Friday Ephemera
Cat kneads bread. || His garbage chute says no. || Action figure of note. || The future is now. || Beneath that old yellow varnish. || Assorted, temporary snow globes. || Samorost 3 is a game. || Why toenails and fingernails tend to grow at different rates. || His name is Lucas. || Some Soviet control rooms. || Michelin men of yesteryear. (h/t, Damian) || Mural of note. || Amanda Marcotte struggles with numbers. || Somewhat related. || Such lovely pantaloons. || Iceland has colour. || Meanwhile, in Madagascar. (h/t, Kate) || Planes, from above. || Bamboo bugs. (h/t, Julia) || Build your own 3D zoetrope. A project for the weekend. || A big fan of said devices. || Computer-generated jigsaw puzzles. || And finally, a strange object has been found, its origin and purpose still a total mystery.
Amanda Marcotte struggles
full stop
Action figure of note.
” . . . and I sensed an endless scream passing through nature.”
Yeah, whether called preppys, chavs, yuppys, fails of whatever sort, hipsters do get that reaction . . .
Such lovely pantaloons.
” . . . and I sensed an endless scream passing through nature.”
The future is now.
Its intended use aside, it is not a bad idea as the concept could be used for telemedicine gyn and proctologic exams.
Thanks for the Iceland bid. As it happens, today I was exploring possibilities for a drive-yourself tour/exploration of Iceland for next Summer.
Looks like a petrified pickled “egg” to me.
Those insects are really impressive!
” . . . and I sensed an endless scream passing through nature.”
Conan! What is best in life?
To crush your enemies. See them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.
Michelin men of yesteryear.
Ha! =^D
The future is now.
I’ve always found a certain mystery alluring when it comes to women. Cervical videos not so much.
Such lovely pantaloons.
This is no longer updated but still amusing: http://lookatmyfuckingredtrousers.blogspot.com
To crush your enemies. . . .
Noting, certainly, the original observation by Chenghiz Khan . . .
Why modern architecture is Bad.
“Action figure of note.”
I prefer Munch’s original working title of “Oh No You Di’n’t…”
“Its intended use aside, it is not a bad idea as the concept could be used for telemedicine gyn and proctologic exams.”
Yes, but “’The fact they chose to use Wi-Fi was utterly stupid,’ Munro said in a phone interview”. I foresee another scandal like the phone “hacking” of a few years ago from all this Botnet of Things nonsense: people blithely ignore basic network security, scream blue murder when the inevitable happens, emerge blameless when the political types muscle in.
“Such lovely pantaloons.”
I’m reminded of a work by the great Ogden Nash:
Sure, you may wear pants my dear;
They are your legs, my sweeting.
But while you might look fine from in the front,
Have you seen yourself retreating?
Interview with a man who isn’t.
Beneath that old yellow varnish.
Whitewashing history. Absolutely Racist.
I’ll try that again – interview with a man who isn’t.
[ Crawls heroically to keyboard and taps feebly. ]
Ugh. Felled by food poisoning. And not the genteel kind. It’s the hardcore kind where you find yourself regaining consciousness on the toilet, having vomited all over yourself.
Avenge me!
[ Crawls heroically back to bed, sweaty and trembling. ]
Felled by food poisoning.
Well, David, that’s what you get for sampling your own pickled eggs.
–Oh, and hullo all, have you met David, my straight man?
The future is now.
Good Vibrations, on camera?
George Takei seems to forget that Star Trek isn’t real:
http://twitter.com/GeorgeTakei/status/928407808424464384
David has my sympathy, and I’m sure glad he had the foresight to post Ephemera before he got sick.
Well, George Takei has spent 60 years in Hollyweird, so you can see why he’d have difficulty distinguishing the real from the un.
Re bad architecture, this:
Yeah. Great article but perhaps you’re missing the broader issue?
Samorost 3 is a game.
That’s my Friday evening gone.
From the George Takei tweet:
This is what we are getting for the money we spend on education. I’m reminded of the saying, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance”. I think it’s time we took a serious look at Plan B. Same result, costs less.
Re bad architecture…
Many good points, yet it comes down to this:
I guess they didn’t read their own article and apparently have never seen the Empire State Building or Chrysler building, just because the newer buildings are just masses of steel and glass doesn’t mean they have to be.
Of course, phallic (well, maybe 30 St. Mary Axe), these people just can’t help themselves. However, I imagine they have apparently never been to Manhattan, and would be among the first to scream about the rape of Gaia if London, Paris, Chicago, or any other major city that built up instead of out went horizontal.
Not so much a “Giant Vagina”™ as an “Accidental Vagina”, but this amused me when I saw it elsewhere:
https://uk.dhgate.com/product/free-shippin-hot-2017-new-arrivel-halloween/399925302.html?
Farsnworth,
Exactly. I confess I didn’t get through the entire article as had planned to get back to it later, but I was afraid the vibe I referenced above had permeated the whole article. It’s a shame that so many otherwise interesting, thinking (or quasi-thinking) articles I encounter on cultural issues are so infused with politics. What the writer appears to not understand (and again, still haven’t read the whole piece but it now seems unlikely I will) is the elitism he criticizes in modern architecture is the very thing much of leftist political ideology is built upon.
Somewhat related.
That.
Hope you feel better soon, David.
Not so much a “Giant Vagina”™ as an “Accidental Vagina”, but this amused me when I saw it elsewhere:
Given that the side view shows it to be a bivalve mollusk, I don’t think there is anything accidental about it at all.
Besides, there is plenty of space left on earth to spread out horizontally; the only reasons to spread vertically are phallic and Freudian.
Given the ugly sprawls that surround many cities worldwide, again I would tend to disagree with the authors; nevertheless, if it comes to a choice between, say, the Kunsthaus Graz or the Plaza de Espana in Seville I’ll opt for the latter every time because humanity in architecture always beats inhumanity, or maybe I just prefer giant gingerbread to massive diseased offal.
Speaking of dystopian brutalist architecture, this is interesting.
Re: Architecture, generally and Art Deco specifically.
The authors of the piece linked above mention Art Deco as one of, if not the last, great architectural movements. Where I live, along old Route 66, you can drive and see these old motels from the glory days of that era which tried to emulate that era. Most have decayed to storage facilities and/or long term low-rent flop houses, off the beaten path since the interstate highways supplanted Route 66. Still, it’s fun to spy them off outer roads as one drives Interstate 44 between St. Louis and Joplin. Lord knows, I’ve bored the crap out of my kids over the years with Art Deco lectures on trips to the American Southwest. (The good parents paid for the DVD players in family transportation. I just told the offspring to look at the scenery or read a damn book. A very bad father was/am I.)
@WTP:
Yeah. Great article but perhaps you’re missing the broader issue?
It struck me as a rare critique of modern architecture from a left-wing point of view.
There’s absolutely a need for a serious look into the reasons as to why modern art and architecture seeks to deliberately create dehumanising ugliness rather than beauty. Who started the trend and why, because it’s a mystery to me and, I’m sure, most ‘normal’ people.
@Jonathan:
That “you’re” was addressed to the author, not yourself. Sorry if I miscommunicated. Appreciate your linking it and agree completely…with you, Jonathan, that is. 😉
Also, as this is FE…Got this from a post on Ace by one JackStraw. I think I may have heard of this guy before, “James O. Thach”. My morning has been shot reading his many amusing Amazon reviews:
https://www.amazon.com/review/RFWM0CFO0UMWY
You’re funnier than I originally thought.
@WTP
My mistake.
We crossed purposes:
Dennis Prager at Wyoming
How the architectural Bauhaus era of obsession with simple shapes and elegant peasant-ey functionality ended up turning into Brutalism over time, I’ve never been quite sure. Perhaps once it was noticed that a large simple shape can look even larger than it really is, and becomes imposing or even dehumanizing(c.f. pyramids, etc.) Once it became desired to project strength through menace, that was probably it for bothering to make it look nice. Similar things in art – emotion being the only desired outcome, never mind the sort.
There is in a related vein Brutalism’s intersection with art’s ideas of deconstruction and deliberate ugliness to provoke, which I think mostly just happened to come about at an unlucky time. I’ve heard suggestions of Soviets encouraging Western “degeneracy” in matters of art and architecture, but surely they wouldn’t have practiced the worst of it themselves if they hadn’t had some ideological kink for it. Soviets making much uglier buildings than art is kind of interesting in that respect. Buildings to intimidate, paintings to inspire?
I seem to recall that Goldfinger of book and film was named after a Brutalist that Ian Fleming knew personally and absolutely detested…
deliberate ugliness to provoke
Well, this. I’m no serious student of architecture (well, the building kind anyway…I do know my doric, ionic, and corinthian…and their place) but it has been my observation (and perhaps this is more widely agreed upon than I know) of the various slices of what we call culture, be it music, painting, poetry, etc. that any significant change of fashion or quality or whathaveyou in such a subjective …subject will always cause the conservatives of that culture to squeal, “That’s not music/painting/poetry! That’s just noise/slop/nonsense!”. This is as it would be regardless of the kind of change. Some people like things just as they are and others are curious and go exploring. Some exploring is good, some bad. But then as a society becomes wealthier, has more disposable income to spend on its culture, that disposable income wants to go somewhere. At this point, the no-talent people meet the demand by throwing up sh*t and such and hide behind the logical fallacy of genius not being respected in its day. Thus we get unmade beds that sell for millions. Apply this same pattern to architecture, the worst of which seems to be mostly government funded as of late, where the money being spent is someone else’s, and there you go. A perfect storm of sh*t. Not to be confused with a sh*t storm, but it oughta be.
“At this point, the no-talent people meet the demand by throwing up sh*t and such and hide behind the logical fallacy of genius not being respected in its day.
Is the subject still architecture? Because that sounds like it applies in many domains…
Besides, there is plenty of space left on earth to spread out horizontally; the only reasons to spread vertically are phallic and Freudian.
The whole article omitted the main reason why so many modern buildings are ugly. They are Too.Damned.Big.
But the scale of the world has moved on. Mexico city has a massive museum for pre-Columban art and culture. It is huge, but it has to be, because otherwise all the visitors wouldn’t fit in comfort. And they don’t particularly want to visit five separate museums, because it takes most of the day to do the one properly as it is. And Mexico doesn’t want to shell out the extra money for four more sites and four more buildings. So the building chosen, which I happen to like, is slightly larger than ideal for human scale.
You can lower the height of buildings, but AXA aren’t going to make their Head Office smaller as a result, so they’ll just make a massive low building instead. Which won’t be any prettier. (In fact, I’d rather have skyscrapers with gaps between them than the feeling I get in inner Paris with the five-storey canyons between the 19th century apartments.)
This is not a defence of the likes of the Bilbao Guggenheim or anything at all by Zaha Hadid, which are stupidly ugly just for the sake of it. But if you don’t realise the underlying problem is that buildings are so much bigger than all the ones you idolise from previous centuries, then you can’t solve the problem. You can’t put all that pretty decoration on a building the size of The Gherkin. It would look stupid.
I hope you’re recovering well David.
It’s a very interesting article about modern architecture and mostly on the side of right and justice, though it is naively leftist utopian and exaggerates some points a lot. (Not all old architecture is good. The pyramids are fugly, for instance.)
Early modernism’s veneration for simple forms has a lot going for it – cubes and squares and spheres do have their own beauty. And no way was the 19th century style of architecture going to carry into the era of skyscrapers. A traditional church is a beautiful thing; a skyscraper church would be an abomination.
I suspect the century of modernism, postmodernism, and postpostmodernism in the arts has worn itself out now and people will return to tradition and making things beautiful.
I hope David’s feeling better. I’m sure he’ll never touch pickled “eggs” again. Hoist on his own petard!
He’d have been better off eating the petard than the “egg.”
Get well soon!
modern architecture is crap because all the good stuff has been done and architects are too up themselves to copy it.
N.B. The same argument applies to Windows vs Unix.
Get well soon!
Still feeling a little, um, delicate, but the worst is past. The bathroom, which bore the brunt of the horror, has been restored to something approaching respectable.
I’m comforting myself by listening to Dennis Prager’s lecture, thanks to Darleen. I do like how he addresses the Mao-lings’ smears as not only intellectually absurd but also immoral. A point that isn’t made anywhere near as often as it should be.
Still feeling a little, um, delicate, but the worst is past.
Praise the Lord and pass the Imodium!
Glad to hear you’re feeling better, David.
p.s. drink plenty of water.
How Seattle mourned the anniversary of President Trumps election:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N-gv3JSex4
(via S.C.R.U.M.P)
How Seattle mourned …
My heart will go on.
p.s. drink plenty of water.
Actually, half strength Gatorade is better because like Brawndo, it has electrolytes that need to be replaced.
(via S.C.R.U.M.P)
Also via SCRUMP – Let’s redefine facism so my political violence doesn’t fall under it
How Seattle mourned the anniversary of President Trump’s election
I feel strangely moved.
Not as strangely moved as I did over the last two days, but still.
Did you figure out what the offending substance was?
Did you figure out what the offending substance was?
Yes, a rogue dish from the local Chinese takeaway. Which is a bit saddening, as they’ve served us well for 16 years. Never a bad dish, always friendly, and always delivered on time. Now I may have to look elsewhere.
Yes, a rogue dish from the local Chinese takeaway.
Vengeance for 16 years of cultural appropriation.
its origin and purpose still a total mystery.
I only just got that one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKBcbN9dCqA
*puts on hat of shame*
I only just got that one.
Still too enfeebled to point and scold. You can imagine how that chafes.
Though that scene still makes me laugh. It’s the line, “Now that you are in Jupiter space, and the entire crew is revived…” Given the preceding and rather stressful events, it’s one of the great moments in cinematic dark humour. The delivery is perfect.
And I can’t help wondering what Mr Kubrick might have done with the discovery of a giant alien phallus hidden on the Moon.
“The bathroom, which bore the brunt of the horror
But how are the towels doing? Still orderly, fluffy and fragrant?
But how are the towels doing?
There are some details I’m still trying to suppress.
the side view shows it to be a bivalve mollusk
I also like to eat raw oysters. And clams.
..a rogue dish from the local Chinese takeaway.
There’s nothing more dangerous than a rogue dish.
David, you fell victim to one of the classic blunders. NEVER order the rogue.
PiperPaul, I believe David has the towels in treatment for PTSD. Also, Everyday Feminism has a helpful article, “4 Ways To Protect Your Genderqueer Towels From The Cisnormative Heteropatriarchy.”
Now I may have to look elsewhere.
It might not be their fault. My sister, who has a professional interest in this sort of thing, tells me that people often assume it was the last thing they ate which did for them, however many lurgi take 24-48 hours to take effect.
Having said that, she also says fried rice from a Chinese takeaway is the thing most likely to get you, as cooked rice is notorious as a breeding ground for evil. And the Chinese prefer to use cold cooked rice as it fries better.
you fell victim to one of the classic blunders
Inconceivable!
It might not be their fault.
I’m fairly sure it was the Chinese food. It’s the only common variable over the last couple of days. Previous meals that we shared were also shared with the in-laws, who escaped with their bowels unmolested. And anyway, I’ve had their business burned to the ground and the family chased from the village. It’s the only way they’ll learn.
My sister, who has a professional interest in this sort of thing,
If your sister had shared this information two days earlier, I’d be out buying her jewellery. Or shoes, at least.
Oh, dear God.
Oh, dear God.
It had previously escaped my attention that students of physical sciences, at Cambridge, were primarily there in order to “learn to live a balanced lifestyle.” Which apparently entails drinking, lots of drinking, and shielding their egos from any careless reference to reality.
I never thought Cambridge was a “party school”, but I guess I was mistaken.
Oh, dear God.
The BFO that there is a difference between having capacity and using it seems to have escaped the spokesperson.
I never thought Cambridge was a “party school”, but I guess I was mistaken.
It’s still not. Unless, they’ve decided to add football and cheerleaders and recruit in Florida and Texas.
The various admin types at Cambridge are just saying what you’d expect, given their “jobs”, but…
There’s no use denying that succeeding in such an academic program can be destructively stressful. I am personally acquainted with several young folk who would have benefited from a better “work-life balance” during their Uni years, and who needed advice about that. For instance, a young woman who graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors in a bio/genetic science program at MIT. She has since suffered through several years of recovery from very serious stress-induced depression.
Samorost 3 is a game.
Hooked. 🙂
For instance, a young woman who graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors in a bio/genetic science program at MIT. She has since suffered through several years of recovery from very serious stress-induced depression.
I do sympathize and hope she fully recovers.
But her experience doesn’t mean rigorous courses should be castrated.
My stepson is currently an L1 at Boalt Hall, Berkeley. He has worked his posterior off to get there AND just about every attorney or judge he has interned with has made sure to let him know that his first year is critical to really focus on — it is the shakedown cruise.
“First year, they scare you to death; second year, they work you to death; third year, they bore you to death.”
Hooked. 🙂
It does have a surreal charm.
Glad you’re starting to feel better, David.
It’s a long time since I was at Cambridge, but…
There were people who drank, tho’ not to the heroic standards of the ’90s and ’00s; and there were people (myself among them) who did competitive sport. But I recall no suggestion from faculty that doing anything outside work was forbidden, or even discouraged. You had to do your work fully as set: that’s all.
So I’m divided in my own mind as whether this chap’s comments are a reflection of even more heroic partying amongst the current generation (doesn’t seem especially likely), the laziness of some undergraduates (possible), or his own personality.
Red and Black Leeds:
At least they are honest about something, except maybe the “workers” part.
I think they’re wasting their time; it’s human nature to form hierarchies.
Unless, they’ve decided to add football and cheerleaders and recruit in Florida and Texas.
Hey! Them’s fightin’ words. I mean maybe our cheerleaders but our football, never!
committed to working towards the abolition of all hierarchy and the revolutionary destruction of capitalism and the state
Well, since “capitalism” is nothing more than free people freely buying and selling goods and services, any gang of thugs seeking to abolish that freedom seems pretty damned hierarchical. Those commies could best implement their plan by abolishing themselves.
. . . committed to working towards the abolition of all hierarchy and the revolutionary destruction of . . . the state.
Comrade General.
From the “Things You Just Can’t Make Up” department:
Coming out of the closet as fat.
No scheiße.
Oh come on now, I remember clearly the dark days when being fat was illegal and people were actually imprisoned because of it.
Probably not the best choice of phrases, I’m thinking.
Bull, if you could, you, and all the other in the “fat acceptance movement” wouldn’t need to feel compelled to write about what brave little soldiers you are for both admitting and justifying it.
Coming out of the closet as fat.
Wow.
That article has made me realise that fat people need special treatment too!
#SoBrave
Then along came you,
Now I know it’s true:
Fatty girls need love too.
Can I get a high five from the cute girl?
http://twitter.com/WeWuzMetokur/status/929225451779878913
Status: Fail.
Coming out of the closet as fat.
I’m still processing the implication that someone can be secretly fat. Mangled metaphors aside, it’s hard to avoid the impression that these ladies, with their charmless emotional baggage, are hardly a convincing advert for their own “defiant” lifestyles.
I’m still processing the implication that someone can be secretly fat.
Indeed, “notices”; “I say, Miss, pardon me, but I just noticed you are Brobdingnagian.”
Indeed, “notices”;
As I’m sure I’ve said before, I don’t generally care how hefty someone is. Unless handed a reason to remark on it, I don’t consider it my business. But reality is what it is, and if you’re heavily overweight, the availability of sexual and romantic partners is, in general, smaller than for the svelte and gazelle-like. Outside of niche dating apps and fetish clubs, that’s how it is, and how it’s likely to remain. But to compound that situation by also being whiny and self-absorbed, and cultivating those qualities, as if they were somehow virtuous and heroic – and thereby repelling plenty of people who might otherwise be friends – just seems… unwise.
As I’m sure I’ve said before, I don’t generally care how hefty someone is.
Roger, but as you noted, the whole notion of being secretly fat is as fatuous as being secretly Chinese, or black*, white, or [insert obvious race or ethnic group here].
*[offer not valid for Shaun King or Rachael Dolezal]
Today’s word is alarming.
alarming
Sorry, that page does not exist. Or so Twitter claims:-(.
Is this the on you meant?
https://twitter.com/AlizeeYeezy/status/929735141148299264
Link fixed.
Is this the on you meant?
Yes.
“on” = “one”. Le sigh.
Le sigh.
That’s a 9gag thing, isn’t it?
Farnsworth,
Coming out of the closet as fat.
Probably had no choice, because she didn’t fit in there anymore…
(O_O)
[ Sits down, waiting for the Scold-O-Mat 9000 ]
At least coming out of the closet as fat is preferable to getting yourself wedged in the doorway.
*Presses button on Self-Denounciator 2000*
That’s a 9gag thing, isn’t it?
Maybe? I’ve never heard of 9gag AFAIK. I was thinking Pepe Le Pew:-).
Well, when I got fat, I waddled out of the closet.
It’s work to stay, or get, thin in America because food is loaded with corn syrup. So now that most Americans are fat–the average American woman wears a size 16, which would have been considered elephantine 30 years ago–the stigma is vanishing. The fat acceptance ladies are late to the party. Fat is already accepted. What they seem to want is to be complimented for how fat they are. I predict that’ll take another 30 years or so.
If you’re American, don’t let me discourage you from trying to reach, or maintain, a healthy weight. I lost 60 lb and could stand to lose another 30, but the 60 stayed off. Even if all you can manage is to hold the line and not get any fatter, you’re still better off than if you gave in and snorked down American food with no restraint whatever.
Also, if you can find one, an old crockpot is your friend. The new ones cook too hot and too fast and have to be checked about every 4 hours, rather like a new puppy, so they defeat the purpose of having the crockpot going while you’re gone all day. (Several people have told me you can actually burn or overcook food in the new ones.). We just bought a 2 1/2 quart so I’ll report back after we’ve tried it. Crockpot food can be very healthy, it doesn’t have to be dumping a can of cream-of-whatever over the meat.
When you do make cream-of food, I recommend using Campbell’s Healthy Request soup; I don’t know how healthy it is but it sure tastes better. It seems to be the old Campbell’s recipes. The tomato soup, for example, tastes like tomatoes instead of like red-dyed corn syrup.
I used to like Campbell’s tomato bisque (little tomato bits in tomato soup). It was always sweeter than their regular tomato, but the modern version is so corn-syrupy it’s sickening. If any Yanks have found a product similar to Campbell’s old tomato bisque, please let me know.