by Chris Barrus
I figured that would be a couple months and/or the release of Leopard before we would begin seeing some truly impressive uses of the iPhone. Er… try a week and a half. Telekinesis is a remote access app for the iPhone. It’s a super early alpha release, but, well… holy crap! This make my wish for a iPhone terminal app somewhat redundant.
Photo via tonx on Flickr.
Forwarded without comment from Evan Dorkin…
In the new Previews catalog there are listings for two fragrances (scents, perfumes, useless smelly liquids in chintzy bottles, whatever the fuck you want to call them), based on the works of Neil Gaiman.
Now fanboys and geekgirls of a certain fantastical persuasion can joyously cover up the wretched stink of bad personal hygiene and chronic loneliness by simply sprinkling these magical new unguents across their ripe marsh-like armpits, sweaty, dirt-lined necks, and dewy, mint-in-pants genitalia. For only a few dozen dollars you can be one of the more distinguished stinkpots traipsing about the San Diego Comicon floor, marching with the Society for Creative Anachronism, or trundling through the local Renaissance Fair –Â cock of the walk, sporting a devilish grin, proudly smelling like a mystical whatever-the-fuck, Ahhh, the smell of it!
Now, seriously, would somebody please go out and shoot this fucking industry in the head, pretty please? Just blow it’s tiny brain out like any other mindless, scuzz-stained zombie deserves. The eu de moron sales benefit the CBDLF, which is nice, and I’ve got nothing personal against Neil, who I’ve met and who seems to be a lovely person, but I’m still waving my hate flag proudly for this one. This just makes my head spin. I know, perhaps I’m being a mite harsh here, because, as we all know, nothing says classy like shopping for perfume in Diamond Previews. It’s where I most often turn to when I’m in the market for formal outerwear, accessories, toiletries and what have you. Ascots, cuff links, gaiters, monocles, top hats, of course, it makes perfect sense to see Diamond Previews first. But this…well, for me, it goes beyond the pale.
Who would dream this up, who would approve this, who would manufacture this, who would want this, who would buy this, who would wear this, who would admit to any of the above?
Find them. Chain them. Stop them.
I guess it could be worse. Joe Matt could have a fragrance line.
The rest of Previews, it goes without saying, besides about a dozen or so pages of prudently clipped offerings, was the usual mind-numbing, eye-assaulting, heart-stopping display of madness, greed, incompetence, witlessness, and outright trash. But this tooketh the cake.
Inspired by Coop’s list here’s my additions…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDTTB2p-OoI[/youtube]
By the way today is World UFO Day so if you see an alien, buy ’em a drink and a hearty plate of mutilated cattle.
Alabama has been suffering from a drought for awhile now and with little relief in sight governor Bob Riley took action. Instead of announcing a comprehensive plan to switch to lesser-impact agriculture that uses more efficient irrigation systems, the governor’s plan is, well, a bit more speculative:
The governor issued a proclamation calling for a week of prayer for rain, beginning Saturday.
Riley encouraged Alabamians to pray “individually and in their houses of worship.”
“Throughout our history, Alabamians have turned in prayer to God to humbly ask for his blessings and to hold us steady during times of difficulty,” Riley said. “This drought is without question a time of great difficulty.”
A prepared statement included endorsements from the Alabama Farmers Federation and the Alabama Farmers Market Authority.
As much as I want to take the cheap shot here, I have to back off and default to my higher power: Charles Fort, Lo! part 2, chapter 4:
For months, there had been, in the Provinces of Murcia and Alicante, Spain, a drought so severe that inhabitants had been driven to emigration to Algeria. Whether we think of this drought and the prayers of the people as having relation or not, there came a downpour that was as intense as the necessities. See London Times, Oct. 20, 1879. Upon Oct. 14th, floods poured upon these parched provinces. Perhaps it was response to the prayers of the people. Five villages were destroyed. Fifteen hundred persons perished.
Isolated incident? Try again (also from Lo!):
At a meeting of the Royal Geographic Society, Dec. 11, 1922, Sir Francis Younghusband told of a drought, in August, 1906, in Western China. The chief magistrate in Chungking prayed for rain. He put more fervour into it. Then he prayed prodigiously for rain. It began to rain. Then something that was called “a waterspout” fell from the sky. Many of the inhabitants were drowned.
And what the heck, let’s dogpile on some more:
Droughts in Russia. Straits Times, June 6 — droughts ended by downpours in Bengal and Java. In Kashmir and in the Punjab, violent thunderstorms and earthquakes occurred together (Calcutta Statesman, June 1 and 3). In Turkey, there would have been extreme distress, but about the first of June, amidst woe and thanksgiving, destructive salvations demonstrated efficacy, and for a week kept on spreading joy and misery. Levant Herald, June 4 — earthquakes preceded deluges, and then continued with them.
I know I know, dodgy stories from the past by a crackpot who tracked fishfalls. But can we at least agree that it might be prudent to be careful what you wish for? Apparently, Governor Riley missed that day in school because a couple days later:
Just a couple days after Gov. Bob Riley called for residents to pray for rain, a series of strong thunderstorms brought torrential rain, flash floods and lightning to the area.
The storms didn’t match the intensity of Friday night’s bad weather, but still strong enough for the county to be under a severe thunderstorm warning part of the early afternoon.
Several areas also reported flooding, with one north Huntsville resident reporting water flowing out of the drainage ditches into her and neighbor’s yards, even knocking down a fence.
My sister is in Georgia and Azerbaijan, following the old Silk Road trail through to China and then to Vietnam. Check out her blog at http://pamistan.blogspot.com/
It’s that postcard over there on the right that started it all. A dead town east of Joshua Tree that wasn’t even that much of a town before it died. However, someone thought enough of it to commission up a “Greetings From” postcard for the soldiers who were passing through town on their way to North Africa with Patton.Some twenty-five years later I’ve got a small collection of so-called “large letter” postcards and there’s enough of us online to support the inevitable Flickr group. CreativePro.com looks back at the history of the Teich company who basically created the large letter style.
I was just finishing up this post about Montrose when I noticed Atwater Village Newbie posting about it today too. And yeah – unlike the morass of dubious “Old Town [name of city]” downtown revitalizations around LA county, Montrose has gone directly from 1975 to 2007 completely unscathed. The signage, the store fronts, and even the businesses themselves haven’t changed at all.
The Montrose bowling alley is total Charles Phoenix bait:
I love the fonts, the glass bricks, and the two tone green but the detail that makes it is the bowling pins on the front of the planter box. I doubt that this building has changed at all in fifty years. Certainly the inside of it hasn’t.
If you go for the architecture make sure you stay for the food. Tbe “Vietnamese Fusion” sign outside Pho 21 might scare off some purists, but their pho is yummy with a strong broth and noodles that can stand up to it. Perhaps more to the point, Pho 21 is the only pho place in this part of town and I’m glad that it’s a good one.
If you need no other reason to go to Montrose, then at least go for La Cabinita. It’s one of the best Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles and the best mole this side of Guelaguetza.
A lot of questions come to mind – mainly as to whether Ashcroft has expunged all the ham and oatmeal from his system and whether McCabe will be interested enough to really cut loose. This could either be embarrassingly bad or spectacularly good. Probably both at the same time.
I’d probably be just as happy if it was one of those “Don’t Look Back” shows where they could play A Storm In Heaven in it’s entirety.
