Posts tagged as This Thing Looks Like That Thing
What I Learned in Two Years at the Tea Party
When I started going to Tea Party meetings two years ago, I was sympathetic. Just after attending one in North Dakota in August of 2009, I wrote: "Most tea partiers are not bad people. They're just mad. In many meaningful ways, today's Tea Party attendees' lives have gotten consistently worse for the last 20 years, regardless of which party was in power." I concluded that trying to figure out what they wanted was a dead end because what they wanted was simply to complain—that the Tea Party "is not a group of listen and respond; this is a group of respond and respond." READ MORE
Cee-Lo Green, "Cry Baby"
Is that Drake, in the pink shirt, tan sweater vest and bow-tie, dancing next to Jaleel White in Cee-Lo's new video? It almost could be, right?
The Case Of The Piano On The Beach: Credit Where Credit Is Due
Mystery solved. Sixteen-year-old Miami resident Nicholas Harrington says he put a grand piano on the sandbar in the middle of Biscayne Bay because he "wanted to create a whimsical, surreal experience." And also make a video for his application to college (where he will be totally stressed out.) Nicholas and his family came forward yesterday after local film-makers Billy and Anais Yaeger falsely claimed credit for the stunt that became a world-wide phenomenon. But there's someone else who deserves credit for the inspiration. His name is Dwayne Smith. READ MORE
The Proper Way For A Post-Punk Legend To Begin An Email
"I never use 'Dear...' It's old-dearish."
—Jon King, managing director of the digital marketing agency Story Worldwide, weighs in on the debate over the proper salutation with which to start an email. King, who is the same Jon King who used to dance like a chicken undergoing electro-shock therapy and sing amazingly great, spiky, neo-Marxist punk rock songs with his band Gang of Four, generally begins emails to clients, "Often with no intro line at all. I assume they know who they are, and cut to the chase." READ MORE
A Little Good News About Mountain Gorillas
"While mountain gorillas are physically strong, they are also incredibly vulnerable." READ MORE
Talib Kweli, "In The Red"
Here is a new song from Brooklyn MC Talib Kweli, produced by his long-time partner DJ Hi-Tek. (The two often record as a duo called Reflection Eternal.) It's really good. And so is the video, which was directed by Nim the Dream and looks a bit like one of those old "Cube" print ads painter Mike Thompson did for Marc Ecko. And it makes a nice addition to the list of rap songs that can serve as music history lessons. READ MORE
Animal Collective, "Bluish"
The new Animal Collective video is beautiful and reminiscent of Francis Cugat's painting "Celestial Eyes," which was used for the original cover to The Great Gatsby, which is about as beautiful as book covers get. READ MORE
Lemme Tell Ya 'Bout White Kids
This weekend the New York Post had a piece on the return of the Kids in the Hall and their much-anticipated-at least by me-"Death Comes to Town" series. Unfortunately, the photo accompanying the article shows American sketch comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U' Know rather than their Canadian ancestors. It's an easy mistake to make, especially considering that both shows are affiliated with IFC, but still, in a time where the paper is under fire for confusing members of ethnic minorities with one another it is nice to know that they also apparently think that all white folks look alike too.
Huge Star Explodes 168,000 Light Years Away, Tiny Brain Does Same Here
Hey, want to see what a star exploding looks like in 3-D? Of course you do, it's totally amazing. Astronomers using the Very Large Telescope (that's what it's called) in Chile, have sent back zoom-lens images of supernova 1987A, which blew up 168,000 light-years away from earth and was first discovered in 1987. How we're able to see this event, that happened in the past, and was apparently visible to the naked eye 23 years ago, today, is one of those questions that hurts my brain to think about. Moving stuff is frozen in time by the incredible long distances in space? I guess? I don't know. But it's pretty like jellyfish in a Jaques Cousteau film.
