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.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Ruth Grace Moulon, RIP
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)
---
Back to 2000, from the album The Rise And Fall Of Silvercity-Bob, comes Blue Tiger Family.
(video link)
---
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.
---
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.
---
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.
---
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)
---
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.
---
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.
---
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.
---
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
