Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose leftist “A People’s History of the United States” became a million-selling alternative to mainstream texts and a favourite of such celebrities as Bruce Springsteen and Ben Affleck, died Wednesday. He was 87.
Zinn died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California, daughter Myla Kabat-Zinn said. The historian was a resident of Auburndale, Massachusetts.
It’s difficult to happen upon a headline like “LA Weekly Found the Creepiest Thing Ever Put on the Internet” and decide to pass it by. I’m like you, I want to see the creepiest thing ever put on the Internet, right? That came into my inbox this afternoon courtesy of Tina Dupuy/Fishbowl LA and… you know, it is pretty fuckin’ creepy. What am I talking about? Try this on for size:
Rodney Alcala is a man stuck in a time warp, his flowing silver hair, granny glasses, beige blazer and jeans reminiscent of a creative-writing professor circa 1980, the year he began life behind bars. As he walked into an Orange County Superior Court room one recent day, news photographers snapped his lean, no-longer-handsome face. His handcuffs were removed, he picked up a pen with his left hand and waited for Orange County Superior Court Judge F.P. Briseno to bring in the 12 jurors who will decide if he should die or spend the rest of his life in prison or, though exceedingly unlikely, go free.
The once-dashing ladies’ man, UCLA fine-arts grad, former Los Angeles Times typesetter, amateur photographer and film student of Roman Polanski’s is believed to have used his smooth-talking charm and access to the creative communities in L.A. and Greenwich Village during the 1970s to entrap and murder seven women and girls, and to rape several others. So smooth was Alcala that he was selected to compete on the ABC prime-time show The Dating Game in 1978, where “bachelorette” Cheryl Bradshaw picked him as her date. Later, police say, she reportedly refused to go on the winning date, sensing that there was something creepy about Bachelor Number One.
Smart girl. A serial killer on The Dating Game! Here’s the footage. Yikes!
Rodney Alcala: The Fine Art of Killing by Christine Pelisek (LA Weekly)
Engaging demonic forces is no longer just a boy’s game! Meet Hasbro’s new Ouija board. It’s $19.99, targeted at girls between the ages of 8 and 12, and pink to better lure our daughters into making pacts with “Captain Howdy.”
From the ToysRUs product description:
It has always been mysterious. It has always been mystifying. And now the OUIJA Board is just for you, girl. With 72 fun questions included, you’ll never run out of things to ask. Who will call/text me next? Will I be a famous actor someday? Who wishes they could trade places with me? Gather your friends around, draw a card, place your fingers on the planchette and ask your question. Concentrate very hard and watch as the answer is revealed in the message window. Make up your own questions, and let the OUIJA Board satisfy your curiosity in virtually endless ways. OUIJA Board will answer. It’s just a game—or is it?
Peculiar handmade Ouija board by Etsy seller Maasproduction:
Comes with a heart shaped planchette which is also hand painted. Signed/dated on the back. Also makes a great objet d’art, Valentine’s Day or Birthday gift!
Fairly reported article on the brief history of the so-called Tea Party movement, from the New Yorker:
Consider our peculiar political situation at the end of this first decade of the new century. An African-American Democrat is elected President, following the collapse of the two great symbols of postwar prosperity, Detroit and Wall Street. Seizing on the erosion of public trust in ?ɬ
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge has a new show opening on January 31 Renwick Galleryin New York City. (Apologies for earlier post which misidentified show as being in Washington, D.C.)
Renwick Gallery is pleased to present Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is?
