Happy Birthday Papa!
(via oh holli)
The Apotheosis of Brunch
With word starting to leak about the two-person, once-a-week brunch at Williamsburg butcher shop The Meat Hook, it’s no wonder it’s booked up until mid-year 2011. The $50 rezzie covers a marathon brunch for two, drinks included, with the caveat that the dishes keep coming till they get back an unfinished plate….Part ultra-exclusive meal, part psychological experiment and part hipster prank, it’s definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And by that, not only do we mean that it’s unique, but also that we’re not sure we’d ever do it again.
From Wikipedia: Parking Chairs
I was just curious if Clusterflock had a Wikipedia page (it doesn’t) and ran across this article on parking chairs during snowstorms (Clusterflock’s post is one of the external links at the end). It’s quite a thorough article, covering such nuances as “effort requirement”, “necessity requirement”, and “disregard of”. Good to review as we come into winter weather. Here’s an excerpt:
The practice is often most effective when accompanied by the threat or actual occurrence of a “look of consternation” from a vigilant, often elderly neighbor who “keeps watch” in their neighbor’s absence. While use is year-round, it is a particularly time-honored tradition in times of great snowfall accumulation, when a resident who “digs out” their spot on the street essentially declares eminent domain, which often goes unchallenged by neighbors for fear of retribution.
headline of the day
Girl Chimpanzees May Use Sticks as Dolls
Big Battle T34. Pachia Ammos (Παχειά Άμμος, Κρήτη) Crete.
Chicken on a Raft
The Aesthetics of the Digital Revolution
Thoughts on the transition from celluloid to digital at the end of the first 100 years of film:
“The Social Network,” “Black Swan” and “Tiny Furniture” couldn’t be more thematically dissimilar: one is an unlikely psychological thriller about the creation of Facebook; the second is a claustrophobic, darkly humorous art-house exploitation joyride about a ballerina pirouetting toward a breakdown; the last is an intimate, quasi-autobiographical movie about a recent college graduate adrift in New York City. What really unites them is that their digital cinematography is a constituent, expressive part of the whole. No longer used only as an inexpensive substitute for film, as a vehicle for special effects or as an aesthetic frontier for industry outsiders like David Lynch, digital has gone so mainstream it’s doubtful that most moviegoers, critics included, see it when it’s right in front of their eyes.
from the comments
I leave the things I give away outside the door.
Lunar Eclipse Tonight
The total phase of the upcoming event will be visible across all of North and South America, as well as the northern and western part of Europe, and a small part of northeast Asia, including Korea and much of Japan. Totality will also be visible in its entirety from the North Island of New Zealand and Hawaii — a potential viewing audience of about 1.5 billion people.
from the comments
I’d let the starlings shit in my mouth just to taste where they’ve been.
from the spam
I consider the bird demonizers to be beyond a nuisance, they are sub-humans.
For the Sounds of Death Drive Us Further South
In response to Deron’s question: can we stay here forever . . . despite freezing temperatures and snow even, I checked on the starlings last night and at least some are riding the winter out.
They are fleeing the above umbrella pine because the city of Rome hires these people to wear bunny suits and blare the most obnoxious & frightening sounds imaginable of birds or pigs being tortured. (If you don’t believe me see below fold.)
headline of the day
Grapevine megachurch premieres 3-D Christmas services
Iron Maiden (To the End of the World) | Lou Thompson
Okay, I know airplanes aren’t made out of iron, but hear me out.
I got to the airport a bit early for my 9 pm flight. Better early than late, right?
Lou is on her way down toward Antarctica and looking to stop in the Falklands on her way to or fro. This should be good. A travel blog from a long-time friend.
Traces Left Behind
(Inspired by India’s post about David Hoyt and the letter and the bloodstained map.)
Years ago, in connection with a historical exhibition I curated, I organized a body of the Chicago Public Library’s archives that contained library correspondence and other papers of a man named Carl Roden, who from 1918 to 1950 served as chief of the city’s library system and died in 1956.
Now you do this sort of work and have any sensitivity, you often find yourself growing fond of the dead whose dead letters you sort, and I formed an attachment to Mr. Roden. Such were the times that a number of people apparently regarded the Chief Librarian of a large metropolitan library system as a wise man. You would be astounded at the queries that came his way — many of which he answered directly in a distinctive voice and with a droll wit. I came to regard him as a favorite great-uncle.
One day as my work on Roden’s papers was drawing to a close, I discovered one of those personal items that we all have lurking somewhere in our work correspondence. It was a typed draft of a statement he evidently intended for his family, and it was by way of an apology for bungling financial affairs. He wrote of various bad investments he had made and so on. It was painful to read.
Scrawled in pencil in the margin of the typewritten draft were the words:
But know that I loved you very much.
I rested my head in my hands and sobbed.
Can we stay here forever?
The Birds That Bind
I never knew the old man’s name. The one whose strange, sweet birds glow at the top of my Christmas tree.
I don’t why I answered the ad. It popped from a page of email posts. Freecycle, Christmas ornaments. Something caught my eye. The syntax was formal, old-fashioned. It struck me as masculine, although I couldn’t say why. I surprised myself, I asked for them.
I drove to the house. He was loading boxes into a car. He wore all brown, cardigan, slacks, felt fedora, glasses. His mission was obvious. He was closing down the house after many years, turning it over to strangers.
I told him I was Freecycle Cece, there for the ornaments. He handed over a small box with shaking hands. I saw the birds on top. I remember gasping. I had never seen anything like them. He was silent, but he smiled. He had much work ahead.
I told him the ornaments were beautiful. That I would treasure them. I got into the car and watched him shuffle through the tidy yard.
Every year at this time, the birds circle the top of my tree. I am as careful with them as the heirloom ornaments my mother-in-law gave us, some of which came from Germany years ago. I carefully thread the wire feet of the birds onto their branch perches. They are bound forever by thin green wires. As I am to the old man whose name I never knew.
Murdered Kansas Abolitionist David Hoyt’s Bloodstained Map and Condolence Letter
What he was doing in the area is not entirely clear. Some reports indicate that he was attempting to negotiate a truce with proslavery elements; others suggest that he was “testing” the intentions of Southerners in Lawrence by entering a proslavery gathering unarmed.
The Cowan’s Auctions copywriter continues,
Included with the lot is a 3pp letter, 5 x 8″, Leominster, 11 Sept. 1856. The letter is from James F. Legate to the parents of David Hoyt expressing his condolences and trying offer some solace in the idea that their son gave his life …that Freedom might live….Take comfort for he died that Liberty might come to the oppressed people of Kansas…. Incredibly, he also asks Hoyt’s parents if they know anyone else who will come carry on the fight: I have been laboring ever since in the State to get a party to go back with me. Has he no friends to go & do battle for which he fell a [martyr]? If so I’ll take them to the spot where he yielded his young, useful life….
Both map and letter sold last month for a mere $705.
Possible moral of the story: Do not “test” the intentions of Southerners while unarmed.
(Via SC.)
Robert Pete Williams | Grown So Ugly
“Baby, this ain’t me.”
One of the greatest sources of the great Don Van Vliet’s greatness.
Baby, this ain’t me.
quote out of context
Fred Leuchter, electric-chair repairman and Holocaust denier, smokes constantly but won’t be filmed with a cigarette. He explains, “You have to understand, Errol. I’m a role model for children.”
(thanks, Sheila)
World Record: Fastest Time To Recite “To Be Or Not To Be” Soliloquy While Shaking A Shake Weight
Christmas concert performed entirely on iOS devices
I approve of Christmas music performed entirely on iPads and iPhones.
Frozen Lighthouse on Lake Erie
fyi
Apparently I’m living the dream
I guess it’s a promo for a TV show on a cable channel I don’t get.
