February 10, 2018
Her first best friend
Nicole adopted an elderly dog. But she seemed oddly familiar.
"They came to the store and realized some of their dreams"
Two words: department stores | While there were plenty of lower-class women moving through city streets in the 19th century... it was rare to see a middle-class housewife strolling the town square alone. Other than women laborers, prostitutes were the only ones walking the pavement, so any bourgeois woman that went outdoors unaccompanied would be seen as a “public woman,” or streetwalker. So how did women eventually break free from their domestic existence? [more inside]
Sun's Gone Dim
Jóhann Jóhannsson, Icelandic composer of scores for Arrival, Theory of Everything, and Sicario, along with a rich catalog of work, has unexpectedly died at age 48. Sun's Gone Dim, Flight from the City
Rats are awesome!
Rats get a bum rap from people who have never met one. They love to play with other species—including cats [upbeat country music]! A Brooklyn cat café uses them to socialize kittens. And they are clicker-trainable: Rat Tricks I [upbeat acoustic guitar], Rat Tricks II [upbeat rock music].
The New Yorker paper jam article
Why Paper Jams Persist...Midway through the printing process, the paper was supposed to cross a gap; flung from the top of a rotating belt, it needed to soar through space until it could be sucked upward by a vacuum pump onto another belt, which was positioned upside down. Unfortunately, the press was in a hot and humid place, and the paper, normally lissome, had become listless. At the apex of its trajectory, at the moment when it was supposed to connect with the conveyor belt, its back corners drooped. They dragged on the platform below, and, like a trapeze flier missing a catch, the paper sank downward. As more sheets rushed into the same space, they created a pile of loops and curlicues—what the jam engineers called a “flower arrangement.”
If I Can't Be My Own I'd Be Better Dead
Never intended to be released but instead was an exercise for the band to regroup after their 1993 tour, Alice In Chains' quasi-acoustic 1994 release Jar Of Flies was one of the most successful EPs [YTplaylist, ~30m] ever released. Cassette Side A: Rotten Apple, Nutshell, I Stay Away [video] [more inside]
How Black Panther is bringing out the global African
From all natural hair to all African clothing - Black Panther the movie - has been showcasing African culture, heritage, style, and music - so rare an experience that there's a movement on to get children of all ages out to the cinema.
“The thing that really touched black folks and Africans around the world is its imagery. Its use of wardrobe, its aesthetics, the colours, the design – that. People found their stories in that.”via
The worst pies in London...or what's left of them
The Whitechapel Monster, a giant block of grease from the sewers, has arrived at the Museum of London. The "solid calcified mass of fats, oils, faeces, wet wipes and sanitary products" went on display at the museum on Friday: "The Fatberg! exhibition will tell the story of the nine-week battle to remove the massive blockage and its journey from the Victorian sewers in Whitechapel to the sealed display case it now rests in." Vyki Sparkes, the curator of Fatberg!, explains how one goes about procuring, handling, displaying, and interpreting such a specimen for museum visitors. The fatberg previously and previouslier.
Witnesses to the nineteenth century
Interviews with various septuagenarian, octogenarian, nonagenarian and centenarian Americans in 1929 1, 2 (mlyt)
Thumping and Picking
Larry Graham tells the story of how he invented slapping and popping, creating much of the sound of Sly and the Family Stone.
The Lost Words
The Lost Words is an award-winning book illustrated by Jackie Morris (twitter) and written by Robert MacFarlane (interview). Each entry is a nature-related word, such as acorn, adder, blackberry, bluebell, dandelion, kingfisher, magpie and otter, deleted from the Oxford University Press Junior Dictionary. On the design of the book, the language of nature (by the author) and a related exhibition. A successful crowdfunding campaign by Jane Beaton means a copy of the book will be in every school in Scotland. Reviews in Shiny New Books, Goodreads, the Guardian, the New Statesman and the Washington Post. Robert's tweets frequently describe old words about nature and history.
For all you influencers and thought leaders
A handy Davos jargon explainer from the BBC, and accompanying reader reactions. Don't miss the helpfully captioned illustrations.
Some notable SF/F from 1942
At Worldcon 76 in San Jose this August, the 1943 Retro Hugo Awards will be presented for works of SF/F from 1942. An announcement video has suggestions. The Hugo Award Book Club has discussed options for novel and graphic story. FANAC has prepared material helpful for judging fan categories (including work by a key figure on whom #MeToo helped shine more light). Many works of fiction eligible for the award are available online. [more inside]
BONUS: Goat DLC and Goat story.
Them’s Fightin’ Herds [YouTube][Game Trailer] “Them's Fightin' Herds is exactly what it looks like: a fighting game where all the characters are four-legged animals, a few of them ponies. Its "original universe" was designed by My Little Pony producer Lauren Faust, and it's billed as a spiritual successor to Fighting is Magic, a direct, fan-made adaptation of the cartoon which was shut down by Hasbro in 2013. It looks like a standard four-button fighting game at first blush, albeit with pony magic flare, but there is at least one novel system: juggle decay, wherein "opponents become gradually heavier during a combo."” [via: PC Gamer]
It's still an important shared experience to me, damn it!
When news broke that WWE would be bringing back the Starrcade name, a lot of people took notice. When it turned out it was going to be only for a house show (i.e. not televised), there was more than a little grumbling and head scratching. Uproxx writer Brandon Stroud wrote about Starrcade, what it meant to him and his family growing up, and what it meant to see the revival of the show with his parents. [more inside]
“I call it my Wonder Woman impression.”
Reg E. Cathey, 1958-2018.
"Not only a fine, masterful actor -- but simply one of the most delightful human beings with whom I ever shared some long days on set. On wit alone, he could double any man over and leave him thinking. Reg, your memory is a great blessing." - David Simon
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