Great Teacher, Greater Message

Haven't posted anything in a while then I came across this.

It starts out as this wonderful story about this High School physics teacher who does great demonstrations and interactive lessons with his class (they show a few and they are awesome) but then shifts into this really incredible lesson/message he gives all of his students. It is quite the beautiful message and well worth watching.

Peace & Love,

 - sf

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You GOTTA Try My Sweet & Spicy Nuts

These are the best candied nuts ever.

 

Ingredients: 

1 lb bag unsalted roasted mixed nuts (Trader Joe's makes a good one)

3 tablespoons salted butter

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more)

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons of honey or agave nectar

3 stalks fresh rosemary leaves, cut fine

1 stalk fresh rosemary (whole)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 250 F.
2. Add butter to a large saute pan and melt.
3. Add dry ingredients and honey/agave, stir and add the nuts.
4. Stir for 10-12 minutes over medium/low heat. Watch the heat as sugar can burn; you can always finish cooking in the oven.
5. Remove from saute pan and spread on a cookie sheet. Bake at 250 F for about 10 minutes to reduce oils and then leave out to cool.
6. Once cool, store in a large ziplock and add another large sprig of rosemary (whole) to add to the aroma.

Snapchat: A Parent's Worst Nightmare

Hi y'all.

Introducing Snapchat, this adorable little app that lets you take pictures and send them to your friends who can view them for only a few seconds and then the pictures vanish. POOF!

Now, as an adult, I understand that "vanish"ing on the Interwebs is a relative term. That shits stored somewhere, right? We all know it is. But I teach and mold the minds of youths. Who have no fucking clue where the internet came from and how to use it for anything besides sex and illegal music.

Snapchat has become my personal hell. And if I was the proud owner of a Sex Trophy (aka, my own child) I would toss their phone out the window at this point. Basically all of my students either use Snapchat to take pictures of goofy faces they make and send them to friends. But more likely than not, they take pictures of theirs or others junk and send it and then the pictures "vanish." Its become a competition to see who can snap a photo of balls quicker and send it to their friends - who get the picture, open it for 1-6 seconds, shout "GROSS! What was that!?", and then put their phone away. DURING CLASS. IN THE HALLWAY. AT HOME. WHILE DRIVING.

Truly, its become the new come-on for girls to send dudes pictures of their tits under their shirts during class.
Attention all Dudes: When/If you have a daughter, remember to tell her that she's incredible and pretty and that you love her very much so we don't end up with shit like that photo above.

In other news, there's CinemaGram, an app that lets you animate photos is wicked cool ways. I actually love this one.

Good luck out there,
fp

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Slenderman...I'm Rull Sorry

I am rull sorry to be the one to post this. I am NOT a scary-things person. If you're not, just forget this.
Maybe you've heard of this. I had not.

Today I had an old person moment. Two students of mine were raving about building their own version of this game called Slender.
Student: "Profe, you know Slenderman right?"
Me: "UH...wuh?", she mumbled, looking up from her balanced checkbook and responsibilities.
Students: "Profe...you don't know Slenderman? Its Slender!?"


So, doing a quick Wiki search (because my students told me that its a horror story game, and I don't stand for that shit) I found that Slender is a computer game. I had seen the app dozens of times and noted how even the app picture looked creepy, so I just ignored it and scrolled on by.

See what I mean? Creepy.

I come to learn that it is an internet sensation. Its a first-person survival horror game and basically you can scare the pants RIGHT OFF yourself. The downloadable game was taken off the Internet because it crashed after being offered for free.

The game haunts you with The Slenderman, an image/icon/character started by SomethingAwful.com.  He is always depicted as being tall and thin and able to stretch his appendages to whatever size necessary. Necessary for what? For kidnapping children, that's this Boogeyman's MO. Something Awful sponsored a "paranormal pictures" contest and asked users to manipulate old photos to create a fakelore story. A man named Victor Surge created these two images with the backstory that after these photos were taken both the photographer and 14 children went missing.





KIDS?! TALL CREEPY GUY?! TENTACLE ARMS?! OLD PHOTOS?!

Ladie and gents, THIS is my Kryptonite. I like to READ about American Horror Story - not watch it. NO no no. So, Slenderman has been occupying most of my Wikipedia searches. Trying to understand how something like this gets big and gets to be one of iTunes top apps. Just TRY Googling this shit and your computer will blow up with information. Information about a FAKE story about a mythical creature.

What the fuck is WRONG with people,
fp

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Tryptophan: An Investigative Report

Cheddar Cheese Has Twice As Much Tryptophan As Turkey. Postprandial Somnolence Is The Technical Term For Being Rull Sleepy After Eating. Postprandial Somnolence Occurs When Our Parasympathetic Nervous System Perks Up To Deal With The Food We Just Ate. Our Parasympathetic Is The Other Side Of Our Fight Or Flight Response Coin Which Is Powered By Our Sympathetic Nervous System. The Parasympathetic Nervous System Wants To Sit And Digest And Rest. Glucose Is Sugar And Everything is Sugar When We Eat Sugar Insulin Does Work So Our Blood Can Keep Doing Its Thing In The Mean Time All Sorts Of Amino Acids From Our Food Are Finding A Spot To Chill. Tryptophan Is An Essential Amino Acid With No Place To Chill So It Keeps Floating Until It Gets To Our Brains Where Our Brain Does Magic And Makes Tryptophan Into Serotonin Then Magics That Serotonin Into Melotonin. Serotonin Makes Us Happy And Melotonin Puts Us To Sleep.

-JV
Investigative Wikipedia'r

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Bob Ross: Hardass

As Google delightfully pointed out, today would have been Bob Ross's 70th birthday. I f-ing love Bob Ross. Such an amazing painter (also good animated, and especially good auto-tuned).

But apparently Bob wasn't always such a laid back guy. He used to be in the military. BOB. ROSS.

“I was the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work,”' he told the Orlando Sentinel. “The job requires you to be a mean, tough person. And I was fed up with it. I promised myself that if I ever got away from it, it wasn't going to be that way any more.”

Unreal. 

Meanwhile there is a happy little tree going by my window.

-SD
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Iron Man Three

Has Everyone Already Seen The Iron Man Three Trailer? I Just Did. Its Awesome. RDJ Can Do No Wrong The Red White And Blue Suit Look Ssick And Every Superhero Needs Some Time In The Snow. Come On April

JV
Fan
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Critique the Creek, Y'all

Guys, this is NOT a hella-long post about Dawson's Creek.

But if you want it to be, head over to my new spinoff blog: Critique the Creek

I can't not talk about this show, but I realized that die-hard fans usually know nothing about Seasons 5 + 6, the college years, because we were all making our real life Dawson's Creek plotlines happen.

So, enjoy, visit, oh and

Yours,
Fisti

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Tina Fey Voice of Reason

Sometimes no one can say it better than Tina Fey.

You can watch a clip of her speech here.

-av

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NPR and Christmas Unicorns

 I've been encountering a lot of new music that I actually like lately (as in this morning). Enjoy!

1. Maybe you don't listen to Sufjan Stevens Christmas albums all year round or even celebrate Christmas. It's cool, just give it a try, this stuff is great. Sufjan's releasing the next installment (volumes 6-10) of Christmas music, on November 13th AND THAT IS NOT ALL: he has planned a tour to promote said box-set extravaganza. The tour is entitled: "Surfjohn Stevens Christmas Sing-A-Long: Seasonal Affective Disorder Yuletide Disaster Pageant on Ice". Sounds pretty fun. Some Plus1Press contributors already have tickets, everyone else should consider coming too.

Here is the only currently released track off the album, the single "Christmas Unicorn":

 

2. NPR is killing it right now. They have an online series entitled "Heavy Rotation" where the radio show staff members take turns picking favorite new tracks from their shows. The current ones are great, click this link and go now to listen before they change them! I like the last two best, "Dream in Blue" by Stray Birds and "Perfectly Yours" by Robert Francis (rocking a sweet "mom" tatoo).

he looks a bit like a scruffy joseph gordon levitt

If you're in the mood for something entirely different to listen to, check out my friend's sister's book review and Weekend Edition interview with Linda Werthheimer  on npr about her debut novel. It's getting really great reviews, which is terrific for her first book. I read this stunningly chilling novel in one sitting and can gladly loan it to anyone in the Boston area. Or buy a copy yourself for $10.50 new, $7.87 used and support the author!

That's all, folks.

-lab


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Council Bill 2012-226

http://www.upworthy.com/this-preacher-attacks-gay-marriage-and-it-makes-me-want-to-marry-him?c=bl3

I can't embed the video but don't let that turn you off. Watch it and see how much this guy dislikes gay rights . . . 

or does he?

standing on the right side of history,

jbb

92.9 Is My Jam

I Listen To The Radio At Work. During The Day For The Most Part Its Static And Oldies. The Morning And Afternoons I Am Driving Though And I Was At A Loss For What To Listen To. I Am Driving With A Wide Mix Of People And Pleasing Everyone Is A Noption A Non Option. I Can't Do KISS In The Morning Because Matty Has Gone Sour And Cruel In His Old Age He Shits On Everyone And Takes FOREVER To Do It. Ive Never Laughed At A Jam Scam. There Goes 94.5 The New 103.3 Is A Good Pop Station Again Though Wide Mix Of People And Only I'm Into It No 103.3. Then Miraculously 92.9 Solved All Of My RadioProblems. If You Listen To It For An Hour You Are Going To Hear A RHCP Song A Nirvana Song Some Classic Rock And Then Sublime. And The Commercials Are Comparable To Pandora Which I Accept. Madness By Muse Is 92.9's Jam Right Now. And The Accasperation Of Every A  Capella Group From Here To There. As A Vocal Suspects SuperFanForLife I Wish I Could Time Travel Back To The Hide And Seek Days And Have You All Go Straight From Love Fool Into Hide And Seek Into Madness And Then Drop The Mike And Collect Your Trophies. Don't Watch The Video It Adds Nothing Hit Play And Close Your Eyes. Shout Out To Radio.


-JV
Silence Filler
not really though
I mean sometimes

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Bieber's Best

As Long As You Love Me Came Out Over The Summer. I Had Heard It Before. This Morning I Listened To It And As Long As You Love Me Grooved Its Way Right Into My Brain. I Back To Back To Back'd The Video. As Long As You Love Me I'll Be Your Silver I'll Be Your Platinum I'll Be Your Gold Is A Golden Line. You're My Hallelujah Is A Rose Golden Line. The Production Value On The Video Is Feature Presentation And If You Hate Fun You Can Just Stick Around Until The End When Mr. Blonde Goes HAM On Biebs For Being His Daughter's Silver Platinum Gold.


JV
I Love Love

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Mr. Wes+ Mr. West

Okay, so this is pretty great, have you guys seen this?

This blog combines screen caps of Wes Anderson films with Kanye West lyrics. Plus1Press has a heavy following of both Wes and West fans, so this is kind of a high-urgency must-post-immediately type subject.

 Favorites:

The Royal Tenenbaums/All of the Lights

Moonrise Kingdom/Robocop

And, this is an excellent French commercial for cheese, with monsters.

Happy Friday everyone!
LAB

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Letters of Note

Call me old-fashioned, but I'm a sucker for snail mail. It's always seemed to be a miracle how the whole thing works. All you have to do is write the address correctly and put enough postage on the envelope, and then days or weeks or months later the little message will end up in the correct hands.

Perusing the blog of Anis Mojgani, I stumbled upon a wonderful thing called "Letters of Note". It's an archive of correspondences between all sorts of fascinating people. One in particular I think the Plus1Press community will love is a letter written to Maurice Sendak by his editor, two years before his famous children's book "Where the Wild Things Are" was published.

There is also a hilarious and graphic letter written to Jack Kerouac by a friend who would be Jack's inspiration for Dean Moriarty in On the Road, and a letter from the nephew of Hitler to President Roosevelt, asking to allow him to join the army and fight in the war.

I'm not a librarian, but my new office is in the library on campus, and I think it's starting to rub off on me. Online archives are getting me pretty fired up these days.

-LAB, resident nerd

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Busdriver is the best RAPPER alive

I wanted to throw my two cents in.  Busdriver is the man.  His rhymes flow like lava through the earths crust, picking up small creatures and high-temperature bacteria in its wake, then forming entire new worlds for you to live in when it dries.

Here's one of his more favorite songs, where he raps with his producer, who the fasted hip hop flutiest living.

This is also a video of him free styling in the car.  This sh*t is real and that mustache don't lie.

His lyrics are intelligent, witty and absolutely ridiculous.  He dont mess around talking about shooting people in the face or doing drugs unless he's being facetious.   He spits so fast and so articulately that you forget that your hairs on fire because your too busy thinking about the deep thoughts he has implanted in your future memories.

And now watch this.

-Eroc Ramm

Guerrilla Gardening

These people think themselves a couple of bad ace green thumbs, but in all honesty they are.

Brought to you by your friends at SoulPancake. JV, you should check out the art they post; right up your alley man.

Peace & Love,
sf

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Drug-Influenced Self Portraits

Mushrooms

So. This guy took every known drug, and drew a self portrait after each use. The results are fascinating.

Which ones are your favorites?

Mary Jane

 Most of them are really cool, but some are terrifying. I never wanted to try crystal meth before I saw this...

Crystal meth

...and now, I'm even more terrified of it.

Crazy.

-id

Morgan and Destiny's Eleventeeth Date - The Zeppelin Zoo

Joseph Gordon Levitt is having a good year. He is *SPOILER*. He is Young Bruce Willis. He is Daniel Day-Lewis-as-Lincoln's son. Basically JGL is killing it. Everyone wants him to be their protege/past self/son.

He also runs this artist collaborative project that works together to create books, music, and short films.

The short film I'm writing about today is an explosion of twee charm and adorableness, so you may not like it. But that might make you an asshole, so be careful with that. I like it because hundreds of artists drawings were layered to create this amazing world. Also, I think the narration is hilarious, with all the made up but real sounding fake words. It's so creative linguistically and so visually appealing, I think the overall effect is irresistible. It's a couple years old, but I just saw it recently.



-av

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Cruel Summer- To The World

I haven't listened to the whole album, but the first track is nothing but promising. I'm a sucker for a good string interlude. Listen "To The World" by Kanye Here.


jb

Elevensies

Today is the 75th anniversary of The Hobbit.

For those of you who didn't grow up with James Bergin as your dad, this is the book that comes before the Lord of the Rings trilogy, by J.R.R Tolkien. I read all of these books in the 4th and 5th grade, and have read them many times since. My dad has a huge, red leather bound edition with of all of the books, and he read it aloud to my brothers when they were young. I will probably do the same, whenever I have little babies and such.

People are celebrating the anniversary today in silly ways, including this International Second Breakfast Celebration, which will take place at 11 o'clock sharp. My only qualm with this setup is that if it's at 11 o'clock, shouldn't it actually be called elevensies?

For a Plus1press celebration, I will share a favorite quote from The Hobbit. Here's some sunshine for all of us in New England on this not-so-bright and rather chilly morning:

"Good morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out father than the brim of his shady hat.

"What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"

"All of them at once," said Bilbo.

A movie version of The Hobbit is coming out in December, and I'm hoping the soundtrack is as great as the others and that the dwarves are fantastic.

-lab
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Nas is THE Best Rapper Alive

I know you are all gonna need more than that to be convinced so here I go. Nas has been in the hip-hop/rap game since it's inception. His song off of God's Son called "Get Down" not only shows his superior lyricism to just about everyone in the game but it also does a brilliant job of showing the evolution of hip-hop as we know it. From the beginning of the song to the end you hear the beat and samples change in conjunction with how the hip-hop/rap game has changed/evolved over the years. This not only shows the evolution of the sound that this genre of music has made over the years but also how Nas has always been a pioneer in this change.

But to be the best rapper alive it's not just about great beats and poetry-esque lyrics but also the message behind it. In an age of hip-hop stars and MC's trying to make a buck off of their name with endorsements and sponsorship's, and self-produced alcohol with others, Nas goes the other way. "One Mic" off of his album "Stillmatic" just shows his mentality on not only what he hopes to accomplish with his music but what this genre of music should be engineered to do which is reaching out to those forlorn youths lost in the struggle.

Best (White) Rapper Alive

Macklemore is the best white rapper alive. As proof I offer these four songs, highlighting four topics of the present day: love, addiction, consumerism, and my favorite rap of all time.




Frank Ocean coming out earlier this year sparked Macklemore to release this song, which kills in so many ways. Starting with the personal anecdote from the beginning, to Mary Lambert rocking it every chorus, and finally the outro of some typical marriage vows wrecks me.



Macklemore himself was addicted to cough syrup for a long time, and this rap doesn't just talk about cough syrup, but almost every substance a person could try. The sample of "Otherside" is well used and his closing line "Hollywood Here We Come" plus a nice gong smash is a nice finish to a valid testament to any addiction and the struggle it creates.



It is impossible to listen to this song and not bob your head to the beat. This is my favorite rap of all time. Taking such a simple, easy, situation like this dance and weaving such a beautiful narrative through it gives me goosebumps. And lines like "Held You In My Hands Like The Skyline Holds The Stars" and "Like There Is No Morning, Like There Is Morning" make me dissolve.




Both the song and the video deserve congratulations. His newest single covers the glory and glamour of shopping at a thrift shop. I watched this video with JV and he kept giggling. That's when you know it's good stuff. Everything he wears in the video is something I would buy if I saw it at a thrift shop, and yes, I will take your grampa's style.


Case closed.


jb


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Songza

See, Plus1Press? It took one or two posts over the summer and now we're rollin'!

Songza is Pandora's older hippie brother who moved out early and left him some memories and an old Allman Brothers LP.

I'll say right off the bat, the app is better than the website. BUT, if you don't have a certain person or genre to listen to, you just are like, "Ugh, its a rainy Monday. I just want rainy Monday music." then Songza's perfect.

Check it out. It comes in handy when I'm teaching a class and I can't really decide what we should listen to. I  find the mood of that class and BOOM, we're all jammin.

Sincerely,
fp

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Best Rapper Alive

Kanye West Is The Best Rapper Alive.
As Proof I Offer These Three Songs.

Family Business


I Love this song because anytime I am talking about music at work and any old person casually rights off all of rap music wholesale as all blah blah blah any bland argument you can make I know that they are dead wrong. This song is a lovely ode to Family. Getting Together, Standing Together, All These Things. And Kanye Goes Hard while being incredibly tender.

Addiction


I used to ride my bike up the Sylvan hill towards the Red House to this song. The Beat MMMmmm. Kanye Sounds Great. The Chorus is So Good. And Completely Understandable. That is really important to me. I appreciate crisp annunciation. Im about that. And those BaDaDaDaDDas! Excellent.

Hey Mama


I danced with My Mom at My Wedding to Hey Mama because the first time I heard It I had to pull over my bike because I had got cray teary eyed I let the song finish and then I called My Mom. Nothing makes me love My Mom more than listening to this song. This Song Is Perfect. And the rhyming is perfect and so natural and flawless everything works together. Theres a verse of You Are So Beautiful To Me. And To ride out the song Kanye sings "Mama" a million times and I Love It.

I Rest My Case.
Kanye Is The Best Rapper Alive.

-jv
fan
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Love

Rainn Wilson, a.k.a. Dwight Schrute, and his friends started up a whole community online called SoulPancake where people just share the most awesome of awesome stuff. They have great visual art and discussions about anything you can think of and I've followed this for a while (even bought their book which I would recommend to everyone to check out) but it is when I saw this video that I thought of everyone who views and contributes to this blog.

Peace & Love,
 - sf

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Most Liked video on YouTube

This is the most entertaining thing ever, I apologize if I'm late to the party on this.

 - sf

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Norton Anthology of Jealous Ass Bitches

So this is a little crude, but it's kind of wonderful. Emily Dickinson is one my favorite poets, and one time JV and I went to her house in Amherst and the tour guide made us read her poems aloud and I loved it. I don't think that was JV's favorite part. Here are some funny interpretations someone posted on a blog entitled the "Norton Anthology of Jealous Ass Bitches" and I've been enjoying them...thoroughly.

because i did not stop for seth

by Emily Dickinson

that f***ing asshole broke up w/ me
& now you are f***ing him or whatever

cool, i don't care i live in a big ass house
alone w/ my dad we hang out

he plays 19th century starcraft
& i cook him dainty-ass meals

i hid all of my early poems inside
my chastity belt & i fed the key

to my cat
f**k u seth & amanda no i will not go 2 ur wedding

I know there are some Shakespeare lovers out there, so here's one for you.

a sonnet

by William Shakespeare 

shall i kick thee in thine teeth

and snap thy neck like wheaten sheath

or perhaps a piledriver harsh

the skull now soft like Norfolk marsh

a sleeper hold or triangle choke

mine legs around thine feeble throat

kick to curse and shatter wanton bones

a man of weakness ne’er to cast stones 

your life to take with violent aims and games

a hospital bed encased in plaster frames

and when the morphine drip, drips no more

i’ll be waiting at the warden’s door

a nailed bat or shining ninja star

your blood will spray to heaven stars up far

For more, including a ghetto rendition of "i like your body" originally by e.e. cummings,  click here.

peace and love, bitches.

lab 

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She RATCHET (Watch the vid)

(We all know about this right? The Ratchet Girl Anthem? If I've already posted about this, forgive me. If I haven't posted this until right now then PLEASE FORGIVE ME.)

Ratchet is a modern vocab term - a deritive of a woman being Ghetto, Hood, Street or well, Ratchet. I'm here, as a ghetto-rehabilitated language teacher to help you understand it more clearly...

Does a lady  have nails that curve around her fingers? She ratchet.
Does her weave hang down below her natural hairline? Oh, she definitely ratchet.
Can you see her chest plate even though she's actually wearing clothes? She ratchet, fuh shuh.
Does she rock a grill OR plastic figurines in her hair? Then she certainly ratchet.

Here is a visual example of someone being Ratchet.

Here's my favorite thing about the term Ratchet....it was started by two DUDES. Brothers, in fact, who wrote a song about how other women talk about Ratchet girls. They sample an old classic rap jam and KILL on their ghetto-girl impressions. These dudes rock duck face SO AMAZINGLY. There's an official video where they even dress up as the Ratchet Girls they are making fun of, but this video is the ORIGINAL CLASSIC. I could fucking watch this all damn day.

 - Yours in ghettoness,
fp



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Flight of The Conchords helping the kids, by the kids, for the kids.

- sf

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Hearmeout: I Love Shakespeare

So seriously, hear me out, guys.

Shakespeare gave us amazing phrases like "in a pickle", "the game's afoot", and "a laughing stock". His plays were filled with double entendres, the bread and butter of the modern day. He wrote hysterical comedies and heartbreaking this-cant-even-be-real-its-so-sad tragedies, as well as historically sound dramas.
Just...fucking....he's cool ok, he's cool. And he can sit at my lunch table anytime he wants.

Now, I'm also a fan of modern-y retellings of old stories, like the Sci-Fi channel's Alice In Wonderland and TinMan series. Thirdly, I'm a fan of the public broadcasting system, especially when they do features that bring me filmed versions of operas and crazy shows.

So, I present to you the ONLY retold version of Macbeth you'll ever need to watch (besides Laura Linney's Mrs.Macbeth inspired performance in Mystic River - spectacular)

It stars Patrick Stewart as Macbeth. RIGHT? And the play is shot half onstage sets and half in real life sets. RIGHT? And its Macbeth and wicked intense. I KNOW.

Watch the whole play here.

Also, did you know the the Artists Formerly Known as Charles Xavier & Magneto formed an alliance on the sets of the X-men movies and then decided to be in a British production of Waiting for Godot? I would have given my right arm to see it.

Sincerely,
fp

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DING

This Is My Favorite Of The Breaking Bad Fan Art. 


-jv
fan
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Fair Enough

It's been a dry summer for us, Plus1Press. Certainly for me, as I've not posted in a wicked long time. I usually tend to save things until I've got a lot to say. WELL, I fucking went to Iowa last week, so here we are!

So, I know, why go to Iowa? Welp, long story short, my in-laws live there. SECONDLY though, is the Iowa State Fair. The marketing tagline to the Iowa State Fair is, "Nothing Compares" and I'm going to probably agree with them. Think state fairs are dumb? Its all Iowa's got and they've got the market cornered on MidWest American Fair Grounds. Don't believe me? Check out their website.

Still don't believe me? How about the mayor of Des Moines, the state capital, signed a petition to POSTPONE SCHOOL so that kids can attend the fair in its entirety instead of starting school this past Monday. (Also, a lot of kids are in 4H, and most of them just don't come to school so that they can show their animals or harvest their crops...seriously)

The Sheep Barn is RIGHT NEXT TO the Grilled Lamb stand. Can't get fresher than that.

Fucking...GO TO THIS, you guys. Once in your life, at least. Its worth every minute there. The sights, the food (OH the food), and the people watching alone will amaze you. You'll last a good 5 years on stories you can tell about it before you run on fumes. Here are some of mine.

This was the pun'kin competition. Blue ribbon for best-looking and heaviest.

This is the Double Bacon Corn Dog. We arrived at the Fair at 9AM so that we didn't have to wait in line to buy one. That's crazy, you say? Not if the line is typically over 90 minutes. FOR A CORN DOG.

This woman here is judging a these sand-filled pie plates and blueberry cartons because the category is "Food Container Bouquets". People from all over the state....making displays....in food containers.

The cages around the animals are really just suggestions. Most of the time you can get as close as you want.This sheep licked my hand and I'll never be the same again.

This is Reggie. He's 6. He's the Largest Swine. THOSE ARE HIS GOD-DAMN BALLS, YOU GUYS.

Can you see how big this warehouse is? Each one of those cages is filled with a  cow.

IS THIS NOT THE MOST PERFECT COW YOU'VE EVER SEEN?

This Badass Yet Unattractive Lady is leading the Chicken Washing & Blowdrying Demonstration.

 I don't fucking even know what was going on in this tent, but it has something to do with Knives and Hawks, both of which are bad-ass. All I can say is that I bought a SWEET AWESOME pop-gun here.

Didja know...that if you sheer sheep (as these guys are) then they get too cold and have to wear these adorable little sweaters. We steal their lamb's wool, then make them wear sweaters because they're too cold. Crazy.

These piglets were born in front of us in the Birthing Barn - a huge air-conditioned building that ironically has the cleanest bathrooms at the fair. Other animals are there just to have other animals come out of them. Baby animals,air-conditioning,clean bathrooms. Why not, right?

Oh these guys? You're welcome.

Yours Truly,
fp with some reporting from MikePirog

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Olympic Swimmers' Rendition of...

"Call Me Maybe"

I love the Olympics.

-LAB
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Mean Tweets

I'll admit it, I love twitter.

I never thought I would get one, or love it. The only reason I got one was to keep up with Al and JV while I was abroad. I quickly realized that I could stay in touch with them a lot better via twitter versus any other form of communication. My long e-mails filled with interrogatives were impractical once I followed their frequent postings of 140 characters or less.

Suddenly, I felt more in the loop not just with the activities of my friends' personal lives, but also with the world. I began following the BBC, various actors and actresses, and twitter accounts from my college as well. It is exciting to be a part of the movement toward faster and more effective dissemination of international news and information.

But the best part about twitter, for me, is the entertainment factor. Let's face it, this shit is freaking hilarious.

Thank you Jimmy Kimmel, for the brilliant idea in the following two youtube videos, where celebrities read mean tweets about themselves, aloud.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

This is almost as good as the time Kanye went nutso or Bon Iver won the Grammy and everyone was tweeting "WTF who is Bonibear???". Almost.

-LAB



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I don't like waffle fries enough to not care about homophobia

And neither does Mayor Menino. Which rocks.

I love love,

av

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Emile's Adventure

In 1993 Emile Lemay was driving in the desert around Tan-Tan Morocco. Morocco is the country on the other side, the African one, of the Straight of Gibraltar at the bottom of Spain. Emile is driving between Tan-Tan and Tilemsem, Tilemsem does not show up on Google Earth, so safe to say Emile is in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere c/o Africa. Emile is no fool he had packed food and water knowing that any trip into Bumfuck, Nowhere c/o Africa can be dangerous. 

When Emile's Car broke down down he was more than 15 Miles from Tilemsem. Emile could have walked out, he had the supplies. Instead EMILE DECIDED TO BUILD A MOTORCYCLE OUT OF HIS BROKE DOWN CAR AND RIDE THAT BITCH OUT OF BUMFUCK, NOWHERE c/o AFRICA LIKE A BOSS.

Emile while having the supplies to walk out of the desert had left his welding torch and drill at home. He also had forgotten sleeves so Emile had to tear holes in his socks and slide those on his arms to keep the Scorching Desert Sun from poisoning him. Emile estimated that building his Motorcycle would take him 3 days. Emile, having had left his welding torch at home, had to hold his Motorcycle together with screws in holes that were already there. Emile set to work using the existing holes and and screws to piece together what was quickly becoming his only chance at getting out of Bumfuck, Nowhere c/o Africa. 

The days ticked off past Emile's initial estimate of 3 days. Emile realized that the existing holes were not going to be enough. No drill meant that Emile had to make new holes by bending the metal as best he could then getting at it with a hack saw he had, Emile is no fool, then rebending the metal flat again. 

12 Days later Emile had finished. EMILE BUILT A MOTORCYCLE OUT OF A CAR IN THE DESERT THAT HE RODE OUT OF THE DESERT. 

Anythings Possible. 

I LOVE THE LICENSE PLATE

-jv
fan
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Cutie-pa-tooties

 I'm a big fan of unique photography and adorable children. So stumbling upon work by photographer Jason Lee was a pretty awesome find today. Check this out to read a little interview with the dude and see some of the best pics of his cutie daughters, or hit that link in the previous sentence for his flickr. Dude's a fantastic wedding photog by day.

This post is in honor of my big sister's birthday, just yesterday. :D

-lab
little sister extraordinaire
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Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - Same Love

Macklemore dropped this song today as a sampling of his new album, "Heist", which will be released on October 9th. He's also coming to Boston on November 15th, which I am 100% going to.

Same Love.

I can't get over Mary Lambert in it, she kills it. She keeps me warm.

peace
jb

Frank Ocean: Channel Orange

Frank Ocean is one of the first major hip hop artists to announce having a same-sex relationship.
He is a member of OFWGKTA.

He released his new album, 'channel ORANGE', on iTunes a few days ago and you can stream the whole thing off his Tumblr here.

I could jam to this for a long time.


jb

B.o.B. Both Of Us feat. Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is the voice of her generation and they are lucky to have her. I hope she stays around singing her lovely voice out forever and starts spending some more time over in hip hop feat. land because she slays on this track. B.O.B. does well sharing a song with a lady, always has. He also can lay out lines that leave you dumbfounded theyr so fucking awesome "do it one time for the underdogs, sincerely yours, one of y'all" is the best line of the song and his accent makes it rhyme. I love the look of this video, Memphis Trash through an instagram filter on a sunny day. Hope you like the song too. 



-jv
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Robert de La Rochefoucauld

Robert de La Rochefoucauld was a member of the French Resistance during World War II. As part of The Resistance Robert de La Rochefoucauld escaped from behind enemy lines twice, once making his escape in a nun's habit the other time by stealing a Nazi limousine. He also smuggled bombs in hollowed out loaves of bread and was once quoted as having said "I felt drunk with Freedom" one of the best lines ever. Robert de La Rochefoucauld was a clandestine hero. His obituary in today's Boston Globe is fantastic. 

-jv
Fan
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Minimalist Disney Posters

Shout Out to Fisti, Pinterest, Izzy, Alice, Jill, Lucy, Disney, J.M., The Grimm Bros., Ariel, Peter, The Crocidile, Snow White, Apples, Rowansm and Love.

-jv
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Dinosaurs Had Feathers

A Dinosaur was archaeologist'd in Bavaria recently and it turned the Dinosaur World on its no more looking like giant lizards heads because this Dinosaur "proved" that Dinosaurs Had Feathers. The Dinosaur dinosaur'd 150 million years ago which is much earlier than archaeologists had every believed feathered dinosaurs had existed. Sam Neill has known that dinosaurs had feathers since 2001. Because The Dinosaur was around much earlier than any other known Feathered Dinosaur the Archaeologists concluded that all dinosaurs had feathers. The Dinosaur they found looked really stereotypical  it walked on two legs and had a tail and a standard dinosaur face and was covered in feathers. The Archaeologists found skin and feathers preserved along with the full skeleton. Dinosaurs Had Feathers.

Also, This Guy Looks Like Clint Eastwood, Right?

-jv
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#SummerJams

California knows how to party.

There's a ton of great music coming out of LA right now.  Too much for one post.  But here's a few great summer tracks from some bands that I've seen around recently:



I know Seth's been listening to Electric Guest, so I figured I'd throw their single up here. They're produced by Danger Mouse and recently released a full length album.  Ryan, Jill, Alex, & Spencer have all been with me to The Echo, one of my favorite LA rock clubs, where I saw them in February.

Another band I saw in February, playing a surprise show with Cold War Kids, is the folky, harmonizing Milo Greene:




They first broke onto the scene while opening on tour for one of Alice's favs, the Civil Wars. They have an LP due out in July, and I hope the album art is as cool as their EP!


Another group that's been opening for bigger acts is possibly the hottest up & coming band in LA right now, Superhumanoids:



I've seen them all over town, and their electro-pop sound is very trendy. Unsurprisingly, I've started hearing them on the radio recently.

Enjoy this trio of LA #SummerJams, because I've definitely got more coming!

-DMc, West Coast Correspondent

Color Test!

 Let's see who I choose to take with me to pick paint for my kitchen cabinets in a few weeks. If you'll all be so kind as to take this nifty color test, we can see who is awesome at colors. (JV, pulling for you on this one!)

It's been blowing up at work all day, with scores from 0 (which is a perfect score) to about 1000 (which seems impossible to get unless if you are legitimately color blind). I got a lovely score of 4, along with my cubicle mate Eddie, so we're feeling pretty good about ourselves and our matching abilities. It's one of the funnest color tests I've ever done because if you stare at it for too long your eyes start getting all watery and things start to all look the same.

WELLESLEY UPDATE: We now own a tiny baby scorpion that traveled all the way from Italy in a poor rich old lady's suitcase, which promptly fled the suitcase upon arrival home in the town of Wellesley, bit the lady, and then was caught by firefighters. It's safely home in some test area for the biology students and has been affectionately named "Piccolo". I say, GROSS. They have a huge picture of it on the Wellesley website, which has disturbed me every time I've gone there today (which has been about 75 times at least).

-L.A.B
your neighborhood color ninja
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Starry Night in Dominoes

This actually made me gasp when it all falls in.



You might want to listen to this song after. I did.

-av

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#SummerJams

Brooklyn Edition.

It's officially summer! You're gonna need some sweet summer tunes to create your soundtrack for beach days & barbecues, and I've got a couple more recommendations that I think you'll enjoy. These two both come from the hotbed that is the Brooklyn indie scene.



Ghost Beach is electro-pop at its finest. The dancey synth parts are right in the wheelhouse of Holy Ghost and Penguin Prison, similar acts from the same Brooklyn scene whose albums were some of my favorites last year.

They've got an EP out, and supposedly an LP this fall. All of their music (including Miracle) is available for free download on their website:  http://www.ghostbeachmusic.com/.  I love when bands do that.



Tanlines has been around for a couple years, opening for acts like Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer, & The xx, and touring with Julian Casablancas (of The Strokes).  They released their first full-length album, Mixed Emotions, this spring.

They have a laid back electronic sound that's fun in the summer. You can download the All of Me single for free from StereoGum.  They also did a very odd music video, featuring dancing old people, with [adult swim].

Enjoy these Brooklyn #SummerJams, I'll hit you with some LA bands next week!

-DMc, West Coast Correspondent