UPDATE : Were you a victim of Rachael Smith? I’ve been in touch with one other, and we’re going to try to organize a meetup one evening next week. Leave your contact details in the comments below if you’d like to attend. There’s also a dedicated website: http://scammedbysmith.com for victims to come together.

My New Nemesis

Have you seen this ratfucker? She has my five thousand dollars. My $5,100 to be exact.

We signed a lease with her, gave her a security deposit and August rent, and then she vanished and quit returning our calls or emails. After a week of trying to get in touch, we stopped by her apartment yesterday, where we found another “renter” also looking for her. And then we found out about the article in the paper, and called the cops. (Actually, we had already called the police earlier in the day, who told us to close our bank accounts, which we did. We stopped at the apartment after a doctor’s appointment, on the way to our local police station.) The investigating officer said we were the 20th case. Which means she’d raked in at least $100,000. And that was before the thing really blew up. 

Our awesome DA let her out on bail and she was last seen on the 28th loading up a U-Haul. Now she’s fucking gone. With my money, and a lot of other people’s money. Her name is Rachael M. Smith—although she also used the name “Laughtner” as in “Rachael Laughtner-Smith.” (Here’s her Facebook profile.) Our only hope of getting our money back, apparently, is to take her to court.

I’d guess she’s about 5’7” or so, and weighs about 300 or so. (It’s hard for me to gauge weight, but she’s heavyset.) She has a tiny gray dog, I’m not sure of the breed, but it’s more than 20 years old and essentially lame. It was bleeding from the rectum when I last saw it. If you see her, please drop a dime. Contact SFPD Inspector John Monroe at (415) 553-1936

Side note: in the three bedroom apartment she showed us (where I now suspect she was a renter) she had one bedroom that was nothing but shoes. All the walls were lined with six foot high shoe racks, and completely full of designer shoes. So, you know, she may also answer to Imelda. 

Also: I should say I’m less concerned about getting the money back (though I want it) than I am about seeing her ass thrown in stony lonesome for a few years.

If it helps, her email address (one of them, at least) is ratesheet94121@hotmail.com and her cell phone number is 415-286-8257. Please don’t call her. But if if helps you track her, use it!

Here’s a blog from a family who are trying to spend one year of their lives without any influence from Disney. They’ve decided to take anything produced by a Disney-owned company out of their home, avoid watching any media produced by Disney-owned companies, and spend no money on anything made by a Disney-owned company.

You might not think that’s too difficult, but here’s the list of the television networks, cable networks, radio and television stations, movie studios, online services, periodicals, and other related businesses directly owned by Disney. It’s not completely impossible to stay away from all these entities, but it’s going to be a challenge.

This PDF shows how virtually every media outlet in the United States is controlled by one of five corporations: Disney, Viacom, Bertelsmann, TimeWarner, News Corporation, and Vivendi. Because the landscape changes so frequently, the information is now a little out of date (for example, Vivendi sold off Universal to GE, which packaged it along with NBC and sold NBC Universal to Comcast), but it still paints a disturbing picture.

See Also

• April 29, 2008 -- The Worst Of Both Worlds
• April 17, 2008 -- Is There In Truth No Beauty?
• January 17, 2008 -- Capitalism Destroys Everything
• May 10, 2007 -- Copper-Heads

EDIT EDIT: The Thor trailer had been pulled, but IT'S BACK, BITCHES! At least for a little while, you can see it below. Again.

EDIT: Gahdamn it! They pulled the trailer from everywhere. You'll just have to take my word for it and drop yer panties on your own. Then send pics. kthanxbye.

========================================

THOOM THOOM THOOM! DIDDY DIDDY THOOMTHOOM!

So the trailer for Thor looks

THOOM THOOM THOOM! DIDDY DIDDY THOOMTHOOM!

pretty amazing. And the soundtrack makes me want

THOOM THOOM THOOM! DIDDY DIDDY THOOMTHOOM!

to go start a war and eat a cheeseburger. Make that a GOD DAMN CHEESEBURGER AND ALSO PUNCH A RACCOON! Holy smokes, how do you take gold armor, a rainbow bridge, a winged helmet and NOT turn it into the 2010 version of Xanadu? I don't know, but here Marvel: TAKE ALL MY MONIES AND THANK YOU!

Thor - Los 5 minutos de la Comic - Con
Uploaded by cine365. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

via www.traileraddict.com

Kevin Kelly’s “Cool Tools” blog is calling upon the web to pull together a list of the best magazine articles of all time (via BoingBoing). Given the propensity of the web to generate all manner of “best of” and “top ten” lists and other rankings, I’m a little surprised I’ve never seen anyone try this before, but I think the rather transitory nature of magazine journalism and the sheer overwhelming volume of material generated by periodicals probably put the idea pretty far down on the list of thing people were looking to rank. Nevertheless, what’s already been generated is a pretty awesome list of outstanding pieces of work, and the refinement of the list is ongoing.

Because the bias of the list is for things than can be read online, much of the material being considered is pretty recent, but as magazines begin to put their back issue archives online it is getting easier to find material from the ’80s, ’70s, even the ’50s. Some of the first ones Kelly listed are well-established classics: John Hersey’s “Hiroshima”, Vannevar Bush’s 1945 Atlantic article that presages the computer era, and pieces by Hunter Thompson, Joan Didion, Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, et.al. David Foster Wallace is rising to the top of the list as people begin to contribute, and anyone who reads The Atlantic or The New Yorker with any regularity will recognize names like James Fallows, Malcolm Gladwell, Rebecca Mead, and Calvin Trillin.

You could easily cobble together a reading list from this that would keep you busy for a long, long time. I know I am looking forward to doing just that, but let me also offer some recommendations of articles I’ve already read that are on the list that might be a good starting place for you:

“The Mountains of Pi” — Richard Preston, The New Yorker, March 3, 1992. Two mathematician brothers in New York who built a supercomputer in their apartment to calculate Pi. Truly memorable.

“Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America With Einstein’s Brain” — Michael Paterniti, Harper’s Magazine, October 1997. A first-hand account of the author’s encounter with Thomas Stoltz Harvey, the pathologist who autopsied Albert Einstein and kept his brain for decades. The Harper’s article Kelly links to requires a subscription to read online, but Paterniti published the piece as a book a few years later.

“The Pitchman” — Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker, October 30, 2000. Gladwell profiled Ron Popeil, the guy behind Ronco and all those “as seen on TV” products, and how he actually invented many of them himself.

“The Peekaboo Paradox” — Gene Weingarten, Washington Post Magazine, January 22, 2006. Gene Weingarten is one of my favorite journalists, and this story about a DC-area rent-a-clown who calls himself “The Great Zucchini” is a masterpiece.

“Fatal Distraction: Forgetting a Child in the Backseat of a Car Is a Horrifying Mistake. Is It a Crime?” — Gene Weingarten, Washington Post Magazine, March 8, 2009. Another Gene Weingarten piece that you may even remember, since it was published only last year and won him a Pulitzer Prize. Even if you read it then, it’s worth reading again.

“The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but You’ll Never Know What It Is” — Errol Morris, The New York Times, Opinion, June 20, 2010. This is the first part of a series of articles by Morris that the NYT recently ran (he is an occasional contributor there, but his stuff is always fascinating. I actually thought the third article of this series, which is about the end of Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, when he was seriously debilitated after a severe stroke, and how his wife and doctors hid the condition from everyone, was the best one.

See Also

• March 3, 2010 -- An Aggregation Of Nincompoops
• November 23, 2009 -- Three Must-Read Articles
• November 11, 2009 -- To End All Wars
• October 19, 2009 -- Sorry, No Droll Cartoons
• October 7, 2009 -- Take Me To Your Leader…Gravel!

Vans — loved them what I was young. Gave up on them while skating as the uppers didn’t last. Back to them cause I love them.

Read the history of Vans

Hi, y'all! It's the first weekend without some of our number, which is a bit lonely, but now is the time to seize the moment and forge bravely ahead--or, let's just hang out a bit, shall we?

This morning, after a considerable fast, I had a cholesterol test at the Dr.'s One the way into work after that, I had a delicious bacon cheeseburger. At 10:30 a.m. I am a grown up.

Tonight, I am going to a demolition derby @ a county fair across the river! Crashing and crunching! Fried things! Those of you staying on the west side maybe should grab a bite to eat--where are you going to go?

Tomorrow, I will run, prime and paint, clean, and other boring things. After all of that business, I am going to see the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra score "Haxan" at The Old Rock House! Very excited! You should go to that too! (Oh, yeah--Theodore is playing, too, and they're not half bad.)

Sunday--cookery followed by watching something Horrible.

 Now you go:

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.

In his own words, here is Adam Rex's Book Notes music playlist for his novel, Fat Vampire: A Never Coming of Age Story:

I admire authors who listen to music in order to evoke a particular mood, or to help themselves reminisce, if for no other reason than they have spectacularly thoughtful answers for exercises like this. Music is very important to me as I write, though it serves as more of a source of comfort than inspiration. When I write I like a climate-controlled space, a good chair, coffee, and music. Preferably music I really like, though if I'm as immersed as I should be in my story it could be almost anything. Even reggae.

So this playlist constitutes more of an imaginary soundtrack than anything else, though lord knows if anyone ever actually made a Fat Vampire movie they'd probably fill it with a bunch of Modern Rock bands I've never heard of.

Fat Vampire follows Doug Lee, who becomes a vampire purely by accident. Someone like him would normally never be considered for that rarefied club–he's fifteen, short, and doughy, and now he always will be. He feeds on the blood of cows and steals (or attempts to steal) blood from a panda, the female attendees of the San Diego Comics Convention, and the Red Cross.

He wants to stop having to wear a poncho on sunny days. He wants to learn how to turn completely into a bat and not get stuck halfway, like last time. He wants to avoid the crew of the basic cable TV show Vampire Hunters. And he wants the new girl at school, so badly.

He's going to have to decide how much he should ask of life, how much he should take, and just what sort of person he intends to be for the rest of eternity.

Beck – "Loser"

This one's probably kind of self-explanatory if you already read the synopsis above. Beck was a big part of the soundtrack of my youth, and remains really important to me. "Loser" strikes me as a perfect soundtrack song, maybe specifically a perfect opening credits song. It immediately establishes a mood and theme, but with a Dadaist lyrical sense that can't possibly apply to any story particularly (apart from maybe a Beck biopic) and so therefore works as an anthem for everyone's confusion and desperation. I mostly remember high school as a time of confusion, desperation, and hair; but then it was the eighties.

Burt Bacharach – "What the World Needs Now"

One of a few song titles actually mentioned in the text of Fat Vampire. Came out of my long-standing desire to slip an actual conversation I once had with my wife into a book. The conversation went like this:

ME (listening to the song in question): These lyrics are ridiculous. Love is the only thing there's just too little of? What about, um...trees? Or coal?
WIFE: Jaguarundi.
ME: What?
WIFE: There aren't enough jaguarundi. They're endangered. I did a report about them when I was a kid.
ME: Oh. Well okay, there you go.

Art Brut – "DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshakes"

There's an early scene in which Doug and his best friend Jay are visiting the San Diego Comic-Con. I got my start as an illustrator by showing a portfolio around at this con in the nineties, but I just got back from my first SDCC since 1999. I think now that I've misrepresented the modern con a little in my book (the male to female ratio is so much closer to 1:1 than it used to be, for example), but I'm still glad I wrote my little ode to the joys of arrested adolescence. Art Brut sounds like they're glad they wrote theirs, too.

Siouxsie and the Banshees – "Israel"

The object of Doug's desire is foreign exchange student Sejal, a troubled girl who's going through sort of an identity crisis and a crisis of conscience at the same time. She elects to ditch her luggage and remake herself in the image of her kindly foster sister, a Batcave Goth named Cat. There are Siouxsie songs that are more appropriate to my story than "Israel," but in a scene in which the girls are listening to Cat's music (and in which Sejal refers to Siouxsie and the Banshees as sounding "like Bollywood, but slower"), this is the song they're listening to. The book never says so explicitly, but they are.

Future Bible Heroes – "I'm a Vampire"

A tongue-in-cheek song about every vampire cliche I tried to avoid..."I have ever so much money/ I'm gorgeous/ And I can fly/ I survived the Inquisition/ Been a harlot/ Been a queen/ Survived for seven hundred years/ And still look seventeen." I love Stephin Merritt, and indeed even based a major character on how I imagine him to be.

I don't come down much on the side of immortality in my book. I've never found it all that appealing as a concept, and even the physically beautiful immortals in Fat Vampire are eccentric, isolated, and mildly delusional.

They Might Be Giants – "I've Got a Fang"

Another band that's namechecked in Fat Vampire. Doug's friend Jay is a fan of the same kind of nerd rock I was drawn to in high school and beyond. TMBG writes a lot of cheery songs about horrible things, and I realize as I write this that they may have had more of an influence on my overall aesthetic than I realized.

Tim Curry (Rocky Horror) – "Sweet Transvestite"

Doug and Jay fall in with the drama crowd, and so of course they take in a group date performance/screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I took an afternoon to re-watch the entire movie in bits and pieces on YouTube and was pleasantly surprised to find I still enjoyed it. Tim Curry is mesmerizing. And maybe he pulled a bit of a Mesmer on me the first time I saw this movie (at sixteen), because I remember being deeply unsettled by it. It spoke frankly (and outlandishly) about sexuality in ways that were completely foreign to me at that time, and I tried to tap into that mindset while writing Doug. For years his peers have indifferently thought of him as asexual, if they thought of him at all. This leads Doug to try to stridently assert his heterosexuality at every opportunity, and even leads to a sort of casual homophobia that I find repellent now but would have found unremarkable when I was a teenager.

Beck – "Girl"

Hey, it's Beck again. And a very poppy song from Guero about winning the girl, with nonetheless worrying lyrics. From the liner notes they read "...and I know I'm gonna make her die take her where her soul belongs and I know I'm gonna steal her eye nothing that I wouldn't try." I know we're supposed to find bold statements of love endearing, and maybe it's just how I'm wired, but whenever I hear a person say something like "There's nothing I wouldn't do to win her heart" I always think, "Really? Would you kill a guy? Would you feign interest in her hobbies? What if she collects Nazi memorabilia?"

West Side Story soundtrack – "America"

Several of the characters in Fat Vampire win parts in the cast or crew of their high school production of West Side Story. So apart from giving them something to sing during a car ride home, the song also underscores Sejal's push-and-pull relationship with her adoptive country.

I was in my high school production of West Side Story, by the way. I played Bernardo, the fit and passionate leader of the Puerto Ricans. I'll save you the trouble of doing a Google image search for my picture and just confirm that my high school drama department had a dearth of physical fitness, passion, and Puerto Ricans.

Smiths – "Girlfriend in a Coma"

There is an actual girlfriend in a coma in my book, so I couldn't really pass this up. To Doug the girlfriend is more of a source of goods and services than an actual person, and I love the way this song encapsulates that self-involved condition of loving being in love so much more than loving the actual so-called object of your affections. Or that's what I've always thought the song was about, at any rate–maybe I'm screwy.

The Magnetic Fields – "I Have the Moon"

And we end on another Stephin Merritt song as the main characters share a fleeting moment of tender self-discovery before the final credits roll. Merritt has written a few songs about vampires, including one of my favorite Magnetic Fields songs of all time, "Crowd of Drifters." But that song's constant refrain of "I was a traveling salesman" makes it an odd fit for a bawdy teenage vampire tragicomedy.

So who IS the bawdy teenage vampire tragicomedy house band these days? Maybe you people can bring me up to speed in the comments.

Adam Rex and Fat Vampire: A Never Coming of Age Story links:

the author's website
the author's blog
video trailer for the book
excerpt from the book
excerpt from the book

Austin American-Statesman review
The Book Smugglers review
BookPage.com review
books4yourkids.com review
Cafe Saturday review
Casa de Los Nerds review
Chick Loves Lit review
A Curious Reader review
For What It's Worth review
Karin's Book Nook review
Lavender Lines review
Novel Novice review
Parenthetical.net review
Pink Me review
Reading Rants! review
Reading with Tequila review
Stacked review
Stevie Is Not an Octopus review

BSC Review interview with the author
claudiagray interview with the author
Editorial Anonymous interview with the author
Inkpop Blog interview with the author

also at Largehearted Boy:

other Book Notes playlists (authors create music playlists for their book)

52 Books, 52 Weeks (weekly book reviews)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics highlights)
Daily Downloads (free and legal daily mp3 downloads)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Shorties (daily music, literature, and pop culture links)
Soundtracked (composers and directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from the week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists

So I noticed a bunch of hits from Reddit.com this morning and followed the referrer back to a thread that has this heartbreaking picture. Most of the thread is the usual Reddit nonsense, but the discussion somehow eventually turned around to the subject of the Siege of Leningrad, and somebody Googled up my post about the cats of Leningrad who were hailed as heroes for keeping the rodent population in check during the siege.

I have no idea what the actual provenance of that photo is, and the Reddit thread had nothing of substance to offer, but it’s too easy to imagine something terrible, particularly given the numbers of cats and kittens who needlessly suffer from human neglect. We’ve been having such a wonderful time with our new kitten, Furry Murray, so this picture was a small reminder to me that for many cats, including shelter animals, the realities are pretty bleak.

The shelter where we got Murray still has lots of kittens and cats available. In fact, they’ve had to put intakes on hold because they can’t place out animals fast enough. Many of their cats and kittens are abandoned animals who would likely end up like the kitty in this picture without the shelter’s aid. If you yourself aren’t looking to adopt a cat, maybe you’d consider making a donation to a shelter in your area. Or do I have to make you look at another sad picture?

See Also

• July 14, 2010 -- Lighten Up, Pal
• June 15, 2010 -- Varmints
• May 3, 2010 -- Shameless Kitten Post Of The Day
• April 12, 2010 -- Koko’s New Kitten
• March 31, 2010 -- Maynard 1996-2010

Yo give a kiss to my mother.

urlesque:

19 More Sad Keanu Photoshops, Now With Helmet - Urlesque

)

I have this theory that he is totally aware of the Sad Keanu phenomenon and will soon be sad in increasingly funny outfits and places.

soupsoup:

mijatovic:

Representative Anthony Weiner going total fucking apeshit on Republicans regarding the 9/11 Healthcare Bill which was rejected. Now when can I see Obama throw down like this. Queens represent!

Anthony Weiner is a hero.

The Boston Globe profiles Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

The Millions examines several of literature's precocious narrators.

Stream the new Autolux album, Transit Transit at the band's MySpace page.

Little Gold Men interviews legendary singer-songwriter Merle Haggard.

The Seattle Times profiles singer-songwriter Joanna Newsom.

Persnickety Snark is counting down the top 100 YA novels of all time.

Lightspeed Magazine interviews Cesar Alvarez of the Lisps about the influence of science fiction on the band's music.

Digital Spy interviews former Go-Gos guitarist Jane Wiedlin about her new comic book Lady Robotika.

USA Today lists new books for summer reading.

Time lists the best (and worst) summer songs.

The Quivering Pen responds to the New Yorker's 20 under 40 list with a list of young writers of its own.

Book Trailers for Readers highlights videos that promote children's books.

GigMaven is a free website that helps musicians book shows at venues in several cities.

Win a $100 Threadless gift certificate and a copy of Adam Rex's young adult novel Fat Vampire in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.

Follow me on Twitter and Stumbleupon for links (updated throughout the day) that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous Shorties posts (daily links from the worlds of music, literature, and pop culture)

Atomic Books Comics Preview (highlights of the week's comics & graphic novel releases)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (highlights of the week's book releases)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists

The Ahuntsic pastor accused of defrauding his flock is denying their claims he asked for loans and has failed to pay them back. But court cases against him are piling up.

Here’s a big surprise: the federal government’s guidelines for automobile design are having zero effect on the greenhouse gases emitted by Canada’s vehicles and never will.

L’homme Inaccessible, © Jonathan Burton

Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet.

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

The Biters: "Hang Around" [mp3] from The Biters EP
other Biters posts at Largehearted Boy

Black Prairie: "Turn It Into Gold" [mp3]
other Black Prairie posts at Largehearted Boy

Gospel Claws: "Summer Nights Lakeside" [mp3] from C-L-A-W-S (out October 26th)
other Gospel Claws posts at Largehearted Boy

Justin Stens & The Get Real Gang: free and legal Justin Stens & The Get Real Gang EP [mp3]
other Justin Stens posts at Largehearted Boy

Kim Taylor: "Lost and Found" [mp3] from Little Miracle
other Kim Taylor posts at Largehearted Boy

Mynabirds: "Let the Record Go" [mp3] from What We Lose In The Fire We Gain In The Flood
other Mynabirds posts at Largehearted Boy

Paleo: "World's Smallest Violin" [mp3] from A View of the Sky (out September 28th)
other Paleo posts at Largehearted Boy

Social Studies: "Holler Boys" [mp3] from Wind Up Wooden Heart
other Social Studies posts at Largehearted Boy

Unicycle Loves You: "Justine" [mp3] from Mirror, Mirror
other Unicycle Loves You posts at Largehearted Boy

Various Artists: free and legal SPIN presents Park Life Lollapalooza compilation [mp3]

Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:

Cap'n Jazz: 2010-07-25, Brooklyn [mp3]
other Cap'n Jazz posts at Largehearted Boy

Man or Astroman?: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Man or Astroman? posts at Largehearted Boy

also at Largehearted Boy:

other daily free and legal mp3 downloads

2010 Bonnaroo downloads
music festival downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD and DVD release lists

As London launches its version of the Bixi, a Guardian writer comes here to check out how it works (with a link to Da Gryptions’ immortal anthem). The Gazette notices that London has 6000 bikes, 1000 more than in Montreal – but it’s a much bigger and more populous city, so that’s not unreasonable. (BBC says it has 5,000 bikes now and plans to ramp up to 6,000 later. Either way, all the bikes were made in Canada.)

It’s also a nice irony that our lack of a helmet law is one of the things that has contributed to Bixi’s popularity: in Melbourne, you’re fined if you aren’t wearing one, no matter what you’re riding, so their Bixi-type system isn’t thriving. It’s the sort of thing that flourishes on spontaneity.

It’s less of a nice irony that we end up paying more for our Bixi because we can’t benefit from it five months a year. Also, users want more Bixis.

Now the city is saying work on Place d’Armes will be completed by fall 2011: people working nearby miss the square and the trees that used to be there. Good for tourism to have the square in devastated condition for two summers in a row?

Cédric Sam has a piece about the evolution of Plaza Swatow in Chinatown, which is set to open on Sunday, and points out that its name in Chinese has nothing to do with Swatow, a city name more usually transliterated now as Shantou, 汕頭. I’m assuming its ground floor is something like a small mall, or else the “plaza” part of the name will be equally misleading.

-j.

-j.

Dirty Dish Incident http://flic.kr/p/8nXU8q

Last week marked the 20th anniversary of the landmark passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and among many observances was an event at the White House that was co-sponsored by the FCC and the Department of Commerce. There's a pretty good overview on the FCC blog and a great detailed review from the folks at Purple.

I was fortunate enough to participate, not merely representing Expert Labs but also as someone trying to articulate how innovations from the world of startups and web technology could really make an impact in making more areas of society truly accessible to all.

The analogy that I kept coming back to during the whole day of conversations at the White House and at the Department of Commerce's brainstorming session later in the day was that the ADA is famous for being the inspiration behind curb cuts, the accessible ramps we see on every sidewalk at every street corner. But curb cuts didn't just enable those who were in wheelchairs to get around more easily. They're also a major reason why a market exists today for Bugaboo or McLaren strollers. They're the reason that Samsonite suitcases 20 years ago didn't have wheels on them, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a piece of luggage today that doesn't have wheels. I'm not saying the highest purpose of the ADA was to enable people to buy thousand-dollar baby buggies, but making things accessible for all has the side benefit of yielding tremendous benefits (and, not incidentally, opening huge new markets for business) for everyone regardless of ability.

Ability Maps

Which leads to the specific request I have for my friends and associates who've got some time and tech talent on their hands: Ability Maps. One recurring theme from the advocates I talked with at the ADA anniversary event was that it's hard to know which physical places are truly accessible to people with various disabilities. Some municipalities have information about individual facilities like transit systems, but it can be hard to find or out of date, and even in the best cases often doesn't cover private businesses or shopping and recreational areas.

But we're in the middle of a huge revolution in location-based services like Foursquare, right? Isn't everyone from Facebook to Twitter to Gowalla clamoring for a way to distinguish themselves in the race for places?

Well, here's an idea: Let users of a service like Foursquare log in to a site and identify themselves by any accessibility concerns that they have. A user could log in with his social network identity, check a box that says he's visually impaired or has difficulty climbing stairs, and then give the site permission to log his check-ins to various venues. The terms of service could specify that no individual information would ever be shared, only aggregated data.

Once a few users had signed in and check-ins started to be recorded, it'd be possible to ask "Which venues in this area are popular amongst people who've identified themselves as blind?" If there's a restaurant with a disproportionate number of check-ins from blind diners, then odds are, they're doing a decent job of accommodation. Found a theme park that's popular with patrons who use a wheelchair? It'll probably be suitable for other folks on wheels, too.

In short, users label themselves with self-descriptive tags. Then they check in to venues as normal. The site that's tracking them aggregates their visited venues by tags, and allows maps (or simple search queries) by tags to show patterns or popular venues. Voila: An imperfect, but perfectly usable, map of the places that welcome people of all abilities. And nobody is individually trackable to the places that they hang out.

Does it already exist?

Interestingly, this sort of thing is very nearly possible right now. Twitter users can tag themselves on sites like WeFollow already. Foursquare's venue pages already show who has checked in lately, but a separate list could tell us about the self-identified traits of those who did. Our ThinkUp app (formerly ThinkTank) from Expert Labs does a great job of aggregating social networking messages on Twitter and Facebook; It could be part of the toolkit for this sort of thing, too.

But maybe we could go even simpler. If we find places that are accessible (or maybe ones that are inaccessible) we could just use hashtags as part of a shout when checking in to a venue. "I just ousted @somebody as the mayor of Starbucks on @foursquare!" could evolve into something far more powerful simply by becoming "I just ousted @somebody as the mayor of Starbucks on @foursquare! #wheelchair".

I'm certainly not expert enough to know what the hashtags should be, or all the ways that people could identify themselves appropriately in an ability-aware check-in aggregator. But we're definitely very close to a lightweight way of identifying and rewarding the places that allow everyone in, and making clear which places don't. It doesn't require any new regulations or onerous processes, just a simple set of conventions and some good word-of-mouth amongst those who want to make the world a more accessible place. And this sort of scrappy, rough-around-the-edges imperfect solution is the kind of thing that government just can't do very easily for itself. That makes it perfect for us to do for each other.

If you build it, I promise I can help bring it to the attention of the folks who regulate these sorts of things, and will shout from the rooftops about your new site and its ability maps. Got a promising start on this? Let me know and I'll help you make sure it succeeds.

So a few people have noticed that I've quit updating - honestly I am still updating... but now I'm doing it over here - http://www.heystuff.com

I've wanted to post about other things besides just prints for a few years now, and hey stuff! is my way of branching out. It'll be filled with the same sort of art that we heart prints has always been, but it's a much wider array of art related objects - originals, books, decorative pieces, toys, sculpture, etc will all have a home here. I'm also adding in kids stuff since my family now includes a happy and hilarious almost two year old who I spend a lot of time trying to find cool things for.

I'm not going to delete We Heart Prints, but the archives have been transferred to Hey Stuff and eventually the url will redirect there. If you want to keep receiving only my posts about prints all you have to do is either visit http://www.heystuff.com/prints/, or subscribe to this feed: http://www.heystuff.com/.services/blog/6a0120a5b9a04f970b0133ec97d618970b/search/atom.xml?filter.q=prints

It's been fun these past few years, I've met so many truly wonderful people and have really been encouraged by all the positive feedback to keep blogging and keep searching for art to share. Thank you all for hanging out with and supporting me, I hope you'll continue to do so over at Hey Stuff!

jerryandgeorge:

Jerry and George get their own television shows.

This is where the project really went off the rails.

RT @kanyewest: banks take 10 precent and kill you

I see this in my future.

pndbrnd:

tulletulle:

popquizkid:

alexa-llent:

sufferbus:

You don’t win friends with salad.

 This is probably my favorite/most quoted Simpson’s episode ever.

FOR SHEBA.

second only to this.

Archives de Montréal compares a 1914 view of lower Saint-Denis with a Google Streetview of the same view. It seems likely that it’s some of the same basic houses on the left which have been brutally pared down to become the commercial façades we know now.

Folks trying to save tiny Parc Oxygène in Milton Park are holding a festival to get more people interested in supporting them.

Hey Stuff! is a neat new art weblog run by some friends.

Like Art? Hey Stuff! is a curated list of art products of all sizes types and price ranges.

© Domitille Collardey

RT @cyberdsignclan: GET THIZZED THIS WEEKEND WITH LCBO’S NEW SUMMER Apartment Wine and Oversized Dormitory Liquor, Boxxed Chuggables and …

The Top Ten Hottest Years Since Meteorological Records Have Been Kept:

1. 2005
2. 2007
3. 2009
4. 1998 (hey, how’d that get in here?)
5. 2002
6. 2003
7. 2006
8. 2004
9. 2001
10. 2008

Noticing a trend? No? Maybe this NY Times infographic might help:

The first six months of 2010 have already cinched this year taking the #1 spot on this list.

You might like the NYT article that graph came from. It’s actually about how Congress and the Obama Administration are avoiding bringing up the climate bill that desperately needs passing. This Orion Magazine article by author Bill McKibben is even a little more pointed.

And for the denialists among you, a different Top Ten List: Ten Key Indicators That Global Warming is Undeniable. Stick that in your teabag and drink it.

See Also

• May 12, 2010 -- The Four…TWO Seasons
• July 8, 2010 -- Hot Enough To Boil A Monkey’s Bum
• May 5, 2010 -- The Top Ten For Cinco De Mayo
• April 23, 2010 -- Reading List
• March 30, 2010 -- One Less Doomsday

Over on reddit, someone asked users to recount their “best one-liner moments“. This is easily mine:

I was in a high school humanities course, and the philosophy instructor was talking about the “essence” of things. For example, he said that a clock which stopped telling time could no longer be considered a clock, because the telling of time is the “essence” of clockness.

After giving a few more examples he plucked an empty paper cup from his desk, ripped out the bottom, and held it aloft. “What about this?” he asked the class. “Is this still be a cup? I would say not.”

To which I replied, “I’m sorry, but I just don’t think your argument holds water.”

Pretty much the pinnacle of my career as a smartass.

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.

In his own words, JUstin Kramon shares and discusses the music he wrote and performed for his debut novel, Finny:

I used to have the idea that it would be exciting to be a writer. I thought there were parties involved. I thought it was a license for socially-acceptable binge drinking. I thought you got some kind of assistant.

I don't know if my idea of the writer's life came from watching the movie Capote, but the truth, I realized, is that being a writer is actually very close to spending your life in a mental institution. I don't leave my room for more than an hour all day. I look ruffled and out-of-place when I do. In the world, people give me quizzical looks when I ask if they've read Proust. An exciting morning for me involves a choice of breakfast cereals.

For the longest time, I've been looking for another career that will have me. No one has called yet, but I haven't given up the dream. Once in a while, I get a chance to pretend I do something else all day, but the neighbors usually put a stop to it, especially if it involves cymbals or agricultural equipment.

So when the opportunity arose to record some piano music based on my novel, I jumped on it. I composed a few themes for piano, inspired by scenes or characters in my book, and used them as a bed for improvisation. The purpose was to capture some of the ideas or feelings in my book in a different cage, just to see what would happen.

Below are mp3s of the four tracks I recorded, along with descriptions of how they relate to my novel, Finny.

Justin Kramon: "Late Night, Early Morning"

Even though there's a lot of humor in my book – or maybe because of that – I didn't want to abandon the deeper feeling that had moved me to write the novel. When you're creating comic characters, it's easy to start making fun of everyone. But most people know what it's like to be around a very witty person who makes fun of everything: it starts out entertaining, but quickly becomes tiring.

I wanted my book to have a heart to it, and for people to feel comfortable in it, like they were being invited into a good friend's apartment. So I tried to keep in mind the generous type of humor that writers like Charles Dickens employ. There's a warmth to the way Dickens treats his lovably quirky characters, even though I'm sure there was also a lot of bitterness and anger and despair. He just never allows it to take over.

This piece – which was the first I performed at the recording session – was meant as a guiding force for all the recordings. The theme is simple: a partial scale, repeated and embellished over two chords, and a driving rhythm underneath it all. That's what I wanted in the book: simplicity, emotion, and momentum. The title of the piece comes from a scene late in the book, when Finny stays up late with a man she's not in love with, thinking about the man she would rather be with.

Justin Kramon: "Coffee Time"

One of the central characters in my novel is a man named Menalcus Henckel, a great pianist who also happens to be a narcoleptic. His sad history of falling asleep during performances has understandably gotten in the way of his performing career. When Finny meets him, he's a piano teacher, living with his son in a three-room bungalow in the middle of Maryland farmland.

In a lot of ways, Mr. Henckel is down and out, but Finny is charmed by his funny routines, and his almost childlike openness to the world. Finny takes piano lessons with Mr. Henckel in order to spend time with his son, Earl, whom Finny has begun a romantic relationship with. After the lessons, the three of them sit around the Henckels' kitchen table and drink coffee together, and these are among the happiest times in Finny's childhood.

In this piece, I wanted to capture the whimsy and fun of the Henckel house, and also the seriousness with which Mr. Henckel prepares the coffee and goes through all of his routines. The stride bass is meant to give a kind of old-fashioned feeling, which is part of Mr. Henckel's character – but I tried to also combine this with some more modern chords. That's really what I wanted to do in my book: bring a new point of view to a classic story.

Justin Kramon: "Fun in Paris"

Finny's first days in Paris with Earl are probably the most carefree of her life: they stroll around, drink coffee, sleep late, make love in the mornings, have big dinners with lots of wine. It's the easy, comfortable way she'd always hoped love with Earl would be. There are of course more difficult issues and allegiances they need to sort out, but for the time being all of that is suspended.

So this is a short, happy piece, entirely improvised, skipping from one chord to the next without any thought to structure or where it's all going.

Justin Kramon: "Finny in Love"

This was the first musical theme I thought of when I started to imagine this project. I loved the floating quality of these chords, the laid-back rhythm. I could imagine Finny looking out a window, and a sad-sweet feeling she might have if she were thinking about everything that happened with Earl.

One time in the book, as Finny waits for a planned meeting with Earl, I write: "It was a gorgeous, bright, cold afternoon, and Finny liked walking along the tree-lined road, the bare limbs of trees twitching in the wind. There was something Finny enjoyed about these days before Earl arrived, about the anticipation, but also the loneliness itself, like she was standing outside a house where a loud party was taking place...she realized she'd be okay if she were by herself. Not that she wanted to be. But that she could be. She hoped and intended to spend her life with Earl now that he'd come around, but if for some reason it didn't work out, she knew she wouldn't risk all this again. She'd be content with her walks and her studies and the small joys a lonely person experiences: the scent of laundry, sunlight filtered through leaves, dinners with friends, rain tapping on a window. It was enough to get you through."

The whole process of making these recordings was about translating the feeling behind a passage of writing, like the one above, into music, which was a fascinating experience for me – trying to use a new set of tools to express things that are hard for me to say.

I had no idea what I would do with the recordings when we made them, but later on, when Hello King was making my author video, the producer decided to use the piano music as a background for the video, which you can see here.

Justin Kramon and Finny links:

the author's website
the author's blog
video trailer for the book
excerpt from the book

The Book Lady's Blog review
Book Nook Club review
BookMarc Blogpants review
DailyCandy review
Financial Times review
GalleyCat review
Reading Local: Baltimore review
Sugar Lover Book Reviews review

Baltimore Sun profile of the author
Beth Fish Reads guest post by the author
The Book Lady's Blog guest post by the author
Five Chapters short story by the author

also at Largehearted Boy:

other Book Notes playlists (authors create music playlists for their book)

52 Books, 52 Weeks (weekly book reviews)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics highlights)
Daily Downloads (free and legal daily mp3 downloads)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Shorties (daily music, literature, and pop culture links)
Soundtracked (composers and directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from the week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists

newyorker:

…

“On most people they look like hell, but, to be honest, they are very comfortable and functional, and are essential in the fashion silhouette of the moment, which is the inverted triangle consisting of masses of thick Medusa-like hair and a poufy tunic sort of top over pipestem legs and twelve-inch stiletto heels.”…

Read the rest of her post at her blog, Free Range.

Before now, I didn’t know that Jeggings were a thing.

I think that’s either really commendable or incredibly sad.

am-neubs:

ilovecharts:

nowinpocketsize:

lindsayplease:

followsuit:

paperholly:

(via happylonelyplanet, atsyrc)

Genius!

thedailywhat:

Strong Is As Strong Does of the Day: North Korea is strong. How strong? Well, the source code of the official webpage of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea pretty much speaks for itself, doesn’t it? (i.e., very strong).

[biotv / thedailywtf.]

STRONG

Now *this* is smart ad placement. 

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.

In her own words, here is Cathy Malkasian's Book Notes music playlist for her graphic novel, Temperance:

During the making of Temperance I didn't listen to a lot of music; it would have been too distracting. Now that the book is done I can look through it and hear some musical illustrations. Here are some selections, chosen intuitively, with an occasional happy coincidence between lyrics and the story.

1. "O Vierge Sainte, rejouis-toi" sung by The Glory of Byzantium

There is a purity of sound here, featuring female voices in an orthodox vespers melody. It's got an ancient, "mythic" feel to it, which fits the context for the opening scenes in the forest (pp 5-17).

2. "Harry Patch (In Memory of)" by Radiohead.

This works well as we survey the world created for the character Lester, to keep him from remembering the trauma he suffered (pp 37-58 ). This is a song about the last surviving UK veteran of World War I. He died (age 110) not long after the song was recorded. The lyrics--his own recollections-- are chilling and tragic. The string arrangement sparkles and churns with emotion. You can listen to this again and again and it just gets deeper.

This and Britten's "War Requiem" (A stirring setting of Wilfred Owen's war poems) should be required listening for anyone who has a casual attitude toward war.

3. "Prelude in D-flat major, Opus 11" by Scriabin, played by Christopher O'Riley

This is a subtle, complex and quiet piece. It goes well with the character of Lester, the recovering soldier (pp 66-74). Listening to these Scriabin pieces is like having a conversation with a very deep and somewhat unpredictable friend. Afterward you feel a little unsettled but very enriched.

4. The Allegretto from String Quartet No. 8 in C minor by Shostakovich best describes the Counter Family ( pp 75-85)

This piece is spun out of insistence, grating repetition, and a purposeful lack of development. It's a sort of methodical mosquito buzzing in your ear. Just right for these characters.

5. I can't think of a better song to describe the plight of the character Minerva than "Heart Like a Wheel" by Kate and Anna McGarrigle. This song and performance are full of longing and resignation. It's really so beautiful, and the imagery in the lyrics goes well with the story, especially as we watch Minerva try to construct a family out of chaos (p. 100-115).

6. "Henry Plainview" from "There Will be Blood" by Jonny Greenwood

This is a fine way to embellish the feelings of the title character when it first encounters a fearsome force (pp 157-161). I really admire Jonny Greenwood's approach to music. Here you find shades of Messiaen, Shostakovich, Bartok, even Ligeti, but it's still Greenwood. He's honoring the folks who came before, but maintains his own solid and beautiful sensibility. This is a great soundtrack that did not get the recognition it deserves. Each of these tracks is a stirring miniature that excites the imagination and emotions.

7. "Sleep" by Eric Whitacre. Sung by Polyphony, led by Stephen Layton

Keeping with Lester's gentle nature, this a good counterpoint to the violent recollections in his dream (p. 186). Whitacre's harmonies are stirring and comforting, but there is still tension in every note of the performance, in a wide dynamic range.

8. "Theme from Valley of the Dolls" by Andre and Dory Previn, sung by K.D. Lang

I love this song, and it seems pretty apt given the character's crumbling life. Minerva finds herself in exile, but can't quite figure out how to get out of her own prison (page 210).

9. Two terrific ambient pieces illustrate the library sequence (page 225):

"Passage" by Allison Sniffin from Meredith Monk's album "Impermanence" and "Requiem for Dying Mothers" by Stars of the Lid

Both of these pieces have timeless and time-altering qualities. They have a lot of sustained sounds, repetition and silence, suggesting eternal, or at least eternally recurring forces.

10. "Fake Plastic Trees" by Radiohead, interpreted by Christopher O'Riley

This seems to describe the deeper transformation which is made plain by the end of the story. I like the name of it, too, especially since there are no fake trees depicted in the book!

Cathy Malkasian and Temperance links:

the author's website
video preview for the book
excerpt from the book (PDF link)

Comicsgirl review
Now Read This! review

Fantagraphics interview with the author
Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay by the author for Percy Gloom
Newsarama.com interview with the author

also at Largehearted Boy:

other Book Notes playlists (authors create music playlists for their book)

52 Books, 52 Weeks (weekly book reviews)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics highlights)
Daily Downloads (free and legal daily mp3 downloads)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Shorties (daily music, literature, and pop culture links)
Soundtracked (composers and directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from the week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists

Genesis - "Aisle of Plenty"

When Peter Gabriel's Genesis warns of proliferating poisonous plant-life, it behooves you to listen. Their song "Return of the Giant Hogweed" is a disquietingly prescient example: the titular tree-like weed, which resembles a giant's white umbrella, and which emits a sap that is more allergenic than poison ivy, is aggressively spreading throughout Ontario this summer after sixty years of relative inactivity. As promised, the giant hogweed has returned. In "Aisle of Plenty," Gabriel urges us to "see the deadly nightshade grow," and though we can't see it, we shouldn't doubt its existence. After all, he's earned our trust, and anyway, we can hear the truth of it in the song's sinister last minute, its sonic creeping and multiplying. It doesn't take a botanist to hear what's going on: there's a plant growing out there, one you don't want to tangle with.

[Buy]

Now I’m enraged! Biggest isn’t best!

bstriddy:

Sorry, but this chart is a nonsense. If you read the fine print, you’ll find that the ranking is by sales volume. I’m not sure what exactly qualifies a brewer as craft, but I feel quite certain that sales volume is typically contraindicative of craft. (I do mean typically, not necessarily.)

Checking the Bay Area and seeing Gordon Biersch is what tipped me off that this is bogus. No Russian River, no Bear Republic?! Michigan at least has Bells, but what about Jolly Pumpkin and Leelanau? I call PSHAW.

ilovecharts:

mocus:

50 Best Craft Brewers in America

A much needed Map!

http://www.francescamclin.com/blog/50-best-craft-brewers-in-america/

Band of Horses visit The Current studio for an interview and live performance.

LA Weekly shares a 2008 interview with the recently departed author Jose Saramago.

Kathryn Calder of the New Pornographers talks to the Capital Times.

Eye Weekly interviews Jon Spencer.

At The Faster Times, Michael Kimball interviews author Gina Frangello.

Flavorwire lists the sexiest indie rockers over 40.

The New York Times profiles the Arcade Fire.

KCRW's Bookworm interviews author Jane Smiley today.

The Santa Barbara Independent interviews Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold.

Willamette Week recommends graphic novels for people who hate comics.

The Hattiesburg American interviews Van Dyke Parks about his Mississippi roots.

NPR lists six novels about illicit love.

Neil Finn talks to the Miami Herald about the Crowded House reunion.

NPR reviews and excerpts from Gary Shteyngart's new novel, Super Sad Love Story.

Matablog has news of an NYC art show (August 27-28) of collages by Guided By Voices frontman Robert Pollard.

In the Guardian, Ali Shaw lists the top 10 transformation stories in literature.

Win a $100 Threadless gift certificate and a copy of Adam Rex's young adult novel Fat Vampire in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.

Follow me on Twitter and Stumbleupon for links (updated throughout the day) that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous Shorties posts (daily links from the worlds of music, literature, and pop culture)

Atomic Books Comics Preview (highlights of the week's comics & graphic novel releases)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (highlights of the week's book releases)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists

See Also

• July 19, 2010 -- Editorializing
• May 17, 2010 -- A Trio Of Editorial Cartoons
• May 12, 2010 -- Maine-iacs, Indeed
• April 15, 2010 -- Unclear On The Concept, Teabagger Edition
• February 26, 2009 -- Times Four

Britain has always taken a back seat to other countries, especially France and Italy, when it come to cheese, but did you know that there are 700 varieties of cheese made in the U.K.? Only 14 of them rise to the level of AOC-style designation, but it’s not unusual for artisanal cheeses to be as good or better than traditional styles. This BBC article talks about the growing public appreciation for cheese in the U.K. and the resulting explosion of cheese-making throughout the country.

Speaking of British traditions…for centuries, British sailors were issued a daily tot of rum as part of their rations. The rum was typically added to water and called “grog”, since the water wasn’t particularly palatable. Crews would even mutiny if their grog was withheld. The Royal Navy continued this tradition until 1970, if you can believe that, and the final issue of rum was ceremonially served to RN sailors as “The Black Tot”. The last of that specific stock of rum is now being sold, having been kept in storage all these years (just in case, I guess…you never know when they might need a flagon or two), at the rather steep price of £599 for a pint…although you do get a nifty replica of the copper cup used on ships to measure out the rations.

On our vacation to Cape Cod earlier in the summer, we took Charlotte to her first-ever drive-in movie at the Wellfleet Drive-In. There are so few working drive-in movie theaters left that we figured it might be a once-in-a-lifetime thing for her. I was tickled that when the screen finally lit up one of the very first things they showed was a real 1950s ad for the concession stand just like the one in the YouTube clip above. This recent Serious Eats post has a handful of some of the better known ones, and if you go to the webpage for that YouTube clip, you will notice a slew of similar nostalgic bits of drive-in ephemera. Sadly, the actual concession stand food was still just as shitty and overpriced as it ever was, but at least she can say she got to have the experience.

This is called the “Toast-E/R”, and it lets you make your breakfast a little more exciting by pretending that you are defibrillating your bread into toasty deliciousness. It’s a project from designer Shay Carmon, so don’t rush on over to Target to try and buy one just yet, but don’t you just want it like RIGHT NOW?

See Also

• February 15, 2010 -- Foodie News
• December 19, 2008 -- For The Foodie Who Has Everything
• June 20, 2008 -- Linkapalooza – Food
• November 27, 2007 -- Blessed Are The Cheesemakers
• November 5, 2007 -- Say “Pasteurized Processed Cheese Food!”

Wolf Parade - "Cloud Shadow On The Mountain". Jack Gala had been hitting home-runs for so long that when on July 28th, a Wednesday, he stepped to the plate and struck out - he was as happy as a pig in shit. His teammates sagged, the coach drooped, fans across the stadium were rending their clothes. But Jack Gala was tossing his cap, high-fiving his rivals, leaping and whooping and lifting his face to the sky. He skipped the press conference. He ran out the arena's back door, jumped on his motorbike, threaded the boulevards til he was home. "Jackie, let's get married," he said to his girlfriend. He called his mother: "Ma, it's me." He walked up and down the block, paying for all the neighbours' kids' college educations. Jack Gala was reinvented. Jack Gala was free. [buy Expo 86]

Lucien Midnight - "Major Tom". It's taken me a couple years to track down this cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity". We heard it in a rental car, across the radio. Google was not very helpful. These many months later I am gratified to uncover the song and still find it very good. I am wary of covers. They must justify their existence. You will find none of Seu Jorge's anemic Bowie retakes on this blog. You will not hear the inane acoustic versions of "Paper Planes" or "Since U Been Gone". These can be fun in the moment, round the campfire; but they are blown bubbles, potato-chips, knock-knock jokes. Covers are interpretations, and some interpreters are better than others. Some mark the material, some mimic it. Some rekindle the songs in their own way. Lucien Midnight does not just recreate Bowie's "Oddity" with acoustic guitar, evening air, crickets. His Major Tom is a different character. There is more anger, submerged; more love for his "blonde" back home. He is not just stranded out in space - he says he is fucké, ben' buzzé, stoned. Some of this is in the lyrics, loosely & brilliantly translated. But mostly it's in the everything. An old song, telling a different tale. Just slightly different. It's lovely. If only it didn't end so abruptly. [MySpace]

(Photo source)

Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet.

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

Black Mountain: "The Hair Song" [mp3] from Wilderness Heart (out September 14th)
other Black Mountain posts at Largehearted Boy

Black Prairie: "The Blackest Crow" [mp3]
other Black Prairie posts at Largehearted Boy

Dad Rocks!: "Nothing" [mp3] from Digital Age EP
other Dad Rocks! posts at Largehearted Boy

Darren Hanlon: "All These Things" [mp3] from I Will Love You At All (out September 21st)
other Darren Hanlon posts at Largehearted Boy

Grand Lake: "Louise (I Live in a Fantasy)" [mp3] from Blood Sea Dream
other Grand Lake posts at Largehearted Boy

Jens Lekman: "The End of the World Is Bigger Than Love" [mp3]
other Jens Lekman posts at Largehearted Boy

Mavis Staples: "You Are Not Alone (written by Jeff Tweedy)" [mp3] from You Are Not Alone (out September 14th)
other Mavis Staples posts at Largehearted Boy

The Pass: "Trap of Mirrors" [mp3] from BURST (out September 21st)
other Pass posts at Largehearted Boy

The Poison Arrows: "Unveiled in Sequence" [mp3] from Newfound Resolutions (out August 3rd)
other Poison Arrows posts at Largehearted Boy

Snuffaluffagus: "Brazilwood Poetry" [mp3] from Brazilwood Poetry
other Snuffaluffagus posts at Largehearted Boy

Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:

Flaming Lips: 2010-07-26, New York [mp3]
other Flaming Lips posts at Largehearted Boy

Langhorne Slim: Donewaiting.com Live at Electraplay session [mp3]
other Langhorne Slim posts at Largehearted Boy

Medications: 2010-07-23, Brooklyn [mp3]
other Medications posts at Largehearted Boy

Real Estate: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Real Estate posts at Largehearted Boy

also at Largehearted Boy:

other daily free and legal mp3 downloads

2010 Bonnaroo downloads
music festival downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD and DVD release lists