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For nine seasons, (1995-2004) comedienne and actress Kathy Kinney played Mimi Bobeck, the "outrageously made-up, flamboyantly vulgar, and vindictive nemesis" of Drew Carey on the sitcom The Drew Carey Show. Lately, she's been busy with a new role: professional children's storyteller. Welcome to Mrs. P's Magic Library. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 8:32 PM PST - 11 comments

For the first time in forever, Halloween will be filled with scary movies.* And while you're here... [more inside]
posted by triggerfinger at 8:11 PM PST - 89 comments

Here is the new series of video articles started by the ultra-knowledgeable folks at Hardcore Gaming 101. The first two are up, the beginning of series on Pre-Super Mario platform games and on the early history of JRPGs. Related is the video adjunct to the Game Club 199X Podcast, with over 50 videos. (Previously.)
posted by JHarris at 7:26 PM PST - 23 comments

In 2011 a Belgian photographer was allowed entry into one of Japan’s Yakuza families. Over two years, he captured the lives of those living in the underworld. In 2015 The economist created a short film about that project. [more inside]
posted by pyro979 at 7:09 PM PST - 6 comments

Isidewith.com is the website for you! (USA edition)
posted by bluesky43 at 5:50 PM PST - 127 comments

(Product video) Topmix Permeable has a claimed average permeability rate of 600 litres, per minute, per square meter. Watch the concrete in a small area of car park soak up 4,000 litres in a minute. An explanation version and a few caveats. [more inside]
posted by Wordshore at 5:00 PM PST - 66 comments

Discograph generates an interactive visualization of relationships between nearly 5 million artists, bands and labels, based on data from the Discogs.com database.
Examples: The Beatles | The Fall | Neil Young
posted by porn in the woods at 4:45 PM PST - 19 comments

Short on time? Here are the highlights: Japan’s Minister of Education has asked all national universities to close their social sciences and humanities departments. 26 universities have so far confirmed plans to close affected faculties or convert them to "areas that better meet society’s needs" [more inside]
posted by Shouraku at 2:07 PM PST - 139 comments

Detailed guide to building a medieval village. LEGO builder Luke Watkins Hutchinson / Derfel Cadarn's massive, 300-photo guide to building an intricate medieval scene out of LEGO bricks. [more inside]
posted by knuckle tattoos at 1:20 PM PST - 24 comments

The Missing Link: Architecture and Waste Management [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:45 AM PST - 6 comments

[R]ising star Shamir recently gave NME a playlist of his favorite recent musical discoveries, and his most lavish praise was for… Michete and his mixtape Cool Tricks, described as “a gift from the ratchet gods.” It’s a description as compelling as most any Shamir song. … If nothing else, [opening track “Rap Game Kimmy Gibbler”] will cause some outrage when Michete—who identifies as transfeminine (she/her/he/his) —concludes the song by boasting that she is “burning all these bitches like my last name Hitler.”… Cool Tricks offers up the new genre of qrap: the versed ribaldry of poor taste—a crassly mouthed “fuck you” to the gay male archetype of the connoisseur.
Andy Emitt writes about “The Worst Queer Rapper You Need To Listen To” for Pitchfork. [more inside]
posted by Going To Maine at 11:44 AM PST - 18 comments

Someday this country’s gonna be a fine, good place to be. Maybe it needs our bones in the ground before that time can come: An essay on the summer of the Atomic Bomb, by Joni Tevis. Originally published in The Diagram
posted by Rumple at 11:01 AM PST - 8 comments

The 2015 crop of MacArthur Fellows has been announced, starring Ta-Nehisi Coates, puppeteer Basil Twist, sociologist Matthew Desmond (whose work on eviction has been previously discussed on MetaFilter), and poet Ellen Bryant Voigt. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 10:31 AM PST - 47 comments

Why You Should Buy An Acrylic Water Pipe
posted by josher71 at 10:19 AM PST - 59 comments

As the twenty-first century gets darker, politics are likely to follow suit, and for all it’s apparent weirdness, neoreaction may be an early warning system for what a future anti-democratic right looks like. (Previously.)
posted by StopMakingSense at 9:34 AM PST - 108 comments

Trevor Noah has delivered his first episode as host of The Daily Show. Reviews are mixed but mostly positive. [more inside]
posted by jbickers at 9:34 AM PST - 49 comments

In 2011, Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi (Arabic: سلطان سعود القاسمي‎) was lauded for his Twitter stream where he provided English translations of news and events of Arab Spring. A year earlier, the cultural commentator started the Barjeel Art Foundation, serving as a patron and promoter for artists from all over the Arab world: Syrian, Iraqi, Kuwaiti, Egyptian, Jordanian, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon. "I don't buy artworks that I think are pretty and aesthetically appealing," he says. "But I buy art that is politically meaningful." Arab Art Redefined: How art collector Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi is trying to change the narrative (2 minute slideshow with narration by Sultan Al-Qassemi on how he collects and shares art).
posted by filthy light thief at 9:11 AM PST - 2 comments

Ruth Graham, in a Slate piece entitled, Banned Books Week is a Crock, argued that censorship is no longer a problem in the United States. Censorship laws are nearly extinct, and if your local library doesn't have the book...well, you can always find it online. "This Banned Books Week," writes Graham, "instead of hand-wringing about a nonexistent wave of censorship, let’s celebrate the obvious: The books won." But have they? [more inside]
posted by touchstone033 at 8:45 AM PST - 97 comments

115 Ways to Scream 'Status' I thought this would just be a list of expensive things the super-rich have (and there's a lot of that), but also contains really interesting stuff on Broadway singers' throat lozenges, oboe players' preferred reeds, etc.
posted by xingcat at 8:35 AM PST - 130 comments

Interactive Map Shows What The NYC Area Looked Like Back In The 1600s [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 8:23 AM PST - 14 comments

A music video showcasing some of the awesome cosplay at DragonCon 2015. Part 2, Part 3.
posted by cozenedindigo at 7:46 AM PST - 17 comments

In this acoustic version of Permanent Holiday by Hawaii-based reggae musician Mike Love, a seemingly random assortment of syllables slowly grows into a song over a period of three minutes. [more inside]
posted by ellieBOA at 4:05 AM PST - 15 comments

What the American people are angry about is they understand that they did not cause this recession. Teachers did not cause this recession. Firefighters and police officers who are being attacked daily by governors all over this country did not cause this recession. Construction workers did not cause this recession. This recession was caused by a few so-called punk and hardcore bands who charged obscene door cover and priced their merch like it was goddamned Prada—Bernie Sanders (I–VT).

Bernie is hardcore. [more inside]
posted by Sonny Jim at 3:30 AM PST - 40 comments