Let’s start off with the important stuff. There’s an online game called Everquest (we don’t have it here, thanks to Telkom’s stranglehold on the bandwidth coming in and out of South Africa).
Nonetheless, the earth-shaking news to swat aside the latest whiney stammerings from the African National Congress is that players of Everquest can now order pizza from within the game itself. Now that’s a sign of a society that’s moving in the right direction. Who needs streets, housing, sanitation, civil order, education or a decent government? Not me. All I want is to be able to Order Pizza in an Online Game!.
Staying briefly with the ANC, how about getting the perfect gift for the politician (or mad scientist) in your life? See the lava lamp of the future, at The Floating Brain!.
What I want on my grave: when I die, I want a headstone that is dignified, suitably informative and which has an all-over image that’s in keeping with my attitude to life. Therefore, I want this Godzilla Grave Stone.
To see other stunning gravestones, which range from Hello Kitty onwards, look at The Japanese Gravestone Shop.
Here’s a “guess who was a Nazi” article to rival the fact that Fanta was created specifically for the Third Reich. Which clothing company created all those nice-looking SS uniforms and other clothing for the Nazi troops? Go read Hugo Boss’s Nazi Uniforms.
The classic Monty Python dead-parrot sketch has appeared again — this time in Israel/Palestine. An indignant Israeli is suing a pet shop for selling him a dying parrot. See the brief mention under the gloriously titled heading Pining for the Kibbutz?.
Still more Python-related info. The hotel known to millions as Fawlty Towers has been bought by fans of the show. Read The Guardian‘s report on Fawlty Fans.
What’s better than The Beatles or Metallica? Just about everything, including the fun rise of a punk “cover band” who deliberately parody and combine songs from the Beatles and Metallica. Go have a look at a band you’d like to see, called Beatallica!.
Naturally the corporate jingle-maker known as Sony wet its pants as Beatallica became more and more popular, and it issued a “cease and desist” legal threat at the band, the PDF of which can be grabbed here.
And in case you thought Beatallica were the only ones doing this bizarre and fun merging of different bands’ songs, how about the fabulously named punk band who specialise in doing old Eighties songs: Flock of Goo Goo. Or how about Spanish/Mexican cover versions of great classic punk songs,
from Manic Hispanic?
It gets more bizarre — how about classical “string instruments only” cover versions of Metallica songs, from the band known as Apocalyptica. Or how about a ukulele player of Sex Pistols songs, known as The Duke of Uke? And the United Kingdom has its own Ukulele Orchestra, which also does a great cover version of Anarchy in the UK.
Here’s a BBC report on this odd phenomena of Ukulele Fever. And for the final insult, how about a band who use the accordion to play cover versions of Jello Biafra and the Dead Kennedys?
To get a glimpse inside the hardcore world of music that mostly doesn’t exist in this rather 1950s-like local music industry, do some browsing through Barflies.
Want some free stuff for your PC? Go find your favourite band’s fonts at Rock’n’Roll Fonts!.
Blow-stuff-up time. By now all you new anarchists will have run across various files online known as The Anarchist Cookbook. To read the motivation and background behind the original book, which surfaced way back in the late Sixties, dive into The Anarchist Cookbook FAQ.
Having learned something about a valuable piece of modern history, now read this “oops” news report on a chemistry teacher who went above and beyond the call of duty, by teaching his class how to make bombs: Teacher Gave Bomb-Making Lessons.
Actually, it’s all rather funny, I mean “bomb making” is considered so difficult and the info on how to do it is supposedly hidden as much as possible. Yet do a search on how to make fireworks, and you’re 80% of the way there. Same thing, just smaller.
You should perhaps read these series of links before local car thieves do. Researchers have worked out how to crack the encryption of immobiliser-equipped car keys. Firstly, here’s the press
release from the scientists at John Hopkins. Next is an article from Science News. And for the hardcore geeks, here’s a link to the report itself: RFID Car Keys Report.
Here’s a fun way to bypass stupid laws. A strip club in Boise tries to get around dumb “no nudity” laws by having “art nights” — where the customers can sketch the — ahem — “models”: Gentlemen’s Club Challenges Nude Law.
Ever heard of “cabir”? No? Well you will, soon. It’s the first documented cellphone virus to be found “in the wild”, so to speak. Originating in the Philippines, it has taken eight months to reach
the United States. Let’s see how long it takes to spawn copycat viruses from here on: Cellphone Virus.
Heard the one about the 135kg gorilla with a nipple fetish? Koko, a gorilla with an extensive vocabulary in sign language, is at the centre of a lawsuit. Employees of the Gorilla Foundation, which houses and looks after the gorilla, were fired because they wouldn’t show Koko their breasts. I’m not making this up, folks. First, here’s background info on Koko. And here’s an article from the San Francisco Chronicle on Koko’s Nipple Fetish.
Soldiers are getting high, courtesy of — the US military. Combat-traumatised US soldiers are to be provided with Ecstasy, in trials to see whether the drug can help in reducing the effects of post-traumatic stress syndrome. Read Ecstasy for US Soldiers.
I’m a big gadget freak. Go drool and perv over a few of the classics that you should have stashed around somewhere. Take a look at Mobile PC‘s Top 100 Gadgets of All Time.
Feel like getting a better passport that isn’t South African? Slovenian band Laibach created a passport representing a utopian “art state” — the Neue Slowenische Kunst. (The passports have been used in various real-world situations, such as helping folks get out of Sarajevo, when their own passports couldn’t.) Here’s a general interview with Laibach. And here’s a link to the page showing how to buy the passports — naturally you have to send suitable photographs, so that they can be created: Buy an NSK State Passport.
There is another passport you can get your hands on, this time courtesy of Austrian art group Sabotage. The US Department of Homeland Security, though, didn’t like the idea of passports being made available to the public, and confiscated them when the group were en route to their new art exhibition. Here’s the Art Exhibition Known as State of Sabotage. Then follow the link to the hosting Art Gallery.
Here’s a news report on the Passport Confiscation. And here’s where you can Apply for Passport Online.
I don’t tend to read comics that much — not because I sneer at them, it’s just that apart from Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman’s work, most of the individual comics can be whizzed through in 15 minutes or less, which means you’re talking a lot of money outlay for not much time. Luckily, though, there is a lot of online work to be waded into. Here’s a really well done “bubblegum noir”
ongoing comic strip — read Beekeeper Cartoon Amusements.
Then, take a look at a selection of cartoonists’ work from when they were children — as well as an
example of their work now: Now and Then.
Remember the fuss over the George Bush painting done using pix of bodies? Or that classic one where tiny monkeys made up the face of the US president? Well, following in the same steps as those others is this classic piece of art created for The Stranger magazine. Go look closely at Painting of Michael Jackson Made from Children’s Cereal.
And for more art that doesn’t feature the usual boring “anguished hands sticking through barbed wire” rubbish that seems to be what creatively bankrupt local artists think is good, take a look at this über-cool use of wood and creativity. Spend some time clicking through the wondrous pix of Wood Automata, Mechanical Toys and Whirligigs.
You might be frightened to learn that India isn’t the only country with a booming industry in hand-painted movie posters. Here in the almost-West and the West itself, we’re used to the concept of film posters being a mass-produced item. But this isn’t necessarily the norm elsewhere. To get a crash course in just how different other cultures can be, go discover the horror and
confusion from the often truly vile Hand-Painted Russian Movie Posters!.
Staying with the movies: Bollywood is an acquired taste. I haven’t managed to get there yet, but many other film geeks have. For everything you ever wanted to know about this prolific genre of film, grit your teeth and sidle cautiously towards Bollywood for the Sceptical.
The joys of the multicultural internet: here’s a German site featuring galleries of odd and rather interesting Japanese Warning Signs. (This may not seem that interesting, but bear in mind, we’re talking of a country that — for instance — has “No tattoos allowed” signs in public bathhouses, to keep away the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia.) To see what happens when Japanese kids toys and vibrators are combined, be afraid, be very afraid at Sex Gandams.
Regrettable moments in Estonian advertising: Estonia is a relatively new arrival to the concepts of mass marketing, capitalism and advertising. Stare in awe at what is either a sex video or an advert for ice-cream — or both. Watch Pinguin.
Finally, to frighten you senseless, go wade through this archive of other films made by the same subtle, tasteful and very ahem talented Estonian director — at Estonian Adverts!.
Until the next time, if Estonians don’t get me.