They keep desperate families off the streets, pay medical bills, put kids through school [...] But to critics, Access Funding is part of an industry that profits off the poor and disabled. And Baltimore has become a prime target. [more inside]
The art of tweeting isn't hard to master
Indian stairwells
Rudimentary stepwells first appeared in India between the 2nd and 4th centuries A.D., born of necessity in a capricious climate zone bone-dry for much of the year followed by torrential monsoon rains for many weeks. It was essential to guarantee a year-round water-supply for drinking, bathing, irrigation and washing, particularly in the arid states of Gujarat (where they’re called vavs) and Rajasthan (where they’re baoli, baori, or bawdi) where the water table could be inconveniently buried ten-stories or more underground. Over the centuries, stepwell construction evolved so that by the 11th century they were astoundingly complex feats of engineering, architecture, and art.
Eyes on the Ladyprize
The Tropes vs Women in Video Games project aims to examine the plot devices and patterns most often associated with female characters in gaming from a systemic, big picture perspective. - Tropes vs Women: Women as Reward. Tropes versus Women creator Anita Sarkeesian on the backlash to the series (Warning: GamerGate), Previously, previously.
How Eric Ripert Became a Restaurant Legend W/O Working Himself To Death
The Le Bernardin chef is a practicing Buddhist who meanders to work in the morning and drinks double martinis in the afternoon. Spend a day with the man who has it all figured out. Eric Ripert is one of the most highly regarded chefs of our time, and he does something that is increasingly rare - he actually cooks at his restaurant most nights. [more inside]
#Harperman
Tony Turner worked at Environment Canada. After releasing his protest song Harperman in June, he was recently put on leave for impartiality. [more inside]
Oh God I bet somebody put them out
A new meaning to "Catfishing", as two fishermen rescue two kittens from Alabama's Black Warrior River.
Miley Cyrus and the Flaming Lips
Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz is a new album by Miley Cyrus, released yesterday for free. 14 of the 23 tracks are cowritten and produced by Wayne Coyne and other members of The Flaming Lips, the rest either solo work, or made with her regular producers Mike Will Made It and Oren Yoel. Joe Coscarelli wrote about the making of the album for The New York Times. This is not the first time Miley Cyrus and the Flaming Lips have worked together, as she sang two Beatles with them last year, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (live version) and A Day in the Life (live version).
Older than the Rolling Stones: lithophones of the world
A Lithophone is a music instrument consisting of a rock or pieces of rock which are struck to produce musical notes. While there are a number of such man-made instruments built with stones, like The Musical Stones of Skiddaw (in action) and possibly Stonehenge, there are also rocks that resonate, when struck in their natural setting, such as these ringing rocks in
Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania, and Cerro de las Campanas (The Hill of the Bells) in Querétaro, Mexico (which is better know as Maximilian and two of his generals, Miguel Miramón, and Tomas Mejia were shot). But that's just the tip of this trip, so let's get ready to rock! [more inside]
...helpless cogs in a corporate profit machine?
There is pow'r in an Agile methodology
Mike Bulajewski on the war between labor and management in the software industry, as manifested in the rise (and possible fall) of the Agile development: From this subset of principles, it’s clear that although Agile positions itself as a software development methodology, a closer inspection reveals clues to a greater ambition: to protect the interests of software engineers at work. [...] With this agenda, it is possible to characterize the Agile movement as a labour union.
The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism
Our books lived, were killed, and reborn, and released. They were donated, organized, cataloged, seized, destroyed, saved, and became testimony, evidence, burden, and discarded.
The Dregs of the Library: Trashing the Occupy Wall Street Library
Apparently, I have passed away.
Slate reports on the rise of the changing world of death notices. (SL Slate)
Everything is on fire and no one cares.
This year, my summer visit to Idaho was swallowed, most days, in a thick, gauzy haze. It was as though the sky was overlaid with a bleakest of Instagram filters; the smoke was often so dense, it blocked the blue light spectrum entirely, washing everything in a pale, flat yellow, a creepy, apocalyptic tint that contrasted well with the redness in your eyes and the gray dryness of your throat. [more inside]
No relation to Adrian
Tche Belew is a 1977 album by Hailu Mergia and the Walias that was out of print until late last year. It sounds like Jimmy Smith Goes to Ethopia. The album was released a few years into the Derg regime, which ousted Haile Selassie I. Not too long ago, Hailu was driving a cab in DC but is now back on tour, reportedly.
A "Wonderously Wonderful" Film with the "Strangest Cast[...] in History"
There exists a film whose trailer tantalizes the brain; a film whose English dub, believed to have been created by the notorious K. Gordon Murray (his previous lies - he is described as a "flim-flammer" who ran a "kiddie circuit"), has eluded even the most fervent afficionados of strange cinema. Thanks to the people of Sweden and a translator known only as Doctor Death (and fixes from uploader Justin Sane - you can see the translation by turning on captions), you can enter the world of The Secret of Magic Island: the live-action children's film starring an all-animal cast.
The Summer That Never Was
"I suspect that the way I feel now, at summer's end, is about how I'll feel at the end of my life, assuming I have time and mind enough to reflect: bewildered by how unexpectedly everything turned out, regretful about all the things I didn't get around to, clutching the handful of friends and funny stories I've amassed, and wondering where it all went. And I'll probably still be evading the same truth I'm evading now: that the life I ended up with, much as I complain about it, was pretty much the one I chose. And my dissatisfactions with it are really my own character, with my hesitation and timidity." (slNYT)
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