The ##

The Mad Ones

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 10:12:22 -0500

I walked into the theater where Sam was sitting and it was empty. No one else wanted to see On The Road in the West Village. The seats were old and they made squeaks when you took them back.

After a minute two girls walked in. They had good hair. They had no idea what they were walking into. It was a second after they sat coats-off a row behind me and Sam when I talked loud so they could hear.

“Lord Almighty.”

“Christ keep shit in check.”

“But Schlink it’s like, God, what if I bought a thing of whiskey.”

“Don’t”

“Hey, girls, if I bought a thing of whiskey, wanna split it.”

The other two people in the auditorium, the two girls, giggled like they meant it. They said yes and moved next to us while I was dispatched to the nearest liquor store, and good luck it was just next door. The movie flickered on and I took the thing and undid it.

I loved the movie. As I’m no critic, of film or basically anything else, I feel right in taking On The Road as a thing to talk about. It is a mandate I have. From the place where I first read the book to now is miles. It takes time to get there. The title is, for once, literal. That’s nice. It is natural for me, too, seeing someone on the road observing, as I myself can’t drive. Here’s where I say that I too am Kerouac. He’s happy to get a cross-gearshift hand job from his best friend’s wife instead of taking the wheel. No explanation necessary as to why that’s in the movie. But maybe, here: taking the wheel actually is a different animal. I feel that.

As for the movie itself the scene is New Years Eve, going into 1949. Cassady had a dance with Marylou, Kristen Stewart, and Kristen Stewart is all hips and lips dancing to Charlie Parker’s “Salt Peanuts.”

I was outside after the movie ended. The two girls watched me have a smoke and then said they had work in the morning. Sam got on a subway. I was walking home when I remembered a nice bar, and I had a beer there not talking to the bartendress.

alittlespace: david: Forbes: Tumblr’s David Karp on why he...

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 20:00:22 -0500

alittlespace:

david:

Forbes: Tumblr’s David Karp on why he loves New York

New York is truly the most creative city in the world; that is so much of what Tumblr is: a media network, a home for tens of millions of creators.

True story: The creative director thought it was very important that my shirt cuffs be fully expressed in this photo. I have to agree! Unfortunately, this is one of my many XS shirts that I normally role the sleeves up on. We ended up cutting the sleeves and taping the cuffs to my arms.

Forbes ruined my shirt.

The cuffs really make the photo.

YOLO

#old

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 13:50:05 -0500

#old

thedailywhat: Life-Affirming Study of the Day: A new study of...

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 20:22:34 -0400

thedailywhat:

Life-Affirming Study of the Day: A new study of 1,600 liberal arts majors in the Northeast, unveiled at this week’s American Sociological Association meeting, basically validates what everyone already knows — binge drinking in college is more fun than not binge drinking in college.

The study, which defines binge drinking as more than four drinks in a night for females, and five for males, found:

Social satisfaction was higher among members of high-status groups (wealthy, white, male, Greek) than their low-status counterparts (poor, female, non-Greek, LGBTQ, minorities).

Low-status students were able to increase their happiness with their social lives by binge drinking.

Students who belonged to high-status groups were less socially satisfied if they did not binge drink.

“I would guess it has to do with feeling like you belong and whether or not you’re doing what a ‘real’ college student does,” says study co-author and Colgate University associate professor Carolyn HsuHsu. “It seems to be more about certain groups getting to define what that looks like.”

[wapo]

inothernews: hmhbooks: scout: popculturebrain: DC Pierson...

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 22:56:18 -0400

inothernews:

hmhbooks:

scout:

popculturebrain:

DC Pierson schools a lazy student.

THIS RULES.

This is just wonderful. The internet loses and then wins.

Author! Author!

Suck it, Quora.

anniewerner: natefreeman: Summer playlist! Hollywood...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 13:25:03 -0400

anniewerner:

natefreeman:

Summer playlist!

Hollywood Nate!

Don’t quit your day job.

So this happened.

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 22:25:00 -0400

So this happened.

joecoscarelli: Driving out of the city last weekend, we heard...

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:33:14 -0400

joecoscarelli:

Driving out of the city last weekend, we heard “Stay Schemin’” four or five times before losing local rap radio. The song sort of plods in that setting because it’s long and the censoring robs the lyrical delivery of any gravitas while creating a lot of blank space in the hook. By the time the third verse comes around — the one by French Montana, who also sings the chorus — it feels like it’s been forever, but there’s one more special nugget, at around the 3:35 mark, in a couplet that references Jim Jarmusch.

Montana begins, “From the hoopty coupe to that Ghost, dog/ Pigeons on the roof like Ghost Dog,” but because of the way the snare hits fall, paired with his regional accent and enunciation, it sounds like he says, according to many on the internet, “Fanute the coupe…” He doesn’t — too few syllables — but the word (while not yet on Urban Dictionary) is taking on a life of its own, and has since been defined as to “get money,” or more generally, to do away with or swap. But that’s subject to change. I’ve been checking the term using Twitter’s search function for a few weeks now, and I keep waiting for Complex.com to write an explainer, but it hasn’t arrived yet.

Misheard lyrics might’ve once been an intimate experience resulting in a brief embarrassment among a small group (“one-winged dove,” for me) but now we’re sharing, giggling publicly, and innovating. French Montana could use another catchphrase.

fek: I just, I can’t even.

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:52:02 -0500

fek:

I just, I can’t even.

mylestanzer: Lauren Hill.

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 06:55:58 -0500

mylestanzer:

Lauren Hill.

pitchforkreviewsreviews: Read about the zine, maybe buy a copy,...

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:39:53 -0400

pitchforkreviewsreviews:

Read about the zine, maybe buy a copy, then come party

Zines!

Guest Editorial

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:14:00 -0400

One of the more ridiculous types of news that seems to be prevalent in society these days is celebrity image. There was a time when movie stars and models were just movie stars and models. People saw beautiful people in movies and in magazines, and that was about it. Now, however, it seems we can’t go ten seconds without being presented with pictures of celebrities on tv screens, in magazines, on billboards, and on computer advertisements. Really, it’s a bit maddening-– a lot of men will tell you that the next time they see a Justin Bieber ad or a Brad and Angelina magazine cover, they’re going to tear their hair out. The only problem with this is that it would give Bieber and Brad more advantages-– great heads of hair.

Sometimes it seems as if it would be best for people to calm down about celebrity beauty and style. There are people out there who go to great lengths to imitate not only general celebrity style, but even particular looks from individual people. Of course, the problem with this is that it is not exactly possible to exactly imitate gorgeous celebrities. After all, one of the reasons that these people are famous is that they are so uniquely beautiful. Not everyone looks like Mila Kunis or Megan Fox! Not to say that talent didn’t play a role in their getting where they got in life— but beauty certainly helps.

It is also important to remember that many (perhaps even most) celebrities that people tend to idolize have had plastic surgery, and are not actually so naturally stunning. This is not to suggest, of course, that there is no natural beauty in Hollywood. However, it is to suggest that unless you’re prepared to look into some techniques at aboutplasticsurgery.com, you might not be able to become a clone of your favorite celebrity. And, do not be fooled when you hear some of these celebrities claiming that they haven’t ever had surgery…

One of the most popular rumors out there on this subject is that Kim Kardashian has had work done. However, the popular celebrity continues to insist that she has never had work done. Perhaps nobody told her, but there are a number of extremely telling before and after photos that certainly indicate that she has had no work done. There is no proof, of course, and for anyone to bother searching for it would be a criminal waste of time on a topic that doesn’t matter; but, do not be so sure that celebrity beauty is always attainable through natural means.

officialssay: A photo of GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney...

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:21:47 -0400

officialssay:

A photo of GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney from back in the day, when he was at private equity firm Bain Capital. (h/t @drgrist)

today: Tuesdays.

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:11:19 -0400

today:

Tuesdays.

Photo

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:53:00 -0400

We are excited for Sweater Weather.

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 10:13:06 -0400

We are excited for Sweater Weather.

youngmanhattanite: Send us one photo. Send us one photo. Send us one photo. Oh hey, you know what? ...

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 17:17:00 -0400

youngmanhattanite:

Send us one photo.

Send us one photo.

Send us one photo.

Oh hey, you know what? Send us two photos.

THIS IS WHY AMERICA IS FAILING.

#OCCUPYWALLSTREET

The ## got its passport in 1997. Call us when you need to get extra pages put in while abroad.

Web/Print integration clunkiness

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 23:18:00 -0400

spiers:

I read the New York Times in print and also subscribe to it on the web. I have professional reasons to do so and I’m not the typical subscriber on either basis.

So today, I get both versions, and the lead photo for the print version is a beautiful scarlet-saturated photo of bank notes destined for Libya. Here’s what it looks like: THIS HERE.

Because there’s no info in the print caption about why the photo is entirely red, I actually assumed that it might be a printing error. (Because why would Libyan currency and any associated lighting be red, categorically?)

HERE, in the web version, the paper explains that there are “red in-flight lights”—though there’s no explanation for why the in-flight lights are red, or if that detail has any significance. This is also not explained in the story. And in the print version, it’s not explained at all. You might rationally assume that the entire story takes place on an entirely different Mars-like planet with a very narrow—microscopic, even— color spectrum.

Aesthetics trump story in both situations but it’s most egregious in the print version. Not only does the story not explain, it blatantly misleads. Because it’s a prettier picture.

And really, I don’t care how prestigious the institution, it’s just bad journalism.

Red light maintains night vision.

"My pal Ben"

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:55:35 -0400

"My pal Ben"

"— Daniel R."

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:24:09 -0400

"— Daniel R."