help help help help
Glenn Beck is moving to Dallas.
I’d be more curious about the photo in context.
Cat Power – Rockets
All it takes is the first three chords to be transported back to the 90s.
tweet of the day
headline of the day
Scientists find first superbug strain of gonorrhea
from the comments
Elvish anger has been mounting for centuries. By the late nineteenth century, it had risen to a fair pitch. Those twee illustrations in all of those books kept under glass on shelves in the parlor. And it just got worse and worse. By the middle of the twentieth century they had Disney and Golden Books to contend with, so the only real mystery is how they were able to keep a lid on their fury till now.
Everything I do is an expression of my creativity
quote out of context
My entire life exists on a hard drive and after my death, eventually the hard drive will die. Instead of putting my money into archival prints, I want to put it into these magazines. It will include the work of other photographers whose work won’t get seen elsewhere. Perhaps in editions of 500. The idea that one of these magazines might slip behind a cupboard and gather an inch of dust, but survive is very appealing to me.
from the comments
One thing the seemingly bloodied yarrow umbrel you picked brought to mind was this: evolution: the plants are looking for wounds to staunch, so the valued medicinal property will rescue them from the oblivion of tall grasses.
photo out of context
Sorry about that dog video
Here’s a cute and totally uncreepy video of a kitten:
tweet of the day
Achillea millefolium
“Common yarrow [Achillea millefolium] is frequently found in the mildly disturbed soil of grasslands and open forests.”
I snipped my yarrow at midnight by the light of the moon, standing in grasses up to my chin.
Other names for yarrow are devil’s nettle, sanguinary, milfoil, and soldier’s woundwort.
I especially like sanguinary, as one traditional use of yarrow is the stanching of wounds. When I got my yarrow indoors under lamplight, I noticed that one of the blossom clusters was tinged with something that looked like a blood clot.
Which makes the odd splotch on my chin in this mobile phone photo all the more interesting to me.
spam name
‘Lance Mitts’
quote out of context
Astronomers will celebrate a remarkable event on 11 July. It will be exactly one year since the planet Neptune was discovered.
headline of the day
Icelandic town hopes angry elves have been soothed by songs
I get the news I need from the weather report
‘In Cookie-Monster related news’
Tim Carmody on Cookie Monster:
Not to get all Lacanian up in this mug, but it’s all about the mouth, and the regulation of desire in accordance with learning of language and letters.
Renaissance humanist Desiderius Erasmus thought the best way to teach children how to learn the alphabet was to bake letter-shaped cookies for them to eat. I know one monster who would definitely approve.
I am a cat lover and I love to run
This woman loves cats. She tells us all about it in her eharmony video. And The Gregory Brothers songified it.
(thanks, Casey)
Why not now?
My Dallas friend Steve tipped me to a photo of a Dubuque ghost sign, a faded advertisement for Uneeda Biscuits that I’m certain I’ve seen (though I may be confusing it with another, a sign promoting Bull Durham tobacco).
And I remembered my favorite ghost sign ever. It was in Chicago. Maybe it still is, but it’s no longer visible, perhaps obscured by recent construction. I saw it every morning as I rode the El to work downtown at the Harold Washington Library. The hand painted sign read:
Why not now?
That is all.
Why not now?
Once I stumbled upon a possible clue to the slogan’s significance, but I can no longer recall what nor where. It may have been connected with a long-gone bar or tavern.
But I’m not sure whether I really want to solve the mystery.
from the comments
I once asked Steve McKelvey to cheer me up and he started unzipping his pants.
from the comments
Deron–I was reading on our small couch last night and heard a rustling outside the window. It was completely dark but I could see that one of the limbs of a spindly tree nearby was slowly bending down to the glass. When it reached the bottom of its arc a very surprised possum sat gaping at me like the man in the moon. He soon retreated, which caused the limb to slowly rise away. I think the possum was more startled than I was; I kind of figured the rustling was caused by one of them before I even saw anything. I’m glad it wasn’t Mia sitting in my seat, though, since she would have shrieked and done the cartoon run-fast-without-moving thing. I’m just telling you this because I know you have a special place in your heart for possums.
from the comments
Mr. B.’s friend Alec had a routine. He would come home from school, unlock the door, then fret about the “scary noises” he heard in the empty house. I remember the first time I saw him sitting on the bench behind my house. He was craning his neck around watching our house.
Alec had the cell phone his mother gave him to keep in touch while she was at work. She had a long commute and wanted him at home until she got there, taking care of school assignments and chores. He was a very smart and kind boy. I asked the mother to allow Alec to come inside to do homework. But she was adamant. He could sit on the bench until she got home or calmed down. And that was that.
So, Alec would show up several days a week at least, and Mr. B. would sit with him on the bench. I heard that even when we were gone, and that happened a lot, he still would show up on that bench with his books and phone.
Eventually, Alec, his little brother, and his mother moved. We never saw them again. But I still think about him. Especially lately. And this memory is tied up with Clusterflock. Because when I drop by in silence, just reading the posts, I’m like little Alec on the bench, watching the walls of a home where people I care about live. It’s a comfort ritual.
from the comments
The “gentlemen” in the cubicles near me have been talking about how they could beat each other in various sports for the last couple of weeks.
Recently they’ve been talking about running a 40 – throwing around times like 4.8 and 4.6. They’ve decided to have a race next week. One of them has declined because, “do you know how long it takes me to warm up?”
They’re moving to a different part of the building at the end of the day today, so I won’t get the hear about the results of their race.
‘The average lifespan of a Saul Bass logo is 34 years’
A comprehensive look at the legacy of Saul Bass logos, some with slight modifications, over the years.
Bass … created some of the most recognizable and iconic logos of all time, but they’re gradually disappearing. The most recent death of a Saul Bass logo has been the famous United ‘tulip,’ which was used by the company for 37 years until the merger with Continental in 2010. This caused quite a controversy in the design world, because 1) you don’t mess with a Saul Bass logo 2) you don’t replace a Saul Bass logo with a generic clipart-like version that’s much worse than the original.
(via @tcarmody)
