Posts in Uncategorized
It's Mao or never

Blue Steel? Meet RED steel. Photos of Mao impersonators by Tommaso Bonaventura. Via BOOOOOOOOM. Click either link to see more. (the captions are Mao quotes I got off the webternet)

"A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery."

"Despise the enemy strategically, but take him seriously tactically."

"Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy."

"Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend."

"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."

UncategorizedJack Dysonimpersonators, mao, photography, quotes, the dictator quoteComment
Mulatu Astatke and the Ethio-jazz sound

Seen Broken Flowers? You've probably heard some of Mulatu Astatke's music. Ethiopian composer and arranger (beautiful on vibrafone) he's the don of dons when it comes to Ethio-jazz. He trained and lived mainly in the US, but bought back a lot of influences - Latin and so on - to the local scene in the early 70s when he moved back home to Ethiopia. The Ethio-jazz scene funked and rocked until 1975-7, when the Derg military junta replaced Haile Selassie I and chased the musicians out of the country. Only a few bods really remembered the Ethio-jazz scene - it stopped being made. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SImPf1HsFxo]

That was pretty much it for Ethio-jazz until the 90s, when record collectors suddenly picked up on it. Astatke was put on an Ethiopiques compilation in 1998, and then in 2005 was used as main soundtrack for Jim Jarmusch's film, Broken Flowers (Bill Murray etc etc). Astatke is still going, I think. If he is, I'd love to see him. His music creates such a lovely warm mood, sort of chaotic and yet muted, discordant and perfect.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDC7oMOnmCc]

Thinking of Broken Flowers always makes me want to wear tracksuits.

UncategorizedJack DysonBill murray, broken flowers, ethio-jazz, ethipia, jazz, mulatu astatke, musicComment
Disney: The Underbelly

Great post from BWE. Do take time to listen to the YouTube at the bottom. He bangs on a bit, but it's quite diverting.

Many years ago, back when I was in college, my high school best friend from Miami got a job working at Disneyworld for the summer. I believe she played a “waitress” at the Diamond Horseshoe Saloon, which was an understood knowing wink as she was clearly an old-timey Disney whore. She was forced to wear a dreadfully unflattering red polyester dress and black apron, while touching the shoulders of the hundreds of thousands of fathers that made their way through the saloon for just a tad too long. This is after she got ever so close to playing Sleeping Beauty, until the cruel casting director sat her down and told her she was too “squinty.” From what I understand, it was the best summer of her life, thanks in large part to her eye-widening surgery.

What did this mean for me, her giant best friend? It meant that I got to Disneyworld that summer VIP style. I was a pig in sh*t. Free ticket into the park, automatic access to the rides, walking past the 3 hour long lines with two middle fingers in the air… it was bliss.

Perhaps it was because of the endorphins firing in my brain that day that I dared to play with Disney fire. Because that day, friends, I did what is often described as “the impossible.” I snuck into the Disneyworld Underground City. That’s right: Actual Disneyworld is built on top of a giant underground human hamster world where the employees go to change, eat, and be human. It’s called the “Utilidors” and it is where the fantasy of Disney comes literally crashing to Earth. And, in an effort to score some discounted food (waves at proud Grandfather in Heaven), I Mission: Impossible 3‘d my way down there, friend in tow, to grab a burger for $1.99 and run like hell.

We found the hidden doorway (a secret I would never even think of revealing) and slowly cartoon tiptoe tinyfooted tinked our way to the employee cafeteria. How to describe the Disneyworld Tunnels… hmm. It’s like a Home Depot of childhood sadness. Cold, fluorescent, concrete. Huge. Oh, look, there’s Pluto with his head off, smoking. Did you hear that loud sigh of distress? That’s the 17-year-old girl playing Mickey Mousewalking by. If you are a Disney fanatic, the underground is your Room 101. It is where the fantasy dies. We lined our jeans with burgers, managed to avoid getting tackled by security, and made our way back into the blistering sunlight of positivity that is the above-ground Disneyworld theme park.

Why this story? Well we happened to catch a fantastic, hilarious, must-see video called “Confessions of a Disney Employee,” and all of my memories came flooding back. OK, the video is 11 minutes long, but believe me, it flies by thanks to the engaging narrator, a former employee who describes his experience working there for minimum wage. Those of you out there who love both sticking it to the man and free food, this is required viewing.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_WaxuN4o78]

I do kind of wish he'd gone further though. He didn't exactly "stick it to the man", but the first bit's good.

UncategorizedJack Dysondisney, employees, ninjas, subterfuge, underbellyComment
Autism link to childhood vaccines - a fraud.

As if there was actually more evidence needed that vaccines don't cause autism, the 1998 British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines was recently discovered to be an elaborate fraud. Not just incorrect, a fraud.

An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible.

"It's one thing to have a bad study, a study full of error, and for the authors then to admit that they made errors," Fiona Godlee, BMJ's editor-in-chief, told CNN. "But in this case, we have a very different picture of what seems to be a deliberate attempt to create an impression that there was a link by falsifying the data."

The full paper from BMJ is here.

(via Kottke)

UncategorizedJack Dysonautism, BMJ, cnn, fraud, medicine, vaccinesComment
Very, very cool idea

Soap bars are more efficient than liquid soap dispensers but are also a messy pain in the ass. Enter design student Nathalie Stämpfli's Soap Flakes. It works like a pump dispenser and grates a small amount of soap into your hand when you pump the handle.

Today, most of the soap we use is liquid soap, which contains a lot of water. Block soap instead is more concentrated and therefore has some ecological benefits: You don't transport unnecessary water around. In place of plastic bottles you can simply use paper for packaging. The solid blocks can easily be piled and allow a greater space efficiency in a truck.

But what about the usage of soap bars? I don't like the weird slippery feeling when I use them. It gives me goose bumps. And under the shower, it always slides out of your fingers. Hand soap also often gets dirty and accumulates bacteria when more than one person is using it.

(via Kottke.org)

UncategorizedJack Dysonidea, innovation, kottke, soap flakeComment
Je ne regrette

"Do not brood over your past mistakes and failures as this will only fill your mind with grief, regret and depression. Do not repeat them in the future." Swami Sivananda Saraswati.

UncategorizedJack DysonComment
Better than Botox: seven reasons to have sex tonight

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-BJVK1HvKg] Look younger A long-term study of 3,500 people between the ages of 30 and 101 found that regular sex may shave between four and seven years off your physical appearance. Researchers at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital in Scotland presented photos of the subjects to an impartial panel of judges, who were asked to guess their ages. The people who were judged to be the youngest were also those who had the most sex. What’s the connection between youthfulness and getting it on? In addition to boosting self-esteem and confidence, sex increases the production of human growth hormone, which is known to improve muscle tone.

Get happy It goes without saying that sex can make you happy and contented, but a paper in the Archives of Sexual Behavior takes this idea one step further. Based on a study of 300 women that correlated condom use with depression, researchers concluded that women who never used condoms were the least depressed, while those women who always used condoms were the most depressed. One reason? The vagina may absorb the mood-boosting hormones and prostaglandins found in semen. It’s an interesting theory, but certainly no reason to advocate unprotected sex. Clearly, an unwanted pregnancy or STD would not increase anyone’s happiness.

Slim down On average, sex burns about five calories per minute, depending upon your weight. Even engaging your partner in a hot kiss boosts your heart rate, which in turn increases your body’s caloric burn. Next time you’re too busy to work out, try getting busy instead.

Fight the sniffles Sex may help fight off colds. In a study at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania, researchers found that college students who had sex once or twice per week had higher levels of immunoglobulin A, an antibody that boosts the immune system.

Keep the pressure down Want to stress less? Sex could be just the thing to keep you calm. In a study by researchers at the University of Paisley in Scotland, 46 men women were asked to give speeches to an audience who, unbeknownst to the speakers, was told to act bored and disinterested. Afterwards, the participants’ blood pressure was taken—those who reported having sex within the last two weeks had the lowest readings.

Have a heart A recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that erectile dysfunction (ED) is often an early indicator of poor cardiovascular health. Researchers followed more than 2,300 men for an average of four years and found that men with ED had a 58 percent greater risk of coronary heart disease. Another study showed that men who reported having three or more orgasms per week experienced 50 percent fewer heart attacks and strokes as compared with those who had less frequent orgasms. Sex may help the heart because orgasm triggers the release of the hormone DHEA, which helps with circulation and arterial dilation.

Live longer For reasons that are still unclear, regular sex may even add years to your life. A study published in the British Medical Journal found that men who had sex less than once per month were twice as likely to die in the next 10 years than those who had sex once per week. And guys aren’t the only ones to benefit: Researchers at Duke University found that women who claimed to enjoy their sex lives lived seven to eight years longer than women who were indifferent to sex.

So forget about an apple a day. To feel healthier, look younger, and live longer, an orgasm or two a week may be an effective - and certainly enjoyable - remedy.

(By Ian Kerner on CNN Health)

UncategorizedJack Dysonnow, right now, sexComment
E. E. Cummings, I carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me(i carry it inmy heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling) i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true) and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

---

It might look as if the punctuation and flow is all screwy, but this is in fact enjambement at its best: a way of breaking a line between two verses and forcing the reader's eye to move on to the next sentence. Meaning flows as the line progresses. It's very pretty.

UncategorizedJack Dysoncummings, enjambment, i carry your hart with me, love, poem, poetryComment
Stop motion

Sometimes the video that goes with a song is just... well is just exactly right. Oren Lavie's song, Her Morning Elegance, has this gorgeous piece of stop motion (which he also directed). It earned a 2010 Grammy Award nomination for "Best Short Form Music Video". There's a website here on which you can buy individual frames. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY]

Some bright spark did a fantastic parody of it too:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvp7PgWGQzA]

UncategorizedJack Dysonanimation, her morning elegance, music, oren lavie, stop motionComment