Posters designed in the 60’s by Lefor-Openo, a french advertising and design firm. [MeFi]
Breakin'
Media Activists Who Smile and Throw Cheese [NYT blogerated link]
… Since Jan. 6, when the five-member Rochester-based group executed its first bust, as it calls them, of a live remote in their hometown, viewers in Boston; New York City; Manchester, N.H.; Columbus, Ohio; and several other cities have seen their local news briefly hijacked by elaborately planned vignettes that are more likely to baffle or alarm reporters than make them curse on the air.
The Newsbreakers’ repertory of characters includes Cheese Ninja, who cavorts in the background of live news broadcasts, derisively tossing slices of processed cheese, and Jiminy Diz, a supposed newspaper reporter, wearing a loud jacket and a hat with a “Press” card in the band, who is angry with local television news for lifting reports from the morning paper.
These humorless aesthetes are clearly a front intended to increase overall viewer numbers for local news!
Grimfaced, I await their eruption hereabouts.
Doxen
It’s unclear how this came across the linktroll, but: Hot Dog Blog, “the community site for dachshunds and dachshund lovers!” Proceed to the multimedia downloads for sheer minutes of dachshund-wriggling hilarity.
The Hut
bart sez: See You at Nick’s. I won’t be there, but in spirit. Pour one out for me, boys!
(Update of possible barty interest: Michaelpella, courtesy brother Dan.)
Sleep Walk
Welcome to World of Sleep Walk – Santo and Johnny.
Renatal
Poupou sez Seattle Classics is the way to go for rentals.
Crusading Hero Fights back
Jon Nelson, possibly my new favorite film critic, says, “I just saw Batman Begins,” and among other things, notes:
“I think that it might very well be THE WORST MOVIE EVER MADE IN THE HISTORY OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE,” going on to note that “It had depth of badness.”
Really, the whole thing is worth quoting, but I’ll refrain. this choice bit, though, must be passed along.
“The plot is dolled up with lots of racist crap from the ‘mystic east’ and some really dumb psychedelic obscurantism. Under that layer of drivel is some nasty reactionary nihilistic bullshit masquerading as crusading idealism.”
Ah, what a sweet rant. My only complaint is that it lacks detail.
The Hunt
Viv and I drove all over the north end today, looking at rentals. On our way up I snagged a car adapter for the Powerbook so I would be able to do that bluetooth-modem thing and get Google maps of our destinations on the fly; as it happened, I’d planned far enough ahead that I only had to go online while driving around twice.
We saw two that looked great, both on the very western edges of their respective neighborhoods, Magnolia and Ballard.
Afterward, we repaired for dinner to the Hi-Life, formerly a terrible dive known as the Ballard Firehouse (yes, I’ve played there, and yes, it sucked) for a pricey but yummy dinner. On our way out the door we ran into my long-ago ex-wife and spent the rest of the early evening playing catch-up over a walk through old Ballard and drinks.
We have tentative showings on the two most promising places Monday night.
Wybark
While perusing this fascinating analysis of the reported use of airplanes during the notorious Tulsa race riot of 1921, I came across a reference to the black community of “Wybark, Oklahoma,” which Google and Google Maps report to be located somewhere in the precincts of Muskogee. This newsletter reports that the community “was located at Section 6 Township 15N Range 19E in Muskogee county (north of Muskogee).”
I find it interesting that Google Maps apparently include historical data, as the same reference notes that “Wybark, Oklahoma does not appear on the Oklahoma maps of today.”
This AOL Hometown page describes the community thusly in a list of “African ghost towns” in the Oklahoma region: “WYBARK—Established in 1890, though settled a bit earlier, Wybark was 4 miles north of Muskogee. The town operated a post office from 1890 to 1940. It is believed to have absorbed some of the old settlement of North Fork though no remains of that town are noted. The town faded in the 1940s.”
I’m intrigued. The exhaustively researched genealogy that Quentin Whybark worked up in the early nineties clearly implied unexplored and lost Whybark family branches, including Civil War era references to a doctor, if I recall correctly, who may have chosen the Confederacy instead of the Union. All of the Civil War era information centers on the area around Marble Hill, Missouri, where the second-generation American Whybark settled while the area was still under the control of Spain.
I wonder if this lost Oklahoma hamlet relates to that unexplored branch of family history, or if the town’s name could possibly have arisen independently. It seems awfully improbable for the name to have an independent etymology.
Busmonster
The P-I’s Buzzworthy scores bus link of the month for pointing out Seattle Bus Monster, a Google Maps hack intended to simplify navigating the vexing but data-rich resources of Metro Online.