monkey Shakespeare
If you sit monkeys at a computer, will they type the works of the Bard? No, they will partially destroy the machine, use it as a lavatory and mostly type the letter “s”.
from the comments
And I had a postcard once that I wish I could find again. It featured a park at the center of some town in Wisconsin (or some nearby state), and the results of the annual fox roundup. Apparently the whole population of the town would get out, form a large circle of beaters around the town, herd all of the foxes into the park–where all the little boys were put to work with clubs to bash the foxes. The postcard shows the jovial crowd looking on with approval as a boy with a club poses, foot resting on a pile of fur and legs and noses. This is the way humans invented evil, in my view. Or at least an indication of how people don’t see evil when they are doing it, but then do when it is turned on them.
cypress
We got a tiny cypress in a pot – to be planted outside later on. Meanwhile, we have a Christmas tree which is scarcely larger than an ornament.
spam name
Letitia Chacon.
German Hairless
The original vulcanite had begun to peel and crack, so I made a preemptive decision. Its new skin is on its way from Japan.
spam name
Flossie Gunter.
“in the luminous gloom we whispered jokes”
From Life in a Scotch Sitting Room, Vol. 2 | Episode One (Ivor Cutler), a reading of which you can listen to here.
"in the luminous gloom we whispered jokes"
Although it had a pattern, crumbs on the carpet weren’t wanted. We were obliged to kneel and eat cream crackers with butter and Gouda with a white plate with our heads inside the sideboard. This was a treat because there was room for four, and in the luminous gloom we whispered jokes, so that when laughter rose, showers of buttery, spitty crumbs flew out our mouths like starlings and lodged against the aromatic mahogany, second-magnitude stars. If somebody choked, you got quite big bits.
Harvest recording released 1978. Recorded at 3rd Eye Centre, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, 7 July 1977–9 July 1977. Rev-Ola CD issued 2002.
Life in a Scotch Sitting Room, Vol. 2 first published in 1984 by Methuen with illustrations by Martin Honeysett.
Self-Control
O What A Year
One year of Oprah’s magazine all layered together.
(found here, via gree)
Edward Cullen is Adam-God
John Granger makes a compelling case for why Twilight isn’t just mindless fluff.*
In a nutshell, Bella is Eve and Edward is the Adam-God of Mormon theology. Their “Fall”—when Bella/Eve/Man chooses the apple from the tray of Edward/Adam/God, although rife with dangers and difficulties, is the beginning of a spiritual transformation culminated by an alchemical wedding with the God-Man. The story is a romantic allegory depicting the roles and responsibilities of the divine and human lovers, but it has the specifically Mormon hermetic twist that sex within marriage is the endgame and the only means to personal salvation and immortal life.
The article is actually quite fascinating, I’ve read it twice. Bonus points: send it to your Christian sister who doesn’t want her kids to read those sexy vampire books.
(*You might find it hard to read if you struggle with concentrating on black text on a white background sans photographs and ads.)
Scottish money
The three main banks here print their own money
Maison Hermès Window Display
Based on a window display he first presented in 2004, the japanese designer tokujin yoshioka has now restructured it using a japanese actress currently being presented at Maison Hermès, japan. the installation will run from now until january 19th, 2010.
‘on designing a window-display of Maison Hermès, I intended to express people’s daily ‘movements’ with a suspicion of humor. there are moments when I perceive a hidden presence of a person in the movements born naturally in daily life. I created a design where one can perceive someone behind the scarves as if life were being breathed into them. the window is designed with an image of woman projected on to a monitor. the scarf softly sways
in the air in response to the woman’s blow. ‘ – TY
(Via designboom)
Tavi & Joanna and Rei Kawakubo
(Joanna Newsom via Boner Party)
Comme des Garçons is headed up by Rei Kawakubo, who personally invited Tavi over to Japan and let her pick out six items. Tavi is 13, she writes a fashion blog and has always worshipped Kawakubo’s fashion sense.
Joanna Newsom is dating Andy Samburg, star of SNL. But she used to date Bill Callahan, who performs musically as Smog, as well as Noah Georgeson who produced her first record and also produced for Devendra Banhart. Georgeson says this: “From the autumn of 1999 until the spring of 2004 I lived in the first floor apartment in a Victorian house on Castro Street in San Francisco. At first, I lived alone in a room that was about the right size for an infant to feel comfortable, and that had, in fact, once been a nursery. After a while, I moved into the room down the hall from the nursery. It was bigger and I shared it with my girlfriend Joanna and her harp and all the collected materials of our lives. Among the waves of our life in this room, Joanna wrote most of the songs that ended up being her first album, and I wrote these songs.“ Joanna Newsom’s second cousin is Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco. Girlfriend plays the harp and writes 20 minute songs about mythical islands.
Both Ms. Newsom and Ms. Gevinson are in Comme des Garçons jackets.
Oh hell no, I have no idea what it means, this information rolls around in my head all day. But I thought it was interesting.
The Virtual Nook
quote out of context
Note the classic, ‘the visionary failed because others lacked idealism’ story. Meanwhile the visionary is off on an anchovy-fishing expedition.
it’s one of those life changing books
When each bucket in his five bathrooms is full, he empties it in the compost pile in his backyard in rural Pennsylvania. Eventually he takes the resulting soil and spreads it over his vegetable garden as fertilizer.
The World of Ivor Cutler
Toilet rolls. Ivor Cutler.
The World of Ivor Cutler features photographs of Ivor Cutler’s flat, taken by Ivor Cutler. Captions by Ivor Cutler. These were originally sent by Ivor to his friend John Knutas, with whom Ivor had a correspondence over many years.
You can find the series at ivorcutler.org.
This one’s called old man contemplating goat’s butt
think Roomba
From an article about the legal, social, and ethical consequences of living with robots:
After returning to visit the Stanford hospital several years later, Horvitz noticed a sign hanging above the spot where he had his harrowing experience. It read: “Please Do Not Board The Elevator With The Robot.”
Amy, waking up
There’s no room at the inn, Jasper. What you going to do? Have your baby in a fucking manger.
feel free to let your right wing uncle know
“After conducting additional research into this situation, we have verified, according to flight manifests [legally binding documents] that the individual that allegedly created a first-hand account of events on-board AirTran Airways Flight 297, a Theodore Petruna, was never actually on-board the flight,” AirTran said in a statement, which the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was the first to obtain.
Also, our Muslim President preempted the Charlie Brown Christmas Special not to outline his intentions in Afghanistan but, rather, to denounce the legitimacy of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
from an article on animal cruelty, rat cooking, and diminishing celebrity
“I’m a Celebrity” strands C-list celebrities in the Australian Outback, subjects them to a series of icky trials involving spiders and snakes, and allows the public to vote them off the show one by one.
Jeff Mermelstein
It takes a bit for this to get going, but his photography is beautiful and shows the potential overlap between art, commerce, life, and journalism.
spam names
Salvador Dillard.
Avery Ponce.
Jesus Christ jury duty
Efforts to reach Christ for comment were unsuccessful.
