Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

06 Apr 2010 09:06

tags

Offbeat: Guy attempted to break stupid world record during SoCal quake

  • Know what would’ve been really impressive? If Mike Perber had managed his record-breaking elbow-to-hand quarters attempt while the quake was happening. Then we’ be really impressed. Gawker thinks it’s a hoax, but we think it’s just a bizarre attention grab. (He’s done this before.) source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Apr 2010 21:55

tags

Offbeat: Whatever the heck an “Oriental Yeti” is, we’re scared of it

Alright, what sick (#&@ thought it was a good idea to shave a dog and pretend it was some mysterious Yeti-like creature? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Mar 2010 10:28

tags

World: Thailand’s got a big mess of red blood on their hands

  • If this government is willing to step over our blood it means they really don’t care about us.
  • Red Shirt protester Amphan Nawangern • Regarding the liters of blood dumped on the ground in front of the Thai capital today. The blood was gathered with medical assistance then dumped out en masse. As you might guess, critics of the movement have been skeptical of the bloodletting, calling it a publicity stunt. But in a way it’s kind of hilarious. Just think if something like this happened in the U.S. It’d be the weirdest thing ever. It’s still kind of the weirdest thing ever. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

14 Mar 2010 11:57

tags

Music: Acrassicauda: Yes, there is a heavy metal band in Iraq

See these dudes here? They’re the only band in Iraq that plays heavy metal. You know you have to be hard and heavy if you can avoid IEDs. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Mar 2010 12:35

tags

Biz: Tribune Co.’s CEO micromanages what can be said on the radio

  • 119 words and phrases you can’t say on WGN radio source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Mar 2010 11:01

tags

Offbeat: Breast milk referred to as both “cheese” and “liquid gold”

  • We realized we were going to have to throw a lot of it out, pour this liquid gold down the drain, and we were not going to do that. So, me being a chef, we said, ‘Hey, let’s make some cheese!’
  • Chef Daniel Angerer • Regarding his decision to turn his fiancee’s breast milk into cheese, because, hey, that’s creepy. The dish is popular with patrons at New York’s Klee Brasserie restaurant, but otherwise incredibly controversial. Experts on a whole suggest it’s a really bad idea to eat it, due to the fact that it can expose others to the mother’s health issues (HIV and hepatitis in particular). Angerer’s fiance, Lori Mason, however, is healthy, which is why they felt it was safe to serve it at a restaurant. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Mar 2010 21:29

tags

World: Was Adam Gadahn arrested? Let’s compare various sources

  • Reuters They claim that Gadahn, the former American, was caught and it’s a pretty big deal.
  • NYT They say it’s not him at all, and that early reports were “confused.” He’s not on their front page.
  • CNN They claim there are “conflicting reports” on whether he was caught. No #*(@, sherlock.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

27 Feb 2010 23:23

tags

Music: Saturday Mixtape: We’re punishing you with experimental music

  • Experimental music is in its gravy days. With bands from Animal Collective to Grizzly Bear taking on-its-face odd music to the Billboard charts, we figured we were due to look back at some of the roots of weird tuneage. Most of this stuff isn’t as listenable as, say, Lady Gaga, but there’s something to be said about the challenge they offer.
  • 1. This is kinda accessible. Steve Reich is perhaps the most famous name of minimalist music. From magnetic-tape-looped early works such as “It’s Gonna Rain” to later instrumental and sampled works, he’s a huge influence on what indie rock has become. You can hear, for example, some of Sufjan Stevens’ musical left fields in “Pulses.”
  • 2. Talk about acquired taste. The Residents may perhaps be the most acquired taste in the history of rock music, but not one without a great history. A bunch of experimental raiders, the band has managed to keep its public profile secret for about 40 years now – or about four times longer than KISS did. And in 1979, they even got nominated for a Grammy for “Eskimo,” an album of made-up Inuit folk tales. The comparisons to Animal Collective are myriad.
  • 3. Also acquired taste. The Red Crayola/Krayola is a band that famously knew little about playing their instruments at first (but lots about freaking out), and now is a musical front for psych-rock survivor Mayo Thompson, who later worked with members of Tortoise. Fun fact: The guy playing keys on “Hurricane Fighter Plane” is Roky Erickson, a garage-rock icon who has a pretty interesting history of his own.
  • 4. By this point, also acquired. Scott Walker’s early career – which leaned heavily on orchestral pop – was hugely influential on dudes such as Beck (“Scott 4” is one of the most underrated albums ever). But by the early ’80s, he started going off the grid, to the point that by 1995’s “Tilt,” his music was completely unrecognizable. “Farmer in the City” is a beautiful, cinematic tune, but it’s also a complete mind-screw.
  • 5. This is acquired, too. Captain Beefheart‘s weird, off-key masterpiece, “Trout Mask Replica,” still isn’t very easy to find legally online, but debut album “Safe as Milk” still has a lot of the cluster-screwing elements that his later works did. If you had Howlin’ Wolf drop a lot of acid, you might get kinda close.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Feb 2010 21:07

tags

U.S.: Amy Bishop’s history comes back to haunt her again

  • She was a suspect in a 1993 mail bombing at Harvard. A day after it was reported she was implicated in the 1986 murder of her brother, the accused University of Alabama-Huntsville shooter had another skeleton fall out of her closet. Amy Bishop, along with her husband James Anderson, were questioned in a mail bomb case involving Harvard professor Dr. Paul Rosenberg, While Anderson says they weren’t suspects, a more disturbing find at the time was a novel Bishop was writing about a woman who killed her brother and hoped to make amends by becoming a great scientist. Sound familiar? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Feb 2010 09:31

tags

U.S.: Dallas weirded out by all the white stuff it has on the ground

  • 12.5″ it’s called snow, Texans; get used to it source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>