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Amanda Palmer and a sock puppet stage a meticulous re-enactment of a scene from Jim Henson's Labyrinth (see the original scene here), with a special guest appearance by a very famous writer as David Bowie's mullet. Happy Boxing Day!
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:45 PM PST - 23 comments

Great Rock and Roll Pauses (permalink) is a short story from Jennifer Egan's collection of linked stories A Visit from the Goon Squad. A 76-page series of PowerPoint slides, it's told by a 12-year-old girl who documents her autistic brother's collecting of Clearmountain pauses, the moments in rock and roll songs when the music dramatically stops and then restarts, which are named after famed music producer Bob Clearmountain. The songs mentioned in the story include: Foxy Lady - Jimi Hendrix; Please Play This Song on the Radio - NOFX; Good Times, Bad Times - Led Zeppelin; Bernadette - The Four Tops; Young Americans - David Bowie; Mighty Sword - The Frames; Supervixen - Garbage; Long Train Runnin’ - The Doobie Brothers; The Time of the Season - The Zombies; Faith - George Michael, Closing Time - Semisonic; Roxanne - The Police; Rearrange Beds - An Horse. More examples can be found in this previous MeFi post and a number of other excellent sites. [more inside]
posted by jng at 10:51 PM PST - 41 comments

A Thousand Ways To Please A Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes from 1917. A Thousand Ways To Please A Family. Free online with retro illustrations and stories. [more inside]
posted by melissam at 8:39 PM PST - 12 comments

Two Christmases previously, but still a classic: Francis Coppola's and William Burroughs's The Junky's Christmas. Now on YouTube in four parts: 1 2 3 4 [more inside]
posted by clarknova at 6:53 PM PST - 10 comments

Japan's Okunoshima Island once produced chemical weapons. After 1945, the facilities where shut down but the buildings remained and the island became famous for something else: Being home to hundreds and hundreds of rabbits. ((via)
posted by The Whelk at 6:27 PM PST - 28 comments

It just isn't Christmas without Space Ghost.
posted by JHarris at 6:23 PM PST - 27 comments

Whitewashing "A Christmas Story": The Lost Black Actors in a New Holiday Classic
posted by ShooBoo at 5:14 PM PST - 21 comments

The users of 4chan recently conducted a survey. The results are pretty much what you'd expect. (cloud link, wait for it to load)
posted by inedible at 4:13 PM PST - 68 comments

This is Bull of Frost (Chys Khan), which is Yakutian colleague of Russian Grandpa Frost (Ded Moroz) and Santa Claus. [more inside]
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 2:14 PM PST - 2 comments

Indian satellite rocket explodes after launch.
posted by Taft at 1:41 PM PST - 50 comments

Elizabeth Beresford MBE, creator of the Wombles, has passed away. Whether you're a fan of Elizabeth Beresford, her books (recent covers), the animated shorts (voiced by Bernard Cribbens), or the many, many, songs (by Mike Batt)- remember to keep recycling and a womblin'.
posted by Sparx at 12:43 PM PST - 21 comments

Gorillaz offers their new album, The Fall, for free online listening, for the small price of giving them an email address for their mailing list. (Does not require email verification.) [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 10:53 AM PST - 24 comments

An interview with Jonanthan Blow, creator of Braid, about his upcoming game, The Witness by Simon Parkin in Gamasutra. [more inside]
posted by shadytrees at 9:58 AM PST - 25 comments

Shinchi Maruyama creates "sculptures" by throwing handfuls of liquid into the air and photographing them. [more inside]
posted by gman at 9:24 AM PST - 15 comments

Jingle Bells, gujarati/tamil style. A year ago or so, MTV India released two Christmas-themed bumpers/music-videos, each an animated rendition of the Xmas classic "Jingle Bells" in regional dialects and in regional musical styles: gujarati/tamil and punjabi. [more inside]
posted by LMGM at 8:49 AM PST - 9 comments

REMARKS BY THE FIRST LADY TO CHILDREN WHILE TRACKING SANTA WITH NORAD Every year NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) helps track Santa Claus's movement around the globe [previously]. The transcript of First Lady Michelle Obama's conversations with kids on Christmas as she watches the radar, sent to the White House press list last night, is absolutely adorable. Much more at the Norad Santa headquarters, and an interview with the head researcher at the Department of Energy tasked with tracking St Nick.
posted by jtajta at 7:02 AM PST - 42 comments

Bush's memoir, Decision Points, gets a Foucauldian analysis in the London Review of Books. Awesome quote: "On his first trip to Paris in 2002, Junior, now president of the United States, stood beside Jacques Chirac at a press conference and said: ‘He’s always saying that the food here is fantastic and I’m going to give him a chance to show me tonight.’"(Book mentioned previously.)
posted by GrammarMoses at 6:53 AM PST - 91 comments

Kelley Turgeon's painting of Toronto's iconic streetcars won a contest for the Toronto Star Emerging Artist Cover Contest. Along with $2500 in prize money for the contest winner, the winning painting was also published Friday on the front page of the newspaper. Photographer Brian Labelle noticed because he had taken an eerily similar photograph in 2007. [more inside]
posted by typewriter at 6:46 AM PST - 53 comments

This is surely, without question, the best interpretation of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" ever recorded. The best. Merry Christmas!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:34 AM PST - 25 comments