April 27, 2020
Graffiti Rock: a look back at the future of hip-hop from 1984
"Well party people in the place to be, you just tuned into the #1 crazy-fresh show we call Graffiti Rock." A snapshot of 1984, something like Soul Train for hip-hop, except only the pilot was made. Featuring Run D.M.C., Kool Moe Dee, Shannon, and New York City Breakers. Despite being a one-off show, it had a lasting impact (New York Times), with the Beastie Boys sampling Michael Holman's presentation, and Arsonists & Non Phixion recreated the set for the video of "14 Years Of Rap," then parodied in Gnarls Barkley's video for "Run." Bonus: DVD extra features, with 42 minutes of vintage footage.
"It's very much like graffitiing except less likely to piss people off."
Oakland's Stealth Arborist
Last fall, two very different approaches to addressing climate change unfolded in the Bay Area. One Atmosphere commissioned a 60-by-30-foot mural of climate activist Greta Thunberg for San Francisco’s Union Square. Painted on the side of an eight-story building, the fiery teenager looks determined and unbowed, gazing down at pedestrians and traffic with eyes the size of windscreens. Per the sponsoring organization, a rendering of the Swedish teen as big as Washington’s face on Mount Rushmore is an effective way to honor and amplify a message of environmental stewardship for a warming planet. Meanwhile, across the bay, Tony Santoro’s Guide to Illegal Tree-Planting debuted. The 23-minute video—released the week before the mural’s reveal—is the work of a tattooed, foulmouthed Chicago transplant who for the past few years has been quietly greening up Oakland.[more inside]
When you immigrated to Toronto 40 years ago, but you still miss Greece
For over 30 years, 1016 Shaw Street, the "Parashos family's house" residential masterpiece has delighted and bewildered passers-by with its unapologetic design and annual sign wishing all Torontonians a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. (Via)
Have you always wanted to try bangs? Try bangs.
Cut your own hair. Dye it pink. In quarantine, there are no rules. [Vox] “Besides those who need to trim their hair for practical reasons, people have always impulsively cut or dyed their hair in moments of crisis, whether in an attempt to shed a former self or get over a breakup. It’s a common trope in film and TV, where dramatic haircuts act as stand-ins for emotional change (see: Hannah Horvath on Girls, Mulan in Mulan). As Joseph Longo writes in Mel Magazine, “It’s a rite of passage for queer people, specifically naive white gays like myself, to reach for the peroxide bottle when facing a minor inconvenience. It almost always makes things worse.” I’m not sure if anyone cut their hair during the black plague pandemic in 1347, but I bet some of them did. There’s a new pandemic now, one that requires us to stay home and distance ourselves from everyone except the mirror. Enter: the quarantine haircut (or the bleach, or the buzz).” [more inside]
"For some reason I never considered this possibility."
The Rematch
The hare's loss loss to a tortoise was an athletic humiliation on an unprecedented scale. But what came afterwards? And what if there was a rematch? A 23 page comic by John Guilyard.
Take Me To The World
As a tribute to Stephen Sondheim (who is still alive, take a breath folks), ALL THE STARS IN THE SKY got together (separately) to sing his songs. [more inside]
Dressing up in Isolation
""I quickly realised that with no work and no social life, I had gone from having no time to having plenty..." All excuses I gave myself for not pursuing my creative ideas prior were now void.
Tattoos were a growing and accepted phenomenon in Victorian England
"When [Thomas Whitton] arrived on the shores of Australia a year later, the brown haired, blue-eyed Londoner had acquired some interesting tattoos on his long voyage. On his right arm there was a tribute to a girl with the words "love to thy heart" and on his left, images of two men with a bottle and glass, a mermaid, an anchor and the initials "R.R."
Whitton (who was eventually freed at the age of 20) was just one of 58,002 Victorian convicts whose tattoo descriptions we found as we data-mined the judicial archives (criminaltattoos.github.io). At the time, some commentators believed that "persons of bad repute" used tattoos to mark themselves "like savages" as a sign they belonged to a criminal gang. But our database reveals that convict tattoos expressed a surprisingly wide range of positive and indeed fashionable sentiments. And convicts were by no means the only Victorians who acquired them." (CNN) [more inside]
‘Toute la littérature, c’est: ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta.’
"I am perhaps the king of failures because I'm certainly the king of something."
Arthur Cravan, born Fabian Avenarius Lloyd, was a Swiss born Dadaist poet-boxer.
He was neither a good poet nor a good boxer, but he was a legendary provocateur. [more inside]
Arthur Cravan, born Fabian Avenarius Lloyd, was a Swiss born Dadaist poet-boxer.
He was neither a good poet nor a good boxer, but he was a legendary provocateur. [more inside]
'Ello, I wish to register a complaint.
A Canadian man wished to complain about a parrot what he purchased not long ago from this boutique. [more inside]
Rock paper scissors is officially gambling
As bad as things are, at least you're not the guy who had to go all the way to the Quebec Court of Appeal to void a $517,000 bet on three games of rock paper scissors. [more inside]
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