Child Bite - From the Eighteen Hundreds

My "Snake-y Scarf" on Shanalogic.com

I've been crocheting snake scarves which are now up for sale on Shanalogic.com
Check 'em out!

http://shanalogic.com/item.php?item_id=1907

The Art of Friendship

"Now, understand," I concludes, "my position in this riot. I am the friend of me friend Tobin, according to me interpretations. 'Tis easy to be a friend to the prosperous, for it pays; 'tis not hard to be a friend to the poor, for ye get puffed up by gratitude and have your picture printed standing in front of a tenement with a scuttle of coal and an orphan in each hand. But it strains the art of friendship to be true friend to a born fool. And that's what I'm doing," says I.

Everybody gets a car!

O
my
god

Don't Fight

Do not think of knocking out another person's brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago.

-Horace Mann, educational reformer (1796-1859)

Again!

Animula Vagula Blandula

My godfather's translation of Hadrian's poem:

Little soul
Roamer and charmer
Body's guest and companion
Who will soon depart
to places darkish, chilly and misty
An end to all jokes

Gunnin' For That #1 Spot Official Trailer

I realized that I never posted the official trailer- just the lame Kevin Love highlight "preview."

This is my last week at my internship so I am trying to soak it all up. I don't get paid so I have to try to experience and memorize as many Beastie interactions as possible. And share them with you whether you like it or not.

Anyway, here's the official trailer- this movie hits limited theaters Friday, then some more on July 11, then more after that. In case you care, here is the website.

Joel, I still have those shoes. I will send them soon I swear.

Quote of the Day

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.

George Carlin RIP

George Carlin died. Here's him on language.

Happy Birthday Dax

Hip Soviet National Anthem

This version came out in 1991, just a few months before Yeltsin rode in on the tank.
Probably the strangest thing to come out of perestroika.

post

hey, i'm in tirana. i just got here. sorry i haven't been posting. i check up on the blog a lot but i couldn't post for some reason. i planned some big posts, some funny posts, but nothing ever came of them. istanbul was a sea of oriental delights, of taking my shoes off and puting them on... it's so easy to, you know...lose yourself there.

i'll be on the road until august. write me in the meantime and i'll write back. maybe i'll post again. it was fun and easy. hope all is well.

Honey Badger vs Cobra

Warning: Animal Gore (e.g. Snake Guts)

Coyote vs Badger

DO NOT FUCK WITH BADGERS

These boys love salami and their moms

Last night I dreamt...

I served in an academic philosophy department in some capacity. I was standing in an office waiting room with several professors and staff. Everyone was anxiously alarmed. I asked a secretary what was going on and she told me that some prestigious professor in the department was dead. I shouted, "Oh no! Now we have to start from scratch!"

I paced anxiously with the others for a bit and then walked across the lobby to the elevators. I was about to call the elevator when I noticed the professor presumed dead standing there waiting. I said, "Hey, they all think you're dead." He was very old, but still alive, and seemed amused that everyone else thought otherwise. I walked with him arm in arm back to the secretary and announced: "May I present: The Dead Man." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

The professor mistaken for dead then took me over to a table and spread out a series of funny pages from Sunday morning papers to show me some Non Sequitur comics. There were three. The first depicted a satiated dog hovering around the carcass of a devoured cat. The second was the opposite: a cat had eaten a dog. The third was of a primitive man reclining next to the remains of a cat and a dog, embracing a woman bound with rope. The professor explained to me how these comics were at once hilarious and demonstrative of the immorality of eating animals.

Then I woke up.

Quote of the Day

'Tis good to keep idiosyncrasies well moistened, they being subject to deterioration in a dry moral atmosphere.

I am very pleased and excited to present a short film to the Super Friend Community that I've worked on for a long time. A lot of Swim Clubbers helped out with it. Josh wrote the song (and therefore came up with the title).

This may not be the final-final cut of the movie (still might do some audio tweaking), but I decided it was ready to show you guys. It's nine minutes long, so make sure you let the whole file download in the player, or else it might skip. It's kinda small below, it'll be bigger if you go to its page on Vimeo. Also, if you go to the Vimeo page you can download a full resolution quicktime file of the whole thing.

Thanks again to everyone who helped out, I'll be making DVD's for you soon.


The Girl at the End of the World from Graham Mason on Vimeo.

9/18/81

Well, what can I say? Getting right to the subject of the day, my date with Nancy went great! I must admit that I was quite worried this afternoon because of our phone conversation. You see, she called me (as expected!) and we tryed to decide what we were going to do. We would be going with another couple that works at Bonanza, Scott and Kelly. (Scott is a good person. He laughs at my jokes. Kelly looks just like Rob Radkoff's sister). Anyway, as we talked, she started saying how Scott was going to get some beer (oh, brother!), and did I mind girls who smoke. Well, that kind of worried me and depressed, because I was hoping she was a fellow "straight" person. We decided on the fireworks at Farm City Week, but I faced the date almost with dread, seeing it as one Christian Scientist versus a carload of freaks.

Harder, Faster, Better, Stronger

This is from the failed Michael Jackson party. I was so drunk, that guys gonna find vom in his cup holder. I still manage to look really sexy for the shot though.

Wasn't Brian with us? Why can't I find a pic of him on the bike?

Blinglike cacophony

I'm posting this because it's controversial, kind of stupid, yet interesting.

from Newsweek, June 16, 2008.

Social Networking And Class Warfare
By Steven Levy | Newsweek Web Exclusive

For young people, the burning question of our time is "Facebook or MySpace?"

Though there's considerable overlap between the two big social-networking services, only one usually becomes the center of a teen's online social life. Most often the choice is made depending on where your friends are. But what determines whether clusters of friends alight on MySpace or Facebook? A controversial answer comes from Berkeley researcher Danah Boyd: it's a matter of social class.

A few weeks ago, Boyd—who has done extensive ethnographic work on online behavior, posted an essay sharing her (admittedly nonscientific) findings after months of interviews, field observations and profile analysis. Generally, she contended, "The goody-two-shoes, jocks, athletes and other 'good' kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college." MySpace is still home for "kids whose parents didn't go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school."

It's also, she says, the preferred digital hangout for outsiders—burnouts, punks, emos, goths, gangstas and minorities.

Boyd does concede that a lot of this may have to do with the fact that Facebook began at Harvard and spread out from the Ivies. But she believes that there's conscious self-identification involved in the choice.

Facebookers are strivers; MySpacers are there in part because they're rejecting the values of preppies, jocks and tools.

There's more.

Photoshop Jam: "Evil Annie on the Subway"

So here's the situation. I've got:

4 partially impacted wisdom teeth, soon to be pulled
1 week off of work to recover
1/2 of an Amazon gift card about to expire

Would anyone like to recommend an entertaining solution to my problem? I'm looking for something addictive, able to be watched mostly in one week, and worth owning afterwards.

Shakey Jake: On the Move

Bo Diddley's passing spurred me to research Shakey Jake a little more, so here's a portrait by U of M students in the late-90s:



...and WFMU has a free download of his album On the Move, courtesy of Ed Special.

R.I.P. Bo Diddley

If you didn't catch it in the news, Bo Diddley passed on early last week. I got into him in high school, and he might be one of my all-time favorites if only more of his recordings were available. I remember picking out the CD in Best Buy to get with a gift certificate and being struck by his iconic image -- thick-rimmed glasses and wide-brimmed hat with a feather in front (part of his "cobra snake for a necktie" self-mythology). Unfortunately, he doesn't have a total discography release, so his legacy is reduced to greatest-hits compilations.

One striking thing about his sound is how wild it is. Hearing it in the context of oldies radio de-fangs it, but if you give it another listen it's sort of a marvel how a rough-hewn, backwoods aesthetic crossed over into pop charts. Obituaries mention the connection to African rhythms, but to me it's pure Weird America.

You can get some mp3s here.

Michigan Connection: "Mona" is about a Detroit stripper. It reminds me of my budding high school libido.

Wanda Hickey

"Schwartz, I have decided not to ask Daphne Bigelow to the prom."
He looked directly at me, which caused him to slam into two strolling freshman girls. Their books slid across the floor, where they were trampled underfoot by the thundering mob.
"Well, who are you taking?" he asked, oblivious to their shrieks of dismay.
"Wanda Hickey."
"Wanda Hickey!"
Schwartz was completely thrown by the bit of news. Wanda Hickey had never been what you could call a major star in our Milky Way. We walked on, saying nothing, until finally, as we opened our lockers, Schwartz said: "Well, she sure is good at algebra."

woah!

Awesome Shoes

I got these totally awesome men's shoes at work today- you know, just some Beastie Boys swag. Who wears ADIDAS size 10.5? They are grey with pink leather and they come with grey laces AND pink laces. You have to actually like/be willing to wear/appreciate these in order to claim them. Otherwise I am going to let Graham cram his fat feet in and stretch them to his size. Or just sell them on ebay and get ri$$ch.

Gonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXPK1uX9bMQ&feature=email

Hey,
Nicole and I just had a thing about this band. Does anyone know about them?

Trail Camera Photos/Kohei Yoshiyuki

I like this writer and critic named Lawrence Weschler, who wrote this book where he compares two or three things that "converge" in an interesting way. So I thought I'd try and do one.

I was looking at pictures taken by Trail Cameras on Flickr - they're these cameras that hunters mount in the woods to take pics of animals. The cameras take random photos using timers or motions sensors. Even though they are pretty banal, I thought they seemed like "forbidden" images, nature scenes that we don't usually get to see.

They reminded me of these photos by Kohei Yoshiyuki, who took photos of people having sex in public parks in Tokyo in the 1970's. These images give me a similar feeling - like he's catching some nature scene that should be forbidden. The linked article provides some context for Yoshiyuki's creepy and disturbing photos.

So here's a convergence! More to come.

1k responses from Nicole

1. What is your daily routine like? I wake up between 6:30 and 9:30 depending on the job. I take the subway, reading The New Yorker or The Financial Times. I smoke. I buy hot coffee at a street cart, iced coffee from a deli, or get free coffee at work. I work. I buy my lunches, so I know where there is a cheap place to eat in every neighborhood. It’s usually BLTs from delis or something at Chipotle. I smoke again. Back to work- although I spend a lot of time on the internet goofing off. I’m just good at doing both at once. It is time to go home between 5:00 and 7:30. I smoke again. I finish the Financial Times on the subway back even though no one else reads newspapers in the evening.

2. How do you spend your leisure time? What are your hobbies? I take walks after work; generally I get on the subway 1 or 2 stops away from the closest one. I do it in order to memorize new streets. This month I rediscovered a whole new chunk of the West Village that Graham’s uncle took us to years ago, and I had never come across since. At home I love watching smart TV shows on DVD. My next assignment is to watch all of The Wire; I think it will take approx. 2 months. I don’t feel the slightest bit guilty about this hobby because TV is as legitimate a thing to study as anything else in our culture. There is a lot of political allegory going on. I like to drink many beers while I watch TV on DVD.

On weekends I try to hang out at an apartment/bar with Dax, Annie, Tristan, and Graham. Sometimes we have good months (6+ hangouts), sometimes bad (0-1 hangouts). There are other friends, too, but those guys are my favorites.

We get a fair amount of visitors between all of us so there is always someone to look forward to. When visitors come I enjoy riding the Staten Island Ferry and drinking on it, and taking people to places that I like, presuming they haven’t over-booked their stupid visit with too many things to do. It is also the only time I go to museums or tops of buildings or try new foods. Now that it is summer there is all sorts of shit to do, so I am pumped.

3. Tell us about where you live. Do you have a new favorite restaurant or bar or hang-out spot? I live in Columbia faculty housing on beautiful Riverside drive, directly across from lush Riverside park, 2 blocks south of stately Grant’s Tomb, and 2 blocks west of splendid Columbia University.

4. What's the last thing that really stuck with you? (Open to interpretation.) Last night one of Graham’s classmates, high on ecstasy and weed, kept telling us he liked us as a couple and that we were “so awesome tonight.” It was a guy who I find intimidating and I never thought liked me very much, so it was a nice—if drug-induced—compliment.

5. What's the last thing that annoyed you? Within the last month, two quasi-famous people have been assholes to me. One was Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me) who got mad that I didn’t recognize him and check him off the guest list at a work party. The other is Warren Fischer (Fischerspooner), who is my boss for a couple weeks. He always demands that I do things IMMEDIATELY, like buy him a bottle of ibuprofen for his headache, IMMEDIATELY, during my lunch! (I didn’t do it until after lunch and I got in trouble). Famous/rich people make me uncomfortable because they don’t exist in the same reality as the rest of us, and therefore I can’t predict their behavior.

7. Describe your work space or post a picture of it. It can be isolating going from job to job, getting comfortable and meeting people, then leaving and starting over. But it actually suits me well. I don’t get traumatized by ‘first days’ anymore. Some places keep the supply closet stocked up better than others. Some have free coffee that brews in under 30 seconds. I have met a lot of people, including some awesome bosses and new friends. I have also met many many crazy people. It’s been great. I love New York.

8. Describe what you look like these days or post a picture of it. You have all seen Dax Visits Nicole.

9. Describe one of your co-workers/classmates or post a picture of it. My current co-workers are all pretty cool. They are editors and graphics creators and producers. Between my internship and my current job, there is only one other female, so the jokes can get raunchy.

10. Who is your newest friend? Describe them or post a picture of it.

This is Sarah. She builds computers and plays video games and smokes and has a huge vocabulary. We’ve acknowledged that it’s a mutual friend-crush. She said she wants to do lady-things with me, but I know that doesn’t mean shopping, it means seeing an action movie. <3

11. Share a memory that other people may have forgotten. On Dax’s 24^th birthday, he sent a mass email that ended “Let us now all bow our heads to ponder how Dax is both a light in the darkness and a thorn in our side.” It makes me laugh to this day. On Graham’s 23^rd birthday we went to Wheeler park and had a cookout, and remember that dude who really wanted a hot dog? He wouldn’t go away. Then there was another stray, a lady that Carlie comforted who had just left her abusive boyfriend mere moments before. I think we gave her a hot dog too. That was the birthday that Adam gave Graham some porno mags. It was the tip-off ceremony for the Summer of the Hang, which I was just reminiscing about with Brian. I miss you all (and porches, and my cats, and Bell’s beer) greatly.

Palmyra

Gina Pensiero, from The Dumb & Ugly Club (and East Quad), has a new band. Here's a music video for one of their songs:



Listen to more here.