Friday, January 16, 2009

up up and away...

WE'VE MOVED. {{ZOOM}}


thousands has moved to thousands2thousands.com
please take note, and keep up with the nonsense.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

When birds attack


Pilot does a really good job not letting anyone die when birds stuff up the engines of an enormous man-made winged beastie

Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Re: China

ok sure I'll go to china just as soon as I pay next month's r..e...



...OH GODDAMMIT NEIL PATRICK HARRIS DON'T START THIS AGAIN.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Everybody Move to China

srsly. do. it. All I keep hearing is that the economy sucks in America. Why don't you all come here? Let's hang out! China owns America's foreign debt. Come over here and help get it back.

That said, I'm looking for an intern. It's an unpaid position, but you'll get really good free food and drinks at least a few times a week (and the rest of the food is cheap). You can sleep on the couch. I promised Hayk hugs. You can all have hugs (unlike interest rates and mortgage stuff that I don't understand, a surplus of hugs does not devalue the hug economy).

Qualifications:
  • Understands the word Internet (see also: tubes, interweb, etc.)
  • Can write
  • Can walk
Multitasking not required, but if you can walk and chew gum at the same time, then you're in.

Other helpful skillz (not required):

  • Internet skillz
  • Language skills
  • Adobe CS skillz
  • nunchuck skillz (sorry, I had to do it)

If you apply for this position, then you will be hired. I guarantee plenty of time to also find a "real job" that pays you loads of money while you're an intern. I will also make you sexy business cards that you can use for "networking." When the company hits it big, interns will get to share the bounty (that's how the pirates did it, and that's how we're doing it).

Note that the position is only unpaid because no one is making money on this project yet. So, technically, you won't be an intern so much as a founding partner.

Do you know how much the founding partners of Google are worth?
Neither do I. But I'm sure it's a lot.

Also note: creative people are in high demand here. Leon Leon Leon could make money money money djing in clubs. Look, Orion! could go on tour. There is freelance writing and photography work galore. Graphic design? You betcha. And what's more: when all else fails, you can make a FORUNE teaching English - the easiest job in the world.

All this for the low low price of one plane ticket to China. There are even direct flights from New York. And there's a crazy time difference, so you get to travel to the future (true story: when I post something on facebook, it says that I did it "tomorrow").

Beardsley: there are French people here too. You could even get a job speaking French all day. It's practically Paris, except with fewer berets and baguettes.

Howe: Every great writer did his finest work in exile. Think Joyce, Hemingway, Forster... you know, ALL of them.

Zam: music.

HayK: Art. Artists. Cheap art supplies. umm... other stuff.

Wool: ditto. Also, like I said, plenty of opportunities to be a photographer.

Ricky: More opportunities to be witty on the Internet and less snow to get you down when you're driving.

Everyone else: this post is getting too long. Move to Beijing for a while! It'll be fun!

Best blog post ever

http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/2009/01/animal-collective-is-a-band-created-byforon-the-internet.html

Thanks to Reed @ majorlabeldebut.com for the tip.

I still haven't listened to this album - I'm waiting for the right time/context, because I want it to be special. No lol. Sincerely.

Undies in bundle

Do you ever find yourself wishing someone would say something, because your thoughts have rested on it from time to time, but you don't have the willingness to say it because you don't fully believe what you have to say? That's what blogs and free speech and secret blogging names that could never be traced to your email address and actual identity are for!

You know what really ticks me off? When people use the word "heteronormative" as if it's the next worse thing to the holocaust. Of course we live in a heteronormative world. Human beings are heterosexual. Also, human beings are pretty much the same size, generally try to survive, have five senses, etc. Some people are REALLY tall! Some are named Little. Some people kill themselves, while others make New Year's resolutions not to kill themselves. When you're born with a deviation, you deal with it, right? I'm was born 30% deaf and I wet the bed until I was 13. Boo fucking hoo.



The human mind is beautifully efficient at making good predictions and classifying experiences in useful ways. A deviation from a norm is surprising, is often incorporated into an adjusted norm, but doesn't change the essence of the norm.



Since when is it a person's responsibility to pre-emptively consider every single fucking group of people that could be "offended" before speaking? Does this all stem from a social economy? People will like me better if I am conscientous and sympathetic, and I want people to like me for various self-serving reasons, so I will choose to be conscientous and sympathetic. Or is it related to a higher obligation to not be an asshole or inhibit people's natural born right to equal opportunity? Ow I just bit my tongue, not on purpose.



Being overly conscientous is unproductive. For me. And a lot of people. It's productive for the minority. It's selfish. For me. And a lot of people. It's also selfish for the minority.



What is the worst, is not being able to have this type of conversation for fear of sounding heteronormative. Or worse, a bigot! The worst thing in the world. I guess I was born overly fearful as well. Not conscientous, fearful. Fear can sometimes equal respect? Reverence?



Boo fucking hoo. I do know that if you make something funny, it's less scary. Does making something more funny make it less meaningful?



Zamdrovsky: Passionate and trite. A bigot in disguise. Severely confused, and really unhappy. And a big bitch. Making excuses and shit. Saying things to protect him/her/itself. Cowardly.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

That after-lunch limbo, during which you can't get anything done

May I challenge the assertion, widely held, that intolerance is bad?

As an adult, I encounter conflicts I had until now avoided, because I am beginning to recognize real limits. I have become increasingly aware of my mortality and of the limits of my own mind, and of how these limits affect my willingness to do certain things. Traditionally, religion counteracts this disintegration, allowing defeated souls a strategy and/or mechanism for being productive and feeling happy. In a sense, to have faith is to be intolerant of views that conflict with your belief: I have faith, so in principle I do not not have faith.

Intolerance is necessary to happiness. Religion exists for a reason. What compels me, and many of you, to reject it? Why, when offered a shed full of hammers and vices and anvils and work gloves, would one pound a nail with one's skull? Surely a hammer is just as real as a skull, just as craving truth is just as real as craving happiness.

Someone parse intolerance for me. Distinguish between religious intolerance and, for example, racial or gender-related intolerance. Explain the difference between a tool and a mechanism.

The best thing someone ever told me was, "So all these really smart people deduced all these true things that coincidentally make you very depressed and anxious - now what?"

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Zombies: Not a problem

Last night I had a dream that I was in a gunfight, and amidst the chaos 'Lil Wayne tried to strangle me with his small intestine. I started yelling "shoot for the head! THE HEAD!" as if I were giving a lesson in zombie killing.


Question: Were a zombie attack really to occur in this day and age, how long do you think it would last until contained/stopped?

We all know that, since the beginning of zombie mythos, the only way to stop a zombie from nom-ing on your flesh is to aim a fatal shot, stab, or grenade straight to the brain. Save for some places in Manhattan and Bushwick, the un-dead would also be particularly easy to spot on the street, or, coming up your stairs. It wouldn't take long for somebody with any zombie knowledge whatsoever to devise a plan of action that either ended up in personally killing the zombie, or finding someone that could. I also wouldn't be surprised if in the Regan administration, a code:dead was created in the possibility of such an attack, resulting in an immediate containment and eradication of the un-dead. Though some/many uncontaminated individuals would undoubtedly be suck within the contained area, I'm sure that we would be smart enough to create militias to protect the interior, if they don't already exist. I mean, c'mon, zombies can't even use TOOLS.

So basically, were zombies really to attack, it'd all be over in a week and kids would say a few months later, "man remember when the un-dead rose and we got out of school for like a week? I wish that would happen before my Algebra 2 test tomorrow."

Yeah. We can all rest easy. Zombies: not a problem.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Farewell

2009 marks the first year in over 50 that Polaroid instant film isn't around. Here's a video celebrating the SX-70, which came out in 1972. Anyone who's remotely nerdy will find the tech specs explained in here fascinating! FASCINATING!!!

Instant photography was unveiled in 1947, with a presentation made to the Optical Society in New York City. You know what this means? TEH POLAROID WAS COOL BEFORE TEH HIPSTERS.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

it's a crazy life

2 things I've seen while watching the Illinois-Purdue men's basketball game:

a) Quite possibly the ugliest young man ever, with the stretched, pointy face of a witch. He was in the student section wearing the away Purdue jersey.

b) Also in the student section, one especially angry student gives the ref the big, fat finger! Right on ESPN at 7:10 pm! SUCH Decency! America's family values are crumbling, shaken by violent video games, movies and talkies.

Soon we move to Wordpress. Our Reader Ship will most certainly
(deep breath!)
EXSCHPLOOOOOOOOOOADE
(deeep breath!)
FAAAAHHHHHCK
(deeeheeeep breath!)
21..13..8..5..3..2 1 ONE THOUSAND 1 ONE THOUSAND

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Buzzing


In what will certainly be noted as a completely useless expenditure of grant money, scientists in Australia recently proved . . . absolutely nothing.

Well, the did prove that bees on coke act just like people on coke. They dance more absurdly and they like to talk a lot. They also get really excited about doing their work, and insist that everyone else pay attention to them. Luckily, the scientists were watching.

One researcher remarked, "The poor little buggers had to drink cocaine for a week. Then we just stopped it dead and we gave them a learning test." We're pretty sure his implication was that the "little buggers" were "poor" because he gave them a test right after they had been partying. Major soil.

I originally found this item in the same newspaper section that ran stories about lenience for poverty-stricken drug dealers and new government sponsored detox programs. I'm still trying to figure out how getting bees high helps get people clean.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

What in the hell were the 50's even made out of?



....Scotch apparently, and lots of it.

I'm not quite sure that "The Best of Everything" (1959) entirely lives up to its title. Or perhaps it does in an unintentionally (?) cynical way. The pedestrian storyline, speckled with events such as marriages, miscarriages, affairs, and nervous breakdowns is just a glimpse into one woman's very very small world. The best of her everything is supposedly the best of every city girl's everything, and what is that even? Not much more than a 20$ a month salary increase, and a slap on the ass. Oh, and love too. Don't forget love. However even that department is riddled with realistic failures. The educated ambitious women are portrayed as cold hearted and lonely in the permanent positions of weekend mistresses to married men, while their more wide-eyed naive counterparts get bamboozled by no good playboys who use the word "love" like a handkerchief.

But one thing is for sure, have a sip of scotch for everytime they drink in this movie and you'll be completely hammered by the abortion scene (that we all totally saw coming).

Friday, December 19, 2008

Madison, WI

http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/latest/324601

"Madison has been named the No. 1 place in America for men, according to Men's Health magazine. The magazine also rated Madison seventh in the country for best quality of life for men. Madison was also named the No. 8 place in America for women, according to Women's Health magazine. The city was also ranked ninth for women living the longest life."




Haha who CARES?

Mr. Smith goes to contemplate suicide like a dumb quitter


YO. This piece about "It's a Wonderful Life" by Wendell Jamieson appeared in the NYtimes yesterday.

Lots of people love this movie of course. But I’m convinced it’s for the wrong reasons. Because to me “It’s a Wonderful Life” is anything but a cheery holiday tale. Sitting in that dark public high school classroom, I shuddered as the projector whirred and George Bailey’s life unspooled.

Was this what adulthood promised?

“It’s a Wonderful Life” is a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams, of seeing your father driven to the grave before his time, of living among bitter, small-minded people. It is a story of being trapped, of compromising, of watching others move ahead and away, of becoming so filled with rage that you verbally abuse your children, their teacher and your oppressively perfect wife.
The beautiful tragedy of the human condition is that we remain hopeful.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Opening the Can

From Madison's (liberal rag) The Capital Times:

"In April, Kevin Diaz, 20, earned himself a trip back to jail after he and two friends pulled up alongside a man who was taking a bike ride on Madison's east side. Diaz leaned out of a back window of the sport utility vehicle and began hitting the man on the bicycle with a 32-inch ice scraper, authorities say.When the man on the bicycle asked him why, Diaz said,'I just got out of jail. I'm trying to have fun and whoop some ass.' Diaz is back in jail on a probation hold."

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Help!

Okay, here's a new use for a blog:

I need some help from a New Yorker with a camera, and I know that there are a few of you who write for or read this blog.

If you happen to find yourself on 5th Ave this week, in the area of high-end 5th Ave shopping and holding a camera, could you take a few pictures and send them to me at the highest resolution possible. Seriously, I only need like 3 or 4 shots.

You will find yourself published in China and definitely with a photo credit. And I promise to buy you like 10 drinks when I see you in New York (100 drinks if I see you in Beijing).

Please help if you can!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (!)

Variety Amateur Hour

Like I was tellin' Ricky Saturday,
Salons: people with bad haircuts giving people bad haircuts.
Also, has any guy ever gotten a good haircut? I don't think that has ever happened.

How much would you have to pay an NFL official to celebrate along with that team that just scored the touchdown?

Beyonce is the hottest woman ever and the Single Ladies video is conclusive evidence.

I think I tried sometime last year to get people all worked up about Fishers. Consider this the Fisher revival.
Facts about Fishers

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Mustelidae
Genus: Martes
Species: Martes pennanti
Makes noises like: the squeal of a baby placed naked on its back on a cold rock with a pipin' hot BBQ skewer shoved in its foot.
Its teeth are so sharp that: it can enter your house by chewing through your foundation.

Milwaukee is a segregated city. The anecdotes and statistics in this article are difficult to stomach, but I suppose it would be naiive of me to be surprised. Neighborhoods there are homogeneous. I experienced an instance of this when I went to an art show on the South side in a Latino area. We saw some interactive video installations done by UW-Milwaukee art students, and there were some inspired projects. The art department has some nice display areas. This one was the lobby of an apartment building with white plaster and pale limestone walls. Anyway, we left the show and wandered the neighborhood in search of a tavern. We stopped to spend a few minutes basking in stony-white, twice reflected light - once off of the moon, which was full, and then off an old limestone church. Unadulterated light. Don't-make-them-like-that-anymore churches abound in Milwaukee. A tavern's red neon lights were barely visible two blocks down a sidestreet. It looked like a brothel. And we expected to be the only three white dudes there. Turns out we were the only three white dudes there, but there wasn't a hostile crowd giving us the eye: there wasn't a crowd. There were three 45-50 year old women and an older male bartender, who was Colombian. He nursed from an enormous mug aggressively. On two non-plasma roundscreen TVs, numerous scantily clad Latina vixens gyrated. There was a small wood floor for dancing, and two of the women would dance drunkenly while the other sat at the bar and smoked. After a few minutes, the sitter would tap in and a dancer would take a break. There was a disco ball and several sets of primary colored lights adorned the corners of the ceiling. We talked with the bartender, who was hard of hearing (initially we thought he didn't speak English). Apparently he just opened the bar two weeks ago and only keeps it open on Fridays from like 5-11 pm. Hell yeah, just give 'em what they need: them's the glory hours of any week! The bottom line is, this bar is fucking tight and I wish I lived in Milwaukee so I could go there every single Friday. A Miller Lite bottle was $3 though. Kind of weak.

This has been a heartbreaking season for the Green Bay Packers.

I really like this video. I saw it on Sasha Frere-Jones' website. I think this band reminds me of a hybrid Kings of Leon (when they were good) and The Libertines.


EDIT: Whoa I didn't realize this band was a little bit older than I thought. Formed in 1999, albums in '03, '05, '06, '07.
2ND EDIT: I still stand by A.R.E. Weapons - "Fuck What You Like," but either I don't get the irony or their song about Times Square is terrible.

Also, French Horn Rebellion are tight! You gotta watch their videos - the songs themselves don't do the guys justice. They're from Milwaukee but apparently they live in Brooklyn a.k.a. the center of the entire fucking Universe.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

WHERE DOES EGGNOG COME FROM?

Little miss Thu Tran is my new favorite person. Ever. Creator of the blog Food Party, cuisine imagineer, and prop designer for Girl Talk's last tour, here is her Holiday Special Episode. Excuse me while I go make myself some gingerbread **bling**.



(STILL HUNGRY!? learn how to make "snow balls" with jack frost [who pisses me off and that's why i don't feel like including him] and learn Thu's secret holiday ingredient in part 2 of this webisode)

whats better than one ninja? two ninjas. whats better than two ninjas? three ninjas. whats better than three ninjas? NOTHING


list of things noted while watching 3 ninjas tonight (its on youtube in full glory!)

- one of the basic traits of a master ninja is the ability to disappear in mid-conversation when the person you're speaking with turns his head or loses focus for just one fwiggin moment just one tiny fwiggin moment. they turn back and you are gone

-
also, learn to use your environment, i.e. find funny stuff around you to bash your opponents with or about. examples: flower pots, a grand piano, a telephone.

- knives, blades, shurikens, nunchuks, etc. are all ok, but if you even pick up a gun you are so banned from being a ninja. gunkata doesnt count. that being said, evil ninjas carrying ak-47s looks cool as all hells

- this movie has managed to combine backwards caps, vinyl scratching sounds, and ninjas. if only it had dinosaurs


- colt (the moody middle brother) spray paints his mask white to hide in one scene. wtf kid? your grandfather painted that thing as part of your naming ceremony and you just turn it into a crappy mime mask? no wonder no one remembers you

- it seems as all traces of the asian genes have been lost in two generations. besides ninja skills, obv. maybe they wont ever hit puberty?

- i am now spending much time photoshopping something awesome that will be posted above re: backwards hat, vinyl, ninjas, etc. of course this doesn't make sense now because you've already seen it so i assume it came out awesome (also, i managed to get anime porn searching for 'cartoon mountain' on the 3rd page)

- jon turteltaub, the director of 3 ninjas, also directed cool runnings. game over.