EPT
1. Law & Order ADAs
2. Craft Spells - Idle Labor
Download it
Buy the LP/CD
this is the first album I got really into this summer, and it's a perfect summertime album. Idle Labor's hazy synth+guitar+vocal combination (described by the label as "dreamy nostalgic pop music") is typical of a lot of bedroom pop bands out; what sets Craft Spells apart is their knack for catchy hooks.
not earth-shattering, just good! (as any lazy summer afternoon ought be.) start with "Party Talk" and "Scandinavian Crush".
in the vein of: Wild Nothing, New Order (even the art. see), Beach Fossils, Minks
3. get your knit together
+ Show Spoiler [more] +
(photos are not mine, click for source
![[image loading]](http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lmjjiosWNN1ql9q7uo1_500.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_li9axodZNw1qazg1ao1_500.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l85n7es1f91qazg1ao1_500.jpg)
the most crucial, career-defining lesson my summer job has taught me is: silk knit ties are boss. they're formal enough for any occasion, but still have edge. and you can wear them with almost any fabric (from heavy tweed to tropical wool) in any season. just make sure that your collar is substantial enough to contend with the slightly larger-than-average knot — spreads and cutaways pair perfectly.
my silk knit source is J.Press, which right now is having a 25% off sale on all of its knit ties. solid navy is a staple (this should really be in every man's wardrobe); evergreen, purple, and burgundy are well worth buying; and the black if you want to blow up a black tie event. before you think "$60 for a tie?" consider that these will last you decades, and you'll get compliments every time you wear one.
See also: The Knottery, which has a nice polka dot knit for just $25 (and a bunch of other nice but cheap products)
4. trapped in an iPhone
5. candids from the 61st Annual Academy Awards
![[image loading]](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/65/210252831_3015d5edb7.jpg)
Alan Light is a guy whose friend got him a photo pass to the 1989 Academy Awards. Light brought his camera and took all of these amateurish candid photos of the stars here, which are fascinating for (1) making the Academy Awards look as real as your prom night, and the celebrities there look like people (2) catching many of today's has-beens in their primes (Tom Cruise especially).
See also: Less Than Zero, a book (well worth reading) that these photos reminded me of
My Holiday Party
the Angry Video Game Nerd reviews Top Gun for NES
6. the rules of Monopoly
today I read this article about how nobody knows about Monopoly's "auction rule": that upon landing on an unowned property, you have the option to turn the property over to the bank to be auctioned off to the highest bidder (which could be you!). I thought everyone played by this rule. then I thought about how interested in Monopoly I was as a kid, and a bunch of other Monopoly trivia:
- here are some other rules I remember fellow Monopoly players (friends, cousins) disregarding or being unaware of:
+ Show Spoiler +- Even though you are in Jail, you may buy and sell property, buy and sell houses and hotels and collect rents.
- “FREE PARKING”… A player landing on this place does not receive any money, property or reward of any kind.
- The owner...collects double rent from an opponent who lands on the unimproved properties of his/her complete color-group.
- [Y]ou may buy and erect at any time as many houses as your judgement and financial standing will allow(it doesn't have to be your turn)
- according to this article (check the comments if you really want to nerd out, and read this for more on per-square probabilities), the Orange, Light Blue, and Light Purple streets give the best return on investment, in that order (the best ROI in the game is a 3rd house on New York). my childhood strategy was "orange street or bust" and so the stats would vindicate me, if I hadn't agreed to bonkers trades to get St. James/Tennessee/New York. also, I underrated Light Blue. that was my brother's street and good god is dropping $650 every time around the board a painful way to go. Boardwalk, Park Place, and the utilities are all shit.
- the only house rule that I ever played with was to regulate "butt money", a concept that my across-the-street neighbor Simon Farrell introduced to me and my brother when we were 8 or 9. "butt money" is money that belongs to a player but is hidden (perhaps under the player's butt) with intent deceive his opponents as to how flush he is. my brother and I often played with a rule against butt money, to avoid the frustration that ensues from challenging a guy who has $45 showing to an auction, and then seeing him whip six $500s out from under his left asscheek.
- Monopoly spawned plenty of arguments between my brother and me, but none as ridiculous and heated as our ongoing argument over the meaning of the below Chance/Community Chest card — The Great Advance To The Nearest Railroad Debate.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/u8INW.png)
There are two possible readings:- This card requires the player that draws it to advance to the railroad that is the fewest spaces from that player, in either direction. So: if I land on the Chance space on the Light Blue street and draw the card, I must go around the board (collecting $200) to Reading Railroad, which is two spaces behind where I drew the card.
- This card requires the player that draws it to advance to the railroad that is the fewest spaces in front of the player. So: if I land on the Chance space on the Light Blue street and draw the card, I advance eight spaces to Pennsylvania (and do not pass go).
Poll: Which is the correct reading of the card?2 (Pennsylvania RR) (217)89%
1 (Reading RR) (26)11%
243 total votesYour vote: Which is the correct reading of the card?
+ Show Spoiler [the correct answer] +of course 1 is the correct reading. here's my thinking. the essential question is: "which railroad is 'the nearest'?" and there is no winning argument that a railroad 8 spots away from my piece is (ever) nearer to my piece than a railroad 2 spots away.
no, it's not dispositive that the card instructs you to "advance". it's common in Monopoly to advance all the way around the board to get to your destination (ever draw "advance to GO" from Blue Street chance spot? the rules specify that you must go all the way around the board, collecting $200). and as a general principle, directionality is generally irrelevant to nearness — especially on a flat game board where every move is instantaneous. as I asked my brother earlier today:Bob only walks forward. Mosquito A is 20 km ahead of Bob. Mosquito B is on the back of Bob's neck. Which mosquito is nearest to Bob?
the best argument I've heard for playing according to reading 2 is that it couldn't possibly be that the card was intended to be a windfall to players who draw it in all but three Community Chest/Chance spots. that indicates that the makers of Monopoly intended us to go to the Pennsylvania RR. but the meaning of the text on the card itself is another question.
Edit: I wrote this over-the-top, but tbh the more I think about this the more I recognize merits of the other side (reading 1). There's a pretty good argument that on a Monopoly board distance can only be measured going the correct way around the board, so Reading RR is actually 38 spaces away, not 2. That woud make it "nearest" (how could Pennsylvania be further, when you only have to move 8 spaces to get there?). - This card requires the player that draws it to advance to the railroad that is the fewest spaces from that player, in either direction. So: if I land on the Chance space on the Light Blue street and draw the card, I must go around the board (collecting $200) to Reading Railroad, which is two spaces behind where I drew the card.
7. Taragana Pyjarama - Taragana Pyjarama EP
Stream it
Buy LP
music for dancing to this july and august. or maybe a drive to the beach.
in the vein of: Delorean, Teengirl Fantasy, Tanlines, Air France
8. C'était un rendez-vous
C'était un rendez-vous [wikipedia] is a short film of an insane drive through Paris. aside from the driving and landmarks, I was interested by these unanswered questions surrounding the film:
- a "making of" mini-docu and this photo suggest that the car was a M-Benz 450SEL 6.9. problem: the 450SEL only had three speeds, and you can hear shifts through 5 speeds in the video. the popular explanation for this discrepancy is that the director, Claude Lelouche, dubbed the footage with audio from his Ferrari 275GTB. what a masterful dub! (see)
- I think the driver is still unknown. some speculate it was Lelouche himself (the "making of" docu may confirm this; my French isn't good enough to figure out myself).
- there is an (unverified) rumor that Lelouche was arrested immediately after the filming.
record fast driving on the Isle of Man; stick around for the bit of narration at the end to realize how close this driver was to eating shit
9. Artie Lange is a pigman on cocaine
+ Show Spoiler [part 2] +
this is part of a chapter from comedian Artie Lange's autobiographical book Too Fat to Fish, read out loud by someone who is not Artie Lange. it's ultra black humor; a funny story that is also the most terrifying and real account of drug addiction I have ever heard. (at the end of day 1 of shooting I thought the story had run its course — not even close)
why isn't Lange himself reading this chapter? according to my friend who recommended it, Lange nearly died from a heroin overdose before he could finish recording the audiobook.
See also: "Babe Watch", the sketch itself as it ran on MADtv (possibly more disturbing than Artie's story)
Artie telling this story on Howard Stern, if you need proof that it's comedy
10. potpourri
+ Show Spoiler [plan ahead] +
http://jeffgreenspan.com/project.php?cat=1
http://pornwithoutporn.tumblr.com/ , goes with this
http://americanmccarver.com/ and especially http://americanmccarver.com/post/7134189392/ellis-d (no-hitter on LSD)
http://www.youtube.com/fpsrussia <----seriously fucking awesome, especially:
http://www.wineanorak.com/corks/howcorkismade.htm
http://theselvedgeyard.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/let-me-win-your-heart-and-mind-or-ill-burn-your-goddamn-hut-down/
http://cwandt.com/#thermochromic-clock
http://topdogimaging.net/blog/restoring-a-photograph-from-the-1870s
http://alltelleringet.com/generation7/
http://www.everythingisaremix.info/everything-is-a-remix-part-3/ (part 3 up!)
see also: http://vimeo.com/19469447 on Kill Bill in particular
http://whatthingsdo.com/comic/keeping-two/
![[image loading]](http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_loi163Fuv01qkt71ho1_500.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lo2pyptjKD1qf65f3o1_500.jpg)
http://dearphotograph.com/
http://www.todayandtomorrow.net/2011/06/23/polargraph/
![[image loading]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZODiFUr6jaM/Tfo_vQuxMQI/AAAAAAAANBg/wpTvXWzw1AA/s640/riot34.jpg)
this is so hilarious. delivery impeccable. love that the profs and the security (?) dudes behind the stage are both cracking up. mass appeal humor
![[image loading]](http://also.kottke.org/misc/images/mobius-ships.jpg)
WTF
http://www.trntbl.me/thereisnogrey
![[image loading]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_louxtaFh3o1qf65f3o1_500.jpg)
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/05/when-we-tested-nuclear-bombs/100061/
soothing.
http://pornwithoutporn.tumblr.com/ , goes with this
http://americanmccarver.com/ and especially http://americanmccarver.com/post/7134189392/ellis-d (no-hitter on LSD)
http://www.youtube.com/fpsrussia <----seriously fucking awesome, especially:
http://www.wineanorak.com/corks/howcorkismade.htm
Spider attack from Ahmet Ozkan on Vimeo.
http://theselvedgeyard.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/let-me-win-your-heart-and-mind-or-ill-burn-your-goddamn-hut-down/
http://cwandt.com/#thermochromic-clock
http://topdogimaging.net/blog/restoring-a-photograph-from-the-1870s
Splitscreen: A Love Story from JW Griffiths on Vimeo.
http://alltelleringet.com/generation7/
http://www.everythingisaremix.info/everything-is-a-remix-part-3/ (part 3 up!)
see also: http://vimeo.com/19469447 on Kill Bill in particular
http://whatthingsdo.com/comic/keeping-two/
http://dearphotograph.com/
http://www.todayandtomorrow.net/2011/06/23/polargraph/
this is so hilarious. delivery impeccable. love that the profs and the security (?) dudes behind the stage are both cracking up. mass appeal humor
WTF
http://www.trntbl.me/thereisnogrey
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/05/when-we-tested-nuclear-bombs/100061/
soothing.
Flottille (detail) from Etienne Cliquet on Vimeo.
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