October 12, 2017
"I think that such ‘ambivalent’ emotions can be embodied"
Yoshitoshi Kanemaki’s sculptures include large intricate skeletal memento mori which achieve just what their titles describe—figures gripped by the bones beneath the skin. He also carves strange figures with multiple heads [making-of] which depict human indecision, ambiguity, the swinging change of mood daily wrought by life like an unmoored boat upon torturous seas. And then we have the split personalities or “glitches,” the two-head figures that capture “the hesitations or inconsistencies” that we can never answer.[more inside]
The angry sea will kill us all
"The respondents were asked to rate various statements that echoed their thoughts about climate change. A common reply was 'the angry sea will kill us all,' the line from the popular song which tapped into the national sense of futility.
Many of the i-Kiribati have accepted migration may be necessary. Where do they go, when the sea rises?" [more inside]
For decades, that open-endedness has brought players back to the table
At FiveThirtyEight, Gus Wezerek asks, "Is Your D&D Character Rare?": "We got a peek at what kind of characters everyone is building, and a lot of players are sticking close to reality." Going beyond basic descriptors, Neal Litherland at Improved Initiative explores uncommon ways to think about Pathfinder characters in a regular feature: "Unusual Character Concepts," e.g. "The Farmer Ranger," "The Heretic," and "The Pill-Popping Paladin." And in an interview about the podcast Tell Me About Your Character, Steve Keller praises "that off-the-cuff, excited meander" exemplified in his first interview about someone's favorite character.
Prototyping Tools Roundup
Decent roundup of tools to help designers create interactive prototypes and wireframes. The prototyping and interactive design space has been changing rapidly. Sitepoint has provided thumbnail sketches of 15 of the top ones, as well as videos showing them in action.
"He has the posture of a warrior. Brash. Worldly. Fearless."
On This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Mark Critch presents an erotic reading of longtime Globe & Mail columnist Margaret Wente's column on the New Democrat Party's new leader, Jagmeet Singh, with the help of an actor resembling Jagmeet Singh, moody lighting, strawberries and wine, and at least a litre of maple syrup.
Bowling Architecture & Culture, Old & New
These extravagant alleys in Germany might be found in a Wes Anderson movie. Though the bowling culture has declined precipitously in Germany, several of these alleys are still pristine. Here in the US, there's a mostly forgotten set of alleys in the basement of churches, many also forgotten church alleys. [more inside]
This is how many women practice self-preservation: we vanish.
"On the way out, I demanded he never touch or speak to me again or I would address his behavior publicly. Then, the demoralizing introspections: Should I voice this now—potentially putting a wedge in their marriage and positioning myself for backlash and ostracism? Should I do as I said and await a future transgression—again, knowing ostracism would be almost certain? How important to me is my inclusion in this community? This group helped me climb free of my divorce-induced depression, gifted me a network of peers, offered encouragement, but now this—and it would most certainly land in the murk of he-said/she-said. More specifically, he stays or I stay. And why? Why is this litany of concerns mine to bear—not his? All I did was eat a goddamn salad. " A Dossier of Red Flags: Literary Encounters with (White, Straight, Cis) Men by Jeanann Verlee
"like carpet"
John Carpenter - Christine music video for a track off the soon to be released Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998 album. Interview. Another interview. [more inside]
"And the food was always phenomenal"
The Untold Story Of America's Southern Chinese "There's a rather unknown community of Chinese-Americans who've lived in the Mississippi Delta for more than a hundred years. They played an important role in the segregated South in the middle of the 20th century. Join us as we get a taste of Southern Chinese food and learn about the unique history of the Delta Chinese." [more inside]
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet
The Frizzle Fry/Seas of Cheese/Pork Soda era lineup of Primus - Larry Lalonde, Les Claypool, and Tim 'Herb' Alexander - return with The Desaturating Seven. A concept album based on Ul De Rico’s colorfully illustrated children’s book The Rainbow Goblins and accompanied by a porcine narration of that book, "...in addition to being unsettling, it’s a vibrant, knotted work of screwball fun." (AV Club)
“Swashbuckling adventure crossed with literary criticism...”
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter is the Monster Mashup We Need [The Verge] “Goss introduces us to Mary Jekyll, whose well-regarded scientist father died when she was a child. While cleaning up her recently deceased mother’s affairs, she learns of an account in her name supporting someone named Hyde. With the death of her mother, her first priority is to get her household back in order, and to figure out how to pay off old debts. She enlists the services of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to investigate, believing the person to be a notorious and brutal associate of her father’s, Edward Hyde, who is wanted for murder. Mary hopes the money from a long-offered reward would help set her house in order. Instead of the wanted criminal, she discovers that the money is supporting a feisty young woman named Diana Hyde, left in the care of a charitable organization.” [more inside]
“When will you bring back socialism?”
“In some cases – as with Greece’s Syriza, Spain’s Podemos and France’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon – the leftist explosion took place outside the political mainstream. In Britain, it happened within the venerable Labour Party. Young recruits were joined by older returners who had left the party during the Blair years. The membership swelled from 200,000 in May 2015 to 299,755, with a further 189,703 affiliated supporters and 121,295 registered supporters (at more than 600,000, Labour’s membership is now among the highest in western Europe).“ - How the Labour left triumphed: the inside story, George Eaton (New Statesmen)
land, money, labor, and stains
Culture is a very complicated and hard thing to understand and get right
A father and a daughter driving after baseball practice. A momentary glimpse of a peacock. An ignored phone call from Mom. The Queen song “Don’t Stop Me Now.” All of these are part of Toyota’s marketing campaign for its new Camry. But which commercial you get to see may depend, in part, on what ethnicity you are.Different Ads, Different Ethnicities, Same Car
V (not) for Veracity
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