You know that scene from Rent where that batshit woman gives her anti-corporate speech in the middle of a junkyard?

Remember how her nonsensicality was borderline maniacal, but in a stream-of-consciousness kind of way remained coherent enough to not be complete utter gibberish?



The Fiery Furnaces is that woman.

And don’t forget the imaginary map
Of the Manifestations of Murder-Making
Owned by the undertaker’s office
(Otherwise known as the Cadaverous Cosmeticians)

Local # DEAD-AS-A-DOORNAIL in a church mouse’s chin.
Or so said the birth-chart I sent away to New Mexico for.
It was made by a special commission of Navajo basketball coaches and blonde ladies

If you imagine the Dirty Projectors' complete disregard of musical coherence were combined with the enthusiasm and chemistry of The New Pornographers, you get a pretty good idea of what Widow City sounds like.

Leo Laporte, once upon a time, had a sweet suite of shows on a little-known network called ZDTV.

This channel was later rebranded as TechTV.

Today, we know this network as G4TV.

If you're familiar with any of the aforementioned, you're aware that something, somewhere, went quite wrong.

When Laporte and a slew of other wonderful, talented people were all simultaneously removed from the network lineup (and subsequently replaced with such intellectually stimulating programming as Attack of the Show), he pursued other endeavours, most (if not all) of which are Worth Your Time if you enjoy tech-related news.

In a talk he gave at the Online News Association, he relates an exchange he had with a TV executive: Laporte was arguing that it’s worth targeting a small group of smart computer enthusiasts - i.e., the core audience of the original TechTV-generation lineup of programming. In response, the exec had this to say:

Advertisers don’t believe it’s worth advertising to smart people, because smart people don’t pay attention to brand. Smart people make an actual choice, they can’t be tricked or convinced. They research. So we can’t sell ads to a network for smart people.

Leo then said that “suddenly television makes sense, doesn’t it?”

[via smarterware, which is also Worth Your Time]
[x-posted from my tumblog]

feist, on sesame street

man serenades 350 pound lion
(video, makes sound, includes copious lion wrestling/cuddling/loving)

ffffffffffffffff

you get three guesses which of the two approaches in the vid i'd prefer

I grew up in a college town, and one Halloween our doorbell rang and we opened the door expecting to see trickortreaters-- but what was in front of our open door--was another door! Like, a full-on wooden door, that had a sign that said "Please knock." So we did, and the door swung open to reveal a bunch of college dudes dressed as really old grandmothers, curlers in their hair, etc, who proceeded to coo over our "costumes" and tell us we were "such cute trick or treaters!" One even pinched my cheek. Then THEY gave US candy, closed their door, picked it up and walked to the next house.

Are we too old to trick or treat? - Metafilter, via merlin mann

I've reached the moment, you see, when the movement of my thought interests me more than the thought itself.
- Pablo Picasso, quoted while performing his impression of me every time I've ever been drunk ever.

In other news, I spent a straight 35 hours at work yesterday and today. True story.

Going on a cabin trip with friends next week. No cell phone reception, but there will be wi-fi? At least so I've been told. Expect pictures if not during, then at the very least after.

And a huge music post is forthcoming. I'm drafting it. Because I'm a writer with standards, dammit.

A few days ago I had a comic about the raspberry (fartnoise) sound not being a phenome in any natural language, which Arnold Zwicky shared on the always-delightful Language Log. A reader of the site had emailed us both with a question, and when Zwicky responded I took the opportunity to thank him for the post and the shouts out, as I am not one to miss out on the chance to use an internal plural while emailing a professor of linguistics!

This in turn inspired a post by Arnold on internal inflection, which I found incredibly valuable because it suggests the pluralization of hard on could be the amazing and stunning hards on. Should any of us ever find ourselves in a situation in which we must refer to a collection of boners, I certainly hope we'll remember to say, "You guys! What's with all the hards on?"

The English language, ladies and gentlemen! SO AWESOME.

via Ryan North, of Dinosaur Comics fame

thatoneguy297: what was the first machine you guys had in your house?
Corey: we had an old Compaq running windows 3.x
Corey: when the name "windows" actually made sense, because everything was in a window forever
prguitarman: first comp machine? 1994 persario
PRChris: and i would endlessly play the demo games that came with it
Corey: hahah yesss
Corey: did you have that shitty bumpercars game
Corey: OMG I AM PLAYING A GAME ON THE INTERNET
PRChris: haha no D:
PRChris: they werent net games
Corey: it was an MMO where everyone was a bumpercar
Corey: windows 95, yo
PRChris: i had stuff like Lemmings, this one where you're a car with a face and you have to go to the parade but you never got to the parade because it was a demo
PRChris: it was like Puttputt Goes To The Parade!
Corey: LEMMINGS FUCK YEAH
PRChris: then there was this one where you just throw random balls on the screen to music and that's all you did but it was fun
Corey: oh man i would play that TODAY
PRChris: it wasnt a rhythm game. you just made the balls bounce around randomly
Corey: do you remember what it was called?
Corey: or are you sure you aren't thinking of the falling marbles screensaver?
PRChris: nah i dont
PRChris: hmm no but i remember that
PRChris: After Dark!
Corey: sometimes you'd get a smileyface that squeaked
Corey: yeah!
Corey: IDLEWILD
PRChris: thats the name of the screensaver program but it wasnt the game name
PRChris: ON MIGHTY TOASTER WINGS
Corey: I HAVE THAT ON MY MAC AT HOME :D
PRChris: IN THE BRIGHTEST DAY OR AFTER DARKKKKK(tm)
Corey: after dark and idlewild were competitors i think, hahah, geez
Corey: back when screensaver packages were a business model
Corey: where you paid for internet by the minute
PRChris: hahaha
Corey: 600 free AOL minutes!
PRChris: i remember using the BAD DOG screensaver a lot thinking it would scare my family
Corey: OMG YES
Corey: move the mouse BORROWORROROW
PRChris: and he would pee on and knock down the trash can
PRChris: did you know they made a tv show out of him/
PRChris: it didnt last long but i remember a tv show
Corey: oh christ i don't remember that happening but i totally believe it
PRChris: Bad Dog was a short-lived animated cartoon that aired on ABC and Teletoon during 1998. The cartoon focuses on the Potanski family and their dog Berkeley. The show's gimmick was that whenever Berkeley was told that he was a bad dog, he would freeze and pretend to be dead until someone told him he was a good dog. This would happen every episode.

Bad Dog received extremely poor ratings. In spite of this, Fox Family reran Bad Dog briefly in 1999.

It is unknown whether or not the show was inspired by the popular After Dark screensaver Bad Dog. The two dogs have a similar appearance, and the "Bad Dog" of the show is named Berkeley, a possible reference to Berkeley Systems, the creators of After Dark.
PRChris: wow it lasted 3 seasons
PRChris: i thought it lasted like 4 episodes
Corey: that...
Corey: that sounds terrible :<
PRChris: http//www.retrojunk.com/img/tvshows/16266_987.jpg
PRChris: best pic i can find
PRChris: http//www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=361 hahaha
Corey: wait
PRChris: wow
Corey: that came on before bobby's world
Corey: i watched that
Corey: i fucking watched that what was wrong with me
PRChris: oh maybe
PRChris: hahaha
PRChris: but bobby's world was good (in its time)
PRChris: if i'd watch it now i may go back in time and punch young me in the nose
Corey: oh man i haven't revisited that show ever
Corey: is it that bad?
PRChris: i dont know
PRChris: i just remember the title being pretty bad
PRChris: and his voice
Corey: oh god yeah
Corey: who was the live actor dude that gave the intro
PRChris: running over the squirrel
Corey: was that a comedian that bobby was supposed to be?
PRChris: oh god i dont know
PRChris: i never knew!
Corey: like little bill?
PRChris: seinfeld?
Corey: me neither! he was just some guy!
PRChris: he reminds me of seinfeld
PRChris: i didnt know who seinfeld was back then either
PRChris: he was just some guy with goofy hair
PRChris: and he'd spread his arms wide and smile at the tv like "oh no what's going on here D"
Corey: WOAH
Corey: http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howie_Mandel
Corey: IT WAS HIM
Corey: DEAL OR NO DEAL GUY
Corey: NO FUCKING WAY
PRChris: WHAT THE FUCK
Corey: WHAT IS I DON'T
PRChris: MIND IS BLOWN FOREVER WOW

Cliques are inevitable micro-collections of people who like the look and sound of each other. Culture is the foundational broad strokes of beliefs, values, and goals in a group of people, and a healthy culture is inclusive. It seeks out new members who evolve the culture into something new and better.

rands, on dealing with toxic people


and indefensible has this to say:

In broad terms, there are about four things in the world to talk about.

people < things < events < ideas

Spend less time with people who talk about people and things, and more time with people who talk about events and ideas.

There, I just saved you 10 years of sifting through bullshit friends.

EDIT: yesterday's qwantz pretty much had this conversation for us already. good job, ryan :V

seriously you guys. you are allowed to not like things, but the twitterhate was never particularly endearing or entertaining to anybody. if you dislike it, move on to other things that you enjoy and let the rest of us have our fun.