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18 Mar 2010 10:18

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Culture: South Park slams a nine-iron into the Tiger Woods story

  • Oh, South Park, we missed you so. Last night’s episode tackled everyone’s favorite punching bag, the Tiger Woods saga, with clever bits such as this one, where Cartman and Stan play a Tiger-themed fighting game. We want to buy this game. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

15 Mar 2010 23:37

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Offbeat: Chatroulette’s first star: Merton, the piano-improv supergenius

  • We went back and forth on posting this. Not because it’s not HILARIOUS, but because we were afraid we missed the viral boat on it already. Now, if we saw more guys with pianos and fewer guys with their hands on their (#&(@(&, Chatroulette would be a cool place. Please tell us this guy is actually Ben Folds pretending to be someone else.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink

14 Mar 2010 21:39

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Culture: Protip: If you build an effective propaganda poster, Conan will pay you

  • Nice deal, dude! One guy who definitely deserves a payday is artist Mike Mitchell, whose “I’m With Coco” illustration is up there with Shepard Fairey’s oft-litigated Obama “Hope” poster in terms of iconic status. Mitchell licensed rights to Conan’s people for the image (currently getting used on O’Brien’s tour), and he made out with a pretty hefty payday. It’s like he won the lottery. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Mar 2010 21:05

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Tech: Dear New York Times, can you put this illustration on a T-shirt?

  • This image (which we cropped) is from an article the New York Times wrote about how Google and Apple are at odds with one another because Steve Jobs thinks Google stole its technology. Daniel Adel, please consider putting this on Threadless. We’d buy it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Mar 2010 14:00

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Music: Saturday Mixtape: Is Titus Andronicus the best of 2010 so far?

  • 1. It’s big, it’s messy, and it’s not really about the Civil War. But man, is it a lot of fun. “Four Score and Seven,” an eight minute track off Titus Andronicus‘ excellent second album, “The Monitor,” has a lot of everything, but doesn’t feel like a dirge. That says a lot.
  • 2. It’s pretty awesome to see Lou Reed used this well this late in his career. This Gorillaz tune, “Some Kind of Nature,” is one of the Velvet Underground singer’s best performances – guest or otherwise – in years. It’s a credit to Damon Albarn that he fits in so well.
  • 3. Man, we missed Ted Leo. Leo isn’t at the height of his “Ballad of the Sin Eater” powers, but he feels a lot closer to that point on “Even Heroes Have to Die” than he has in a while.
  • 4. And now for something different. We stumbled upon German pianist Nils Frahm earlier this week, and while his neo-classical solo piano improvisations aren’t exactly the kind of thing that will burn up the charts, they’re always interesting.
  • 5. Both James Mercer and Danger Mouse sounded like they were in dire need of a side project, and Broken Bells has proven to be the exact tone both were looking for. “The Mall & Misery” has a little of everything in modest servings – pretty pensive synths, calming strings, a little slide guitar, a little more surf guitar, and a few riffs that cut through the middle like a New Order song. It’s full of ideas, but none that scream at you.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Mar 2010 12:42

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Tech: The iPad’s pre-launch is looking like an out-of-the-ballpark success

  • 120,000
    orders     number of pre-bought iPads yesterday, according to an estimate
  • $75
    million     the size of revenues on that insane single-day number source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Mar 2010 11:42

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Tech: A hat tip to our friends at Apture, and their latest upgrade

  • As might be clear to the people who regularly use ShortFormBlog, we’re big fans of the Apture contextualization technology, and we’ve actually been testing out the newest version on the site for months. However, and this is big news, they’ve launched a public beta, with some significant(ly awesome) changes. You might notice that the bar on the bottom of the site has been replaced with a branded pop-up bar on the top with really cool social functions at your fingertips. They’re really excited about it (and have some awesome ideas about context), and so are we.
  • » Want to see something cool? Select this text: “Elvis bananas.” Then hit Control-C/Command-C to copy it. You should see something really awesome happen. Just sayin’. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

12 Mar 2010 19:04

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Culture: Play him off, next-generation Keyboard Cat! Play him off!

  • What’s great about Keyboard Cat is that the original video is 26 years old. But that means that Fatso, the original cat, is long dead (sadly). But Charlie Schmidt’s awesome goofy video is no longer just encased in amber for all eternity. The next generation of Keyboard Cat has been introduced. Meet Bento. (Hi Bento!) See him play the keys like a king. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Mar 2010 18:56

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Tech: A couple of iPads reportedly got presold today. Just a couple.

  • 90,000 sold, at last report (!); holy crap source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Mar 2010 11:27

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Music: The Drive-By Truckers make a “Big To-Do” on record

  • For some reason, this skipped under our radar, but here it is – the new Drive-By Truckers album. It comes out Tuesday, two years after the solid “Brighter Than Creation’s Dark,” which may have been the band’s peak. And that’s saying a lot.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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