Somewhere, I have a no-doubt-decaying VHS tape of one of Dana Gould’s early standup specials; it’s some incredibly funny stuff, but I worry it’s become unwatchable. Fortunately, a signficant subset of it is available in his MySpace channel. Check it out, especially if you’re Frank and remember the tape. (No, the commercial bit isn’t included.)
Monthly Archives: August 2008
Not that we would have done any differently, mind you
Amusingly, it turns out that Dana Gould now owns Roddy McDowell’s old house, which is where this story happens: I can’t die this way. It’s too funny!
(Via JWZ.)
Today in puppet theater
Ed’s Furry Fucking Guide To Metal should NOT under any circumstances be missed. NSFW.
Oh, this is painful
Work in software or IT? Over 30? Read this and weep.
Today’s Geekiest Post
Actually, I’m pretty sure only Mike is going to get the humor in this.
Dept. of Friends of Friends Doing Cool Things
Years ago, I met FOAF Pascal in a beautiful and terrible bar in the Heathen Homeland. Then, years later, I discovered a fairly rockin’ tool for web development, and it turned out to be written by the same dude. Neato.
Just now, needing a fresh copy of said tool for some web tweaks — I’d lost mine somewhere, and don’t do much web layout work anymore — I discovered Pascal’s new pursuit is an inventive collective-band type thing called Balthrop, Alabama that includes, among others, his sister as well (sometimes) former members of Rainer Maria. From an April notice in the New Yorker, of all things:
April 18: Balthrop, Alabama is an expansive local folk-rock collective led by the singer, songwriter, and guitarist Pascal Balthrop and his sister Lauren, a vocalist and keyboardist. They grew up singing gospel and pop tunes with their family in Mobile, Alabama, and now the pair and their band play paeans to the lovelorn and the droll. The group, whose name is meant to conjure a fictional town in the heart of Dixie (the band members go by aliases), released an impressive début double album, “Your Big Plans & Our Little Town.” Tonight the “townspeople,” including Kyle Fischer, formerly of Rainer Maria, on lap-steel guitar, turn out for a full-blown hootenanny. The group will be accompanied by the artist Michael Arthur, who will be drawing spontaneous ink-based interpretations of the songs. The drawings will be projected onto a screen behind the stage, in the tradition of a “chalk talk,” a lightning-fast drawing act from the days of vaudeville—practiced by such comic-strip luminaries as Winsor McKay (“Little Nemo in Slumberland”)—that was a precursor to animation. The singer Caithlin De Marrais, also formerly of Rainer Maria, opens.
Amusingly, the video (on their web site) for “God Loves My Country” is that same artist drawing as the song is sung, though it’s sped up a bit, so I imagine it captures a bit of the April show’s bizarre fun. Recommended.
Perhaps the coolest watch story I know
(I think I’d blogged this long ago, but apparently not; its recent resurfacing at MeFi reminds me to do it now.)
During World War II, Rolex extended a fairly amazing offer: British officers detained in German camps could order timepieces on credit, so Clive Nutting ordered one in March of 1943. Nutting was at Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Germany, which is now part of Poland, and — more importantly — was one of the organizers of the Great Escape. Owing to a backlog of orders by other British officers also in German hands, Rolex was unable to fill the order until June, but they acknowledged the order with a letter dated 30 March stating “This watch costs to-day in Switzerland FRs. 250,– but you must not even think of settlement during the war.”
In other words, don’t pay us ’til you get home. How cool is that? (Also, consider a world where POWs could get mail, order watches, etc.)
Nutting got the watch that summer, along with an invoice with a zero balance, and almost certainly used it for timing purposes as they planned the escape. Nutting kept the watch until his death, n 2001, at 90.
Scans of the correspondence with Rolex as well as pictures of the (restored) watch are available at TimeZone, long the best watchgeek site online.
Best commercials ever?
Mmmm, badgers.
Tab Clearing Omnibus Post
These are not factory second posts; they’re full quality, and include the usual guarantee. Use as directed:
- In South Africa, somebody put a bar inside a boabab tree.
- Traveling to or from the US? Don’t take your good laptop. The DHS has decided that it can take your electronics for examination, keep them as long as they want, expose themselves to zero liability, and do all of this without any sort of cause whatsoever. Lovely.
- Old but splendid: Alzheimer’s Sufferers Demand Cure For Pancakes
- Worried that you like baseball, but that the Olympic version might not suck enough? Fear not! We give you the 11th inning rule.
Dept. of Obsessive but still Awesome
Let’s say you love pizza. I mean, you really, really love the stuff. But suddenly you move away from your favorite pizza places in NYC, and find yourself in Atlanta, and what’s a guy to do? It goes without saying that non-northeastern ‘Za is simply unacceptable, so clearly you embark on a wild and obsessive pursuit of awesome pizza made at home.
I’m not talking about the shallow end of the pool, either. This guy’s got strong opinions on flour types, on the fermenting of dough, on kneading technique, on blenders, and, most significantly, how to modify your home oven so it’ll go to 800 degrees, since cooking pizza at 475 just won’t cut it.
(Confidential to Mrs Heathen: I remain perfectly happy getting ours from Dolce Vita or Pink’s. I have no need to modify the Jennair.)
Heh.
Dept. of Obscure Jokes
We may have some weather
It looks like it might even get more dramatic than Rita. Frankly, we need the rain.
No, we’re not evacuating. Please.
This is eleven kinds of cool
How about a (somewhat, but not completely) exhaustive timeline of Internet memes? Neat. Mahir, Spirit of Christmas, the Oracle of Bacon, Hampsterdance, All Your Base, etc, it’s all there. Seeing many at once seems to emphasize the weird.
No chance it’s good. Still kinda want to see it.
The film is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead, about a production of Hamlet infested with vampires and the quest to cure them, stars Jake Hoffman and Devon Aoki, and includes Jeremy Sisto and Ralph Macchio. No, I’m not kidding. Watch the trailers.
Via MeFi.
How to feel old
If you’d been born the minute MTV played its first video (“Video Killed the Radio Star“), you’d be turning 27 today.
Ouch.
Dept. of Really, Really Bad Metaphors
So the takeaway is that Jesus is like getting electrocuted?
Seriously, dude. WTF.
Zombie Twofer
So, what’s better?
- Zombies reading haiku, accompanied by jazzy sax interludes?
or
- The inevitable Zombie dating site ZombieHarmony.com? (“Please date responsibly; bring a bat or crowbar.”)