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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