Friday Ephemera
One day you will need that gallon of tabasco. // “Swedish town on alert over toilet invader.” He doesn’t flush. // Finger hands. // Spider fangs. (h/t, MeFi) // Miracle breakthrough in butter-spreading technology. // MSG redeemed. // Cooking with Miles Davis. // Includes cauliflower. // Eel Pie Island, where rockers rocked and hippies gathered. (h/t, Coudal.) // His dad used a leaf blower to make him a hovercraft. // Selfie of note. // Road sign of note. // Extruded topographies. // Otter likes kibble. // By cutting paper. // Clothed models, nude photographer. // A giant carpet made of begonias. // At last, a drive-thru brothel. // This woman’s work. // “The wasps built the nest by chewing through the pillows and into the mattress.”
“The wasps built the nest by chewing through the pillows and into the mattress.”
I’ll sleep well tonight. Thank you very much.
Thanks for the Kate Bush documentary. It was pulled from youtube.
Extruded topographies.
Building a desert in four hours . . .
Pelicans!
Bug eyes.
http://boingboing.net/2014/08/28/extreme-close-ups-of-bug-eyes.html
This woman’s work
Wow. Unbelievable.
I like Kate Bush a lot. “Wuthering Heights” still gives me shivers, in a good way.
One thing I’ve noticed about Kate is that, from her songs at least, she seems to like, appreciate, and sympathise with men.
That’s a little bit remarkable in the post 1970’s music industry, where grrlll-power female singers are more likely to mock or berate men via song, while praising their own strong independent womanhood.
While love songs are as popular as ever, the subject of men in particular often inspires a tone of bitterness, reproach, or disappointment, from Suzi Quatro’s “48 Crash” to Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain”, to Alanis Morrisette’s “You Oughta Know” to more recent efforts like Kelly Clarkson’s passive-aggressive opus “Because Of You”, Lily Allen’s male-baiting “Not Fair” and “Smile”, and Beyonce’s collected works. We’ve come a long way since Tammy Wynette urged ladies to stand by their man.
(Interestingly, songs by male artists criticising women are rarer – I can think of Limp Bizkit’s “Nookie”, E.L.O’s “Evil Woman”, and… not much else. Men singing about women tend to fall into either the gag-inducingly worshipful category – John Lennon’s “Woman”, Daniel Bedingfield’s chipmunk-voiced “If You’re Not The One”, James Blunt’s stalky anthem “You’re Beautiful” – or the I-Wanna-Sex-You-Up category, like Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”.)
Kate Bush sang about a man seduced into, he thinks, cheating on his wife – a song that sympathises with the man:
“Uncanny how she
Reminds him of his little lady,
Capacity to give him all he needs,
Just like his wife before she freezed on him”
(Has anybody noticed that “Babooshka” tells the same story as “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)”, but with pathos in place of cheese?)
“This Woman’s Work” is about the helplessness of a man while his wife is struggling in labour:
“I should be crying but I just can’t let it show
I should be hoping but I can’t stop thinking”
When she does sing about love and loss, it’s heartfelt, not angry:
“But now we see that life is sad
And so is love”
I like Kate Bush a lot.
Well, you’re unlikely to confuse her music with that of anyone else. I’ve a couple of her albums somewhere – Hounds of Love and Sensual World – which I don’t play very often, in fact hardly ever. But when I do dig them out I remember how good she can be. The Ninth Wave suite is especially rewarding.
“Hell-o Earth.”
Ah yes, I remember Eel Pie Island well. Well, I remember Eel Pie Island. And the Wooden Bridge, Guildford. And Farnborough Tech College. All the hype went to places like the Cavern, but there were a lot of bands that made their chops in these venues.
But check out the link in the article to the you tube documentary. Written by John Betjeman and narrated by Richard Burton. (Or cheap facsimiles thereof.) Cringemakingly embarrassing.
I remember Look at Life and the pain of sitting through it while waiting to see the latest Bond flick.
Bulgaria redecorates own living room.
Kremlin, even if on the far side of town, is not amused.
Well, the “superhero”‘s bit is a bit off, what with The Joker in the lead, but the all pink version is cute, and repainting for The Ukraine is just hilarious.
from her songs at least, she seems to like, appreciate, and sympathise with men.
The latest must-have accessory from the ladies at the New Inquiry. As retweeted by Laurie Penny and the ladies at Verso Books. Because misandry is cool now. Also, impalement.
The latest must-have accessory from the ladies at the New Inquiry.
It’s the 70s retro look. No wonder Verso like it.
It’s the 70s retro look. No wonder Verso like it.
Heh. Yes, it’s the kind of adolescent posturing you’d expect from such people. Though I can’t help wondering how the ladies would feel about a T-shirt that depicted a man shooting giant eye-daggers through the torso of a tiny, dying woman. A woman whose grievous sin was to offer a box of chocolates. As so often with these things, the fashion statement says more than I suspect they realise.
Kate Bush was nineteen when she released her first album. Pretty much did all of it on her own as well. Very talented young lady.
My guess is that the “toilet invader” in Sweden is most likely someone from a part of the world where they are unclear on the proper use of a flush toilet.
http://www.myreligionislam.com/detail.asp?Aid=6096
The Rubble Bucket Challenge. You can’t make this stuff up. If you did you’d be called racist.
http://guardianlv.com/2014/08/gaza-launched-rubble-bucket-challenge-to-raise-awareness-video/
This probably belongs in the next “Elsewhere” thread, but:
The “War on Women” is a war on me, but I’m not a woman.
Oh, the article is a barrel of laughs:
Even the intake forms at my local Planned Parenthood are incredibly trans-exclusive! When I went to Planned Parenthood to get birth control I wasn’t given the option to state my preferred name or personal pronouns.
“That’s a little bit remarkable in the post 1970’s music industry, where grrlll-power female singers are more likely to mock or berate men via song,”
‘Twas ever thus;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNWs0LsimFs
More stuff you just can’t make up. Our Chavez who art in heaven…
http://news.yahoo.com/venezuelan-socialist-party-swaps-god-chavez-prayer-202222347.html
That otter is the cutest damn thing I have ever seen. Thanks for the link!