Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Roman Loranc
Private Road with Clouds
Roman Loranc: dreaming in daylight, Photographs 1993-2008
Roman Loranc - Black and White Photographer
more at wood s lot
stray bullets
Pirates die strangely after taking Iranian ship A tense standoff has developed in waters off Somalia over an Iranian merchant ship laden with a mysterious cargo that was hijacked by pirates. Somali pirates suffered skin burns, lost hair and fell gravely ill “within days” of boarding the MV Iran Deyanat. Some of them died. Andrew Mwangura, the director of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, told the Sunday Times: “We don’t know exactly how many, but the information that I am getting is that some of them had died. There is something very wrong about that ship.” (via)
also:
Interview: Matthew Herbert (via)
The International Dialects of English Archive (via)
Carny Lingo (via)
viddy:
Ken Adam talking about the war room set he designed for Dr. Strangelove (via)
Knots - How To Tie A Monkey’s Fist And Heave A Line
Global Air Traffic Simulation (.wmv download; very cool, much better than the YouTube version)
Fridge Monster
blog of the moment: Great Map (always a fun and fascinating journey)
Orson Whales
Alex Itin:
It is more a less a birthday gift to myself. I've been drawing it on every page of Moby Dick (using two books to get both sides of each page) for months. The soundtrack is built from searching "moby dick" on You Tube (I was looking for Orson's Preacher from the the John Huston film)... you find tons of Led Zep and drummers doing Bonzo and a little Orson... makes for a nice Melville in the end.
hail to the everlasting blört (presently, our cheese is thrice the fencepost)
This is what the two copies of Moby Dick looked like when he was done:
image via if:book
check out IT IN place and his animation of Ulysses
Monday, September 29, 2008
What's up with Kerouac lately?
Seminal Image #866
Kobayashi Kiyochika
Graphic Arts:
This is a selection of satirical portraits by the Meiji printmaker Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1916)...
Paracelsus
Presumed portrait of Paracelsus, attributed to the school of Quentin Matsys
Paracelsus gained a reputation for being arrogant, and soon garnered the anger of other physicians in Europe. He held the chair of medicine at the University of Basel for less than a year; while there his colleagues became angered by allegations that he had publicly burned traditional medical books....
He then wandered Europe, Africa and Asia Minor, in the pursuit of hidden knowledge....
Marcel Flisiuk
Following the train
Years back, I ran an art supply store in New Orleans. It was an interesting phase of my life. We had a number of memorable customers. Marcel was one of our favorites. I was always amazed at the amount of stuff he would ride off with on his bicycle. I like his art, too.
Marcel Flisiuk
Sunday, September 28, 2008
closed
(via)
I needed some me time, so I'll be back Monday morning. A couple of notes, in passing:
R.I.P., my man.
(via)
and remember:
from (via)
I leave you with a song (bonjour, Marilyn!):
Amadou & Mariam - Je pense a toi
hat tip: Prancehall
Friday, September 26, 2008
Incredible Stunts
Incredible Stunts: pictures by Jeffrey R Werner:
Daredevil escape artist Rick Meisel has been performing the world's cleanest escape act for years for TV shows and audiences around the world. For this stunt the escape artist risks drowning and a battering as he works his way out of six pairs of handcuffs and two leg irons while spinning in a suds-filled washing machine. Meisel admitted to having surgery in order to fit into the machine. Photograph: Incredible Features/Barcroft Media
In the trenches of the brain as an artist-lilliputian
Photo Journal:
A work by Belgian artist Jan Fabre titled “In the trenches of the brain as an artist-lilliputian” was photographed Thursday at Austria’s Kunsthaus Bregenz museum.
Mr. Fabre’s exhibit, “From the Cellar to the Attic, From the Feet to the Brain,” runs from Sept. 27 to Jan. 25. (Miro Kuzmanovic/Reuters)
stray bullets
Antiquities smuggling: Growing problem at US ports Three years ago, an elderly Italian man pulled his van into a South Florida park to sell some rare, 2,500-year-old emeralds plundered from a South American tomb. But Ugo Bagnato, an archaeologist, didn't know his potential customer was a federal agent. (via)
Tourist who found Stone Age axes rewarded £20,000 A British tourist who unearthed four Stone Age axes on a beach in Brittany has been put forward for a prize worth more than £20,000 by the Ministry of Culture for not keeping the treasure. (via)
CEO murdered by mob of sacked Indian workers Corporate India is in shock after a mob of workers bludgeoned to death the chief executive who sacked them from a factory in a suburb of Delhi. (via)
also:
Cheap Chinese lederhosen anger Germans
a couple of good lists this week: Top 10 Things That Are Surprisingly Good For You & 10 Odd Discontinued Olympic Sports (and don't forget drawing and watercolors)
Flashback: The One Elevator Trick Every Traveler Should Know
Neil Armstrong makes rare speech as NASA turns 50
Erase Cell Phone Data: Free Data Eraser (via)
viddy:
The Mike Wallace Interview: Frank Lloyd Wright (via)
The arty farty show
Sati Audiovisual (excellent VJ performance)
Rough sea and Pier
The Hollidays. "It seems so long ago... we were happy then..."
Dear Sir; --
You are hereby notified that Richard Holiday eloped from this institution April 30 1903.
The unfortunate therapy.
As to the escape of Richard Holliday, from the Columbus State Hospital for the Insane.
State Hospital, a memento; mixed media by Juliana Peloso
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Windmills in Eastern Germany
Wulferstedt 2 (Bördekreis), Sachsen-Anhalt, 25.02.1995
Windmills in Eastern Germany: Photos by Reinhard Krause
via Conscientious
1000 Frames of Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock Wiki - 1000 Frames of Hitchcock
That's 1000 frames from each of over 50 Hitchcock films.
hat tip: KERLAMES
chilies
Chinese farmers dried chilies under the sun on the outskirts of Kurla, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, Tuesday (Reuters)
Photo Journal: Pictures of the Day
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Mogwai - The Sun Smells Too Loud (unofficial)
(video link)
from their newly released album The Hawk Is Howling
Bummer that they had to postpone the remainder of their North American tour:
We are sad to announce that we have had to cancel our remaining American and Canadian shows due to ill health. Our other dates in Europe and Japan will be going ahead as planned. We will re-schedule the shows in 2009.
Martin explains what happened
"I was taken into hospital last night almost immediately after the show at ATP. I've been having some problems with my pacemaker for the duration of the tour and it unfortunately culminated in me being sent to the emergency room. The doctors there initially thought i would have to have corrective surgery at a larger hospital nearer NYC but i have been given the all clear to travel home on the understanding that i go straight to my cardiologist on arrival back in Scotland.
"Tbh, i'm really bummed about having to go home and feel for the folk who had bought tickets for our upcoming shows but i can honestly say it would be almost impossible for me to carry on at this point as my pacemaker has broken skin and the surrounding area has become infected."
Mogwai
via Matablog
Alex Webb, US/Mexico Border (San Yisidro, CA)
Alex Webb, “US/Mexico Border (San Yisidro, CA),” c-print, 1979
Alex Webb
via THAT'S A NEGATIVE
Michel de Broin, Dead Star, 2008
image: thanks to the artist and Eyebeam
Michel de Broin
Eyebeam
via hyde or die
stray bullets
Lift could take passengers straight into space Japanese scientists are attempting to build a lift (elevator for us Americans) that will take passengers 62,000 miles into space.
MI6 agent's cover slips during BBC interview In his dangerous job the MI6 spy's identity needs to remain a closely guarded secret. So you can imagine his surprise when, during an interview with the national broadcaster, his carefully chosen disguise of a fake moustache failed him spectacularly.
Blogging about blogging What do young people think about blogging? Let’s have a look; here’s what one 18 year old has to say. This one happens to be my son, but I don’t think that prevents him from representing his generation: ‘People no longer are just able to blog, but blogging is increasingly becoming accepted as a legitimate medium of information; albeit quite different to others. At the cost of the credibility associated with major news services and other more traditional ways of getting our information, a whole new world is opened up- of personal opinion, a perspective into the lives and experiences of others and original creativity. When subjective experience and opinion is sought over objective fact, blogging becomes a medium very difficult to beat.’ Blogging is passé? I suspect that many of the old-timers have become a bit tired and unimaginative-- it's just getting started. (Let's encourage young bloggers instead of greeting them with statements like "Blogging is dead")
Ike Really Tore Up Louisville You will find a collection of pictures I took after the storm here. Unfortunately, some streets still look like this a week later. Though we got electricity back about 12 hours after it went out, most houses and businesses around us are still dark. LG&E, our local utility, has been saying it may be another week before all power is restored.
Au revoir to cool hand Luc Besson Luc Besson is in denial. The 49-year-old French film potentate and master of pop cinema (see Nikita, Léon, The Big Blue) has made yet another peerless action classic in the Paris-set kidnap drama Taken. Written and produced by Besson, it stars Liam Neeson as a semi-retired CIA hatchet man who will stop at nothing to bring his missing daughter back home, and send her captors to hell. It is directed by Besson’s former Steadicam operator Pierre Morel, but with its luxurious mix of slick style, emotional melodrama and bone-crunching thrills, it’s got Besson’s fingerprints all over it.
Art and Science, Virtual and Real, Under One Big Roof On a hillside overlooking this college town on the banks of the Hudson, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has erected a technological pleasure dome for the mind and senses. Eight years and $200 million in the making, the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, or Empac, resembles an enormous 1950s-era television set. But inside are not old-fashioned vacuum tubes but the stuff of 21st-century high-tech dreams dedicated to the marriage of art and science as it has never been done before, its creators say — 220,000 square feet of theaters, studios and work spaces hooked to supercomputers.
TinEye is an image search engine. Search the web for images using an image. Finally! It's still getting its legs-- a lot of images are still not indexed and it's difficult to find an original source, but this is certainly a start. (via)
John Cage playing chess
with Joan La Barbara
Joan La Barbara and John Cage in pre-rehearsal chess game, 1976 Photo by Michael McKenzie
hat tip: MIXTUUR
with Marcel Duchamp
Duchamp, Teeny, and Cage playing chess and making music in a performance, Sightssoundsystems, a festival of art and technology in Toronto, 1968
Cage and Duchamp in Toronto
backstory:
Actually, Cage hadn't lost every single match with Duchamp. There was one that he definitely won, after a fashion. It happened in Toronto, in 1968. Cage had invited Duchamp and Teeny to be with him on the stage. All they had to do was play chess as usual, but the chessboard was wired and each move activated or cut off the sound coming live from several musicians (David Tudor was one of them). They played until the room emptied. Without a word said, Cage had managed to turn the chess game (Duchamp's ostensive refusal to work) into a working performance. And the performance was a musical piece. In pataphysical terms, Cage had provided an imaginary solution to a nonexistent problem: whether life was superior to art. Playing chess that night extended life into art – or vice versa. All it took was plugging in their brains to a set of instruments, converting nerve signals into sounds. Eyes became ears, moves music. Reunion was the name of the piece. It happened to be their endgame.
images found on john e > THE CAGE COLLECTION
and show your work...
For well over a month I have been trying to find a source or explanation for this photo. Here is the best so far:
Tacky Raccoons:
I can’t make anything out of this, except for two typos in the 14th line in the top board about a foot from the right. Otherwise the proof is correct. Here is the problem:
if”n”is a whole number that is more than 3.
The value of”x,y,z”in the equation
“x^n+y^n=z^n”will not be a whole number.
write an equation to prove it.
The man is/was a mathematician of Czech Republic, Pilsen, Westbohemian University, Department of Mathematics, RNDr. Jiřà ČÞek, CSc.
(their source wasn't much help)
Thanks to Uncertain Timer airport_whiskey, we have a source:
"Mathalysis" / "Matalýza" (c) 1998 Milan Kollinger
and this:
http://www.kma.zcu.cz/main.php
Thanks again, M. Whiskey!
Yousuf Karsh
TIME:
Peter Lorre, 1946
"The large sign on the driveway outside of his home read 'Beware of Ferocious Dogs.' They turned out to be two frisky Pekingese. His screen role as the sensitive deviant "M" had launched his European career as a serious actor. The American movie legend of Peter Lorre was that of the timorous, sometimes menacing, sometimes bumbling sidekick of the arch villain. He turned out to be a gemütlich Viennese gentlemen of wit and culture."
Yousuf Karsh at the MFA in Boston, September 23, 2008 thru January 19, 2009
E.O. Hoppé: Photographer
Medicine man with mask and costume, Palm Island, Queensland, 1930
E.O. Hoppé: Photographer, Edwardian Modernist (1878-1972)
image from The Fifth Continent - 1931
hat tip: 鏡
Another take on the Straw-Boys
STRAW-BOYS: An Ancient Custon still Observed in IRELAND, THE GRAFIC, JULY 8, 1911 "From time immemorial a strange wedding custom has been observed in the West of Ireland, young men- known as the Straw-Boys- who have not been invited to the ceremony, and who care to present themselves in the disguise shown in our picture, being allowed to join in the festivities and control all the arrangements for a couple of hours." illustration by E. A. Morrow
Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck - Customs in Ireland:
Straw-boys activity occurred mostly in the west of Ireland. Groups of revelers wearing pointed top hats, masks, and skirts of straw arrived uninvited at wakes and weddings where they sang, danced, played music and games and generally performed acts of buffoonery often of a risque sexual nature. They were welcomed because it was believe that they brought good luck to the families involved. The entertainment value was probably considerable. The masks and outlandish attire was supposed to hide the identity of the individual and allow complete freedom from his inhibitions. However, I would imagine that in the small rural environments where these festivities were most popular everyone would have pretty much known everyone else and this was a case of who was kidding whom.
In the Fantastic Dress of the Notorious Straw Boys
The Secret Museum of Mankind:
During the early years of the nineteenth century sections of Ireland were overrun by one of the many terrorist gangs that have from time to time existed there, known, from their peculiar but effective grass masks, as the Straw Boys. Through these masks they could see without being recognized, and their habit of dressing as women added to their grotesque appearance
via Drive-By Blogging
William Illingworth
Archives of the West:
George Armstrong Custer poses with his Indian scouts during the Black Hills expedition of 1874. The man pointing to the map was named "Bloody Knife," a member of the Cree tribe. Photograph by William Illingworth.
William H. Illingworth
hat tip: Ordinary finds
Monday, September 22, 2008
Bohemian Grove
Ronald Reagan, Glenn T. Seaborg and Richard Nixon at the Bohemian Grove (image: Wikipedia)
Is Tricky Dick sporting a 'stache-n-dash?
Bohemian Grove
hat tip: vintagephoto
Graham Miller, Photographer
Suburban Splendour:
These characters are troubled, but not irretrievably lost; they carry a dignified endurance and a sense of bruised optimism. These people are survivors. They have a desire, as we all do, to be transported from darkness into light.
hat tip: Flak Photo
Visual Music - Amon Tobin music video
A perfect video for your Monday morning!
12FRAMES (Jan Schönwiesner):
My graduation film. It´s a music video about a man trapped in a dream. His world, consisting of "plattenbauten" (buildings made with precast concrete slabs) begins to fall apart...
Outstanding work, Jan (ausgezeichnet!).
Making Of
Amon Tobin
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Thelonious Monk - Blue Monk
(video link)
Thelonious Monk - Blue Monk (Oslo, April 1966)
clip from the video Monk in Oslo
Thelonious Monk - Piano
Charlie Rouse - Saxophone
Larry Gates - Bass
Ben Riley - Drums
(prev - my Monk backstory)
Monk's Music
image from the album cover for Monk's Music
from Ben Pearce's photostream
via this isn't happiness
Gary Jules - Mad World (animated by Emil Goodman)
Animation by: Zero Hokum Fi_m (Emil Goodman)
Gary Jules
hat tip: Cartoon Brew
Fifty People, One Question
Mine: To be in good health, which includes not being addicted to nicotine, being able to see out of both eyes and having my teeth straightened.
by Benjamin Reece
his site/weblog
via Projectionist
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Saturday morning cute-attack
This photograph was taken in 1911 in Alaska. Is shows a man feeding a small bear cub.
Old Picture of the Day: Bear Cub
Bowie mugshot
The Smoking Gun:
...photo of David Bowie, which was snapped in Rochester, New York following the singer's March 1976 arrest on a felony pot possession charge. Bowie, 29 at the time, was nabbed along with Iggy Pop and two other codefendants at a Rochester hotel following a Saturday concert. Bowie was held in the Monroe County jail for a few hours before being released. The Rochester Police Department mug shot was taken three days after Bowie's arrest, when the performer appeared at City Court for arraignment.
hat tip: hyde or die
Fellini
Federico Fellini
I have looked everywhere for a source. Any ideas?
via Human Under Construction
stray bullets
If you tried to follow the link from the Mark Cuban item yesterday and got nothing, here is why.
Players You Don't Hear About The war here is described as "complicated," which is another way of saying that there are several different factions fighting, sometimes as allies and sometimes against each other. The major players are... (via)
Why So Serious? The modern classical-music performance, as audiences have come to know it and sometimes to love it, adheres to a fairly rigid format.... Most people are aware that this clockwork routine—reassuringly dependable or drearily predictable, depending on whom you ask—is of recent origin, and that before 1900 concerts assumed a quite different form. I've read about bloody sword-fights in the aisles and composers and musicians pulling crazy musical stunts to get the attention of the audience. (via)
Alan Moore on 'Watchmen' movie: 'I will be spitting venom all over it' "I find film in its modern form to be quite bullying," Moore told me during an hour-long phone call from his home in England. "It spoon-feeds us, which has the effect of watering down our collective cultural imagination. It is as if we are freshly hatched birds looking up with our mouths open waiting for Hollywood to feed us more regurgitated worms. (via)
Leningrad Cowboys with the Red Army Orchestra and Choir - Happy Together
The Leningrad Cowboys, in concert with the Red Army Orchestra and Choir, singing Happy Together in their legendary concert in Helsinki’s Senate Square at the end of the cold war in 1993. From the Aki Kaurismäki documentary Total Balalaika Show.
This is so freakin' awesome. What happened?
Big thanks to The Chawed Rosin for brightening my morning.
watch the original here
another favorite version here
Friday, September 19, 2008
Joshua A. Norton, Emperor of these United States and Protector of Mexico
image: Wikimedia
I missed this anniversary by a couple of days, but on the 17th of September 1859, Joshua A. Norton proclaimed himself "Emperor of these United States and Protector of Mexico." Funny thing is, many people went along with it. He made numerous decrees, issued his own currency, (that was accepted in the establishments he frequented) and when he died, nearly 30 thousand people packed the streets of San Francisco for his funeral.
Emperor Norton in popular culture
hat tip: LedgerGermane
Ruth Grace Moulon, RIP
Photo by Cheryl Gerber
Gambit Weekly:
Everyone who knew Ruthie the Duck Lady, born Ruth Grace Moulon, and those who only saw her on the streets of the French Quarter will be saddened to know she died on Sept. 6 after evacuating to Baton Rouge because of Hurricane Gustav. She was 74.
Not only did I know Ruthie, I've partied with her. Serious bummer.
stray bullets
Life in Somalia's pirate town This is a more elaborate and lucrative operation than you might imagine. Quite the cottage industry they have going on there, complete with a support system and an economy of its own.
Thanks for the advice on Josh I wanted to thank all of you who took the time to email me with your comments on how best to deal with Josh. They were so good, I thought I would share a few of them with everyone. Including the email addresses of those who were bold enough to use real email addresses. Josh realizes his comments were wrong, he understands why people are upset. He knows he has made a mistake, has apologized and will work with us. Beyond that, its a private issue. What about the people who gave me the following advice? Mark Cuban posts some of the emails he received in reference to the Josh Howard situation, complete with addies.
The future of online video The Official Google Blog weighs in. In ten years, we believe that online video broadcasting will be the most ubiquitous and accessible form of communication. The tools for video recording will continue to become smaller and more affordable. Personal media devices will be universal and interconnected. Even more people will have the opportunity to record and share even more video with a small group of friends or everyone around the world. (via)
Journalist retraces the steps of the original 'Zen' author in an engrossing tale Re-enacting the journey from Minneapolis to San Francisco chronicled by Pirsig in his cult classic, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," Mark Richardson digs deep to unearth the motives behind his tormented mentor's search for quality while embarking on a search of his own. (via)
Deletionpedia is an archive of about 63,555 pages which have been deleted from the English-language Wikipedia. Deletionpedia is not a wiki: you cannot edit the pages uploaded here. An automated bot uploads pages as they are deleted from Wikipedia.
Frank Deford: Blemish, Anyone? Bets Show Dark Side Of Tennis (audio and text) In the many years I covered tennis, I heard it all: who was pulling the strings, who was double-dealing, who was taking drugs, who was sleeping with whom. But for all the genial corruption, never did I hear — or know anyone else who heard — that some player fixed a match for money, until Internet betting arrived a few years ago. And, I'll bet you didn't know that Humphrey Bogart was the first person to say "Tennis anyone?"
also:
Britain's luckiest man cheated death 14 times
What's new at the Internet Archive
Personality variation by region (USA) (maps) (via)
Five by Seelenluft
Beat Solèr, aka Seelenluft is a Swiss-born, Berlin based producer and DJ. Apart from his obvious skills, his music has a sense of humor and sweetness that I find endearing. He also has a number of excellent videos, a few of which I will now share with you.
First up is Manila (2002) featuring 12 year-old Comptonite, Michael Smith. This track, one of his best known, has been remixed numerous times and has appeared on over 60 compilations. I still love it.
(video link)
---
L.A. Woman (2002), and Manila are both from the album Out of the Woods.
(video link)
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Back to 2000, from the album The Rise And Fall Of Silvercity-Bob, comes Blue Tiger Family.
(video link)
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Horse With No Name (2007) features Florian Horwath on vocals and is a cover of the 1971 hit by America. I never really liked this tune that much growing up, but after hearing this version, I have a new-found appreciation for it. This track was released on his 2008 album, Horse With No Name.
(video link)
---
Some of you will know that I posted this video a little over a month ago, but so what-- I love it and this is a good excuse to put it up again. From the 2004 album The Way We Go, welcome back to Baby Baby.
(video link)
---
for more info:
seelenluft.net
Seelenluft wiki
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Nathan Fake - You Are Here
(video link)
video by Vincent Oliver and Udi Radomsk
Nathan Fake
via crackunit.com
stray bullets
Death of the bookworm Children are being taught to read at school – but not to love books' complexity and depth.
Looking at beautiful art can act as a painkiller Beauty is truth, the English romantic poet John Keats once wrote, but according to the latest scientific research it is also a painkiller. Looking at a beautiful piece of art has long been said to have the power to heal emotional wounds but the new research also claims it offers a distraction from physical pain.
Stealing History Over the last couple of months articles about the theft of items of historical significance have made there way into my reading queue. I didn’t seek these interesting pieces out on purpose, but the string of serendipity is too much to ignore so I though I would share them with you all.
Don’t Buy That Textbook, Download It Free In protest of what he says are textbooks’ intolerably high prices — and the dumbing down of their content to appeal to the widest possible market — Professor McAfee has put his introductory economics textbook online free. He says he most likely could have earned a $100,000 advance on the book had he gone the traditional publishing route, and it would have had a list price approaching $200. “This market is not working very well — except for the shareholders in the textbook publishers,” he said. “We have lots of knowledge, but we are not getting it out.” (via)
Print on demand with 'ATM for books' Imagine walking into a book store and knowing that even the most obscure or out of print books will always be in stock. Angus & Robertson today became the first Australian book chain to install the Espresso Book Machine (EBM), capable of printing, trimming and binding a paperback book on demand within minutes. I brought this idea up to some friends back in 2001. I thought it would be a good idea-- not unto itself but as a part of bookstore or coffeeshop or somesuch. People laughed at or just ignored me. I shouldn't listen to friends that don't read. (via)
also:
Take a look at what Hurricane Gustav did to Grand Isle, LA. (stunning) (via)
The Digested Read podcast: The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon A podcast version of John Crace's wickedly satirical Guardian column, lampooning the literary style of leading authors by summarising their books in five minutes
IMDB Video Watch Full-Length Movies, TV Shows, and More — Free! (via)
viddy:
2005 PBS NOW interview with Kurt Vonnegut (via)
Renoir painting (verb) (and puffin' somethin')
Why Schools Make You Tuck In Your Shirt! (wow)
Futility Closet - Elementary: Sherlock Holmes was based on a real man, Scottish surgeon Joseph Bell, whom Arthur Conan Doyle had served as a clerk in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. (read more)
Word Spy: secondhand drinking n. A negative effect that a drinker has on a non-drinker.
Places I Will Haunt: The Staircase
I was in high school before I ever slept with the lights off. It's not that I was afraid of the dark. I was afraid of what was in the dark. (read more)
toddland's photostream
via We know who we are and what we want to say.
Brilliant Noise
Big WOW. Old Sol is such a deep mystery.
Semiconductor:
Brilliant Noise by Semiconductor: Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt
Brilliant Noise takes us into the data vaults of solar astronomy. After sifting through hundreds of thousands of computer files, made accessible via open access archives, Semiconductor have brought together some of the sun's finest unseen moments. These images have been kept in their most raw form, revealing the energetic particles and solar wind as a rain of white noise. This grainy black and white quality is routinely cleaned up by NASA, hiding the processes and mechanics in action behind the capturing procedure. Most of the imagery has been collected as single snapshots containing additional information, by satellites orbiting the Earth. They are then reorganised into their spectral groups to create time-lapse sequences. The soundtrack highlights the hidden forces at play upon the solar surface, by directly translating areas of intensity within the image brightness into layers of audio manipulation and radio frequencies.
available on DVD with 12 alternate soundtracks
more info
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Ping Pong Politics
Exhibition match between a Moroccan and a Chinese athlete
Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images » Images from the Cultural Revolution
Professor Thomas H. Hahn of Cornell University has a remarkable collection of photographs on Zenfolio. Photo geeks could get lost in this one for a good while.
via Danwei
Theodore Roosevelt on the "River of Doubt"
EyeWitness to History:
Theodore Roosevelt's Amazon Expedition, 1914
While on a speaking tour through South America in 1913, ex-President Theodore Roosevelt learned of an unexplored river in Brazil that had been given the name the "River of Doubt." Always on the look-out for adventure, TR decided to explore it.
Supported by the Brazilian government, Roosevelt, his son Kermit and a party of naturalists entered the headwaters of the mysterious river on February 27, 1914. All contact with the outside world was severed. The experience quickly became harrowing.
The river’s boiling rapids soon destroyed all but two of the expedition’s canoes. Vicious mosquitoes attacked the men mercilessly. The entire team was wracked with tropical fever. Midway through his trek, TR fell on the slippery rocks and gashed his leg. His wound quickly became severely infected. At one point, suffering from fever and pain, unable to walk, and fearing he was jeopardizing the expedition, Roosevelt pleaded with his companions to leave him in the jungle to die. They refused.
Finally, after 48 days, the expedition emerged from the wilderness having traveled over 1,000 miles of unexplored territory. Roosevelt’s health was severely weakened. He had lost close to 60 pounds and never did regain his full strength. Despite his near-death experience, Roosevelt declared: “I had to go – it was my last chance to be a boy."
Karron Bridges
Donna with Jesus, Ninga Mia, Australia, 2006
Photo: Karron Bridges — featured in Hijacked, Volume One: Australia and America
Another one with the eye.
via Flak Photo
David Lynch Coffee
"It's all in the beans, and I'm just full of beans."
David Lynch Coffee
from David Lynch: 'They murdered my first movie'
via Weird Universe
stray bullets
US Hands Over Seized Antiquities to Iraq Home to what was once ancient Mesopotamia, Iraq has long been a target of looters and thieves intent on stealing the country's treasure trove of antiquities. But a large cache of priceless artifacts has been returned to Iraq's government, thanks to a multi-year initiative by U.S. customs authorities to intercept items being smuggled into the United States.
Crows may be smarter than apes Researchers found evidence that the birds are able to outsmart people's closest relatives when it comes to finding a way to access food without it falling into a trap.
New face of Canada's lumberjacks African immigrants make up the bulk of the region's forestry workers.
The future of photography Photography entered the digital age in the early 90s and the resulting wave of technical innovation has put cameras everywhere, from satellites to cellphones. But bigger changes in the technology are yet to come.
also:
Cray and Microsoft launch $25,000 'deskside supercomputer'
Top 13 Polar Super Vehicles from Antarctic (via)
A good breakdown of The Statute of Limitations
Marco Polo's Travels on Google Maps (via)
viddy:
The venomous Goliath Tarantula is the largest spider in the world. What should you do if one lands on you?
The Prisoner Video Exclusive - Jim Caviezel Says There's Sand in His Cranium
Leo Kottke - Vaseline Machine Gun (it kicks in around halfway through and it's smokin')
Raga Shivranjani on Bansuri (Indian Bamboo Flute) (beautiful)
Sergio Mora - No Time, No Space
From the show WHALELESS at True Hate Art Gallery in La Rochelle, France.
Sergio Mora (worth a look)
via El Noticiario Mágico (Sergio Mora's weblog)
Sinking head
A view of Bali-born sculptor Nyoman Nuarta's workshop. There are more than 100 of his sculptures on display at the NuArt Sculpture Park in Bandungin West Java, Indonesia.
from Tin Green's photostream
hat tip: 鏡
Trilobite beetle of Laos
memutic:
Trilobite beetle larva of Oudomxay, Laos (Coleoptera: Lycidae.) This is a juvenile netwing beetle. It is unknown whether this species is neotenous (reaching maturity without metamorphosis.) The plates on the back are called scutes; firefly larvae also have this character. This individual was collected on Puhipii mountain.
hat tip: wtf_nature
Outsider Hip-Hop
Although I have grown weary of the tired and trampled memes of hip-hop, now and again a track or an act comes along that catches my attention. Frequently, almost exclusively, these come from sources outside of the corporate machine. Crossover and the wide, global appropriation of the form is nothing new-- one of the first successful efforts, to my memory, is Blondie's Rapture, and we're all painfully aware of many unsuccessful and downright awful ones. However, there are some remarkable gems in the remainder.
I go through loads of videos in my work here, I have a bookmark folder full of them. Here are a few of them that I would consider "outsider" hip-hop. This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive or representative sampling, it's just a few nuggets that I've found, stashed and now present to you. Connoisseurs of obscure hip-hop might find these a bit pedestrian, but many of you might find something new and interesting here.
As I've watched these videos and listened to all the music I have over the years, I am struck by how mutable and universal hip-hop music and culture has become. Love it or hate it, it is undeniably a new medium that has touched the entire planet. These people, for the most part, aren't taking the piss-- they're enthusiastically embracing this form of expression and many are producing some great work.
As with most internet videos, volumes vary, so mind your speakers.
It's no surprise or secret that the Japanese have embraced hip-hop. One of my favorites is m-flo's Expo Expo. I understand they're quite popular in Japan and a lot of their stuff I find a bit eh, but this track is a classic. It features Towa Tei, Bahamadia and Chops. The production on this is top-drawer stuff.
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Up from the kitchens of New York's Chinatown, come strong the Notorius MSG. Their comic approach plays on old-school vibes and new-school Asian stereotypes. You can find out more on their YouTube channel. There a couple of clips that will give you an idea of what they're about, one NSFW and the other, more mainstream. It was hard for me to pick one, so we'll start with their first music video, Straight Out of Canton (somewhat NSFW) and if you want, you can explore the rest.
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The white-boy rapper trope is just about as tired as hip-hop itself, but I like Buck 65. I believe he found a bit of acclaim in alternative circles in the past few years. Originally from Nova Scotia, his music has a dirty roots sort of feel to it and his lyrics are witty and waver, coexist and fuse somewhere between the sardonic and the uplifting. Wicked and Weird was always my favorite. He now hosts Radio 2 Drive on CBC Radio 2.
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Usually, I avoid this kind of thing, but Russian opera and pop star, Nikolay Baskov and the comedy/parody group Мурзилки International perform Albinoni's Adagio much to my satisfaction. At first, I was seriously cringing, but by the end they had won me over. The Russian language and the poetic sensibility both seem to work well with hip-hop. This is probably pretty high on the popularity scale in Russia, but it's still outsider. There does seem to be a thriving scene there. (video link) (ht)
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From out in leftfield comes experimental/alternative/abstract hip-hop dons cCLOUDDEAD. I love their music. They disbanded in 2004 and left behind a strange and impressive body of work. Although they are well known in college radio circles, they are certainly qualify as outsider. This is one I like, from their album Ten, Pop Song. You can find out more about this branch of the hip-hop tree at anticon. records, although I would say that they have branched out all over the place these days.
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Plastilina Mosh are from Mexico, where I understand they have a strong following. They inhabit the boundaries between pop, rock, hip hop and trip hop. Their 1999 album Aquamosh is the shit. The rest, I don't know, I'm hit and miss with it. I liked this video, though. From 2006, this is Millionaire.
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And finally, back in 2002, the Melbourne, Australia based outfit, The Avalanches achieved a degree of fame in the U.S. with their singles Frontier Psychiatrist and Since I Left You (great video, btw). And then they disappeared. I understand they are due for a new album, which I look forward to, as I thought that their 2000 album Since I Left You is a masterpiece from beginning to end. Although their roots are planted largely in punk and hip-hop, their later work is a synergetic blend of all sorts of styles. They're sort of a DJ-Culture jam-band. Here's an older, more Beastie Boys-esque version of The Avalanches from the Australian TV show, Recovery, from sometime in the late 1990's. The tune is Run DNA.
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Tuesday, September 16, 2008
stray bullets
India’s Novel Use of Brain Scans in Courts Is Debated The new technology is, to its critics, Orwellian. Others view it as a silver bullet against terrorism that could render waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods obsolete. Some scientists predict the end of lying as we know it. Now, well before any consensus on the technology’s readiness, India has become the first country to convict someone of a crime relying on evidence from this controversial machine: a brain scanner that produces images of the human mind in action and is said to reveal signs that a suspect remembers details of the crime in question. (via)
The Internet -- A Private Eye's Best Friend For private investigator Steven Rambam, the Internet is his most valuable tool in helping to find missing persons, cheating husbands, and your competitor's dirty secrets.... "Anything you put on the Internet will be grabbed, indexed, cataloged, and out of your control before you know it," he told CNET News after the July 19 session. "The genie is out of the bottle. Data doesn't stay in one location. It migrates to hundreds of places."...."I used to pay the police $500 for a driver's license photo. Now I just have to go to MySpace," he said. "I can find your location without leaving my desk." (via)
also:
Dog dials 911 to save owner's life
Autonomic NanoTechnology Swarm (ANTS) (via)
The Savants of Napoleon's Egyptian Expedition
viddy:
Orson Welles on the Merv Griffin Show - 1985 (He died two hours after the taping of this interview.) (via)
18 covers of "Earache My Eye" (prev)
An Introduction to Early Musical Instruments (via)
People Who Do Noise - Trailer (via)
Ultravox - My Sex (1977) (classic)
A sheen of oil is seen...
Photograph: Reuters
24 hours in pictures:
High Island, US: A sheen of oil is seen around a pump jack surrounded by floodwater after the passing of hurricane Ike.
Monday, September 15, 2008
The technology of The Conversation
Nuclear Emergency Response
Livermore’s nuclear emergency response capabilities were tested in Operation Morning Light in 1978.
from: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories Science & Technology Review
Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST)
How Nuclear Detectives Work
Kim Philby
Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security:
Kim Philby (right) shown here following the shelling of his vehicle during the Spanish Civil War, was a member of the Communist Party while at Cambridge University, where he recruited and led a ring of spies for the Soviet Union.
This is one of the most remarkable photographs I've seen. The exchange between Philby and his interlocutor, the man looking at the camera, the mysterious blond man with his back turned... energy and character just pours off of it. It leaves me begging to know more.
Kim Philby
stray bullets
Tinker, tailor, soldier, defector — John le Carré: I nearly left the West John le Carré, the espionage writer, has revealed that he was tempted to defect to the Soviet Union during the cold war.... Le Carré’s remarks are particularly intriguing because his own career as a secret agent was in effect destroyed by the treachery of Kim Philby, the double agent.
Briton was safe-cracker for Osama Bin Laden and Idi Amin He described the Al-Q'aeda head as "friendly" and the Ugandan dictator as "fun". I heard a rumor that when Osama was training with the CIA in the U.S. during the Russia-Afghanistan War that he was known as Tim Osmond. When the first "Wanted" photos were released in the late 1990s, some CIA officers were reported to have said, "Hey, that's Tim!"
Stephen Hawking to unveil strange new way to tell the time Prof Stephen Hawking is to unveil a remarkable £1 million clock with no hands that pays tribute to the world's greatest clockmaker.
Hurricane Ike's Sprawl a Meteorological Mystery Considering the vastly different dangers posed by these storms, it's natural to wonder just why some storms get so big while others stay small, despite having the same hurricane-force winds. Why, in other words, is Ike such a titan? also: History's Worst Storm Surges
also:
Vladmaster - Handmade viewmaster reels (via)
How to Draw Anything in One Step
How To Master Photoshop In Just One Week (via)
viddy:
The Peanut Vendor - Len Lye 1933 (via)
Kunstbar (careful what you drink at the Artbar)
Richie Hawtin 2008 DJ Setup
Bebe Barron on Anaïs Nin
The Natural History of the Chicken part 1/6 (via)
Gijsbert Hanekroot Fotografie
bob marley, amsterdam 1976
Gijsbert Hanekroot Fotografie
hat tip: Conscientious
Sunday, September 14, 2008
A llama must be brought into the dance hall
Erasmus Schröter (b. DDR, 1956) fled from the DDR in 1984. In 1997 he returned to his original home town of Leipzig. There he works as a freelance photographer and guest instructor at the Academy for Visual Arts.
via Mrs. Deane
The Rifle Workbook
directed by Vincent Caldoni
featuring Alela Diane as Angel
Alela Diane - The Rifle:
Why Sitemeter, why?
We interrupt this broadcast for a personal message:
The new Sitemeter SUCKS!!!
What were they thinking?
They took a simple, clear and easy to use design and made it look and function like a 1996 kludge nightmare.
I have a maxim:
Any attempt to improve something that already works rarely does and usually makes it worse.
or:
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Can we have a Sitemeter Classic setting? Please?
Apologies to those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
update: I posted this very early in the day, so there wasn't a great deal of response yet, but now that I look again:
Google Blog Search
Twitter Search
There seems to be a consensus.
update: Hoo-ray! They're going back to the old Sitemeter! Kudos to them for responding. Do you think Microsoft would have done that?
Saturday, September 13, 2008
_ghost - Lullaby
Little is known about _ghost except that he's from Poland and that Lullaby was used for the game Crayon Physics Deluxe.
I love this tune. I'm going to make a loop of it and let it play for the next few days.
a warm hat tip to Nag on the Lake
btw, in case you were wondering how: http://listentoyoutube.com (via)
(until I can find a legit copy)
Please do not put any ducks into this chute
Based on a true story.
Big Red Button
hat tip: futureshorts
Friday, September 12, 2008
Portraits of a divided self
Patricia is Kim’s dominant personality, her main "alter", who cares for her daughter. She paints mainly calm landscapes. She accepts and understands she has DID, but has no memory of trauma.
Guardian:
There are 14 names alongside paintings at an exhibition opening this week at the Novas Gallery in central London, but the collection is in fact the work of one woman. The woman in question, Kim Noble, has dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder. Her exhibition, All of Me, features 30 artworks by each of Noble's 14 personalities, or "alters" as she prefers to call them.
Gallery: Artist Kim Noble's multiple perspectives
stray bullets
Baseball's UK heritage confirmed A diary that documents a game being played in Guildford in 1755 has been verified by Surrey History Centre. William Bray, a Surrey diarist and historian from Shere, wrote about the game when he was still a teenager. Major League Baseball, the governing body of the game in the US, has been informed of the discovery. (via)
Baang You're Dead Lee had recently quit his job in order to spend more time playing games, presumably so that he could eventually "go pro" and compete in South Korea's popular gaming competitions. It was a life choice that would ultimately prove fatal. Armed with cheap and fast connections and the latest gear, some South Koreans are gaming themselves to death. (thx Nick)
The last shot of the American Civil War was fired.... in the Arctic, off the coast of Alaska!
also:
100 Free Online Ivy League Courses You Should Take Just for Fun (via)
SnowCrystals.com Your online guide to snowflakes, snow crystals, and other ice phenomena (exhaustive)
Man Killed By Exploding Lava Lamp (via)
viddy:
Meatarians train plants to eat burgers
Rupert Sheldrake - The Extended Mind: Recent Experimental Evidence (via)
Brewster Kahle on the need for a digital library 'free for the world'
How to survive a nuclear attack (don't miss it)
Howard Rheingold on collaboration (I don't link frequently to Smart Mobs, but I keep and eye on it. Stick with this one, it's good.) (via)
Unnecessary Knowledge: Every year approximately 2,500 left-handed people are killed by using object or machinery designed for right-handed people. If you're left-handed and work with tools or machinery, you become aware of this possibility. In many cases, you become right-handed. (via)
P.B. Slices
Aw yeah, individually wrapped peanut butter slices. No more having to get up from the computer to wash off dirty knives, and cleanup is a breeze!
They have a fun and informative website.
via Hysterical Paroxysm
Le Tone - Lake Of Udaipur
This will stay in your head for a while.
Le Tone
Le Tone MySpace
Le Tone Dailymotion
directed by Pierre Nouvel
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Miles Davis - All Blues (1964)
From the Steve Allen Show, September, 1964.
Miles Davis - trumpet
Wayne Shorter - tenor sax
Herbie Hancock - piano
Ron Carter - bass
Tony Williams - drums
more excellent jazz videos at Astrotype's Channel
Rush - YYZ (played by 11 year-old girl on Yamaha Electone)
I'm not really that big of a Rush fan, but this is pretty good.
Played on a Yamaha Electone.
via DAVELOG v3
Jacek Yerka
Praire House, 2005
pastel, paper, 47 x 59 cm
from yerkaland.com
see more of Yerka's surreal worldscapes here
Culture - Jacek Yerka
inspired by Jahsonic
stray bullets
A New Addiction: Internet Junkies While compulsive gambling is only beginning to be addressed by mental health professionals, they must now face a new affliction: Internet addiction. This is news?
Judge: Copyright owners must consider 'fair use' A federal judge on Wednesday gave more weight to the concept of "fair use" when he threw a lifeline to a Pennsylvania mother's lawsuit against Universal Music. The judge refused to dismiss Stephanie Lenz's suit claiming that Universal abused the Digital Millennium Copyright Act when it issued a takedown notice to YouTube over a 30-second video of Lenz's baby dancing to a Prince song. Right on. (via)
Brightest gamma-ray burst was aimed at Earth Astronomers think they know what caused the brightest ever gamma-ray burst, which was observed in March: a tightly beamed jet of matter that happened to be aimed almost directly at Earth. Kinda strange.
Benjamin Franklin: City Slicker So when Franklin, at 17, ran out on his printing indentures (a serious felony) and fled from Boston to Philadelphia, he was hardly the “poor ignorant boy” he purported to be. (via)
also:
The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs
The uncanny valley: why almost-human-looking robots scare people more than mechanical-looking robots
H.P. Lovecraft Vintage Fonts (via)
World Names Profiler (enter your surname) (via)
viddy:
Secret Military Technology On 60 Minutes, in an interview with Scott Pelley, reporter Bob Woodward claimed that the U.S. military has a new secret technique that's so revolutionary, it's on par with the tank and the airplane. Schneier takes a stab and the commenters take the piss.
Large Hadron Collider: Peter Higgs interview
William S. Burroughs demonstrates his famous literary "cut-ups"
Early demonstration of the Mellotron
Chinese Popeye (via Nick's Brown Bag)
In case you haven't heard
Today is not Hadron Collider Day:
All the world's media is going bananas over "first beam" day at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - the world's most stupendous particle-punisher, which switched on this morning (following an initial hiccup which appeared to be fixed by the traditional expedient of turning it off then on again). Today, it is being strongly implied, is the moment of truth - today is the big day, when the LHC might unmask the elusive "god particle" - or alternatively destroy the world and indeed perhaps the entire universe.
There's just one snag with all that - it's cobblers. All the good, interesting stuff from the LHC - the Higgs deiton, the dark matter, the possibly planet-gobbling black hole dimensional portal threat and/or universe-buster runaway strangelet or monopole soup plagues, dessert topping apocalypses etc - none of that's on offer today. All of these excellent possibilities require the LHC boffins to actually collide some hadrons - well, duh. The clue's in the name. But they aren't ready for that yet....
....Only at that stage - probably a year or more from now - will the colliding protons be disintegrated with sufficient violence to produce the various treats we have been promised. Strangely perhaps, by then it seems a racing cert that the broadcasters will all have gone home, and the scribblers will mostly have ceased to file copy. Once the insane laughs begin to truly ring out in the LHC's underground caverns, once the mad scientists wipe the foam from their lips, roll up their sleeves, lock and load their outrageous particle guns and really start to show what they can do, the chances are that nobody will be watching.
ht: the day they tried to kill me
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Jack Kerouac, Artist's Club, New Year's Eve, 1958
photo by Fred W. McDarrah
Beat Generation: Glory Days in Greenwich Village
via growabrain