EPT
1. Lake Bell
next hangover do yourself a favor and watch a couple episodes of HBO's sweet mindless feel-good throwaway show How to Make It in America. Lake Bell is in it and she's too babely (see below).
[/spoiler]
2. Fort Romeau - Kingdoms
Listen to a standout track
Buy LP
this is the debut LP of a UK (surprise surprise, in this genre) producer named Mike Norris. before he became Fort Romeau, Norris was best known as one of La Roux's keyboardists.
Kingdoms sounds like its album art looks. this is simple, sexy techno. (seriously sexy. really fucking sexy.) play it while you're winding down after a night out.
no dud tracks here — iTunes tells me I've listened to this album through at least 30 times.
super good vibes.
in the vein of: SBTRKT, The Field, Sepalcure, Floating Points, Joy Orbison, George FitzGerald, Jacques Greene, Holy Other
See also: http://fortromeau.tumblr.com/
"SW9", a fantastic single from Fort Romeau that didn't make Kingdoms
a pretty good mix that begins with similar sounds, by http://www.cold-rockin.com/
a mix I made for the mix club I'm in (includes Fort Romeau + like artists)
3. briefcases
almost 2 years ago I posted about bags for going "Back 2 Skewl". now that TLers have all graduated with 4.0s and entered the workforce as IOPBOOC (Iced Out Players Balling Out Of Control) it's time to upgrade to a nice briefcase. this means leather — no canvas or (gasp) synthetics in this post.
if your work/school/life permits the formality, a leather briefcase is something worth laying out for. you can use it every day, and a good one will last a decade as your nicest bag and a lifetime as an around-town beater. I needed a briefcase for my job; here is what I turned up in choosing one.
the conventional wisdom is that a man needn't match his briefcase to his shoes or belt ("it's not a purse"). but, as with shoes, lighter color leathers (tan) are generally more bold and casual, and black is most formal/conservative. I decided to go with a darker brown case, because I don't like black and I wear brown shoes/belt most days, but I want to be able to bring my bag through some ultra-stodgy/old world scenes without turning heads.
also consider what type of fittings you'd like (usually brass (gold color) vs. nickel/stainless steel (silver color)). here the choice is simpler; match your fittings to what watch and belt buckle you usually wear. I don't feel comfortable wearing gold as a young non-millionaire, so I was out for a briefcase with nickel fittings. many case makers can sell you their models with either brass or nickel fittings, so you should ask, if this is important to you.
ok. the worthwhile options I found:
- Joseph P. Marcellino aka Strong Eye Leather makes a variety of beautiful briefcases to order. I emailed him about this bag and he responded within an hour with full answers to all of my questions and even an offer to hand deliver the completed product to me. the custom order options are great: 4 different leathers (as of Monday), any configuration of interior pockets, brass vs. nickel fittings, key vs. thumb latch closure, etc. I was even able to ask for some cooky stuff like a narrower shoulder pad and no logo inside the bag. Marcellino seems pretty new to online sales, but based on our emails and his few excellent reviews on Etsy and good eBay record I'm pretty confident in this product. tentatively recommended, pending an in-person look at one of his briefcases.
- Swaine Adeney briefcases (more) are fucking gorgeous. Swaine Adeney (the leather goods division of Swaine Adeney Brigg, or SAB) has been making tip top stuff out of London for about 250 years. this brand and its cases are a legend, and, even if you can't afford one, it's worth visiting their website to get an idea of how good a fine leather briefcase can look. I like the Westminster 3 best. (but anyone buying one of these should not be relying on me for advice.)
- Custom Hide makes several smart cases at super reasonable prices. the classic briefcase, scholar, counselor, and US Army bags all look fly. I've read they are easy to work with on custom orders, too.
- Lotuff Leather (formerly of Lotuff & Clegg) has a good reputation for high-quality leather goods, and makes some nice bags on the pricier side. the only one I think is worth the $ is the utterly beautiful Wells.
- the Ghurka Expediter is a simple, good-looking small bag. Ghurka makes a bunch of awesome stuff, but their other briefcases look like purses to me.
- Filson's leather field satchel is a classic, and one of the few stock bags I found in a very dark brown leather (I think there's an unreasonable premium for the name brand, though)
- J.W. Hulme Co. slim portfolio briefcase: pretty good at $380
other nice bags— Bexar; Mismo (especially); for groceries (option 2); Makr; cute etsy shop
fantastic series on identifying quality leather goods: Pt. 1, Pt. 2
4. The Way Things Go
The Way Things Go is a short film made by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss in 1987. my family bought it on VHS (! check out the super campy cover) at the MCA in Chicago when I was a kid and I've loved it since. this is certainly the coolest "art film" I know.
see also: Honda's famous commercial "The Cog", which substantially rips off The Way Things Go
LEGO great ball contraption
5. http://nextdraft.com/
This is my favorite news source right now.
See also: http://quora.com 's Weekly Digest (email sent to account-holders), where I also always find something worth reading
6. Battlebots
oh my god, two meticulously-organized YT channels full of Battlebots battles:
- AlexGRFan97
- STE406 (slightly inferior quality video)
here is a favorite clip:
7. CONDOM - Live in NYC EP
Stream in full / buy download
CONDOM is an apparently one-off collaboration between known Swedish techno/chiptune DJs Covox and Random. they played one live set together in NYC in 2009:
this EP is a recording of that set. if you like simple, catchy electronic music (and especially anything chiptune), you will get a kick out of this. every other track is a curious "Fitter Happier"-type digression on...condoms.
in the vein of: Daft Punk, DANGER, Crystal Castles, Pictureplane
See also: fantastic combo (great scene, great song)
8. ASMR
ASMR ("Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response", an unnecessarily sophisticated and opaque term) is an unofficial — popularized online, I think — name for a pleasurable and/or relaxing "tingly" sensation that a certain subset of humans feel in their brains in reaction to particular calming external stimuli. if you have ever experienced this sensation, you probably already know exactly what I'm on about.
turns out this feeling has not only a name, but a subreddit and legions of YT channels devoted to it. —mind blown!
do you get ASMR? can you identify things that make you feel it ("triggers", in the jargon)? if so you may be able to make sense of and enjoy some of the more sophisticated YT channels dedicated to generating this sensation in viewers:
- GentleWhispering, who is kinda the queen of ASMR vids, and the focus of a recent Vice article on ASMR
- QueenOfSerene
- VeniVidiVulpes
9. "Singles"
See also: http://marlomeekins.tumblr.com/
http://pandyland.net/71/
http://what-if.xkcd.com/
more cleverness from Christoph Niemann's fantastic series Abstract Sunday (which I have linked before, I'm sure)
http://www.ohwrd.com/?p=19193
10. potpourri
+ Show Spoiler [every time I wake up and go out...] +
a bit about that famous Joy Division album art
https://twitter.com/textinstagram
http://chitwoodandhobbs.com/post/26491210506/the-greatest-play-in-baseball-history (THIS IS A GREAT SPORTS BLOG! oh, and here is another — so good that I enjoy it even without really liking baseball, and you might too: http://oldtimefamilybaseball.com/)
more baseball fun:
https://twitter.com/stealthmountain (check https://twitter.com/#!/StealthMountain/favorites)
http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/biking/road-biking/My-Life-With-Lance-Armstrong.html?page=all
for NYC/old photo/history/city lovers http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/04/historic-photos-from-the-nyc-municipal-archives/100286/
![[image loading]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4rmicVrdS1qf65f3o1_500.jpg)
http://onetinyhand.com/
![[image loading]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7hu2gJKq81qf65f3o1_500.jpg)
good shoe advice: http://putthison.com/post/27558524428/the-seven-shoe-wardrobe-the-longer-i-write-about (if you follow just one blog about clothes, make it Put This On. they post some fluff and self-promotion, but also the best and most practical entry-level advice on how to dress that I've run across at a currently-active blog. their main writer, a guy named Derek, has his own blog, http://dieworkwear.com/, which is also worth checking out. lately I have also enjoyed http://asuitablewardrobe.dynend.com/, which has some useful advice about dressing "safe" and formal. it's worth a look if you can stand the pomposity of the writing there, and work a job that requires suits)
sickest rap ever - BAM!
![[image loading]](http://www.ohwrd.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/tumblr_m34ptuKvdj1qmwqu7o1_1280.jpg)
an essential tool for any NFL fan without some sick satellite package: http://the506.com/nflmaps/
![[image loading]](https://theselvedgeyard.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/playboy-bunny-manual-11.jpg)
http://theselvedgeyard.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/the-playboy-club-bunny-manual-tsy-required-retro-reading/
http://decapitateanimals.tumblr.com/post/17340120543/themed-rerun-14
http://carinteriors.tumblr.com/
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/08/monkeys-reject-unequal-pay.html
![[image loading]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4mq5rFVfR1qf65f3o1_500.jpg)
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/05/where-in-the-world-part-3-a-google-earth-puzzle/100305/
![[image loading]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7ky5cTLGS1qf65f3o1_500.jpg)
the Freeh report itself is actually very engrossing (darkly) reading, and I recommend checking it out for an appreciation of how far Paterno and other high-ups at Penn State went to cover up Sandusky's ongoing abuse
THE SPEED
http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/armin-van-buuren-live-at-asot-electric-daisy-carnival-las-vegas-06-102-2012 (I've listened to this soooooo many times now. Kaskade's set too — very good, especially "Ivory" (I remember reading about Bloody Beetroots in a blog here at TL; Congorock has a similar sound) at about 31 mins in. oh, and "The Edge" is massive too)
while I'm on EDM: a buddy of mine in LA just started a blog about house/dance music called Neon Smoothie. for a casual fan of this scene (=me) it's a great read. FULL SUPPORT!
finally: any TLers going to Sensation in NYC??? http://www.sensation.com/united-states/en/home#home if it's anything like it was in Amsterdam this year (h o l y s h i t — you Dutch know how to do electronic music) the event should be really fun
http://www.savewalterwhite.com/
(I'm about to sit down to begin watching the new season — hype hype hype)
(edit: ok, season over (betraying how long I've been sitting on this blog post). thoughts?)+ Show Spoiler [mild Breaking Bad spoilers] +
I was sad to see so little development of Walt's fascinating relationship with Skyler. she was a great and central character in every season but this mini-one...in which she did absolutely nothing but be "psycho bitch". I guess the upside is that we got to see more of Walt being a criminal (which was obviously the focus of the season, and cool).
did we get any worthwhile new characters this season? Lydia seemed promising, but fell off the face of the earth until she was needed for a convenient solution to Walt's sales problems...
I dunno, I feel like this season was missing some of the great side-plots and unexpectedly interrelated arcs that made the show so interesting in seasons past. still fun watching.
did we get any worthwhile new characters this season? Lydia seemed promising, but fell off the face of the earth until she was needed for a convenient solution to Walt's sales problems...
I dunno, I feel like this season was missing some of the great side-plots and unexpectedly interrelated arcs that made the show so interesting in seasons past. still fun watching.
https://diy.org/awsomedude/0004uw
![[image loading]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m70bzf58HN1r5xsw9o1_400.jpg)
from the excellent http://oldloves.tumblr.com/
![[image loading]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m93a4tW9EO1ra2p1go1_500.jpg)
http://fraternite-ou-la-mort.tumblr.com/post/16653366839/in-1988-ayrton-senna-defeated-longtime-top-racer
http://fraternite-ou-la-mort.tumblr.com/post/16656066837/i-said-to-myself-ok-you-try-to-work-cleanly-and
As Ford and Staff Sgt. John Wayne Walding returned fire, Walding was hit below his right knee. Ford turned and saw that the bullet "basically amputated his right leg right there on the battlefield."
Walding, of Groesbeck, Tex., recalled: "I literally grabbed my boot and put it in my crotch, then got the boot laces and tied it to my thigh, so it would not flop around. There was about two inches of meat holding my leg on." He put on a tourniquet, watching the blood flow out the stump to see when it was tight enough.
Then Walding tried to inject himself with morphine but accidentally used the wrong tip of the syringe and put the needle in this thumb, he later recalled. "My thumb felt great," he said wryly, noting that throughout the incident he never lost consciousness. "My name is John Wayne," he said.
Walding, of Groesbeck, Tex., recalled: "I literally grabbed my boot and put it in my crotch, then got the boot laces and tied it to my thigh, so it would not flop around. There was about two inches of meat holding my leg on." He put on a tourniquet, watching the blood flow out the stump to see when it was tight enough.
Then Walding tried to inject himself with morphine but accidentally used the wrong tip of the syringe and put the needle in this thumb, he later recalled. "My thumb felt great," he said wryly, noting that throughout the incident he never lost consciousness. "My name is John Wayne," he said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/11/AR2008121104080.html
![[image loading]](http://www.fastcocreate.com/multisite_files/cocreate/imagecache/slideshow-large/slides/Slide-Dr-Seuss-Ads-before-he-became-17.jpg)
http://www.fastcocreate.com/1681427/before-green-eggs-see-the-advertising-work-of-dr-seuss#14
PI IS WRONG!
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-lost-my-faith-in-humanity
http://vimeo.com/42209600
enjoyable if you like to poke fun at bankers
http://deadspin.com/5914927/the-mystery-behind-deshawn-stevensons-kitchen-atm-is-solved
omg http://greyhandgang.com/ (just a v cool image blog) has a new post this month, after months of hiatus
http://aheadlongdive.com/2012/05/10/cary-grant/
http://fraternite-ou-la-mort.tumblr.com/post/21631762975/image-source-its-a-scalable-vector-graphics
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/tybuq/did_you_ever_think_you_were_going_to_die_from_a/c4qtnqo (via http://twitter.com/Hot_Bid)
postgame interviews are generally boring and contentless (many similarities with the average SC2 post-match interview). here's an exception:
seriously this is awesome hahaha. so quotable
so so good
http://www.rdwarf.com/users/mink/martinifaq.html
learn how to order a Martini, everyone.
http://savethesounds.info/
I have been using http://thisismyjam.com/ a bit lately and enjoying it
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/260688528/clang
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