CULTURE: September 2008 Archives
Daphne Oram was an early electronic music pioneer who invented a process called Oramics, which involves drawing on strips of 35mm to produce sound effects. She had a long career in sound mixing, engineering, experimentation, and composition, the details of which can be read at BoingBoing, Wikipedia, or this profile from The Guardian.
Apparently, she made much of the spooky music for "The Innocents," Jack Clayton's rad 1961 adaptation of "The Turn of the Screw." (Here's the trailer.) Her bio is amazing, but I'm mostly into her for the photo: there's just something so cool about the contrast between her era-bound secretarial wardrobe and styling and the sight of her elbows-deep in insanely complex musical machinery--so many shiny knobs and dials!
The Guardian has a full slideshow of Daphne and Her Amazing Music-Making Machines here, and you can listen to samples of her work here.
(via BoingBoing)
Apparently, she made much of the spooky music for "The Innocents," Jack Clayton's rad 1961 adaptation of "The Turn of the Screw." (Here's the trailer.) Her bio is amazing, but I'm mostly into her for the photo: there's just something so cool about the contrast between her era-bound secretarial wardrobe and styling and the sight of her elbows-deep in insanely complex musical machinery--so many shiny knobs and dials!
The Guardian has a full slideshow of Daphne and Her Amazing Music-Making Machines here, and you can listen to samples of her work here.
(via BoingBoing)
Someone is trying to rough up Gwen Ifill, the moderator of Thursday's soon-to-be-canceled VEE PEE debate.Ifill broke one of her ankles last week while navigating a staircase. The mishap was debate-related; she was toting research material for it when she missed a step.Yeah right! This was no mishap! I am honestly scared for Gwen's life. Could she be the next person aerially shot from a low-flying plane in the middle of winter when there is no way to escape? Stop Pig Palin before it's too late!
(via LAT)
I swear I didn't use BabelFish or a random word generator to title this post.
(via the NSFW Queerclick)
* The Gossip Girl Guys get the cover story treatment from Details. The article, penned by superfey Mark Harris, digs deep into Chase Crawford, Ed Westwick, and Penn Badgley relationships to chestwaxing, fame, "bromance," gay rumors, and even gayface. (via Towleroad)
* Bravo is developing a new reality show spun off from the essay collection about fags and their hags, "Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys." Whether the show will be a docu-series or a competition remains to be seen; AfterElton has some speculation on the matter.
* Fey Fave Sarah Michelle Gellar was at Seaworld where she petted the dolphin! (via JustJared)
* Sarah Palin and John McCain had a nice little sitdown with Katie Couric in which John McCain played the role of Daddy Protector to a nauseatingly anti-woman 'T.' In case you can't bear to watch, yes Sarah Palin looked just as stupid and unprepared as ever.
* At the prodding of some Fox News halfwits, McCain suggests he may suspend his campaign once again. Well it worked so well the last time!
* Today's polls for Barack Obama are very encouraging. (via 538)
* Are we facing a complete LIBERAL REALIGNMENT in America? This guy AND this guy AND this guy think we might be...and these guys are hardly liberals themselves. YAY!
* Introducing The Jitterbug, the cellphone for old blindos! (PoeTV)
* Bravo is developing a new reality show spun off from the essay collection about fags and their hags, "Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys." Whether the show will be a docu-series or a competition remains to be seen; AfterElton has some speculation on the matter.
* Fey Fave Sarah Michelle Gellar was at Seaworld where she petted the dolphin! (via JustJared)
* Sarah Palin and John McCain had a nice little sitdown with Katie Couric in which John McCain played the role of Daddy Protector to a nauseatingly anti-woman 'T.' In case you can't bear to watch, yes Sarah Palin looked just as stupid and unprepared as ever.
* At the prodding of some Fox News halfwits, McCain suggests he may suspend his campaign once again. Well it worked so well the last time!
* Today's polls for Barack Obama are very encouraging. (via 538)
* Are we facing a complete LIBERAL REALIGNMENT in America? This guy AND this guy AND this guy think we might be...and these guys are hardly liberals themselves. YAY!
* Introducing The Jitterbug, the cellphone for old blindos! (PoeTV)
A little timeline of the Republicans' very bad week:
- McCain’s poll numbers plummet
- Sarah Palin tapes horrendous Katie Couric interview
- McCain "suspends" his campaign, threatens to be a no-show at the first presidential debate after having demanded weekly town hall meetings with Obama in his earlier stunt
- Despite “suspension,” McCain meets with anti-elitist former Hillary Clinton supporter Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild of
- After talks of a deal progress, McCain parachutes into
- Shows up at the debate even though no agreement has been reached, forgets to take his CIALIS
- Right-wing Republicans call for pig Palin to be dropped from the ticket
- McCain takes credit for the passage of the bailout in the House minutes before it fails
- House Republicans vote against the bailout bill, sinking the entire economy because that mean mommy Nancy Pelosi delivered a PARTISAN SPEECH
- Dow drops over 700 points, worst one-day decline in history
And it's just Tuesday! It's not too late to suspend the campaign AGAIN just in time for Thursday night's VEE PEE debate.
If the entire world wasn't collapsing, I would be SCHADENFREUDING so hard right now!!!
The Bailout DID NOT PASS. The market is in FREE FALL. Let's take a quick look back at the last few days of McCain's campaign spin.
"But here are the facts, and I’m not overselling anything. The fact is that the House Republicans were not in the mix at all. John didn’t phone this one in. He came and actually did something. ... You can’t phone something like this in. Thank God John came back." — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), 9/28/08
"[T]his bill would not have been agreed to had it not been for John McCain. ... But, you know, this is a bipartisan accomplishment, a bipartisan success. And if people want to get something done in Washington, they just watch John McCain." — Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, 9/29/08
"What Senator McCain was able to do was to help bring all of the parties to the table, including the House Republicans, whose votes were needed to pass this." -- McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt, on Meet the Press yesterday.
Heckuva job McCain!!!
"But here are the facts, and I’m not overselling anything. The fact is that the House Republicans were not in the mix at all. John didn’t phone this one in. He came and actually did something. ... You can’t phone something like this in. Thank God John came back." — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), 9/28/08
"[T]his bill would not have been agreed to had it not been for John McCain. ... But, you know, this is a bipartisan accomplishment, a bipartisan success. And if people want to get something done in Washington, they just watch John McCain." — Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, 9/29/08
"What Senator McCain was able to do was to help bring all of the parties to the table, including the House Republicans, whose votes were needed to pass this." -- McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt, on Meet the Press yesterday.
Heckuva job McCain!!!
Is heaping praise on the already much loved Kristen Wiig so obvs as to be not worth doing? I. DON'T. CARE.
This Saturday, at the invitation of our friend Connie Klein, me and JMZZ got to sit in the pit at a SNL taping. Connie (she's a writer for the show) set aside a pair of tickets for us because she knows what a big Anna Faris fan I am, but good as Faris was, Wiig was even better. Not only was she a star or featured player in virtually every skit, she also warmed up the crowd by singing a persuasively sexy and rocking rendition of "Hanging on the Telephone!" That's like tied with 11:59 as my fave Blondie song!
I even have a SCOOP from the set! As Kristen Wiig performed her Judy Grimes skit on Weekend Update I overheard someone affiliated with the show talking about how amazing she is, and how she is clearly the heir to Amy Poehler's title of Reigning Queen of SNL. Wait, what? Everybody knows that that's how Wiig is perceived both inside and outside SNL? Oh. And also, I didn't really see the guy who said it, so for all I know he might have been a grip. Come to think, he may've just been an audience member.
But still: reportage! My first ever!
For more Wiig analysis and a totally not exclusive Wiig clip from last night's SNL, click on the pressy!
This Saturday, at the invitation of our friend Connie Klein, me and JMZZ got to sit in the pit at a SNL taping. Connie (she's a writer for the show) set aside a pair of tickets for us because she knows what a big Anna Faris fan I am, but good as Faris was, Wiig was even better. Not only was she a star or featured player in virtually every skit, she also warmed up the crowd by singing a persuasively sexy and rocking rendition of "Hanging on the Telephone!" That's like tied with 11:59 as my fave Blondie song!
I even have a SCOOP from the set! As Kristen Wiig performed her Judy Grimes skit on Weekend Update I overheard someone affiliated with the show talking about how amazing she is, and how she is clearly the heir to Amy Poehler's title of Reigning Queen of SNL. Wait, what? Everybody knows that that's how Wiig is perceived both inside and outside SNL? Oh. And also, I didn't really see the guy who said it, so for all I know he might have been a grip. Come to think, he may've just been an audience member.
But still: reportage! My first ever!
For more Wiig analysis and a totally not exclusive Wiig clip from last night's SNL, click on the pressy!
Continue reading Fey Appreciation: Kristen Wiig.
This scene from the Hitler biopic Downfall with (funny?) modified subtitles was forwarded to me by a family member who works in finance with the title "THIS IS HILARIOUS" and the description "bear markets produce some good humor."
This viral (banking) video was so popular (with bankers) there is even a sequel (for bankers).
We usually refrain from posting content from the amazing OMGBLOG -- if you come here, you've probably seen it there first anyway -- but this mindblowing sex-and-cartoon video for LA's Flying Lotus makes too perfect a companion to that Diesel ad from last week for us not to post it here too.
It's Not Safe For Work -- and also probably for epileptics -- and so posted after the pressy.
Continue reading Bedknobs & Broomdicks 2: Dancing Dale.
I had never heard of this 2007 version of the Pointer Sister's classic AUTOMATIC until a few minutes ago when i was searching for the original. It features an impossibly toned and greased-up man masturbating at his computer keyboard while an exotic house diva named "Ultra Nate" dances and gyrates sexily for him on the screen. I'm sorry, but if you are listening to a 2007 club update of the Pointer Sister's AUTOMATIC, are you really going to be jerking it to some LADY?
Anyway, this video seems to be an artistic comment on the effect of cybersex in today's high tech society. But is it pro or con? I can't decide!
The Pointer Sister's version of this song might not be quite as provocative as "Ultra Nate's" but it is still way better. Those sisters sure do have nice dresses and dance moves!
Please make this be true:In an election campaign notable for its surprises, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate, may be about to spring a new one -- the wedding of her pregnant teenage daughter to her ice-hockey-playing fiancé before the November 4 election.Inside John McCain's campaign the expectation is growing that there will be a popularity boosting pre-election wedding in Alaska between Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, her schoolmate and father of her baby. "It would be fantastic," said a McCain insider. "You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week."
Poor, hot Levi!
It looks like Project Runway's move to the Kathie Lee Gifford Network might not be quite the done deal Harvey Weinstein was hoping for!
From Variety:
The weird part is that even I, who know next to nothing about entertainment law, could see this coming. The whole thing was obviously a desperate, impulsive, and contract-violating move on Weinstein's part, who obvs just wanted to squeeze every last possible cent out of the franchise to boost his flagging fortunes with no regard to his credibility or to the legitimacy of his claims. If you're wondering if I'm building up to making a very forced comparison with this guy...you'd be right. I'll stop.
From Variety:
A New York judge granted a preliminary injunction on Friday, temporarily barring the Weinstein Co. from moving the reality series "Project Runway" from Bravo to Lifetime or marketing any such move.
The ruling puts the fate of the show, which is currently skedded to bow its sixth season on Lifetime in January, in limbo. Production is continuing in Los Angeles, however.
"The overwhelming evidence demonstrated that The Weinstein Company violated NBC Universal's right of first refusal to future cycles of 'Project Runway,' " NBC U said in a statement. "After hearing all of the evidence, the court issued an order prohibiting The Weinstein Company from taking the show or any spinoff to Lifetime."
The weird part is that even I, who know next to nothing about entertainment law, could see this coming. The whole thing was obviously a desperate, impulsive, and contract-violating move on Weinstein's part, who obvs just wanted to squeeze every last possible cent out of the franchise to boost his flagging fortunes with no regard to his credibility or to the legitimacy of his claims. If you're wondering if I'm building up to making a very forced comparison with this guy...you'd be right. I'll stop.
Sarah Palin's swimsuit competition clip has finally arrived! Will Miss Alaska become Miss America????
PANIC on the streets of Phoenix!McCain’s desperate, integrity-free,
bucket list campaign is in free fall and the reason is totally obvious.
Sarracuda!
Here’s the sequence of this week’s events:
1) Palin records horrifyingly bad interview with Katie Couric.
2) Campaign completely shits in its pants and realizes they are dead fucked b/c of Palin’s absolute idiocy.
3) DISTRACT! DISTRACT! John McCain announces biggest
political stunt ever by fake-suspending his campaign.
4) Campaign floats the trial balloon of
canceling the first presidential debate and replacing it with the scheduled VP
debate next week. Says VP debate can be postponed indefinitely.
5) Said Couric interview/shocking shitshow airs but is
mostly overshadowed by McCain’s shark jumping foolishness.
6) Palin deathwatch?
Ed Schultz hears this from his sources:
Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people are more than concerned about Palin. The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as "disastrous." One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, "What are we going to do?" The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is "clueless."
There isn't enough lipstick in the world to conceal this pig.
No Wii R Not!
Fey Recap: This week we looked at Survivor's Dickslip, Playgirl's Smushy Tushies, Sarah Palin's Big Adventure, Diesel's Cartoon-cloaked Porno, the Hip New Face of Homophobia, and congratulated Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan's Gay Marriage of Stylish, Elegant Convenience. What follows is what we neglected to mention.
It Sings!: Perez Hilton released his first single, "The Clap." Sample lyric: "When you love someone, take it slow/Don't let them rape your bussyhole." I like it.
Buffy's Back!: Sarah Michelle Gellar is in talks to star in a new HBO halfhour called "The Wonderful Maladys." This is so crazy because just yesterday while watching my new favorite show "True Blood" I had the (totally unoriginal) thought that SMG really, really needed to return to television, where she was the biggest effing star ever, from movies, where she was...not.
Speaking of Buffy: this picture made us LOL.
Speaking of True Blood: We can't help it, we (me and JMZZ) are in love with this show. This is one reason why.
Speaking of Things We Love: Hipster Runoff is the funniest altblog ever, yall. But we wonder: iz it insufficiently Alt 2 lyk things that r funny? Or 2 say we like those things? Srsly, shud we just be ALT e nuff 2 kno in our hearts that a thing is kewl, w.o. having 2 say it on our blog? What do yall think?
David Foster Wallace: Salon has this account of the last month's of DFW's life. N+1 has a student's account of DFW as a teacher; another of his students posted DFW's amazingly sweet and funny and obsessively detailed class syllabus here.
Clay's Gay: Clay Aiken came out of the closet this week, surprising exactly no one. Oh wait, lots of people were suprised! And ticked off! And homophobic! Oh well, the whole thing at least served as an occasion to remind us that FourFour is at his best and most eloquent when being totes earnest about gay stuff.
Robomommy Fail: Sarah Palin sat down with Katie Couric to discuss Alaskan-USSR relations and to reveal to the world that Steve Schmidt, Rick Davis, or whoever has been prepping her for her media appearances accidentally spilled water on her circuitboard. However, all is forgiven because apparently Palin is the the most conscientious "Thank You" note writer ever!
McClown Fail: McCain suspends campaign to help with the economic crisis, except he neither suspends his campaign nor helps.
WaMu Fail: Looks like I'm going to need a new place to deposit our pennies--PENNIES!--in ad revenue. (Srsly, yall...visit our sponsors.)
Kenley Fail: Bmad was right, I was wrong. Project Runway's Kenley IS a petulant ladybrat.
Wild Combination: Matt Wolf's documentary about musical genius Arthur Russell opens today at IFC for a limited run.
Srsly, readin hipsterrunoff is messin' with our personal brand...we can't stop writing like him. Oh well, happy weekend, yall!
When it comes to the financial crisis, everyone's an expert. But Ann Coulter really gets it. In a column titled
"THEY GAVE YOUR MORTGAGE TO A LESS QUALIFIED MINORITY," Ann identifies the newest Fox News theory on why we got into this mess. No, not greed, not lax regulation, but a combination of conservatives' two least favorite things -- BLAXXX and BILL CLINTON!
Under Clinton, the entire federal government put massive pressure on banks to grant more mortgages to the poor and minorities. Clinton's secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo, investigated Fannie Mae for racial discrimination and proposed that 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low- to moderate-income borrowers by the year 2001.With friends like these...
Instead of looking at "outdated criteria," such as the mortgage applicant's credit history and ability to make a down payment, banks were encouraged to consider nontraditional measures of credit-worthiness, such as having a good jump shot or having a missing child named "Caylee."
Italian design firm Diesel S.p.A. is celebrating its 30th year of existence with some kind of multi-city event on October 11th about which I care precisely nil. But to kick things off they commissioned The Viral Factory to produce an astonishing ad featuring vintage 70's porn footage overlaid with Yellow Submarine-ish animation that obscures--and transforms--the dirty action beneath. Even though the whole thing is pretty Vice-y, I love it.
While all nudie parts are covered, the overall effect of a candy-colored carnal phantasmagoria synched to unaltered porno music and moaning is somehow even MORE pornographic than the undoctored porn footage.
For an only somewhat safer for work glimpse of the ad--image captures courtesy of moi--click on the button pressy.
UPDATE: An embeddable clip has been made available...I've thrown it in after the jump.
(via AdFreak)
Continue reading Diesel Turns XXX: Bedknobs & Broomdicks.
French eight-piece Eskaton recorded three albums during the late 70's and early-to-mid eighties. With their French female vocals laid over proggy, sometimes frantic rhythms they kind of sound like my favorite band meets Rush. I've been listening to their last album Icare all day and I think it's pretty special...but be advised that I have a history of getting overexcited about 80s era artifacts that merge prog and punk, like for example Magazine, who I have been assured by every punker I've ever spoken to are not as cool or interesting a band as I think. The track I'm putting up is the simplest, prettiest, least proggy and most overtly Stereolab-ish song on the album. Icare is long out-of-print; it wasn't that hard for me to track down, though, so if you like what you hear you should be able to find it yourself.
04 Icare IV.mp3
(For those unfamiliar with mp3 blog procedure: click to listen, right-click "save as" to download)
I was reluctant to post this because it's already up everywhere. But then it occurred to me that maybe just maybe we have a substantial number of regular visitors who only go on the internet to check their emails and to read Feyfriends. In which case these (imaginary) people would be deprived of Sonseed's "Jesus Is My Friend" just because I was afraid of seeming "lame," "late to the party," or "behind the curve." And that would just be too big a shame.
So here.
I'm really not sure that I'm going to have much energy for witty or even pseudo-witty captioning for this, the penultimate entry in our "Worst of Playgirl" photo series. I look at a picture like the one posted above and all I can do is raise my arms in defeat and ask: really?
I'm sure the fine fellow above is happily, blamelessly munching away on a morning's bowl of Frosted Flakes, so let me be clear: I do not blame him. Nude or not, even models need to sit down and take a load off every now and again.
All the blame lies with the former editors and photographers at Playgirl magazine. I mean, smushy tushies? You guys really thought this was a good idea?
For NSFW rumpsquishage, click on the button pressy.
I'm sure the fine fellow above is happily, blamelessly munching away on a morning's bowl of Frosted Flakes, so let me be clear: I do not blame him. Nude or not, even models need to sit down and take a load off every now and again.
All the blame lies with the former editors and photographers at Playgirl magazine. I mean, smushy tushies? You guys really thought this was a good idea?
For NSFW rumpsquishage, click on the button pressy.
Continue reading The Worst of Playgirl: Smush Tush.
"I went to the U.N. today and met all of these really famous leaders! Here are my photos (for FACEBOOK) LOL!"
"Thanks, but no thanks, Henry Kissinger!"
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"President Uribe, did you know that I can see Russia from my house?"
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"Hamid, do you know the difference between a haaackey maaam and a pit bull? LIPSTICK! LOL!!!"
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"President Uribe, did you know that I can see Russia from my house?"###
"Hamid, do you know the difference between a haaackey maaam and a pit bull? LIPSTICK! LOL!!!"