August 7, 2012
To wake the dead
"I don't want to die doing drugs. I don't want to be that kid who was the son of the head coach of the Eagles, who was spoiled and on drugs and OD'd and just faded into oblivion."
"Garrett Reid, the oldest son of Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid, was found dead Sunday morning in his room at training camp at Lehigh University."
Garrett's legal troubles and struggle with addiction were widely publicized over the years due to his high profile father. After leaving prison he fought hard to change this legacy and was employed as a trainer with the team at the time of his death.
"Garrett’s road through life was not always an easy one. He faced tremendous personal challenges with bravery and spirit. As a family, we stood by him and were inspired as he worked to overcome those challenges. Even though he lost the battle that has been ongoing for the last eight years, we will always remember him as a fighter who had a huge, loving heart."
[more inside]
Junkie read by WSB online for free
If you're a fan of William Burroughs' work, a complete reading of Junkie, by William Burroughs himself, has recently appeared online, for free. Junkie (alternately titled Junky) is a 1953 semi-autobiographical novel by William S. Burroughs, published initially under the pseudonym "William Lee". It was his first published novel and has come to be considered a seminal text on the lifestyle of heroin addicts in the early 1950s. Also some Burroughs movies, which include The Cut-Up Films, interviews, Burroughs The Movie and Shotgun Paintings.
And a one...
Chicken Wings
Buffalo chicken wings were invented by Teressa Bellissimo at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York in 1964. Americans will eat 25 billion of them this year - not a few of them at the 10th annual National Buffalo Wing Festival. Some people eat nothing else. Alton Brown steams his. But will any of them be more delicious than these Sriracha Garlic Wings?
Recurring Character time
Draw Me In is comic fan Jeff's quest to be a background extra in various comic series - perhaps as ubiquitous as the mystery hipster cops?
Fistful of Rupees
TGS's Zelda / Western mash-up, FISTFUL OF RUPEES, is a three-part web miniseries starring TJ Smith, Lisa Foiles, and Rawn, with guest appearances by Dodger and Jesse Cox.
Herb and Dorothy
On July 22, 2012, Herb Vogel passed away. Herb worked his entire life for the US Postal Service, while his wife Dorothy worked for the Brooklyn Public Library. In spite of their humble backgrounds, the couple were renowned in art circles for amassing over the course of decades a deeply personal collection of over 2500 pieces of 20th C. contemporary American art, a collection so vast that it could not be housed in the National Gallery of Art. A traveling exhibition entitled Fifty Works in Fifty States was set up to share the Vogel's treasures with the American public in museums across the country, as well as online. The wonderful story of the deep love that the Vogels shared for each other and their passion for art, beauty and human creativity was told in the eponymous documentary Herb and Dorothy.
Reaching bottom at the top of the world
"As a climber goes up even higher in altitude, into the so-called death zone, the dangerously thin air above 26,000 feet, there is so little oxygen available that the body makes a desperate decision: it cuts off the digestive system. The body can no longer afford to direct oxygen to the stomach to help digest food because that would divert what precious little oxygen is available away from the brain. The body will retch back up anything the climber tries to eat, even if it’s as small as an M&M."
-Excerpt from To the Last Breath: A Journey of Going to Extremes
Everyone Smokes Morleys and Drinks Heisler Gold (Unless They Were Just Part of Bob Hartley's Dream)
AV Club points out 21 links between unexpectedly shared TV universes
including ubiquitous brands and crossover characters like the omnipresent Richard Belzer as Sgt. Munch (who was preceded in the 50s-'60s by Pat Harrington Jr. as Guido Panzini). Of course, it finishes with a reference to the Tommy Westphall Universe Hypothesis (previously here). [more inside]
including ubiquitous brands and crossover characters like the omnipresent Richard Belzer as Sgt. Munch (who was preceded in the 50s-'60s by Pat Harrington Jr. as Guido Panzini). Of course, it finishes with a reference to the Tommy Westphall Universe Hypothesis (previously here). [more inside]
Impossible Dreams
Impossible Dreams וידאו קסם "A sci-fi romance. Based on the Hugo award winning story 'Impossible Dreams' by Tim Pratt. Hebrew with English subtitles." [Via]
"the idea of viral videos, and the huge audiences they generate, have forever changed the values and potential impact of video online."
Too Busy to Ask for Cheezburgers
The Kitty Cam Project: Sponsored by the University of Georgia and National Georgraphic, The Kitty Cam Project is not what you might think. For one year, researchers followed the activities of owned, free-roaming cats in Athens, GA by equipping them with cameras. They found that cats do more killing than previously thought.
The surprising, stealth rebirth of the American arcade
"The arcade industry is dead in the United States—everyone knows it—done in by a combination of rapidly advancing home consoles and rapidly expanding suburbanization in the late '80s and early '90s. The only people not in on this bit of conventional wisdom are the ones who happen to be opening a surprising number of successful new arcades around the country." [more inside]
The Curious Case of the Missing Congressman
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., son of revered civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, Sr., has been missing from the public eye since June 10th, failing to cast votes and making no public appearances. After weeks of vague statements raising more questions than answers about his mystery illness, Jackson's office has stated that he is seeking treatment for "debilitating" depression at the Mayo Clinic. Jackson's office denies alcoholism or drug addiction. [more inside]
Metal Knee-slappin' Good Time
We're changing our image.
Panhandling in Arcata tests the city's tolerance. 'Long known as the "Berkeley of the North," Arcata traditionally has welcomed the downtrodden, embraced the leftist fringe and fostered a live-and-let-live ethos.' 'But balancing the comfort of the haves with tolerance for the have-nots has come down to a complex question of just who is worthy of help.' 'Councilwoman Susan Ornelas reflected the community's torn conscience: "While we're a progressive town and we're very open-hearted," she said, "we have limits on our tolerance."' 'A report last fall by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty found that slightly more than half of 234 cities surveyed had bans on aggressive panhandling, the same proportion had outlawed it in specific areas, and one-fourth forbade begging citywide.' [more inside]
Texts From Nancy Drew
Lightning McQueen Rebuild
Videophone
Dan and Ben filmed a scene. It was shown to the next team. They had 1 hour and 1 take to re-create it from memory. The video that team made was shown to the next team, and so on and so on.
The memo platform is burning
iPhone Caused “Crisis of Design” at Samsung (Memo) “Influential figures outside the company come across the iPhone, and they point out that ‘Samsung is dozing off.’ All this time we’ve been paying all our attention to Nokia, and concentrated our efforts on things like Folder, Bar, Slide,” Shin wrote. “Yet when our UX is compared to the unexpected competitor Apple’s iPhone, the difference is truly that of Heaven and Earth. It’s a crisis of design.” Complete text of the internal memo submitted in the Apple vs Samsung case.
Those are the more ugly points of the memo, which seems to bolster Apple’s lawsuit stating that Samsung infringed upon a number of Apple’s patents. Apple asserts that Samsung has “slavishly copied” Apple’s iPad and iPhone devices, and is seeking $2.5 billion in damages. So any more ammunition that Apple can get to make it look like Samsung attempted to actively rip off Apple’s products is only a good thing for Apple’s case.
And the memo is rife with ammunition.
Alofa mai Vailima, fa'amolemole!
Vailima, a German-style lager, has been brewed just outside the capital of Independent Samoa since 1978. There are two versions to choose from, the normal 4.9% strength and the the export-only 6.7%. But, unless you're somewhere near Samoa, you probably won't be able to find it. So, enjoy the commercials, instead! [more inside]
Grandma's New Financial Problem: College Debt
Enjoy Nature Electronically
The Psychologically Ultimate Seashore was the first in the Environments series of records, an early entry in the field of white-noise nature sound albums. One interesting aspect of the albums was that most were designed to be played on a loop at any speed; another was that selections were included on the Voyager Golden Record as "Sounds of the Earth". [more inside]
Listening in at the Philosopher's Arms
Matthew Sweet and some guest experts discuss philosophical problems with a live audience at a pub. Four episodes are available from the first series: The Experience Machine, A Robot Daughter, The Ultimatum Game, and Moral Disgust.
"Looks like the YouTube hacks are at it again..."
An anonymous source claiming to be an Acclaim employee has revealed the existence of a previously unknown prototype board of the SNES edition of NBA Jam. Never meant to see the light of day, this prototype features game announcer Tim Kitzrow replacing his well-known phrases with some more colorful commentary (NSFW). Is it real? Kitzrow says no, but then this isn't first time something like this has happened. [more inside]
Building a Lionel Richie Head
A Life Reflected
Le Miroir is the story of a life as reflected in the bathroom mirror. It's a lovely contemplation on staying in place while traveling through the experience of growing older. [via] [direct video link]
What I did for love
Composer Marvin Hamlisch is dead at 68.
Mr. Hamlisch was one of only eleven people to win all four major US performing awards: Emmy Award (he won 4), Grammy Award, the Oscar (3 awards) and the Tony Award [more inside]
Marina Akhmedova amongst the crocodile addicts of Yekaterinburg
Marina Akhmedova amongst the crocodile addicts of Yekaterinburg - published and censored in Russia, translated and mirrored on opendemocracy. "They check intently who is getting how much, and count out the eyedrops. If I ran right now into the middle of the kitchen and bellowed at the top of my voice, they would not turn round. Their world extends only a few metres and has the cooker and its hood at its centre. It is not a world within the world: it is their entire world, a world as narrow as a coffin, but all-encompassing for those who live in it, a world which follows its own laws. In it there are neither saints nor sinners, no thieves or benefactors, only the harsh laws of survival. There is no truth, no certainty about anything, not even that the sun will rise tomorrow. It is a world which arises when people are dicing with death. A supreme, inexorable law instantly appears, an axis around which their universe revolves: it is the right of those as yet still human to play a game they have chosen for themselves."
Dreams are symbolic in order that they cannot be understood.
Beautiful as the chance meeting of an umbrella and a sewing machine.
Gromyko Semper is a young Filipino artist whose influences are the Surrealists - Hommage to Cornell; The game Exquiste Corpse - Dreams that LittleZyrus Play and collaboration - Orchidoplasmic union.
Together with Hindu cosmologies - The Spectres of Kali with explanation and Kabbalistic spiritual cosmology - The Shedding of the Spectres of Qlipoth.
Here are his Galleries on Deviant Art with his woodcut series and from Surrealism Now and from Saatchi..
An interview featuring more of his work. (All images are magnifyable; there are possibly some repeats; some images possibly NSFW).
Gromyko Semper is a young Filipino artist whose influences are the Surrealists - Hommage to Cornell; The game Exquiste Corpse - Dreams that LittleZyrus Play and collaboration - Orchidoplasmic union.
Together with Hindu cosmologies - The Spectres of Kali with explanation and Kabbalistic spiritual cosmology - The Shedding of the Spectres of Qlipoth.
Here are his Galleries on Deviant Art with his woodcut series and from Surrealism Now and from Saatchi..
An interview featuring more of his work. (All images are magnifyable; there are possibly some repeats; some images possibly NSFW).
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