Stabbin’ Cabin: World’s Swept
In the nameless midwest a puppy encounters a force he doesn’t understand.
Music: “Evil Ball” by Sinoia Caves
from the archives: October 26, 2010
Finding Vivian Maier
Over time it became clear the photos belonged to a Chicago nanny named Vivian Maier who had photographed prolifically for nearly 40 years, but who never shared her work during her lifetime.
(be sure to view the movie trailer)
(via Colossal)
Headline of the day
New cunning linguist computer has got ancient tongues licked
She’s not there (She’s still here)
From a letter penned in 1993 by my friend Lee, who can now scarcely find words at all.
Steve & I saw Indochine last night. Horrors! I’ve lost the ability to sit still that long even for La Deneuve. When I left the movie I was saying to Steve that it was remarkable how they handled the time in the movie and this blah blah metaphor for the blah blah relationship between France and Indochina and how leaving the Japs out compressed the blah blah and effectively blah blah. This morning I woke up still thinking about it — or seeing it, really — and there on the screen of my mind was the word SONY. No wonder they left out the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Well, I loved it anyway. A French Gone with the Wind. [April 1993]
headline of the day
Softball-sized eyeball washes up on Florida beach
dear clusterflock
In need of cheap lodging for perhaps 4-6 weeks. Have access to same for period required. Physical conditions rough but livable.
Note: Premises likely haunted.
Question: Is this wise?
The Silent Flute by Bruce Lee
Miracle Jones, the pearl of Texas, tosses a Bruce Lee poem to the youtube gods…
Green Door
Midnight. One more night without sleepin’.
Watchin’. ‘Til the mornin’ comes creepin’.
Green door, what’s that secret you’re keepin’?
Cats that I made using only MY MIND!
It’s true. AND: I did it in a dream the premise of which was: THIS IS NOT A DREAM.
You know how you have those dreams? Those other dreams? You realize, “Wait! This is a DREAM!”
This was not like that. THIS IS NOT A DREAM was the foundation of the dream.
Read more
Mystery Flavours Revealed!
Hundreds of thousands of guesses have been submitted by the nation and three lucky winners have won £50,000.
Congratulations to Helen of Warwick, Nikki of Nottingham, and Emma of London!
The Fundraiser
Barbara is a supervisor in the accounting department. She also volunteers at work for something called “Dining for a Cure,” the proceeds of which are supposed to be donated in support of cancer research. Each Wednesday, Barbara caters lunch and sells it along with a dessert choice that without variation is stale chocolate-chip cookies. Everyone participates.
April Holy Foolish Palm Sunday Interview with Patti Smith
An hour-long interview with Patti Smith, endearing and, dare I say, inspirational.
I liked her music less and less after the first brilliant album; that much said, I worshipped her when I was in my early twenties and went to see her perform every chance I had. She was brilliant live. (And I have one of her guitar picks from the Radio Ethiopia tour.)
At bottom I have always admired her terrifically. She is tremendously endearing in this interview — both genuinely, unaffectedly girlish at 65 and mature and wise.
Watch or listen to this interview even if you do so in bits and pieces or while tending to other things.
Welcome to the before time before the before time
These are my goods, which I found in the place where I go and take what I need.
I feel like Walter Huston in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. I found the goods in the ravine out back, but I ain’t telling exactly where.
Any idea what they is?
headline of the day II
Wanted: Keys any kind of key that opens any kind of lock. (In Dubuque.)
Posted to Dubuque Freecycle list:
Playing a game and need as many keys as I can get ahold of. Prefer keys that belonged to master locks (not house type keys so much, although I’ll take them too). The “Key” to the game will be to find the right key in a bowl of keys to unlock the paddel lock to reach the prize.
Thanks!!!
Scene from an imaginary video work
in the manner of William Eggleston’s Stranded in Canton.
UPDATE: The link right above will take you to an hour-plus edit of “Stranded in Canton.” An Eggleston voice-over accompanies.
The Mother Courage of Rock
She was skinny, quick-witted, disarmingly unprofessional, alternating between stand-up patter, bardic intonations, and the hypnotic emotional sway of a chanteuse, and she was sexy in an androgynous way I hadn’t encountered before. The elements cohered convincingly; she seemed both entirely new and somehow long-anticipated. For me at nineteen, the show was an epiphany.
Springtime 1976, I was living in the cinderblock building on the glorified median strip there where they split Highway 13, and one day I went over to this one girl’s apartment, she lived right by the guy who dealt me speed, and she said, “Hey, you know who you remind me of? You remind me of Patti Smith!”
Gave her a possum grin I’m still grinning.
tweet of the day
There’s literally no way to know how many chameleons are in your house
— Megan Amram (@meganamram) January 15, 2012
Captain Beefheart’s Ten Commandments of Guitar Playing
4. Walk with the devil
Old Delta blues players referred to guitar amplifiers as the “devil box.” And they were right. You have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you’re bringing over from the other side. Electricity attracts devils and demons. Other instruments attract other spirits. An acoustic guitar attracts Casper. A mandolin attracts Wendy. But an electric guitar attracts Beelzebub.
(From WFMU’s Beware of the Blog. Via Brian Beatty.)
Dear Santa
Thank you for the sweet hot air balloon ornament. Colors are perfect! And for the Chicago Christkindlmarket drinking boot, I’ll try it out a little later. This was the best Christmas ever!
from the moderated comments
Davis baking powder is a NY Metro area regional favorite. Hearth Club is currently being sold by Dollar Tree Corp both online and in brick-and-mortar Dollar Tree and their Deals stores for $1 for 8.1 ounces. Most of the store brand baking powder around here is also made by Clabber Girl Corp. If someone has access to a food chemistry lab, it should be fairly easy to assay the contents of the various brands. My guess is that they vary the portions of ingredients for each brand. But I have been wrong about these kinds before, i.e., except for Rumford, they could all be the same stuff.
Damar, Mon Amour (out of context)
In context: Starlingo ii.
Damar torn from the flock.
What is Damar? Who is Damar? What is Damar?
headline of the day
Bottom line: Doc explains mysteriously massive buttocks
Snakes’ Feat May Inspire Heart Drugs
Pythons are known for their enormous appetites. In a single meal they can devour animals at least as big as they are — deer, alligators, pigs, household pets.
I’m meeting Sarah in Chicago for dinner Wednesday evening.
