October 27, 2016

The Backstory Of A Modern Standard - Bonnie Raitt's

"I could feel her soul when she sang it. It was just one of those moments where the studio disappears, and the whole world disappears, and all that’s there is the emotion of that thing. As far as I’m concerned, that’s what great music and great art is. It just pulls you into the moment and the feeling and emotion of it. I felt like I could feel her heart." - “I Can’t Make You Love Me”: A 25th Anniversary Oral History
posted by beisny at 11:12 PM PST - 30 comments

The Weird Familiarity of 100-Year-Old Feminism Memes

Today’s political dialogue—which often merely consists of opposing sides shouting over one another—echoes another contentious era in American politics, when women fought for the right to vote. Then and now, a mix of political tension and new-fangled publishing technology produced an environment ripe for creating and distributing political imagery. The meme-ification of women’s roles in society—in civic life and at home—has been central to an advocacy tradition that far precedes slogans like, “Life’s a bitch, don’t elect one,” or “A woman’s place is in the White House.”

The Weird Familiarity of 100-Year-Old Feminism Memes, by Adrienne LaFrance.

PS There are early-1900s cat pics too
posted by librarina at 10:35 PM PST - 28 comments

Dating app fatigue sets in

“I think the whole selling point with dating apps is ‘Oh, it’s so easy to find someone,’ and now that I’ve tried it, I’ve realized that’s actually not the case at all"--The Rise of Dating App Fatigue
posted by MoonOrb at 8:19 PM PST - 72 comments

"I have no memory of what happened then"

Vlogger Casey Neistat talks about the difference between risk and recklessness and The Day I Almost Died
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:19 PM PST - 16 comments

Horsemen of the Lesotho high plains

Photographer Thom Pierce photographed horsemen and herders in Semonkong, Lesotho The gorgeous vistas of the mountain kingdom make for a spectacular backdrop. Pierce was originally in the area documenting the suffering of workers in Gold mines.
posted by smoke at 7:06 PM PST - 3 comments

In real life, all power exchange must be negotiated

[Most links NSFW] My Twin Brother Made Me Crossdress As Him And Now I Have To Deal With A Geeky Stalker And A Domme Beauty Who Want Me In A Bind!! or, Ladykiller in a Bind (trailer) is the funny, sexy, and very explicit new visual novel from Analogue: A Hate Story developer Christine Love (previously 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). It's about sex, BDSM, consent, social manipulation and girls kissing other girls on a boat. The full game (supporting PC/OS X/Linux) is not free, but a demo (PC/OS X and NSFW with a minor spoiler) is available here. [more inside]
posted by figurant at 6:10 PM PST - 15 comments

DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY.

50 years ago and a week and a half or so from now, Patrick Troughton took the now iconic British sci-fi show Dr. Who into the first regeneration story and it was a doozy. Aired once and lost in a fire (I think), The Power of the Daleks has been reconstructed as a animation based on still photos and a full audio recording. See it on Nov. 19th or at a theater near you.
posted by vrakatar at 6:10 PM PST - 13 comments

“So why not press the button on the off chance that this one will work?”

Pushing That Crosswalk Button May Make You Feel Better, but … [The New York Times] “It is a reflex born of years of habit: You see a button, press it and then something happens. The world is filled with them, such as doorbells, vending machines, calculators and telephones. But some buttons we regularly rely on to get results are mere artifices — placebos that promote an illusion of control but that in reality do not work. No matter how long or how hard you press, it will not change the outcome. Be prepared to be surprised — and disappointed — by some of these examples.”
posted by Fizz at 6:08 PM PST - 79 comments

Very prophetic but it is a watermelon

Stupidly fun: Watermelon Survives 45m Drop Test!! [more inside]
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:26 PM PST - 11 comments

Bundys Acquitted

Leaders of the Oregon refuge standoff have been acquitted.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:10 PM PST - 205 comments

Running While Female

"43 percent of women at least sometimes experience harassment on the run, according to a recent Runner's World survey, compared with just 4 percent of men. In the vast majority of cases, it’s not life-threatening. But it is pervasive, and it’s upsetting, and it’s most likely happening to you or someone you know."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:49 PM PST - 36 comments

Merry Christmas, Will Byers

A Stranger Things Christmas (SLYT).
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:17 PM PST - 5 comments

Monochromatic Nightmare

Mattis Dovier is a visual artist and director who makes black and white animations (think early 80s Mac GUI). Content Warning: flashing lights, horrific imagery, and NSFW themes throughout. [more inside]
posted by codacorolla at 2:27 PM PST - 9 comments

Major Tom, Terraformer

Could an astronaut’s corpse bring new life to another world?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:27 PM PST - 18 comments

The Road to Tama Re

An Enigmatic Ex-con, His Improvised Religion, and the Georgia Town That Watched It Fall (SL Oxford American/Warning: descriptions of abuse) [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:58 AM PST - 12 comments

Just because you saw a rat (okay, two rats) you want your money back?

RIP to the Worst Movie Theater in NYC
posted by Mchelly at 11:44 AM PST - 47 comments

My Beloved Little Weird Murder Husband Show

A sizable video essay on Hannibal, the embrace of The Other, and the fascination with death, courtesy of Shannon Strucci of So You Wanna Be A Film Nerd. [more inside]
posted by Peevish at 11:39 AM PST - 31 comments

The one on your missing back wheel's not pedalling!

Over 10 years ago, Klaus and Roland Bartl, from Munich rode 70 km (43 miles) along the Danube river from Passau, Germany to Linz, Austria. This was a Guinness World Record. This previous Sunday, they got round to posting the video of them riding their tandem unicycle. [more inside]
posted by ambrosen at 11:11 AM PST - 10 comments

He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

8000 Match Chain Reaction — what better and more-satisfying way to encapsulate 2016 than with a red flower of FIRE? Imagine your least-favorite person or organization consumed by the flames of their own wrath... h/t Atlas Obscura
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:35 AM PST - 12 comments

what will we reblog on tumblr now

Twitter is discontinuing Vine and shuttering its mobile app. They say users' content will remain accessible, but just in case, maybe start collecting some of the best vines now. [more inside]
posted by rewil at 10:03 AM PST - 234 comments

A little bit on the long tradition of historical interest in the ghostly

"Many historians, I fear, still think of ghosts as the province of a small number of specialist ‘historians of the ghostly’, such as Peter Marshall, Sasha Handley and Shane McCorristine. They are prepared to acknowledge that belief in ghosts, like other supernatural beliefs, can be illuminating of the culture of a particular time and place." Yet "Every half decent historian has had this experience: for a moment, the past seems more real than the present, and the absence of the dead an absurdity." Why Historians Need Ghosts, an article by Dr. Francis Young. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 9:54 AM PST - 9 comments

Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before

In theory, any of the major characters could have been the star of this episode. But it is not at all a coincidence that it is Beverly — a woman, a healer, a mother, and Picard’s occasional love interest — who lives out this story. Star Trek’s Feminist Statement: Believe Women
posted by redsparkler at 9:49 AM PST - 51 comments

"It suddenly looks like it's made for cooking"

In Food Hacking, a documentary series of shorts from Vice's Munchies, host Simon Klose explores the people and science mapping out new boundaries of Japanese cuisine, as well as their social and environmental implications. [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 8:54 AM PST - 3 comments

Teaching (and Collecting) with Calvin and Hobbes

In 1993, Bill Watterson did something he almost never did: he approved a piece of Calvin & Hobbes merchandise. No, not a T-shirt or a window sticker of his hero peeing on a Ford logo. The merch was Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes, a middle-grade reading textbook. It has become the Holy Grail of C&H collectors, with a Blogspot column that "archives information from all sources about the rare and collectible textbook". Copies are valued as high as $34,000. Eight are known to exist in libraries, half in North Dakota (where the book was published) and one in Singapore.
posted by Etrigan at 7:54 AM PST - 24 comments

The Weaponisation of the Working Class

The moment we get too uppity and start demanding anything other than commitments to the further brutalisation of foreign people at the hands of the state, they will turn on us just as quickly as they do on our non-native neighbours. We will be shifted from the frame where we are honest hard working salt of the earth noble peasants, to the frame where we are obese thick scroungers suitable only to be mocked on a Channel 5 docusoap.
McDuff on how the fetishisation of the very real concerns of the (white) working class in British politics doesn't extend outside of providing cover for racists.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:58 AM PST - 86 comments

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