Resignation cake!

G20 hijinx

It's like when you're in school and you're allowed to do one "zany" photo. I'm half expecting Obama to put Berlusconi* in a fake headlock.

Speaking of whom, how do we feel about leaders who refer to themselves by their last name when shouting across crowded, formal rooms? I think it's kind of awesome.

Men Who Experimented with Beards: The Quiz

(I got 8/10, though one answer was sheer luck).

Isn't there supposed to be some crazy computer virus outbreak today?

EYES OPEN, PEOPLE!

I've always been interested in the golden age of piracy (though the modern age is just as fascinating to me for different reasons), probably an offshoot of my general curiosity regarding famous outlaws through history. Or just a byproduct of my colossal dorkery. In any case, it's fascinating to me the lengths people will go to live outside of the law. I've never romanticized the notion of piracy in any era, least of all the 17th and 18th centuries. There is really no aspect of that lifestyle that appeals to me. I have a terrible aversion to scurvy and losing limbs. I'm not a very good fighter. I hate rum. and make no mistake, these were by and large awful, awful people. But I love the idea of these drunken madmen just infuriating the largest and most powerful forces that the world had ever seen at the time. But anyway, that's neither here nor there.
National Geographic just put out some pictures of artifacts found on what's almost certain to be the Queen Anne's Revenge, which was discovered sometime in the late '90s. This is probably the most famous pirate ship that ever existed, and almost certainly the basis for the ship in those Johnny Depp movies*. It's also one of the few pirate ships whose name I know**, despite its relatively short lifespan as a pirate vessel.

Anyway, check out some artifacts here and at the link above. Then eat some fruit to avoid scurvy.

This reminds me that I should point out that I actually can't stand the weird hipster obsession with pirates and acting like pirates and Talk like a Pirate day and whatnot (I'm looking at you, Portland). While it's cute to run up the Jolly Roger (which might be the most boring pirate flag ever), never forget that these were reprehensible people that kidnapped, tortured, murdered, raped, maimed, etc... It's fun to paint them as Robin Hoods, but in most cases they were barely literate thugs. For every fun-loving and playful corsair, there is a sadist like Edward Low that really nobody should be emulating. Anyway, enough of that.

*what happened with those? The first one was so much fun, then they followed it up with overwrought mythologies and ubermenshian crap... much like the Matrix trilogy, now that I think about it. Maybe we should pass a law that in the case of trilogies, all works must be complete and hashed out before the first day of filming starts.

**Others would be Bartholomew Roberts' Royale Fortune and Captain Kidd's Adventure Galley

Picture above: Howard Pyle's depiction of Blackbeard's last battle. In addition to being probably the definitive pirate artist (there's a whole book, check it out), he was also a profound influence on N.C. Wyeth, which in turn makes him one of the most important influences of his era. Plus, this. So he's okay in my book.

Coping with Infoglut

So, I'm going to have to scale back a bit on HDF for a little while. Not like I'm all that diligent about posting anyway, but now I have a legitimate reason. Since I started continuing my organized education seriously for the first time in almost a decade, I've been, well, freaking the fuck out over the workload I've put on myself. Sure, it's the teachers that assign it, but I'm the one who decided to take so many classes.

Anyway, as I start to process the amount of work on my table, I realized that the time I usually spend dicking around on the internet and observing will now be spent eating, sleeping, and trying to go to the gym. Yes, this too is a sad development in my life, but if I don't have the time to walk a couple miles a day or whatever and I'm spending that much more time staring at a computer, it means I'm going to have to start getting more exercise. The plus side is that I'll still have one outlet in which I can listen to podcasts.

Anyway, I'm going to try to post here as often as possible, but don't get pissy if I go a few days without posting here and there. I really am trying to get this done. So bear with me.

ratfarts

It's Haiku season!!!!

Yawning on the porch,
the mountains say good morning.
My cat licks himself.


waiting in the mist,
it takes ages to warm up;
my stupid shower.


The airfield diner;
little planes will come and go
while we eat our eggs


Pitt/Villanova;
we better pull this one off,
just to shut him up.

Pennsylvania: Where flipping off a cop is your constitutionally protected right

Nerd out over coffee and espresso over here.

It's a very scientific but ultimately pretty interesting article. Kill some time with it.

I'm going to try to post regularly over the weekend, but I can't promise anything. Pitt being in the Elite 8 sorta shook up everything, and I'm trying to enjoy as much time poolside before my classes start on monday. In any case, Pitt won, and the Primal Scream show in Philly was scarcely attended. Was everyone watching the 'Nova game?

Despite that he forgets some of the words, or that his voice has changed entirely from when he recorded the song. Despite the fact that he punches up the rhythm and sounds 50 years older... Hearing Bob Dylan play "Billy" live for the first time still excites me beyond the words my brain can summon. I've seen him twice and to be honest always felt a bit underwhelmed. Not that I should've loved it (being the staunch traditionalist that I am, I've always preferred an acoustic Dylan), but hearing this, I'm wondering if I can catch him the next time he tours the US and maybe get to hear one of my favorite songs.

It's a conundrum.

PS There's also a new Theme Time Radio Hour on that site (this one's theme: "Truth and Lies"). So it's a pretty good day all around.

Man survived two A-Bomb attacks

You know what might be the only thing worse than surviving through an atomic attack? Living through two of them in four days, probably.

Wow.

I've mentioned this before and I was mocked cruelly. Now I am here to tell you once again:

KOMODO DRAGONS: THE THREAT IS VERY REAL

"A man picking fruit on an island in eastern Indonesia fell out of a tree where he was then mauled to death by two Komodo dragons."

Yeah, that's right. They're killing folks.

I'm really not all that sure what to make of this Away We Go movie. On one hand, I've enjoyed something from pretty much everyone involved at some point (except perhaps Maya Rudolph). On the other hand, this whole project is a They Might Be Giants soundtrack away from me hating it on principle alone.

Let's hope it's better than that (?)

Check out this statue in Moscow of two blindfolded children being chased around a park as "the victims of adult vices".

Now, being the youngest of 5 meant that I had no shortage of methods being employed in hopes of scaring the living shit out of me. Most of them worked pretty well. I remember one night when I was left in the care of my siblings when my parents went out somewhere. About halfway through the night, my oldest sister turned to me and said that they were all my parents now, since Mom and Dad weren't coming home. when I asked why not she told me, without batting an eye, that they were eaten by bears. I was 5, and my trouble with sleeping probably started right around there.
There was a belt that hung on the wall in my grandparents' home, one with these rusty coins attached to it. Every one of the children in my family had told everyone else about why it hung there, and that there were a few very sore asses that regretted having met it. I swear its' presence alone kept me from mouthing off to anyone until I was well into my mid-20s.
Now, that said, none of that affected me the way seeing this statue as a small child would. This is like the scariest parts of the The Wall movie* come to life.

Keep in mind that this is 2000 yards away from the Kremlin! The most haunting thing we have in DC is what... Arlington? The Vietnam Memorial? Arlington isn't scary, and the Vet Wall is more somber than scary. You can't be all that scared when there are wall rubbings involved, right?

Maybe we should consider one of these, but Americanize the whole thing. Put up a donkey playing Rock Band, or an aardvark watching a movie with CGI'd talking dogs. It's time to scare our kids straight! What if there was an elephant coordinating bum fights!?? Think of all the terrible shit we can help end, just by erecting some creepy-ass statues on the National Mall! I guess we probably can't afford it at the moment, but I'm gonna start writing some letters now...

Check out some more pictures at English Russia (but don't read the comments, okay? They're just not good for you. Ever).

*Come to think of it, this too was used to scare me as a child, along with KISS album covers, threat of BB gun, and clowns.

Eddie Bo, R.I.P.

New Orleans lost another giant in Eddie Bo, who passed away on Wednesday. Songs like "Hook & Sling" and "Check Your Bucket" were always favorites, and nearly impossible to listen to and stay in a bad mood. May your legacy never die, Eddie.

Learn and hear more of him here.

Just because it makes me laugh my ass off every time I see it

(via Eye on Springfield)

View-Master R.I.P.

There was an interesting article in last week's Economist about the decline of the View-Master, and a few mentions of its history and many uses. I know that it's really just the advance of technology and that these things cannot compete with a PS4 or whatever, but it still made me nostalgic for that time when I had one of those things. Despite it being somewhat antiquated by the early 80s when I used mine, it was still a pretty interesting toy to have. In addition to having all the discs for whatever movies and stories were popular with me when I was using it (The Black Hole and The Jungle Book were two I remember well), I also had whatever discs could float down through siblings, relatives, rummage sales, trips to national parks, etc...
So, as a kid I ended up with this weird , encompassing view (haha) of not only my own pop culture, but also that which preceded my by up to 40 years or whatever it was I found. It was kind of humbling, being presented with decades of expired fads in the face of your own, knowing that someday, Thundercats would be just some really godawful show to be exploited for nostalgic purposes by VH-1. And me, I guess. It reminds me when a friend's dad saw us all playing G.I. Joe out in the neighborhood somewhere and he decided to show us his old figures, which were at least 5 times the size of ours and looked much more like dolls than anything else we had at the time. Cloth fabric clothes instead of plastic!!??

Anyway, remember the View-Master fondly, folks. It's almost gone.