telescreen.org

Mimic corporate brands with these fonts. (via BoingBoing)

The first time he saw Howlin' Wolf perform, he said to himself "This is where the soul of man never dies." He recorded Jackie Brenston and the Kings of Rhythm's "Rocket 88", the first rock 'n' roll recording ever made (featuring, by the way, a very young Ike Turner on guitar.) On that recording, incidentally, he jury-rigged a fix for Turner's broken amp and made it sound unlike any electric guitar on record up till then. He tried to solve the Cuban Missile Crisis by calling Havana and trying (unsuccessfully) to get Castro on the phone. He launched the careers of Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and not incidentally a young truck driver from Tupelo who wanted to make a record for his mother.

We've lost one of the people that made rock 'n' roll into the powerful force that it is today.

And I see from Czeltic Girl that the telephone lady is gone as well. RIP.

Yowp. The gauntlet has been cast down, and I feel oddly compelled to respond. (The especially odd thing about it is that my response isn't "No way in hell.") Though I'm not sure I'll get onstage; here's the equation:

{Amount of alcohol required to make Vidiot lose his inhibitions to the point where he'll sing in public} < {amount of alcohol required to make Vidiot slip into an irreversible coma}

But we'll see. If I can get the evening off work. (See, kids? Always leave yourself an out.)

In other news, Mark Hasty is throwing down a different gauntlet and listing the worst ten songs of the past 25 years. I'm not even going to try -- the memories are too painful -- but y'all are welcome to tackle the topic yourselves. (Anyone? Anyone? Anyone?)

Administrative note: I might not be blogging for a few days, since I'm off to the rivah in the ayem:

Peace, quiet, sunsets, boating, and seafood await. Back soon -- if I don't decide to stay.

James Brown and his soon-to-be-ex-wife took out a full-page ad in Variety to announce their divorce. Complete with surreal picture of the family at Disney World.

[snark] You'd think they'd have spell-checked it, though: "for the benefit of their carriers? [/snark]

A few more spammers' names:

Hidalgo Ogden
Atalanta McGinty (my favorite)
Sadie Daugherty
Miguel Tetreault
Rolf Cuervo
Hilda T. Gee
Jodi Ermentrude
Florina Joaquin
Lucian Jerrylee

The GOP has warned TV stations not to show a new DNC ad charging that Bush misled the nation about Iraq. They're saying:

. . .as an FCC licensee you have the responsibility to exercise independent editorial judgment to not only oversee and protect the American marketplace of ideas, essential for the health of our democracy, but also to avoid deliberate misrepresentations of the facts. . .This letter puts you on notice that the information contained in the above-cited advertisement is false and misleading; therefore, you are obligated to refrain from airing this advertisement.

Repeat: This letter wasn't sent out by the FCC, but by the Republican Party.

So, I take it that every network affiliate in the US will have its license revoked for airing the State of the Union?

(via MeFi.)

Typeface Smackdown. (via Kottke)

This sounds fascinating. Reminds me of the "city symphony" films from the twenties. (Here's a great one...it's out on DVD and is well worth seeing.) Wish it could play New York sometime soon...

Damn embargo.

Interesting NYT article on regional sodas. Great to see that these small brands can still maintain a following in this fractured mediaverse. (via anathema.)

Good thing lack of oxygen doesn't affect the brain.

Quick note for some shameless self-promotion: Just discovered that my photoblog is one of the "Editor's Picks" on textamerica.com. (Not sure if that's only for today, but hey, I'll take it while it comes.)

Baked cinnamon buns had more effect on male arousal than all perfume scents combined. . .Men also responded strongly to the smells of cheese pizza and buttered popcorn.

In other news, cucumbers turn women on. (And no, sicko, not the way you think.)

Yes, we have no bananas -- the banana may completely vanish within the next ten years. Turns out they're all cloned, sterile, and are incredibly susceptible to pests and blights.

Bullet Time Ping-Pong. (Yes, I know it's everywhere. But darn it, I think it's funny. And why have a blog if I can't link to stuff that I think is funny?)

Thirty is the new 22. So quoth the NYT, so it must be true.

Phew -- gives me a couple more years to be an adolescent, I guess. (Though there were large portions of adolescence that I was more than happy to leave behind.) (via Gawker.)

On Friday, I went for a pre-carouse visit to the Empire State Building with my friend Paula. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate like it did on my Circle Line trip -- it was cloudy and gray. But it was still interesting to see the view(s) from the top.

I guess he'll be moving his office from Harlem to Guantanamo Bay soon. (via Adampsyche's daily links.)

Frightening. (via MeFi)

Campaign Donations Affect Lawmakers' Votes -- is this really news? (Good analysis from the AP, though.) What I thought was much more interesting is the AP's interactive database that lets you see how your Congressional representative voted, and how much money they got from whom.

Whoa. (via Anil's daily links)

This sounds absolutely enchanting, and I'd love to try it out. But it's $90 (!), and I don't think I'll go.

(I mean, the Louvre is expensive. So is the Met. The Uffizi costs money, as do the Vatican museums. Seeing Alan Rickman on Broadway in a Noel Coward play was neat. Seeing Nigel Hawthorne playing Lear was great. So was seeing Maggie Smith in the West End. But none of the above cost anything like $90. *grumble*)

Um. Carousing last night with my friends Jason (aka "Bugmuncher"), Jonmc, Cowboy_Sally, and Chico Bangs. First at Tile Bar, then to Paul's for the best burgers in the city, then to Angel's Share for seriously high-end cocktails, then to some Japanese restaurant on St. Mark's Place, before staggering subway-ward. A good time, what I remember of it.

Mark Hasty notes that Iowa unveiled its design for its state quarter yesterday. Hmph. I'm not a fan of this design -- for one thing, "Foundation in Education" just plain sounds wrong to my ear. The alternate "Beautiful Land" design was much nicer, I thought. (The rest of the five finalists are here.)

Rhode Island's design is my favorite by far. Mississippi's isn't bad either. (And what must New Hampshire folks think, now that the Old Man of the Mountain is gone?)

In related news, Rob from Cockeyed.com has some pretty funny captions for the various California quarter designs.

The results of the 2003 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest are in! The B-LFC is a contest to compose the worst possible opening sentence for a hypothetical novel.

The winning entry, by Marianne Sims of Wetumpka, AL (incidentally, the hometown of Liz from Gawker):

They had but one last remaining night together, so they embraced each other as tightly as that two-flavor entwined string cheese that is orange and yellowish-white, the orange probably being a bland Cheddar and the white . . . Mozzarella, although it could possibly be Provolone or just plain American, as it really doesn't taste distinctly dissimilar from the orange, yet they would have you believe it does by coloring it differently.

More winning entries and (dis)honorable mentions here.