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bluemoonrush:

pleatedjeans:

via

Same

lexiconmegatherium:

O is for Owlbear.

The Secret Origin!

Dedicated to Joanna W. – happy birthday, Joanna!

Here’s more Doctor Who!

this was an ’80s twilight zone episode based on a richard matheson short story

tune in tomorrow for more topical references

djempirical

The album will be called Soused and will include five tracks, with heavy titles like Fetish, Brando and Herod 2014.

that gives me no idea what the titles are “like”.

Scott Walker and Sunn O))) have confirmed details of their surprise, genre-busting collaboration. The British singer and the American drone metal band have teamed up for a complete, 50-minute album, due out with 4AD on 22 September.

The album will be called Soused and will include five tracks, with heavy titles like Fetish, Brando and Herod 2014. Walker produced the album himself, with long-time collaborator Peter Walsh. As on his 2012 LP Bish Bosch, there are orchestrations by musical director Mark Warman.

According to a press release, Sunn O))) first approached Walker about five years ago, during the making of 2013's Monoliths & Dimensions. Walker didn't want to guest on Sunn O)))'s LP but in 2013, after a long silence, he got back in touch to say that he had written material specifically with Sunn O))) in mind. They met in studio earlier this year.

While Sunn O))) haven't recorded their own studio album since Monoliths & Dimensions, they have released collaborations with Boris, Nurse With Wound and Ulver. Walker, meanwhile, seems more prolific than he has been in decades. Prior to Soused, he had released only five albums in four decades; this will be the 71-year-old's second LP in less than three years.

Original Source

Amtrak doesn’t need a writer’s residency program. It needs to deliver affordable, reliable public transportation.

Last month, Amtrak notified 115 writers that they’d been selected as semi-finalists for a residency on one of the company’s fifteen long-distance routes, complete with meals and a “private sleeping roomette equipped with a desk, a bed, and a window to watch the American countryside roll by for inspiration.”

Part of an ongoing PR effort to rebrand itself as a classic, more cultured form of travel, the residency has generated enthusiastic praise from writers across social media as well as in high-profile publications like the New Yorker, the New York Times, and the Paris Review.

In the latter, Jessica Gross, a New York-based freelancer who received a trial residency earlier this year on Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited route, extols the virtues of writing by train, describing Amtrak’s sleepers as “cozily small, like a carrel in a college library.”  Likewise, Adam Kirsch waxes romantic in the New Republic on the affinities between writing and rail travel, contending that “to ride the train …  is analogous to choosing to write a book when you could tweet or text. It means refusing the ‘best’ option our technology has to offer, in the name of an ideal other than speed and efficiency.”

The residency has also, however, attracted its share of criticism. Challenging Kirsch’s romantic idealism, Boris Kachka describes the residency in New York Magazine as “one ancillary, antiquated business teaming up with another full of people so needful of acknowledgment … that they’d consider a week in a four-by-seven sleeper room a ‘residency.’”

Kachka’s rebuke is part of a second-wave critical reaction to the project, coming on the heels of writers’ initial enthusiasm for the residency and criticizing it, in part, as a hastily conceived social media stunt. In n+1, Evan Kindley writes that “there is something disturbing about … so many writers and intellectuals banding together to help launch a viral promotional campaign.” And the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog points out that the residency’s official terms gives Amtrak irrevocable worldwide rights to writers’ work.

Indeed, it’s difficult to see the Amtrak residency as little more than a barely disguised advertising gimmick, the latest in a series of recent viral campaigns — Levi’s “Go Forth,” Apple’s “Your Verse” — appropriating writers and their cultural cachet for commercial gain.

Amtrak’s threadbare claim that the residency is “designed to allow creative professionals …  to work on their craft” is belied by the fact that the 115 semi-finalists were chosen in part based on “the extensiveness of their social community and ability to reach online audiences with content.”

Even Amtrak’s admission that “we are not in the business of publishing” but rather providing “the inspirational environment in which these works are created” evinces a woefully antiquated understanding of how — and about what — writers write. One could be forgiven for thinking, given Amtrak’s description, that writers today are just as interested as Wordsworth and Keats were in the “countryside” as it “rolls by.”

Amtrak’s conception of writers’ work, that is, remains just as romanticized as the ideal of rail travel it’s attempting to promote. Its routine delays, high costs, and aging infrastructure are part of its nostalgic charm, the company would have us believe, not symptoms of a profound crisis in rail travel.

While Amtrak may be a pleasurably quaint mode of transportation for writers like Gross and Kirsch, it remains embarrassingly nonviable for lower-income Americans forced to rely on rail travel as, say, a cheaper alternative to flying or because Amtrak provides access to rural areas underserved by other modes of transportation.

A one-way ticket from Chicago to Washington, D.C. on Amtrak’s Capitol Limited route, to cite one example, costs $94, while airfare for the same trip averages $180. The Capitol Limited, moreover, makes numerous stops throughout the so-called “flyover” states, including in Elkhart, Indiana; Alliance, Ohio; and Martinsburg, West Virginia — none of which is located within an hour of a major airport.

Yet despite Amtrak’s appeal for lower-income Americans and those who live in rural communities, the company consistently fails them in its actual operations.  The Capitol Limited arrived on time for only 19 percent of its runs in May 2014 — this despite the fact that “on time” for Amtrak means arriving within half an hour of the scheduled arrival. The California Zephyr, running from Chicago to Oakland, was “on time” only 18 percent of the time during that same period, and the Downeaster, from Brunswick, Maine to Boston, arrived on schedule for a mere 8 percent of its runs.

As with healthcare and education, the broad mass of people would benefit enormously from a publicly run rail system that delivered an efficient, affordable alternative to travel by plane or car. This is not an unreasonable demand — many of our cities’ buses and subway systems provide such service already. And set against, say, high-speed rail in China or Europe, the antediluvian shortcomings of Amtrak are even starker.

That writers would clamor so enthusiastically for a residency intended, at its core, to brush aside such appalling public transportation statistics should concern us. The residency is as a representative case study of the increasingly comfortable relationship between artists and corporate elites, a relationship which includes, notably, the Southern Pacific railroad’s offer, in the late 19^th century, of the very first rail residency. Offering a private car to Oscar Wilde if he would visit Los Angeles, the company hoped to marshal the writer’s cultural capital in support of southern California’s then-nascent real-estate and tourism industries, in which the company had a direct stake.

Wilde declined, but the offer presaged today’s corporate vision of the arts as marketing firm, with not only Amtrak but dozens of other companies co-opting the arts to obscure beneath a patina of creativity the social and economic damage those companies cause. One might recall, for example, Chrysler’s jingoistic “Halftime in America” Super Bowl commercial, written by acclaimed poet Matthew Dickman, or, once again, Gross’ piece for the Paris Review.

“I’m only here for the journey,” Gross writes. “Soon after I get to Chicago, I’ll board a train and come right back to New York: thirty-nine hours in transit — forty-four with delays.  And I’m here to write.”  The implications of such a statement are significant. For the problem here is not that Gross, with her specially-arranged residency, can enjoy the Amtrak experience without having to deal with the real-world effects of Amtrak’s egregiously substandard performance, but that we all should be able to.

A more socially responsible residency, rather than supplying as Gross and Kirsch do the rhetorical veneer by which Amtrak masks its failures, would document for the American public the company’s numerous and extensive shortcomings as a mode of public transportation. In so doing, it would serve also as a powerful corrective to the already-cozy relationship between artists and capitalists that risks vitiating this country’s once-vibrant and oppositional forms of artistic production.

We have yet to see this kind of writing in the wake of Amtrak’s announcement of its 115 semi-finalists, but with several months until the final twenty-four “residents” are chosen — and with twenty-four round-trip, long-distance train rides soon after — we may still. Amtrak’s customers, saddled with the company’s second-rate performance, at least deserve better from the writers who will become their fellow travelers.

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Andrew Weber-US PRESSWIRE

Band director fired after investigation into a culture of hazing, sexism, sexual harassment and homophobia.

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djempirical

sorry about the Doctorow share

Copyright scholars have long been pretty certain that "Happy Birthday to You" is in the public domain, despite the fact that Warner/Chappell claims copyright on it and charges impressive licensing fees to use it in public performances. Those fees, however, are much lower than a copyright lawsuit would be, so everyone shrugs and pays them. Until now.

A documentary film company working on a movie about "Happy Birthday" has assembled a huge body of evidence showing that the song has been in the public domain since the 1920s, and is suing Warner to get them to return the hundreds of millions they've improperly charged in licensing since. This is gonna be great.

The full lawsuit, embedded below, goes through a detailed history of the song and any possible copyright claims around it. It covers the basic history of "Good Morning to You," but also notes that the "happy birthday" lyrics appeared by 1901 at the latest, citing a January 1901 edition of Inland Educator and Indiana School Journal which describes children singing a song called "happy birthday to you." They also point to a 1907 book that uses a similar structure for a song called "good-bye to you" which also notes that you can sing "happy birthday to you" using the same music. In 1911, the full "lyrics" to Happy Birthday to You were published, with a notation that it's "sung to the same tune as 'Good Morning.'" There's much more in the history basically showing that the eventual copyright that Warner/Chappell holds is almost entirely unrelated to the song Happy Birthday to You.

The detail in the filing is impressive, and I can't wait to see how Warner/Chappell replies. As the filing notes, there are a variety of copyright claims around the song, but all are invalid or expired, and the very, very narrow copyright that Warner/Chappell might hold is not on the song itself. In other words, Warner/Chappell is almost certainly guilty of massive copyfraud -- perhaps the most massive in history -- in claiming a copyright it clearly has no right to.

Original Source

gabifresh:

take no shit 2014

McCoy sat out the 2013 season with a torn left Achilles tendon.

The Seattle Seahawks fear that tight end Anthony McCoy could have torn his Achilles for the second year in a row, per Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk. He was injured on Tuesday in practice and was carted off the field for further testing.

McCoy didn't play a single game in 2013 after suffering a torn left Achilles tendon. This time around, the report is that his right Achilles might be torn as well. Pro Football Talk has the word from head coach Pete Carroll:

"Early indications are he hurt his other Achilles," Carroll said. "If it is what they think it is, it's just a real heartbreaker. He worked so hard to get back and all. If it was the same Achilles you might understand it, but we think it's the other one. So we'll see what happens."

McCoy was the team's sixth-round selection in the 2010 draft for the Seahawks and played in all 16 games in 2011 and 2012. Unfortunately he's going to face an uphill battle both in rehab and to remain with the team beyond the 2014 season.

Zach Miller and Luke Wilson remain the primary tight ends on the roster.

McCoy has 31 receptions for 431 yards and three touchdowns in his career.

silvioagueci:

ktkeen96:

theecamerondallas:

i have been waiting for this to show up in my dash forever

ITS BACK

perfection…

Redditor Rvenn posted this clever Venn diagram made from two pies in 2013. According to Rvenn, a friend backed the delicious treat for them because Rvenn’s surname is, well, “Venn.” The right side was berry and the left was apple.

photo via Rvenn

via Boing Boing

zdarsky:

Please keep in mind that I work for a NATIONAL newspaper. And yet they still find the time and space to keep me humble. Thanks, guys!

MTSOfan

After consulting focus groups of Internet customers, government researchers have come to a conclusion that should surprise no one: people don't want data caps on home Internet service.

But customers are getting caps anyway, even though ISPs admit that congestion isn't a problem. The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) today released preliminary findings of research involving surveys of cellular carriers, home Internet providers, and customers.

The majority of top wireline ISPs are at least experimenting with data caps. But while cellular carriers say they impose usage-based pricing (UBP) to manage congestion on wireless networks, that's not the case with cable, fiber, and DSL. "Some wireless ISPs told us they use UBP to manage congestion," the GAO wrote. On the other hand, "wireline ISPs said that congestion is not currently a problem."

Read 16 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Any possible move would be a long way off, but the franchise is apparently looking into it.

The Oakland Raiders recently discussed a potential move to San Antonio with officials from the Texas city, according to the San Antonio Express-News. The meeting, which included owner Mark Davis and two other staff members, reportedly took place on July 18. Davis declined comment from CSN Raiders insider Scott Bair.

I reached Raiders owner Mark Davis by phone. He declined comment on a report regarding possible move to San Antonio.

— Scott Bair (@BairCSN) July 29, 2014

NFL senior vice president of communications Greg Aiello told the Express-News the Raiders have not applied for relocation with the league. The team would need 24 of the NFL's 32 owners to vote in favor of a move for it to happen.

"We don't have any information about (Davis' meeting in San Antonio), so there is no reason for us to comment," Aiello said Tuesday. "We have received no applications from any of our teams to relocate at this point, so there is nothing for us to respond to."

The Raiders currently play in O.co Coliseum, sharing the venue with Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics. The team's lease expires at the end of this season, and there has been talk of building a new stadium on the same site. However, the Athletics are in talks on a 10-year lease extension with O.co, which would obviously impact the Raiders' plans.

If the Raiders were to actually make the move to San Antonio, they would likely begin by playing home games at the Alamodome, which seats up to 72,000. Opened in 1993, the stadium is home to the University of Texas-San Antonio Road Runners, the Arena Football League's San Antonio Talons and college football's Alamo Bowl. It would need upgrades and could be ready for the start of the 2015 season, according to the Express-News.

loudlysilent:

New or returning to Marvel comics, or have a friend who is? Here’s the Cliffs Notes on Marvel’s female-led solo titles and 15 lead female characters RIGHT NOW in August 2014:

1. Captain Marvel
WHO SHE IS: Carol Danvers is an Avenger, pilot, and all-around butt-kicking leader who can fly, has superhuman strength, and shoots energy blasts. She formerly used the alias Ms. Marvel. Carol has recently left Earth to be an “Avenger in space” traveling with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

WHERE TO FIND HER RIGHT NOW: Captain Marvel, written perfectly by the peerless Kelly Sue DeConnick, has one of the biggest and best fan followings in comics: the #CarolCorps! Carol defends displaced, marginalized people groups, and forms new friendships with other adventurers. Also check out Guardians of the Galaxy.

2. Ms. Marvel
WHO SHE IS: Kamala Khan is a New Jersey teen who is Pakistani American, Muslim, a huge Avengers fan, and who suddenly became a super-strong shapeshifter when her powers were activated, revealing that she is an Inhuman (a race in the Marvel Universe with powers).

WHERE TO FIND HER RIGHT NOW: Ms. Marvel, by writer G. Willow Wilson and artist Adrian Alphona (Runaways). It’s one of the most entertaining Marvel comics and is easily accessible for new Marvel readers, requiring zero familiarity with any other comics.

3. Black Widow
WHO SHE IS: Natasha Romanov is an Avenger, ex-KGB spy, S.H.I.E.L.D. (spy organization on the side of the good guys… usually) agent, and a deadly assassin.

WHERE TO FIND HER RIGHT NOW: Black Widow by writer Nathan Edmondson and artist Phil Noto is riveting and gorgeously illustrated. A perfect comics entry point if you’re a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you want more of her interacting with Hawkeye, Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman), and S.H.I.E.L.D., read Secret Avengers.

4. She-Hulk
WHO SHE IS: Jennifer Walters is a smart, cosmopolitan lawyer who gained super-strength after a blood transfusion from her cousin, Bruce Banner, aka Hulk.

WHERE TO FIND HER RIGHT NOW: She-Hulk, written by real-life lawyer Charles Soule, gives Jen quirky adventures with an assortment of characters. She’s also in Mighty Avengers.

5. Storm
WHO SHE IS: Ororo Munroe is a mutant with the power to control weather. She leads the majority of X-Men as one of their main leaders. She’s been worshipped as a goddess, is the former queen of a nation, and is headmistress of the Jean Grey School.

WHERE TO FIND HER RIGHT NOW: Storm, her solo title by writer Greg Pak and artist Victor Ibanez, just started on July 23, so now is the time to start reading it. Also, she is a major character in X-Men, Amazing X-Men, and Wolverine and the X-Men.

6. Elektra
WHO SHE IS: Known as “the world’s deadliest assassin,” Elektra is one of the most skilled martial artists in the Marvel Universe. Now with her solo title, she is finally choosing her own stories separate from her long history of working for an organization (The Hand (a ninja clan), S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra) or being the supporting cast in someone else’s story (Daredevil).

WHERE TO FIND HER RIGHT NOW: Elektra by writer Haden Blackman and artist Mike Del Mundo has some of the best art you’ll see in comics, period. She’s also in Thunderbolts with other grittier characters like Punisher and Red Hulk.

7. Angela
WHO SHE IS: Originally a character in the Spawn comics, Angela is now a fixture in the Marvel Universe and has recently traveled with the Guardians of the Galaxy. She is a fierce warrior with a severe, no-nonsense personality and unrivaled fighting skills. She was raised among angels and was thought to be an angel, but recently in July 2014, it’s been revealed that Angela is Thor Odinson’s sister and is Asgardian.

WHERE TO FIND HER RIGHT NOW: Thor & Loki: The Tenth Realm by Jason Aaron and Al Ewing is a miniseries concurrent with Marvel’s larger Original Sin event, but you don’t have to read any of Original Sin to understand The Tenth Realm. The miniseries reveals Angela’s secret history and connection to Asgard. In November 2014, Angela will get her own solo title: Angela: Asgard’s Assassin, by writers Kieron Gillen and Marguerite Bennett and artists Phil Jimenez and Stephanie Hans.

8. Gamora
WHO SHE IS: Known as “The Most Dangerous Woman in the Universe,” Gamora is the adopted daughter of Thanos (a supervillain and classic Avengers foe). She is the last of her species and was raised by Thanos to be an assassin. No longer loyal to Thanos, she joined the Guardians of the Galaxy.

WHERE TO FIND HER RIGHT NOW: Guardians of the Galaxy.

9. Hawkeye (not that Hawkeye)
WHO SHE IS: Kate Bishop is a Young Avenger and the Young Avengers’ frequent field leader, the best archer on the planet (take that, Clint), the daughter of a rich, mostly absent father, and my favorite person in comics. She’s 18 or so, doesn’t care for her privileged upbringing, has hung out a lot with Clint Barton and saved his ass repeatedly, and recently left NYC for Los Angeles with Clint’s dog, Lucky.

WHERE TO FIND HER RIGHT NOW: Hawkeye, by writer Matt Fraction and artists David Aja and Annie Wu. Can we say enough good things about Annie Wu’s illustrations of Kate? No, we can’t.

10. Medusa
WHO SHE IS: Queen of the Inhumans, a race that previously resided in a city called Attilan, but who are now dispersed after Attilan was destroyed, and many humans around the world were activated in their powers and revealed to be Inhumans. Her husband, Black Bolt, has mysteriously disappeared, leaving her to deal with the aftermath of this major change in the Inhumans’ status quo. She has psychokinetic ability to animate her hair.

WHERE TO FIND HER RIGHT NOW: Inhuman, by writer Charles Soule and artist Joe Madureira. Later this fall and going into 2015, she’ll play a major role in Marvel’s Avengers NOW! initiative.

11. Nico Minoru
WHO SHE IS: Powerful spell-casting teenage witch and wielder of the Staff of One, former Runaways leader, daughter of secretly evil parents (now deceased). Ended 2013 by surviving Avengers Arena.

WHERE TO FIND HER RIGHT NOW: Avengers Undercover, by writer Dennis Hopeless. Undercover follows the survivors of Avengers Arena. It’s one of Marvel’s few books featuring a teen cast. The survivors are now living in Bagalia, a sovereign state completely inhabited by villains. Nico and her friends masquerade as bad guys while weighing their post-traumatic future.

12. Spectrum
WHO SHE IS: Monica Rambeau is a long-time Avenger and former Avengers team leader. She can transform into pure electromagnetic energy, fly, shoot energy blasts, and move at super-speed. She previously used the aliases Pulsar and Captain Marvel.

WHERE TO FIND HER RIGHT NOW: Mighty Avengers, by writer Al Ewing and artist Greg Land. Along with Luke Cage, Falcon, She-Hulk, and other Avengers from New York City, she fights villains in a title filled with action scenes and great team dynamics.

13. (Young) Jean Grey
WHO SHE IS: One of the Original Five X-Men who has been brought from her original 1960’s-ish timeline into the Marvel present. Thus, she’s still a teen, still discovering her telepathic and telekinetic powers, and recently discovered that her abilities are more powerful and unpredictable than her adult (deceased) self’s. Jean is also a wide-eyed ingenue whom the boys fight over, of course.

WHERE TO FIND HER RIGHT NOW: All-New X-Men by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Stuart Immonen. All of ANXM’s plotlines have revolved around Jean, who attracted the attention of both the alien Shi’ar and the Future Brotherhood, an evil band of mutants who time-traveled from the future to attack her.

14. Kitty Pryde
WHO SHE IS: Long-time X-Men member, a favorite student of Professor Charles Xavier, and more recently a professor at the Jean Grey School whom students affectionately called “Professor K.” Loyal to the teenage Original Five, she left with them for Cyclops’ rival school and home. Has the ability to phase through solid objects.

WHERE TO FIND HER RIGHT NOW: All-New X-Men has featured her prominently, but her disagreements with Cyclops prompt her to show up more in Legendary Star-Lord going on adventures with Peter Quill.

15. Invisible Woman
WHO SHE IS: Sue Storm is the matriarch of Marvel’s “First Family,” the Fantastic Four. She’s a strong, resolute leader and doesn’t let anyone, least of all her impassive husband, Reed Richards, sway her decisions. She has powers of invisibility and force fields.

WHERE TO FIND HER RIGHT NOW: Fantastic Four, by writer James Robinson and artist Leonard Kirk.

loudlysilent (Draven Katayama) writes for Newsarama and Geeked Out Nation, contributes to the X-Men podcast Mutant Roundtable, and writes something non-comics related every Tuesday at loudlysilent.com. Say hi on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook.

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