Vinyl Remarks is a collection of messages found on records between the run-out groove and the label (the so called “dead wax”).
Songwriters love lifting lyrics from TS Eliot.
But why Eliot, above all other poets? One simple reason is that he is widely taught in British and American schools and he impacts on the adolescent imagination with peculiar force. The Waste Land may be unfathomably complex but it is easy to love regardless of whether you understand it. The language is juicy and pungent, full of fire and rain, rivers and dust, birth and death – lots of death.
Rdio and Facebook have a shared listening feature I didn’t know about before. Very cool.
Jennifer Egan is writing a spy-thriller featuring a character from her Pulitzer-winning novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad. The short story “Black Box” will first appear as a series of tweets from @nyerfiction (starting tonight), then in its entirety in the New Yorker‘s upcoming science fiction issue.
Play the Past‘s latest entry in a series of posts exploring Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization talks about the game’s use (and non-use) of slavery, and how modders responded by adding slave-trade mechanics.
Slavery and racial inequality are still sensitive issues for people living in the United States, and as comedian Louis C.K. has pointed out, we like to mentally distance ourselves from that past. But if games are meant to be a series of interesting decisions (as Sid Meier once said ), and if we are supposed to be serious about the potential of historical games, shouldn’t we let people explore offensive and controversial identities and roles? Yes! But cultural norms, commercial interests, and personal discomfort have all been barriers (and will continue to be barriers) in facilitating that exploration through video games.
Trailer for Indie Game: The Movie.
It’s the 40th anniversary of George Carlin’s seven dirty words.
Forty years and a landmark Supreme Court decision have passed since Carlin first spoke out about the seven words you cannot say on television. But we’re still wrestling with the issues that Carlin raised with his monologue. How should the government define acceptable language? What can we learn from the 40th anniversary of the most famous, foul-mouthed comedic routine shortly before what could be the most substantial Supreme Court decision on profanity to date?
Tumblr of note: Movie Simpsons, which posts movie-spoof screenshots from The Simpsons next to the original movie shot being spoofed. [via]
The “Kardashian” as a unit of measurement.
Conceptually, the Kardashian is the amount of global attention Kim Kardashian commands across all media over the space of a day. In an ideal, frictionless universe, we’d determine a Kardashian by measuring the percentage of all broadcast media, conversations and thoughts dedicated to Kim Kardashian. In practical terms, we can approximate a Kardashian by using a tool like Google Insights for Search – compare a given search term to Kim Kardashian and you can discover how small a fraction of a Kardashian any given issue or cause merits.
[…]
I choose the Kardashian as a unit both because I like the mitteleuropean feel of the term – like the Ohm or the Roentgen – and because Kardashian is an exemplar of attention disconnected from merit, talent or reason. The Kardashian mentions how much attention is paid, not how much attention is deserved, so naming the unit after someone who is famous for being famous seems appropriate.
DJ Prince Charles live in Toronto. This video has brought a lot of joy to my morning.
Rolling Stone has posted some short interviews with Ad Rock and Mike D.
How did you deal with the change in his writing, after he became a Buddhist?
His lyrics became simple ideas about love and non-violence. It was a struggle for Adam to write those things. Basic feelings come off as very Hallmark. But we went through that change together. I wrote the lyrics for the song “Gratitude” [on Check Your Head], and Adam was like, “I really like that.” It made me happy and proud that I had made him happy.
Can you imagine making music without him?
I can see making music. I don’t know about a band format. But Yauch would genuinely want us to try whatever crazy thing we wanted but never got around to.
Trailer for The Great Gatsby. Certainly looks pretty (except for two bizarrely cheap-looking CGI car shots; also, 3D?!?), but I just don’t see how this book translates into a good movie. God knows the last attempt was a total disaster.
If we weren’t about to have a baby, I’d be all over the XOXO Festival in Portland this September. I did kick in $25 for early video access though. (It may not raise $10 gabillion, but this is an important project for Kickstarter.)
Chrome is now the web’s most used browser.
Excerpts from William Shakespeare’s Battleship.
CAPTAIN
How now, Rihanna? What ho, guy from True Blood?
What news dost thou bring from the radar thingie?RIHANNA
Ay me, dear captain! Most grievous fortune!
For we are invaded by space robots!The CAPTAIN is confused.