Norlos

Many have noticed the passing of Gil Scott Heron.  In his memory, I note that our first black president and child of the sixties/seventies seems to have effectively killed the lunar landing program.  Coincidence?

Popular Science has a great gallery of homemade dikes in Mississippi. If I ever find myself living in a house put at risk by a flood, I’m calling in DoubleOhSoul to help me build one of these.

The Smithsonian has a photo gallery dedicated to the best facial hair in the Civil War.

Jebus approaches me at some kind of party and says, “Eight people in the Podunk Willies is already too many.  You need to quit hanging around like you’re trying to get into the band.”  It hurt my feelings, but I appreciated his honesty.  And now I have this Nada Surf song stuck in my head.  So I’m not sure what that all means, really.

He’s also saying that people don’t have to return library books, but we’re a 501(c)(3) so he’s not our boss. We’ll charge late fees if we want…

Saying hello all. The smog is lovely this time of year.

Two nights ago Dr. No vetoed my selection of this restaurant. Beijing is odd like this — our hotel, Hotel G, has a Eurotrash vibe and buttons that let us change the color of the room’s windows. Downstairs, this morning, there was a horse-drawn wagon out front collecting scrap.

when i got home from swimming at the bed-stuy ymca, i came across an interesting show on WNYC that’s hosted by Oscar Brand.

there aren’t any youtube videos of the 1960s songs that struck me to the heart from his show, but, as i was trying to find those song on the youtube, i was intrigued by the suggested links.

i have no idea why youtube might think that somebody might be interested in “I’m Gonna Spend Christmas With A Dalek” because they searched for Oscar Brand, but i love “Doctorin the Tardis” by the KLF so it works.

NPR generally does a great job of picking interesting music for the musical segues between stories, but lately they’ve started using the Vitamin String Quartet as its go-to band.

Consider:

Yesterday, All Things Considered used VSQ’s version of It’s The End Of The World As We Know It at the end of it’s story about the Family Radio Doomsday folks.

(The first time I was approached by a doomsdayer…and then, in quick succession, by three more…I thought it was some film studio viral marketing stunt for a disaster movie.)

Today, Marketplace Money used VSQ’s version of Sweet Child O’ Mine at the end of this bit about industry guidelines for kids’ food.



Sean Avery (he’s back with the Rangers!) made news recently not for acting like an idiot, but for saying publicly that he supports same-sex marriage.