July 20, 2018
Shed a Little Light
The antithesis of your news feed. James Taylor, Martin Luther King...
There are times between us, all men and women, living on the earth...
Totenköpfchen (Laugh at Death)
Inge Ginsberg performs death metal with her band, the TritoneKings Trümmer
"As Ms. Ginsberg grew older, she kept writing lyrics and poetry, and realized she needed to find new ways to reach an audience. How was she going to gain attention in a society where older women are neglected, silenced and often cast off?
At age 93, she discovered a solution: death metal, where you can shout your lyrics instead of sing them."
Fittingly, the tritone is known as the devil's interval.
World War Disinformation
"Combining virtual hate mobs, surveillance, misinformation, anonymous threats, and the invasion of victims’ privacy, states and political parties around the globe have created an increasingly aggressive online playbook that is difficult for the platforms to detect or counter." Bloomberg's Michael Riley, Lauren Etter, and Bibhudatta Pradham: A Global Guide to State-Sponsored Trolling. [more inside]
Maman lives in a bubble
This knowledge lends A Bubble the quality of a saint’s relic and makes it nearly unbearable to read. It is a tiny work, less than twenty small pages, and more would seem impossible to handle. The first few times I looked through it, I held my breath, for it is in essence a horror story. I kept thinking of that old urban legend/possible Hemingway apocrypha that the saddest story ever told took only six words: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” And here is this, a book sized for a toddler’s hands, with its simple colors, its direct language, its bright hope. Baby book, begun in love, never finished: The Saddest Children’s Book in the World
Sophomore slump or sophomore surge?
“intimidating whirlwinds of bullets...”
What Other Games Can Learn From the Bullet Hell Genre [Paste Magazine] “When you hear “bullet hell” what do you think of? It’s not a new term, but it’s gained increasing prominence in the mainstream games discussion over the last decade, and is often associated with any game with overwhelming numbers of enemy projectiles. While these barrages of bullets are what immediately capture attention, the genre is better defined by the way that it forces players to react to space. Taking elements from it can create new, novel approaches to the way we play in already established genres. Like roguelikes, the bullet hell genre has also seen a small number of games do just that, growing a small niche into something more visible and influential. It’s also muddied definitions of what exactly the genre is, and the elements that make it unique. In the strictest sense, “bullet hell” is a sub-genre of scrolling shooters, often but not strictly vertically oriented, that focus on intricate patterns of enemy projectiles, often building to encounters where most of the available play space is blanketed in bullets.” [more inside]
Sit. Stay. Smile!
The UK's Kennel Club has announced this year's winners of the Dog Photographer Of The Year contest (previously). There are new dogs, there are old dogs, there are friendly dogs. So many good dogs.
"We never considered or wrote for She-Ra as 'the ideal woman.'"
Recently, Lumberjanes writer Noelle Stevenson tweeted a set of images showing off the art style for her latest project: a reboot of the classic cartoon series She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. While the new designs got rave reviews from many fans, a vocal contingent complained that the designs were not "appealing" enough, with some even attacking Stevenson herself over the redesign. In turn, other fans have been fighting back, pointing out how disturbing and creepy their argument really is. [more inside]
Evolution of Video Game Music: Played on Violin
Bee in the City (in pictures)
An exhibition in Manchester of painted bees And here's the link to the exhibition, with lots of info on the why and whereofs: Bee in the city exhibition
"We do quotation differently now"
Lincoln Said What? Bogus Quotations Take On A New Life On Social Media is a 2017 piece noting "But quotations can be bogus in different ways." [more inside]
Food of and for rebellions
Food fit for fighting: The surprising origin of Argentina’s brazen pastry names -- A union of anarchist bakers used their pastries as propaganda, assigning them monikers meant to mock those who opposed their efforts. More from Gastro Obscura: How Argentina’s Baked Goods Reveal Its Political Past -- From “monk’s balls” to “cannons,” these pastries get subversive.) || See also: San Diego Free Press's trio of stories titled Seeds of Rebellion, Part I - Zapatista Food Forests | Part II - The Invasion of North American GMO Corn and the Price of Resistance | (Part III coming soon)
Unentertaining
Our Homes Don’t Need Formal Spaces :On features we think we want but never use.
No langoliers involved
Six times per week, an empty plane used to fly from London’s Heathrow Airport to Cardiff, Wales. The next day, the plane would make the return trip without a single passenger.
Cri de Coeur
The 1959 film The Cry of Jazz (via Openculture) is a kind of filmed essay presaging the ideas of Black Nationalism, framed by stilted dialogue, and ending in a prophecy about the end of jazz. Written/directed by Edward Bland (NYT obit), music by "The Sun Ra."
I give this campaign ad five bags of popcorn.
Tim Heidecker is running for District Attorney of San Bernardino County. Heidecker, formerly of the Tim & Eric duo, was driven into politics after being put on trial for the murder of twenty teenagers at his Electric Sun Music Festival, headlined by Heidecker's own hit electronica project DKR. After the unjust murder verdict put an end to his experiments in cutting-edge virtual reality TV programming, Heidecker found himself driven to seek the sort of justice his action-hero icon Jack Decker famously sought against terrorists and Count Dracula. (Decker's newest season seems to be motivated by Tim's murder trial, too, and by the shadowy foreign conspiracy that Tim claims was truly responsible for all those deaths. [more inside]
Will Not Let Me Go
Will Not Let Me Go Dallas, Texas. 1996. Fred Strickland has Alzheimer’s. An interactive story about memory, loss, and love. [via mefi projects]
Secrets Are a Captive Country
Now with SEVEN colours!
Penguin of the Month Club
So. Y'all remember this picture, right? It's adorable, charing and all over the shop since it first appeared in June last year. Well, there's more. Thing is, the National Aquarium of New Zealand has done it, as advertised, EVERY MONTH since then and, folks, it's a ride. Strap in. (twitter) Jonny(!)@jonnywaistcoat chronicles the Naughty and Good Penguins at NANZ. Thread reader version for those who prefer
I’m still good to drive but can actively feel gout kicking in.
A new study has warned that consuming some foods can make people unsafe to drive. But how risky are they really? One writer arms himself with liqueur chocolates and a ton of pudding … [more inside]
Film and Furniture
Film and Furniture is a lovingly curated online resource which identifies and furnishes you with fascinating facts about the furniture and décor you spot in your favourite films – with details on exactly where to buy these pieces for your own home. In our world, the furniture is the star: From a contemporary item in a current movie to a vintage piece in a classic film. [more inside]
Rises, power downs, covers, click click boom and nut punches
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