dig the holiday banner

if'n you don't see it, try a ctrl-reload.

dum blogger.

77 design gifts under $77

there's some very cool stuff on this list.

human-powered shredder!


bannana phone!


grey rubik's cube!

Holiday Post

I think I put this up last xmas.....but they've added new pics!
all the justification I need for recycling a post.

clicky clicky

Attn Bobo

Tivo encryption cracked.

the technical details

the New Year approaches

and with it the inevitable flood of Best Album of 2006 lists.

I'll throw my hat into the ring after the xmas rush.
In the meantime, I'll comment on those lists.

Any list including those talentless poseurs The Killers is worthless.
Q, whatever it is, should go drink toilet water to atone for this sin.

I like the new Tom Waits super-collection, but c'mon, it's basically loose ends swept together from his musical attic. Fascinating and with some classics cuts, yes. Best of the year? Nawp.

I can't stand Joanna Newsome's Yoko Ono-esque vocal stylings, I don't care how avante her garde is. I'm too old to listen to music by people who can't sing...unless they're Lemmy from Motorhead.

I can see why people like Arctic Monkeys, but I seem to have lost my taste for their style of straight-ahead pop/rock.

Serena Maneesh and Neko Case are both locks for my best of the year list, along with TV on the Radio (although I'm not as keen on the new on as their previous two releases).

Marilyn Manson, feh

and a shocking Behind the Music follow up on the Muppet Show Band:



(yah I'm behind the curve, I just discovered Robot Chicken...so sue me.)

overheard

From one of our local mentally ill street people:

"I've kinda made a commitment to myself to stop watching R-rated movies. Too much sex, too much violence. I'll wait out here."

Highbrow Literature

Bad Sex Writing Award

Higlighting the worst sex scenes in novels of otherwise high literary value.

I'm of the opinion that novelists are best served by a demure 'fade to black' once the action shifts from the metaphorical to the biological.

Unless, of course, your goal is spectacular unintended comedy.

war photographer

A decidedly non-traditional one.

The photos are great, but the interview is equally interesting.

BLDGBLOG: How does working outside of photojournalism, and even outside the art world, affect the actual practicality of getting into these places – photographing war zones and ruins and so on? You weren’t an embedded photographer in Iraq?

Norfolk: No, no. I was just kind of winging it.

You know, the camera I use is made of wood – it's a 4x5 field camera, made of mahogany and brass – and it looks like an antique. Part of what I do is I make sure I don't look very serious – it's best to look like a harmless dickhead, really, so no one bothers you. You look like a nutter. And, to be honest, I play that up: I've got the bald head, and the Hawaiian shirt, and, to look at the image on the back of the camera, you have to put a blanket over your head and go in there with a magnifying glass, and it’s always on a tripod.

So I have two choices: I can either do these images from a speeding car, or I can stand there with a blanket over my head, and look like such a prick that somebody's going to find me through their rifle scope and think: Oh! What's that? Let's go down and have a look... I can’t believe that photographers go into war zones dressed like soldiers! Soldiers are the people they shoot at. If I could wear a clown suit I would do it – if I could wear the big shoes and everything. I would wear the whole fucking thing.

I think there's a lot to be said for that, actually, because I can either scrape in there on my belly, wearing camo, and sneak around; or I can stand right there in front, wearing a shirt that says, you know, Don't shoot me. I’m a dick.

musical nostalgia

I had this 45 back in the day.



Nile Rogers was dreamy.