|
killing the magnificent one
|
|
|
| Cage's "4'33"" Going for UK Xmas Number One |
[Dec. 3rd, 2010|01:10 pm] |
"In the UK, the race to become the number one song in the country at Christmas is a big deal. Last year, a Facebook campaign succeeded in making Rage Against the Machine's years-old track 'Killing in the Name' the Christmas number one, upsetting X Factor winner Joe McElderry. This year, an indie-leaning all-star group of artists is attempting the same thing, with a 'cover' of John Cage's experimental piece '4'33"', which famously consists of four minutes and 33 seconds of silence."
http://pitchfork.com/news/40885-cages-433-going-for-uk-xmas-number-one/ |
|
|
| This Is Why We Have Stop Lights |
[Dec. 3rd, 2010|11:18 am] |
"I'd like to say that no one was harmed in the making of this video, but when you go through so many car-on-car, car-on-bike, and bike-on-bike collisions in such a short amount of time, well, that's just being unrealistic.
"Thank goodness these Chinese neighborhoods have invested so much more in CCTV than in stop signs. And I do genuinely hope the dozens of people getting banged up here are all made it out at least relatively okay."
|
|
|
| Who Will Stand Up to the Superrich? |
[Nov. 15th, 2010|06:12 pm] |
Why is Obama so lame and weak now? I guess it's the big money that actually runs the show.
"The top 1 percent of American earners took in 23.5 percent of the nation’s pretax income in 2007 — up from less than 9 percent in 1976. During the boom years of 2002 to 2007, that top 1 percent’s pretax income increased an extraordinary 10 percent every year. But the boom proved an exclusive affair: in that same period, the median income for non-elderly American households went down and the poverty rate rose.
"It’s the very top earners, not your garden variety, entrepreneurial multimillionaires, who will be by far the biggest beneficiaries if there’s an extension of the expiring Bush-era tax cuts for income over $200,000 a year (for individuals) and $250,000 (for couples). The resurgent G.O.P. has vowed to fight to the end to award this bonanza, but that may hardly be necessary given the timid opposition of President Obama and the lame-duck Democratic Congress.
"On last Sunday’s '60 Minutes,' Obama was already wobbling toward another 'compromise' in which he does most of the compromising. It’s a measure of how far he’s off his game now that a leader who once had the audacity to speak at length on the red-hot subject of race doesn’t even make the most forceful case for his own long-held position on an issue where most Americans still agree with him."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/opinion/14rich.html?src=me&ref=homepage |
|
|
| What Does It Mean To Be Cool? |
[Oct. 22nd, 2010|05:48 pm] |
"In principle, to be cool means to remain calm even under stress. But this doesn’t explain why there is now a global culture of cool. What is cool, and why is it so cool to be cool?
"The aesthetics of cool developed mainly as a behavioral attitude practiced by black men in the United States at the time of slavery. Slavery made necessary the cultivation of special defense mechanisms which employed emotional detachment and irony. A cool attitude helped slaves and former slaves to cope with exploitation or simply made it possible to walk the streets at night. During slavery, and long afterwards, overt aggression by blacks was punishable by death. Provocation had to remain relatively inoffensive, and any level of serious intent had to be disguised or suppressed. So cool represents a paradoxical fusion of submission and subversion. It’s a classic case of resistance to authority through creativity and innovation."
A cool article!
http://www.philosophynow.org/issue80/80botzbornstein.htm |
|
|
| More Hilariously Awkward Stock Photos |
[Jul. 27th, 2010|05:24 pm] |
"I used to work for an advertising agency, and we frequently used stock photo websites for ads and other projects. Often, much of the time spent on these sites scouring for 'a picture of two ladies shopping' or 'friends laughing together over dinner' produced laughs as we made fun of the strange eclectic mix of photos the sites would provide.
"That's why I am so angry at myself for not thinking of Awkward Stock Photos..."
An article about the site: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/61590#more-61590
The site itself: http://awkwardstockphotos.com
Some awesome examples:
 |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
bugsybrown's journal
