Alex Chilton Is My Nerd Boyfriend

osmium: (via bikerfish) I don’t know what these photos are...

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:18:36 -0500

(via bikerfish)

I don’t know what these photos are from, but have you ever read Pattern Recognition by William Gibson? And there is this internet phenomenon of enigmatic disconnected videos called “the footage” that some people have this cult following for? These photos remind me of how I pictured that in my head.

I have Pattern Recognition sitting on my desk right now, for some odd reason. This is totally what some of the footage would look like. Also: I think of Pattern Recognition every time I put on my Muji sweater, which is a lot in the winter.

Perfect songs to sit by a window to on a gray December afternoon

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:21:31 -0500

sarahb:

“Gimme Danger,” Iggy & the Stooges

“Fish,” Mr. Scruff

“Honey in the Sun,” Camera Obscura

“I Cried Like A Silly Boy,” DeVotchka

“The Water Jet Cilice,” Andrew Bird

“Swingin’ Party,” the Replacements

“Life Begins When You’re In Love,” Billie Holiday

“Godsend,” Beat Happening

more details as events unfold

Was gray here in NYC this morning too, the sun made a brief appearance in the southeast, and then it got dark far too fast, so for my window seat soundtrack I’m going with:

“Some Velvet Morning,” Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood
“Deseret,” Versus
“Change of Heart,” El Perro del Mar
“Big Sky,” The Kinks

France Gall - Il neige

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:51:32 -0500

France Gall - Il neige

jessicaxmaria: (via Zan’s Flickr) Saturday night L-R: Lauren...

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:49:00 -0500

jessicaxmaria:

(via Zan’s Flickr)

Saturday night L-R: Lauren Ashley, Yours Truly, Zan

I bought this refurbished vintage dress a few weeks ago because it was absolutely perfect for the event: our apartment’s 4th Annual Holiday Party!

I was, if you couldn’t tell, an Ice Capade Elf. I’m not wearing ice skates, though. I’m also not wearing toe-curled shoes. Instead, I chose to wear $20 super-high-heeled gold shoes from Forever21 that I’m still feeling the effects of today.

The dress is also good for future costume parties in which I would play: Poison Ivy, Tinkerbell, or Peter Pan.

PS You can see that everyone dressed in the festive spirit (Lauren was especially saucy!) and I was so happy to see so much argyle, plaid, red, green, silver, and gold in one soiree!

Alternate title: Three French Hens.

kfan: whatevs: Talk about a Fab Four! I forwarded this...

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:56:00 -0500

kfan:

whatevs:

Talk about a Fab Four!

I forwarded this picture to our publicist, and heard her giggling from down the hall and around the corner, through my closed door.

First thing I thought when I saw this picture: Who knew they already had their own wax figures in Tussaud’s?

Second thing I thought: The Princess of Poughkeepsie looks sad.

Third thing I thought: If this is a sign of what’s to come in the next decade, I can’t wait to see the lists we come up with in 2019.

Fourth thing I oh my god why am I still thinking about this.

(via Design Observer)

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:00:59 -0500

(via Design Observer)

Truman’s Summer Wardrobe, 1951 (via mentalfloss)

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:34:00 -0500

Truman’s Summer Wardrobe, 1951 (via mentalfloss)

merlin: Fairport Convention - “Time Will Show the Wiser”...

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:22:15 -0500

merlin:

Fairport Convention - “Time Will Show the Wiser” (1968)

An even younger Richard Thompson and crew playing a song from their first/1967 (pre-Sandy Denny) record.

Striking that, even in his early 20s, RT had already developed so much of his signature sound and style.

When I was 22, it sounded like I was throwing feral cats at a scratched Captain Beefheart album. Yes, thanks; still very much my own signature sound and style.

Holy crap, you guys, I hit play on this video, and the first thing I thought was doesn’t this sound like “Hey Ya”?

kellydeal: Outkast - Hey Ya Seriously, this song sounds so...

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:27:09 -0500

kellydeal:

Outkast - Hey Ya

Seriously, this song sounds so much better now that we’ve left it to stew in its own juices for a few years. (Further explanation.)

I’m just being honest.

maura: Wye Oak - Take It In (live) My favorite song of right...

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:42:53 -0500

maura:

Wye Oak - Take It In (live)

My favorite song of right now. More here.

A week ago, Field Music canceled their Bell House show because of sickness. They were playing with Wye Oak, and we were told that our tickets would get us in to both the Wye Oak show and the rescheduled Field Music show. Still, I couldn’t stomach getting all the way out to Gowanus that night, for some other bands I barely knew, so I ended up seeing a movie alone and spraying Drew Barrymore with bathroom sink water instead.

This video is kind of making me regret that decision. Next time, Wye Oak; next time.

merlin: Todd Rundgren - “Couldn’t I Just Tell You” Very close...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:03:30 -0500

merlin:

Todd Rundgren - “Couldn’t I Just Tell You”

Very close to a perfect pop song. A 24-year-old Runt wrote, played, sang, harmonized, drummed, soloed, and produced every note of this song (as well as the better part of three full sides of the amazing Something/Anything) entirely by himself.

Exquisite.

(Also? I kinda love these “Watch an Old Record Spin” videos. So fun.)

Okay so for a brief moment I was under the impression that the songs being posted by Mr. Mann just happened to overlap with whatever I was likely to be listening to at the moment because of some sort of general music taste that happened to be infecting the People of the Internet at whatever moment in time I happened to be checking the updates on Tumblr. The world moves in cycles like that. Tomorrow the entire internet might be listening to the same beat up 1960s record because of a sample used in a Black Eyed Peas song they used in a Toyota commercial, or maybe those Gap Badly Drawn Boy ads will come back and make us all sweat for Damon Gough at the same time. Or Internet Radio from Nome to Naples is spitting out the same songs over and over because they all sound like Grizzly Bear which is what everyone is into right now, aren’t you paying attention? Or Unrest is releasing a box set, or The Pixies are touring. Again.

I don’t know Merlin, Merlin doesn’t know me, and in light of his (great) post yesterday about not worrying so much about what the people you don’t actually know say about the things you throw out there, this feels a bit weird and hand-wavy-“look-at-me” to write (“Go ahead. Ignore me.”), but seriously? Todd Rundgren? Merlin, you have been PEEKING INSIDE MY BRAIN.

All I want for Christmas is a root beer sampler (via Jordan...

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:19:00 -0500

All I want for Christmas is a root beer sampler (via Jordan Ferney)

Merlin Mann is tumbling his very own episode of 120 Minutes today.

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:22:00 -0500

(If you don’t believe me.)

Stockholm Underground

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:42:37 -0500

Stockholm Underground

The Style Council - Walls Come Tumbling Down

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:02:38 -0500

The Style Council - Walls Come Tumbling Down

Paul Weller, The Style Council, London, 1984

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:59:52 -0500

Paul Weller, The Style Council, London, 1984

I have come to the very important - and potentially very embarrassing - realization that I am a...

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:48:00 -0500

I have come to the very important - and potentially very embarrassing - realization that I am a complete and utter sucker for the films of Nancy Meyers (Private Benjamin, Baby Boom, Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday). If we could choose one person to write the screenplay of our lives, I have to say, honestly, I would pick her.

Now, importantly, I’m dying to know who her literary equivalent would be. (Aside from Nick Hornby.) Because as much as I’m enjoying Wolf Hall, my mind is wandering, and I spent all weekend reading about meet-cutes and old Ernst Lubitsch films on Wikipedia instead.

(Posted here on The Id to spare serious blog readers the debilitating eye roll that would result from my admission to loving rom-coms.)

Any ideas?

merlin: The Seeds - “Can’t Seem To Make You Mine” RIP Sky...

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:23:43 -0500

merlin:

The Seeds - “Can’t Seem To Make You Mine”

RIP Sky Saxon. (Mr. Chilton’s version.)

Imagine if the internet as we know it now was around in 1988, and a bunch of (mostly) out-of-touch cranks got together to viciously rip on "Teenage Riot."

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:12:08 -0500

Imagine if the internet as we know it now was around in 1988, and a bunch of (mostly) out-of-touch cranks got together to viciously rip on "Teenage Riot.":

maura:

distorte:

Sweet god people. You know I hate to reblog but the lyric is “I don’t mean to care about material things like they’re social stats.” They sing it very clearly. Which is not a damnable position, and is something applicable to many, many social stratums.

Mea culpa. I still think the song sounds terrible, and that Rodney’s description of it as a “physically discomfiting mass of treble” stands. (And I still think there’s a whiff of nu-trustafarian privilege coming from this act and others in its cohort, but that’s an argument that will never, ever end, so.)

I’ve had the “status/stats” argument with more people than I care to mention. (It’s totally “social stats”. Though I think it’s more like “I don’t mean to care about material things like our social stats.”) I think it’s the only line that makes the song remotely interesting. Without that little piece of time capsulism, it’s just a dance song with stilted rhythm and overly aggressive vocals.

I hate that I’m even talking about this out loud right now.

(Now catching up on a few other songs released in 2009 that I somehow missed out on. Dirty Projectors. The xx. The Horrors. Was all the music produced this year as in-your-face as these? Or am I just cranky because I’m hungry? I don’t need to be bludgeoned with my music. *waves cane* Someone please find me an example of subtlety in 2009 and I will loan you my good set of teeth.)

osmium: [A] map of what astrogeologists call the central far...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 08:30:11 -0500

osmium:

[A] map of what astrogeologists call the central far side of the moon. The colors represent the various soil types detected on our natural satellite, and the pockmarks are craters, the result of falling meteorites.

Cartographic accuracy is relative—it depends on what you want to depict, and how. To all observers present and past, on Earth or on the moon itself, the lunar surface is grayish-white. But shades of gray are obviously not the best way to highlight soil-type differences. So, paradoxically, in this case, cartographic clarity is aided by deviating from geological reality.

Slideshow of maps in Slate.

Little known fact: I love reading about soil. This map is a beautiful thing.