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« January 2009 | Main | March 2009 »
February 28, 2009
Jesus vs. Hitler, the Smackdown
This is stupid. But sometimes I like stupid.
Bristol's Bibliophile BookBarn Bargain Blowout Boffo Bonanza!!!
See!? The economic crapper does have a good side!
Thousands in scramble for free books after Amazon supplier abandons warehouseWhat I want to know is how the place came to look like such a tip. Did the company, skeedaddling out of town, do this? Or did the "locust swarm" of crazed shoppers do it?
By David Wilkes
28th February 2009Bibliophiles have travelled from far and wide to the old Bookbarn site on an industrial estate in Brislington, Bristol.
The warehouse, whose lease recently ran out, once contained as many as five million books destined to be sold online.
After the lease expired, he firm running the secondhand book business moved out, leaving it full of books.
Managers of the industrial estate invited people to help themselves so they can free up space at the site.
Ricky Jay's Card Trick
February 27, 2009
Lily Allen - The Fear
One of my favorite songs right now.
February 26, 2009
The GOP's Shining Hope!
Two days ago we had Bobby Jindal rebutting Obama's SOTU address and sounding like a patronizing idiot (or that guy from 30 Rock). And what of the other major star of the new Rethuglican Party, Joe the Plumber? Book tour, baby!
Except!! Book Tour FAIL!
Joe the Plumber (no longer a plumber; first name actually Samuel) popped into our town yesterday evening to sell his new book and to remind people that he's still a plain and simple guy. Mission accomplished, on at least one of his missions.And! Then!!
About 11 people wandered into the rows of seats set up hopefully in the basement of a downtown Border's bookstore to hear Joe speak. Joe addressed them from behind a lectern and with a microphone, but that seemed unnecessarily formal.
Wurzelbacher was scheduled to speak and sign books for three hours, but the Joe Show was over in 55 minutes. Total copies of "Joe the Plumber" sold: five.Those 15 minutes were sweet. But how will he now pay those back taxes he owes? Hmm.
William Hope's Spirit Photographs
The National Media Museum has a whole set of William Hope's "Spirit Photographs." From the intro to the set:
These photographs of 'spirits' are taken from an album of photographs unearthed in a Lancashire second-hand and antiquarian bookshop by one of the Museum's curators. They were taken by a controversial medium called William Hope (1863-1933)...Obvious fakes, time has rendered them spooky in different, much more interesting ways. The "female spirit" he uses is a bit odd looking, and Hope's use of her just floating there shows at least he knew how to freak people out.
...By 1922 Hope had moved to London where he became a professional medium. The work of the Crew Circle was investigated on various occasions. The most famous of these took place in 1922, when the Society for Psychical Research sent Harry Price to investigate the group. Price collected evidence that Hope was substituting glass plates bearing ghostly images in order to produce his spirit photographs.
Later the same year Price published his findings, exposing Hope as a fraudster. However, many of Hope’s most ardent supporters spoke out on his behalf, the most famous being Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Hope continued to practice, despite his exposure. He died in London on 7 March 1933.
Spy Vibe blog: Dedicated to 1960s Spy Style
Filmmaker and Mort Walker biographer (!) Jason Whiton has a blog dedicated to the crazy production design of such films and series as Diabolik, James Bond, Our Man Flint, The Prisoner, and The Avengers. Modern action films are usually too dark and dingy to really have production design worth mentioning.
Röyksopp's latest video: Happy Up Here
Happy Up Here from Röyksopp on Vimeo.
Space Invaders versus a city of light. Awesome. And doesn't this song already sound like a classic, like a warm sweater?
February 25, 2009
The Onion on form again
Barack, you've always been the caretaker.
Sasha Obama Keeps Seeing Creepy Bush Twins While Riding Tricycle Through White House
February 23, 2009
WASHINGTON—A little more than a month after the first family's move to the White House, reports of strange happenings have continued to surface, with Sasha Obama confirming Tuesday that she had once again been visited by the eerie specter of the Bush twins.
Sasha, who was playing in the East Wing of the executive mansion so as not to disturb her busy father, reported seeing the former first twins while riding her Big Wheel tricycle down the Cross Hall corridor. The frightening apparitions, the 7-year-old said, emerged out of thin air and were dressed in identical outfits consisting of spaghetti strap tank tops and denim skirts.
February 22, 2009
Kreepie Kats' Guide to the Great Depression 2.0
Teh future looks awesome!
February 19, 2009
New York Magazine Profile on Film Critic Armond White
I don't really read Armond White, but I do like to read about someone who is uncompromising and drives mainstream critics nuts. (On the other hand, he thinks Spielberg is America's Greatest Director. (Really?)) I was interested in his statement here:
“We always went to the movies, every Saturday at least,” White says. “I used to love to see stuff like The Long, Hot Summer and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. To me, this was a window into the adult world. Now people watch movies so they can stay kids, which proves how infantilized the culture is. I wanted to see how grown-ups acted, in CinemaScope. Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor, the most beautiful people ever, on that giant image: It filled my head … Detroit was a great movie town then. We got Canadian TV, so I got to see stuff like La Dolce Vita, Jacques Demy’s Lola, 8½, all of them dubbed. Boccaccio ’70—these shorts by Fellini, De Sica, and Visconti—I must have seen that one twenty times.One of our problems as a culture is that a lot of our movies are made by men (mostly) who haven't grown up. That's why we have a lot of crappy superhero films and big-budget B-movies, but it's hard to find films about what life is actually like for most of us these days. (On the other hand, I liked "Iron Man.")
The Crisis of Credit visualized
Many people sent me this today. But that's because it's very good, created by a guy called Jonathan Jarvis as part of his thesis work in the Media Design Program, a graduate studio at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Give this guy his diploma already.
A snowy "Fire" music video, feat. cool tilt-shift
Fire (Jimmy Edgar Remix) from Erik West on Vimeo.
Artist: Codebreaker feat. Kathy Diamond
Directed, Shot and Edited by Erik West
Copyright 2009 Disco Demolition Records
Pretty awesome tiltshift video by Erik West. I haven't got tired of this technique yet.
None of the snow in this piece is simulated. I went out and show on the snowiest days of winter. The last scenes in the video were shot during a blizzard.
This was shot on a Canon Powershot SD630 Point & Shoot.
Additional footage was shot on a Sony EX1 by Jeff Thomas.
Posted using Final Cut, Photoshop, Motion and Color.
February 18, 2009
The End of Bling?
With reports like these about the ailing economy coming out daily, with no more lines to easy credit, and rising unemployment, when will this hit popular culture? Channels like MTV started off as an alternative to the polished world of regular TV, but now I can't think of a channel that better epitomizes the culture of showy capitalism. Artists showing off their huge mansions, reality shows about the young, dumb, and affluent, and endless (mostly hip-hop) videos of displayed wealth. When will the culture turn? When will showing bling (usually bought on credit from the record company against future record sales) just seem, you know, icky and out of touch? When will the fans revolt?
Here's a popular and stomach-churning example of what I'm on about.
One could argue that such songs represent dream fulfillment for their fans, much like the jet-set life of previous decade's stars appealed to legions of folks who could and would never attain that lifestyle. But I would say the difference is that the fame that accompanied older stars was sold as a different world that surrounded the person, that they had entered this world through talent, and it was there waiting for them. Now, we see stars dressed down like you and me, but sporting expensive items, driving expensive cars, and living in expensive homes. And for a lot of the fans, that was attainable through easy credit, and so they followed. Now the fans, like a lot of the stars, are screwed. So what now?
February 17, 2009
Beer + Violence + Metal = Fuck YEAH!!!
This is how I like it. Red Fang is a Portland, OR band who I know nothing about, but check out this video by Whitey McConnaughy. Thanks to Nik for the link.
February 16, 2009
Extreme tourism
Italian tourist turns up in Iraq, looking to tour the country. Iraqis are baffled. Who is this guy? And is he naive or just plain crazy?
"I am a tourist" were his first words. The telephone line from Falluja was bad, but there could be no mistake. Possibly Iraq's, and certainly Falluja's, first Western leisure visitor was in town.There's a delightful movie in this somewhere. That is, if he survives.
Not for long though. A guard at a checkpoint caught sight of Luca Marchio among the Iraqi passengers on a bus that was heading from Baghdad to the once-notorious - and still tense - western city and alerted his superiors.
Marchio, 33, a native of Como, Italy, soon found himself in the Falluja police headquarters surrounded by bewildered officers trying to make out why a Westerner would wander around their city without a translator or guards. Marchio may have worried the police, but his main concern was saving money.
In two telephone conversations with journalists, he brushed away concerns for his safety and offers of help. "I am a tourist," he said. "I want to see the most important cities in the country. That is the reason why I am here now.
February 13, 2009
Paul's Boutique, 20 years later, on Google Maps
View Larger Map
One of the benefits of buying the 20th Anniversary vinyl of Paul's Boutique is owning the 8-foot-long wraparound cover. Friend Nik and I were checking it out today and decided to see if we could find the same street corner on Google Maps. This is something I'm sure somebody else has thought of, but we didn't know. Anyway, It's only because of the super size album that I could see the cross-street is Ludlow and Rivington. Paul's Boutique is long gone, now replaced by Three Monkeys Shish Ke Bab. (That probably wouldn't be a good name for an album). We were able to match architecture and see what had changed, and what had not. If you have your old vinyl (or the new one, for $23.99! $17.99!!!) spend a few minutes playing spot the difference.
February 12, 2009
This Is Why You're Fat
A vomitous collection of some of the worst American foods out there. I have to admit, some of them probably taste really good (esp. if they use bacon). However, the above photo looks like a whole deep-sea fish flash fried and served up while it was puking its guts out. It's actually a "breakfast burrito."
Homemade Fan Vid for Trader Joe's
Spot on in many places, worth a chuckle, and uses one of my favorite songs.
February 1, 2009
Recent albums: January 2009
The latest stuff, found here and there.
Various Artists - Ngoma Vol. 2 (African house music, go figure)
Ami Marie - Verrückt Nach Glück
Brian Eno - Music For Prague (more of the same hour-long droney)
Andrew Hill - Point of Departure
Serge Gainsbourg - Du jazz dans le ravin
Philip Glass - Heroes Symphony
Howie B & Hubert Noi - Music For Astronauts And Cosmonauts (from emusic.com, but with terrible audio glitches, wtf!)
A.R. Rahman - Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack
Brian Eno & Peter Sinfield - In a Land Of Clear Colours (glad I didn't pay for this "rarity")
Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass - Passages
Zu - Carboniferous (amazing!!!)
The Undertones - True Confessions: Singles = A's + B's
Bobby Hutcherson - Dialogue
Don Cherry - Eternal Rhythm
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane - At Carnegie Hall
John Coltrane - Olé Coltrane
Robert Fripp & Brian Eno - Air Structures (yet another version of ye olde bootlegge)
Roland Bocquet - RCA - Robot Bleu
Akiko - A White Album
Not pictured: Roberto Cacciapaglia - Sei Note In Logica
