Whenever I see something online that I think I want to read, I put it in Instapaper — and then I try to leave it for a while. Often when I visit Instapaper the chief thing I do is delete the pieces I only had thought I needed to read. So for me it’s not just a read-later service, it’s a don’t-read-later service. But that only works if I don’t go there too often. I try to catch up with my Instapaper queue once a week at most.
This map by @loverofgeography shows the usual dinner times for countries in Europe. There’s no source listed, so I’m not sure if this is based on actual data or just anecdotal, but I think the latter. From my meager experience, this seems right? I might have to check out European time use data.
Artisans formed casts out of reclaimed wood and compressed sand, allowing for multiple takes.
Metallurgists then poured molten aluminum and bronze into the cast while mixing in crazy materials like sparkler dust, argon, and liquid nitrogen — creating surprising effects that couldn't be designed digitally.
The pours were filmed at 5000 frames per second so that cinematographers could capture details we can't perceive in real time.
The staggering amount of creativity and care the team put in really shows.
The bagworm caterpillar is quite the animal architect. In preparation for its transformation into a moth, the caterpillar builds itself a house that it carries around on its back out of materials it finds in its habitat, like sticks or leaves. When it enters the pupa stage, the caterpillar fastens the house to something solid and hunkers down inside.
I fucking hate this website because not only did I click this goddamn link expecting it to be a joke of some sort, but it wasn’t a joke and I sat here spinning the screen around enjoying myself in a stupid bag of cornflakes like the dumbass monkey I am on Tumblr.com, enthralled by being in a bag of corn flakes in
Are you a writer working towards a hard deadline but having trouble getting work done? Then the Manuscript Writing Cafe is your new best friend. Located in Koenji and run by a team of writers, the cafe is solely dedicated to other writers working on deadline. But beware, once you enter they will not let […]
Earlier this year, an underwater volcano erupted in the island nation of Tonga. For The New York Times, Aatish Bhatia and Henry Fountain describe the effects of the eruption, which lasted for days and rippled around the world. The introductory animated globe shows the pressure wave and gives a good sense of the eruption’s massive scale.
Jeff Bezos’ wealth is difficult to understand conceptually, because the scale is just so much more than what any of us are used to. So for NYT Magazine, Mona Chalabi took a more abstract approach, focusing less on monetary values and more on how many multiples more Bezos has compared to the median household.
See also The Washington Post’s comparison from a couple of years ago, scaling things down to spending equivalencies. I think Chalabi’s comparison works better. It’s abstract compared with abstract.
Fans of this website will perhaps remember a certain house from the “worst of suburban Illinois” post. I’m here to alert you to the fact that the interior of said house may in fact be the pinnacle of what has been dubbed by my colleague Cocaine Decor as “Cocaine Decor.” This 1990 house has lived rent free in my brain for a while, and now it will live rent free in all of yours. It sits at $1.1 million USD and precisely 10,000 square feet, each of which exists in ignorance of the Light of God.
Remember her? I wish I didn’t. Anyway.
The Lawyer Foyer
I would actually venture that this is the most reasonable and bland room in this house, but it sets the tone for what is to come: baffling art, even more baffling curtains, and the most baffling carpet choices to ever be offered in a catalog. Also from this angle it’s really funny.
The Sitting Room
Ok does anyone else here from the aught’s internet remember vintage Art.com and its kind of weird kitschy art prints? I used to spend hours on that website amassing pictures of lemons and limes because children are weird.
Living Room
I quilt and I KNOW how much fabric costs. Also I really want to do some kind of research project on late 90s-early 2000s “modernism” which is basically like “what if we took modernism and made it really chunky.” If you were working as an industrial designer during that time and can help me figure out what in the world was happening, please hit me up in the Twitter DMs @mcmansionhell.
Kitchen
hmm getting some Eyes Wide Shut vibes from all this… kinda sus…
Main Bedroom
Viral Tweet Voice: Tiger King was 10,000 years ago. Remember sourdough starters??? Hobbies taken up with manic urgency??? Washing groceries??? How young we were. How foolish.
????
Give me some powder and 15 minutes in here and I’ll come up with McMansion Hell 2 (or lose thousands of dollars on NFTs - it’s a toss up.)
bedroom
You know those metallic sharpies they sell two-packs of at Target? They took those to a fabric shop and said: here’s our palette, go nuts.
pool
shout out to my mom, I love her.
Okay, that’s about enough of that. Here’s the back of the house complete with a tripartite architectural analysis (it’s very complicated):
I hope you enjoyed this installment of McMansion Hell, stay tuned for more cursed houses from the Mecca of cursed houses, because I, uh, found a lot of them yesterday.
Trimmed with gold and minuscule insects, Evelyn Bracklow’s porcelain dinnerware is equal parts pristine opulence and repulsion. The German artist (previously)
hand-paints vintage pieces with tiny black ants that congregate over an
imaginary morsel left on a plate and crawl along the mouth of a
pitcher, transforming the ceramic vessels into distasteful displays.
Zebras, and their shadows, make their way across a sandy landscape in Botswana. Every year, more than 20,000 zebras migrate through Botswana’s Nxai Pan National Park, making a 500 kilometer (310 miles) round trip journey for fresh grazing — the longest of all large mammal migrations in Africa.
Hawkeye: War isn’t Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.
Father Mulcahy: How do you figure that, Hawkeye?
Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?
Father Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe.
Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them — little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.
Quote found in a discussion thread at Reddit that includes commentary on war crimes.
Maria Prymachenko is one of Ukraine’s best-known artists. Known for her colorful, expressive, and “primitive” style, Prymachenko won a gold medal for her work at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris and Pablo Picasso is said to have remarked “I bow down before the artistic miracle of this brilliant Ukrainian” after seeing her work. Prymachenko’s paintings featured animals (both real & fantastical), everyday Ukrainian people, food & agriculture, and themes of war & peace.
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine announced that the Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum had been burned in the Russian invasion and that 25 works by Prymachenko had been lost. Luckily, according to the Ukrainian Institute, local residents were able to save the paintings.
You can find more of Prymachenko’s work below and at WikiArt.
Thousands filled Times Square in New York City yesterday as protests against the Russian invasion continue around the world. Meanwhile, in Russia, more than 4,000 anti-war activists have been detained today, including at least 750 from protests in St. Petersburg like the one on video here.
Tomorrow, we’ll be returning to regular Overviews from around the world, but we will continue to provide updates on Ukraine as they happen.
The traditional Slavic impulse to meet tragedy with humor is still strong. Among the Russian reactions to the war in Ukraine, this one is my favorite so far:
A snapshot of the Russian economy: an investment expert goes live on air and says his current career trajectory is to work as "Santa Claus" and then drinks to the death of the stock market. With subtitles. pic.twitter.com/XiPVTSUuks
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In 1983 Architecutral Design Magazine launched a competition to for architects to design a doll house. This book features 135 of them, we have scanned our favourites. Click each image for a link to the designer.
This Overview shows a small section of the Russian military convoy that stretches for nearly 40 miles (64 km) north of Kyiv, Ukraine. In imagery captured yesterday, the convoy extended from Antonov Airport in Hostomel to the village of Prybirs'k. As the war continues into its sixth day, deadly shelling has occurred in Kharkiv (Ukraine’s second largest city), explosions have intensified in Kyiv, and the first attempt at cease-fire talks between the two countries stalled.
Massive traffic jams formed in Kyiv, Ukraine this morning as people are attempting to flee the city following the Russian invasion of the country. Russia’s attack — the largest on a European nation since World War II — came by land, air and sea. Central European countries are already preparing for an influx of millions of refugees from Ukraine, which is home to upwards of 44 million people.
Ok, I am sharing this not because you should read at the article but because I have recently been followed by about 20 spam accounts, most of which seem to be devoted to Michael Jackson's "innocence". Has this happened to anyone else? It seems very weird, but this is such a quiet place it's also noteworthy!
The Jacksons is the first studio album by US music group The Jacksons for the record label Epic Records after leaving Motown , and the twelfth of their career (including the old unreleased album Joyful Jukebox Music under the name “Jackson 5” ), published on November 27, 1976.
Did Jordan Chandler Accurately Describe Michael Jackson’s Genitalia?
It was the group’s first studio album released by the joint venture Epic Records / Philadelphia International Records (PIR) , the first recorded with younger brother Randy and was at the same time also the first album released by the group under the name “The Jacksons “. [2]
In 2021 a new extended digital version was released with the complete album inside it with the addition of 4 bonus songs.
Background After a series of successful albums and singles with Motown, the label that launched them in 1969, the Jackson 5, pushed by their father and manager Joseph , decided to switch to CBS / Epic Records in 1976 (the deal with Motown expired on 10 March of the same year). As a matter of trademark rights, the brothers were forced to change their name to “The Jacksons”. They also had to give up their brother Jermaine , who was married to Berry Gordy ‘s daughter, the president of Motown, and had therefore decided to stay with the old record company. He was replaced by the youngest brother of all, Randy, who had already accompanied them on stage in the past, but who had not yet officially joined the group. [5]
Composition
The Jacksons portrayed in 1976 with the “J5” logo still behind them, which they soon could no longer use due to rights issues. Epic had promised the brothers greater artistic freedom than Motown, as Motown would not let the Jackson brothers write and compose their songs, which was one of the reasons they decided to change labels. Epic kept its promise by allowing the Jacksons to participate together with the writing duo Gamble / Huff and other authors in the realization of all the songs and by releasing on the album two songs written and composed entirely by the brothers, including the first song written and composed by Michael Jackson that was ever released, Blues Away . [3] The other was the song that concluded the album, Style of Life , written by Titoand Michael. The duo Gamble and Huff also composed the piece Dreamer (“Dreamer”) with Michael in mind. [6]
The tracks The album opens with the affirmations of positivity and independence from Enjoy Yourself and the energetic Think Happy , which has a soulful rhythm and gospel influences . He then moves into more nostalgic territory with Good Times , a soulful ballad about a man reflecting on the wonder of a past lover and the love they once had. Keep on Dancing has a funk groove that features a Moog bass synthesizer , arranged by Dexter Wansel, with Michael floating on the groove with some Stevie Wonder inflections in his vocal approach; the song then turns to disco music territory . We then move on to the sinuous ballad Blues Away , the first song written and composed by Michael Jackson, which centers on a young man who succumbs to sadness, feeling unable to deal with it completely. The jazz -sounding background of the song contrasts with the seemingly dark nature of its lyrics, giving the song a melancholy quality . The song also staged early examples of Michael’s percussive vocal approach, with his dramatic sobs and beatboxing , which would soon become his hallmarks. Follows Show You the Way to Go, a song that is often mistaken for a romantic song, when in reality it is an invitation to unity in the black community, as stated by its own authors. [7] Living Together and Strength of One Man , promote the feelings of brotherhood , peace and harmony while the last two songs of the album, the ethereal Dreamer and Style of Life , written by Michael and Tito, take up the themes of introspection and the romance of the first half of the album.
The album was a great success, peaking at # 6 on the Billboard Soul Album Chart and # 36 on the Billboard Overall Chart . The release single, Enjoy Yourself , peaked at number 6, remaining on the charts for 21 weeks, while the second single, Show You the Way to Go , was the band’s first and only one to reach number one on the UK charts . The album was the first in the group’s career to be certified Gold in the United States, as their previous record label, Motown, did not allow the RIAAto certify their albums until 1976. [3] The same happened with the single Enjoy Yourself , which was the group’s first single to receive Gold Disc certification. [11] [12] To promote the album, the Jacksons performed a series of concerts around the United States and made several television appearances on popular programs of the time such as The Freddie Prinze Show, The Sonny & Cher Show and The Mike Douglas Show . [7]
Jason Elias of AllMusic wrote that the duo Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff were chosen to ensure the success of the album, but added that “despite the promises, the album is hampered by derivative tracks and the lack of knowing what to do with the group, in particular with Michael Jackson »praising the latter’s interpretation of Enjoy Yourself which for the critic« perfectly captured Michael Jackson’s late adolescence , with his new vocal tics and inflections ». [13] Robert Christgau wrote that “Michael and his brothers are not powerful enough to rev up Gamble and Huff’s faltering music machine. Or is it vice versa? ” giving the album a C + rating. [14] The Rolling Stone Album Guide wrote that “Gamble and Huff’s broad groove has a leveling effect on their new dance sound” while praising Michael Jackson’s vocal interpretation in Show You the Way to Go which “envelops his deep twist. vocal and turns into a creamy and rich double-track chorus; singing in rings around him, Michael sounds like no one else in the world ».
Are you a writer working towards a hard deadline but having trouble getting work done? Then the Manuscript Writing Cafe is your new best friend. Located in Koenji and run by a team of writers, the cafe is solely dedicated to other writers working on deadline. But beware, once you enter they will not let […]
(@uk_domain_names) March 4, 2022
