i recommend starting at the beginning (august) -->

this is the last post of this blog. happy 21, have a great birthday.

merriweather post pavillion

"most of the change we think we see in life
is due to truths being in and out of favor." /robert frost
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animal collective - merriweather post pavillion (1.12.09)

via and via
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from nyt:

Uniting Around Food to Save an Ailing Town

Rian Fried, an owner of Clean Yield Asset Management in nearby Greensboro, which has invested with local agricultural entrepreneurs, said he’s never seen such cooperative effort. “Across the country a lot of people are doing it individually but it’s rare when you see the kind of collective they are pursuing,” said Mr. Fried, whose firm considers social and environmental issues when investing. “The bottom line is they are providing jobs and making it possible for others to have their own business.”
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Glide Magazine interviews Calexico's Joey Burns.

On future collaboration with Iron & Wine's Sam Beam, who sings on "House of Valparaiso":

"No real plans right now, but for him, the invitation is always open. I know he's got a ton of projects but he's an amazing musician and writer and painter, and also a great arranger. When I was in Austin some time back we had dinner and celebrated his youngest daughter's first birthday and I told him "If you're interested, I have a couple of songs and would love to have you add some vocals." And "House of Valparaiso" was an easy fit for him—his vocals are so rich and such a wide spread that if he adds three vocals it sounds like six people. He adds so much, and I love that."


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readwriteweb lists five great books to build your character.
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imeem lists its top 100 songs by popularity and genre.
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The New Yorker features new short fiction by Yiyun Li, “Gold Boy, Emerald Girl:”

“Professor Dai must miss her students these days,” Siyu said after she and Hanfeng had exchanged greetings, although she knew that it was not the students that his mother missed but the white skulls of mammals and birds on her office shelves, the drawers filled with scalpels and clamps and tweezers that she had cleaned and maintained with care, and the fact that she could mask her indifference to the human species with her devotion to animals.
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makeuseof.com lists the best six sites to get free ebooks.

<3co

music: land of talk - some are lakes (10.08)



formed by a few canadians, the lead singer and band director has been in various bands since she was fourteen, including broken social scene.

…[G]irls are girls’ worst enemies. Women-to-women can be some of the most horrible shit you’ve ever seen go down, all the backstabbing, all that shit, which luckily I haven’t really been exposed to too much…When I was running around when I was seven years old in track pants and my brother’s old baseball shirt, that’s also, like aesthetically, how I see myself in pictures, like how I see myself in reflections in the mirror. You identify more, more of a free, fun thing. /elizabeth powell

madison, you charmer, you

"If what was supposed to have been destroyed in Paradise was destructible, then it was not decisive; but if it was indestructible, then we are living in a false belief." /franz kafka (more kafka quotes)
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yes:


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this is fun:


<3 co

music: man man - rabbit habits (4.08)



kind of like a younger, more flushed out tom waits. sounds like a horrific party under a twisted circus tent, but it's an acquired taste and some of the most inventive music out today. the lyrics are wistful and poignant, dealing with heartbreak, happiness, sorrow, sex, and all things weird and lovely manifested through their zillions of odd and unconventional musical (and sometimes not so much) instruments. three of their songs have been featured on "weeds."

the cotton factory, paris fashion week, perry bible fellowship

"'the tradition of the new.' yesterday's avant-gard-experiment is today's chic and tomorrow's cliche." /richard hofstadter
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t shirt site of the day: the cotton factory:


"all hail the wheelie king"


"wookie teeth"


"music is the weapon of the future"


"jaws 5 - jaws in space"


"heart of glass"


"the golden age of hip hop"
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perry fellow bibleship has zounds of great comics:








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via nyt:

U.S., South Korea Try to Cool Tensions With North

A U.S. envoy held talks in Pyongyang trying to convince the secretive state not to restart its nuclear plant, as the two Koreas looked to mend frayed ties on Thursday with their first direct discussions in almost a year.

The talks coincide with a report North Korea may be aiming to ratchet up regional tensions by upgrading a launch site used to test missiles that can hit all of South Korea and most of Japan.

paris fashion week:

“It was a hideous spectacle of total madness,” said Mickey Boardman, the deputy editorial director of Paper magazine. “It was everything I really love.”











"the [french] revolution began at the top--in the world of fashion, birth, and intellect--and propagated itself downwards." /francis parkman

<3 co

music: tv on the radio - desperate youth, blood thirsty babes





related: "dancing choose" on letterman a couple nights ago

garfield minus garfield, cop rock, vbs

"it still counts, even though it happened when he was unconscious. it counts doubly because the conscious mind often makes mistakes, falls for the wrong person. but down there in the well, where there is no light and only thousand year-old water, a man has no reason to make mistakes. god says do it and you do it. love her and it is so. /miranda july
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The Great Schlep aims to have Jewish grandchildren visit their grandparents in Florida, educate them about Obama, and therefore swing the crucial Florida vote in his favor. Don’t have grandparents in Florida? Not Jewish? No problem! You can still become a schlepper and make change happen in 2008, simply by talking to your relatives about Obama.



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Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb.










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cop rock seems to be some show aired in 1990 portraying what must be a cop's vision of his own world should said world be the victim of a massive bombing during what could only be described as psychedelic warfare. in 2002, tv guide ranked it #8 among the 50 worst tv shows in history.

"let's be careful out there"

-"several reports of nefarious sorts"


notes:
-nice rhyming of morality/illegality
-"it's a pleasure doing business the american way"
-refers to himself as a baby merchant
-"i'll have your baby for you"

this is not what jail was like:


somewhat related: Basically, VBS will exploit every utopian vision the internet has thus far failed to live up to.

there are some very unexpected guides to places like north korea (below) and afghanistan. i highly recommend watching all the north korea guides, they're uber fascinating.



"it's so surreal. there's nothing normal that happens in this whole country, ever.

things not allowed into north korea:


also from vbs: the vice guide to sex - a piece in the valley



I got bored after a while. When I was getting ready for the shoot I was wondering whether or not I was going to get a boner, cause part of my shtick was interviewing everyone in my black underwear--which is really liberating by the way. And on top of that, everyone has less on than you. Interviewing people in the nude is something I particularly enjoy doing. And the actors are so cavalier about it on porn sets, you could start talking about the new Audi and they're just like, "Oh, fantastic car. The mileage and rack-and-pinion steering is just incredible," and their dick is hanging out. There was one part where she was wiping cum off her mouth while she was talking to us as if it was a little mustard she'd gotten on her face.
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why not:

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at judgeby.com, you can guess a book's Amazon.com reviewer rating by looking at its cover.


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some lhb goodness:

Philip Pullman discusses book banning in the Guardian.

In fact, when it comes to banning books, religion is the worst reason of the lot. Religion, uncontaminated by power, can be the source of a great deal of private solace, artistic inspiration, and moral wisdom. But when it gets its hands on the levers of political or social authority, it goes rotten very quickly indeed. The rank stench of oppression wafts from every authoritarian church, chapel, temple, mosque, or synagogue – from every place of worship where the priests have the power to meddle in the social and intellectual lives of their flocks, from every presidential palace or prime ministerial office where civil leaders have to pander to religious ones.
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Downtown Journal interviews Chuck Klosterman about his novel, Downtown Owl.

Why did you decide to try fiction?

...There are certain things you can’t do in nonfiction. There are certain things about writing...If you write in a nonfictional, journalistic context, any sort of opinion or idea you have is going to be associated with the way you view the world. Sometimes it’s sort of nice to be able to create a character, have them say something interesting or entertaining, but isn’t necessarily my perspective or my world view.
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from howitworks.net:

Have you ever heard of a scribbling ring? In sixteenth century England, uncut diamond crystals were set into rings and exchanged by lovers. The wearers of these scribbling rings would use the points of the diamonds to etch (or “scribble”) romantic writings to each other in glass, mirrors or windows.

Another popular ring exchanged during Shakespearian times was called a Posey Ring. Posey rings are inscribed with poetic phrases or dates significant to the wearer.
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i recently added some deviations to my deviantART account.
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from nyt:

Israel From Cliff Top to Desert Bottom

With terrain that ranges from snow-capped mountains and vast desert to lush valleys and continuous coastline, Israel is being recognized as an ideal destination for adventure travelers. “For years, Israel was known in the U.S. as the land of the Bible and a place to visit relatives, but in the last decade we see a major change in the reasons people are coming to visit,” said Arie Sommer, Israel’s tourism commissioner for North and South America. “Between the hiking, biking, snappling” — rappelling — “and jeeping, people are discovering that Israel has a lot to offer.”

chandeliers, mr. brainwash, mrs. brainwashed (R-AK)

"our children are not individuals whose rights and tastes are casually respected from infancy, as they are in some primitive societies...they are fundamentally extensions of our own egos and give a special opportunity for the display of authority." /ruth benedict, 1934
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netherlands4nobel.org is "coordinating the nomination of the Netherlands for a Nobel Peace Prize for its achievements in minimizing drug use in its citizens, while at the same time restricting imprisonment."
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extratasty is a drink recipe website, made by the same guys that run threadless, with all kinds of neat features, like user-submitted drinks, supplies, and the ability to text recipes to your phone. seeing's how i just picked me up a chocolate mint plant, i plan to make some extra tasty mojitos.
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neu black puts "mr. brainwash in league with this generation’s most illusive and notable street artists."


beatles portait made entirely of vinyl records







(slideshow)

more of mr. brainwash from whorange:



and more from la weekly:



and still plenty more from mr. brainwash's flickr account:


(both made entirely out of broken vinyl records)
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Using Old Materials to Put a New Face on a Museum




(slideshow)
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neat chandelier made of mattress springs and light bulbs at the barber shop ryan goes to in la:

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Paul Sacaridiz is head of ceramics and an Assistant Professor in the Art Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.




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nyt reviews equus, starring daniel radcliffe:

For Alan Strang is, in a sense, a tidy inversion of Harry Potter. Both come of age in a menacing, magical world where the prospect of being devoured by darkness is always imminent. The difference is that for Harry that world is outside of him; Alan’s is of his own creation.

An Urban Farmer Is Rewarded for His Dream

With a staff of about three dozen full-time workers and 2,000 residents pitching in as volunteers, his operation raises about $500,000 worth of fresh, affordable produce, meat and fish for one of what he calls the “food deserts” of American cities, where the only access to food is corner grocery stories filled with beer, cigarettes and processed foods.
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this chick from project runway looks like a frogerin' idiot.


closely related:

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sarah palin makes me sad.

Palin's response is a collection of hems and haws that are extremely uncomfortable to watch. As she stumbles over word choice, Couric patiently encourages her.

jack cafferty is not impressed, and seems to be permanently scarred from another of her responses to kouric's questions.


kouric was no doubt thinking:


related:

bush vetoing embryonic stem cell research, september 25, 2006:


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from the village voice:




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webehigh analyzes the smokiness of cities around the world, including madison and baltimore.

If you stay in the county to cop buds, go to movie theatres and malls, places where there's stuff going on. Most of the people under 25 anywhere in the county blaze, so you can ask around without too much worry...Baltimore is the meeting place of several major interstates: I-95, I-70, I-83, and I-97, and is also second only to New York as one of the largest seaports on the East Coast. Its strategic location makes it one of the major hubs of the illegal drug trade on the east coast.
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the village voice interviews michael showalter



Right now I’m enjoying standup because a lot of it’s unscripted. With sketch it’s really 100 percent scripted. There’s improvisation and the process of getting to a final draft, but the kind of sketch comedy I do is heavily scripted. For some people, standup is scripted too, but not for me. I’ve been improvising more and more as I go forward. I go on stage, and I’ll have a couple of things I want to talk about and then just kind of let it go—just kind of open up my mind and start to excavate the ruby- and diamond-encrusted treasures hidden inside.
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base jumping off the towers of kuala lumpur:


base jumping off the eiffel tower:


plane to plane skydive:


jumping from 102,800ft:


<3 co

music: high places - 03/07 - 09/07 (7.08)



from sunflower chakra milk:

High Places channels the spirit of school bus sing-a-longs, back country camping trips, and first prize science fair projects, while conjuring dreams of faraway places through the use of field recordings, contact mics on houshold items, wind instruments and electronic thingamabobs.

also: high places - high places (9.08)