One does want a hint of color

It goes along with a very depressing story but I thought this photo was interesting, it looks almost like it was taken in black and white and then a few spots were colorized.

Modern-Day Buffalo

Another exotic animal that isn't in such high demand these days: alligator.


"Stolid men wade into shallow tanks and pull the alligators out by hand. Biting happens. After the gators are killed with a stab to the brain, they are skinned and sorted: heads and claws for the French Quarter souvenir shops, meat for the Cajun restaurants, guts for turtles, dogs or anything else whose tastes run that way."


NYTimes: As Sales Vanish, Skins Stay on Alligators

KCRW Guest DJ Bingo: Jose Andres

This year I am thankful that KCRW picked Jose Andres, the owner of some of my favorite DC restaurants, and boy do I wish I had gone to his house for Thanksgiving.


One of the songs is by Wilco: +1
Guest complains that 5 songs too few:+ 1 (1)
Guest says the song makes/made them cry: +1 per song
Includes a reference to one of their projects: +.5 per song
Guest describes their taste as very eclectic: +1
Guest references their small town/suburban youth: +1

Debbie Downer moment +1
Wild card: Times he says "Spain" (.25) 3.5
Total: 4.5

KCRW Guest DJ Project: Jose Andres

Is This a Real Thing? Swedish Nail Bed Craze

A Hindu spirit is stalking the streets of Stockholm, armed with this Nordic capital’s latest fad: the nail bed.
...
Of course, as with all health fads, the mats’ salutary effects can be exaggerated, with some people promising cures for everything “from schizophrenia to dandruff,” Ms. Rolfsdotter-Jansson said. But many nail mat users claim relief from sleep problems, migraines and even asthma.


NYTimes: A Bed Where Comfort is Not The Point

Inside Out

When I first saw the premise of this FT blog I was taken aback- Florida prisons let inmates send email? Even if he  is "as innocent of my charge of insider dealing as my beautiful two-year-old triplets ", that's pretty laid back for minimum security! Of course, the joke was on me.


FT: Notes from Inside

My Parents Were Awesome

There's no lack of platforms from which to dispense the idea that Baby Boomers were hipper and more passionate than we are or ever will be; and that nothing truly great had been created in pop culture before their coming of age or will ever be created again now that they've been weighed down with mortgages and children.  Sometimes those very children don't seem to have much interest in proving them wrong.  Case in point: My Parents Were Awesome, featuring pictures of young people in bell bottoms and long vests who are now old people.  A few pictures date back to the pre-LBJ era but not enough for a full My Grandparents Were Awesome site, which I think is a shame.  I'd start it myself if I could track down the lost picture of my paternal grandmother, already well into her fifties in said picture wearing cat-eye glasses and a violently patterned dress, dancing with a man who was not my grandfather and who appeared to be feeling her up.  

Crazy Shoe Bill

Not something that was handed to Carrie Bradshaw- just the weirdest looking bird I've ever seen.

Ugly Overload: Shoe Bills

KCRW Guest DJ Bingo: Michael Brand

KCRW Guest DJ Bingo: Michael Brand

Some guests will include at least one fairly mainstream song, maybe a childhood favorite or something like that. Not this guy- pure indie all the way.  Michael Brand is not of the tweed jacket wearing variety of art museum director, despite the fact that he appears to be wearing exactly that in his picture.

One of the songs is by Wilco: +1
Guest complains that 5 songs too few:+ 1
Guest says the song makes/made them cry: +1 per song
Includes a reference to one of their projects: +.5 per song (1)
Guest describes their taste as very eclectic: +1
Guest references their small town/suburban youth: +1

Debbie Downer moment +1 (1- Cambodian genocide)
Wild card: Shoutout to his daughter's friend  1(1)
Total: 3

KCRW Guest DJ Project: Michael Brand

Dictator Cooties

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is making the face I think most people would make if they got stuck holding the hand of Myanmar's leader Gen. Thein Sein.

LA Times: Now What do the Copenhagen Climate Talks Mean?

Copy of a copy

I heard a snippet of this song in the movie "East is East" and it's taken years for me to figure out where it came from.  In "East is East", Archie Panjabi is lip syncing the song and dancing in her backyard.  In the original film "Pakeezah", the star Meena Kumari is also lip syncing- the voice is that of playback legend Lata Mangeshkar- and the dance is actually performed by a double because Kumari was ill.

Germany's Shame

Germany wishes we could all just forget about its past enthusiasm for a once charismatic but now discredited figure- David Hasselhoff.  Unfortunately, the nation must continue to confront and atone for its past excesses.


Der Spiegel: Our Bad: Germany Still Looking for Freedom from David Hasselhoff

KCRW Guest DJ Bingo: Ashley Force Hood

Another low score on the cliche-o-meter despite very mainstream selections. I'm not such a big Garth Brooks fan, but Ashley Force Hood won me over with a pick from my adolescent love (Gavin Rossdale), the soundtrack to a movie I rented about 87  times as a kid (Little Women), and her fond childhood memories of a hotel pool in Boise.


One of the songs is by Wilco: +1

Guest complains that 5 songs too few:+ 1

Guest says the song makes/made them cry: +1 per song

Includes a reference to one of their projects: +.5 per song (There were several but most of them referred to a colleague's tragic death so it seems in poor taste to count them)

Guest describes their taste as very eclectic: +1

Guest references their small town/suburban youth: +1
Wild card: Mentions of "funny car", none of which included any explanation of what a funny car is (presumably not involving clowns): .5 (1.5)

Total: 3




KCRW Guest DJ Project: Ashley Force Hood

Happy Veteran's Day

If the last one doesn't make you cry, you're made of stone.


Mental_Floss: The Late Movies: Dogs Welcoming Home Soldiers

She floats through the air

I hadn't realized women aren't allowed to ski jump in the Olympics! Bogus.  Some female ski jumpers are suing the Vancouver organizing committee, hoping they'll pressure the International Olympic Committee to change its rules.  But whatever the verdict, and even though the plaintiffs often outperform men, that doesn't mean women's events will get the same billing as their male counterparts':


"Women jumpers got their first international circuit in 2004, and were allowed to compete at world championships for the first time last year. But in a sport in which the best European men are treated like rock stars and pocket roughly $10,000 per win, the women are only allowed to compete on a secondary circuit that awards winners $500. And, says Ms. Jerome, women are treated very differently. She and her teammates have eaten meals with barn cats jumping on the table and slept above livestock stalls in lodging arranged by competition organizers."


CSMonitor: Why Women Can't Ski Jump in the Winter Olympics

Is This a Real Thing? Bachelor Pads Dying Out

BS trend piece of the week: the recession is making it difficult to maintain a swinging bachelor pad.  That and the difficulty in finding repairmen who know how to fix a revolving wet bar.

NYTimes: The Decline and Fall of the Bachelor Pad

The lists start rolling in...

I don't think I've seen half the movies on this list from the Times of London of the best movies of the decade but I still think it's a pretty good mix of high/low.  My only quibble- "Monsters, Inc." and "Finding Nemo" over "Wall-E" and "Up"?


Kottke: Top Movies of the 2000s

WANT

"Oh jeez, are you still talking about the giant squid?" said a coworker with finite patience when I had recited a few too many newly acquired facts about said cephalopod, in particular that the esophagus goes THROUGH ITS BRAIN. Hence, I need this sofa.

Anthropologie: Amelie Sofa, Fathoms.

KCRW Guest DJ Bingo: Tim Robbins

I think it would have been great if Robbins had done this exercise in the character of Ian in "High Fidelity".

One of the songs is by Wilco: +1

Guest complains that 5 songs too few:+ 1

Guest says the song makes/made them cry: +1 per song

Includes a reference to one of their projects: +.5 per song

Guest describes their taste as very eclectic: +1

Guest references their small town/suburban youth: +1

Wild card: References to political subtext of the song: +1 (3).

Total: 3

KCRW Guest DJ Project: Tim Robbins

A question that answers itself

LA Times: Wardrobe Why: What's so cool about pith helmets?

We're a couple of swells

It's holiday catalog season, bringing lots of flowery copy trying to lend a little extra intrigue to clothing and housewares (number one culprit: J. Peterman). I think this establishment manages more successfully than most.

"The moment when a man truly feels a Man, in the most James Bondian sense of the word, is while he is tying his bow tie in front of the mirror, a bottle of vintage champagne cooling on the dressing table, and he catches a fleeting glimpse of a lady in French underwear skipping into the bathroom. If he has merely caught the reflection of the television set, which is showing another rerun ofBasic Instinct - he is still that Man if he is tying his bow tie himself and not using a ready-tied one."

The Chap Shop

More camels

This time in India, and less likely to be dinner. The captions mention a mustache contest but sadly there don't seem to be any pictures from that event.

Christan Science Monitor: India's Pushkar Camel Fair

Bad puppets!

It's a shame that"exhaustion with political correctness", when translated into action, usually means "white guy wants to make jokes about gay, black, or Chinese people".

NYTimes: Comedy for Dummies

aaaaand snap: What We Talk About When We Talk About Jeff Dunham