ם Linkdump.

Posted on May 29, 2008 at 11:17 pm

• I love Isabella Rossellini. For the Sundance Film Festival, she wrote, produced, directed, and starred in a series of shorts called Green Porno. In each short, she dresses up like some bug, and then explains and simulates their reproduction. It is, in a word, fantastic. Potentially NSFW, if you work in an office full of insects.
• Like the Internet? Watch Weezer’s new video for their single “Pork and Beans” and see how many Internet memes/YouTube sensations you recognize to check your pop-nerd-cred.
• Side effect of the Weezer video: discovering the Daft Hands video and assorted spinoffs.
• Lastly, the geek in me must share this article about Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine, complete with this spectacular anecdote:
  

  We were arguing about what the name of the company should be when Richard walked in, saluted, and said, “Richard Feynman reporting for duty. OK, boss, what’s my assignment?” The assembled group of not-quite-graduated MIT students was astounded.

  After a hurried private discussion (”I don’t know, you hired him…”), we informed Richard that his assignment would be to advise on the application of parallel processing to scientific problems.

  “That sounds like a bunch of baloney,” he said. “Give me something real to do.”
  

  So we sent him out to buy some office supplies.

That is all.

ם Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

Posted on April 23, 2007 at 10:37 pm

Tonight I was buying some food, and the cashier was whistling a familiar tune.

“Monty Python?” I asked. He told me I was the first person all night to know that, so he gave me a free box of Ritz crackers.

Hooray free crackers! Monty Python, you’ve saved me again.

ם The Strangest Request His Dealer Ever Heard

Posted on April 3, 2007 at 6:41 pm

Keith Richards, apparently having run out of new things to snort, did a line of his cremated father’s ashes.

He once snorted the remains of his own dad, Bert, leavened with a bit of cocaine to make it go down easier. “He was cremated and I couldn’t resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn’t have cared … It went down pretty well, and I’m still alive,” says Keith.

What a character.

ם Top Five Albums of 2006

Posted on December 31, 2006 at 10:31 pm

1. The Mountain Goats — Get Lonely: John Darnielle remains one of the few people that can successfully pull off an exquisite concept album. Absolutely fantastic piece of work. And the album cover reminds me of the cover of Led Zeppelin IV.

2. Regina Spektor — Begin to Hope: I’ve always had a soft-spot for Regina. This album is a nice follow-up to Soviet Kitsch, with cleaner production but just as many academic references (think “pop-culture references”, but regarding 16th century literature or Biblical judges instead of Nicole Richie). Anti-folk for the academic.

3. Girl Talk — Night Ripper: If you’re not familiar with Girl Talk, please read the first paragraph of this as a bit of a primer. Then go ahead and read the list of samples in each of the songs and just try to not want to immediately listen to this album. Night Ripper ends up being a 42-minute dance party, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that at all.

4. Bob Dylan — Modern Times: “I paid my time / And now I’m as good as new.” Amen, Bob-o.

5. Band of Horses — Everything All The Time: Not a particularly original sound, and they’re not really exploring unchartered territories, but they certainly know how to make a solid indie rock album. I just really dig it.

 
 
 
Honorable Mentions:

• Belle & Sebastian — The Life Pursuit: Some gems, some duds. A strong album, but just not quite top five.
• Approximately one third of the brand new Brand New, The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me. Those other two thirds let me down.
• CSS — Cansei de Ser Sexy: Super fun Brazilian dance rock, full of broken English lyrics.
• The Decemberists — The Crane Wife: The best history rock in town, as sung by Homestar Runner (c’mon, how am I the only one that thinks that?)
• The Hold Steady — Boys and Girls in America: As much fun as this band is to just listen to, I absolutely recommend trying to see them live. They put on quite a show.
• Quiet Company — Shine Honesty: Endearing music from Texas.

What’s your top five? Leave it in the comments. Chris, Mark, J.J., Indra… I’m looking at you. Anyone else is also welcomed to share.

ם Treadmill Choreography

Posted on August 10, 2006 at 11:22 pm

OK Go has made the best music video featuring treadmills of all time.

Wow.

ם Gettin’ Pissy-Pissy Sippin’… Krug Clos du Mesnil?

Posted on June 24, 2006 at 5:04 pm

As I’m sure you’ve heard, Jay Z is boycotting Cristal champagne after the company’s director made some comments that the Young Hov felt were racist.

But life must go on, so Slate Magazine has offered Jay, arguably Bed-Stuy’s classiest MC, some recommendations for a replacement.

The name of the hip-hop champagne-elect must fit seamlessly into rap lyrics. Cristal certainly lends itself to this use. With its short Cris followed by that stressed tal, it is an iamb, one of the most common poetic feet in English verse, and its monosyllabic nickname (Cris) slips easily into the tightest rhymes, something that cannot be said of Taittinger, Bollinger, or Billecart-Salmon.

Thankfully they approached this from all angles—not just the obvious considerations such as “taste” and “unmistakable prestige”, but also the ever important “meter”.

ם Van Morrison Sings About Danish

Posted on June 1, 2006 at 12:41 am

In 1967, Van Morrison shat out 31 songs to fulfill his contractual obligation to Bang Records, improvising such beauties as “Hold On George,” “Here Comes Dumb George,” “Goodbye George,” and “Dum Dum George”, not to mention “Ringworm” and “I Want A Danish”.

Notably, some of these tracks are now being sold as legitimate recordings on “greatest hits” collections.

But now, I have some laundry to fold. Goodnight.

ם Wing Sings AC/DC

Posted on May 31, 2006 at 11:39 pm

Wing, an elderly Asian woman, has taken it upon herself to cover the classics, from AC/DC to the Beatles to ABBA. To avoid having to sign up, check out the Top Ten and Wing’s Picks.

I think she truly captured the essence of “Back in Black”.

ם Cate Blanchett to Play… Bob Dylan?

Posted on May 31, 2006 at 1:30 am

Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett will be playing Bob Dylan in the upcoming biopic I’m Not There.

Weird.