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WCityMike (2)

"There has never, ever been a period in the history of mankind where you have as much conformity as you have now, and yet every person is under the delusion that they are an individual. I'm not. I'm trying to fit in. " So says Michael O'Brien, victorian bookbinder, sage of Oamaru, snappy jacobian dresser and all around good guy. Working in the historic district in the pacific's last remaining Victorian harbour he has inspired a whole traditional craft community around him.
posted by fordiebianco on Oct 26, 2011 - 15 comments

Immediately following the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, a previously-closeted gay soldier stationed in Germany calls his father to come out of the closet. (SLYT)
posted by mightygodking on Sep 19, 2011 - 67 comments

Is Chillwave the Next Big Music Trend? - Wiki: Chillwave is a debated genre of music where artists are often characterized by their heavy use of effects processing, synthesizers, looping, sampling, and heavily filtered vocals with simple melodic lines. Its musical predecessors are diverse and include the synthpop of the 1980s, shoegaze, ambient, musique concrète and various types of music outside of the Western World. In this case, nostalgia of 80s synthpop is filtered through a distorted lens, re-envisioning the era in a more vague and lo-fi sense. Just don't call them that. You can always check in at the Hipster Runoff (the birthplace of the term) for news about the vaguely new subgenre. [more inside]
posted by Christ, what an asshole on Dec 9, 2010 - 103 comments

Earlier this summer, a little-known '80s singer named R.P. Astley, responsible for a few blips on the radar such as "Eternally Conjoined" and "Under No Circumstances Will I Ever Release You" (the latter of which created a brief meme in which one would "PaulTumble" one's friends by pretending to point them to the video, but instead sending them to something quite interesting and novel instead) has released *fist clench, drawing-in gesture aimed at camera* a new track, "Lights Out," his first new song in 17 years *hand gesture at camera*. [more inside]
posted by WCityMike on Sep 9, 2010 - 89 comments

"Knock Out Eileen," a rather cool mash-up by Thriftshop XL of "Come On Eileen" (Dexy's Midnight Runners) and "Mama Said Knock You Out" (LL Cool J). (slyt)
posted by WCityMike on Jul 17, 2010 - 47 comments

Destination: Out, an astounding mp3 blog devoted to mostly out-of-print free jazz and improv records, has been linked a few times on Ask, but never gotten the main-page exposure it deserves. Until now. The editors' selections are always interesting and written about well, and they're ready to go to the mat for the music. (The interview with Marsalis by the Bad Plus to which that's a response is also well worth reading.) But the real impetus for this post is only tangentially related to jazz: recently they got saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa to do a guest post on Indian (mostly Carnatic) music, and it won't be long before the links expire. Fall to! [more inside]
posted by kenko on Mar 9, 2009 - 18 comments

William Rodriguez gave a captivating presentation in Seattle on 11/07/07. William is believed to be the "Last Man Out" of the north tower of the World Trade Center alive, but not before reentering three times with the master key after the first plane impacted the north tower to help rescue a countless number of people. Here is an interview with William after the presentation. His Ricky Ricardo impersonation at the end is pretty good.
posted by augustweed on Nov 13, 2007 - 31 comments

This strange mixture of meanings and symbols confuses me. maybe it's just that some of the ideas are confusingly named.
posted by StrikeTheViol on Aug 4, 2007 - 34 comments

Movies the staff of the Chicago Tribune have walked out on.
posted by damn dirty ape on Jul 5, 2007 - 229 comments

Northerners aren't overly represented on t'internet. Our kid reckoned the late Bernard Manning would make a comeback using MySpace, but that didn't 'appen. But hold onto t'whippet because The Lancashire Hotpots are filling the entertainment vacuum (I recommend Chippy Tea from the playlist). 30% Peter Kay, 30% George Formby, 39% Mike Harding (circa his Rochdale Cowboy phase), and 1% the UOGB, they're postmodern northerners for the 21st century (comparisons to Chas & Dave are inevitable and will be ignored).
posted by humblepigeon on Jun 23, 2007 - 34 comments

As Wolfdaddy put it last time we did this: "Yeah, like we didn't know that already." - So as the Glass Closet gets a tad smaller, might we be rapidly approaching that long hoped-for "tipping point" where those inside the glass no longer feel the need to play word games and dance around who they are, instead of standing up to be counted?
posted by John Kenneth Fisher on May 31, 2007 - 63 comments

Meet the only out player in Major League Professional Sports: Sheryl Swoopes, of the WNBA. Will Swoopes's revelation help chip away at the homophobia that is rampant in some locker rooms and fuels much of the negative recruiting that goes on in women's sports? She has her own Nike shoe--the only woman to ever get one, and now, another first for this rarest of athletes – someone who comes out publicly during their career.
posted by amberglow on Oct 27, 2005 - 181 comments

Operation Bug Out. As predicted in a leaked document from Britain's Defense Ministry earlier this month, the US is planning to start withdrawing troops from Iraq as early as Spring 2006, despite President Bush's statement that there's not going to be any timetables because "if you give a timetable, you're -- you're conceding too much to the enemy." (Sometimes he thinks it's important for the president to lay out a timetable, sometimes he doesn't.) Is the withdrawal happening because we're running out of troops or because of midterm elections? Or has another mission been accomplished?
posted by kirkaracha on Jul 27, 2005 - 48 comments

Mutual Funds - Out, Google's IPO - In. Letting Your Boyfriend Videotape It - Out, Letting A Major Network Videotape It - In. Segway - Out, Honda Ruckus - In. A sampling from the Washington Post's List for 2004...
posted by bluedaniel on Jan 2, 2004 - 21 comments