Brand new island rises from Red Sea depths
Throw away that shiny new atlas you got for Christmas — it’s already out of date.
Volcanic activity in the Red Sea is causing the formation of a new island in the Zubair archipelago as lava is cooled by the surrounding seawater and solidifies. The underwater volcano responsible is located on the Red Sea Rift, where the African and Arabian tectonic plates are slowly pulling apart.
Farewell to a chimp
Norma Desmond makes funeral arrangements.
Inspired by @Howlinow, who spoke of the late Cheeta (whomever he may have been, and however long he may have lived) as “the Norma Desmond of simians.”
I was feeling all hurt
and helpless and hopeless, then I heard this on the radio, and my heart rose up in spite of me.
I really shouldn’t post this . . .
You might actually look at it, and that will be bad. Worse, posting may generate more attention and more traffic. But I’m thinking that maybe Christmas light-lookers aren’t hanging out here with us.
This is the spectacle that nearly blinded us as we turned onto the block for Pam’s and Jam’s Christmas Eve party.
They’ve been living near this since Thanksgiving.
I am thinking they would rather have Carole for their neighbor.
Three chairs (free) and one Chevy van seat (free)
Posted to the Dubuque Freecycle list:
offer 2 Chairs – Okay Condition (East Dubuque)
I have two chairs in okay condition. One was a chair from a bank. It has an upholstered back and wood frame. Good condition. Good upholstery. The other is a wood chair that has been resupported with metal at the legs. Okay condition.
I live in East Dubuque near the Julien Dubuque bridge. Covered porch for easy pick up.
Did I ever tell you about the time . . .
Is it boring? Does it involve a musician? Will everyone on the internet go, “Pft! Are you kidding? Is that it? Your story?”
Yes?
Congratulations. Post it here.
I made it to the Hall of Tedium on Christmas Day with my Dave Davies story:
Dave Davies wanted some tortilla chips.
Clusterflock friend Pete Ashton’s Belinda Carlisle story was a Boxing Day feature:
I sold Belinda Carlisle a book about giant squids.
Charles Coleman, the celluloid adventurist
Coleman, 47, is film programmer for Facets Multimedia.
One thing being lost is the art of conversation, of people seeing a movie and then actually having a good talk afterwards. — As told to J.R. Jones.
Man, does this put me in mind of my friend Charlie’s thoughts re: the “hidden cinema” he frequents in Buenos Aires.
X-mas Eve Par-tay
I’m relaxed. I honestly am. I bought a set of Horrified B-Movie Victims for the X-tended family X-mas gift X-change. The Gift Grab amongst cousins and their partners et al.
As for my near and dear, this year I’m empty-handed. And I’m cool with saying, “Hey, when I see something I know you’ll love, it’s yours.” And I imagine my near and dear will be cool with that.
What I am not doing is scouring the Tri-State Region over the next three hours for timely gifts for my near and dear. Not for the sake of saving face in Chicago tomorrow night. Screw it. My near and dear know I love them, I hope, and I hope they love me.
“It’s been harder than usual this year,” I’m thinking to say. “How’s it been for you?”
And I’m cool with that.
Funk songs from Vietnam GIs
If you didn’t get a Christmas present from me, it’s because I’m waiting till the New Year to buy you East of Underground: Hell Below. (Thanks to Valerie for the tip.)
In 1971 the US was pulling troops out of Vietnam, and its bases in Germany were full of draftees at a loose end. “You were painting shovels, picking up cigarette butts – it was a lot of busy-work,” remembers former serviceman Lewis Hitt. “There was a longing by everyone, especially the draftees, to get home and go back to what you were doing before.”
This was the crucible in which were formed scores of raucous funk bands made up of servicemen, four of which have just been compiled by Now-Again Records. Adoring crowd noise was crudely dubbed on top of their records, which were then distributed in recruitment centres. These bands were used by the army to present service as varied, even hip. But the songs they cover – the bitter, suspicious likes of Backstabbers and Smiling Faces Sometimes – undermine any potential propagandising.
The Struggle for the Occupy Wall Street Archives
I thought at first that this long article by Michelle Dean might strike most of y’all as Too Much Archives, which is to say too much shop talk and too narrow in its focus. More than you really want to read about the issues archivists face.
Then again, maybe not. Maybe this will draw you in.
Read more
I am posting this post
because to now I have posted 1964 posts. So this will be 1965. And that was a beautiful year. I was just old enough to know that I wanted to be a grown-up woman. In 1965.
At least one of those grown-up women in the movies. Or to have a hit record.
Phonograms
Patrick Feaster studies the culture of early phonography (the recording and reproduction of sound) and blogs at Phonozoic, where I’ve been hanging out for the past hour or so. At the 2011 conference of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, Feaster shared “Phonogram Images on Paper: 1250-1950.” You can listen to his presentation and download slides here. Just scroll down a little ways and you’ll find the links.
(via Excavated Shellac)
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.
Damar, Mon Amour (out of context)
In context: Starlingo ii.
Damar torn from the flock.
What is Damar? Who is Damar? What is Damar?
The Titanic Taxonomy of Wrestler Names
From Pop Chart Lab: A celebration of 382 noms de guerre from the world of professional wrestling.
OFFER: 7′ Pre-lit Christmas Tree (partially working) :/
Posted to the Dubuque Freecycle list:
This tree is approximately 5-6 years old — it belonged to my parents — I set it up the other night and can’t seem to get one section of lights to work and a few other lights here and there don’t come on. It’s a beautiful tree (well flocked) but I don’t have the time to go through each bulb and figure out what’s wrong with it. It came in a box but the box is pretty non-functional.
It was not used since Christmas 2008. One of the most beautiful artificial trees I have ever seen (when all the lights work).
Please email me with contact information — It needs to be gone before Tuesday night or it’s going to the curb.
dream name
The young man, the photographer hired by the insurance company, said his name was Keith. Keith Carradine. I thought that was a pretty odd choice on the part of his parents, even by dream logic.
On waking, I recalled that our neighbors the next street over from Dutton Drive had named their daughters after movie stars. Lana. And Rita. But their last names were not Turner. Nor Hayworth.
Wanted: Globe
Posted to Dubuque Freecycle list:
Just a plain old globe. Condition doesn’t really matter.
Art Institute adds Warhol’s ‘Empire’ to Chicago skyline
From 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. [Friday, December 9], the modern skyscraper [the Aon Center] overlooking Millennium Park will be acting as a movie screen onto which the Art Institute of Chicago will be projecting Andy Warhol’s eight-hour silent, black-and-white epic “Empire,” which consists of one long, unbroken shot of New York’s Empire State Building. Said to be the first outdoor U.S. screening of this landmark — if not exactly action-packed — film, the event marks the very public, logistically challenging kickoff to the Art Institute’s new exhibition Light Years: Conceptual Art and the Photograph, 1964-1977, which opens to members Saturday and to the public Tuesday.
Reflections on a Respiratory Infection
I coughed so long. I coughed so hard. Deron asked, “How are your ribs?” “Not as good as the ones at Hardeman’s,” I said. Not nearly so good as the gas station tacos at the Sylvan Avenue Valero’s either.
And I wanted to do what the mother of my long-time friend Melanie did when Melanie was little and had a bad cold and a dripping nose. Melanie’s mom took one of those tiny paper baskets they put Jordan almonds in at weddings and attached a string loop to it, then taped the string to the bridge of Melanie’s nose and made a drip bucket so Melanie would no longer have to blow her nose raw.
R.I.P. Hubert Sumlin (1931-2011)
The great guitarist Hubert Sumlin, best known for his work with Howlin’ Wolf: here with David Johansen (vocal), Bob Margolin (second guitar), and Charlie Musselwhite (harmonica). “Smokestack Lightning.” Memphis, 2002.
Wil Freeborn’s Drawings Mapped
Our Wil is working on a new book of drawings that will include a map, and he’s been using Google Maps to create a place for his drawings.
Semi Filled with Meat Rolls Over On I 80-94
LAKE STATION, Ind. (CBS) — A semi-trailer filled with packaged meat rolled over on I-80/94 Tuesday morning, according to Indiana State Police.
My Chicago friends and I have been laughing about this for nearly 24 hours now.
Wanted: Antlers
Posted to the Dubuque Freecycle list:
If anyone is going hunting, and has antlers that aren’t of ‘keeping’ size, I would greatly appreciate them. Deer, Elk, etc. Its the only thing that keeps the puppy from destroying the house with his teething.
thank you
from the archives/from the comments
April 27, 2007: Manah Manah.
(Move along. Nothing to see.)
