December 6, 2009

Marin County Oral History

Marin County Oral History "From 1974 to 1984, Carla Ehat, with partner Anne Kent, and later Genevieve Martinelli, traveled from one end of Marin County [California] to the other, interviewing a broad spectrum of Marin's long-time residents, ranging from ranchers to politicians and including descendents of early pioneer families." Each link on the list includes a photo, bio, full text of the interview, and, the best part, short audio excerpts from the interviews. Many of the folks interviewed were born in the 1880s or 1890s.
posted by ocherdraco at 11:06 PM PST - 7 comments

Meet the man who pats tiger sharks while sitting on a whale

The Shark Whisperer [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 10:33 PM PST - 37 comments

Highest bandwidth music video ever

I'm not one to obsess over music videos, but this one by one SUGIMOTO Kousuke may just be the most dense, action-packed chaotic adventure ever packed into 3 minutes 28 seconds. I've watched it a dozen times already; it's like popcorn. For added high-bandwidth goodness, see his other video, which seems to recapitulate all of human history and the downfall of the Beatles - while you do, I'm going to upgrade my brain. I need some higher clock speed if I'm going to watch these again.
posted by Michael Roberts at 8:56 PM PST - 69 comments

Fred Hampton: The Assassination of a Black Panther

December 4th, 2009 marked the fortieth anniversary of the assassination of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton. [more inside]
posted by invitapriore at 8:48 PM PST - 29 comments

Green? Orangutans, biofuel, and logging

Green tells the story of one orangutan captured and brought to a rehabilitation facility after her home is logged and converted to a palm oil plantation. This award winning documentary is a powerful indictment of the palm oil and logging industries in South Asia. It is also another voice in the crowd drawing attention to the potential ecological consequences of growing dependence on biofuels. [more inside]
posted by ChuraChura at 4:20 PM PST - 16 comments

Chave a Chappy Chanuka!

Chanuka (which starts this Friday evening) is more than just the Dreidel Song. Listen to Maoz Tzur from the amazing NY PS 22 (previously) and watch the merry Al Qaeda Dancers or just click on the irritating very dedicated singing candles. [more inside]
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:57 PM PST - 55 comments

The best of Bleep and Warp Records

The Best of Bleep "To celebrate Bleep's 5th birthday, we asked a select cast of people working in music to pick their 5 favourite releases or tracks from the entire Bleep (Warp Records) catalogue." Of note: Thom Yorke, Chris Cunningham, Tricky, Kid 606, and Fennesz
posted by kid ichorous at 12:18 PM PST - 22 comments

Nonja

Nonja, like many 33 year old Austrians, has been taking dozens of photos of herself, her friends, and her surroundings and posting them to facebook. She's got 41,000+ friends. What makes her special? She's an orangutan. [more inside]
posted by fontophilic at 11:54 AM PST - 34 comments

Cheap model, but charming

Just a few of the many faces of the model Mukha: sophisticated, glamour, playful and gangsta.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:09 AM PST - 16 comments

Everyone has opinions, but one man posted them online

Joshua Peter Tubbs is a self-proclaimed "kool" kid - class (co)president, Mr. Timberlane, a national honors student - who decided that for NaNoWriMo he would write an honest review of all 349 students in his senior class [more inside]
posted by rebent at 11:09 AM PST - 240 comments

Crackerjack!

Secret-Toy-Surprise Gallary
posted by grumblebee at 10:53 AM PST - 10 comments

The Hanoi that Rocks will rock the world

Hanoi Rocks, Helsinki 1981. A year when they played 102 gigs, almost all in small dance halls deep in Finland. They were ready, even if their audience wasn't.[1] For british drummer Razzle, they looked like a band which he wanted to belong to.[2] In next few years they caused chaos in Bombay, got spitted upon at Wailing Wall in Jerusalem because of indecent make up and hair, went big in Japan and had good gigs in London.[3] November 1984, they were ready to conquer America. After Mike twisted his ankle on a bottle broken by Andy on stage in Syracuse, a few gigs got cancelled and instead the band accepted invitation from L.A. scene to party with Mötley Crüe. In December 9th, 1984, the party ran out of alcohol, so Vince Neil from Mötley Crüe and the drummer Razzle went to get more. The car crashed, immediatly killing Razzle. He was Dead by Christmas, and the band broke in May 1985.[4][5] [more inside]
posted by Free word order! at 10:36 AM PST - 11 comments

Good Night and Joy be With You All

Liam Clancy has died. Liam, last surviving member of the hugely popular Clancy Brothers, strongly influenced Bob Dylan but also became an interpreter of Dylan's work.
posted by jeffen at 8:38 AM PST - 35 comments

Remembering the Montreal Massacre

Remembering the Montreal Massacre. A gunman confronts 60 engineering students during their class at l'École Polytechnique in Montreal on Dec. 6, 1989. He separates the men from the women and tells the men to leave the classroom, threatening them with his .22-calibre rifle. Before opening fire in the engineering class, he calls the women "une gang de féministes" and says "J'haïs les féministes [I hate feminists]." One person pleads that they are not feminists, just students taking engineering. But the gunman doesn't listen. He shoots the women and then kills himself. Parents of the Polytechnique students wait outside the school crying and wonder if their daughters are among the 14 dead.
posted by Hildegarde at 7:24 AM PST - 145 comments

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