Realist Fiction by George Saunders:
"Last night, in a biker bar, I overheard two men discussing what distinguished “realist” fiction from more “experimental” work. Although one shouldn’t generalize, I never expect bikers to be literary critics. Well, these were literary critics, and good ones—in fact, they’d bought their “hogs” with royalties from a book they’d co-written, Feminine Desire In Jane Austen."

Experimental Fiction by George Saunders:
"Experimental fiction is the art of telling a story in which certain aspects of reality have been exaggerated or distorted in such a way as to put the reader off the story and make him go watch a television show."
posted to MetaFilter by plexi at 8:46 AM on August 5, 2008 (37 comments)

Art Deco was the dominant style of the interwar era, coming out of Paris in the 1920's and ruling the roost until World War II broke out. Randy Juster's Decopix - The Art Deco Resource has enough pictures of Art Deco architecture to send one hurtling into The Gernsback Continuum. If that's not enough then there's always the 11000+ images of the Flickr Art Deco Pool. But Art Deco wasn't just about architecture. On the Victoria and Albert Musem's Art Deco site one can view Art Deco objects in great detail, rotating them and listening to audio lectures on each object. But before Art Deco was a design aesthetic it was an art-style. Illustrations for the Art Deco Book in France has more than 170 images from the proponents of that then-new style (some images are not safe for work, especially in the George Barbier section).
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 6:59 AM on July 22, 2008 (23 comments)

Last Year I Killed A Man , by Vaughan Thomas. Published Saturday July 19, 2008 by The Guardian.
posted to MetaFilter by ZachsMind at 10:09 PM on July 20, 2008 (117 comments)

David Leite, on his quest for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie, learned that letting the cookie dough rest for 36 hours before baking makes for one hell of a cookie. Chefs Aki Kamozawa and H. Alexander Talbot didn't want to wait that long.
posted to MetaFilter by AceRock at 4:57 AM on July 16, 2008 (49 comments)

Living on the Edge Welcome to Ronda, a beautiful city in southern Spain which is split in two by el Tajo gorge. As a result, certain buildings have been perched on the edge of the gorge’s vertical walls, enormous cliffs bridged by the 200 year old Peunte Neuvo.
posted to MetaFilter by bwg at 5:21 PM on July 5, 2008 (12 comments)

Paintings... with ducks added.
posted to MetaFilter by Ms. Saint at 9:11 AM on July 1, 2008 (31 comments)

A blog dedicated entirely to things that look like ducks.
posted to MetaFilter by msaleem at 10:22 PM on May 14, 2008 (32 comments)

Here's a wonderful, brief clip of the great tenor saxophonist Ben Webster (wiki) and the great drummer Papa Jo Jones (wiki). Both men were marvels: here's a little illustration from 1957 of what made Jones so great, and here's Ben (accompanied by pianist Teddy Wilson[wiki]) late in life, milking the ballad "Old Folks" for so much feeling that one literally sees tears running down his face.
posted to MetaFilter by ornate insect at 9:58 PM on April 28, 2008 (15 comments)

The other day I happened to come upon a music video that is just so grooving, so human and so real, that, well, it moved me, darling. Just check it out. After watching the clip, I learned that these guys are mostly disabled by polio (that's why several of them are in those rather unusual wheelchairs) and that they were living on the grounds of the Kinshasa zoo, which is where the clip was filmed. Then I learned that last year they were seeking to bring a lawsuit against the UN. Then I found some other clips. And now I am a major fan of Staff Benda Bilili.
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 3:30 AM on April 26, 2008 (47 comments)

The 50 Best Cookie Recipes on the Internet -- for me, the best food on the planet is an oatmeal raisin cookie. My palate just goes ooohhh! Everything else just fills the hole. For many, it's the good ol' chocolate chip. There's bound to be some cookie gourmet's in the MeFi universe. So tell us, what is your favorite cookie?
posted to MetaFilter by netbros at 9:31 AM on April 19, 2008 (40 comments)

The Congo Cookbook is a collection of recipes from Africa. (Easiest to view them all here.)
posted to MetaFilter by Upton O'Good at 12:38 AM on April 13, 2008 (17 comments)

Total Annihilation, released over ten years ago by the now defunct Cavedog Entertainment, was one of the most popular RTS games of its day. And it is still being played today, partly due to the mod community who have been working on keeping it alive through the release of patches, units and maps, a list of which you'll find inside.
posted to MetaFilter by Effigy2000 at 8:55 PM on April 7, 2008 (30 comments)

Nightmare Playgrounds! A small gallery of terrifically upsetting playground sculptures (largely from former Soviet states). via Graham Linehan's blog Why, That's Delightful!
posted to MetaFilter by incomple at 10:19 PM on March 26, 2008 (35 comments)

Can whales get rabies? Are there any documented cases of whales catching rabies? This seems like a good premise for a bad horror movie.
posted to Ask Metafilter by respond at 2:17 AM on March 22, 2008 (8 comments)

If you had HBO in the 80's, you saw this every night at 8pm. HBO put together a brief behind-the-scenes featurette showing everything from the construction of the models to the composition of the music.
posted to MetaFilter by dr_dank at 12:05 PM on March 15, 2008 (63 comments)

Machinima (muh-shin-eh-mah or ma-shin-i-ma) is a hybrid filmmaking technique where people utilize game engines and environments to create videos. At first, it was little more than screengrabs and screencasts of in-game action, but it has now grown to include sophisticated storylines independent of game action. Shows and entire series have been made from The Sims, Halo, The Movies, Quake, Half-Life, Unreal Tournament and Second Life to name just a few. Actually, some Team Fortress 2 machinima was recently mentioned (October 9th). Over the years, there have been some really amazing productions, such as the now legendary 100-episode Red vs Blue series (also previously mentioned) which was created with Halo 2. A lot of machinima can be found and viewed for free on machinima.com. The Internet Archive also maintains a machinima section. The recently-released BloodSpell, a "punk fantasy" from Strange Company, is believed to be the first feature-length movie released using the Neverwinter Nights game engine. (watch online free, free divx download - 847 MB, free quicktime download - 903 MB). Two of the people behind BloodSpell, Hugh Hancock and Johnnie Ingram have co-written the just-published "Machinima for Dummies".
posted to MetaFilter by TrinityB5 at 5:26 PM on December 2, 2007 (32 comments)

Is there any chance of getting back first and last month's rent from a landlord who didn't reveal known problems with an apartment?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Felicity Rilke at 1:45 PM on August 4, 2007 (6 comments)

Hi all :) I've decided that its time I found a permanent place to rest my head at nights. Apartment living has been fun but acknowledging the fact that I'm knocking on 30's door... its time I bought a home. Now, not a home in a traditional sense. Rather, a condominium. Preferably one with an ocean view :)
posted to Ask Metafilter by seeminglyshy at 9:36 AM on April 2, 2007 (8 comments)

Discworld cake from cake decorator Jane Fisk. (She does some other neat stuff, too.)
posted to MetaFilter by LeeJay at 10:50 AM on October 1, 2006 (28 comments)