December 15, 2009
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Glaxo Babies - This Is Your Life

November 29, 2009
Beyond Kissing Cousins: Marriage Taboos Erode

NYTimes running a cousin lovin’ article on Thanksgiving = hilarious, great

November 28, 2009
Subway between Pudong and the Bund, by Gail von Bergen Ryan

Subway between Pudong and the Bund, by Gail von Bergen Ryan

"This is a little bit of a statement on where we are in our society that people would try to do something like this…This couple used this important event at the White House for their own purposes, and it was a distraction from the success of a major diplomatic event that the Obamas hosted."

— Anita McBride, a former assistant to George W. Bush and chief of staff to Laura Bush, on the party crashers.

November 7, 2009
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

The Avett Brothers - Will You Return?

November 5, 2009
A 32-meter (or 105-foot) statue of a youthful Chairman Mao is under construction in Hunan province.

A 32-meter (or 105-foot) statue of a youthful Chairman Mao is under construction in Hunan province.

November 4, 2009
A Hypnotizing Hunt Leaves Russians Bewildered

A hysterically funny oversized man-bat (Rémi Gaillard) hangs out around cash machines, parking garages, toilets and elevators, surprising French people going about their daily business – and joyfully frolicking to the Ghostbusters theme song. A few respond angrily, others scream, and some get the joke. Gaillard “occasionally ran into some trouble while shooting his videos”, but his issues were “never of the legal kind.” Most of the time, the maddening bat just flapped its wings and sped away.

October 24, 2009
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

When the skies are endlessly gray, I listen to Fleet Foxes - Mykonos on repeat, during my lunch break. Hypnotic songs about escaping just feel so appropriate.

October 13, 2009
Blonde Ambition photography by Paula Parrish

Blonde Ambition photography by Paula Parrish

"I am the best prime minister ever,” said Berlusconi, who is embroiled in corruption and bribery scandals. “I am absolutely the politician most persecuted by prosecutors in the entire history of the world throughout the ages.” He added that he had spent “200 million euros on judges…"

— Silvio Berlusconi, via Harper’s Weekly

October 5, 2009
The Onion: Struggling Museum Now Allowing Patrons To Touch Paintings

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Wire - Kidney Bingos, recorded at Preussen Tonstudio Berlin, 1988

October 2, 2009

xxyyzz: This is how Berlin is choosing to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the 19 years since its first day of German reunification on October 3rd, 1990.

Giant Dolls. WTF? Whoever pitched this Gulliver’s Travels parade was unfortunately way off, and frankly, downright sinister. It gives me the creeps. Also, obviously I will go see it tomorrow.

"The widespread support for Polanski shows the liberal cultural elite at its preening, fatuous worst. They may make great movies, write great books, and design beautiful things, they may have lots of noble humanitarian ideas and care, in the abstract, about all the right principles: equality under the law, for example. But in this case, they’re just the white culture-class counterpart of hip-hop fans who stood by R. Kelly and Chris Brown and of sports fans who automatically support their favorite athletes when they’re accused of beating their wives and raping hotel workers."

— Katha Pollitt in The Nation. Also read: Marcia Clark’s “The Lost Polanski Transcripts” in the Daily Beast.