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Welcome to Lesbianville, U.S.A.: a breathless 1992 report from Northampton, Mass., the Gen X Sapphic paradise that “10,000 cuddling, kissing lesbians call home sweet home” where “one bookshop sells ‘Just Say No To Men’ buttons” and “even the graffiti is gay.” (From the archives of a highly regarded publication called The National Enquirer) [more inside]
posted by roger ackroyd at 11:31 PM PST - 38 comments

True Facts About The Wild Oppih
posted by Going To Maine at 10:10 PM PST - 16 comments

Impressionist, comedian, and actor Jim Meskimen is creating videos of himself with the help of deepfake reciting his own poems in the styles of various celebrities. The technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated as worries about them and the neural networks used to create them keep growing. [more inside]
posted by blue shadows at 7:20 PM PST - 10 comments

John Prine has died, age 73, of coronavirus complications.
posted by theoddball at 6:49 PM PST - 195 comments

"Abney locates much of her work on the recognition that abuse and violence are an integral part of the everyday consciousness of people of color. " (Hyperallergic, 2017) "…the artist employs stenciled shapes and symbols (dollar signs, X’s, teardrops, birds, and cats), while channeling safety posters, cartoons, graffiti, Stuart Davis’s jammed together planes of color, Sister Corita’s serigraphs, Emory Douglas’s artwork for the newspaper "Black Panther", and Henri Matisse’s cutouts, to address the prevailing state of incivility, rumor, misperception, and self-righteousness that has descended over America like a radioactive mist, infecting us all.” [more inside]
posted by AndNeverWell at 6:39 PM PST - 4 comments

Cats making "ek-ek" sounds compilation. SLYT. That is all.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 5:19 PM PST - 45 comments

You might know of Hal Willner from his work on Saturday Night Live, or from his production credits on albums by Marianne Faithfull, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, or the Neville Brothers. If you lived in New York City, you might have see one of his blockbuster concerts inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, the Marquis de Sade, or William S. Burroughs; if you live outside the city, you might have experienced these vicariously through his compilation albums (or PBS specials. After getting “a number one”, Willner died of COVID 19.
posted by pxe2000 at 3:57 PM PST - 24 comments

It’s Time to Play a Big, Dumb Video Game [New York Magazine] “Roughly 6,000 articles I’ve read over the past two weeks have informed me that now has never been a better time to “get into video games.” If you’re unfamiliar, video games are a form of interactive entertainment; they’re kind of like playable movies, in a way. There are many games you can try during these stressful times. You could play Animal Crossing, in which you perform chores for a delinquent landlord, and which seemingly every review describes as “the game we need right now.” You could play multiplayer games and voice-chat with your friends, or jury-rig a livestream setup that lets you run party games like Jackbox. If you want to spend $300 on used equipment, you can play the novel exercise game Ring Fit Adventure and get buff. You can play a rich, textured role-playing game with a deep and complex narrative. Or you could play a big, dumb game — which is what I recommend.”
posted by Fizz at 1:41 PM PST - 134 comments

While we’ve had to hit the snooze button on conventions and game groups, that doesn’t mean you can’t play with friends and folks from around the world. Do it virtually! Here’s a few sites to help keep you entertained with game-y goodness AND hanging out with other gamers from the comfort of your own couch!
posted by Etrigan at 12:48 PM PST - 28 comments

“ Writing about South Park, a silly cartoon, in the middle of an eminently predictable and yet entirely unanticipated global pandemic has an uncanny quality, like meeting a time traveler and realizing that he is you. If I could travel back in time now and meet myself circa, say, 2005, just a few years out of college and struggling to figure out how to become a writer, and tell that younger me that in 15 years, nearing 40 years old, I’d be locked in the house during a plague year writing a review of the political valences of South Park, which would still be on the air, I’d have probably gone to business school sooner than I did. Oh well.” Watching South Park At The End Of The World - Jacob Bacharach (The New Republic)
posted by The Whelk at 10:08 AM PST - 65 comments

If you find yourself with more time to ponder your utensils, Eating Utensils.net may be the site for you. Not too detailed, but just enough to whet your informational appetite. There's the history of cutlery (fork, spoon, and knife), plus other eating utensils (chopsticks, skewers, toothpicks, and drinking straws). To round out the collection, there's also a timeline of eating utensils and more facts. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:07 AM PST - 9 comments

Harvard Law professor Adrian Vermeule recently wrote an article for The Atlantic magazine in which he argued that the American conservative constitutional doctrine of originalism had reached an end and the US Constitution should be re-understood to focus on on the "common good." Vermule: "As for the structure and distribution of authority within government, common-good constitutionalism will favor a powerful presidency ruling over a powerful bureaucracy, the latter acting through principles of administrative law’s inner morality with a view to promoting solidarity and subsidiarity. The bureaucracy will be seen not as an enemy, but as the strong hand of legitimate rule. "
Reaction was .... swift:
Ramesh Ponnuru: A Harvard professor's unsound attack on constitutional originalism. Randy E. Barnett: Common-Good Constitutionalism Reveals the Dangers of Any Non-originalist Approach to the Constitution Eric Levitz: No, Theocracy and Progressivism Aren’t Equally Authoritarian Matt Ford: The Emerging Right-Wing Vision of Constitutional Authoritarianism [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:02 AM PST - 16 comments

Why is This Passover More Anxiety-Ridden Than All Other Passovers?. Tomorrow night Passover begins, and boy is it different from all other nights. Here's Everything You Need to Celebrate Passover During Coronavirus. If you can't be with your family this year and want to go virtual, then here's Passover Under Quarantine - Everything you need to know about hosting a Virtual Seder. [more inside]
posted by Mchelly at 7:07 AM PST - 26 comments

Family lockdown boogie (YouTube). Fun music video from a Wellington family of four.
posted by freethefeet at 1:25 AM PST - 4 comments