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