Films
Four cool clips
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- Friday 8th May 2009
Trust me.
Do Electric Sheep Dream Of Stardom?:
Introducing the singing tax attorney (well, I thought she was on the money, at least about this):
Even though this was done strictly for the publicity value, it strikes me as a great idea:
Jes’ pickin’ and idlin’:
Thanks to WFMU for most of the…
Books
Library porn, continued
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- Tuesday 5th May 2009
There are three sorts of information repositories that make my heart beat faster: used record stores, used book stores, and libraries.
A while back I pointed out a colossal book of photos of some of the world’s great libraries.
This is a post from a different blog of a different set of photos, although of equivalent quality, possibly by the same photographer, Candida…
Merch
Thank you for your patience
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- Tuesday 5th May 2009
To everyone who’s waited quietly for the DVD sets of the complete 2007 radio shows: they’re almost here.
Full sets – including shows 75 & 78 from the 19993/94 season – will be available soon in either 320k MP3, Apple Lossless (M4A ALAC), or FLAC.
Just working out some no-frills artwork and pricing, and then we’ll be in bidness.
Please stand…
Politics
The Health Insurance Blues, take 2
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- Tuesday 21st April 2009
In brief:
Unfortunate young man has bad, bad, BAD testicular cancer.
His mom loses her job.
He’s shit out of luck.
Story in the NY Times.
“Like many others, the Walkers live on a knife’s edge of risk. Without insurance to cover her high blood pressure or his diabetes, they defer doctors’ visits when possible and obtain their prescriptions – nine between the two of them – for $4…
Music & Sound
LRRP (pronounced Lurp)
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- Sunday 19th April 2009
Context: During the Vietnam war – the last American conflict allowing free press access to a military action- Esquire magazine sent a correspondent to cover the troops in combat. The correspondent’s name was Michael Herr, and the columns he wrote were later collected into an achingly excellent book called Dispatches. The book (and Herr himself) contributed almost all the dialogue in Apocalypse…
Politics
A great article on bad insurance (not in any newspaper)
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- Monday 13th April 2009
Now that the New Depression has struck our little household, our insurance coverage is a major source of concern; once our COBRA coverage runs out, that’s it for us. One of us has a chronic illness classed as a “pre-existing condition” that no insurer will cover, so our chances of getting insurance again, even as a family, are close to nil.
So when people in the media (or my dear sweet…
Thoughts on Life
Things to do when the Google Street View van is in your neighborhood
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- Friday 10th April 2009
You’ve seen the street view option in Google Maps, I’m sure; street level panoramic photos showing houses, parked cars, etc. I have no idea how these inventive people figured out that the Google Street View van was going to be driving down Sampsonia Way in Pittsburgh, but they organized a lot of people to do some interesting things that show up on Google Maps.
Just click the blue “See It” …
Books
A smart person giving a good talk about a book he wrote
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- Monday 6th April 2009
I’ll start this off by driving in the opposite direction, then looping back:
I was sitting in a doctor’s waiting room last week (I’ve been doing a lot of that in the last year), and like a dope, I’d forgotten to bring something to read, so I pick up what turns out to be the latest issue of New York magazine, which I only read once a year when I’m in this particular doctor’s waiting room….
Music & Sound
A new BBC radio documentary on record collectors (UPDATED)
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- Monday 30th March 2009
Many months ago, Toby Amies and Tamsin Hughes from the BBC spent a few hours with me in my studio, chatting about record collecting. My thoughts (such as they are), appear in the documentary they produced: Beat Mining With The Vinyl Hoover.
Other interviewees included Aaron Fuchs of Tuff City Records, Mark 45 King, Coldcut – who do a director’s commentary on their remix of Eric B. and Rakim -…
