The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories needs your vote. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year, The Bookseller is pleased to announce the "Diagram of Diagrams" – a public vote to find the oddest book title of the past 30 years.
Direct link to poll page is
here. There are only a few days left to do your part for world-wide (literary) democracy!
posted by yhbc
on Aug 29, 2008 -
40 comments
Elisha Gray could have been known to us as the inventor of the telephone. Instead, he goes down in history as the accidental creator of one of the first
electronic musical instruments, the "Musical Telegraph." There are many other examples of early electronic instruments, including: the
Teleharmonium, the
Audion Piano, the
Optophonic Piano, the
Trautonium, the
Ondes Martenot, the
Rhythmicon, the
Theremin Cello and the better-known Aetherphone (aka
Theremin) to name a few. MetaFilter discussed
odd music previously.
posted by terrapin
on Mar 25, 2008 -
7 comments
What happens in the shadow, in the grey regions, also interests us – all that is elusive and fugitive, all that can be said in those beautiful half tones, or in whispers, in deep shade.
Here are some short films by Stephen and Timothy, the
Brothers Quay. [more inside]
posted by Iridic
on Feb 3, 2008 -
13 comments
The Crooked House is a pub in the UK's West Midlands built on coal mining land. Severe subsidence over time caused a 15 degree shift from the left wall to the right. Faced with the choice of repairing the damage or abandoning the structure, the owners took a different tack - buttresses now hold the building in place, and it remains at a permanent slant. Higher
resolution photos here.
Via.
posted by jonson
on Sep 27, 2007 -
13 comments
The
tromba marina, also known as the
marine trumpet or
nun’s fiddle, is an obsolete,
4-7 foot tall, single-stringed instrument in the viol family. Played with a bow, the tromba marina sounds strangely trumpet-like
(for mp3's, scroll down to the bottom of the first link), hence the name .
Buy one here or
make your own. You can also see one up-close in the
Musical Instrument Gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
but they don’t bother putting an image on their webpage, and the gallery’s carpet smells intensely of mildew.
posted by unknowncommand
on Aug 4, 2006 -
5 comments
Odd/Niche Magazines. Yesterday evening, I was on my way home on the train, when I noticed a man reading a glossy four-color magazine called
Pizza Today. It floored me that there was actually a magazine dedicated to pizza, with a feature article on
dessert pizzas on the cover! So I went looking for other odd niche magazines and found (bi)monthly printed publications for
twins,
LEGO fans,
cowboys who are Christian,
ferret lovers,
collectors of clocks,
goat and
sheep herders,
cephalopods, and
beaders.
posted by lunarboy
on Dec 9, 2005 -
35 comments
Auger-Loizeau: Recognizing that for each placated consumer of technology there is an unsatisfied, complicated or strange one.
posted by signal
on Nov 16, 2005 -
5 comments
In
Education of Children from Birth to Puberty, Jesuit priest
Frank Nimrod shares his wisdom about the human body: "The cannibals can tell us that the fresh and warm brain, just taken out of the cranium is very sweet," and "Our nose does not only serve the purpose of respiration, but the purpose of smelling also." Meanwhile, retired Bell Telephone Laboratories engineer
I.W. Whiteside writes an entire volume decoding the strange light patterns on his bookcase. His conclusion? Aliens! "After much thought, I concluded that these people have computer brains and laser-beam eyes." These are just two of many
odd books.
posted by hyperizer
on Feb 26, 2005 -
10 comments
What's the Frequency, Moby? Techno superstar
Moby was assaulted by a pair of mysterious assailants last night after a concert in Boston. "He wrote on his Web site that he is not angry about the attack, just mystified about the motive. He has asked the attackers to post an explanation."
Moby's journal has been discussed
previously, but is worth a look if you've never visited.
posted by Joey Michaels
on Dec 13, 2002 -
47 comments
The strange range of human behavior continues to draw us like moths to a flame. Consider
Amanda Fielding who continually performed self-surgery on her braincase,
Catharina Geisslerin,
the woman who vomited frogs, and the
Collyer brothers,
who collected so much junk that it crushed them in their own home.
Samuel Johnson, compiler of the first dictionary of the English language, was compelled to whirl, twist, and make highly ritualized hand motions when going through doors. When he went for a walk, he touched every post he passed. If he missed one, he went back to touch it.
Recent research suggests that
obsessive-compulsive child behaviors can be caused by strep infection.
Who do you think are the most interesting, eccentric, and
compulsive personalities?
posted by Morphic
on Oct 23, 2002 -
31 comments
