Not only did photographer Timothy Allen trek to the Bulgarian Balkans in the dead of winter, he was kind enough to share some some amazing photographs of the Buzludzha monument when he got back.
Not only did photographer Timothy Allen trek to the Bulgarian Balkans in the dead of winter, he was kind enough to share some some amazing photographs of the Buzludzha monument when he got back.
The good news: the New York Times is sharing its photography archive via a Tumblr page called “The Lively Morgue.”
The bad news: even if they post 10 new images every weekday, it’ll take ’em till the year 3935 to get the entire print collection online.
Faster, please.
“In general, 55 percent of people think it’s OK to talk on the phone while on the toilet. But among those whose left hand does most of the work when they applaud, only 40 percent think it’s OK to talk on the phone while on the toilet.”
That, and a whole lot more, from correlated.org.
There’s only one thing wrong with this story: the words “against all reason.” Based on the voting numbers so far, it’s patently obvious that the wisdom of the Slovaks knows no bounds.
One thing’s for sure: Chuck Norris will cross that bridge before he gets to it.
A heat map of metal bands per 100,000 people. That is all.
I always thought that if one truly were interested in multiculturalism (as in the actual meaning of the word, not as an excuse to enforce diversity quotas on college campuses), one had to look no further than American music.
Case in point: Blind Willie Johnson recorded an old spiritual called “If I Had My Way, I’d Tear This Building Down” back in 1927. Reverend Gary Davis later taught it to Bob Weir, guitarist and sometime vocalist of the Grateful Dead, who first performed the tune as “Samson and Delilah” in 1976. It’s since been covered by the likes of Bruce Springsteen, the Jordanaires, and Shirley Manson.
So what’s that got to do with multiculturalism? Check out the influences—jazz, blues, rock and roll, gospel—in the following versions, and try to tell me American culture, on its own, isn’t already a glorious mosaic:
Here’s the Dead, from their May 28, 1977 concert at the Hartford Civic Center:
[audio:https://helveticka.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/2-06-Samson-and-Delilah.mp3|titles=2-06 Samson and Delilah]Here’s the David Murray Octet, from the 1996 album Dark Star:
[audio:https://helveticka.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/02-samson-and-delilah.mp3|titles=02 samson and delilah]And here’s Robert Randolph & The Family Band, from 2010’s We Walk This Road:
[audio:https://helveticka.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/08-If-I-Had-My-Way.mp3|titles=08 If I Had My Way]From the “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?” files comes this story of Dutch scientists, bovine stem cells, and lab-grown animal fat—all of which leads, inevitably, to test-tube “meat.” Yes, it’s true: the first synthetic hamburger is scheduled to go on the grill in October.
Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to for something that nobody’s going to eat.
There’s something a little creepy about the way the Harry Ransom Center is engaging in literary speculation. As if gobbling up every manuscript and scrap of correspondence from second- and third-rate authors weren’t bad enough, they’re actively trying to manipulate the canon—to protect their investments, really—in an effort to “place their institutional thumb on the scales of history.”
We’re pretty sure they’ll be calling us. Any day now.
I’ve heard it said somewhere that the GRAMMYs are nothing more than a celebration of music for people who don’t like music. A little harsh, to be sure, but not far off the mark.
Reviewing a list of winners from last weekend’s big to-do, I was struck by the omissions (no Opeth?), the nostalgia (Layla beat Grace for Drowning? Really??), and the seeming deference to commercial success. And then there’s the curious way musical genres are identified. Radiohead is apparently both rock and alternative; Mastodon, Dream Theater, and Foo Fighters somehow ended up in the same category; and Pat Metheny won for best “new age” album, a designation that raises far more questions than answers.
Here’s Mr. Metheny covering a Beatles tune from that same album, in case you were wondering what new age sounds like:
[audio:https://helveticka.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/10-And-I-Love-Her.mp3|titles=10 And I Love Her]Book cover design is a funny thing. Those of us who actually read pretend we’re above these “little billboards”; those who don’t, well…I’m not so sure they’re the audience. The real question, though, is why American and British versions of the same book differ from each other—sometimes dramatically so. C. Max Magee offers a comparison.
If you’re blue and you don’t know where to go to
Why don’t you go where fashion sits…
It’s Peter Gabriel’s birthday today. He’s 62. So we’re going to listen to him sing and play piano on “Here Comes the Flood,” mmkay? (For you sharp-eared listeners out there, that’s Robert Fripp noodling in the background.)
[audio:https://helveticka.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/15-Here-Comes-the-Flood.mp3|titles=15 Here Comes the Flood]As Iran edges ever closer to building a working nuke, violence escalates in Syria, and the simmering culture war here in the U.S. is about to reach a full rolling boil, Joshua Tyree asks the important questions. Namely, why would the architect of the Death Star design a trash compactor that is implausible, unworkable, and inefficient?
An alert reader going by the nom de guerre “Chef Curtis” sent us this photo from a gas station near West Valley High School. The funny thing is, the February 14 election is all about school district levies, isn’t it?
Here’s hoping some of that money goes toward spelling classes.
Dan Cohen wants to strip distractions from reading while Alan Jacobs shows that a little cognitive friction might actually be good for us.
Both, however, seem to agree that an environment that makes it easy to read—a less-cluttered website, for example—also makes it easy to believe what’s being read. Which leads Cohen to conclude that “legibility and the absence of distractions are not just design niceties.”
Funny. That’s what we keep trying to tell our clients.
