July 7
Post Office Delivery Trucks Keep Catching on Fire
Hundreds of the iconic Post Office delivery trucks have caught on fire in recent years, thanks to a 30-year-old fleet and a manufactured budget crisis. [Vice] [more inside]
To be read during the day or the night (of the)
Ranking of every movie with ‘Night of the’ in the title [Polygon] “One night, I was thinking about how weird it was to wander the empty streets during the pandemic, which made me think about 1984 post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie Night of the Comet, which made me think of other movies that use “Night of the” in the title. Then some guy on Twitter said I should rank them. I said I would. This was a foolish choice. There are a lot of movies that use “Night of the” in the title, even if you cut out short films and TV movies. But, hey, I’m in lockdown. This brings us here: a ranking of every single movie that starts with “Night of the,” from worst to best. Horror classics rub shoulders with serious dramas and the occasional ’70s porno to create one long, bizarre night. The sun’s going down, so let’s get to it.”
The Truth About the Confederacy in the United States
Jeffery Robinson, the ACLU's top racial justice expert, discusses the dark history of Confederate symbols across the country and outlines what we can do to learn from our past and combat systemic racism.The Truth About the Confederacy in the United States
They even voted on whether to stop the bus for a bathroom break
After two decades of Brazilian military dictatorship, Brazilians were inspired by a football club which made a point of voting on absolutely everything. Socrates and Corinthian Democracy. It was the "greatest team I ever played in because it was more than sport." [more inside]
The Anarchist's Workbench
The Weaponization of Diversity
This is an unusually extra lengthy essay, because the issue is so complex, sensitive, and nuanced that it deserves an appropriate level of patience and attention. It includes my deeply honest, personal, and some would say risky perspective on the topic of diversity in high-performance careers, including tech entrepreneurship; and my concern, as a latino, that the decision by some to “weaponize” diversity is backfiring and causing harm to under-represented minority groups.
Local currencies' time to shine
Complementary currencies for municipal finance - "It is an act of criminal malfeasance that the United States' federal government has not eased the tremendous fiscal pressure on states and municipalities, enabling them to prioritize public health and long-term economic wealth over immediate maintenance of tax revenue. Misgovernance of the United States presently rises to the level of war crime (and that is not just Donald Trump). A recent article by Rohan Grey, aptly titled Monetary Resilience, highlights one way this national misgovernance might be circumvented. Municipalities could issue complementary currencies..." (via) [more inside]
July 6
“It’s an idiotic story: young people go to fight bugs”
How “Starship Troopers” Aligns with Our Moment of American Defeat (single link new yorker) Verhoeven told Empire, in 2014, that he couldn’t finish reading it. With the possible exception of Mary Harron’s “American Psycho,” it’s hard to think of a film adaptation that’s more invested in refuting and satirizing its source. The anti-Fascism of “Starship Troopers” is mordant and merciless, but Verhoeven advances his argument by making its every frame lavishly, overbearingly Fascist. [more inside]
Art heist minus art
A short comic about the unusual 2018 art theft involving 'A View of Hampstead Heath' by John Constable - notable because the thieves never even touched the painting (SL Bloomberg).
Jupitee and Mores.
MiuMiu Guitargirl is a 7 year old in Nanjing. Her parents have been posting her performances to YouTube during the last few months: multi-instrumental covers, song lessons, guitar playing tips and originals.
Some of her earliest posts were I Wish You Love, Fly Me to the Moon and Moon River. I looks like musicians around the globe have time on their hands right now and have decided - to - accompany - her - performances.
"so, i just want to emphasize that what i'm doing here is BAD"
Spend a pleasant ninety minutes watching beardy, distractible Irish sword-maker Michael Cthulhu build a massive slab of sword called The Wrektangle.
"Danny put his whole life aside to attempt to protect children.”
Last November, Daniel M. Lavery -- cofounder of the Toast and Metafilter favorite author -- abruptly and publicly broke with his entire family of origin. Lavery's father is the influential evangelical author John Ortberg, pastor at the prominent Menlo Church, and his sister Laura Turner is also a Christian writer. Lavery had written warmly about his family before. What could have happened?
Megachurch pastor John Ortberg kept a family member’s attraction to children secret. Then his son blew the whistle. [more inside]
Megachurch pastor John Ortberg kept a family member’s attraction to children secret. Then his son blew the whistle. [more inside]
Facts are Getting the Best of them.
Why Facts Don't Change Our Minds. "Sloman and Fernbach see in this result a little candle for a dark world. If we—or our friends or the pundits on CNN—spent less time pontificating and more trying to work through the implications of policy proposals, we’d realize how clueless we are and moderate our views. This, they write, “may be the only form of thinking that will shatter the illusion of explanatory depth and change people’s attitudes.” [more inside]
Art of Ant Farm: their enduring landmark, a mixed media event, and more
A year after creating "arguably the most famous landmark in the Texas panhandle," Cadillac Ranch (Trip Advisor; 1974/1994 short documentary; MoMA; Texas Monthly), Ant Farm (Wikipedia) set up a different sort of temporary event/mixed media piece called Media Burn (original video), whose centerpieces was when a modified Cadillac drove through a burning (smouldering?) wall of televisions (Mltshp; MOMA; MOCAtv short documentary). [more inside]
The Hungarian who went to Mexico via Spain
Childhood friends Kati Horna and Robert Capa became lovers and she went with him to Spain, becoming the woman who captured his Heart.
She documented mostly away from the front lines.
After marrying the Sculptur Jose Horna they fled to Mexico, where she formed a close and lasting friendship with the Surrealists Remedios Varo & Leonora Carrington and her husband Chiqui Weisz (see Mexican Suitcase). As well as photographing Frida Kahlo's studio and Portraits of Leonora Carrington and Varo she played with collage and masks.
A lost archive of her Civil War photos only appeared last year (2019). During her long life she produced a large and varied body of work. See pdf.
She documented mostly away from the front lines.
After marrying the Sculptur Jose Horna they fled to Mexico, where she formed a close and lasting friendship with the Surrealists Remedios Varo & Leonora Carrington and her husband Chiqui Weisz (see Mexican Suitcase). As well as photographing Frida Kahlo's studio and Portraits of Leonora Carrington and Varo she played with collage and masks.
A lost archive of her Civil War photos only appeared last year (2019). During her long life she produced a large and varied body of work. See pdf.
images that reveal themselves only to distort and disappear
When a decomposing, century-old film becomes a haunting meditation on memory (Aeon): Created using a decomposing 35mm print of the crime drama The Bells (1926), the experimental short Light Is Calling (2004) depicts a dreamy encounter between a soldier and a mysterious woman.
“...it’s a chaotic, desperate age and therefore has to produce art.”
Ben Wittes and Kate Klonick of LawFare interview Renaissance historian, science fiction writer and anime consultant Ada Palmer on their YouTube channel In Lieu of Fun. [more inside]
“Tell your friends that the Vikings are gay”
Vikings Are Gay is a podcast about Norse culture and history from a queer perspective by Old Norse scholar Amy Jeffords Franks. Besides an introductory episode, so far she’s touched on the subjects of bottom shaming and female magic, Odin’s gender, Thor having to act the role of the bride, and an episode in response to Black Lives Matter about the links between Viking studies and white supremacy.
“The best film music is music that you can hear.”
Italian composer Ennio Morricone, best known for his scores to over 500 films and television programs, has died in Rome at the age of 91. Winner of numerous awards, including two Oscars, six BAFTAS, four Grammys, and three Golden Globes, he gained international recognition in the 1960s for the music he wrote for a series of spaghetti westerns directed by Sergio Leone. Over the next five decades Morricone worked with some of the world’s most acclaimed directors and many others who were lesser known. In addition to his film and television work, he also composed music for advertisements, collaborated with singers, and recorded avant-garde improvisational music as a member of Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. [more inside]
Throw a Dog a Bone
In a world where dogs are people too, Huxley feels like he's the chewtoy of the universe. His latest indignity: being unable to afford his mother's funeral. He thinks he's found a way to win without his brother's help in this animated short film, Condolences from the Vulgar Tongue or (Boner).
July 5
RIP Nick Cordero
He was a Broadway actor who went through extreme complications of coronavirus before finally dying today. "Since being diagnosed with what was thought to be pneumonia in late March, the Canadian actor spent weeks in intensive care at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, had his right leg amputated, lost more than 60 pounds and was hoping to receive a double-lung transplant." [more inside]
Little Ditty 'Bout Al and Lin-Manuel ...
Here comes the general ... the pride of Lynwood ... ladies and gentlemen ... "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC ... and his friendship with Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. [more inside]
We want a smaller head, which means it must be pickled for several hours
“안녕~! (Annyeong!) Dollightful is a channel where old toys are transformed by the power of art into unique, one-of-a-kind characters. Whether you're here for a tutorial, or just to laugh and have fun with the ups and downs of a creative process, there's something here for everyone. "Come for the dolls, stay for the cats" as they say.” [more inside]
Democracy Wins In The Cereal Aisle
In these uncertain times, it is reassuring to hear that a proven case of voter fraud has been corrected. I am referring, of course, to Kellogg's releasing Green Onion Flavor Chex in South Korea. [more inside]
Unfortunately, there's no scratch n' sniff
"Owen Simmons' 1903 'The Book of Bread', is famous in the book world as, arguably, the first photobook" (threadreader version) Thus begins @incunabula's brief paean to this remarkable, but rare object. Luckily, a scan of the book is available at the Wellcome Collection website.
Thucydides in Times of Trouble
What the historian’s account of an ancient plague taught me when my father died 8,000 miles away "In the slow, turbid dive of the pandemic, Thucydides’ account of the Athenian plague has been my distance line through the compound shocks of public catastrophe and private bereavement. And in the still greater depths of the urgent, unfinished history of racism that kills with both sly neglect and dehumanizing violence, I recall Thucydides’ interpretation of another epidemic as a metaphor for the health of the body politic. "
Steam is just ghost water /macintosh plus plays
MACINTOSH PLUS - リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー |. MACINTOSH PLUS - リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー (Drum Cover). MACINTOSH PLUS - リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー (Guitar cover). Macintosh Plus - リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー(kazoo/guitar cover). MACINTOSH PLUS - リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー (8bit C64 cover). MACINTOSH PLUS - リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー (Otamatone cover). MACINTOSH PLUS - リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー (bottle cover\DeJoy). MACINTOSH PLUS - リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー (marimba cover). MACINTOSH PLUS - リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー (but it's a sad keyboard cover). MACINTOSH PLUS リサフランク420 / It's All In Your Car. MACINTOSH PLUS - リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー (on a worn out reel-to-reel tape). MACINTOSH PLUS - リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー | ( KALIMBA COVER ). MACINTOSH PLUS - リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー | (out of tune records cover). MACINTOSH PLUS On A Real Macintosh Plus. [wiki]
The death of the bra: will the lingerie liberation of lockdown last?
Lockdown has changed a lot of things about the way we present ourselves to the world, and for many women, ditching their bra has been a particularly popular one. (Emine Saner, Guardian) “I just don’t see bras making a comeback after this,” tweeted the Buzzfeed writer Tomi Obaro in May. Her tweet has been “liked” more than half a million times. The feminist satire website Reductress ran a headline last week reading: “Bra furlough extended.”
How AIDS was spread through the blood supply
A number of companies were selling HIV-contaminated blood factor for treatment of hemophilia, first from ignorance and then from irresponsibility. I first ran across this about Bayer's complicity, and was pointed at The Origins of AIDS. The first review (by John P. Jones) pointed me at Haemo-Caribbean, a Haitian company which was part of the problem. [more inside]
The Hurdy-Gurdy Carnival is Present to Conduct You Into the Big Tent
Thomas Pynchon Predicted the Pandemic in ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’—Now Aren't You Sorry You Didn't Read It? by Tom LeClair
TV Themes Go Pop
Darrell Maclaine is an impressionist who has been making videos in lockdown singing UK TV themes in the style of famous artistes. [more inside]
July 4
"Nobody ever wants to talk about the 6,000 great things that you did..."
How masks reduce the spread of COVID-19
How well do masks work? (YouTube: It's Okay To Be Smart). Quite well, of course, if worn properly, and Schlieren photography (Wikipedia) gives a great visualization of just how well they do.
What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
Descendents of Frederick Douglass read his 4th of July speech. In this speech, to an abolitionist group, Douglass questions the celebration of freedom, for in 1852, was not granted to him. [more inside]
I Thought I Understood White Privilege. Then I Married a Black Man.
My relationship with Jordan has taught me more about race than any protest or rally ever could.
Genevieve Roth on unknown privilege.
Genevieve Roth on unknown privilege.
Escalating Plunder
"He's like an elder statesman of comedy at this point"
Jay and Josh from Red Letter Media talk about UHF, the only feature film vehicle for Weird Al Yankovic.
Pet Shop Boys Remastered
Pet Shop Boys recently released remastered HD versions of 5 of their classic videos: Domino Dancing, West End Girls, What Have I Done To Deserve This?, It's A Sin, Go West. YouTube Playlist
Musicians and Composers Respond to a Chaotic Moment
The pandemic and the protests inspire works of lamentation and rage. African-Americans are severely underrepresented in classical music, although you wouldn’t necessarily know it from the frequency with which people of color are now featured in promotional brochures. Online discussions in the wake of nationwide Black Lives Matter protests have made clear how uncomfortable the role of a black classical musician can be. [more inside]
All About Bison
Seriously, all about bison. Exactly what it says on the tin. Bison!
Welcome to the gun show.
The Last of Us Part 2 proves gaming doesn’t know how to deal with muscular women by Patricia Hernandez [Polygon] “Abby, a new character introduced in The Last of Us Part 2, does not fit the mold. Her face is anchored by a square jaw, which gives her visage a wider look — at least, compared to the heart-shaped face that defines most women in games. Perhaps most notably, Abby is buff. Your eyes are drawn to her chest and muscular arms, which, according to The Last of Us Part 2, she worked very hard across multiple years to beef up. [...] It’s been baffling to see some of the popular dissenting opinion on the game, which often directed against Abby. Part of the dislike seems unavoidable: The Last of Us Part 2 asks you to play as a character who is fundamentally opposed to the heroes we’ve spent hours learning to love and protect. Abby is a hard sell, and that would be true no matter what she looked like. But much of the hate visible on social media isn’t just about the story and Abby’s likability compared to Ellie and Joel, it’s fixated on Abby’s jacked-up body. [And the voice actor who played her]” [more inside]
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July 3
Dark days for democracy in Hong Kong
Massive protests last year in Hong Kong (previously, previously, previously, previously) succeeded in getting an extradition bill scrapped. But now the Beijing government has passed a sweeping security law for Hong Kong which has led to immediate arrests, the purging of social media accounts and disbanding of protest groups, support from businesses including British banking giant HSBC, and fears that the new law covers everyone on earth. If you've been critical of Chinese or Hong Kong authorities, some legal experts are saying, don't board a Cathay Pacific flight or travel to countries which have an extradition treaty with Hong Kong. [more inside]
It's not an error until you build it
The international foot is exactly 0.3048 of a meter, whereas the U.S. survey foot, 1200/3937 of a meter, has an unending decimal. This means that anyone working in multiple U.S. locations or with different agencies must keep careful track of which foot is in use.
Bichopalo's noises and frankenstein creations
Musician/ sculptor Bichopalo builds complex music machines from unusual objects. The machines feature plants where possible as well as other natural elements like sticks and water. They also include small spherical elements that double as bird houses to host Bichopalo’s two pet birds, Pico and Verdi. (Designboom) (Instagram) (short videos re-posted to Imgur)
Absolutely shredding the balalaika ...
Selo i Ludy (Село і люди) - It's My Life, Thunderstruck, Enter Sandman, Money for Nothing, Smoke on the Water, I Want to Break Free, Satisfaction, Yellow Submarine, Pretty Woman, I Will Always Love You, Light My Fire, Losing My Religion, Take on Me. (YouTube launch points: Selo i Ludy, Russkaja, Gogol Bordello)
Besides the bees
Happy (Belated) Pollinator Week! US Forest Service's Pollinator of the Month includes Bats, Bees, Beetles, Birds, Butterflies, Flies, Moths, Mosquitos, and Wasps. What what? Yes, snow pool mosquitos, flower flies, and pollen wasps are all important pollinators (Pollen wasps look like yellow jackets but "are more like Ferdinand the Bull, who was more interested in smelling flowers.") And don't forget the cacao pollinator, the chocolate midge. [more inside]
Toccata Spaccata
Optical Arts conceived this video as a “live action musical animation” of cups, plates, and glasses smashing and un-smashing accompanied by the toccata section of Johann Sebastian Bach’s famous organ piece, Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. I thought it was fully CGI at first (as The Morning News reported), but then I found the making of video on the project page and it’s not — they filmed all the glasses and dished smashing at extremely high speeds between 1000 and 5000 frames/second on Phantom cameras.
The Existential Threat is Drawing Near
MetaFilter favorite Cyriak (previously) is back, and teaming up with legendary band Sparks for their newest music video: "The Existential Threat".
WHOOOSH!
How is Duran Duran's Simon LeBon staying busy during the pandemic lockdown? In late April he started up a podcast WHOOOSH!. It's available to listen to online. So far there are 11 episodes, and they are full of interesting music and discussion. No RSS feed, but here's a YouTube playlist (audio only) of the episodes thus far, I assume it will continue to be updated.
Contracirculation
On rewriting the terms of engagement with images of Black suffering. Images of Black suffering, death, and protest have widely circulated on the internet before: for example in 2012 after 17-year-old Trayvon Martin’s murder by George Zimmerman, or in 2014 after Michael Brown was shot in the back by Ferguson police officers. One difference this time is that it’s not just that people who already saw themselves as activists who have called their online followers to take to the streets and participate, but formerly nonactivist users have become politicized and seized upon the feed as a politicized space to engage in an activism of their own.