The youthful departed
The lately mourned John Polidori was fortunate enough to see The Vampyre into print before his untimely demise, but is there any hope for the publication of his sketchbook?
Polidori's antipathy to Percy Bysshe Shelley is apparent in this late drawing.
Disagreement turns deadly?
There are unconfirmed reports that, during a disagreement over English involvement in the fight for Greek independence, noted poet and roue George Gordon, Lord Byron has beheaded poet and novelist Sir Walter Scott at Missalonghi.
Dandys and Fops: Extinct species — or alive and well?
What does the dandy do when he wakes up early in the afternoon? Does he moon over beauty and contemplate the eternal verities? Does he jot down a few bons mots? Does he man the barricades to protest our vulgar, bourgeois and consumerist society? Does he pine for the days when men wore knee breeches and silk stockings?
No, the true dandy does none of these things.
The dandy goes to his bath and scrubs himself clean, shaves, brushes his teeth, and arranges any stray hairs. Then he adorns himself, examining each detail in his mirror – the dimple in his tie, the shine on his shoes, the puff of his pocket square, the precision of his trouser crease, the bloom of his boutonniere, the harmony and balance of all the components of his ensemble – until he gets it just right. When he finally departs his home, he is a habitué not of the salon, opera, theatre, museum, concert hall, casino, restaurant or club to which he may or may not arrive, but of his tailor and haberdasher.
For the dandy is a man with visible good taste. Dressing well is his hallmark. Strip a dandy of his clothes and what do you have?
Be the first
on your block to own the 2nd installment (Cantos III, IV, & V) of Lord Byron’s comic classic in the making Don Juan. First edition of 1500 now on sale at Thomas Davison’s, Whitefriars, London.
The sly scoundrel returns.
Nosferatu dancing to Lady Ga Ga
A little pop music from 1801
Everything is a source of fun
Nobody’s safe, for we care for none
Life is a joke that’s just begun
his name is Fraticelli
Matthew Fraticelli, 30, and Stephanie Shinn, 35, of Sacramento were arrested early Wednesday and face charges of attempted arson of a federal facility and possession of an unregistered destructive device, Sacramento Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Steve Dupre said.
Dupre said the object was actually a Heineken five-liter draught keg with the word “Fraticelli” written in bold black ink on the side. Inside the keg was one gallon of a flammable liquid. Attached to the side of the keg with duct tape was a pill bottle that had what appeared to be an M-80 protruding from the lid.
First Barbary War (May 1801-1805)
The First Barbary War (1801 – 1805, also known as the Barbary Coast War or the Tripolitan War) was one of two wars fought between the United States of America and the semi-autonomous North African city-states of Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, known collectively as the Barbary States. It was the first war declared under the United States Constitution.
Who said that the 19th Century wasn’t fascinating!
Aeolian harp
it ain’t. But it’s non-electric.
It’s gone really really quiet around here, suddenly
Testing. Testing. La la la.
Clinton as Gore
Za Besto
From David Byrne’s amazing blog:
Even high-end chefs love simple, fresh food that’s well made. In Japan there are fierce discussions over which soba and ramen joints are “za besto.” One could easily say that some of those places also qualify as being “best in the world,” but they’re not in the running for the S.Pellegrino list. One would need a huge number of categories in order to list all these places.
Where I live in Philadelphia, debates run fierce about the location of the best cheesesteak or roast pork sandwich, and people are much more passionate about this than who should get a Michelin star. What’s the equivalent dish where ever you are? Which restaurant that makes it is “za besto” for you? And is it more important to you than your city’s high-end cuisine?
clusterflockstock
As may or may not be apparent, about fourteen of those who contribute to clusterflock will be meeting in North Texas this weekend for a real-world get together. Most of us have never met in person and those of us who have haven’t necessarily met the others. Or whatever. The main thing is, we’re really looking forward to it. The irony is, we really won’t have internet access, so, posting will be left to those who, sadly, won’t be able to attend, and Christopher Walken.
from the comments
Last summer on vacation with friends for a wedding, I took to reading portions of Moby Dick aloud. That was fun. The best part was when Stubb is yelling to his boatcrew to “Pull, me hearties, pull! Pull!” I read that bit late at night when we couldn’t sleep for excitement. Later, when the bride was quite stressed, I read some of the less exciting bits about ropes to help calm her mind. She woke from a late morning nap to tell me that she was in and out concentrating on ropes. I don’t read aloud in character too well — I forget to stay in voice, or wind up to a complicated voice and pause too long in character creation — stumbling the story.
Upside Down Goose
sweet sexy people person
“It’s interesting that the degree to which we find social interaction rewarding relates to the structure of our brains in regions that are important for simple biological drives such as foods, sweet liquids and sex. Perhaps this gives us a clue to how complex features like sentimentality and affection evolved from structures that in lower animals originally were only important for basic biological survival processes,” research leader Dr. Graham Murray, of the University of Cambridge in England, said in a university news release.
a perfectly restored building fighting simple birds
From my Hamburg friend, scream62,5. Like me, he uses his phone for seeing, not for speaking.
Colbert and the Keyboard Cat
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M – Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Daily/Colbert – Keyboard Cat | ||||
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(via Cynical-C) See, also, our earlier thread on the subject.
Trico (creators’ of Ico/Shadow of the Colossus)
Is it okay for a grown man to “squee?” (via Waxy)
super-recognizers
A new study suggests facial recognition falls along a broad spectrum, with a category of super-recognizers at one end.
“Super-recognizers have these extreme stories of recognizing people,” says Russell. “They recognize a person who was shopping in the same store with them two months ago, for example, even if they didn’t speak to the person. It doesn’t have to be a significant interaction; they really stand out in terms of their ability to remember the people who were actually less significant.”
One woman in the new study said she had identified another woman on the street who served as her as a waitress five years earlier in a different city. Critically, she was able to confirm that the other woman had in fact been a waitress in the different city.
australian doctor saves boy’s life with electric drill
Nicholas Rossi fell off his bike on Friday in the small Victoria state city of Maryborough, hitting his head on the pavement, his father, Michael, said Wednesday. By the time Rossi got to the hospital, he was slipping in and out of consciousness.
The doctor on duty, Rob Carson, quickly recognized the boy was experiencing potentially fatal bleeding on the brain and knew he had only minutes to make a hole in the boy’s skull to relieve the pressure.
But the small hospital was not equipped with neurological drills — so Carson sent for a household drill from the maintenance room.
“Dr. Carson came over to us and said, ‘I am going to have to drill into (Nicholas) to relieve the pressure on the brain — we’ve got one shot at this and one shot only,’” Michael Rossi told The Australian newspaper.
Carson called a neurosurgeon in the state capital of Melbourne for help, who talked Carson through the procedure — which he had never before attempted — by telling him where to aim the drill and how deep to go.
Who’s the faggot behind the camera?
Three Goats
Oh, and thats the mosque in Djenné behind them, the largest mud structure in the world.
quote out of context
This change, my friends, is being delivered in a tea bag. And that’s a wonderful thing.
