tweet of the day
“Today I think I’ll make some music for white people to do cunnilingus to.” —Miles Davis, 1959
— Scott Simpson (@scottsimpson) December 14, 2011
spam name
Sunny Carolina.
NPR’s Winter Songs: Bill T. Jones on Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’
As cold weather descends on most of the country, we’re asking for winter songs — songs that evoke the season, and the memories that come with them. So far in our [NPR] series, we’ve heard some lighthearted or slightly wistful tunes, but this next song goes to a far icier place. It’s the choice of the celebrated dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones.
His winter song comes from “Winterreise,” — or “Winter Journey” — by Franz Schubert. It’s a song cycle about a solitary traveler in a savage winter whose heart is frozen in grief. Jones chose the last song in that song cycle: “Der Leiermann,” or “The Hurdy-Gurdy Man.”
“For me, it’s the musical arrangement underneath,” Jones tells All Things Considered host Melissa Block. “It speaks about a bleak landscape. And this bleak landscape takes me back to a day when I was in fourth grade out on the edge of town, looking at a snow-covered highway many, many yards away from my window — I should’ve been paying attention, but I was dreaming.
Table
It took three times longer than I wanted it to, but the table is finally put together. I put the last coat of oil on it tonight, and once that dries, I’ll put the wax on and let the stink dissipate. I intended to stabilize the end pieces with some brass bolts, but the table glued together very solidly, and I’m not sure those will be necessary, so once I have a chance to live with it, I can see what I think.
The original legs weren’t sturdy enough, so I had to recalibrate halfway through. It’s essentially the same design but the legs are double-thickness now, with a layer of 1/4″ MDF between. The top is particleboard glued to 3/4″ plywood, with red oak supports underneath. The legs are red oak and MDF, rounded at the corners. I used walnut stain, and teak oil, and will finish with carnauba wax.
awesome image out of context
via Rocketboom
Carmen Classy Christmas
The best part about going to the Christmas party of a bunch of film industry people is they make a serious invite.
attack ads
I was always taught that before you criticize someone else, you should look at yourself. So let me admit up front that I’m completely disgusting: there’s not much worse than a cockroach. You know what is worse? The emerald cockroach wasp. They have what some people would call an interesting appearance, with a metallic blue body and red legs, but they reproduce by stinging us and using us as hosts for their larvae, which then consume our internal organs in such a matter that we stay alive just long enough to give them life. That kind of behavior demonstrates a real lack of respect for private property rights, and is also unthinkably gross.
Lewis Hine’s teen bike messengers
A fun collection of photographs and descriptions of teen bike messengers from the early 1900s.
The Difference Between A Men’s Magazine And A Rapist?
Researchers gave a group of men and women quotes from the British lad mags FHM, Loaded, Nuts and Zoo, as well as excerpts from interviews with actual convicted rapists originally published in the book The Rapist Files. The participants couldn’t reliably identify which statements came from magazines and which from rapists — what’s more, they rated the magazine quotes as slightly more derogatory than the statements made by men serving time for raping women. The researchers also showed both sets of quotes to a separate group of men — the men were more likely to identify with the rapists’ statements than the lad mag excerpts. The only slightly bright spot in the study: when researchers randomly (and sometimes incorrectly) labelled the quotes as coming from either rapists or magazines, the men were more likely to identify with the ones allegedly drawn from mags. At least they didn’t want to agree with rapists.
from the comments
The 15-20 seconds starting at 2:20 are my favorite, that’s where he rises above language altogether to some sort of celestial machine code.
trending on twitter
There are some good ones: #makeracistjokesnotracistanymore.
(thanks, Joel)
Tim Tebow & Why Faith Makes Us Nervous
If you all haven’t already happened upon it, Chuck Klosterman wrote an absolutely fascinating essay for Grantland describing the significance of Tim Tebow and why he seems to be so polarizing as a professional football player. It’s mostly about Tebow and football, except that it’s not – it’s about so much more than that:
I doubt many Christians believe that God is unfairly helping Tebow win games in the AFC West. I’m sure a few hardcores might, but not many. However, I get the impression that especially antagonistic secularists assume this assumption infiltrates every aspect of Tebow’s celebrity, and that explains why he’s so beloved by strangers they cannot relate to. Their negative belief is that penitent, conservative Americans look at Tebow and see a man being “rewarded” for his faith, which validates the idea that believing in something abstract is more important than understanding something real. And this makes them worried about the future, because they see that thinking everywhere. It seems like the thinking that ran this country into the ground.
I don’t think I’ve read such a straight-forward and correct explanation for why I get so nervous in a culture preoccupied more with feeling something than knowing anything. Also, I’m fairly convinced that some of the best writing happening today is on Grantland, the little sports website that could.
Damar, Mon Amour (out of context)
In context: Starlingo ii.
Damar torn from the flock.
What is Damar? Who is Damar? What is Damar?
dear clusterflock
Torrent.
New Christmas Catalog Price List
There are a bunch of good’uns.
tweet of the day
It’s not a date unless the other person has to keep saying, “Please stop crying.”
— Amanda Mae Meyncke (@amae) December 12, 2011
Best Blogs of 2011
I was very privileged to be asked to contribute to this year’s Bygone Bureau list alongside some very fine bloggers. Worth a read, even if I cheated.
headline of the day
Anti-Gay Alabama GOPer Secretly Donated Sperm To Lesbian Couples In New Zealand
Illustration Out of Context
Toddlers fight to the death!
(thanks, Sarah)
quotes out of context
I staked out a spot against the wall and grabbed my personal vomit bucket, a plastic trick-or-treat jack-o’-lantern lined with a garbage bag.
On 27 occasions, male savannah chimps in the Fongoli area of south-east Senegal gave females food and tools.
“They may just be the toughest animal in the world,” Douglas H. Chadwick says in his book The Wolverine Way. “When you weigh 15 kg and can back a full grown grizzly off a kill, that is just plain badass.”
Designer MVRDV said it had not intended to create an image resembling the attacks, and it did not see the resemblance during the design process.
The narwhal doesn’t bacon for a while so you’re good.
Compleat — the paper cup with an integrated lid
Massachusetts architect Peter Herman spent two years designing a paper cup that eliminates the plastic lid.
The construction is simple: The body and two integrated flaps are composed of a single piece of paper; the body is glued to the circular base. Like similar cups on the market, the paper would be waterproofed, though ideally with cellulose-based plastic, so that it could be composted.
(thanks, Sarah)
Peacock for Clusterflock (by Sturnus Vulgaris)
text my mom sent
check out the bear with boobs behind jesus.
The Titanic Taxonomy of Wrestler Names
From Pop Chart Lab: A celebration of 382 noms de guerre from the world of professional wrestling.
