How To Report The News
logo out of context
Dr. Dick views his role as your dental coach.
a thousand faces, 4
Sheila in the surf
Chincoteague Island. 1965.
Babies
Interview with Jay Baruchel
He’s that one guy, you know, you’d recognize him if you saw him. In Knocked Up, and She’s Out of My League? Anyway, I did an interview with him in L.A. that I am proud of since we didn’t really talk about anything one is “supposed” to talk about in these situations.
AM: What do you think of Los Angeles?
JB: The thing is, I’ve been coming here on and off for 10 years. And I have more friends here than I do back home, and I often stay with friends here. If someone else is footing the bill, I’ll stay at a hotel; if not, I’ll stay with friends, but it’s just not my home. It’s just like, I’m one of the minority of people who doesn’t like hot weather, this has been driving me crazy this past week. And also I miss walking, you can’t do that here at all. And if you’re walking here, the streets are so damn long, and you’re the only guy on the street and every driver is staring at you and they think you’re a junkie or something.
I love this stuff. As Max Fischer might say, “You just gotta find something you love and then do it for the rest of your life.”
Update: We only had ten minutes.
@
The French and Italians have nicknamed it the “snail.” The Norwegians have plumped for “pig’s tail,” the Germans “monkey’s tail,” and the Chinese “little mouse.” The Russians think of it as a dog, and the Finns as a slumbering cat.
flame throwing scooter
I think it’s pretty obvious that I need this.
from the comments
When I was very little I had a book in which rabbits were using ladders to try to paint very large eggs. The colors in that book captured me like a note sounded on a piano in a quiet room can. I fell into those colors every time I looked at them, and I wanted to look at them again and again. I don’t know the title of that book or what became of it.
dear clusterflock
Imagine someone offered you the chance to hear the most beautiful three minute song in the world. It would not be repeated, no one else would hear it, you could never quite recall it or talk about it but for three minutes you would be hearing something absolutely perfect. Would you do it?
experience points as grades
Students at several of Indiana University’s game design courses begin their class with zero “experience points,” which corresponds to an F grade. Instead of completing presentations, they’ll perform “quests;” sitting exams becomes “fighting monsters;” and handing in assignments becomes “crafting.” Students even team up into “guilds” to tackle group projects.
They’ve simply renamed tests and grades, but the idea is worth exploring.
From the comments
My first week (in 1986) at Saks, there was an event, at the store, called “Riding High with SFA.” It was a Western themed, anniversary event. (Marking the fifth anniversary of Saks on the Plaza.) Our visual merchandising team, Michael, John and I instantly dubbed each other with nicknames for the week. There was Michael-Bob, John-boy, and when we came to me, Michael said, “Rickroy.” We set all the mannequins in the store in Western-ish attire (there was a fashion spasm in that direction at the time). We set piles of televisions stacked on top of each other with mannequins sitting on top of the piles in the windows. There were speakers installed in the canopies over the windows on the sidewalk. The TVs were threaded together to a VCR where we had John Wayne in The Cowboys playing 24-7. I remember, when we went outside to look at the “finished product” we were out there at the exact time in the movie where (was it John Wayne? or maybe one of the cohort of lost boys he had cobbled together to make the cattle-run from someplace south to someplace north.) Whomever it was, the scene was “Say it, say it.” The poor stuttering member of the lost group said, “F-f-f-f-f-FUCK!” to cheers all ’round from his compadres.
I think I said to Michael, “You know this idn’t gon’ fly.” Michael shrugged. We let it stand. I don’t remember anyone complaining.
more rock
You are going to see a lot of thoughtful yet disparate sorts of people linking to this article, I think.
I’m suggesting that the written word — and to some extent the spoken word — is speaking to your intellect. Your intellect has a relationship to the whole mind, for sure, but it’s a little bit apart, it’s kind of its own thing. It’s a great thing, but it’s kind of its own thing. Meanwhile, images, sounds, music, patterns, motion — these things are speaking directly to your whole mind, often without troubling the intellect.
It toys with a few of my pet ideas about visual language and rhetoric, but takes the next step and parses the fundamental language of video games. That said, even if you aren’t into games, you really ought to read it.
the evolution of flash mobs?
In the most recent mob, on Saturday night, witnesses estimated as many as 2,000 teenagers thronged the narrow sidewalks, blocked traffic, jumped on cars and roughed up bystanders around South Street, a 10-block strip of bars, clothing stores, pizzerias and cheesesteak joints that has long been a hangout for teens and 20-somethings.
Zimoun
Sound sculptures from Zimoun, definitely headphones worthy. (via)
happiness
Honestly, this seems about right:
“I’ve found that your chances for happiness are increased if you wind up doing something that is a reflection of what you loved most when you were somewhere between nine and eleven years old. At that age, you know enough of the world to have opinions about things, but you’re not old enough yet to be overly influenced by the crowd or by what other people are doing or what you think you “should” be doing. If what you do later on ties into that reservoir in some way, then you are nurturing some essential part of yourself.”
The problem is, without any professional experience, it’s nearly impossible to break into the lego construction business and the market for killing Nazis with stick guns popped at the beginning of the housing crisis.
The, um, Taurus
The Taurus, designed by Erik Lanuza, is pretty much a Segway with a seat (you even control it by leaning forward and back). This alone puts it way closer to a Tron light-cycle than the stand-on dork-mobile. Lanuza sees it as space-efficient, zero-emission vehicle for cities.
From The DSM-5 Disorder Quiz
11. Infracaninophilia — compulsively supporting individuals or teams perceived as likely to lose competitions
(via marginal revolution)
Dear Clusterflock
What was your favorite children’s book?
With love from “Uninhabitable”
Some Glasgow Cafés
momma don’t take my suv away
Shortly before 4 p.m. Monday, a man seeking to repossess the 2001 Ford Expedition of 28-year-old Krystal Gardner arrived at her home in the 10000 block of Landsdowne Drive in southeast Dallas, police said.
As the repo man, Luke Ross, was backing out of the driveway, Gardner tossed her 1-year-old child through an open window into the back seat of the moving sport utility vehicle, according to police reports. State law prevents vehicles from being repossessed if someone is inside.
And, if you can believe it, there’s more.
Health care: what you talking about, Willis?
Perhaps Obama’s most egregious error was appointing Gary Coleman as Health Care Reform Czar.
Mamet on dramatic writing
A memo to the writing staff of the now defunct show, The Unit, by David Mamet. The entire thing is pure gold:
SO: WE, THE WRITERS, MUST ASK OURSELVES OF EVERY SCENE THESE THREE QUESTIONS.
1) WHO WANTS WHAT?
2) WHAT HAPPENS IF HER DON’T GET IT?
3) WHY NOW?THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS ARE LITMUS PAPER. APPLY THEM, AND THEIR ANSWER WILL TELL YOU IF THE SCENE IS DRAMATIC OR NOT.
How Google Worked in 1931
Click the sketch to enlarge.
UPDATE: The enlarged photo is no longer private. Alternatively, you can see it on Dave’s page. – A.S.
