Thanks to Matt Musick at Motherboard.tv for sending me this great video of people hanging out watching the last Space Shuttle launches.

By now it’s a somewhat common event, one that for most Americans is signaled by nothing more than a brief clip on the news. But a shuttle launch is still one of mankind’s most complex and massive undertakings, a carefully-primed $1.3 billion explosion that turns years of planning and construction into a spectacle that lasts only a few minutes.

But to some, it’s the spectacle of a lifetime. People come from across the country and the world to see it. They travel from Michigan or Alaska or England or Italy and line up along a worn river bank in Florida, waiting for hours, maybe days, to see a group of people embark on another journey, this one powered by rockets that do zero to 17,000 mph in 8.5 minutes. To the fans, the astronauts strapped into the Space Transportation System, as their ride is called, aren’t just “rocket jockeys.” They’re like rock stars.

(Vice: Space Shuttle Parking Lot)

(Previously on Dangerous Minds: Get Up Make Love)

 
Cakedhead has a cool collection of photographs of timeless beauties wearing bizarre vintage owl hats. Go check it.
 
(via Nerdcore and Cakehead )

 
Serious WTF? action happening here. From Popbitch:

We were warned this film was coming. A crazed German doctor kidnaps three people and surgically joins them together, mouth to anus, to create a three part creature. The doctor feeds the first person. The second is fed through their mouth being attached to the first’s anus, and they in turn feed the third person in the same way.

We saw a few pictures and it looked… well, as vile as you’d imagine. Now the trailer’s out, so you can see for yourself.

 
(via Popbitch)

 
A difficult and turbulent mix of 7” singles from my collection for the sake of your aural edutainment.
 
Portsmouth Sinfonia - Also Sprach Zarathustra Op. 31 (excerpt)
Annie Anxiety - Cyanide Tears
Jimmy Smack - Untitled
Keith Rowe - Scratch Music
Joe Colley/Crawl Unit - Clay Sound
Princess Tinymeat - A Bun in the Oven
Eazy Teeth - Her Blade
The Flying Lizards - All Guitars
Minimal Man - She Was A Visitor
Stefan Weisser (Zev) - Poextensions
Sun City Girls - Eye Mohini
Project 197 - Plastic Straws
Jimmy Smack - Untitled
Caroliner - The Cooking Stove Beast
Johnny Ace - Pledging My Love
 

   Man Can Now Be Boxed And Bunched by brad laner
 

 

 
Give it up for Andrew W.K. for he is a very brave man. In the pages of the Guardian newspaper, the hard partying rocker was willing to tell one of those stories that should probably be left untold, but oh what a great story it is. You see, young Andrew had a massive crush on a girl who didn’t exactly crush on him in return. So the 17-year-old future rock star wrote her a love song, recorded it and turned it in as his high school senior project. That’s where things went terribly, terribly wrong… Play the song here. It’s kinda great for a kid—sophisticated sonically to be sure—but LOL at the same time.

The day after I submitted the song, the head of my school called me and my parents in for a private meeting. They played the song for my parents as I sat next to them, paralysed and devastated by the humiliation. The head of the school recommended that I go into counselling or see the school psychiatrist (my parents did send me to a child psychologist following later exploits in arson, baseball card forgery and mail fraud: his final diagnosis? “You have a devilish side”). That was bad, but nothing compared to what happened a year later.

It turned out that the assistant to the head of school got a copy of my song on cassette and gave it to the girl I had a crush on. This was probably the worst thing that had ever happened in my life. She heard the song and was completely freaked out. Within three days, every kid in school had a copy. She told her friends, teachers and parents: “This guy at school is stalking me and threatening my life.” She played them the song and they called the police.

Read the rest of ‘It’s time to let you hear the song which earned me a juvenile restraining order’ (including the lyrics) (The Guardian)

Thank you Chris Campion!

 
One of the greatest—and trippiest—comic book covers of all time, the very first issue of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (June 1968). There’s a copy for sale at Little Green Footballs.

When I was a kid, I loved this character and all of his cool gadgets. I always got to “be” Nick Fury playing with other kids. I even wore an eyepatch! (True)

 
Remember our anesthesia patient from earlier this week?  Well thanks to a comment left by Eric S, we now know that her Jesus freestyle was actually a song by Carman, Christian rap star extraordinaire from the early 90’s!  Thanks Eric!
 

 

 
via The Independant

Malcolm McLaren, the former manager of the Sex Pistols and impresario, has died. He was 64.

McLaren had had cancer for some time. His condition recently deteriorated rapidly and he died this morning in New York. His body is expected to be brought home to be buried in Highgate cemetery, north London.

Born in North London, McLaren was best known as the manager of the iconic punk band The Sex Pistols. After attending and dropping out of several art colleges in 1971 he opened a clothes shop on the King’s Road , Let It Rock, with Vivienne Westwood.

 

thx Ned Raggett !

 
Everyone needs a good party trick. Not sure why this bit of extreme silliness needed an epic 40 second graphic intro, though. Watch a cup, watch a cup !
 
thx Ron Nachmann !

 
(via Unique Daily )