this reminds me of the day at my college radio station I found all these old 60s records I had never heard of. I naively thought -- if you have a record out -- you must have achieved some degree of fame. Then, I assumed -- that these records must be no good, that people did them as vanity projects or something. Wrong again. I played a few and some were very good. Just like now, I'm sure each of can name a great local indie band that none of the rest of us know about. There's many who missed the fame train, but were very competent artists. And this makes me wonder about swing music -- I've heard all the classics my whole life, but I would love to know if there's something like the above resource for undiscovered swing music. With the link above, I can tell a kid who thinks Satisfaction defines rock music about all these other great undiscovered artists. Me, all I know is String of Pearls and In the Mood -- what about swing music that escaped popularity but was smart and fun?

this seems like an electronic version of the tricks we would pull as kids. a friend trying to convince you that the claw man, or the escaped lunatic was outside your window ... kids are smart -- they know that the pedo is the monster-of-the-moment, so why not put on the pedo mask and scare your friends and enemies ...

now he's gone to meet Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

ah, people. I think we all need to adjust our "mean" meter. I do not find these letters particularly mean. I would say the word "mischief" seems to apply better. Not like he had a series of letters over the years that got their hopes up or something. I mean, you can make a case that Borat was certainly more mean as he duped people ...

maybe they can hire the comedy instructor from Borat

George Harrison was a big fan of Ukes, and even supposedly received oral goodness from a call girl while playing his Uke (source: You'll Never Make Love in this Town Again) ...

I agree #7 -- that's the first piece I've seen that works within the framework of the aesthetic and actually is interesting beyond. Not to mention, functional. Usually my mouse can't click fast enough past the words "steampunk" ...

If you're asking a card-carrying NRA member a bunch of questions about his gun, and then throw in a "are you happy?" -- of course, he's going to say "Yes!"

Being macho, having your testerone upped by gun talk, you're not going to say "I'm all weepy."

Meanwhile, he's prolly a hell-in-a-handbasket type dude, fueled by the message-machine's anger-de-jour.

I mean, he's going to think the happiness question relates to his ability own guns.

How hard is that to figure out ...

Could it be that people have been so into their picture taking, they pose a risk with cars whizzing by? I could see that point brought up in a theme park meeting where anyone who shouts out a warning about any risk is rewarded ...

to think our man Buckethead spent brief time in both the Chili Peps and Guns&Roses ...

actually this great collective called Nortec was using tuba banda style and electronica in cool way ... okay, not hip-hop and tuba, but ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73bmy_vuhLc

I watched the first Happy Days and told anyone who would listen to my 10-year-old ravings that it would be canceled immediately.

To be fair -- the early version was not Fonzie-centric -- and ABC honcho Freddy Silverman had not pointed this out to Gary Marshall yet ...

I also loved a show called "Lifeline" a show about medical doctors. It was canceled after a 2 year run, always had low ratings, but won some emmes. Oh yeah, I would posit it truly was the first commercial network reality show ...

I saw a werewolf drinking a piña colada in Trader Vic's. His hair -- was perfect.

looks like the outlaws Dummy and Clod ...

we've always had criminals, we've always had things for them to exploit, steal, wage war on, etc.

the problem is, NOW, they can not just screw up their little corner of the world, they can devastate the whole world, and for a timespan of FOREVER with their malevolent mindset.

a determined baddie can wreck so much havoc with the interconntected-ness of the world and the availability of bigger&better weapons ...

@7 -- I agree. After 9/11 I was constantly looking for avenues to terrorize. You go into prevent mode by worrying about what you need to prevent. Although I was more of a cowardly terrorists, wanting to be alive and on the loose after committing the dastardly deed.

My dad was a mechanical engineer, and things not working or breaking were always valuable to him because he could explore what went right, even when it was going wrong. He used to say that many engineers threw away good ideas just because of poor execution. This was his form of trash-diving for ideas ...

XOADARAP --

I don't remember if they Wittgenstein-ed the language into submission, but I remember they had ways (that's right, I'm NOT accepting the burden of proof on this one, since it wasn't my durn argument!) of dealing with the "propositions" argument too. Then they could say -- "hey, since it's all nonsense, my nonsense is as good as yours" ...

@76 was always essentially my response to the folks in philosophy who said "you can't prove anything 100%, so believe my wacky philosophy." And I would say, well, I can't prove the existence of that tree under your intellectual constructs, but I'm going to go cut it down and construct a house with it and live in it.

well, those coats (if not taken for debts) would provide warmth on those cold wisconsin street corners while hawking apples ...

Lincoln, was a very, very mild christian at best, and there's plenty of evidence to support this. And in the time he lived in, when athesim was even more feared and ostracized then it is now -- makes him the last person you would invoke to obtain religious supremacy ...

such a strange thing, fashion. a coat that really makes you look like a rustic trapper, is blended with a straw hat sporting a red band, and -- voila! you're a collegiate dandy!

you realize what the second sign is trying to accomplish?

hookers bringing tricks back.

there was a cool place called The Mouse in Bangkok, that all the peace corp kids would stay at. I remember seeing similar signs like this ...

less racist, and more whore-ish ...

as my friend always said:

"If you work at the tennis ball factory, every-now-and-then you'll take home some free tennis balls"

I love BB, but everytime I see a Steampunk post, I feel the same way when I saw another Spelling relative show up on Beverly Hills 90210 ...

"Somebody craps and you wanna take a sample of it?"

Euclid Beach was another great cleve-land amusement park.

But the king still remains -- Cedar Point, the best amusement park on Planet Earth. It's got the old (the Arcade is right outta "Big") and it's got the new (biggest, fastest coasters), etc. And you can still go on some great wood rollar coasters there, the Mean Streak, the Gemini, and the grandaddy of them all -- The Blue Streak. If you play your cards right and wait until your past the first hill, you can almost stand-up on this coaster ...

I hope it uses "Just Like Heaven" as you play the dead-lady-walking ...

Also the movie Five-Card-Stud with Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum. Robert Mitchum pretends to be a preacher, and in his hollowed-out bible, he carries a gun to kill people.

When bankers get thuggy ... well, he'll be inside the REAL thug culture soon enough (whr hpflly thg wll pt hmslf nsd f ths dd) ...

XOPL @ 18 -- yup, the inside-their-"fact bubble" was one of my most helpful tactics -- but, surprise -- their fact bubble didn't usually contain as many helpful facts as my bubble did for advancing my cause! SNOPES was usually neutral enough to work, I used to use a great site called SPINSANITY (sadly no more).

I came to the same conclusion -- you have to work to save the people outside the bubble from going inside the bubble. So anytime where I get one of those e-mails that is clearly wrong and flawed, but seems on the surface to be correct -- I SNOPES it, or do some quick research and de-bunk AND THEN SEND TO EVERYONE. Yes, REPLY to EVERYONE, and then if it's been forwarded a million times, I go down and cut&paste all those addresses into the bcc. It's gotten some folks really mad at me, but I refuse to stand by and let the swift boats of stupidity sail again ... I really do believe that that e-mails from "friends" is where the battle is being lost -- no one generally takes the time to counter because it puts them in a position of risk on so many levels ... (risk getting in an on-line tussle, risk losing a friend, risk being wrong) ... and at a certain point many people scratch their head and go "well, I don't really Obama is a muslim terrorist, but jeez, just to be on the safe side" ...

Tom @ 10 -- I do have to say this however -- the other side thinks THEY have the facts and that we are the wishful thinking crowd. After making a hobby of arguing with right-wingers on line (yes, I know, what a dumb&pointless hobby), they are thoroughly convinced that liberals are bereft of facts and arguments and just shout slogans. Why? Well, because there are just a few idiots (like me) who will come to their discussions boards to take enough abuse to try and talk them outta the tree. Why? Because they are armed with a whole different set of facts than us. They usually have a way to discredit any fact that comes from our side (the NYT LIED, therefore it always lies, etc.), and they have contrasting polling places, where they claim THEY HAVE the numbers. Or, more specifically, be an idiot (like me) and try to argue evolution with them. With my last science class being High School physics, I got destroyed by these guys. They go to classes to learn how to debate evolution. They can even frustrate college physics guys. SO, in their minds, there facts are good, because they see themselves WINNING all the arguments. They watch Bill O'Reilly, and to them -- he seems to win the argument every time. I.e., WE HAVE THE CORRECT facts. It's like the O.J. trial where each side gets their own science person with seemingly reasonable sounding facts to a lay person like me. And then, because living in their echo chamber where they win every argument, they think that anyone outside it must be crazy or ignoring reason. So they get derisive and annoyed. Why should I consider your sides' argument when it's so clearly flawed? It's just slogans (blood for oil!), etc. They have books that help explain to them how liberals who went to college could be so lacking in reasoning skills.

Years of learning guitar vs. putting a chip in the head. Please. I wish I could had that chip 8 guitarists ago. Or, as I always say to my right-wing pals on all things progress-vs.-ethical: so you're telling me if you could engineer your child to not have X disease, Y poor vision, etc. -- you wouldn't? people will be ethical for about the first five seconds, and then the competitive and better-better-best drive will take over and we'll deal with the consequences ... I may not know everything but I know human nature ...

ZuZu -- me too! I have always loved that Athletes routinely advertised Wheaties as making them bigger, stronger and faster (which they knew was not the case), but when we REALLY DID find something that makes you big, stronger and faster -- that's cheating. I have people in my life who have benefited from drugs, and who have suffered because of. It doesn't mean you go to the extreme either way ... Maybe some day athletes will advertise "hey kids -- make sure you have your fast-twitch muscle fiber enhancer every morning!" ...

I pitched this as a show to VH1 about ten years ago

it reminds me of those great 70s novelty song cut-ups, where they would interview "Mr. Jaws" and he would reply with a Carly Simon lyric "Wouldn't you give your hand to a friend?"

it also reminds that despite all of our superiority over most of the animal world, there are still animals that can eat us ...

this head-on parody is worthy:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_dDe39iqKIU

Aww, PhilipB/#15 -- I am with you, that is a kind idea. And to #3/Takuan -- there's no hail marys for me at the end of my declaration and thus absolution -- just a warning for the weight of one's mean actions (these are the chains I forged in life) ...

I still hold shame for one of the crappy things I did when I was a kid -- put an ad for a new neighborhood in a mailbox of people I did not like. Oh, and I also wrote "you should move here" on the ad. Ugh. I can't imagine how much shame I'd be carrying around if I had the internet back then to further my stupidity ...

Daddy, I want one!

The Rule of Law! Blah. The Rule of Law, like any other thing created by humans, can be subverted by humans for nefarious purposes ... let's ask black folks from the 1950s south how fun The Rule of Law was for them .. and I was just waiting for the apologist to show up,and #37 did right on time ... let's turn a little cop logic back on one of their brethren. My cop pals will tell me for every time you finally can get the goods on a bad guy, he's probably done about 10 things the same or worse -- that he's gotten away with ... soooo, applying this to Officer A-hole in his Youtube moment ... and because cops can "theoretically" save lives (which as a betting man, I would not bet on Officer A-hole to save Joe Citizen's life), does not give them the right to be thugs. Oh, and yes, this is not a police state in the United States -- and you know how we keep it from being one -- by bouncing people like Officer A-hole off the force, and not letting him get away with this because he "might" just save someone's life one day. Judging from the evidence before our eyes, he might just take one too ...

maybe I missed it, but I was hoping for an explanation of how to make the shower curtain ...

... I wonder how long it will be before Cheney black-bags Dr. de Grey and makes him work his magic for the VP and his cronies ... 1000 year of Dick Cheney ...

the slate article was barely longer than the boing boing post. felt like a half-finished homework assignment ...

Judges will lighten your sentence if you put stolen money to creative uses ...

repeating my mantra louder and more manically "don't judge other cultures, don't judge other cultures, don't judge other cultures" ...

they look like A.J. Soprano's crowd

@1 Antinous: Yup, that's the mind-blowing thing. I think in this cabaret setting, you see Tiny doing less of his fey schtick he would do on talk shows -- he was more secure in these places, that's where he started. If you fish around on the Youtube there's another clip of Tiny singing in a crooner's baritone picking a song from the Russ Columbo catalog. He did a whole album of Columbo standards. Before he became America's pet freak, he was a college coffee house darling for his knowledge of the American songbook, and it looks like he's headed that way again.

Well, since we know the TSA is reading boingboing now (don't you feel safer) I wonder if this will get the same sunny treatment and sensible resolution in the TSA blog as the "gadget inspection" did. Inspector Gadget indeed!

@20 steve: all hail Wiki for sorting this dick&dale mess out -- and here's a Welk show clip a former Vanguard (that's the label Lawrence started) executive just sent me that's even weirder:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i48BP1PUoFI

... the announcer sez Dale is from Iowa, but his bio has him born in Quincy, Mass. hmmm.

Yes, but is it LEGAL? If so, find a delivery system that makes it taste like a Luden's Cough Drop and bank all the money before the gov outlaws it.

ahh, this from the folks who bought Youtube?

as they say in Alabama "god bless Mississippi" ... it makes the rest of us feel so much better about our lot in life ...

my memory is more copyright ... but it all grows dim (thankfully) ... I want to say that was one of the defenses in the Alfred E. Neuman case ... that despite the copyright holder filing SIX different actions protecting it, they still got her cuz she didn't go after every one. Yup, here's a link:

http://theseventhsun.com/0507_copyright2.htm

Granted, there were other problems, but see the language of the judge in this link ... Granted its a LONG time ago, and there is newer, established case law, but this is a famous and fun case that every lawyer learns early, and prolly has a big influence.

Cory, having worked for copyright/trademark attorneys, I have memories of seeing actual cases they would use where people LOST copyrights over not being eternally vigilant. I remember having discussions with attorneys like -- why does it have to be either or? Why should a company get penalized on its mark for allowing a church group to use a Snoopy? They agreed, but claimed these specific cases made them have to do it. Lawyers try to protect against everything, and all it takes is going "oh, no one cares about a possibility so tiny" and then you have THE LOS ANGELES OF ANAHEIM. That's why they try to plan for all sorts of ridiculous eventualities ... all of this said by someone who is out of the biz and loving it ...

Fred Willard will greet you on the tarmac:

Lt. Hookstratten: This is our monthly "At Ease" weekend. It gives us a chance to let our hair down, although I see you've got a head start in that department. I shouldn't talk, though, I'm getting a little shaggy myself. I'd better not stand too close to you, people might think I'm part of the band. I'm joking, of course.

#11 -- in that link it sez the bad guy is getting THE DEATH SENTENCE. Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky and Neil Bush are making mental notes right now to not spread their special brand of financial magic in China ...

Doc Brown could fix it

I too ended up on the list. I too sent off the paperwork they requested. They then sent back this great answer:

"Where it was determined that a correction to records was warranted, these records were modified to address any delay or denial of boarding that you may have experienced as a result of the watch list screening process.”

I.e., we're not telling you if you are still on the list. So I wrote them back -- "Hey, yes or no, am I on the list?"

There one sentence reply:

"This all the language we have available at this time."

Can we shine the bat signal up in the sky to the ACLU?

I wonder if the store has boots with goldfish in them that you can't purchase on-site.

with regards to the punk videos link under this -- have you seen the Devo 2.0 version of Uncontrollable Urge -- the urge is now about snacking!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfUW28pdyD4

I love when people sing in fakey rock voices (that are supposed to convey huge emotion) purely informational things:

"1918 Aurora Road!"

I will be mocking that all day

"1918 Aurora Road!"