Friday Ephemera
X-rayed couples cuddling. // Grand Canyon clouds. // Ice drumming. // Dreams. // Macy’s inflatables. // Faces in things. // Giant snail facials “eliminate wrinkles and scars.” // How to draw butts. // William Burroughs croons. // 18th century mechanical blogger. // Baffle teenagers with a gallery of blank tape inlays. (h/t, Things) // At last, vagina toast. (h/t, Dr W) // Where in London? // Dancing robot spider. // Diving suits and pressure suits. // Race and dating. (h/t, Andrew Rowe) // And via R S McCain, don’t drink the Kool-Aid.
OKCupid figured out the race thing years ago.
http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/your-race-affects-whether-people-write-you-back/
Where in London?
I scored 4/10 but I’ve never been to London so that’s my excuse.
Meanwhile, in a good-news-bad-news story:
Baffle teenagers with a gallery of blank tape inlays.
I still have a couple of old mix tapes but I’ve nothing to play them on. Do I need an “app”?
At last, vagina toast.
That wasn’t what I anticipated. I immediately thought of Casey Jenkins from the knitting post. I think toast popping out might be more practical than a 100+ foot long, narrow, pre-stained scarf. (I figure a modest 1 foot per hour * 4 hours per day * 28 days).
in other news
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/12/stop-calling-superheroes-fascist/281985/
in other news
I’m still grappling with the Salon columnist Richard Cooper’s belief that “being able to move faster and hit harder than everyone else” is “essentially a fascist concept.” Presumably, sports aren’t his thing. Apparently, physical competence – like wealth – is something we’re supposed to disdain or at least regard as morally suspicious. I’m sure that if someone burly and determined breaks into Mr Cooper’s home one night and tries to steal his possessions or molest his other half, he’ll be thrilled at being physically unable to do much about it. Then congratulate himself on having avoided such fascist temptations.
Let me just say, the guy with the butt drawing lesson is Michelangelo compared to some of the “artists” you’ve featured on these pages.
I look forward very much to Fridays and the ephemera. Thank you. I watched the BBC programme with the Mechanical Boy, as I am fascinated by automata, but I had forgotten that this was the BBC, as the programme went on it developed into a tirade about the exploitation of the workers by the aristos, the artisans constructing these marvels for the privileged classes to enjoy in private etc. etc. Oh yawn.
“being able to move faster and hit harder than everyone else” is “essentially a fascist concept.” … he’ll be thrilled at being physically unable to do much about it.
But if it is better to be a victim than a victimizer and the poor, pitiful burly guy is a victim of society then what choice would Mr Cooper have?
“Iron Man,” for instance, begins with the premise that high-tech weaponry is indeed a Bad Thing, but its solution is that the guy who built it should have a conscience. Then its use is just cool.
I didn’t realize the assumption that an inanimate object does not have a soul that is either good or evil was so controversial.
Maybe one day we will see a superhero movie championing something other than fascist or hypercapitalist values: a superhero movie in which it isn’t physical superiority that saves the day.
Super Passive Aggressive Man confronts the mediocre supervillain Stiltman : “Stiltman, we need to have a conversation so you need listen. This crime spree isn’t you fault; you are a victim of society and the system of nasty, phallocentric – Hey! Walking away from me while I’m talking is microaggression! You’re privileged! Stilts are racist, you know! Sexist! If you don’t stop right now I’m going to suggest someone start a hunger strike! If you come back I’ll let you hold the sharing stick and talk after I’ve finished!”
“I don’t think it’s too fanciful to see in the components of this mechanical animal things that absolutely resemble the moving components of the turk. The picking arm that throws the shuttle backwards and forwards really does look like the mechanical arm the turk uses.”
That grates on me. Things that are vaguely similar are similar. An arm moving back and forth is similar to an arm that moves back and forth and slightly up and down. Thanks for that. He could have pointed to the Jacquard loom which used perforated rolls similar to that of a player piano (player piano rolls is still something people know isn’t it?).
Does the BBC employ a guy with a whip that requires presenters to all sound like one another? I’m not sure what it is exactly but there seems to be a weird uniformity.
From 1991, here is Jeremy Clarkson mostly sounding like every other presenter instead of Jeremy Clarkson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yJ-LAXJofw
But if it is better to be a victim than a victimizer and the poor, pitiful burly guy is a victim of society then what choice would Mr Cooper have?
There’s an obnoxious implication that good people should ideally be emasculated and unable to defend either themselves or others. The assumption beneath the blather is that even wanting to be able to defend yourself or your loved ones from predators makes you morally suspicious. In his words, fascistic. It’s “for the nasty-minded child in all of us.” It’s an extraordinary conceit and surprisingly common – see, for instance, almost any Guardian column about homeowners and burglars.
And even on its own terms it’s a perverse misreading of both real-world fascism and comic book superheroes, of hero myths in general, and of the politics of the people who created the characters Mr Cooper is writing about. He somehow ignores any number of counter-examples to his theory. Still, he makes a point of sneering at Bush and denouncing “hypercapitalist values,” so there’s that. And I did like this from a commenter: “You had a left-wing superhero recently. His name was Bane.”
In other, other news… Brace yourselves for what is quite possible the greatest film that has ever been made in the history of everything.
The overt racism on display at dating sites has been evident to me for years.
And it poses a conundrum for the Left’s gender identity wards: should they finger and shun racist members of their identity groups?
Put another way, can a trans-gendered Black person find “community” in the GLBT ranks if those ranks are filled with members whose dating preferences are overtly anti-Black?
Seems the Left’s ark of fabricated identity groups is taking on water and listing. Give this study of racial preferences at dating sites more exposure – especially on college campuses, and the Left’s ship will founder on a shoal of irreconcilable contradictions.
Wow. Those guys at Syfy certainly love their flying sharks. But after the disappointment that was Sharknado, I think I’ll content myself with the trailer this time around; the first sip of beer is always the best.