#864 - Blue

I, too, look forward to BoingBoing's first papercraft Hoo-Ha. (I Googled for such a thing, but this is as close as I could get.)

I take it back: Never built; only a mock-up (he sez, 6" from the monitor, sans contacts).

I'm still open on the question of whether or not it was actually prototyped, but the reason for name-dropping the tech behind it is simple: It was a competition sponsored by Schott, maker of both LightPoints and Mirona.

I got turned on to Head Slick from the HeadBlade folks by Mr. Pescovitz, over on the flipside; I only use it on the lower front quadrant of my head, though. Works great, although harder to come by now that Walgreens has stopped carrying it most places. You have to like a company that sells after-[dome-]shaving lotion in matte and shiny variants, though.

...or the next news story about Dick van Dyke.

Reminds me of the time a friend posted something to Craigslist using the phrase "an all-inclusive" ... only to have the final listing read "l-inclusive."

As former owner of Bold Type, one of the plaintiffs in Ashcroft v Free Speech Coalition, which resulted in the Supreme Court striking down two provisions of the CPPA, I am disgusted but not surprised by the typical knee-jerk [over]reaction of the authorities involved.

As a sometimes-VJ who spends countless hours seeking out public domain and out-of-copyright material by the gigabuttload, I fear the current legal and political climate of zero tolerance for possibly illegal imagery, no matter how old and no matter the circumstances under which it was obtained. As I've often performed at goth/fetish clubs and at events by or benefits for the Center for Sex and Culture, I've amassed a pretty substantial (ok, embarrassingly large) collection of vintage porn and erotica, typically by indiscriminately sucking down archived collections from P2P nets. It can take months for me to vet downloaded files, especially if I don't have any pressing gigs — I bet there's at least a couple dozen hours of vintage smut on one of my drives I haven't touched in the 4 years since I downloaded it. God only knows what's in it….

Unfortunately, should those files include anything known to be a deathly poison for our way of life — four or five seconds of Tracy Lords playing with a tennis racket, for example — and I'm facing having to spend the rest of my life as a registered sex offender, should the authorities somehow find them before I do. (And maybe even if I do, should the feds decide to recover my deleted files.) And at least I know who Tracy Lords is, what she looks like, and which of her film(s) were made after turning 18. What about the nameless stars who debauched their way through hundreds of silent smoker reels and feelthy French feelms? What did filmmakers photocopy in the days before drivers' licenses?

For that matter, never mind what's on my hard drive — maybe I should start worrying about what's on my shelves. I know I have at least three books about film censorship or transgressive/experimental cinema that feature frames from Smart Alec, one of the first widely circulated porn films. I've noticed it popping up everywhere from cheapie "Porn Just Like Daddy Used to Make" compilations to quasi-academic historical surveys to erotic mash-ups from Oddball Films. Imagine my surprise upon recently learning that Candy Barr (neé Juanita Slusher) was only 16 when the film was made. Does this mean I should take an X-Acto to my old film studies textbooks?

[As an aside, I'm always amazed by the assumption that computer viruses are an unavoidable aspect of the wired life. After 25 years online, more or less daily and using MS products almost exclusively, I suffered my first real viral infection (as opposed to house-guest-doing-something-stupid infection, or I-know-this-is-going-to-install-adware-but-I'll-clean-it-out-*after*-I watch-the-unlocked-video infection) last October. It was a drive-by infection thanks to a Firefox exploit. (Ironically enough, the week before I had finally switched my default browser from Netscape 6.reallyold to Firefox, 'cause I was tired of all the cool kids making fun of me.) During those 25 infection-free years, I downloaded hundreds of thousands of files, often from extremely sketchy sources. I've also *never* run any sort of real-time anti-virus, preferring instead to scan suspect downloads manually.]

Wow! I would've loved this as a kid -- and, since it closes the circuit entire with one hand, undoubtedly safer than my practice in those days of sticking a screwdriver into an outlet.

In retrospect, it explains a lot, really...

One would almost think Shiner had never written anything other than Glimpses — which of course he has. But, you know, even if he hadn't, he'd still be remembered as a writer of rare genius. Damn close to a perfect novel....

Reminds me of a car trip my family made back from Florida to Virginia over Christmas break in 1974. My 10-year-old sister was very susceptible to motion sickness, and before long had thrown up. As it happened, the Carpenters' cover of "Please Mr. Postman" happened to be on the radio at the time -- as it was the second time she became carsick a short while later. By the time we finally reached Virginia, the song itself had become enough to trigger my sister's vomiting, with my mother playing a "Fear Factor" version of "Name That Tune," frantically punching buttons on the radio as soon as she heard the first few notes beginning to play. Since the song was on its way to #1, there were times she'd hear, "And here's something new from the Carpenters" and punch a button -- only to land in the middle of another station's playing of it, followed immediately by projectile vomiting.

This has already been covered by BoingBoing: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/19/another-picture-of-t.html

(And a tip o' the hat to #52, who beat me to the punchline.)

@6 - Stefan

Unless you, too, are an alumnus of Becky's Kiddie College, these things must've been more common than I thought.

They went well with the Devo-esque matching JFK hair-helmets for the guys, though.

For the DYIers in the house, I wanted to give a shout-out to Jef Poskanzer's ACME Brix how-to: http://www.acme.com/jef/brix/

@12: c/hobbyists/voyeurs

...but that's not the only reason I want one.

So is this a six-year-old announcement, are the folks at Topp's math-challenged, or did some publicist's supernumerary convince Abrams that a "35th anniversary" collection would be easier to sell than a "41st anniversary" one?

Cause, you know, it's gotta end with a "5" or a "0" -- and you wouldn't want to wait *another* four years without seeing some ROI.

(However, I *did* appreciate the momentary lightness of spirit I experienced when, for one brief second, I thought, "35 years ago?! I must not be as old as I think I am!"

Takuan -

"Convoy" is evil in more ways than one: The musicians who recorded as "C. W. McCall" went on to become... Mannheim Steamroller.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/18/magazine/18christmas.html

Over Christmas break during my sophomore year in high school, I went with my family to Disney World and Epcot.

On the final evening of our three-day visit to the Magic Kingdom, while the rest of the Mazoolas staked out a prime viewing spot for that nights son et lumière, I begged some bucks from Dad and headed off by myself to pick up a few souvenirs. My prime target was a magic and novelty shop somewhere in the neighborhood of Cinderella's Castle -- which, if there is any justice in the world, will've been named "The Magic Kingdom."* As I hurried to beat the shop's imminent closure, I passed a large crowd waiting for that night's big concert -- due to start within moments, according to the PA.

Having managed to slip through the door seconds before closing time, I quickly yet carefully made my purchases -- a packet of flashpaper, as I recall, and a chrome-plastic water faucet mounted on a suction cup, hilariously intended to be affixed in places where finding an actual, working faucet would be utterly ridiculous and/or embarrassing; my first week back in school after the break, I bore a perfectly circular hickey in the middle of my forehead -- and headed back to where I'd last seen my family.

On the walk back, though, I'd no sooner passed the site of the concert-to-be when the crowd roar let me know the headliner *had* finally arrived. You can imagine my lack of excitement upon hearing the big-name talent appearing that night was Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. I kept on walking...

...only to be brought to a standstill by what happened next: An oddly familiar solo guitar melody went skittering out into the night -- as the Heywoods opened their set with a cover of "Roundabout."

__________

* Rest assured: Any minute now Cory will be providing links to the shop's fan page; a scan of the original typescript of the shop owner's long out-of-print memoir of years spent selling phony buck teeth and onion gum to the nation's schoolboys; some guy's site tracking progress towards recreating virtually his first visit to the store, accurate to the last detail and rendered in high resolution 3D (last updated March 2003) -- oh, and his podcast of the scene in "Little Brother" where a phone phreak and proto-hacker is caught trying to shoplift a Bag o' Laffs from a magic shop located on the grounds of an unnamed mega-themepark located in some vague Southern state, thus instilling within him a deep hatred of surveillance cameras and itching powder.

As I hurried to

Kinda takes all the fun out of that joke with the punchline: "And here's a banana for your monkey!"

Registrado, @#10:

Danny Kaye was an Esper, right? Right?

I think you meant "Donald O'Connor" — the other Danny Kaye.

cajunfj40 @ 25

No need to bother with parking a stripped, tag-less vehicle; I can point you to a couple of locations in Berkeley and SF where simply parking overnight can get you a new paint job. I have a box truck that's been entirely repainted at least three times in the past few years, at times with such a consistency in color and style I've been asked if I paid to have it done.

Most recently, the entire side of the box was redone (alas, covering up what had been the most interesting work), presumably overnight, while parked along SF's Alemany Ave. Amazingly, the repainted side was the one facing *into* the busy, 4-lane road, and not the one against the tree-shadowed sidewalk.

Crystal Slurm.

There's also Prangstgrup, at http://www.prangstgrup.com . Some hits, some misses -- but "Reach (Lecture Musical)" is absolutely beautiful.

Gee, and here I was remembering going out for drinks with friends from West Virginia (who commuted to Northern Virginia and the District to work) and having to choose where we went based on which clubs would admit a black man.

Of course, this was back in the dark ages -- 1994 or so.

--which has nothing at all to do with Kevin Scanlon's work, of course, which is wonderful.

A Google Maps link to Fidler's Honeycrock Farms can be found at http://tinyurl.com/2ueb6c . The image must be pre-2002, as the castle is evidently built approximately where the two silos in the center stand. (Judging from the news photos of the finished house, it doesn't look as if it actually incorporates them.) You can also see one of his nice blue tarps at the top of the image.

More info can be found in the denied planning applications for the home ( http://tinyurl.com/ytnxac ) and recreational space ( http://tinyurl.com/yrlhlk ).

"Only in their 50s"?

Now I'm really depressed....

Hmmmm. A life-size human version of one of these and a highway overpass....