CHIRPIN HARD
It came as a surprise to me after over 20 years of seeing “normal” world maps to come across an upside down one. The most surprising thing was that I found it surprising. It is completely artificial that we have North at the top of a map. The convention came a few centuries ago when Northern hemisphere, European navigators started using the North star and the magnetic compass. Before that, the top of the map was to the East which is where the word orientation comes from. (via World Maps with South at the Top)
I know I’m reblogging myself, but this is super cool.
City And Colour - “Forgive Me”
So I’ll cross my heart
And hope to die
Before I have a chance to lie
To you my dear
Who I wish no harm
But I know in the end this will turn out wrong
See I’ve been known to fall in love
But sometimes love just is not enough
And my heart will stray
Before too long
So please forgive me when I sing this song
I sing this song
#not pissing my pants
(via ihatethismess)
Great recommendations. I’m proud to say I own the Girls Are Not Chicks coloring book (thx Max Wheeler!), and I read Pirate Girl to my 3 yr old boy TWO days ago! I love books.
The artwork of Glenn Ligon
The 49-year-old Bronx-born, queer artist is probably most famous for his text paintings, which he’s made since the ’80s, appropriating words by everyone from Zora Neale Hurston and Ralph Ellison toRichard Pryor. Sometimes a line floats in the center of the canvas, and other times it repeats manically from top to bottom, covered over in paint until it’s almost aggressively illegible. Such sentences that flicker in and out of abstraction include: I do not always feel colored and I was a nigger for twenty-three years. I gave that shit up. No Room for advancement. Clearly, Ligon relies heavily on the legacy of writers, but he also actively engages with the history of abstract painting. In other pieces, however, he takes that fight between readability and revolt away from the canvas and the oils—particularly in a number of neon works, where the white neon bar is covered over in black, giving the simultaneous sense of illumination and blackout. Recently, the artist even entered the film business. His piece The Death of Tom is an abstractionist restaging of the last scene in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the silent movie filmed by Thomas Edison’s studio in 1903. Ligon asked experimental jazz musician Jason Moran to create the soundtrack for the film—“playing to the shadows,” as the young musician puts it. Here, the two talk about the importance of learning things that aren’t always written down.
(text via interview)
Just finished this gem. Denzel as Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, a sexy-as-all-hell private detective in 1948 Los Angeles. Mmmmmhmm.
Had to watch this for two separate African American Studies classes. Not only an entertaining film, but examines a lot of race/gender/class issues. Great!
Here are some interesting facts about Pabst:
- In 1844, a German immigrant named Jacob Best started Empire Brewery in Milwaukee and produced Best Lager. It had an 18-barrel capacity, which is about 90 gallons — hardly an “empire.”
- In the 1860s, a steamboat captain named Frederick Pabst married into the family and was taken into the company. The company started marketing Best Select Lager in bottles.
- In the mid-1880s, the beer began winning awards in national and international competitions and the company was renamed Pabst Brewing Company. To signify the wins, Captain Pabst started tying silk blue ribbons around the necks of the Best Select Lager bottles. The beer eventually was renamed Pabst Blue Ribbon.
- After prohibition, termed “the Dark Ages” on the Web site, Pabst became one of the first companies to offer canned beer.
- The 1940s and 1950s were a time of explosive growth for all American beers and Pabst remained one of the top five brewing companies for 40 years.
- Due to a silk shortage during World War II, Pabst stopped tying ribbons around its bottles and instead developed the famous blue ribbon logo.
- The all-time high for Pabst was in 1977 when it sold a record 18 million barrels.
- By 2001, sales had fallen to fewer than one million barrels.
Where’d ya get these “facts”? Just kidding. NPR loves PBR, hilariously.
