Friday, May 14, 2004
Any Surly Media, or Dairymen Lay Us
I have used the phrase "news fast" here a time or two. I have a couple of friends who use it as well. It means just what it says--that you stop taking news internally for a while, usually out of sheer exhaustion and for the sake of your mental health. It's not easy to do. I have logged on more times than I can count either with no plans to blog, or with an idea to blog about something not related to the day's hard news, only to find myself back on the treadmill of link and rant. It's a hazard when you have a hobby like this one and an avocation like politics and government. But we do all need a vacation from reality--or, more precisely, a vacation to a different form of reality, away from the poisonous nonsense of the front page, into realms where a bush is something you make love under and a rummy is someone who's had too much Captain Morgan. (Mark Morford elaborates.) So in the interest of directing you elsewhere on the Internet, here are some alternate destinations to visit this weekend instead of Google News or CNN.
Retrocrush is one of the more interesting time-wasters on the web. They've begun a series of the 50 coolest song moments of all time. Not whole songs--just bits of songs that are extremely cool. I knew exactly what they were talking about when I clicked number 50--Richard Betts' slide guitar from heaven on the fadeout of the Allman Brothers' "Ramblin' Man." (To find it, scroll down from the main page.)
The Annals of Improbable Research collects, well, improbable research projects from academia, and they're more or less serious about it. So if you want to know which came first, the chicken or the egg, or how to make your own glowing electric pickle, you can.
I don't think the Etiquette Grrls site has been updated for a while, but no matter--proper etiquette is timeless. And besides, their work will never be done because, as the Grrls' main page says, "Somewhere, someone is wearing a tube top in church. At a funeral."
The Matrix is making its basic cable debut on TBS this weekend. If you want to look for parallel universes in your own home, all you need is a laser pointer, a pin, and a piece of paper.
Last of all, there's the Internet Anagram Server. Priceless. Or as they might call it, "licepress"--but surely that's not an anagram, that's a spoonerism.
I have used the phrase "news fast" here a time or two. I have a couple of friends who use it as well. It means just what it says--that you stop taking news internally for a while, usually out of sheer exhaustion and for the sake of your mental health. It's not easy to do. I have logged on more times than I can count either with no plans to blog, or with an idea to blog about something not related to the day's hard news, only to find myself back on the treadmill of link and rant. It's a hazard when you have a hobby like this one and an avocation like politics and government. But we do all need a vacation from reality--or, more precisely, a vacation to a different form of reality, away from the poisonous nonsense of the front page, into realms where a bush is something you make love under and a rummy is someone who's had too much Captain Morgan. (Mark Morford elaborates.) So in the interest of directing you elsewhere on the Internet, here are some alternate destinations to visit this weekend instead of Google News or CNN.
Retrocrush is one of the more interesting time-wasters on the web. They've begun a series of the 50 coolest song moments of all time. Not whole songs--just bits of songs that are extremely cool. I knew exactly what they were talking about when I clicked number 50--Richard Betts' slide guitar from heaven on the fadeout of the Allman Brothers' "Ramblin' Man." (To find it, scroll down from the main page.)
The Annals of Improbable Research collects, well, improbable research projects from academia, and they're more or less serious about it. So if you want to know which came first, the chicken or the egg, or how to make your own glowing electric pickle, you can.
I don't think the Etiquette Grrls site has been updated for a while, but no matter--proper etiquette is timeless. And besides, their work will never be done because, as the Grrls' main page says, "Somewhere, someone is wearing a tube top in church. At a funeral."
The Matrix is making its basic cable debut on TBS this weekend. If you want to look for parallel universes in your own home, all you need is a laser pointer, a pin, and a piece of paper.
Last of all, there's the Internet Anagram Server. Priceless. Or as they might call it, "licepress"--but surely that's not an anagram, that's a spoonerism.
