December 8, 2018

Including "Ten Books to Help You Become a Librarian"

In "A Nella Larsen Reading List" (Lapham's Quarterly, Nov. 12, 2018), Jaime Fuller takes note of what the author of Passing and Quicksand herself seemed to enjoy reading: "The Harlem Renaissance novelist has faded in and out of focus ... although recent years have seen several biographies and an overdue obituary in the New York Times. Here is a list of books that flitted through her life." The third article in a series, its predecessors are "An Emily Dickinson Reading List" and "A Flannery O'Connor Reading List."
posted by Wobbuffet at 10:06 PM PST - 1 comments

Kittens to the left, kittens to the right, every friggin' night!

A lesbian metal song about kittens? Yes please. For something a bit more holiday-themed: Krampus Bitch. (From L.A.'s Sapphic Musk)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:26 PM PST - 9 comments

Photos of Isolated Tribes

In 2018, Jimmy Nelson published his second major project titled "Homage to Humanity." He visited 34 indigenous cultures in five continents, revisiting some from his previous journey. While his first book was a collection of pictures, this time the photographer decided to expand and added travel journals, maps, local facts, and personal interviews, shifting the focus of his story from the objects he captures to the journey itself. [more inside]
posted by MovableBookLady at 8:34 PM PST - 19 comments

Ready Player Two?

Back in 2009, the first Mario AI competition was held, using Markus Persson's Infinite Mario. Robin Baumgarten won, but the contest fizzled out after a couple of years. Then in 2015, youtuber SethBling (best known for his Minecraft and Mario hacks) coded a machine learning Lua program to play Super Mario games, cleverly named MarI/O. What was revolutionary is that this neural net was evolutionary. (Good explainer if you don't want to watch video.) But what was really meant as a demo took on an extra life of its own with Luigi/o, a livestream that's been running for months, improving the code, and finally completing every level of Super Mario Brothers. [more inside]
posted by rikschell at 7:47 PM PST - 3 comments

Disappearing Acts - An elegy on loss

Disappearing Acts A crushingly sad article about the mass extinction we are all participating in, with photos from Nick Brandt and others. [more inside]
posted by specialk420 at 3:19 PM PST - 18 comments

Liminal: Sigur Rós as a living, breathing eco-system

Welcome to Liminal. Liminal is an ‘endless’ Sigur Rós ambient playlist which is live today [May 8, 2018], brought to you by Jónsi, Alex Somers and Paul Corley. It will be built over linear time into a never-finished project. Albums will be released, volumes added to. Liminal, both live and locally, takes the listener to a place neither here nor there; a “liminal" space. Liminal + Liminal 2 + Liminal 3 = approximately 3 hours of ambient "chill-out" music from Iceland, both original compositions and remixes of works by this trio and others. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 2:11 PM PST - 13 comments

“It had never been done before on a system using the Z80 processor"

Joystick: The Untold Story of Ottawa's Coke-Fueled 1980s Video Game Industry. "Quest for Tires would become the first cartridge video game produced in Canada, and was a hit, winning 'Game Of The Year' from Video Game Update magazine who said 'B.C.’s Quest for Tires isn’t so much a computer game as it is an interactive cartoon'. Hailed as a game that is not another 'shoot the aliens and save the world scenario', and had 'first rate' animation." [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:01 PM PST - 25 comments

Black Grooves

Black Grooves is a monthly online music magazine highlighting the latest releases - often reissues of classic, underground, lost or simply underrated albums - by black musicians. It is edited by the staff at Indiana University's Archives of African American Music and Culture (AAAMC). [more inside]
posted by nightrecordings at 12:17 PM PST - 4 comments

The Hard Border And The Forever War

“And, in the intervening decade since that photo was taken, there hasn’t been a holiday season in which the United States was not at war. This is a fact so utterly banal that it barely warrants mention anymore. When that photo was taken, we’d been at war in Afghanistan for almost as long as the Soviet Union was.” Deployed for the holidays: Troops at the border missed Thanksgiving to carry out an ill-defined and unjustifiable mission. They weren’t alone. (Outline)
posted by The Whelk at 10:35 AM PST - 18 comments

Skibidi: PART DEUX, errm, два!

Little Big's "Skibidi" (previously) now has its own Everything Wrong With video as well as a Making Of the Music Video (Russian language). More ominously, a #skibidichallenge has been virally propagating the "Macarenova" ("Gangnamevich"?) over the Web. (Many YouTube links) [more inside]
posted by zaixfeep at 9:34 AM PST - 14 comments

“I’m gay, black, a furry—pretty much everything a Republican hates—”

SonicFox Steals The Show at The Game Awards [YouTube] Dominique “SonicFox” McLean took home the award for Best Esports Player tonight at The Game Awards in Los Angeles. The 20-year-old full-time student and fighting game ace gave a candid acceptance speech that was one of the night’s more heartfelt moments. Stepping on stage in his now-iconic fursuit, McLean gave an acceptance speech that was funny, honest, and worth watching. [via: Kotaku] [YouTube][The Game Awards Full Show] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 9:23 AM PST - 22 comments

Pikachu vs Eevee

If we're going to live in a world of ruthless competition, let it be like this.
posted by storybored at 8:54 AM PST - 16 comments

I wasn’t going anywhere except the airport.

I walked to the airport simply to see if it could be done. It was an expedition, like Magellan circumnavigating the earth or Lewis and Clark trekking to the Pacific Ocean, except we were heading to a place that had already been thoroughly discovered—by some 30 million passengers a year—and is only five miles, as the crow flies, from midtown Manhattan.
posted by gyusan at 8:12 AM PST - 60 comments

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