October 20
A shriek-blob-a-boo! bop, a wop-damn-doom
r/VintageObscura is a subreddit for crate diggers. Since Halloween 2014, u/kaptain_carbon has celebrated shocktober by compiling spooky obscurities and campy exotica submitted by fellow redditors into virtual HellPs, most of which are handily located in this youtube playlist. (Most recent reddit FPP). Consider putting one on before your next screaming of a Vincent Price film!
2014 ᄽὁȍ ̪ őὀᄿ 2015 (ᅇ) 2016 Side A, Side B (˼●̙̂ ̟ ̟̎ ̟ ̘●̂˻) 2017 (((༼•̫͡•༽))) 2018 ヘ(◕。◕ヘ) 2019 Side C ↜(͛ ꒪͒৫͏̈́꒪͒)͛⌰ 2020 Side A, Side B, Side C, Side D /╲/\ºo;88;oº/\╱\ 2021 Side A, Side B, Side C, Side D
2014 ᄽὁȍ ̪ őὀᄿ 2015 (ᅇ) 2016 Side A, Side B (˼●̙̂ ̟ ̟̎ ̟ ̘●̂˻) 2017 (((༼•̫͡•༽))) 2018 ヘ(◕。◕ヘ) 2019 Side C ↜(͛ ꒪͒৫͏̈́꒪͒)͛⌰ 2020 Side A, Side B, Side C, Side D /╲/\ºo;88;oº/\╱\ 2021 Side A, Side B, Side C, Side D
rich ideological texts of whiteness and domesticity!
The Ideological Battlefield of the "Mamasphere." Anne Helen Petersen interviews Kathryn Jezer-Morton - currently writing her PhD dissertation on the topic - about "momfluencers" and the rise, growth, and transmogrification of mommy-blogging.
"I’m not a mom but I like to know what the moms are up to. You should too, regardless of your identity, because “the moms” — meaning, the moms embodying and directing ideals of femininity and domesticity and parenting — have a lot of power, and power demands attention." [more inside]
We're Gonna Need a Bigger Filter...
Basically, everything is twice as hard on camera.
In 2018, tech blog The Verge posted How to Build a $2000 Gaming PC. The video; rife with terminology, editing, performance, and safety errors; was heavily criticized and mocked by other Youtubers and internet commenters and then eventually removed. Three years later, the original Verge host Stefan Etienne explains what went wrong and rebuilds the original PC with tech blogger LinusTechTips.
Simply born with sharp teeth
On Youtube, animator David James Armsby has been creating the Dinosauria series (preview), extraordinary, quiet films about the daily struggles and rewards of the lives of dinosaurs. (cw: violent animal combat, death)
Our Frozen Past (6:36): In a bleak winter landscape, a mother troodon must use her wits to protect her chicks from nanuqsaurs.
Old Buck (4:29): An aging bull styracosaurus must defend his position from a rival or be left for dead among the scavengers. An earlier dinosaur film, with narration: Sharp Teeth (3:21). Predators and prey, mothers and young. [more inside]
Our Frozen Past (6:36): In a bleak winter landscape, a mother troodon must use her wits to protect her chicks from nanuqsaurs.
Old Buck (4:29): An aging bull styracosaurus must defend his position from a rival or be left for dead among the scavengers. An earlier dinosaur film, with narration: Sharp Teeth (3:21). Predators and prey, mothers and young. [more inside]
Bear, hot spring waterfall, horse, rowan, river, alder
Three short, eerie fantasy stories about water and beasts. "Hokkaido Green" by by Aidan Doyle (2010) is bittersweet fantasy about emotions, grief, and tradeoffs. "Talisman" by Tracina Jackson-Adams (2002): Horses, a family feud, dark ceremonies in the wood, high stakes and slow-burn reveals. "Riverine" by Danielle Jorgensen Murray (March 2021): the river man, his bride, permission, respect and care. [more inside]
What is postsecularism?
According to Clayton Crockett, postsecularism indicates the breakdown of the modern divide within liberalism that assigns religion to a private sphere of belief that is separate from political-civil reason. Postsecularism attends to the ways that what we call religion exceed their modern frames and become deprivatized and politicized. In this process, spiritual-political forces are liberated from the modern framework of religion. Recent movements called New Materialism and New Animism can be seen as attempts to conceptualize this development. [more inside]
"If the right should somehow gain that power, I don't trust us with it."
How the American Right Fell in Love With Hungary Some U.S. conservatives are taking a cue from Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — how to use the power of the state to win the culture wars (NYT Magazine, October 19, 2021).
Squid Game
[Spoilers in links] Squid Game is a popular Netflix series (really popular), themed around socio-economic inequality and nostalgia, where contestants play six (adapted) childhood games for money, there being somewhat negative consequences for the losers. Like Battle Royale, classical music is often used. Some criticism has been levelled, for the acting and the subtitles. In England, councils are urging parents to stop children watching and copying it. Why Squid Game? Comparisons are drawn with Battle Royale, the Hunger Games, Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor, and erm Mario Party. Inevitably there are Halloween costumes, or play it in a cafe. [Squid Game on Fanfare]
The Limits Of Dave Chappelle And Kyrie Irving’s Free-Thinking
The Limits Of Dave Chappelle And Kyrie Irving’s Free-Thinking (Defector, alternate link from archive.org) [more inside]
The Ubiquity of Corn
There's something in the air, your food, your fuel, your lipstick... Most of this will not surprise many of you, but it is shocking that Colombia mandates patented corn and their agricultural institute has destroyed thousands of native seeds.
spoopy creppy szn
Looking for non-Spotify/whatever other streaming service you use Halloween playlists? Let ole Jack Fear over at PopDose give you the trick AND treat of FOURTEEN downloadable mixtapes. [more inside]
Street legality will vary by jurisdiction.
The website Electrek brings you news from the electric vehicle industry, but even if you aren't in the market for a new vehicle, you might just enjoy a closer look at the bizarre and at times deeply cursed world of electric vehicles available on Alibaba, including such favorites as a standing scooter with an alleged top speed of 60 MPH (100 km/h) or a racing motorcycle clearly designed by Dr. Seuss. [more inside]
October 19
Kate Bush - Live at the Apollo (full concert video)
Adrien Brody Finds His Chill
Nearly 20 years after winning an Oscar and staking his claim as one of his generation’s most serious actors, Adrien Brody is finding a glorious new gear. After the Oscar, every interaction with other people was somehow different. “It was as if a storm rolled in,” he says. “Everything started blowing away—the life I knew.”
Don't change, people kept telling him. Don't change. So he didn't. But then they went off and changed. They talked to him differently. Friends wanted to go into business with him. Photographers wanted to take his picture. Directors wanted him for their movies. None of it quite felt right. “It feels like it was a decade of finding out who and where I was. A lot of living and losing and winning and losing,” he says.
Atwood & Chee & Lerner & Porter & Waits & More
Inque Magazine will launch next month. It will be a printed literary magazine with a limited run of 6000 copies issued once a year for 10 years. It will feature no advertising, no web-equivalent, and will not be reprinted. In addition to a wonderful list of contributors and a hell of a masthead, Jonathan Lethem will publish a 10-chapter novel in the mag, one chapter per issue for the decade. [more inside]
All In The Game Yo, All In The Game
Why The Wire is the greatest TV series of the 21st Century out of The 100 greatest TV series of the 21st Century [BBC] [more inside]
We're not all that different / I promise not to scare you
A thread (reader, original tweets) on the Authoritarian disposition -- 33% of the population take the stance and there's little benefit to reasoning with them, "how do you manage a democracy containing them?"
#striketober international
#striketober isn't just for the US. Half a million workers in South Korea are prepared to stage a one-day general strike. [more inside]
anyone who enjoys wild birds is a birder! birding is for everyone!
The Birdability Map is a crowdsourced map that describes in detail the accessibility features of birding locations all over the world. It is a work-in-progress, and anyone can contribute to it by submitting a Birdability Site Review. [more inside]
languages, customs, avatars, and nasty safeguards
"But no matter: you can be made perfect; you can put on the immerser and become someone else, someone pale-skinned and tall and beautiful." "Immersion" is a short science fiction story by French-Vietnamese author Aliette de Bodard that won the 2012 Nebula Award and Locus Award for Best Short Story. It never explicitly uses the word "assimilation," or "immigrant."
There's something kind of odd about tricking people for a living
The collection of Ricky Jay, actor, sleight-of-hand master, and scholar of magic history, is going to auction. [more inside]
VIRUSCRAFT II
October 18
Are you lost in the world like me?
The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals
Just in time for the holidays, a camp horror stage musical about a guy who didn't like musicals [1h52m]. NSFW for adult words and adult humor. Find your personal apotheosis.
Disappointing Race? Reframe It.
After a big race, professional athletes and amateurs often face the same challenge: how to react when the run doesn’t go according to Plan A, B or C. “I think there is a really powerful shift that we need to make between outcome goals and performance standards,” Ross said. Outcome goals are usually time or place goals. Performance goals can be much more about mentality.
“When the day is not your day, we get lost and upset because we are able to recognize that the outcome goal is out of reach. That’s when falling on performance standards is so important. It’s less about the outcome. It’s how you show up.”
It’s a concept that Sara Hall took to heart in the days after the Chicago Marathon. She loves being process focused, looking to little victories and identifying the next goal.
“Out there, you have to do whatever you can to stay positive, and I did stay positive the whole time,” she said. “That was a win in itself. I told myself I was still in it. I focused on how good my stride felt and how grateful I was to be in the race.”
That kid's got stones, I'll give 'em that
You do know what's been missing in your life, right? Yep, that's right. A skipping-stone storage belt from Japan.
Also a super soaker, filled with soapy water
Dr. Sarah Taber explains why gun-toting military robot dogs will be disabled by water balloons full of pickle juice.
Ever wanted to see Tilda Swinton recreated in flowers?
说曹操,曹操就到 Speak of Cao Cao and he arrives
“Speak of the devil and he appears” and parallel idioms in Chinese and English.
Things Confucius Never Said. "When you are about to make a major decision, your family or friends may cite Confucius and advise you to act prudently and 'think three times before acting.'" In fact, Confucius said to stop waffling and that thinking twice is enough. [more inside]
Things Confucius Never Said. "When you are about to make a major decision, your family or friends may cite Confucius and advise you to act prudently and 'think three times before acting.'" In fact, Confucius said to stop waffling and that thinking twice is enough. [more inside]
MLB to require teams to provide housing for minor leaguers
Amid mounting pressure from players and advocacy groups, Major League Baseball said on Sunday it will require teams to provide housing for minor league players starting in 2022. [more inside]
Colin Luther Powell (April 5, 1937 – October 18, 2021)
Colin L. Powell, former secretary of state and military leader, dies at 84 [Washington Post]
Mr. Powell was a path breaker serving as the country’s first African American national security adviser, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state. [New York Times] [more inside]
Mr. Powell was a path breaker serving as the country’s first African American national security adviser, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state. [New York Times] [more inside]
Vienna laid bare on OnlyFans
Are you daring enough to take a look at Vienna laid bare on OnlyFans? Vienna and its art institutions are among the casualties of this new wave of prudishness – with nude statues and famous artworks blacklisted under social media guidelines, and repeat offenders even finding their accounts temporarily suspended. [more inside]
October 17
It's the patriarchy
In this interview in Jacobin, Calvin University's historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez address the conundrum of evangelical support for Donald Trump. She points outs that much of modern liberalism (feminism, acceptance of alternatives to heterosexuality, etc.) threatens White male authority. Trump's morality (or lack thereof) can be handily overlooked given his male dominance displays and his ability stoke the fear that "they" (non-evangelicals) are out to get "us" (real Americans).
In her book, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, she connects the historical dots and shows the dark underbelly of misogyny and toxic agression has always been present.
Weaves of India
Weaves of India Journey across India, as Live History India takes you to stories behind the most famous and historic textiles of India. Eg. Kanchipuram saris
Caffenol
Develop your film: with coffee, red wine, Croatian rosé, drain cleaner and acetaminophen, beetroot, ajvar (capsicum chutney), or gas station beer. [more inside]
What makes a job meaningful?
"How do we even begin to contextualize this situation?"
My Guinea Pig Reviews Halloween Costumes Costume expert Bernadette Banner tries costumes on her guinea pig, Lord Cesario, "a highly opinionated 4-legged potato."
...when the Afterlife experiences its own apocalypse
Short Storyfllter: The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier "...Occasionally, one of the dead, someone who had just completed the crossing, would mistake the city for Heaven. It was a misunderstanding that never persisted for long. What kind of Heaven had the blasting sound of garbage trucks in the morning, and chewing gum on the pavement, and the smell of fish rotting by the river? What kind of Hell, for that matter, had bakeries and dogwood trees and perfect blue days that made the hairs on the back of your neck rise on end? No, the city was not Heaven, and it was not Hell, and it certainly was not the world. It stood to reason, then, that it had to be something else. More and more people came to adopt the theory that it was an extension of life itself—a sort of outer room—and that they would remain there only so long as they endured in living memory. When the last person who had actually known them died, they would pass over into whatever came next." [more inside]
Musicians on Musicians: Lorde & David Byrne
From Rolling Stone: On fighting stage fright, staying true to your inspiration, and the mysteries of songwriting " “I’ve thought about you a lot,” [Lorde] tells him as they sit down to talk. “I don’t even know where to start, David. I just have so much to ask you.” Byrne smiles courteously: “Ah, thank you.” And they’re off."
Minna Agechau
n-text moral judgments
Should I run the blender at 3am in the morning when my family is sleeping?
Ask Delphi lets you try out a computational model for descriptive ethics, i.e., people’s moral judgments on a variety of everyday situations.
Relevant paper.
Ask Delphi lets you try out a computational model for descriptive ethics, i.e., people’s moral judgments on a variety of everyday situations.
Relevant paper.
October 16
Episode 39: Do You Want To Become A Vampire?
Your Undivided Attention. A podcast from the Center for Humane Technology.
Ep. 39 features philosopher L.A. Paul on social media technology as transformative. (pdf).
Ep. 40 asks "What is the goal of our digital information environment? Is it simply to inform, or also to empower us to act?" (pdf).
Ep. 24 features Julie Owono of Internet Without Borders on Facebook’s “2Africa” subsea cable project and the risks of “digital colonialism.” (pdf). [more inside]
Ep. 39 features philosopher L.A. Paul on social media technology as transformative. (pdf).
Ep. 40 asks "What is the goal of our digital information environment? Is it simply to inform, or also to empower us to act?" (pdf).
Ep. 24 features Julie Owono of Internet Without Borders on Facebook’s “2Africa” subsea cable project and the risks of “digital colonialism.” (pdf). [more inside]
Joe Manchin's Dirty Empire
“So jump in the river and learn to swim...”
Satellite, by The Hooters, was a minor and underrated 1987 hit, reaching #61 on the US Billboard Hot 100, #22 on the UK Singles Chart, and charting in several European countries [lyrics][live on Top of the Pops]. The song was written by Eric Bazilian, Rick Chertoff, and Rob Hyman, and was used on an episode of Miami Vice called "Amen... Send Money".
Abandoning a career because you don't believe in science is not a flex
Politics have always been in health care.It's just when it's finally affecting you, you give a damn.
TikTok's Nurse Nya goes down the rabbit hole of antivax nurses so you don't have to... and gets results.
(Post title from here.)
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
Stephen Sondheim was having another go. After his first show as lyricist/composer collapsed through no fault of his own, he retreated to lyrics-only for a while... West Side Story and Gypsy... I mean, ya know, as one does. But in 1962, one of the most successful Broadway shows of all time, with a book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart (M*A*S*H), A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. Here's Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford, John Carradine, and others in the Original Broadway Cast Recording. [Archive.org link, streaming and download links] [more inside]
A zeal to dazzle the state of of Maryland - continued
Everything We Know About the Maryland Zebras On the Run | On Aug. 31 three zebras somehow escaped from an 80-acre farm owned by Jerry Holly in Upper Marlboro, a city that is about 21 miles from the White House [Previously]. At first it was believed that five zebras escaped—a trio and a duo—but that turned out to be wrong. Let's get into it: [more inside]
The Idris Elba Effect
The coolest man on the planet won’t be shaken from his master plan. But after a bruising 18 months, the multitalented Englishman, who acts, deejays, and podcasts, and this month stars in the all-Black Western, The Harder They Fall, wants to clear up a few things. [Esquire/Pandemic related/]
October 15
David Anthony Andrew Amess (March 26, 1952 – October 15, 2021)
The killing of Conservative MP Sir David Amess has been declared a terrorist incident by police. [BBC]
Sir David, 69, who represented Southend West, was holding a constituency surgery - where voters can meet their MP and discuss concerns - at Belfairs Methodist Church on Friday when he was attacked at 12:05 BST.
Sir David had been an MP since 1983 and was married with five children. He is the second serving MP to be killed in the past five years, following the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016. [more inside]
Sir David, 69, who represented Southend West, was holding a constituency surgery - where voters can meet their MP and discuss concerns - at Belfairs Methodist Church on Friday when he was attacked at 12:05 BST.
Sir David had been an MP since 1983 and was married with five children. He is the second serving MP to be killed in the past five years, following the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016. [more inside]