going to california

spent my days with a woman unkind,
smoked my stuff and drank all my wine.
made up my mind to make a new start,
going to california with an aching in my heart.


--

View Larger Map

don't fuck with me, man.

"Damaged people are very interesting. The way they behave to cover up their damage is usually very entertaining." /stephen colbert, 2003 interview with IGN
--
via brietbart:

bush wants history to view him as a liberator of millions

"I'd like to be a president (known) as somebody who liberated 50 million people and helped achieve peace," Bush said in excerpts of a recent interview released by the White House Friday.

"I would like to be a person remembered as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process. I came to Washington with a set of values, and I'm leaving with the same set of values." He also said he wanted to be seen as a president who helped individuals, "that rallied people to serve their neighbor; that led an effort to help relieve HIV/AIDS and malaria on places like the continent of Africa; that helped elderly people get prescription drugs and Medicare as a part of the basic package."

Bush added that every day during his eight-year presidency he had consulted the Bible and drawn comfort from his faith.
--
scientific american mind reviews lennard j. davis' obsession: a history:

Those with a keen interest in (or perhaps an obsession with) obsession and its place in human culture will enjoy Davis’s book, which also provides biographies of famous artists and psychiatrists with obsessive tendencies. Those who have a purely scientific interest in OCD, however, may find themselves a little bored at times. Despite Davis’s occasional long-windedness, he does make several interesting points. For one thing, Davis says, the difference between OCD and healthy obsession may simply be self-perception. People with OCD feel they are abnormal and wish they could change; obsessive people who do not have OCD—including people with “obsessive-compulsive personality,” considered by psychiatrists to be normal—feel just fine. The two groups’ tendencies and behaviors, however, are nearly identical.
--
on this one next, Enter a book, CD or DVD that you enjoyed and the site will analyse our database of real users' preferences to suggest other books, CDs or DVDs that you might like.
--
the largehearted boy himself lists his ten favorite literature blogs.
--

--
fargo has been made into a true story, again:

But now his wife, Carol Evans, is gone—and police say he hired someone to kill her. Day by day, memory by memory, their eldest daughter looks into the past and struggles to understand what might has happened.

"By the time it all settles out, I've lost my mom, I've lost my dad," Crabtree says, fighting back tears. "I've never seen my father as a person capable of this kind of evil."
--
via rueters:

research on mice links fast food to alzheimer's

The findings, which come from a series of published papers by a researcher at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, show how a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol could increase the risk of the most common type of dementia.
--
this is one of my absolute favorite moments of the colbert report ever. the only thing that might top it is everything that esteban colberto has ever said, done, or thought.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Shakespearean Candidates - Stephen Greenblatt

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

colbert was a theater major at northwestern.

a happy sky over los angeles

Highest in the sky and farthest in the distance is the planet Jupiter. Significantly closer and visible to Jupiter's lower left is Venus, appearing through Earth's atmospheric clouds as unusually blue. On the far right, above the horizon, is our Moon, in a waxing crescent phase. Thin clouds illuminated by the Moon appear unusually orange. Sprawling across the bottom of the image are the hills of Los Angeles, many covered by a thin haze, while LA skyscrapers are visible on the far left. The conjunction of Venus and Jupiter will continue to be visible toward the west after sunset during much of this month. Hours after the taking of this image, however, the Moon approached the distant duo, briefly eclipsed Venus, and then moved on.

ahmuh reeznuhbull man, get off mah cayze

we don't want to wake the monster
tip-toe around, tie him down
we don't want the loonies taking over
tip-toe around, tie them down

may pretty horses
come to you as you sleep
i'm going to go to sleep
and let this wash all over me

/thom yorke, "go to sleep"
--


the times, according to new york:

walmart employee trampled to death

“When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning,’ ” Ms. Cribbs told The Associated Press. “They kept shopping.”

mexico's unsuccessful drug war, painfully preserved and hidden

A model of a woman who was apprehended in Tijuana shows her with a protruding stomach, which was caused not by pregnancy but by a package containing several pounds of tightly wrapped cocaine. A photograph features another female trafficker, this one with cocaine surgically implanted in her buttocks. She died after one of the packages burst upon her arrival at Mexico City’s airport.

all fall down

That’s how we got here — a near total breakdown of responsibility at every link in our financial chain, and now we either bail out the people who brought us here or risk a total systemic crash. These are the wages of our sins. I used to say our kids will pay dearly for this. But actually, it’s our problem. For the next few years we’re all going to be working harder for less money and fewer government services — if we’re lucky.

a plan to hire the best teachers

New York City and its teachers’ union took an important step when they agreed to abandon a rule that allowed senior teachers to transfer into any school they wished, often bumping younger teachers from their jobs. The new policy, which allows principals to reject unwanted applicants, has put an end to disruptive transfers and made it easier for schools to build coherent teams.

nibbling through the cheese country of northern spain

And they make the cheese to prove it. Mr. Etxberria’s version, Itxas Egi, is a hard sheep’s variety with a sharp bite and the fragrant taste of clovers — strong, milky and grassy. This, he claims, is his secret ingredient: Keep the sheep happy eating nothing but sweet green grass and they will return the favor with delicious cheese “that goes perfectly with a glass of red wine and a beautiful girl.”

Dave Eggers's four-act play unfolds in four rooms, where the extended family and their son's new girlfriend are gathered for Thanksgiving.
--
nathan sawaya makes art from legos.

Sawaya’s art is currently touring North American museums in a show titled, The Art of the Brick. It’s the only exhibition focusing exclusively on LEGO as an art medium. The creations, constructed from nearly one million pieces, were built from standard bricks beginning as early as 2002.











related: portfolio.com features this guy in their "job of the week" section.
--

come check the noise

"On hearing the striped contralto of guinea fowl,
its mock opera quivers the parsley atop its head--

The song makes its imprint
in the air, making itself felt,
a felt world. Here, there,
the stunned silence
of knowing I will not remember
what I heard;

futures
that will never happen,
a fluidity we cannot achieve
except as a child
creating possibility.

This is the untranslatable song
hidden in the earth.

/claudia reder, "untranslatable song"
--









--







"what lies lurk in kisses." /heinrich heine

via associated press:


Afghan boys look on outside the factory where they work in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday. The factory recycles plastic and employs mainly young boys who are exposed to high levels of toxins on a daily basis.



Palestinian women run away from tear gas fired by Israeli troops operating in the Old City of the West Bank town of Nablus, Thursday. According to the army the troops were carrying out a routine arrest raid.


A young girl cries as she is carried by a man fleeing an area of wooden kiosks which was set on fire by supporters of Raila Odinga's party, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), in the Kibera slum area of Nairobi, Kenya Thursday.


Supporters of a Pakistani radical Islamic group 'Lashkar Islam or Army of Islam' listen to a speech by the party's chief Mangil Bagh near the Afghan border on Thursday.
--
real americans in paris is one of many blogs run by expatriates living in paris.
--
horse feathers - curs and the weeds

--
death cab for cutie - no sunlight

--
josh homme - yelling at people


kids dominate freebird


i want to be that little girl when i grow up.

related: ted videos.

evelyn glennie - how to listen to music with your whole body


tod machover & dan ellsey - releasing the music in your head


jennifer lin improvises piano magic


pamelia kurstin - theremin, the untouchable music

--
you ain't no picasso reviews will oldham et al in lexington:



As he belted out the first songs, Oldham put his body into it as well. He leaned over the crowd like a politician; his hands entranced you like a turn-of-last-century snake oil salesman; and his eyes had enough fire for him to have been an old time preacher. I don’t know what he’s like in person, but on Friday night Will Oldham was every passionate madman from the depression generation rolled up into one of the finest folk singers of mine.


--
amadou and mariam - welcome to mali (2008)



there is a buttload of really amazing african music out there. all over the place i'm finding african remixes, african techno, afro/euro pop, franco-afro new wave, new orleans afrofunk, etc. the list goes on and on. virtually every africomp i've listened to features multiple languages and a dude or a collection of dudes chanting the glories of africa. they shout their continent's name loud and proud over and over again. i'm not sure what the american equivalent to this would be...perhaps "america, fuck yeah" or anything by toby keith. africa is infiltrating the world with its amazing music and i am embracing it with open arms. this album in particular features the marriage literally and figuratively of this awesome couple pictured above who mix styles of african rhythm-centric pop with delicately manicured synthy french pop. it is full of life and, dare i say, vast swaths of the shepherd's dog. he must've hung out with these folk while they were recording, because his influence is everywhere in the thick multi-instrumentation vividly featured in this album. (read a review by bbc musichere.)

jayme stone and mansa sissoko - africa to appalachia (2008)



this album is self-explanatory.
--
african music (and a beatboxing dude with a glorious afro):

kaZAM

"there are more things in heaven and earth, horatio,
than are dreamt of in your philosophies." /bill shakespeare, hamlet
--



(the photo is undoctored)
--

--
happy people dancing around the world:



--


more rare bill watterson art












--

--
foodstuffs:

sushi grade salmon, local organic eggs, avocado and sweet gorgonzola


with some salt n peppa.

--
jenny owen youngs - batten the hatches (2005)



"When I'm meeting someone for the first time and my gut instinct tells me that we're going to be important to each other for years to come, I like to take 'making a connection' to a slightly more literal plane, and connect myself' to a lap. It's unconventional and maybe a little invasive, but people tend to remember you upon a second meeting once you've shared that kind of intimacy."

This mentality, which holds little regard for personal boundaries and getting-to-know-you etiquette, is the mortar of her debut full-length. Batten the Hatches is a collection of eleven un-love songs that want nothing more than to crawl inside your head and set up camp. Under the clever guise of sweet, unadorned arrangements and dangerously addictive melodies, they waltz in and do just that. /imeem

mum - finally we are no one (2002)



Predictably, the songs I gravitate towards most are the songs that feature the childlike vocals of one or both of the Valtysdottir twins (whom you might know as the cover models for Belle & Sebastian's Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant), such as the luminous "Green Grass of Tunnel". However, some of the purely instrumental tunes have extremely engaging, hooky melodies as well, such as "Don't Be Afraid, You Have Just Got Your Eyes Closed".

Mainly the quartet makes the kind of music that you might expect fairies to make. The chirpy, dreamlike "We Have a Map of the Plane" and the swooning, almost Cocteau Twins-ish "Now There's That Fear Again" highlight this tendency quite nicely. This tendency can make the record slightly disorienting, but only in the best sense -- think of it as the aural equivalent to laughing gas. /popmatters
--


What we want is for our hearts to be like magnets, like the kid with the golden arm throwing a new white baseball. What we want is for our love to be like the tide, and to hear kisses in the surf. [via]

avey tare & kria brekkan - i've got mine

too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

"When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment. The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state. The great artist is thus a solitary figure. He has, as Frost said, 'a lover's quarrel with the world.' In pursuing his perceptions of reality, he must often sail against the currents of his time. This is not a popular role. If Robert Frost was much honored in his lifetime, it was because a good many preferred to ignore his darker truths." /john f. kennedy









viewer discretion advised



Jackie was seated next to her husband in the limousine when he was shot and mortally wounded in Dealey Plaza. Vice President Johnson and his wife followed in another car in the motorcade. After the President was hit, Jacqueline climbed out of the back seat and crawled toward the the rear to retrieve part of the President's skull that had landed there. After his death she refused to remove her blood-stained clothing, and regretted having washed the blood off her face and hands. She continued to wear the infamous blood stained pink Chanel suit as she stood next to Johnson on board the plane when he took the oath of office as President. She told Lady Bird Johnson, "I want them to see what they have done to Jack."



"For a moment, Mrs. Kennedy refused to release the President, whom she held in her lap, but then Kellerman, Greer, and Lawson [Secret Service agents] lifted the President onto a stretcher and pushed it into trauma room 1.” This chillingly objective text is from the Warren Commission Report [page 53]. This private moment on the world’s public stage becomes the focus of the painting.

Mark Balma’s "Pieta” begins to reconnect us with our memories of November 22, 1963. You might ask the rhetorical question: "why not just allow all of this to remain buried and fade gracefully into our memory?” President Kennedy once stated: "History is the memory of a nation.” Through art and history we honor and transmit our cultural values.