This interesting online portfolio of disappearing New York City storefronts by James and Karla Murray from their book, Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York, really struck a chord with me. The NYC that I used to love disappeared a long time ago. By 1990 I was already feeling like I was walking past the ghosts of all my favorite bookstores, record stores, nightclubs, etc. By 2007, I’d had it with New York—for good—and we moved—quite happily—back to Los Angeles. These photographs made me wistful about the city of my youth and the below video of The Kills has the perfect soundtrack for looking at these fast disappearing reminders of what New York used to be…

The Disappearing Face of New York

Thanks Steven Otero!

I have been a longtime Harvey Pekar fan, discovering him—along with the great Brother Theodore—during the early years of David Letterman’s show in the 1980s. He was always totally hilarious and curmudgeonly on his Letterman appearances. I view Pekar as original of a self creation as Groucho Marx, Charles Bukowski or his friend Robert Crumb. American Splendor, the film about Pekar’s life, starring the always wonderful Paul Giamatti as Harvey and featuring Harvey as himself, is one of my top, top favorite movies of all time, it’s a masterpiece.

Now Harvey Pekar is collaborating with four artists on a weekly web comic on the Smith website:

Pekar Project seeds were planted when Pekar discovered artist Tara Seibel, a fellow Clevelander. They began collaborating on stories for her blog, Rock Cityy Comix. For The Pekar Project, Pekar has formed a band including editor Jeff Newelt and four artists: Seibel, Joseph Remnant, Rick Parker, and Sean Pryor. Just as Duke Ellington composed pieces with a particular featured soloist in mind, Pekar is tailoring each true-life tale to these artists?

Wow!

Over at the Film Freak Central blog, Jefferson Robbins was stymied in his efforts to write about his favorite television series Mad Med. What can you say about Mad Men that’s not already been said a million times? The result was this interesting video love letter to Mad Men which focuses on the cinematography of the series and Alfred Hitchcock’s influence on the show.

Via Joel Johnson’s Twitter

(via Nerdcore)

Seventy year-old YouTube video maker William Tapley is a retired furniture engineer from Forestport, NY.  Tapley is the self-styled “Third Eagle of the Apocalypse” and “Co-prophet of the Endtimes.” On his Revelation Unraveled series, he has described how Obama (“The King of the South”) will be the last President of America and how he will lead the US into war against Russia; what life in the US will be like after WWIII and how much God hates masturbation, the rhythm method and condoms (Just look what happened to Onan!). Unlike most Christian prophets and televangelists of late, Tapley expressly teaches that Obama is NOT the Antichrist (but he might be a Nazi!)  and has called Jack Vam Impe and Hal Lindsey “false prophets.” He also claims that God gave him arthritis in his left shoulder as a punishment for not fasting and praying hard enough for America.

Tapley really seems to believe his arrival on the scene was preordained. Here’s what he says about his gift on his YouTube Channel:

When I asked who is the “eagle” in Revelation 8:13, He said “you are”. This really shook me, but after some research I realized there are actually four eagles. The first was St. Vincent Ferrer, an amazing miracle worker, who warned humanity in 14th century Europe about the impending breakup of Christianity (the first woe). His chief disciple was St. Bernardino of Siena, who also warned about this catastrophe. Since the eagle cries “woe, woe, woe”, I determined that I must be the third personification of this eagle and my mission from God is to warn mankind about the second woe, World War 3. After me will come a fourth eagle, the prophet Enoch, whose mission will be to preach repentance to the Gentiles and warn about the third woe, the reign of the Antichrist.

I like to refer to the four of us eagles as “three saints and a sinner”. The term “co-prophet” means that I complete the end times prophecies in the Bible. I often compare the gifts of end times prophecy and co-prophecy to the gift of speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues. These manifestations come from the Holy Spirit who always requires two people to express His gift of life and love, such as also marriage. I hope you continue to enjoy my prophecy videos and I encourage any and all comments. I try to respond to as many as I can and my only rule is that I will delete any “F” words.

From Ariel Leve of The Sunday Times:

Who knew eating alone was an act of bravery? The other day I was at a restaurant having an early dinner when I got a phone call from a friend. She asked where I was and when I told her she said, ?

Now here’s a woman.

You know this woman is important because she is a member of Fail Valhalla?

Nothing to add to this. See the entire photo essay at the Los Angeles Times.

Oh, lord have mercy. Lord have mercy you people!

A White House environmental policy adviser who specialized in “green jobs” resigned on Sunday after an uproar over his previous affiliation with a September 11 conspiracy group.

Van Jones, special adviser on green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, apologized on Thursday after videotape surfaced of him using a crude epithet to describe Republicans and amid revelations he had signed a petition suggesting U.S. government involvement in the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

The apology did little to quell Republican criticism, however, and President Barack Obama’s chief spokesman gave only tepid support to the adviser on Friday.

1. Lord forbid a person entrusted with thinking clearly think for themselves.

2. Lord forbid they criticize the previous administration (who everybody knows were Lying Curs Who Would Sell Their Own Grandmothers for Toll Bridge Fare).

3. Lord forbid they criticize the opposition party?