An enterprising activist/prankster named Robert Erickson yes man’d a contingent of mentally challenged Tea Baggers in Minneapolis by getting them to chant—it was an anti-immigrant rally, basically—“Columbus go home” like braying jackasses until a few of these dim-bulbs caught on. It’s bust-a-gut funny and disturbing at the same time. Watch the one old guy in the NRA hat guy lose it at the end.

When I was watching this I was thinking how these people are so angry, they don’t like the way things are going, they know they are less well off than they were before and they are pissed off and they have a right to be, but the problem is, their anger is directed at the wrong targets. This is in no small part due to the out-sized influence of assholes like Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs and Bill O’Reilly on low IQ Americans. These Tea Bagger’s opinions are simply ignorant—that’s putting it kindly—and their minds are snapped shut like steel traps. They’re so dumb they don’t even know how dumb they are. It’s impossible to take them seriously as a political force. I take heart that as time goes on and demographics change in this country that there will be less of this kind of idiocy moving forward in history. The faces in the crowd here are mostly senior citizens. They’re not going to be around, most of these folks in 20-30 years. We’re watching the death throes of a certain reactionary element of American society that we can all do better without. It’s not going to happen tomorrow, but it is will eventually happen. [To clarify, I still think there will be dumb people, but they’ll be less dumb than the Boomer tea baggers simply because they will be less old-fashioned and have lived in a more interconnected, multicultural world than their parents. Does that make sense?]

 
Equinox Fitness Clubs asked we four at Dangerous Minds to tour their facilities, write up our impressions and offer our readers a 3-day trial membership so they can check out an Equinox near them. Click here to sign up.

I agree with all of what Richard had to say in his post about Equinox. The main thing he mentions is that it was sparkling clean and this is quite true. That’s a big plus for me, too—but I have a few other observations to offer.

From a woman’s perspective, Equinox seems extremely luxurious. The spa looked especially good to me and the prices were better than reasonable. Everything smelled nice, the sauna was extra clean (that word again) and I loved the way everything looked. The yoga studio was very “zen” but at the same time ultra modern and chic. There was nice Italian modernist furniture in the waiting room/lobby area. The spa staff had ready answers to all of our questions, were friendly and very knowledgeable about all they offered there. I’m definitely going to check out the spa one day soon and pamper myself. I’d been looking for a good place to go in LA (without naming names, I had a horrific experience once in what is probably LA’s best known spa chain and so I’m pretty picky!) and I was quite impressed by the day spa at the Equinox club on Sunset Blvd, the club we visited.

Second woman-only observation: I would feel comfortable working out at an Equinox club. The male clientele seems to be on the “classier” side of the equation and I wouldn’t fear dumb guys hitting on me in such a high end gym. There is nothing worse than that and every woman knows what I am talking about.

I got the sense during our tour that the club was undergoing constant upgrading and improvements. Improvements to an already pretty fantastic gym, I should say. They had just gotten a fleet of brand new state-of-the-art Schwinn exercise bikes, and the men’s locker rooms were being redone from the floors up when we were there. I know I keep coming back to the same thing, how clean the club is, but if you think about it, gyms can get really grody, really fast and this place positively gleamed. It’s a big, huge part of enjoying your workout experience, are you with me ladies?

Finally, if you did want to hang out and talk to someone cute afterward, there’s an Elixir health cafe with all kinds of yummy drinks and things right on the premises. I can see myself coming here often after a workout. I’d take an Elixir over a Starbucks any day.

All in all, great experience. What more can I say beside this is the single nicest gym I’ve ever been in? If you’d like to check out an Equinox Fitness Club near you, click here for a 3-day trial membership and tell ‘em Dangerous Minds sent you.

 
From the annals of good ideas gone horribly, horribly, wrong, comes this seriously misguided attempt at a domestic violence awareness campaign.  As hatched by a Danish advocacy group, the “Hit The Bitch” website allows you (or someone like you), in the guise a meaty male hand, to beat the crap out of a woman.  And, for the sake of convenience, to simulate the beating, you can use either your mouse or your webcam.  Here’s what Gwen Sharp at Sociological Images has to say about it:

The woman gets increasingly bruised and bloodied as you hit her.  I forced myself to try the site and hit her twice, and it was honestly sickening to watch her head jerk backward or to the side and hear the sound of the slap and her reacting.  At the top, a counter keeps track; you start out as 100% Pussy, 0% Gangsta, but your Gangsta rating goes up every time you hit her (below).

Apparently, though, when you get up to where you?

Everything is Terrible is a stoner video art collective from Planet Nibiru or some such shit. They are, in my opinion, the funniest and most creative video producers on the Internet (yes, even more than Jandrewedits). Maybe it’s because I was a kid in the 80s and 90s and all the crap they sample is hardwired into my soul: after-school specials, weird toy commercials, Jean-Claude Van Damme movies, Xuxa, Barney, etc. etc. Enjoy the video. It peaks at 4:20 when the Christian youth do the Quan Yin.

 
Freelance creative types rejoice—France has just the hotel for you!  For only 99 Euros a night, you, too, can eat grain, run on a giant wheel, and crash out on a bed of hay.

 
(via Reuters)

Edward Woodward, mostly known as the vindictive cop from The Equalizer and The Wicker Man, died yesterday at the age of 79. Who will save us from the never-ending onslaught of street thugs and dirty pagans now? The Independent has released an obituary:

Veteran actor Edward Woodward, who was known for his roles in The Wicker Man and The Equalizer, died today.

The 79-year-old had been suffering from various illnesses, including pneumonia, and died in hospital, his agent said.

Janet Glass released a statement praising his “brave spirit and wonderful humour”.

It said: “Universally loved and admired through his unforgettable roles in classic productions such as Breaker Morant, The Wicker Man, Callan, The Equalizer and many more, he was equally fine and courageous in real life, never losing his brave spirit and wonderful humour throughout his illness.

Featured below, a trailer for the Wicker Man featuring Woodward in full form.

 
Another fantastic find, courtesy EggCityRadio, Gerald Busby‘s scary-as-shit, flute-heavy soundtrack to Robert Altman‘s 3 Women.  Along with The Long Goodbye and McCabe & Mrs. Miller, 3 Women definitely makes my “classic” Altman shortlist.  That’s not to say, of course, I don’t love MASH, or Nashville, or even Short Cuts, but I think those larger, “tapestry” films play far more to the head than they do the heart.

What’s 3 Women all about?  Well, imagine Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell’s Performance played out in Palm Springs with James Fox and Mick Jagger swapped out for Sissy Spacek and Shelly Duvall.  If it unfurls like a dream, that’s probably because Altman dreamed the movie first, turned it into a screenplay, then proceeded to shoot something he was still himself just sorting out.  But, hey, maybe that’s how you made masterpieces back in the ‘70s?  The trailer for 3 Women follows below:

 
The 3 Women soundtrack

Bonus I: 3 Women Part I

Bonus II: The Life & Times of Gerald Busby

Flickr user mleak stands next to her full-size sculpture of Wonder Woman, made from 11 (only 11?) bags of Wonder Bread. Slightly less hot than Lynda Carter… slightly. ComicsAlliance reports:

Somewhere on the grain-based Earth-9, the rolls and croissants of Breadmerica cried out for a vitamin-enriched warrior of peace and “Wonder?Ǭ

 
Who knew Jean-Paul Sartre suffered from a mescaline-induced crustacean complex?  What follows is a snippet of conversation the French existentialist had with political science professor, John Gerassi.  In it, Sartre recalls an “experiment” with drugs in 1929, the same year, not so incidentally, he met Simone De Beauvoir, aka “Castor.”

Sartre: ... I ended up having a nervous breakdown.

Gerassi: You mean the crabs?

Sartre: Yeah, after I took mescaline, I started seeing crabs around me all the time.  They followed me in the streets, into class.  I got used to them.  I would wake up in the morning and say, ?

 
Kindle users cover your eyes! This is an excellent stop-motion video that spans over two months, 3,000 photographs and 35 books documenting the making of the book “The Complex of All of These.”
 
(via HYST)