firehose

Headline Absurdity

By Boar’s Head CEO Robert Martin

A clean and simple way to read Pinboard articles later.

Paperback also lets you easily archive and tag links from your Pinboard ‘unread’ queue once you’ve read them, and it keeps track of your progress, too, so you can flit from device to device while reading a lengthy piece.

Remember Sizzler, the 90s-era global restaurant chain based in the US that made a name for itself with endless salad bars and cheap chicken dinners? The chain, which now has restaurants spanning across Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Puerto Rico and Thailand, is banking on just the thing to refresh your memory: an impossibly cheap dinner deal you’d be foolish to forgo.

Sizzler has been struggling with a series of creative marketing plays since it filed for bankruptcy back in 2006. After closing 130 company-owned stores and moving towards a franchised model, the business looked abroad, expanding into seven international markets, including China, Japan and Australia. But international growth was slow, and the company split its international and domestic businesses in two in 2011, when management-led group Sizzler USA bought Sizzler’s rebounding US business from Australian holding company Pacific Equity Partners.

Since then, Sizzler USA has busied itself with all things American, including newfangled menu offerings and flashy restaurant redesigns to boost sales. Since the Great Recession, demand for healthier, fresher options and low prices has eaten into profit margins for casual restaurant chains in the US like Sizzler. Competitors like Olive Garden and Red Lobster have tried to woo price-conscious consumers with permanently lower prices, with limited success. Sizzler, however, is taking a different approach: It’s hoping to hook new customers with ultra-cheap dinners reminiscent of yonder year—while taking a loss—to show off its restaurant redesigns and new menus. Once the deals expire, it will hike back up the price.

And thus, until November 10, anyone who walks into Sizzler can sit down to a steak and chicken dinner for a mere $7.99 (below today’s regular price of $12.99 and the chain’s 1990s price nearer to $8.99). The price point is in fact so low that Sizzler stands to lose money on each purchase; it only covers the cost of the food.

Here’s a video of a similar Sizzler deal for steak and lobster that began in the late 1980s and ran through the early 1990s:

And here’s a print advertisement for the latest price cut:

“It’s a great opportunity for us to get people to come back in again, give us another try. We’ve been around a long time, and I think people sometimes need a little reminder to take a look at the convenient store in their local area,” CEO Kerry Kramp told Bloomberg in an interview. ”It’s a unique way of advertising.”

Even before the cheap offer, the strategy seemed to be paying off. The chain’s remodeled stores are averaging sales up to 15% above outdated ones. But the question remains: Where will customers go when the 90s nostalgia wears off?

In case you missed it, here's video of the Capitol Police car destroying itself on a barrier.

Twitter filed to go public yesterday, choosing the stock ticker TWTR. Twitter shares are expected to start trading before Thanksgiving this year. But it looks like some investors are a bit confused.

Perhaps you've read accounts of Fiona Apple's show at the Newmark Theatre last night (Robert Ham has a good one on Stereogum). I don't want to dwell on the horrible last 10 minutes of the show when a solitary heckler body-shamed Fiona Apple, because Apple and her incredible band played an amazing set, and to obsess over the last mortifying scene—when Portland transformed into a pitchfork-wielding mob of petulant preschoolers—would be to take away from the intimate and goofy and powerful set that these musicians so kindly worked their asses off to give to us. So let's try to remember the good parts—all 90 percent of the evening—because I sincerely doubt Fiona Apple will ever grace us with her presence again. Thanks, dickbag hecklers. Yes, even you well-wishers. Learn how to go to a show. It involves shutting your flaptraps and letting the talented people show you what they got. They most definitely don't need any help from you.

I saw Apple's electrifying show at the Schnitzer last summer and was blown away. It is handily in my top-five concerts of all time. She was riveting on stage, complete with wacky banter, and nailing every song as she dipped into her back catalog. It was powerful and fierce and full of raw emotion. This time out on tour, Apple has teamed up with frequent collaborator Blake Mills for a smaller and more intimate performance. The venue was cozier, the smudged chalkboard on stage added a whimsical, down-home spin, and the forbidden use of cell phones was meant to get us all fixed in the moment. Apple had a lot of nervous energy on the stage, cradling percussive doodads that she plucked from her toy chest of sounds, then ambling to the bass drum, where she slung herself, back to the piano bench, which she arched over backward. She was like a kid with boundless, unfocused energy. Until the songs started. Then she lasered in.

Fiona Apple is a genius. If she wants to walk around with an armful of gourds, then by all means. Once the first notes dropped, her powerful voice kicked in and the jitters melted away. She ripped through "Every Single Night," "Regret," and added a beautiful duet piece to Mills' very funny "Don't Tell Our Friends About Me." She killed "Dull Tool," and watched as Mills sang solo and played guitar (from his huge cache of guitars). As soon as it came down to the business of displaying her musical fortitude, Apple was a consummate professional. Honestly, I don't think her voice has ever sounded better. Gal can sing paint off walls. For all her silliness, Apple knows when she's clowning, like when she gently sparred with Mills over which one of them might grudgingly like Billy Joel, or when she let herself be the cobra to Mills' sexy snake-charming guitar solo. She was goofing, just like she set out to do at the start of the show. Couple that with Mills' stable and calm presence and fantastic accompaniment from bassist Sebastian Steinberg and drummer Amy Wood, and I'd say this show easily rivaled last July's house-on-fire performance. You know, until some jerk opened their mouth in the balcony.

More photos from the show by Jesse Champlin after the jump. And the last word I'm going to say about "helpful" hecklers.

I could hardly sleep last night thinking about what went down at the Newmark. It's a classy place—in fact I was telling photographer Jesse Champlin how civilized it all felt when we walked in. It's the home of a $10 cup of wine, for Christ's sake. But how one "helpful" heckler humiliated a musician that we all paid $60 to see was the grossest, most-low-down, embarrassing thing I have ever seen in our city. I was mortified. We were all mortified. Perhaps if everyone had shut their goddamn mouths after that lone voice from the balcony had screamed out, Fiona would've had the chance to gather herself and suffer her hurt feelings in private. But that didn't happen.

I don't want to step on Barbara Holm's toes with her weekly "My Least Favorite Piece of Misogyny This Week" column, but last night was mine. You can bet your bottom dollar that no one ever heard the following heckled at a concert:

"Get healthy, David Bowie, we want to see you in 10 years... You used to be beautiful."

"Get healthy, Iggy Pop, we want to see you in 10 years... You used to be beautiful."

Nope. Not something that gets yelled at dudes.

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Graham Chapman writes to his bank manager, Letters of Note

CHOCOLATE CITY—After months of ceaseless debate, including last week's record 76-hour filibuster slap-bass solo from Senate Rubber Band Minority Leader Bootsy Collins (D-OH), the National Funk Congress is no closer to resolving its deadlock over the controversial "get up/get down" issue, insiders reported Monday.

Senate Rubber Band Minority Leader Bootsy Collins (D-OH).

"Get up-uh, get on up! Get up-uh, get on up!" shouted Getuplican Party supporters on the steps of the Capitol as the debate, as well as a massive 14-piece instrumental jam, raged within. The pro-up-getting demonstrators' chants were nearly drowned out by those of a nearby group of jungle-boogie Downocrats, who called upon all citizens to "Get down, get down!"

The bitter "get up/get down" battle, which has polarized the nation's funk community, is part of a long-running battle between the two factions, rooted in more than 35 years of conflict over the direction in which the American people should shake it.

"The time has come to face facts: To move forward, we've got to get on up, and stay on the scene, like a sex machine," said Brick House Majority Leader James Brown (G-GA), one of getting on up's most vocal supporters. "Say it loud: Only when we have gotten up offa that thing will we, as a nation, finally get back on the good foot."

Upon learning of Brown's remarks, Downocratic leaders openly questioned his commitment to getting up. Said Robert "Kool" Bell, a top-ranking Brick House Downocrat: "It is a well-known fact that Brown has, on many past occasions, urged his supporters to get down with they bad selves. In response to his inconsistent voting record and history of waffling on this crucial issue, we will not rest until every American, as is their birthright, has gotten down."

"You got to get down," Bell added. "Hyuh!"

The disagreement, which has paralyzed all efforts of the National Funk Congress to get it together and get funky for one and all, has reached crisis proportions, experts say.

"Until our country's funky leaders can resolve this deadlock, U.S. funk leadership, and the booties of all Americans, will remain immobilized," said Gregory Tate, domestic motorbooty-affairs reporter for The Washington Funkenquarterly. "Unless a compromise can be reached soon, the entire nation's thang could be in serious jeopardy."

"Our leaders' refusal to budge, let alone move it from front to back, has crippled the move-your-body politic," said current U.S. Mothership Ambassador George Clinton, one of the most outspoken critics of the deadlock. "These legislators must keep it real and understand that no matter what party policy may dictate, they cannot fake the funk. What the partisan people in the House need to realize is this: If they ain't gon' get along, the time has come for them to take they dead ass home."

But despite such pleas for bipartisan compromise, the two parties remain at odds. This week, a Getuplican high-treble scratch-guitar initiative called for all Downocrats to "give it up and turn it loose," sparking an angry war of words on the Senate dance floor. In response, the Downocratic members of the Grooves & Booties Subcommittee drafted a bass-heavy resolution demanding that the initiative be voted "down, down, all the way down."

Downocratic supporters march through the streets of Chocolate City.

The Getuplican-Downocratic rift has been further complicated by confusing rhetoric from both sides. A call from Parliamentary leaders to "get up for the down stroke" was interpreted by members of both parties as a statement of support. Equally unclear was a statement made earlier this week by Funky Chinatown Big Boss-Elect Carl Douglas, who baffled observers with the assertion that Funky Chinamen were "chopping men up and chopping men down."

For all the confusion and divisiveness, there are signs of hope. A bipartisan coalition of funky drummers is gaining strength, urging Downocrats and Getuplicans to find common ground by "getting together, on the one." Also on the rise is a small grass-roots campaign calling upon party people not to get up or down, but simply to get it on.

Whether any of these fledgling reform movements will have a genuine impact on the entrenched groove machine is uncertain. One thing, however, is not: A growing number of citizens are fed up with the nation's current leadership for putting party politics before the need of the people to turn this mother out.

"Big government has lost sight of the fact that we should not be divided along Getuplican and Downocratic lines, but should be one nation under a groove, getting down—or up—just for the funk of it," said Clinton at a recent Mothership rally calling for an end to the deadlock. "The point is not that we must get up or down, but rather that, working together, we've got to get over."

Original Source

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Valve Software has plans to ship 300 prototype Steam Box machines to eager testers by the end of 2013. This morning the company revealed the hardware to be included within these computers:

The 300 prototype units will ship with the following components:
GPU: some units with NVidia Titan, some GTX780, some GTX760, and some GTX660
CPU: some boxes with Intel : i7-4770, some i5-4570, and some i3
RAM: 16GB DDR3-1600 (CPU), 3GB DDR5 (GPU)
Storage: 1TB/8GB Hybrid SSHD
Power Supply: Internal 450w 80Plus Gold
Dimensions: approx. 12 x 12.4 x 2.9 in high

Instead of shipping top-of-the-line technology to each tester, Valve has opted to ship a variety of configurations. This allows the company a more accurate view of how Steam Box will perform in the hands of the public, as not every player will have access to the latest, greatest hardware. However, if you grow tired of how your Steam Box performs, Valve claims that each of these prototypes is fully upgradeable using relatively common components.

Valve unveils prototype Steam Box specs originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 04 Oct 2013 15:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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explodingdog:

I hope I’ll make it

New drawings at Explodingdog.com from titles sent to me @Explodingdog

Please share: Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell caught on hot mic talking shutdown strategy via @youtube #uniteblue #p2 #ctl

itswalky:

Shortpacked!: Jughead hat

Follow Vickie Elmer on Twitter @WorkingKind. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.

djempirical

Sounds promising.

There was a nsfw short film adaptation that i thought was quite good. (it’s on vimeo if you want to go look for it.)

It’s a good day for those who like to see films based on some of the more serious and/or challenging comics out there. We got word that a film adaptation of the first arc in Ed Brubaker’s great Criminal series is still in the works, now with Kim Jee-Woon (I Saw the Devil) directing. And now the once-dead adaptation of Charles Burns‘ wild and very unsettling graphic novel Black Hole is back on, with David Fincher again set to direct.

This Black Hole has nothing to do with space, or with a Disney sci-fi film. It is sourced from a serialized graphic novel in which Charles Burns visualized a set of Seattle high school kids who are all touched by “the bug,” a sexually-transmitted mutagen that has some pretty shocking effects on those that carry it. Picture a hybrid of Dazed & Confused and Less Than Zero filtered through early Cronenberg and you’ll kinda get the idea.

In a long report on Brad Pitt’s company Plan B, THR reports on the company’s upcoming slate. Pitt explains,

We follow the storytellers, and our little garage band of a production company’s mandate was [always] to help complex films get over the hill if they need a little push. We are in a fortunate position to do that.

Some of those complex films are  Andrew Domink’s Blonde, based on the Joyce Carol Oates novel about Marilyn Monroe; “history lit via a talking dog” story The Last Family of England, with Taika Waititi (Eagle vs. Shark) directing; and The Operators, based on Michael Hastings’ book that is called a “behind-the-scenes portrait of our military commanders, their high-stake maneuvers, and the politcal firestorm that shook the United States.”

And then there’s Black Hole, a “complex film” that needs “a little push” if ever there was one. This is a story with weird sex between teens, and weird physical mutations in those teens, and then weirder sex thanks to those mutations. Oh, and there’s an ugly, creeping sense of dread and alienation — the whole thing is a great representation of the sense of being an outsider, even with respect to other outsiders. If it works on screen it could be tremendous, but the adaptation won’t be easy.

Black Hole has been in development for a long time, with Alexandre Aja once set to direct from a script by Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman. That script reportedly went out the window when Fincher came on board years ago, and we don’t know who’ll write at this point.

• David Fincher Offers Status Updates For ‘Cleopatra,’ ‘House of Cards,’ ‘The Goon,’ ‘Black Hole,’ and ’20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’
• David Fincher to Direct Graphic Novel Adaptation Black Hole
• Watch Rupert Sanders’ Short Film Adaptation of Charles Burns’ Graphic Novel ‘Black Hole’ (NSFW)
• Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery Leave Black Hole
• David Fincher to Produce CG Animated Comic Book Film The Goon
• ‘Blurred Lines’ Model Emily Ratajkowski Cast in David Fincher’s ‘Gone Girl’

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I bet it makes you feel real bad to see women who are skinny, even if they have no known drug problems and are well known vegans. And yet you're proud of your curvy body; perhaps you have a burlesque show. But I guess you're not proud enough of yourself not to shout, "Get healthy, we want to see you in twenty years," and "I saw you twenty years ago and you were beautiful." Twenty years ago, Fiona was 15, so I presume you must mean around the time she made the "Criminal" video and was even then being shamed for teaching young women eating disorders. If you've been following Fiona for twenty years, you should know exactly how she reacts to being cat called about her body. In fact, as a woman, you should know how a woman reacts to being told she's old and has an eating disorder, as she attempting to do a job. Exactly what reaction did you expect? The crowd to clap. Fiona to say, "Yes I have an eating disorder, and oh, curvaceous woman why don't you come up and teach me your ways?" Fiona assumed you must be with TMZ or Perez Hilton, and can you blame her? They too are obsessed with telling women how to present their bodies. We were then treated to a ten minute spectacle of obnoxiousness from the crowd and Fiona, when we could have been listening to "I Know," one of her best vocals the last time she was in Portland. So thanks for your input, body lady. There really is a problem with weight in America and it's not that most people are too thin. Air your body issues to your shrink.

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RT @kanendosei: ROFLMAO - the new Mac Pro footprint — #MacPro #MacPro2013

London, 1904.

Don’t let me be the first one thinking DAT ASS. :)

In these very Internet pages we publicly doubted the very existence of Morrissey's autobiography, and rightfully so: He announced that he was working on it years ago, then there was no news, and then all of a sudden it had been canceled due to a dispute with Penguin—only breathless days before its intended release. But now, according to official Moz fansite True To You, the once (and never-again) singer of The Smiths has mended fences with Penguin, which will release Autobiography (because what else would it be called, The Man With The Thorn In His Hide?) on October 17. (But only in Europe and the UK.) It's worth noting that the book is actually being published by Penguin Classics, the division of the company that generally sticks to canonized literature. It's not unlike the time Morrissey insisted that his solo records be released under EMI's ...

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Because the show is generated entirely by comment boards at this point, Community has welcomed yet another actor from a fellow, Internet-beloved cult series to its cast: Nathan Fillion, whose presence should spark whatever the web version of a hurricane meeting a snowstorm is, in the torrential merging of Firefly and Community references. Fillion will play Greendale’s head custodian, a “politically savvy” figure of surprising power who clashes with Annie and Professor Hickey, played by previously announced guest star Jonathan Banks. It’s the culmination of a long courtship, after Fillion posted a series of photos (including the one above) from his visit to the set last year, then traded various Twitter niceties with members of the cast—something lots of you may have done, only without also being Nathan Fillion. Though, given its continued commitment to fan wish fulfillment, expect Community to get around to casting you soon ...

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A woman killed by police today after a high-speed chase through Washington, D.C., that led to a lockdown of Capitol Hill suffered post-partum depression following the recent birth of her daughter, the suspect's mother told ABC News.

Stevie Nicks writes Game Of Thrones poetry—because why wouldn’t Stevie Nicks write Game Of Thrones poetry? That now totally obvious tidbit comes courtesy of an interview the Fleetwood Mac singer did with Scotland’s The Herald. Nicks says the show helped her get through the death of her mother last year, and that in return she’s “written a bunch of poetry” about the show, including a poem for each of the characters. Unfortunately for everyone, none of this poetry has been published or exists anywhere outside Nicks’ notebooks, but the singer says she would like to write some music for the HBO show.

While Nicks revealed in the interview that—gasp!—she used to date (and hopefully share capes and eyeliner with) Prince, she says that now, she’s got a crush on George R.R. Martin. It’s just a talent crush, but Nicks says, “It ...

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All the young punks

BBC News

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