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Anybody but me notice Nino in the Captain Kirk shirt lookalike?
posted to MetaFilter by theplotchickens at 4:02 PM on July 23, 2011

Per Wikipedia:

The song was written and first performed by Chris Kenner in 1962. The "na na na na" part was added in 1965 by Cannibal and the Headhunters, allegedly because the lead singer forgot the lyrics. The Wilson Pickett version that everyone knows was recorded in Pickett's first session at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

The list of folks who've covered this song is long and diverse:

Joan Baez... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by BitterOldPunk at 2:53 PM on July 23, 2011

What I'm going to do with this comment is attempt a bit of a pastiche of the style of writing under discussion. Now I'm not at all trying to engage with the article on any substantive level, I won't consider questions of whether or not this is a good or serious criticism, you'll notice that i haven't even mentioned the author of the piece, Geoff Dyer. What I'm attempting is more of a gently humorous re-enactment of the academic self-referentialism run mad that Dyer describes. Then I'll conclude... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by villanelles at dawn at 7:56 AM on July 23, 2011

Whoa, what is this? It reads like Gormenghast... But for an actual place. As if the author is skipping around the main topic and never arrives at the truth.
posted to MetaFilter by Severian at 6:48 AM on July 23, 2011

That is insanity in its purest form and used for the most beneficial purpose possible. May god have mercy on this woman.
posted to MetaFilter by JohnnyGunn at 11:42 AM on July 19, 2011

I'm pretty sure some of these guys drive vans like that.
posted to MetaFilter by chatongriffes at 2:40 PM on July 19, 2011

Bill Keller: I suck at writing books, therefore all books and all people who write them suck.

What a douche.
posted to MetaFilter by His thoughts were red thoughts at 11:26 PM on July 18, 2011

One of the things I love about used book stores is the realization after shopping in them for a while that all the books fit to read haven't just come out in the last five years, and that you could be reading good books your whole life without running out even if publishing stopped tomorrow.
posted to MetaFilter by BrotherCaine at 7:03 PM on July 18, 2011

I like that there are dudes wandering around in orange who appear to be officials, enforcing exactly zero rules. What would it take for them to actually engage with the players? Use of blades?

Please. Can we please play this, everybody? Please? I am so in.
posted to MetaFilter by penduluum at 12:02 PM on July 18, 2011

I would rather watch this than Braveheart.
posted to MetaFilter by penduluum at 11:59 AM on July 18, 2011

How did you learn about eating healthful food

The Internet, Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan yada yada yada. You know, typical well-off white person nonsense.

The thing is, this whole thing reeks of What's the Matter With Kansas? "If only the poor oppressed people would have more choices rather than their corn-syrup bonanza, they would cast aside their shackles and love them some delicious fresh produce!... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by solistrato at 4:09 PM on July 15, 2011

Maine Coons are The Best Cats because

1: They are big

2: They are fluffy

3: They follow you around like dogs

4: They trill.

5: They have tufted ears

6: They have proud manes
posted to MetaFilter by The Whelk at 7:40 PM on July 14, 2011

According to "F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2011,"[PDF] adult obesity increased in 16 states during the past year and rates soared to 30% or more in these 12 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.


The top 10 recipients of federal money are New Mexico, Mississippi, Alaska, Louisiana, West... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Brian B. at 4:39 PM on July 7, 2011

but being one of those folks on the b-roll is an ongoing fear of mine.

It is funny you should say this, I was reading an interview with Tim Ferriss in Outside Magazine and he mentioned something similar:

Michael Roberts: But isn't the greatest hurdle just getting people motivated in the first place?
TF: I would actually say that motivation is not the question. The real question is: What are the incentives? Let's... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Fizz at 4:04 PM on July 7, 2011

I wasn't able to make it through the original video, so now that I see it...she really sounds like she's got toxoplasmosis.
posted to MetaFilter by DU at 8:04 AM on July 8, 2011

It took me a while to figure it out, but PPT decks themselves aren't evil. The people who have lousy presentation skills are.

If you slap together a deck and stand up in the room and read the fucking deck, bullet by bullet...you are evil and should be shot.

What I've found is that decks can be very effective accents to a well-prepared presenter with some dynamism to their personality and good speaking technique.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Thistledown at 4:27 AM on July 7, 2011

Hm, maybe this is what happens when you expose kids to a 24 news cycle describing in exquisite detail how the world is totally going to hell and that we are mostly powerless to do anything about it, and then surround them with a bunch of cheap comforts, as well as the opportunity to socialize, play, explore, work, or learn from the comfort of one's own room.
posted to MetaFilter by hermitosis at 11:34 AM on July 6, 2011

It always makes me laugh when some fool has a few good experiences with a drug - and then they begin to evangelize for the drug. It is life changing, everyone should do it.

What a load of ignorant, immature crap.

Wait a few years. Wait to get to see the end result. Empty lives, addiction, and shattered dreams. For those of us unfortunate enough to have been down that road - the ignorance of this post is astounding.
posted to MetaFilter by Flood at 5:06 AM on July 6, 2011

First line of the article: Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness.

That's like saying that everything we eat is for the purpose of pooping.
posted to MetaFilter by dubold at 4:55 AM on July 6, 2011

I've done it, quite a lot in my teens and early twenties. I know what he's talking about - and it did enrich me, and I don't regret it. But as I got older psychedelics started to feel less like journeying and more like temporary brain damage, the insights became stale and repetitive, so I stopped. Further progress would not come in chemical form, clearly.

Still singing the praises of hallucinogens twenty years after someone's started doing them, smacks of arrested... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tempythethird at 4:53 AM on July 6, 2011

taking psilocybin or LSD is "one of the most important rites of passage a human being can experience"

No. Fucking around with and fucking up the only brain you have is a seriously stupid idea.
posted to MetaFilter by Old'n'Busted at 4:25 AM on July 6, 2011

I am a practicing scientist and (sometimes) a science writer, though I don't write about medicine. I think I have some sense of how this works. Editors -- not all editors, but many editors -- want you to give their readers an answer. If there's a controversy, they want to know who's right and who's wrong. Of course, most scientific papers don't give definitive answers to such questions; they say something more like "this study lends some evidence to side A of the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by escabeche at 6:22 AM on July 5, 2011

Yeah? Who's gonna pay for all this stuff?

It's amazing how Americans never seem to ask this question when it comes to blowing shit up to the tune of two-thirds of a trillion dollars a year.
posted to MetaFilter by mhoye at 4:15 PM on July 4, 2011

That's weird, I'm having trouble thinking of songs by Americans about Canada.

Cindy Walker (from Waco Texas) wrote Blue Canadian Rockies.
posted to MetaFilter by philip-random at 3:06 PM on July 4, 2011

Metafilter: Decidedly anti-makeup (temporary artificial distortion of one's appearance) and pro-tattoo (permanent artificial distortion of one's appearance).

And all without the slightest trace of hypocrisy!
posted to MetaFilter by flarbuse at 8:49 AM on July 4, 2011

They do know that women take off their make up every day right?
posted to MetaFilter by Brandon Blatcher at 8:25 AM on July 4, 2011

Ugh, middlebrow language fascism. So elitist. Not every sentiment needs an exquisite, sublime expression, and common usage isn't the only usage.
posted to MetaFilter by smoke at 5:20 AM on July 1, 2011

There is a fundamental disconnect between the two sides here. On one side are the people who think of tax breaks as "keeping your own money," while on the other side are the people who think of tax breaks as "government subsidy." The two sides will never, ever, in any way come together, and neither side can ever really be "correct." one side can be more useful and a better basis of thinking about government and policy, but that doesn't make it any more... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Etrigan at 8:38 AM on June 29, 2011

If I was Bruce Springsteen, I would write a song about this fella.

Please don't.
posted to MetaFilter by Herodios at 9:59 AM on June 28, 2011

This is great and all, but I'm bracing myself for when this guy "gets arrested on a DUI" and after a few days it's revealed that it was really a 17-year-old gay Syrian woman writing it all along.
posted to MetaFilter by Maaik at 9:17 AM on June 28, 2011

Reading the description, I thought, "That's a stupid idea if ever I saw one." Seeing the performance didn't change my mind in the slightest. This piece brings together so many of my hates in one place: Wagner, gimmicks, Lang Lang, arrangements for more than one piano...
posted to MetaFilter by outlandishmarxist at 3:42 AM on June 25, 2011

I sorta thing he's wrong just because modern music is so utterly alien to me. I can't listen to dubstep or modern dance or electro or modern pop for too long, because it sounds like music from an utterly different culture that's built around another set of assumptions. I think the reason that indie gets backward-looking is because there are people like me seeking a refugee from the relentless robotisization of music.
posted to MetaFilter by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 10:42 PM on June 23, 2011

I really hate articles like this:

Now ask yourself how this existed in the first place. How did we build such an amazing place [Brainered, Minn. circa 1894)before the home mortgage interest deduction? How did we accomplish this before zoning? Before the International Building Code? What created this place before we had state and federal subsidies of local water and sewer systems? Before HUD? Before DOT? Before the state highway system? Before Fannie and Freddie... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 11:54 AM on June 23, 2011

Don't waste your youth "building your resume." Go have fun and let life develop as it may.

If you are ever so inclined, please go do this. The job market really is overcompetitive right now and those of us "wasting" our youth building our resumes don't really like self-entitled assholes who think that employment is a "scam" and who never "exert any effort whatsoever" beyond what they think you are being compensated for.
posted to MetaFilter by gagglezoomer at 10:05 AM on June 22, 2011

Drug addiction often follows the first dose. Desomorphine users suffer from an acute deterioration in their general health, including a weakened immune system and failing liver. Their circulation is so effected that their limbs gradually wither and die. Non-healing ulcers appear on the body and a person literally rots alive. Veins located near the injection sites “burn up.”

I don't doubt this is a real problem but honestly most of this seems like the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nanojath at 10:19 AM on June 22, 2011

Hoppo, you're just teeing them up for me.

I once saw a male and female duck land in my neighbours pool and they were swimming around like they were an item, then a few hours later this other male duck flies in, fights the first male duck (leaving bloody leaves in the pool), and takes his girl. It was like spring break at Senor Frogs for ducks.

First, an excuse to post the duck link, which I mentioned at every opportunity... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Diablevert at 9:59 PM on June 17, 2011

Judging by the white flowing gown, it looks like she also may have married a beluga at some point.
posted to MetaFilter by planetkyoto at 6:45 PM on June 21, 2011

How about a site that works the other way around? If we can get Dinesh D'Souza to promise to never write a book again, I'll chip in $50.
posted to MetaFilter by The Card Cheat at 11:16 AM on June 21, 2011

I also wanted to say, there are political commenters who believe that monumental art, of the kind being vandalized, is in itself disrespectful to the dead, in that it is tacky and overblown and a blatant attempt at promoting state interests through exploitation of a tragedy.
posted to MetaFilter by emjaybee at 9:07 PM on June 19, 2011

Very reminiscent of Bored Girl In Pittsburgh Airport except she doesn't vandalise or steal anything...
posted to MetaFilter by benzo8 at 6:21 PM on June 17, 2011

I have it on good authority that John Updike is actually a pseudonym for Roz Chast.
posted to MetaFilter by The White Hat at 12:10 PM on June 17, 2011

How many series on HBO written by women?
films directed by Women?
how many chefs on cooking shows are women?
How many university presidents are women?
Oddly, I spend most of my time reading what is there and seldom focus upon percentages of race, gender represented, though I know I should object if I feel insufficient diversity represented.
But then I once did this for pro basketball and noted no team had 50% whites.
Such... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Postroad at 12:09 PM on June 17, 2011

Wow. We watched all 6 parts last night and that was an AWESOME documentary. Super interesting and informative and funny and really connected all the dots from 40s Big Band through to 90s Chill-out music. Our favorite quote was from Jimmy Webb in reference to his song "Up, Up, and Away" and the pleasant no-subtext genre: "It wasn't a song about drugs. It was a song about.....balloons."
posted to MetaFilter by otherwordlyglow at 8:36 AM on June 17, 2011

I have to admit, I hesitated posting in this thread.

See, the thing is, when I was very small, and Mom was at home looking after my sister and me, easy listening was pretty much all Mom had on the radio. By the 70s, the radio mix played everything from Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and all the crooners of the 50s, right through to contemporary artists like Crystal Gayle and the Carpenters. I worked out how to use the record player when I was five, and all we had to listen... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by LN at 6:28 AM on June 17, 2011

This is a perfect cover for Meschiya Lake all tattooed, wearing that little black dress, and looking Satanic. The girl can sing.

Who is the woman playing the horn? She can play.
posted to MetaFilter by three blind mice at 12:46 AM on June 16, 2011

Faze: " should speak out against war constantly ... always ... and not let anyone get away with speaking of war as an accepted or acceptable thing"

I had an interview back in 2006 with a business owner who was wearing a Minutemen cap and whose company truck had a few right-wing stickers on it. Somehow the wars (they were still mostly popular at the time) came up, and I was surprised to hear myself saying out loud, in a job interview, that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by notsnot at 6:37 AM on June 15, 2011

The Aretha and Otis versions of "Satisfaction" are truly awesome.

The rest of these, though, sound forced and dated and very much like contractual obligation filler--not their best work... kinda ironic, that the Stones helped bring black music to white audiences, and the black artists' cover versions of the Stones' songs sound much whiter than the Stones appropriations of their music?

[apologies if that remark seems racially... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by not_on_display at 8:58 PM on June 14, 2011

The movie is missing the part where Venice Beach is a shithole and someone tries to sell you heroin
posted to MetaFilter by Dia Nomou Nomo Apethanon at 4:41 PM on June 10, 2011

Sad, but that rant against western civilization annoying and off putting.
posted to MetaFilter by Postroad at 2:00 PM on June 8, 2011

It's funny how these things are always, "People suck at passwords" and not "Passwords suck at protecting people". One should design systems to take human nature into account; designing a system and then railing against the fact that it would work perfectly if only people weren't so stupid is a recipe for frustration and futility.

This data seems like pretty clear proof that separate-passwords-for-everything is a bad system,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mstokes650 at 4:19 PM on June 7, 2011