Sophianotloren

Welcome to a special edition of Nick Cave Monday.

In 2013 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds toured North America on the legs of the release of Push The Sky Away. It was a bit of a polarizing album; some think it’s weak and I think it’s an amazing answer to the Grinderman records and Dig Lazarus Dig!!!.

On the 2013 tour the songs from that record were played with more intensity than on the album itself. And we got the Bad Seeds’ greatest hits.

Then, Cave toured the record again in 2014 in North America. Something changed. Nick’s stage presence became fiercer. The band performed the songs like a semi-consensual, violent sex act. It was a new record.

Touring has its ups and downs. Most of touring is down. Waiting. Soundcheck. More waiting, then exploding on stage for 90 minutes or so. Meet and greet. Wait for the bus, the plane, the cab.

During the 22-day North American 2014 tour, Nick scribbled notes on barf bags he found on airplanes. He calls them sick bags. These notes for a song that never really manifested grew into a book-length project, The Sick Bag Song.

Twenty-two sick bags, twenty-two flights, twenty-two live dates.

The book comes in a hard blue case. The white book on the inside has a replica of a sick bag on the cover. Inside the book are photos of the actual sick bags, early notes scribbled in flight, followed by the end product of the narrative for the book.

I’m a major fan of seeing people’s handwriting, especially Nick Cave’s.

To launch the book, Nick did three events worldwide in Los Angeles, New York City, and London. I attended the event in Los Angeles.

The Egyptian Theater is on the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Blvd. I climbed over tourists gawking at Diana Ross’s star to get to the box office window to grab my comp ticket. The event was about $70 with service fees. Ouch. And that’s before purchasing the book that Canongate graciously sent me.

The venue seats about 600 people and it was sold out. The crowd was a mix of people, 20-somethings to 60-somethings. The lights came down and Nick strutted out of a corridor and through the audience to the front of the auditorium while reading a segment of the book.

Everyone clapped, but nobody could hear him. He had one of those TED talk-type microphones around his ear and it wasn’t working. The sound guy came running over and tried to fix the pack attached to his belt.

“Can you hear me now?”

His mic was hot and he walked back to the corridor like nothing happened. Then he entered as he had a couple of minutes before to even louder applause.

He started to read, and then the microphone went out again. He berated the sound guy, in his signature charming way, with a smile that says fuck you.

The sound didn’t work. Fuck it; use an old school microphone and hold it in your hand.

Nick goes back to the corridor like nothing happened with microphone in hand and milks a third Nick Cave strut as the crowd’s applause turns into an uproar. We’re all in on the joke, and the show is on.

The opening to the reading and talk couldn’t have been better. If they were smart they would have staged the microphone mishap in New York and London.

He reads a few chapters from the book.

The New York chapter:

The Portland chapter:

The Denver chapter:

Between chapters, Nick sat down to discuss the book and his career with Tom Perrotta. Perrotta is the author of many books, including Election and The Leftovers.

Throughout the conversation they talked about how tedious it is to tour as well as the fun of performing live. They chatted about Nick’s heroes, his childhood, and a lot of things that we saw in the film 20,000 Days on Earth, which Nick refers to as 20,000 Days.

After the discussion and readings the audience got about 30 minutes or so to ask questions. This was the best performance of the night.

The shaky voices of fans talking directly to their hero was endearing. One woman drove down from San Francisco. One guy drove in from Alaska.

“I’m a visual artist,” an audience member said, “and I want to know what visual artists inspire you?”

It’s another one of those audience members trying really hard to sound smart where we just all hold our head down.

Nick was evasive. Sure. Yeah. I don’t know.

Then a light bulb went off in his head.

“I’m inspired by the other Nick Cave, has anyone seen his work? That guy is a genius.”

He’s serious. There is another Nick Cave in America who is pretty impressive.

The crowd laughed.

The microphone goes to another fan.

“Hi Nick, I have my favorite singers write a lyric to one of their songs on my back and I get it tattooed. Can I ask you to write one of your lyrics on my back?”

“Sure,” and Nick motions him over.

The fan starts to take his shirt off and the theater staff announces that he should wait until after the talk to keep the questions going.

Nick reads a part of the book that refers to Bryan Ferry. Ferry is one of his heroes. Someone asks what Ferry thought of the chapter about him. Nick doesn’t know. He says it’s better not to meet your heroes.

A fan asks what being a father has done to change how he works.

“I’m all of a sudden very aware that my kids are in the audience.”

His wife and kids were in attendance. Then he continued to answer that the book was essentially a way for him to document the tour and that it’s during those long trips from home that he doesn’t feel like a father and it’s hard for him. When he gets back home, he’s a father again.

No one asked what he’s working on now, about the next Bad Seeds record, or other questions I would have asked. Not that I cared enough to wrestle for a spot near the microphone. The night moved towards its end. There was another question.

Next fan: “If you could tell your younger self a piece of advice, what would it be?”

Nick is stumped. “I don’t know.” Then he thought about it.

“You know, if I tried to tell my younger self a piece of advice he wouldn’t listen to me anyway, as he shouldn’t.”

***

Thanks for reading this special edition of Nick Cave Monday. Between 2012–2013, I wrote 52 Nick Cave Mondays over the course of 52 weeks. Stay tuned to The Rumpus for the possibility of another Nick Cave Monday this century.

***

Feature photo © Cat Stevens.

Related Posts:

• Nick Cave Monday #31: “Deanna”
• Nick Cave Monday #26: “Brother, My Cup is Empty”
• Word Vomit
• Nick Cave Monday #50: “As I Sat Sadly By Her Side”
• Nick Cave Monday #38: “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!”

Charles Warren details in The Atlantic how Ferguson, Missouri spent years using its police as a taxation force, harassing the (mostly black) citizenry to raise money to run the local government despite Ferguson being the home of a $24 billion Fortune 500 corporation. Take a walk along West Florissant Avenue, in Ferguson, Missouri. Head south of the burned-out Quik Trip and the famous McDonalds,

Originally posted 2015-04-27 13:43:51. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

down the throat chanel preston source: droolingfemme.

The FDA has a warning for those using weight loss supplements: Avoid any diet pills that contain BMPEA. BMPEA or beta-methylphenethylamine is something of a “super caffeine,” but FDA researchers warn that the substance is actually closely related to amphetamine.

According to Forbes, the FDA sent out a warning on Thursday to five (other reports say eight) different companies, demanding that they immediately stop selling products that contain BMPEA. This reportedly includes “weight loss, energy enhancement, and workout supplements.”

The reason that the FDA wants consumers to steer clear of any supplements containing substance is it can raise your heart rate to dangerous levels, possibly doing permanent damage to the heart.

“It can change the way your heart monitors its own beating by overriding the safety mechanisms our bodies have in place to manage it,” said Allison Dehring-Anderson, a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Medical Center College of Pharmacy at the University of Nebraska.

“At the very least you can think of BMPEA as super caffeine… but that’s really underestimating the danger it poses.”

Weight loss supplement companies were able to get away with selling items containing such substances because they claimed that their BMPEA ingredient was originally taken from Acacia rigidula or blackbush. The shrub is reportedly native to the Southwestern United States and parts of Mexico. However, the FDA tested blackbush samples from plants in Texas and Mexico and found no trace whatsoever of BMPEA.

“While BMPEA was listed as a dietary ingredient on the product labels, the substance does not meet the statutory definition of a dietary ingredient. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act defines a dietary ingredient as a vitamin; mineral; herb or other botanical; amino acid; dietary substance for use by man to supplement the diet by increasing the total dietary intake; or a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combination of the preceding substances.

“BMPEA is none of these, rendering misbranded any products that declare BMPEA as a dietary supplement.”

However, at least one medical expert feels that the FDA didn’t go far enough — or even warn all the companies guilty of using the dangerous ingredient. Pieter Cohen, MD, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, published a scathing report that declared the FDA was aware of the potential dangers posed by BMPEA two years ago.

“Physicians should remain vigilant for patients presenting with toxicity from sports and weight-loss supplements as they might contain undisclosed stimulants, such as BMPEA.”

Among companies thought to have been warned by the FDA about BMPEA are Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, Tribravus Enterprises, Train Naked Labs, Better Body Sports, and Human Evolution Supplements.

[Image Credit: Erich Ferdinand]

Weight Loss Warning: FDA Says Steer Clear Of All Supplements Containing BMPEA is an article from: The Inquisitr News

(photo via barrymcockner)

According to analytics service SourceDNA, nearly 1,500 iPhone and iPad apps currently available in the App Store include a bug that breaks HTTPS. This could leave users' sensitive personal information exposed to hackers. Analysts have identified an o...

aspacelobster:

themakerisamotherfucker:

itsk-tanafsu:

Please take a moment to appreciate that the first sci fi heroes Fry thinks of are all women.

this was specifically to take the piss out of the show’s male fans btw

EVERY show should take the piss out of their male fans.

Amongst Banksy imitators, Hanksy ain’t got shit on Wanksy, an anonymous street art vigilante who draws pictures of dicks around potholes in Manchester, England, with the intention of attracting attention to the holes so they get fixed. As the English would say, it’s right bloody brilliant.

Photo: Facebook

It’s working, too. The dick holes are getting filled.

Photo: Facebook

He’s annoying “think of the children” pearl-clutchers, too, which makes this even funnier. Wire should change the lyrics to “In Manchester” to be about this once local, now international hero. He’s doing great work, using graffiti as a public service. God Save the Wanksy.

(Photo: Wanksy-Road Artist/Facebook)

The post ‘Road Artist’ Wanksy Uses Drawings of Dicks For Social Good appeared first on ANIMAL.

Photographer and food enthusiast Brittany Wright sets up intricate culinary still lifes that focus primarily on the differentiation of fruits’ and vegetables’ coloration. Wright captures a rainbow of colors in foods ranging from heaps of apples to carrots plucked freshly from the earth. Each photograph focuses on the produce against a stark white background, a way to display the food’s vibrant shades without distraction.

The Seattle-based photographer is fascinated by capturing the aging process of vegetable and fruits, displaying the variety of forms each piece takes during ripening and decay. Wright even includes fruit harvested from her own backyard, photographing raspberries both plump and shriveled.

Wright’s client list is diverse, including brands Dry Soda and Samsung as well as (appropriately) several farms. You can see more colorful gradients and food-based imagery on Wright’s Instagram. (via Junk Culture)

While air travel is quicker and safer than driving, it's also louder. The continuous low-frequency drone of the engines is why some people invest in noise-canceling headphones. To help reduce that non-stop hum, researchers at North Carolina State Uni...

What an Ass-teroid

And he left Earth’s Ass Destroyed.

Ass puns.

Cheers!

Lume

chasibunny:

phantomsolari:

Obama takin it to a WHOL NUTHA LEVUH

Holy fucj

Until recently, Dr. Mehmet Oz’s grip on the nation was firm. Indeed, America’s television doctor has charisma on his side. The handsome host’s demographic is composed largely of adoring women and young mothers, much like me. I’m a 32-year-old work-at-home mom smack dab in Oz’s target audience. I bristle at the unscientific misinformation he peddles.

In his response to a suggestion from ten physicians that Columbia reconsider the appropriateness of Mehmet Oz occupying a senior administrative and clinical post in the medical school’s department of surgery, Oz lashed out on his Thursday show and in an exclusive op-ed for Time with ad hominem attacks on the authors of the letter. Pulling a card from the Deck of Deflection pseudoscience pushers often use Oz wrote, “The lead author, Henry I. Miller, appears to have a history as a pro-biotech scientist, and was mentioned in early tobacco-industry litigation as a potential ally to industry. He also furthered the battle in California to block GMO labeling—a cause that I have been vocal about supporting.”

I’ve corresponded with Dr. Miller for a few months about our enthusiasm for continued advancements in biotechnology and our shared disdain for the organic food industry. We’ve co-authored a few pieces based on these shared interests, including a recent article criticizing Dr. Oz’s take on Arctic apples. Miller is far from the industry puppet that Oz and the media paint him as. He’s a self-described “nerdy gray-beard” who works in a small office at a university think-tank and doesn’t even have a secretary. He is a distinguished physician and columnist, and I’ve been devouring his articles on genetic engineering. Further, Dr. Miller is a kind man who has taken me under his wing despite our many differences in background, opinion, and political affiliation. Though he is conservative and I’m liberal, we joke, chat, and collaborate through our differences. I have learned much from Dr. Miller, so I was appalled albeit not surprised to see Dr. Oz’s vicious attacks against him.

I would certainly balk at Dr. Miller’s motives if he truly were a tobacco industry ally, but I know better. Dr. Henry Miller, the Robert Wesson Fellow in Scientific Philosophy and Public Policy at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, has already responded to these accusations. “As a physician, I detest cigarettes and the carnage wrought by smoking,” he wrote in 2012. “In fact, I have written about the urgent need for government policies to reduce the risk from cigarettes.” Those who have claimed that Miller is a tobacco industry ally haven’t produced evidence. But I digress; after all this is beside the point.

While I agree wholeheartedly with Henry Miller and his co-signatories, I couldn’t have less in common with them. I’m not a scientist or a doctor, I’m just a youngish woman, and a science popularizer and writer. The letter’s content is paramount, and the signatories’ affiliations have little bearing on the fact that Oz’s advice is misleading at best and dangerous at worst. As such, Oz’s prestigious position at Columbia medical school undermines the institution’s credibility as well as the “do no harm” tenet of medical ethics.

On Thursday, Oz played a clip from his recent episode on Arctic apples in which he states, “I base this whole show on the fact that you can make smart choices for your health and for your family but you can only make those choices when you’re fully informed, so I stand by my opinion that all GMOs should be labeled so that consumers can decide for themselves.” He went on to say, “Sit back and think about that clip. I hope you can see from that show, contrary to what my attackers say, I take very seriously the idea of presenting all sides of any scientific argument that affects your health.”

Oz painted an us-against-them picture on Thursday, contending that only “Washington” and “companies” oppose GMO labeling. I disagree. I oppose GE food labeling though I’m not part of Big Government or Big Agrochemical, and not because I’m against consumer rights. Oz is a physician, but perhaps he doesn’t understand plant genetics. As I’ve said, genetic modification is a process. It refers to breeding method, not content. We have a “right to know” whether a food is a GMO the same way an employer has a right to know how a job applicant was conceived. Scientifically speaking, it doesn’t make sense.

Contrary to his claim that he doesn’t judge genetic engineering, Oz has proven his anti-GMO, anti-biotech stance time and again. He’s also demonstrated why anti-GMO zealotry is relevant to medical quackery. In a September episode titled “The New GMO Pesticide Doctors are Warning Against”, Oz featured anti-GMO activist Zen Honeycutt, known for claiming that eliminating genetically engineered food can cure autism. As millions of viewers watched, Honeycutt shared her bias without a hint of skepticism from Oz. Like many genetic engineering opponents, Honeycutt attempted to demonize glyphosate, an herbicide used in GMO and non-GMO farming, because some genetically engineered crops are used in conjunction with it. Honeycutt claimed that her son had been experiencing symptoms of autism, and she wanted his urine tested for chemicals used in farming. The doctor declined to test, so she used a private lab that supposedly detected glyphosate levels “eight times higher than found anywhere in Europe [in] urine testing.” Unfeasibly, she stated that within six weeks of going “completely [genetic engineering]–free and organic, his autism symptoms were gone, and the level of glyphosate was no longer detectable.” She didn’t clarify what European data was compared.

Providing an enormous platform for such erroneous claims is irresponsible and harmful. As a physician, Oz must know that the autism spectrum of disorders cannot be cured. Evidence is building that while autism has both environmental and genetic causes, a complex interaction of genetic loci plays a predominant role. This autumn episode not only perpetuated misinformation about both agriculture and autism in one fell swoop, but indirectly blamed parents for their autistic children’s disorder.

Oz lamented on Thursday, “I know I’ve irritated some of our potential allies in our quest to make America healthy. No matter our disagreements, freedom of speech is the most fundamental right we have as Americans and these ten doctors are trying to silence that right.”

Let’s keep this conversation on track and focus on the content of the physicians’ original letter. This passage says it all: “Dr. Oz is guilty of either outrageous conflicts of interest or flawed judgements about what constitutes appropriate medical treatments, or both.  Whatever the nature of his pathology, members of the public are being misled and endangered, which makes Dr. Oz’s presence on the faculty of a prestigious medical institution unacceptable.”

Instead, since Columbia obviously has its hands tied, I agree with a statement from a group of its own physicians: “Dr. Oz might begin each program with a simple disclaimer: “The opinions expressed on this program may not be evidence-based or part of accepted medical practice and have no endorsement from Columbia University.”

As well-informed Americans, we don’t have to be one of the ten physicians to agree with the letter’s message. Nobody is trying to silence Oz’s rights. He’s free to claim whatever he chooses to claim on his show, but to do it under the pretense of giving sound medical recommendations is preposterous. Oz could simultaneously serve as a doctor and an entertainer if he gave evidence-based advice on his show. Instead, the television doctor known as “snake oil salesman” has proven that he can’t have his cake and eat it too.

 

 

Featured image © 2015 Celestia N. Ward, used with artist’s permission

In September 2014, Marin County resident Julie Wainwright started a petition to rename the famous rainbow Waldo Tunnel—which connects San Francisco to Marin via Highway 101—in honor of the late, great comedian Robin Williams.

Above each of the tunnel entrances are rainbows, which I believe personify Robin in that he was so playful, fun, accessible, alive and colorful. Plus, many people first learned of Robin from his role in the 1970s TV show “Mork and Mindy,” where he often wore rainbow-colored suspenders. For these reasons, I believe changing the tunnel name would be a fitting tribute to a man who was beloved in our community and admired worldwide. Robin was a one-of-a-kind type of person, and I want him to be honored in an unconventional, everlasting and beautiful way. This is just one way that we can do that.

Wainwright directed the petition to Assemblyman Marc Levine who then brought it before the California Assembly, who unanimously approved the motion on April 24, 2015.

The California Assembly on Thursday unanimously approved a bill to name the tunnel just north of the Golden Gate Bridge after late comedian Robin Williams. Authored by Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, the legislation — which passed on a 77-0 vote — now goes to the Senate’s Transportation Committee.

The bill still needs to go through further government approval before the renaming is approved, but it’s definitely off to a good start.

image via Edward Betts/Wikimedia

via CBS San Francisco, SFist

fellyjish:

businessinsider:

There’s a startling difference between what men want in a wife and in a daughter

this is really creepy

miss-nala:

Oooooh shit😮😮😮

flightcub:

flightcub:

flightcub:

flightcub:

thursday needs a meme, here’s my attempt to contribute. it’s thursday and i’m here to help. thanks

it’s thursday today but it’s cold outside, so here’s an update on my attempt at a thursday meme. it’s thursday and it’s cold but i’m still here to help. thanks 

it’s 2015 now and thursday still needs a meme, here’s another attempt to contribute. it’s thursday and it’s a new year and as always i’m here to help. thanks

spring has sprung but thursday still needs a meme, so here’s another attempt to contribute. it’s springtime this thursday, and even as the seasons change i’m here to help. thanks 

“You are of the test taking generation. You were taught that there were correct answers and that you only had to learn them and memorize them in order to succeed. This has bled over into your everyday life and made you think that everything you say and do has either a right answer or wrong answer and that’s just not true.”

- something one of my teachers said to me that I can’t seem to forget (via cuddleslutwinchester)

Haris Lithos. Photograph by Nobuyoshi Araki.

Also?

BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS. BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTSBUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS. BUTTS. BUTTS.

gamespite:

micdotcom:

Watch: Cecily Strong absolutely destroyed at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Seriously, the whole thing is incredible. 

Holy crap, that last one.

gothiccharmschool:

kidsmealkidsmeal:

laurafoden:

Insomnia, 2013. Pillow, thread, paper, glass, glue, eyelashes.

One of my pieces from this past semester. I didn’t get any clear photos of it, but I think the best part is that in one of the eyes there is medical literature that says “Remember that your doctor has prescribed this medication because she has judged that the benefit to you outweighs the risk”

This is unsettling. And very, very accurate. 

note0157h7:

I did some of these (a few of which were retweeted) and got a bunch of ‘gater pouting - they were clearly camping the tag just so they could piss and moan at people who don’t appear in their G A M E R G A T E tag searches. One of them took the opportunity to start spouting his conspiracy theories about how Aaron Diaz is a stalker.

Thanks for the validation, you shit-magicians.

"Pictures of a funeral in the city of Handan in northern Hebei province last month showed a dancer removing her bra as assembled parents and children watched... The government has been trying to fight the country’s funereal stripper scourge for some time now...

The point of inviting strippers, some of whom performed with snakes, was to attract large crowds to the deceased’s funeral – seen as a harbinger of good fortune in the afterlife. “It’s to give them face,” one villager explained. “Otherwise no one would come.""

Via Nag on the Lake (writen in the most beautiful town in Canada).  Image cropped for size from original.

“So, you slept with the executive producer, right?”

-

Anonymous

(via shitpeoplesaytowomendirectors)

Reblogging because this is the funniest use of Vurping Frodo gif of all time. OF ALL TIME.