Dear Clusterflock
I am bored, and a little blue. Will you guys make me a mixtape? I’ll take Rdio or Spotify links.
Sarah Jacobson Film Grant 2011 Call for Entries and Film Festival
Just received this from my friend Mikki Halpin. Posting it for Amanda Meyncke (who might actually be a shoo-in), but feel free to distribute far and wide:
Make Me Over
Please enjoy this magical super-addictive timesuck. Upload a photo and in about 30 seconds flat, transform yourself into someone else. I was going to post the one with the platinum blonde Billy-Idol-esque hairdo, but I chickened out. How about some false eyelashes and bangs instead?
Clusterflock goes disco.
Are you familiar with “Barbra Streisand,” the odd little surprise hit from the DJ duo known as Duck Sauce? Well, get familiar with their latest smash, sure to be hot in the clubs: “Clusterflock.”
Dear Clusterflock
Why am I awake?
iPad Letterpress App!
Remember when I posted about Hatch Show Print and their amazing old-fashioned letterpress art? Very soon, you’ll be able to create your very own cool art prints using traditional letterpress techniques . . . on your iPad. (This might be a reason for me to BUY an iPad.) Check out LetterMPress and consider backing this project:
Like this post.
Via Neatorama: “Like” and “Dislike” stamps.
Finally, a handy way to keep track of your opinions of physical objects in meatspace.
Free Association Tag
A fun, almost entirely meaningless, but seriously addictive game I used to play with folks on a bulletin board I used to frequent. Now ported to Tumblr.
Free MP3 from Sondre Lerche
Mostly this is an excuse to show off my “Photoshopsmas” skills — notice the ornament dangling from the belt loop! (Original photo here.) But if you click it, you get a free MP3 of Sondre Lerche covering Owen Pallett’s “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt.” So there’s that, too. And that’s pretty awesome.
Enjoy! Especially you, Amanda. 
Remembering Kirsty MacColl
December 18th, 2010, marked the 10-year anniversary of the tragic death of renowned British songstress Kirsty MacColl, a recently rekindled musical obsession of mine. I thought I’d pay tribute here, and rekindle your obsession, too. Or maybe garner Kirsty a few new fans.
Mayor Plaster Caster?
Via @pastemagazine:
Cynthia “Plaster Caster” Albritton has announced her candidacy for the Mayor of Chicago.
Man, I want to attend that inauguration ball.
Young Me / Now Me
(h/t @womack)
Raymond Carver Mad Libs
Courtesy of Yankee Pot Roast, fill in the blanks to craft your own dark, gritty masterpiece of postmodern humanism. Easy! Fun! [Expletive!]
(h/t Maud Newton)
Musical Theatre Ambush
Two videos in a similar vein, in which musical theatre is foisted upon unsuspecting parties. Best when watched all the way through to the end. And I defy you not to be in a better mood after watching these.
Vanessa’s Wedding Surprise
Fraulein Maria
Man Falls Out of the Sky in NJ?
I am morbidly fascinated with this news story about witnesses who saw a person free-falling, head first, out of the sky in Egg Harbor Township, NJ. No parachute, no glider.
They can’t find him.
Friends have pointed out that Egg Harbor isn’t far from Atlantic City – did this man have some gambling debts settled in an unpleasant manner? Was it a mob hit? Was he a landing-gear stowaway? Viral marketing scam? Bizarre accident?
Monday Music News: Arcade Fire (Quietly) Reinvents the Album
Arcade Fire have apparently re-engineered the concept of the album for the digital age. The digital version of their new release “The Suburbs” comes bundled with .m4a files that present a stream of visuals and synchronized lyrics (finally!), along with a deep nest of embedded contextual links that work like an easter-egg hunt, encouraging the user to keep clicking.
Here’s a video created by Topspin’s Ian Rogers, showing what the synchronized artwork looks like in action:
And here’s a brief explanation of the concept and the execution of the synchronized artwork by its creator, Vincent Morisset.
Personally I’m impressed not only by the degree of thought and creative direction that went into engineering this new immersive album experience, but by the (by today’s standards, mystifying) inverse degree of self-promotion they’ve applied to this approach.
Guess I’ll be buying it now!
Via Hypebot: Arcade Fire Rethinks Album Format, Tells No One
Hatch Show Print: the art of American letterpress
I have a love that borders on unhealthy obsession for the look of Hatch Show Print letterpress art. Though you may not be familiar with the name Hatch Show Print, their advertising poster style has a look that’s so familiar it’s iconic. Affiliated with the Country Music Hall of Fame and the official poster shop for the Ryman Auditorium, they’ve been operating continuously in Nashville since 1879. And the letters and forms they used back then are still being used today — what owner Jim Sherradan refers to as “preservation through production.” In fact, everything they do here is done by hand — absolutely no computers in evidence. They even call their customers on a rotary phone.
This 8-minute video is a fascinating glimpse into the daily operation and the unique art of the original American letterpress shop.
I was lucky enough to snag a signed copy of the Robert Plant / Alison Krauss poster shown in the video. And one of these days I’m going to find an appropriate excuse to have them design something for me. Business card, maybe . . . ?
How to say goodbye.
“They had them facing one another in their individual beds, and we put their hands on top of one another so they could hold hands,” their daughter said. “Mom was awake. She said, ‘Lou, I love you. I had a wonderful life. I’ll see you in another place.’ ”
Chicago couple was inseparable in life, death
(via @skinnyjeans)
Song A Day #561: The iPhone Antenna Song
In honor of the Big Apple iPhone Antenna-Related Press Conference later today, allow me to present…
Pernice to Me
I designed this book and book jacket (with help from my friend Sarah at Third Half Studios, who designed the actual tattoo). It’s called Pernice to Me, and it’s an amusing compendium of conversational snippets between music industry veteran Joyce Linehan (@ashmont) and the artist she manages, the incomparable (and apparently irascible) singer/songwriter Joe Pernice. I am a longtime fan of Joe’s work, despite the fact that he comes from my hometown. Their banter, while tinged with occasional mock racism, sexism and homophobia — and a canny misanthropy borne of long years toiling in the trenches of the music biz, with which I have a passing familiarity — is strangely enjoyable. Think of it as a “Shit My Dad Says” for working musicians and the people who work for them.
My favorite tweet was actually a voice mail: “Hi Joyce. This is Joe. Please return my call so that we may resume our little dance.”
You can enjoy their little dance for $10. On sale here.
Letters With Character
Ben Greenman, author and editor of the New Yorker, maintains a blog called Letters With Character, wherein people write letters to their favorite fictional characters.
This site was created as a companion to the highly anticipated What He’s Poised To Do (Harper Perennial, June 2010), a collection of short fiction by Ben Greenman, an editor at the New Yorker. The collection (which Jonathan Ames says has created its “own fantastic universe of stories and ideas”) uses letters and letter-writing to investigate human connection and disconnection. This blog has a related mission, which is to allow readers to interact directly with literary characters. Letters should be addressed to your favorite characters and sent to LettersWithCharacter@gmail.com.
Kind of a companion piece to our own Ask Swearengen, no?
dear clusterflock
headline headghgh
Via Huffington Post: UK Newspaper Flubs Headline
This reminds me of a story my dance teacher told me many years ago. There was a very accomplished ballet dancer who was known for his incredible pirouettes. Rather than dancing full-out during rehearsals for an especially demanding ballet, he instead got into the habit of “abbreviating” his signature pirouettes by twirling his finger in a circle at the right moment. On opening night, our ballet hero stood onstage and as the music built to a crescendo and the moment approached for his show-stopping pirouette, he stopped, stood before the audience and — as he’d become accustomed to doing — twirled his finger in a little circle.
Found on Google Street View
Was just using Google Street View on a realtor’s web site to check out the neighborhood around a potential new house, when I noticed something . . .strange . . . going on at the house next door. I really hope this is just an over-the-top Halloween decorating situation, but even if it is: what is going on here?
Click through for full-size version.
Meeting of Important People Doing Unbelievable Things With Cardboard
I posted this on Twitter a while ago, but it remains one of the coolest music videos I’ve ever seen so I thought it might be worth sharing here. I love that the filmmakers thank the “cardboard gatherers.” I only wish that the hi-hat were functional.
Enjoy…
Meeting of Important People – “Brittney Lane Don’t Care”
