Apparently, the Republicans’ far right agenda during their first 100 days as the Congressional majority party renders NY Rep. Joe Crowley “speechless.” (Although it looks like Rep. Crowley is channeling his inner Bob Dylan, according to his staff, he’s not really trying to ape the famous video for “Subterranean Homesick Blues” here, he’s just trying to get across how “speechless” he is).
A politician caught in the act of keepin’ his yap shut? Pretty effective way for him to get his point across, if you ask me.
There’s been a question for some time about the whereabouts of MIA Odd Future rapper Earl Sweatshirt and whether or not he’ll be appearing with the group during their hotly anticipated show at the Coachella music festival this weekend in Southern California.
Probably not if Odd Future leader Tyler, the Creator’s recent tweets are any indication:
No one seemed to know exactly where Earl Sweatshirt (real name Thebe Kgositsile) was and rumors have run rampant that the 17-year old rapper’s parents were horrified when they got a load of their son’s work and immediately shipped him off to a military boarding school, where he’s been for some months.
This appears to be the case as Complex magazine seem to have solved the mystery: Apparently he’s in Samoa as part of the “therapeutic” military academy for “at risk” teenage boys called the Coral Reef Academy. David Huebner, a U.S. official visiting the school provided the evidence:
On September 13, 2010, the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa delivered concrete evidence to support our suspicions that Earl was staying at the Coral Reef Academy. He published the photo above in a blog post about his visit to the “off-shore treatment program for at-risk teenage boys.” Apparently, he was there for a fire-knife dance competition and variety show. We contacted the Coral Reef Academy to confirm with them that Thebe Kgositsile is or was ever a guest, but they couldn’t legally divulge that information.
Yep. It’s Earl.
If Earl Sweatshirt’s parents really want to completely alienate their son from them to the extent that he never speaks to them again, my guess is that they’re going about it in exactly the right way. What 17-year-old kid wants to hear that his partners-in-crime are about to get their own fucking TV show on Adult Swim (a surreal, half-animated hip hop Jackass is what I’m imagining from this crew) and is okay with missing out that action? Methinks Earl’s got just a slightly odder future planned for himself than his parents have… Just sayin’...
I’d imagine that the next chapter in this saga will be “Earl Sweatshirt: The Breakout!” Stay tuned.
Read the whole story: We found Earl Sweatshirt (Complex)
Certainly the members of OFWGKTA know how to do what they wilt, but the big question about the controversial hip hop collective’s big performance this weekend at the Coachella music festival is"Will Earl Sweatshirt be there?”
Pat Condell is a British atheist who makes popular—albeit quite controversial—YouTube clips railing against religion. He’s a former stand-up comic and has a quite a knack for looking right into the camera and really nailing it. Condell’s rants are anything but polite, and they throw cold water on religious belief (“An organized system of ignorance!” as my old friend Brother Theodore liked to say) as well as anything I can think of aside from George Carlin’s all-time classic “Religion is Bullshit.” (What happens to Christians when they accidentally listen to Carlin’s routine? I wonder about that every time I hear it!!)
Here is how he describes his mission:
I was a regular on the UK stand-up circuit until the mid nineties when I got fed up performing to drunken birthday parties, so I started writing for other people. I wrote my most recent show, and I now make internet videos, because I believe religion in the modern world is out of control and is given far too much respect by people who should know better. It enjoys a status it hasn’t earned and doesn’t deserve, and it’s time we stopped pandering to it before it literally destroys us. You can find out more at my website.
Below Pat Condell takes on Christianity:
The next time you hear a dumbass say something about how the Founding Fathers felt about religion, hit ‘em with this quote, courtesy of Condell:
“Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus.” - Thomas Jefferson
In the name of balance, here’s Pat Condell’s epic rant from 2007 “The Trouble with Islam,” amazingly still on YouTube:
Don Ho died on this date four years ago and I can’t imagine a better way to commemorate his legacy than sharing this live footage from the early 1990s of Ho singing his classic song “Suck ‘Em Up.” Enjoy now. Thank me later.
Don is definitely in Dean Martin mode on this one.
Sleep with angels forever in your very own custom made Jonathan Ross casket from British company Creative Coffins. The company is “committed to providing a green alternative to traditional wooden coffins” by using cartonboard materials.
Our individually designed cartonboard coffins provide for a more eco-friendly funeral and, most importantly, the range of carefully created styles will help you find a design that truly reflects the personality of your loved one.
Video gaming pioneer Gerald Lawson has died from complications related to diabetes. He was 70 years old.
In 1976, Lawson designed the Fairchild Channel F, the first programmable ROM cartridge-based video game console. He went on to create software for the Atari 2600 in the early 80s.
Lawson was the sole black member of the Homebrew Computer Club, a group of early computer hobbyists which would produce a number of industry legends, including Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Lawson also produced one of the earliest arcade games, Demolition Derby, which debuted in a southern California pizzeria shortly after Pong.”
In a 2009 interview, Lawson was candid in his appraisal of Jobs and Wozniak: “I was not impressed with them — either one of them, actually.” He was so unimpressed by Wozniak he turned down his application for a job at Fairchild.
In March, Mr. Lawson was honored for his innovative work by the International Game Developers Association, an overdue acknowledgment for an unfamiliar contributor to the technological transformation that has changed how people live.
“He’s absolutely a pioneer,” Allan Alcorn, a creator of the granddaddy of video games, Pong, said in an interview with The San Jose Mercury News in March. “When you do something for the first time, there is nothing to copy.”
Here’s Mr. Lawson discussing Fairchild Channel F and the roots of virtual reality:
Our pals at Network Awesome bring together the varied and disparate artifacts of your favorite geniuses for your trouble-free enrichment. Here’s a swell multi-pronged tribute to visionary composer and inventor Raymond Scott including an interview with Jeff Winner of the Raymond Scott Archives
Jeff Winner is one of the chairmen of the Raymond Scott Archives, founder of raymondscott.com and co-producer of Manhattan Research, Inc., a 2-CD & book set of Scott’s early electronic work. That makes him totally the dude to talk to about Raymond Scott himself. And on top of being a total badass on Raymond Scott-ology, he was a nice enough guy to answer a few of our questions. The conversation goes everywhere - from Looney Tunes to Benny Goodman to Mark Mothersbaugh.
video playlist:
The Raymond Scott Quintette - War Dance For Wooden Indians
The Philharmonicas - Powerhouse
The Raymond Scott Quintette - Ali Baba Goes To Town (1937)
The Raymond Scott Quintette - Night and Day
Raymond Scott’s Electronium: The Restoration
Designs in Music - Dorothy Collins, Raymond Scott on the Bell Telephone Hour
Raymond Scott: On To Something (trailer)
An original painting done by the late Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett that was stolen from a London art gallery over the weekend has been returned, according to The Wire magazine.
Below, Syd Barrett and Roger Waters try to remain polite in the face of ridiculously uptight classical music critic Hans Keller, after the band play “Astronomy Domine” on BBC’s Look of the Week.
