I'm so sorry, Metafilter, really I am. I don't know what's come over me, but I am posting one of the dopiest, most embarrassing celebrity novelty tunes ever recorded. It's by the fellow who played Batman in the 60s TV series, Adam West, in a breathtakingly stupid recording of an utterly ridiculous song called
Miranda. I pray that you'll forgive me for my indiscretion, and I promise I will post some inspiring and worthwhile music next time around.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Aug 30, 2011 -
41 comments
India, as she is today,
was carved out of
British India, in 1947 when the left and right hand sides of the country became the new nation of Pakistan (
East and
West) respectively. While the history of Islamic influence and
subsequent tolerance and intolerance goes back centuries to the first advent of the
Mughal invasion, it has been said that the
post Independence troubles of the modern nations of India and Pakistan
stem from this sundering. In
1971, war brought
forth Bangladesh from the former East Pakistan on India's eastern border.
The Partition, as this holocaust is known,
embedded in
current day Indian memory,
history, culture,
movies,
books,
TV serials and music, was an
unimaginable horror of
slaughter and bloodshed. This separation was
not in the plans of the Mahatma, and it is said he was assassinated by Hindu
fundamentalists for letting it happen.
What future awaits the Hindus and Muslims who have lived
side by side for hundreds of years?
posted by infini
on Nov 26, 2008 -
37 comments
New evidence in the case of the
West Memphis 3 claims that "there was no DNA from the three defendants found at the scene, the mutilation was actually the work of animals and at least one person other than the defendants may have been present at the crime scene."
[previous thread]
posted by billysumday
on Oct 30, 2007 -
40 comments
The Third View project is a fascinating presentation of "rephotographs" of over 100 historic landscape sites in the American West that presents original 19th-century survey photographs, photographed again in the 1970s, then once again in the '90s - from the original vantage points, under similar lighting conditions, at (roughly) the same time of day and year.
[Flash, and you'll probably need to allow pop-ups; a little more info inside...]
posted by taz
on Jun 15, 2007 -
13 comments
When Everybody Called Me Gah-bay-bi-nayss - an ethnographic biography of Paul Peter Buffalo, son of Ojibwa medicine woman and grandson of the great chief Pezeke. Buffalo died in 1977, but spent his last dozen years chronicling his heritage and the things the elders told him. Be sure to check out the entry on John Smith, a wonderful character more popularly known as
Wrinkle Meat.
posted by madamjujujive
on Nov 16, 2006 -
8 comments
Alex Ramsey's journal gives an account of his journey westward to join the 1849 Gold Rush, a laborious trek of no more than twenty-five miles a day which ended in illness and disappointment. "I am now convinced that I done very wrong in coming here with the hope of bettering my pecuniary condition alone and I now declare and humbly ask God to enable me to perform my promise that if I am again permitted to return to a land of peace and quietude, that I will strive to be content." From the
Wyoming State Archives' Document Photo Gallery.
posted by Miko
on Sep 14, 2006 -
16 comments
Out along old Route 66 in
Northern
Arizona is Canyon Diablo. Best known for its
large meteor crater, the
canyon and its surroundings contain another fantastic story. It begins in the mid 1870’s with a
Apache raid on the Navajo that ended in the
gruesome death
of some 50 Apaches trapped in what is now called
“The Apache Death
Cave”. The story picks up about 10 years later in 1880 when the
Atlantic and Pacific railroad ran out of money at the
canyon’s edge. Unable to progress any further a
make shift boom
town grew up over night. Said to be more dangerous than
Tombstone
and
Dodge City
combined, the first sheriff appointed at 3pm was dead by 8pm that same night.
The city of
Canyon Diablo
lasted 10 grizzly years, ending only when the US Army was dispatched to gain
control over the murder, theft and prostitution that ran rampant. The story
continues in 1920 at the inception of Route 66.
Harry E.
(Indian) Miller, opens up one of
the first and what would become one of the most elaborate
Route 66 trading posts/gas
station/curio shop/ tourist attractions. Named
Two Guns, it was
complete with
Hopi
made buildings, a gas station,
a well-lit “
Death Cave”
, a
“zoo” of filled with the local fauna. and lots of
colorful characters.
In a short time, the roadside stop began to take on what many by that time
calling the curse of Canyon Diablo.
Shady business deals, fires,
maimings, and murder abounded. After several attempts thru the 50’s and
60’s to rebuild ,all that is left is a
crumbling,
beautiful husk.
posted by BrodieShadeTree
on Feb 21, 2006 -
28 comments
Kanye West gets twitchy on Red Cross Benefit Oh goodness. The young prankster in me loves this kind of thing. The boring matured realist version of me finds this divisive bumper-stickerism toxic to our modern political dialogue. And worse still I see the following scenario unfold:
Kanye West: "George Bush doesn't care about black people".
Cut to: My mother-in-law in front of the tv, slowly putting her checkbook back into her purse.
posted by glenwood
on Sep 2, 2005 -
187 comments
HBO's Deadwood is quite possibly the best television show ever produced. Not only is it amazingly gripping stuff, it's also meticulously researched. (Pretty easy to do when the
entire city is a registered
historic landmark.)
Sure, we all know that
Wild Bill and
Calamity Jane were real people. As it turns out, though, almost
every main character in the show (and many minor ones) had a real life counterpart, as did many of the
events.
Deadwood notables
EB Farnum,
Reverend H W Smith,
Seth Bullock and his partner
Sol Star,
Colorado Charlie Utter,
Al Swerengen with his Gem Saloon, and the crosseyed gambler
Jack McCall all lived and breathed in one of America's most storied cities.
posted by absalom
on Dec 10, 2004 -
82 comments
Black, White & Brown. A great 9-part video feature on the NYT site (registration required) featuring a discussing between Cornel West and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. commemorating the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.
posted by adrober
on May 16, 2004 -
2 comments
Muslim states hate us because their culture is backwards and corrupt, according to a Wall Street Journal editorial. The writer, tired of America-bashing, explores the inferiority complex of the Arab world: "Like Third World Marxists of the 1960s, who put blame for their own self-inflicted misery upon corporations, colonialism and racism--anything other than the absence of real markets and a free society--the Islamic intelligentsia recognizes the Muslim world's inferiority vis-à-vis the West, but it then seeks to fault others for its own self-created fiasco. Government spokesmen in the Middle East should ignore the nonsense of the cultural relativists and discredited Marxists and have the courage to say that they are poor because their populations are nearly half illiterate, that their governments are not free, that their economies are not open, and that their fundamentalists impede scientific inquiry, unpopular expression and cultural exchange."
via kuro5hin
posted by swift
on Feb 26, 2002 -
36 comments
Looking the World in the Eye Huntington, a Harvard prof., lays out his vision for the future of the clash of civilizations in an article in The Atlantic Monthly. The main points are-
• The fact that the world is modernizing does not mean that it is Westernizing. The impact of urbanization and mass communications, coupled with poverty and ethnic divisions, will not lead to peoples' everywhere thinking as we do.
• Asia, despite its ups and downs, is expanding militarily and economically. Islam is exploding demographically. The West may be declining in relative influence.
• Culture-consciousness is getting stronger, not weaker, and states or peoples may band together because of cul tural similarities rather than because of ideological ones, as in the past.
• The Western belief that parliamentary democracy and free markets are suitable for everyone will bring the West into conflict with civilizations—notably, Islam and the Chinese— that think differently.
• In a multi-polar world based loosely on civilizations rather than on ideologies, Americans must reaffirm their Western identity.
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy
on Nov 28, 2001 -
8 comments
Here's an interesting take on the whole western ideals v eastern ideals idea. The collapse of the Soviet Union as harbinger of the collapse of the west? Well, maybe not from the perspective of your average neo-libertarian. From the perspective of someone who didn't buy into the Enlightenment, from where springs both liberal democracy and marxism, then it may just look like one process. Interesting article from the
'Other Side of the Hill'.
posted by vbfg
on Sep 17, 2001 -
4 comments
West steps up threats against Yugoslavia -- "The Democratic Opposition of Serbia has signed up to the platform of the G17, a think-tank of market economists again funded by National Endowment for Democracy [an adjunct to the CIA]. This economic blueprint calls for the adoption of the German mark as the main currency for all of FRY, following in the footsteps of the Montenegrin republic last year. Other proposals include reduction of public spending, ending subsidies on food and other forms of social protection. The continuation of US and European economic sanctions on the FRY is being cynically exploited to bludgeon the population into accepting these terms as the condition for ending their economic isolation...." [more...]
posted by johnb
on Sep 25, 2000 -
11 comments
This story is *actually* about Lexis, who got their case file in the first place by stealing it from West, suing Jurisline, who in turn bought their CD's and mounted them on a free website, and winning.
Lawyers, in particular, may find this one interesting...
posted by baylink
on Jun 21, 2000 -
0 comments
