December 2, 2012
Iman
...the story said that they were trying to get me here to become a model, that I was a goat herder… I mean, I’d seen goats, but really? And that I didn’t speak a word of English. I spoke five languages! Totally mythology. I had no clue about that… I arrived, and the next day, I had 64 members of the press. An interview with Iman. Part I and II. (Via The Beheld.) [more inside]
This isn’t even about comedy…. This is about the internet.
"It’s really simple. I just want as many guys as possible who have an opinion about how they see women treated in culture whether it’s an observation about the news or speaking up about how they feel when their wife comes home and tells him about an instance of gender discrimination." - Comedian Jen Kirkman on why she started MA'AM: Men Against Assholes & Misogyny.
Increasing the emotional energy of inanimate objects
Brain Pickings presents the Best Design Books of 2012. Because you weren't really going to get anything done today anyway, right? [more inside]
Latkes
Hanukkah draws nigh and that means latkes. [The oil in which the potato pancake is cooked symbolizes the miraculously long-burning fuel that lit the Second Temple.] Bubala Please shows you how to keep it real. [more inside]
Six trillion stories in the naked city
Got writer's block? Cartoonist's block? Songwriter's block? Stuck for stocking stuffer? Storymatic to the rescue. It's a box of 500 cards, each of which supplies a few words of inspiration, created by a Brian Mooney, a teacher of creative writing. Storymatic Project: there are only two rules.
It's OK, Dad, I can get my own dinner....
Never leave a Husky home alone....
The best actor in the best scene from the best movie of 2012.
The French actor Denis Lavant has done some incredible things. In his latest film, Holy Motors, he plays eleven different roles, including The Banker, The Beggar Woman, the Motion-Capture Specialist, Monsieur Merde, and The Dying Man. Here, Lavant (as The Accordionist) leads a band on a stroll through the Église Saint-Merri in Paris as they perform R.L. Burnside's "Let My Baby Ride" in the film's show-stopping entr'acte.
For heaven's sake
How do Lego Lawyers take notes without thumbs?
The Ships We Sail - an Anthology of Stories about Love in Transit
Landings at San Diego Int Airport Nov 23, 2012
Landings at San Diego Int Airport Nov 23, 2012 - 4.5 hours of plane landings in 30 seconds
Everything has an end, only the sausage has two. And what would a monkey know of the taste of ginger anyway?
Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei.
Bandar kya jaane adrak ka swad?
...and other foodie figures of speech. A few more to nibble on. Or jump to 27:25 of this week's World in Words to hear butchered renditions of the podcast crew's favorites (iTunes link)
Bandar kya jaane adrak ka swad?
...and other foodie figures of speech. A few more to nibble on. Or jump to 27:25 of this week's World in Words to hear butchered renditions of the podcast crew's favorites (iTunes link)
On the prowl
Bit Part
"Why should I load up on debt just to binge drink for four years when I could just create an app that nets me all the money I’ll ever need?" Young entrepreneurs are ditching college in droves, seen by some as a bad investment while dropping out is a "badge of honor" in Silicon Valley, whose lionized heroes include Zuckerburg, Jobs, and Gates - all college dropouts themselves.
privilege-checking and call-out culture
Ariel Meadow Stallings (creator of Offbeat Mama and Offbeat Bride) on liberal bullying: "...what's the biggest challenge we deal with every day? The challenge that has my editors second-guessing every post and quaking in fear, just waiting for the awfulness to begin? It's attacks from our fellow progressives... Increasingly, I've started recognizing this kind of behavior for what it is: privilege-checking as a form of internet sport. It's a kind of trolling, with all the politics I agree with, but motivations and execution that turns my stomach. It's well-intended (SO well-intended), but when the motivations seem to be less about opening dialogue about the issues, and more about performance, righteousness, and intolerance for those who don't agree with you… well, I'm not on-board." [more inside]
40 Moms. 40 Messages.
Your Holiday Mom: "This season, supportive moms have gathered to send a holiday message to all LGBTQ children, teens and young adults who are without family support and who would like a 'stand-in Holiday Mom'–or 40! Knowing that not every mother is ready to accept her own LGBTQ child exactly as-is (as hard as this is for us to imagine), we moms have written to extend our love beyond that of our own family."
The Hawkeye Initiative
The Hawkeye Initiative Hawkeye drawn in some "classic" comic poses.
"I'm livin' in America. And in America you're on your own."
Killing Them Softly - Trailer(Youtube) - is based on a 1978 novel by George V. Higgins (Boston's Balzac), set in Boston. The movie was filmed in New Orleans and set in 2008. [more inside]
The clean, fresh air of Scandinavia
The BBC explore the olfactory delights of rakfisk, "trout sprinkled with salt and fermented in water for up to a year." But is it as smelly as Surströmming, fermented Baltic Herring from neighboring Sweden, or as extreme as the Icelandic Hákarl, basking shark buried in a hole and fermented for several months and tasting "similar to very strong cheese slathered in ammonia"? [more inside]
"Is it fair to say you just weren't made for these times, Frank?" "Is it? Uh, I dunno. I think everything's just as it should be."
Frank Fairfield is a folk musician who feels like he came fresh out of another century. He plays banjo (The Winding Spring & Nine Pound Hammer and Cumberland Gap), guitar (Call Me A Dog When I'm Gone and Bye, Bye, My Eva, Bye, Bye), and fiddle (Rye Whiskey and Poor Old Lance [with quartet], which is the piece that introduced me to him).
“Mom, I maximize your utility.”
The Economics of Caring There's something deeply flawed about an economic system that measures utility but not the attachments we feel to another person, or to one's homeland.
Gender-neutral toy catalogue
"Top-Toy Group, a licensee of the Toys "R" Us brand, has published a gender-blind catalog for the Christmas season." [more inside]
Magna Carta 2: promote the general welfare
Destroying the Commons by Noam Chomsky: "The Charter of the Forest demanded protection of the commons from external power. The commons were the source of sustenance for the general population: their fuel, their food, their construction materials, whatever was essential for life. The forest was no primitive wilderness. It had been carefully developed over generations, maintained in common, its riches available to all, and preserved for future generations -- practices found today primarily in traditional societies that are under threat throughout the world." [more inside]
« Previous day | Next day »