May 2017
Month archive / 73 posts
Links: May 2017
Toronto’s New Flag
I’m a big fan of Kenzie Ryder’s concept.
Key to Improving Subway Service in New York? Modern Signals
Over the years, the authority has kept pushing back the timeline for replacing signals. In 1997, officials said that every line would be computerized by this year. By 2005, they had pushed the deadline to 2045, and now even that target seems unrealistic.
London has moved more quickly on signals because officials completed the work… See more →
Synchromysticism
Sending my love to Kabul.
White Reaper
Oh good, my favorite iOS Safari issue is now happening on desktop too. Anyone else have this problem constantly?
This bonkers Yowie record is tying my ears in knots and I am loving it. yowie.bandcamp.com/album/synchrom…
[scary Evil Dead “JOIN US” voice] twitter.com/ProPublica/sta…
Best thing I’ve read this month: @KevinLFerguson on art as continuum. hyperallergic.com/308436/to-cite…
Monkey see, monkey do. twitter.com/maxwelltani/st…
I forgot what a great bit of television the Twin Peaks Season 1 finale is. There’s a cliffhanger for almost every character!
The case against maintaining a “perfect” lawn. thenib.com/hate-mowing-yo…
“Diane, I’ve just opened Laura Palmer’s diary.”
Today’s meditative soundtrack. lawrenceenglish.bandcamp.com/album/cruel-op…
In a Lonely Place
At the end of In a Lonely Place, when Capt. Lochner calls to announce Dix Steele’s vindication and (needlessly) apologize for his persistent investigation of Dix as a murder suspect, Laurel Gray tearfully responds, “Yesterday, this would have meant so much to us. Now it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter at all.” This suggests that the strain of the murder investigation was the catalyst for her love affair with Dix unraveling, as if it might… See more →
The Fits
Rome, Open City
- “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses
- “Lovesong” by The Cure
- “Buffalo Stance” by Neneh Cherry
- “The Promise” by When in Rome
This concludes today’s “nostalgia” trip. Thanks for joining me. (I only lost two followers!) Top four songs I did NOT skip:
“Right Here Waiting” by Richard Marx
“Shower Me With Your Love” by Surface
“How Can I Fall?” by Breathe
“She Wants to Dance with Me” by Rick Astley
“Keep on Movin’” by Soul II Soul
“The Way You Love Me” by Karyn White
“Giving You the Best That I Got” by Anita Baker
“It’s No Crime” by Babyface
“Walk on Water” by Eddie Money
“Soldier of Love” by Donny Osmond
“Heaven” by Warrant
It should be noted that some songs are skipped because the non-radio edit on the playlist overstays its welcome.
“I Don’t Want Your Love” by Duran Duran
“Born to Be My Baby” by Bon Jovi
“Hangin’ Tough” by New Kids on the Block
“Heaven Help Me” by Deon Estus
“Wind Beneath My Wings” by Bette Midler
I shall now begin updating you in real time which songs I skip as I shuffle this Billboard Top 100 of 1989 playlist. open.spotify.com/user/1001songs…
If you think Jared Kushner is above twirly-mustache-rich-guy villainy, dig how his company does low-income housing. propublica.org/article/the-be…
Galaxy of Terror
Sending my love to Manchester.
Kubo and the Two Strings
To be a good character animator, one must also be a good actor, and animation, typically an exaggerated abstraction of reality, tends toward appropriately exaggerated performances. Though they’re often capable of exuding enough warmth and humanity to inspire genuine empathy, their reliance on gestural extremes usually keeps them from being as relatable as a skilled actor made of flesh and blood. Kubo and the Two Strings, whose every frame boasts a visual imagination – both… See more →
Anyone out there using @HemingwayApp? Is it useful for non-pro writers who need editing help?
Revisiting the uniquely incisive teen angst of the mixtape mainstay that is Violent Femmes’ landmark debut. pitchfork.com/reviews/albums…
The Wraith
If any kids out there want to know about white America in the ’80s without the burden of understanding white America in the ’80s, The Wraith is your delightfully dumb one-stop shop.
“[F]oreign nationals simply aren’t plotting attacks within U.S. borders at the same rate as U.S. citizens.” newrepublic.com/article/142346…
That Sopranos episode where Tony brings his capos to Italy and Paulie is incensed that spaghetti and meatballs aren’t on the menu. twitter.com/washingtonpost…
Whores
I hope Huma’s got an amazing vacation lined up.
People aren’t good at designing chairs.
The guy who sued his date for texting in the movie theater is less amusing when you realize he’s a psychopath. texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post…
I am a believer in art of, by, and for the people. I am baffled by the economics and social mechanics of the art market’s upper echelons. twitter.com/nytimes/status…
Godspeed, little barfing C train girl. 🤢
Soundgarden was also one of the first bands I saw live. twitter.com/robweychert/st…
Soundgarden made only one album I like, but I LOVE that album. Nothing like it before or since. RIP Chris Cornell. youtube.com/watch?v=pBZs_P…
The story behind the erroneous science used as “proof” of mass voter fraud. fivethirtyeight.com/features/trump…
“It’s like The Big Chill, but with a clown!”
@ChamberMonster has begun reading Stephen King’s “It.”
Winter's Bone
This devastating story underscores that the US’s maternal mortality rate is by far the worst in the developed world. propublica.org/article/die-in…
Metallica
A Metallica concert in 2017 is pretty unnecessary but I went anyway and my main takeaway was that Lars’s drums were purple and sparkly.
Those fleeting milliseconds in which the waking mind comprehends the unfathomably beautiful capabilities of its unconscious counterpart.
Disturbing thread theorizing the GOP is past the point of no return re: enabling Trump. Worth watching what shape the Comey fallout takes. twitter.com/david_rees/sta…
Periodic reminder that digital archiving in its current form is at best unsustainable and at worst unobtainable. spectrum.ieee.org/computing/it/t…
Once more. twitter.com/ProPublica/sta…
For pretty much every Slowdive record, I’m loving it at the beginning and kinda bored by the end. 😕
West Side Story
Kill List
Murder Party
“Large Son insisted on making Batman fight Steve from Minecraft. This is not canon.” tor.com/2017/05/02/my-…
“I’ve seen that movie Green Room. It’s the one with William Shatner.”
What’s the AHCA’s long game? Does the GOP think the people adversely affected are politically powerless, stupid, or merely self-loathing?
The Revolution
Wall-to-wall joy at the Revolution show tonight. I never got to witness the man himself, but I’m so glad I got to at least do this.
Much respect to the folks tasked with shepherding a classroom’s worth of small kids on a rush-hour subway train.
A supercut of characters noticing a leftover spot of someone else’s blood on themselves.
Netflix, we need to talk.