Rubber To Rubber
from The Daily Mail via Drudge
Rubber ring to rubber ring: Swimmers still manage to smile despite being crammed into a swimming pool in Nanjing, China, as a heatwave sweeps across the country
Saving The Watts Towers
Strapped city wants donors for Watts Towers conservation
11:33 AM, July 17, 2009
The Watts Towers may be a unique and symbolically rich work of folk art, but it is also a world-class money trap, vulnerable to earthquakes and the elements, and constantly in need of repair.
There’s been long-simmering discontent among some of the most intense admirers of Simon Rodia’s 100-foot-tall structure who say the city doesn’t spend nearly enough on its upkeep and criticize the quality of conservation work carried out by L.A.’s Department of Cultural Affairs.
Rodia, an uneducated Italian immigrant stonemason, labored on the towers alone for more than 30 years, starting in 1921, creating a triple-spired skeleton of steel and wire, fleshing it out with concrete and adorning its surfaces with colorful bits of glass, pottery, tile and seashells. It adds up to a national landmark that is, for many, an inspirational example of what one committed person can achieve.
“I had in mind to do something big, and I did,” Rodia said — as extensive a public explanation as he ever gave.
Antichrist for 18-year-olds
What DOES it take for a film to get banned these days?
By CHRISTOPHER HART
Last updated at 1:09 PM on 20th July 2009
There’s Really No Need To Re-set The Old Man’s Table
Don’t Touch ‘A Moveable Feast’
Westport, Conn.
BOOKSTORES are getting shipments of a significantly changed edition of Ernest Hemingway’s masterpiece, “A Moveable Feast,” first published posthumously by Scribner in 1964. This new edition, also published by Scribner, has been extensively reworked by a grandson who doesn’t like what the original said about his grandmother, Hemingway’s second wife.
The grandson has removed several sections of the book’s final chapter and replaced them with other writing of Hemingway’s that the grandson feels paints his grandma in a more sympathetic light. Ten other chapters that roused the grandson’s displeasure have been relegated to an appendix, thereby, according to the grandson, creating “a truer representation of the book my grandfather intended to publish.”
It is his claim that Mary Hemingway, Ernest’s fourth wife, cobbled the manuscript together from shards of an unfinished work and that she created the final chapter, “There Is Never Any End to Paris.”
As an author, I am concerned by Scribner’s involvement in this “restored edition.” With this reworking as a precedent, what will Scribner do, for instance, if a descendant of F. Scott Fitzgerald demands the removal of the chapter in “A Moveable Feast” about the size of Fitzgerald’s penis, or if Ford Madox Ford’s grandson wants to delete references to his ancestor’s body odor.
Wiki Wiki Hacki
30 Years Of Recorded Music Mobility
Stereo for One: A Brief Unaccompanied History
Thirty years ago this month, the Sony Corporation made a huge contribution to human interaction by ensuring there was less of it. No longer would people who did not want to engage the world have to stick fingers in both ears and say, over and over, “La, la, la, I’m not listening!”
Thanks to Sony, they now had a portable stereo device called the Walkman, which allowed them to block the sounds of their surroundings with a very private cassette recording of, say, Supertramp. So what if the headset and the 14-ounce unit strapped to your belt made you look like a drive-thru attendant at some Wendy’s of the future?
Today, of course, the ocean of humankind is cluttered with solitary islands of disengagement, thanks to the iPod, the iPhone, and so many other devices that say I. But before we explore what the Walkman has wrought, it might be instructive to revisit the events leading up to its invention.
Banksy in Bamako?
Banksy murals have turned up in some unlikely places, but the latest, Mali, is further-flung than usual.
Drawings and photos of the anonymous street artist’s work adorn a re-creation of his studio in the current crowd-pleasing exhibition “Bristol Museum vs. Banksy,” and among them are a number of pictures of Banksy murals in the West African country.
But could the pictures of the murals simply be illusions, since illusions are a trademark of Banksy’s work? A member of the Banksy Flickr Group says no, he has seen at least one of them in person in the suburbs of Bamako. “There are a handful in Mali, stretching from Bamako to Timbuktu,” writes Flickr user Olly C, adding that they were created four or five months ago and that their locations remain unpublicized.
“Ahhhh! They took my freakin’ kidney.”
Andy’s Michael
Rising interest, pricetag for Warhol portrait of Jackson
NEW YORK — A portrait of a beaming Michael Jackson by pop art legend Andy Warhol, purchased just weeks ago for less than 300,000 dollars, could fetch as much as 10 million dollars at auction next month, art connoisseurs said Thursday.
Since Jackson’s June 25 death, anything related to the King of Pop has soared in value — as has the 30-inch by 26-inch (76-centimeter by 66-centimeter) Warhol silkscreen and synthetic polymer paint portrait.
The 1984 head-and-shoulders painting shows a “Thriller”-vintage Jackson: tawny skin and cascading curls, smiling broadly and wearing red and gold-tinged military garb.
“We had an overwhelming response,” said Janet Lehr, owner of the East Hampton, New York gallery.
Beck interviews Waits
Tom Waits x Beck Hansen : Pt. 1
Irrelevant Topics in a new section featuring conversations between musicians, artists, writers, etc. on various subjects, without promotional pretext or editorial direction. For the first in this series of conversations, the legendary musician and performer, Tom Waits agreed lend an hour of his time to talk about anything and nothing in particular.
Here is Pt. 1 of that conversation.
Tom Waits: How you doin’?
BH: Good, I’m good.
TW: Are we up and runnin’?
BH: Yeah I think so. Hey, I wanted to ask you about being from Los Angeles. You grew up there…
TW: Yeah, Whittier, La Habra, Downey, that whole area. Yeah, Los Lobos, they’re from Whittier. So is Nixon. I remember Nixon’s market. He had his own family market.
BH: He was? For some reason I thought he was from the Midwest.
TW: No, California, and we used to get a visit every year from the Oscar Meyer wiener mobile, which was an enormous vehicle shaped like a hot dog. The driver was a Dwarf, and the wiener mobile would broadcast music while he sang the song “I wish I was an Oscar Meyer wiener.” He drew quite a crowd. Pretty exciting for a shopping center.
BH: That car is still driving around. I see it from time to time.
TW: You see the Oscar Meyer wiener mobile?
BH: I’ve seen it parked.
TW: They used to pass out little whistles that were about two inches long and it had three notes available. (Laughs.) Whittier lore.
BH: I was born in the McArthur park area.
TW: You remember when they drained McArthur Park, the lake?
BH: I do, yeah…
TW: They found unbelievable things: Cars, human bones, weaponry.
BH: They should have done an exhibit.
TW: I don’t know why they didn’t. I thought that’s why they drained it.
BH: I’d always heard that when they drained the Echo Park Lake they found an amateur submarine.
TW: Oh, my God.
BH: I don’t know if that was lore.
TW: You mean a homemade submarine?
BH: Yeah, I think it was older too, from the early days of “home submarine building.” I don’t know if that subculture still exists?
TW: That was the East Kids.
BH: There’s so many different versions of the city.
TW: It is pretty international. Drive over here and you’re in Russia. Here, Indonesia, the Philippines, Central America. It’s pretty wild that way.
BH: I think of the city as a sort of mirage. If you look at pictures of the city a hundred years ago it’s just a bunch of weeds and desert dust. Its not really supposed to be here. I was always fascinated by the city it was meant to be. I guess it was a place created by developers. It’s not really like a city where some people roam around and then they find a good piece of land, and then they test it out for a while and make sure there is water so they don’t die, and then they decide to make a city. I started looking at some pictures…Beverly Hills was originally supposed to be called Morocco Junction. I started thinking, if they’d gone with that name we’d be in a whole other situation. I was wondering if there were any things that you remember? It seems like it’s shed its skin so many times.
TW: Well, cars choked everything. I know originally there was a red line that ran from San Bernardino all the way to the ocean and for 35 Cents you could ride a streetcar you know from…
[ click to continue reading a fascinating interview with these two geniuses ]
Cali Baked
courtesy of KF
Send Your Name To Mars For Free
Send your name to Mars for free
Ever wanted to go to Mars but lack the time/money/proper training? Well, you can send your name instead. NASA offers you the opportunity to include your name on a microchip on the Mars Science Laboratory rover heading to Mars in 2011 for free. Just provide your name and location on the registration page. You’ll also be able to print out a certificate of participation after you register.
Julius Shulman Gone
Why exactly are they deviled?
When Physics Is Your Friend
Kate & Mr. Cowell
KATE MOSS Model Business empire with Simon Cowell
Kate Moss is set to launch a £1 billion business empire with Simon Cowell. The supermodel has joined forces with the music mogul and British businessman Sir Philip Green to form a global entertainment super-company which the trio hope will be able to compete with Disney.
The 35-year-old beauty will be directing the style and image of the brand, as well as giving fashion advice, and experts say if it is a success, she could double her fortune to £100 million. Kate’s friend said:”She has been signed as a figurehead and style setter for the fashion end of the business. She will bring her expertise to the table, advising on all branding and style for clothes, hair and accessories.”
A importância dos amigos
I don’t know about you, but I still always root for the bull.
Museums Without The Meat
Museums on the internet? Get real
Excited talk about digital museums is just futuristic babble – museums are all about the physical artefacts
‘Museums, where every encounter is solid’ … Robert Therrien’s table and chairs installation at Tate Modern. Photograph courtesy of Anthony d’Offay Ltd
Neil MacGregor and Nick Serota, the two leading museum directors in Britain – and some would say in the world – shared a platform the other night at the London School of Economics and apparently they were getting very excited about the internet. They seem to have competed to say the most apocalyptically futuristic things they could think of. Museums in the future will be totally transformed by the online utopia! The ones who don’t adapt will go to the wall! It’s virtuality or nothing for the modern museum.
I, for one, don’t like the sound of this cyber-museum of the future at all. It sounds like a place where nothing is real and beauty becomes just a word.
New Living Colour Coming
Original members Vernon Reid, Corey Glover, Will Calhoun and (since 1993) Doug Wimbish gathered at Sono Studios outside of Prague in the Czech Republic during the fall of 2008 and spring of 2009 to write and record what would become “The Chair In The Doorway”. The results stretch from the modern soul anthem “Behind The Sun” to the politically-charged, heavy rock of “DecaDance” to the sacred steel blues of “Bless Those”. The artwork for “The Chair In The Doorway” was compiled from thousands of contest entries by fans from around the world.
“We feel like this is the best record we’ve made yet and we couldn’t be more excited to be releasing it with the legendary Megaforce Records,” says guitarist Vernon Reid. “Some of our favorite bands were or areMegaforce artists — METALLICA, BAD BRAINS, ANTHRAX, BLACK CROWES — so it’s an honor to be part of a label with a great legacy.”
Lockdown On Nabokov by Knopf
If You Want to Read Nabokov’s Laura Early, You’ll Have to Make a House Call to Knopf
By Leon Neyfakh
On Friday afternoon we ran through some of the most exciting galleys hitting the streets this summer. One we didn’t include was The Original of Laura, the final, unfinished novella from the late Vladimir Nabokov, which Knopf will be publishing on November 17. The reason Laura didn’t make it on our list was that we couldn’t find anyone who had actually seen a galley of it. Today, Knopf’s executive director of publicity, Paul Bogaards, provided an explanation via email.
“They are not available (and will not be available),” Mr. Bogaards said in his note. “We have instead printed two sets of page proofs and are inviting media colleagues to preview them at our offices. They are not leaving the building.”
Lucy And The Teenage Monster
Bloody Golf
Psychiatric nurse jailed for golf rage attack
Amateur golfer sent to prison for nine months after beating a fellow player around the head with a club
A golfer who beat a fellow player around the head with an eight iron after an outbreak of “golf rage” was today jailed for nine months.
Harold Stafford, a psychiatric nurse, launched the attack on Barry Barnes after he accused him of playing his ball at a golf course in Luton.
During his trial at Luton crown court, Stafford claimed he acted in self-defence after Barnes had racially abused him.
The court heard that he began shouting at Barnes, accusing him of playing his ball. The argument intensified, and as Barnes turned his back to walk away, Stafford took an eight iron and began beating the golfer about the head.
The father-of-two knocked Barnes to the ground and continued his assault, hitting and kicking him, leaving him with bruising to his eyes, cuts and bruises to his chest, and bruising to his back and arms.
Stafford was convicted of actual bodily harm with the judge praising his previous good character and service to the community as he passed sentence.
Claudette Elliott, prosecuting, said: “This is a golf rage incident that occurred on 19 September 2008.
“The defendant was there with two of his friends and there was a misunderstanding about a ball that had gone astray.
“He felt that Mr Barnes had played his ball and he hit Mr Barnes with a golf club, causing it to break.
“Mr Barnes suffered quite serious injuries. He had two black eyes, his right eye puffed up to the size of a golf ball and his left eye was almost closed.
“The defendant has made it clear that golf is his passion. He said: ‘I love to play golf and I would play every day if I could. I also understand that golf is a game of integrity and honour.'”
“And after the great and terrible clash, the victors dined upon the dead….”
Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies
It could be a combination of 19th-century mechanics, 21st-century technology — and a 20th-century horror movie.
A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find — grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.Robotic Technology Inc.’s Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot — that’s right, “EATR” — “can find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment (and other organically-based energy sources), as well as use conventional and alternative fuels (such as gasoline, heavy fuel, kerosene, diesel, propane, coal, cooking oil, and solar) when suitable,” reads the company’s Web site.That “biomass” and “other organically-based energy sources” wouldn’t necessarily be limited to plant material — animal and human corpses contain plenty of energy, and they’d be plentiful in a war zone.[ click to continue reading at Fox News ]
Youth, Speed, Trouble, Cigarettes, Gummo
Dash Snow Gone
Dash Snow, Downtown Artist, Said to Be Dead of Overdose
Multiple sources tell us that Dash Snow— photographer, semen artist, graffiti writer, and embodiment of the downtown NYC scene—has apparently died of a heroin overdose, two years shy of his 30th birthday.
We got a tip this morning that Dash had overdosed last night. Earsnot, a.k.a. Kunle Irak, a fellow downtown artist and one of Dash’s best friends
A separate source close to Dash confirmed to us this morning through an intermediary that Dash has died. It’s already popping up on Twitter, as well. We’ll let you know more details as we learn them. (Snow’s gallery, Peres Projects in Berlin, isn’t releasing a comment).
Dash Snow was most memorably profiled by Ariel Levy in New York magazine two years ago. He and his friends came up in the downtown graffiti scene, and branched out to find success in the art world, without ever losing their bizarre, drug-addled edge.
What makes the legend richer is that Dash Snow could very easily have lived a different kind of life, been a different kind of artist. Snow’s maternal grandmother is a De Menil, which is to say art-world royalty, the closest thing to the Medicis in the United States. His mother made headlines a few years ago for charging what was then the highest rent ever asked on a house in the Hamptons: $750,000 a season. And his brother, Maxwell Snow, is a budding member of New York society who has dated Mary-Kate Olsen. But Snow has concocted something else for himself. He has been living as hard as a person can-in and out of jail, doing drugs, running from the police-for a decade. He’s unschooled, self-taught.
The Irak crew, which Dash helped found, is now world famous. You can still see his “SACER” tags around the city.
Arturo Gatti Gone
Le Big Mac Gourmet
The website that turns your Big Mac into a gourmet dinner
A Big Mac hamburger and french fries in a McDonald’s fast food restaurant. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
Want a junk food fix, but fear losing your sophisticated edge? Erik Trinidad’s blog fancyfastfood.com has the answer. With the honest tag line, “Yeah, it’s still bad for you – but see how good it can look!”, Trinidad transforms convenience food into gourmet creations.
Inspired by childhood games with his brother, when the pair competed to restyle dishes at Chinese buffets, the blog showcases his makeovers with Domino’s pizza turned into Dao Mi Noh Chow Mein (with soy sauce produced by reducing cola), a sushi platter constructed from chicken shop purchases, and a Big Mac given a new life as steak and chips.
Simon Le Bon’s Spawn Named Hottest Celebrity Daughter
Amber Le Bon world’s hottest celebrity daughter
BANG Showbiz
Amber Le Bon is the world’s Hottest Celebrity Daughter.
The 19-year-old model – the daughter of Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon and his supermodel wife Yasmin – was bestowed the accolade by readers of website www.zootoday.com, who gave her an overall score of 8.2 out of 10.
Deputy editor of Zoo magazine Damien McSorley said: “Despite being one of the lesser-known celebrity daughters, the Zoo web users have been swung by the beauty of Simon and Yasmin Le Bon’s daughter Amber. The worthy winner, she has clearly taken after her mother – no offence Simon!”
One user Robert Beaulieu commented: “The best thing to come out of Duran Duran ever.”
Mickey Rourke’s Best Friend
Mickey Rourke’s best friend
Rourke’s Chihuahua Loki stayed by his side through highs and lows for more than a decade. Here, check out the actor and his best friend through the years.
There are together here, poolside, at the Sunglass Hut Swim Shows in Miami in July 2006.
Loki passed away on Feb. 17, 2008. Read the story here.”
When actor Mickey Rourke won the best actor Golden Globe for his role in “The Wrestler,” he thanked some of the usual folks – but the most heartfelt acknowledgement went out to his dogs.
Rourke’s Chihuahua Loki stayed by his side through highs and lows for more than a decade. Here, check out the actor and his best friend through the years.
There are together here, poolside, at the Sunglass Hut Swim Shows in Miami in July 2006.
Loki passed away on Feb. 17, 2008. Read the story here.
Oldest Version Of Bible In Book Form Found On The Internet
Codex Sinaiticus: the virtual edition
In fragments for centuries, one of the oldest books in the world is now available to flick through in one place – online
Even if it was not the oldest Bible text in book form, the online publication today of the Codex Sinaiticus would be an extraordinary achievement.
The book itself is well worth the extravagant description of Dr Scot McKendrick, head of western manuscripts at the British Library: that it is one of the world’s greatest written treasures. There are older Biblical texts and fragments, but the codex, originally bound together rather than compiled as scrolls, may be the oldest surviving book in the world, dating back to the very earliest years of that particular new technology.
But now so sophisticated is modern technology that scholars will not only be able to read the document on their screens using a standard light setting, but also separately by a raking illumination that highlights the texture and features of the very parchment on which the 800 surviving pages of text were written.
The original book is thought to have been 1,460 pages long but much of the early part of the Old Testament, Genesis for example, is missing. It is possible other bits may yet be found – 40 pages turned up at the Monastery of St Catherine on the Sinai peninsula, where the codex may have been written, as recently as 1975.
The experts will be able to decipher the distinct handwriting of the three original scribes and, perhaps even more excitingly, trace the extensive corrections made to the text – letters, words, whole sentences – over the 600 years after it was first compiled in the mid-fourth century. And, for the first time, they will be able to do so for free, without leaving their desks, let alone shuffling between London, Leningrad, Leipzig and Sinai where the four parts of the original still remain.