Over at Cuepoint, an oral history of punk palace CBGB's heyday of the mid-to-late 1970s, starring members of the Ramones, Blondie, The Voidoids, and The Miamis, and the inimitable Patti Smith. Also at Cuepoint today, Smith talks with veteran music writer Alan Light. Read the rest
When I was 8 years old I was the only girl in a backgammon tournament of almost all older men. The gray-haired gentleman I was playing in the first round made a mistake when taking his turn and therefore beat me. I told him he made a mistake. Read the rest
The NY Times Magazine has an excerpt from Jon Ronson's forthcoming book, So You've Been Publicly Shamed. I got an advance copy of the book. It's about people who've had their lives ruined from online shaming. Read the rest
A scientist, his dog and an MRI machine. In How Dogs Love Us, Gregory Berns tells the story of how he is seeking to decode the canine brain. Read the rest
The ZeroLemon SolarJuice 20000mAh Battery, which sells on Amazon for $80, is on sale for the next five days at Stacksocial for $50. I'm getting it for an upcoming trip with the family.
On This American Life, a replay of a BBC radio documentary about William S. Burroughs narrated by Iggy Pop that convinced Ira Glass why Uncle Bill deserves respect: (more…)
A Seoul court has sentenced the former vice president of Korean Air, Cho Hyun-ah (40), to one year in prison for throwing a temper tantrum on a Korean Air jet when macadamia nuts were served improperly on the runway at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. Read the rest
In December 2014, volunteers from One Desk Foundation went to the Dominican Republic and built a refurbished playground purchased from Kids Around the World, a non profit that recycles playgrounds donated by local parks. Read the rest
Recording my podcast Notebook on Cities and Culture's Korea Tour last summer, I had some of the most fun hanging out with Chad Kirton, also known as DJ Chad, also known — when in the hip-hop game — as Fusion. Read the rest
I have only two major urban regrets: that I'll never get to see Portsmouth's Tricorn Centre, and that I'll never get to see Hong Kong's Kowloon Walled City. Read the rest
Starting next Sept, the company will publish 3-4 new, DRM-free, original science fiction novellas as ebooks, audiobooks and print-on-demand paper books per month, and they're launching strong, with titles by Seanan McGuire, Mary Robinette Kowal and Paul Cornell, as well as a slate of first-time authors.
As a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle enthusiast in childhood and a Los Angeles rapid transit enthusiast in adulthood, I should, by all rights, love Operation Blue Line, a ten-minute 1990 promotional video wherein the usually New York-based Heroes on a Half Shell defeat Gridlock, a villain bent on "suppressing all public information" about the Blue Line, the first branch of the city's modern rail system. Read the rest
New Zealand-based artist Daniel Reeves created the calligraphy and cartography seen in The Lord of the Rings trilogy along with several other big fantasy films, and merchandise associated with the movies. Read the rest
Last year I posted a wonderful 15-minute documentary about the Italian magician Silvan. The director, Gabriele Trapani, just posted a new, equally enjoyable, mini-documentary about an interesting bodybuilder named Mr. O. Read the rest
This week on the Cool Tools Show, we speak with Erik Knuzten, co-author of Urban Homestead:Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City and Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World. Read the rest
I've yet to find a hinged garlic press that I love. The ones I've tried are inefficient, fragile (especially the hinge, which inevitably fails), and not that easy to clean. I end up having to peel the unused garlic from the inside of the press, and my fingers stink for days. Everyone has their opinion about crushing garlic - my top choice is Joseph Joseph Rocker Garlic Crusher, Press, and Mincer ($14). Read the rest