davidthompsontag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-12079022009-07-18T07:00:00+01:00TypePadUntooned (2)tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451675669e20115711cd37b970c2009-07-18T07:00:00+01:002009-07-18T19:14:48+01:00I was invited… to offer a piece for a show titled “Monsters?” I looked at the list of invites and then imagined all of the usual takes on what a monster is thought to be. Perhaps some will be cute,...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/07/untooned-2.htmlFriday Ephemeratag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451675669e20115720d339f970b2009-07-17T07:00:00+01:002009-07-17T07:00:00+01:00Do you own an ICBM silo? // Silo makeovers. // USB-powered chainsaw. // A 3-D map of Hong Kong. (h/t, Coudal) // Could you make a toaster from scratch? // A chess set made of vacuum tubes. // Clothing made...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/07/friday-ephemera-2.htmlDesecrationtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451675669e201157117f649970c2009-07-16T08:44:39+01:002009-07-16T20:29:53+01:00ABC’s Middle East correspondent Anne Barker visits Jerusalem and feels the presence of the numinous: Orthodox Jews are angry at the local council’s decision to open a municipal car park on Saturdays - or Shabbat, the day of rest for...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/07/desecration.htmlAnak Krakatautag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451675669e2011572031a7d970b2009-07-14T15:28:36+01:002009-07-14T15:28:36+01:00Or Child of Krakatoa. June, 2009. Photograph by Marco Fulle. Via. Related.David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/07/anak-krakatau.htmlReheated (5)tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451675669e2011572017720970b2009-07-14T07:47:41+01:002009-07-14T07:47:41+01:00For newcomers, three more items from the archives. Freeloading and Snobbery. Arts establishment claims to be “suppressed,” sneers at the little people, demands free money. I’m not convinced that the reduction of taxpayer subsidy for loss-making plays qualifies as “suppression.”...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/07/reheated-5.htmlA Czar, You Say? tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451675669e2011571042fe7970c2009-07-12T16:29:37+01:002009-07-12T16:29:37+01:00TDK thinks you may be interested in this: Indeed, it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/07/a-czar-you-say-.htmlWoollytag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451675669e2011570f7517b970c2009-07-10T14:03:25+01:002009-07-10T14:03:25+01:00Brace yourselves for some pure essence of Guardian, courtesy of Libby Brooks. Amid the economic rubble, a revolution is being knitted. I bet you weren’t expecting that. Tactile and egalitarian, nourishing and slow, arts and crafts are enjoying a deserved...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/07/woolly.htmlFriday Ephemeratag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451675669e2011571e1d1e7970b2009-07-10T07:00:00+01:002009-07-10T07:00:00+01:00Ravishing bacteria. // What aliens are watching. // Make your own Klingon forehead ridges. (h/t, Candice) // The Kremlin, revealed. // The internet in space. // Michio Kaku’s cosmology cheat sheet. // The latest crop of rice paddy art. //...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/07/friday-ephemera-1.htmlThe Whale That Explodedtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451675669e2011571d3b8f0970b2009-07-07T17:30:50+01:002009-07-07T17:30:50+01:00No, seriously. See for yourselves. I quote: In January 2004, the carcass of a 50-ton sperm whale explodes in a Taiwanese city centre. [National Geographic Channel] examines the physics and the biology of this 100,000-pound animal whose body was destroyed...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/07/the-whale-that-exploded.htmlThis One Time...tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451675669e2011571d10a42970b2009-07-07T07:46:47+01:002009-07-07T07:57:56+01:00Here’s a short animation by Cal Arts student Nelson Boles. Like many good yarns, it’s about a boy, his, er, dog and… a big, terrible thing. The ending’s a little abrupt, but I do like the sound design and air...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/07/this-one-time.htmlFriday Ephemeratag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451675669e2011570ad5459970c2009-07-03T07:00:00+01:002009-07-03T09:13:02+01:00There’s something lurking in the sewer. Worms, apparently. (h/t, Dr Westerhaus) // Have you examined your ant lately? // Our insect overlords. // Challenging stairs. (h/t, Dr Westerhaus) // Art made from chewing gum. // Art made from bacon. //...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/07/friday-ephemera.htmlEvery Bit as Hobbled tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451675669e2011570a2b6a5970c2009-07-01T10:22:00+01:002009-07-01T16:55:50+01:00I’ve previously noted the tendency of some academic activists to indulge in wild overstatement, not least those entranced by the Holy Trinity of race, class and gender. As, for instance, when Barbara Barnett, a product of Duke’s infamous English department,...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/07/every-bit-as-hobbled-.htmlHeaven and Hell (in a Lift) tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451675669e20115718e29e4970b2009-06-30T07:05:55+01:002009-06-30T13:38:13+01:00Marco Brambilla’s Civilization is a video mural created for the lifts of New York’s Standard Hotel. Assembled from hundreds of loops of found and original footage, the mural depicts an ascent from hell, via purgatory, to heaven (and a less...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/06/heaven-and-hell-in-a-lift-.htmlNot So Goode tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451675669e201157090151c970c2009-06-29T11:32:16+01:002009-06-30T08:53:51+01:00Thanks to TDK, I finally got to see Mike Judge’s new animated series, The Goode Family, which follows an environmentally obsessive PC household and their ostentatious concerns. Here are the first three episodes. Given Judge’s previous creation, King of the...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/06/not-so-goode-.htmlFriday Ephemeratag:typepad.com,2003:post-684800672009-06-26T07:00:00+01:002009-06-26T07:00:00+01:00Morphine syrup, asthma cigarettes and cocaine toothache drops. // Red wine powder. // Milky vodka. // Moscow Cat Theatre. (h/t, Coudal) // Search Flickr by colour. // Sixty Symbols. // Geometric sculptures. // The bulbdial clock. // Apocalypse porn. //...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/06/friday-ephemera-3.htmlTubingtag:typepad.com,2003:post-684736212009-06-25T07:35:27+01:002009-06-25T07:35:27+01:00A Boy and his Tuba is a series of improbable cover versions. As the name suggests, all parts of each song are performed with a tuba, with assorted loops, grunts and distortions manipulated live. Here’s New Order’s Blue Monday. Stay...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/06/tubing.htmlUprisingtag:typepad.com,2003:post-683966612009-06-23T11:07:15+01:002009-06-23T15:16:40+01:00Poking about in the archives, I unearthed the second episode of Vanessa Engle’s excellent documentary series, Lefties. Titled Angry Wimmin, the film traces the rise of radical feminism in a grim Britain of the 1970s. As a record of social...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/06/uprising.htmlAlways Aim for the Headtag:typepad.com,2003:post-683529632009-06-22T08:45:33+01:002009-06-22T08:45:33+01:00Further to this post on the alleged political subtexts of zombie films, it seems the debate refuses to die. In The American Prospect, Paul Waldman argues: [A]t heart, the genre is a progressive one. It’s true that fighting off the...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/06/always-aim-for-the-head.htmlGrand Ambitionstag:typepad.com,2003:post-683284412009-06-21T10:36:57+01:002009-06-21T12:31:20+01:00Despite that local spot of bother, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad still finds time to share his thoughts on more elevated matters. Press TV, the state-sponsored purveyor of “24/7 truth,” quotes approvingly: In the democracy of the West, the exalted values and the...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/06/grand-ambitions.htmlGet Them While They’re Soft and Yieldingtag:typepad.com,2003:post-682865392009-06-19T17:30:00+01:002009-06-19T17:30:00+01:00Zomblog has a new series documenting the quaintly leftwing trappings to be found in leafier parts of Berkeley, California. The first instalment highlights a mosaic made by students of Black Pine Circle School, one of the city’s more exclusive private...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/06/get-them-while-theyre-soft-and-yielding.htmlFriday Ephemeratag:typepad.com,2003:post-682505212009-06-19T07:00:00+01:002009-06-19T07:00:00+01:00It’s raining tadpoles in Ishikawa prefecture. // Schoolboy versus meteorite. // Sydney panorama. (h/t, Coudal) // The Rorschach alphabet. // Steampunk watches. // The Barbie store, Shanghai. // Hygienic robot hands. // Brown sugar bacon waffles. // A dress made...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/06/friday-ephemera-2.htmlOh, Bea tag:typepad.com,2003:post-681986592009-06-17T13:49:15+01:002009-06-17T13:49:15+01:00Caution: rationalisation in progress. My politics comes from Marxism and feminism; it’s republican, it’s gay and it’s green… The survival of an honours system clothed in royalism and imperialism is a reproach to New Labour’s craven sentiment about pomp and...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/06/oh-bea-.htmlSymmetry tag:typepad.com,2003:post-681508932009-06-16T07:09:30+01:002009-06-16T07:09:30+01:00More from the Shorpy Photo Archive. Kay Jewelry Co., 407 Seventh Street N.W, Washington, D.C. Circa 1919. Storage tanks, Phillips gasoline plant, Borger, Texas. November 1942.David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/06/symmetry-.htmlA Spot of Bothertag:typepad.com,2003:post-681130632009-06-15T08:13:37+01:002009-06-16T12:50:53+01:00Michael Totten has links, clips and coverage. See also Breitbart and Azarmehr.David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/06/a-spot-of-bother.htmlFriday Ephemeratag:typepad.com,2003:post-679864932009-06-12T07:00:00+01:002009-06-12T07:00:00+01:00Small actions, repeated often. // Giant crop circle jellyfish. // Enormous actual jellyfish. Up to 200 kg. // Animals of Africa. (h/t, Coudal) // Unfortunate unicorn tattoos. (h/t, Anna) // 10 striking movies. // Take the quake quiz. Are you...David Thompsonhttp://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/06/friday-ephemera-1.html