Mouse
(via)
Catch Me If You Can II
Her mind raced through her options. On the one hand, she had a purse full of proof that she was Brooke: her student ID, a Vermont driver’s license, a U.S. passport, an Ohio identification card, a South Carolina birth certificate. She had a part-time job, a rented apartment not far from campus on New York’s Upper West Side and a full course load at Columbia, all registered under the name Brooke Henson.
On the other hand, she wasn’t Brooke Henson.
(Thanks to Andrew Bailey)
Outdoor Printing
African immigrants in southern Italy
The riots in Rosarno, which reportedly began after three Italian teenagers fired air rifles at two African immigrants, unsettled a nation that prides itself on its bella figura – the beautiful image. About 2,500 migrants live in the Rosarno valley in the southern Calabria region, moving with the seasonal agricultural jobs. Many have political asylum or are otherwise legally in Italy, but legal or not, the migrants are managed by a Mafia-run employment system, the caporalato, that operates like a 21st century chain gang. Saviano says that those who object to low wages or poor working conditions are simply eliminated – and not just by a pink slip. “It’s a military system,” Saviano tells TIME in Rome as one of the plainclothes cops guarding him stands nearby. “The farm and factory owners employ the Mafia caporali to bring the workers. The immigrants wait on the roads, the caporali pick them up and take them to the work. If they complain, they get killed.”
photo out of context
Electromagnetic Sensitivity
Arthur Firstenberg has filed a lawsuit against his neighbor for her use of electronic devices.
He’s part of a group of Santa Fe residents who are pursuing legal means to remove all Wi-Fi hotspots from public locations because they claim the wireless internet waves aggravate their “electromagnetic allergies.” To add merit to their case, they are classifying their “allergy” or “sensitivity” as a disability and are claiming the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination based on disability.
RFD-TV
A 24-hour rural cable channel with 13 million weekly viewers.
One of RFD’s biggest hits is a Larry King Live copy called RFD TV Live. Instead of Tyra Banks or Bono, executives from John Deere show up to chat about their new tractor line.
The network carries 92 such programs, most produced independently with advertising or underwriting from marketers like Wrangler Jeans, General Mills and Monsanto. There are shows on bull riding and women’s pro rodeo. On Animal Makeover, sponsored by Ralston Purina, the topics include crawfish farming, creating a well-lit rabbit hutch, how to prevent gallstones in goats and tips on grooming show lambs. In a segment on hay, equine nutritionist Katie Young kneels in front of a horse pen and offers tips for the buyer (hay stems should be narrow, soft and pliable to the touch). Horses who snack on stale greens will get chubby–”grass belly,” she calls it.
Vintage L.L. Bean
This stuff always reminds me of my great-grandfather. I doubt Cedar Grove TN would have had snows that deep, but in my mind he was who they were designing for…
Don’t answer that
At what point is a person’s response to human suffering so vile, so self-serving, that he no longer receives corporate sponsorship? That the people who watch or listen to him find themselves diminished to such an extent they no longer stomach it?
Simon Says
The Wire was not about Jimmy McNulty. Or Avon Barksdale. Or Marlo Stanfield, or Tommy Carcetti or Gus Haynes. It was not about crime. Or punishment. Or the drug war. Or politics. Or race. Or education, labour relations or journalism. It was about The City. It is how we in the West live at the millennium, an urbanised species compacted together, sharing a common love, awe, and fear of what we have rendered. The Wiredepicts a world in which capital has triumphed completely. A world in which the rules and values of the free market and maximised profit have been mistaken for a social framework, a world where institutions themselves are paramount and every day, human beings matter less.
– David Simon, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald.
I lent a friend my complete series of The Wire, warning him to allow himself at least a week for full consumption. I recall hearing back from him maybe 30 hours later; he was on Season Three. All he wants to do now is talk about the show’s implications — implications for newspapers, schools, cities, etc. He sent me an email after finishing Season Five with a note reading, “I went to the Baltimore Sun web site right afterwards and, while the credits were still rolling, read that the mayor resigned last week because she illegally was taking money from developers.”
That’s the best part of this show, I think — passing it along and watching someone else experience what you felt that first time around.
(via)
Naughty Disney
As Phil observed, it feels like a party in here today, so it seems fitting to share the storied Disney orgy along with its creator’s explanation:
Disney had been their Creator, and he had repressed all their baser instincts, but now that he had departed, they could finally shed their cumulative inhibitions and participate together in an unspeakable Roman binge, to signify the crumbling of an empire. I contacted Wally Wood — who had illustrated the first piece I sold to Madmagazine — “If Comic Strip Characters Answered Those Little Ads in the Back of Comic Books” — and, without mentioning any specific details, I told him my general notion of a memorial orgy at Disneyland to be published in The Realist. He accepted the assignment and presented me with a magnificently degenerate montage.
The paragraph following that one expands on the raunch. You have been warned.
Johnson Dynasty
Another member of the Johnson dynasty is writer/drawler/drummer Zach Johnson, who writes very well at any age, but particularly well on the site of his cousin Rian Johnson (dir. of Brick, The Brothers Bloom.) This bit is from 2005, I believe:
I’ve been short with my mom all day, too. I dunno why. She asked me to unload the dishes and I didn’t answer her. “Zach?” she said. “Ok,” I said. Earlier she was asking me to clean my room sometime this summer, which is a very reasonable thing to ask considering the state of my room, but before saying it she said this: “I didn’t want to ask you, because I didn’t want to bother you with something like cleaning your room when you were busy, but you always seem so tired or busy that I never know when to ask you.” I was playing the piano, and she was hesitant to ask me to clean my room sometime this summer because she didn’t want me to get irritable. I’m very irritable a lot of the time when I am doing nothing in particular.
I wanted to cry then, too. I get the feeling that a lot of people have been short with my mom throughout the years because she is so soft-spoken and loyal. It can be very easy to brush-off the people who love you the most without even giving it much thought. You know they’ll always love you, and so you don’t have to worry about being loving towards them if it’s not convenient at the moment. And they keep on loving you, and they hope you won’t be short with them, and they are overjoyed when you are just nice to them. It makes me want to cry whenever I see that my mom is happy just because I wasn’t short with her. It makes me feel like puking.
(via)
What’s so good about Johnson’s writing, and especially his tour diaries , is the way he portrays himself. Much of the writing I’ve read in recent years is about the lies you tell about yourself. Johnson’s writing is more like telling other people the lies you tell yourself.
I Want to Live Here
See more pictures of tiny solar houses here.
Wes Anderson’s Stop Motion Acceptance Speech
Another reason to still love Wes Anderson. (via)
Quote out of context
When Rogozov had made the incision and was manipulating his own innards as he removed the appendix, his intestine gurgled, which was highly unpleasant for us.
Meet the Flockers: Joseph Logan
When the sun cast its golden rays on the foothills at daybreak today, I thought, “Today is my first day as a Flocker. Anything is possible.” Rick Neece and Deron Bauman made it so; for that, I am deeply grateful.
With thanks to Josh for the format, here’s what’s up:
Origins:
My surname is Scot-Irish. It has no discernible relevance to who I am.
Interests:
My background is in the theory of organizations. I’m interested in aggregate behavior, and I talk about it here. After working in a big corporation for several years, I now spend most of my time helping start-ups become going concerns. Aside from my work, which is really not work at all (because I’m a big ol’ org geek), I’m interested in Southern culture, foreign affairs, politics, visual design, the music of Tom Waits, the photography of William Eggleston, classic spy novels, and culinary arts. I recently decided to swear off alcohol, which I enjoyed immensely, but I still like fine food. Incidentally, I am trying to figure out a good nonalcoholic pairing for rare steak topped with caramelized onions in a red wine reduction. Suggestions are appreciated.
Location:
I grew up in McKenzie TN, about which I have written as Christopher Walken (see “Courthouse Envy”). My first job there was in a factory that made mobile homes. I drove a dump truck. That factory has since burned to the ground.
In the years since, I have lived in Memphis, Nashville, Lexington KY, Washington DC, Wilmington DE, and the Boston area (Cambridge, Josh. Would have loved to live in the post-molasses North End, though). My wife and I recently moved to Denver CO after having lived in The Hague, Netherlands, for 2.5yrs. While there, I shared a doctor with Slobodan Milosevic.
We now live about a mile from Columbine High School and about five miles from Red Rocks.
Religion:
I grew up in a Southern Baptist church and a Methodist church, which should explain my atheism and disinterest.
Family:
My wife, Ronya, is my best friend and one of the coolest people I know. We are the proud parents of three cats: Cassius, Luna, and June Carter.
Like Josh, I have experienced an unusual amount of family and friend death in the last couple of years. The most disturbing loss was that of my grand-uncle and best friend last spring. He penned the letter to the editor in “Courthouse Envy”, and his writings are likely to pop up again.
American Authors:
Not sure if American Authors is the ‘Flock tradition, but I realized upon contemplation that I don’t read many American Authors. William Faulkner and Walker Percy are two, but I’m also fond of the science fiction of Orson Scott Card and Neal Stephenson as well as the graphic adaptations of Batman by Neil Gaiman, Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale, and others. I’ll think of half a dozen other American authors I love as soon as I click “Publish”.
Across the pond, I’ve enjoyed Forsythe, le Carré, Faulks, and Greene, as well as some of the older classics. For nonfiction, I enjoy the travel writing of Bill Bryson, Stuart Maconie, and Chuck Thompson. I won’t bore you with the obscure names of the org theory writers I like.
Age:
I just turned 40. It was no big deal.
Lurking about:
I’ve been moonlighting as Christopher Walken for far less time than Josh, but I’ve been a fan for a long time. I’m truly honored to be here.
Conclusion:
Hmmm… What’s left to say? I promise, to the best of my abilities, to protect, preserve, and defend the ethos of Clusterflock…
Quote out of context
Fucking C3PO, the pussiest of all Star Wars Characters!
Custom Bertelli Bicycles
via coudal
the first good Apple mouse I’ve used
I downgraded my computer in order to buy some camera equipment and the new computer — a refurbished 21.5″ iMac — came with the new touch-sensitive Apple mouse. I’m loving the computer overall and would recommend it to anyone who needs a compact, all in one, snappy, (beautiful) inexpensive set-up. But what I really wanted to talk about is the mouse.
Y chromosome evolving quickly
A new study comparing the Y chromosomes from humans and chimpanzees, our nearest living relatives, show that they are about 30 percent different. That is far greater than the 2 percent difference between the rest of the human genetic code and that of the chimp’s, according to a study appearing online Wednesday in the journal Nature.
These changes occurred in the last 6 million years or so, relatively recently when it comes to evolution.
“The Y chromosome appears to be the most rapidly evolving of the human chromosomes,” said study co-author Dr. David Page, director of the prestigious Whitehead Institute in Cambridge and a professor of biology at MIT. “It’s an almost ongoing churning of gene reconstruction. It’s like a house that’s constantly being rebuilt.”
Rembrandt in the bathroom
The Very Rev. David M. O’Connell found a Rembrandt in his bathroom.
In the frame was a tiny etching of an old man with an unruly beard and billowing hat, composed of thousands of fine lines. His eyes are tired. His head nods toward his chest.
The piece is signed “Rembrandt.”
The Very.
dear clusterflock
The Texas part of me was challenged.
from the spam
earnest and zealous advocacy of the principles of abolition. He was a white man. This gentleman had a large family of sons and daughters. A feeling of friendship sprung up between one of his daughters and myself on the occasion of this visit, which feeling eventually ripened into emotions of a higher and more interesting character. The father welcomed me: the mother was long since deceased. The parties immediately concerned were satisfied — why should other
spam name
Looker Horesco.
See The Flockers: Josh Weichhand
This is me in 2007. The lack of a face and the t-shirt seem to be appropriate metaphors.
This is me a couple weeks ago after movie-hopping with a flask and my best girl.
