Uncouth Reflections

Silicon Valley Is Losing Its Cachet

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Epaminondas

epiminondas writes:

It would seem that overweening hubris has now settled into Silicon Valley like a thick, noxious cloud. The prey have become the hunters. And trust is being lost.

Posted in Computers, Technology | Leave a comment

Lyrics Du Jour

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

Published in 1916.

Nobody ever sings about the bad girls, because the bad girls are sad,
And ev’ry body sings about the good girls, because the good girls are glad.
Till you’ve been round ‘em once or twice, you can’t tell the naughty from the nice.

There’s a little bit of bad in ev’ry good little girl, they’re not to blame.
Mother Eve was very, very good, but even she raised Cain.
I know the preacher’s daughter, who never orders water,
There’s a little bit of bad in ev’ry good little girl,
They’re all the same, there’s a same.

I had a dream I went to see the devil, there was the devil to pay,
He said, I’m awful busy on the level, I said, The devil you say,
Why are you so busy tell me why, He replied and winked his other eye.

There’s a little bit of bad in ev’ry good little girl, they’re not to blame.
Though they seem like angels in a dream, they’re naughty just the same.
They read the good book Sunday and snappy stories Monday,
There’s a little bit of bad in ev’ry good little girl,
They’re all the same, there’s a same.

Posted in Commercial art, Music | Tagged Tin Pan Alley | 4 Comments

Umami Burger, Revisited

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Eddie Pensier

Eddie Pensier writes:

Paleo Retiree has blogged about the phenomenon that is Umami Burger. When I learned that the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX had a UB, it was decided that it would be our last meal on this particular US trip.

We both ordered the “Manly Burger”: beer-cheddar cheese, bacon lardons, mustard spread, smoked-salt onion strings, and house ketchup. There’s literally nothing in that description that doesn’t make my umami-loving mouth water. (I’d briefly considered the “LAX Burger” with Stilton and port-caramelized onions, but bleu cheese on a burger always sounds better in theory than it turns out in execution, and besides, bacon.)

First of all, as a devotee of attractive packaging, let me point out the snazzy fluted paper wrapping the appropriately man-sized burger.

Continue reading →

Posted in Food and health, The Good Life, Travel | Tagged LAX, travel, umami, Umami Burger | 8 Comments

Plus Ça Change…

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Eddie Pensier

Eddie Pensier writes:

It would be unfair to suggest that all universities in the Renaissance were sterile, conformist places; they often hosted vigorous discussion and dissent. But verbal sparring matches (“disputations”) could amount to point-scoring contests decided by nimble rhetoric, rather than matters of genuine enquiry and debate. Moreover, there was an unchallenged hierarchy among the sciences, according to which anything manual, be it the dissection of a corpse, the manufacture of a drug or chemical, or the construction of machines, was despised. For a young man fresh from the mining schools of Villach, this clearly seemed more than absurd; it was offensive. How was it, Paracelsus later asked, that ‘the highest colleges managed to produce so many high asses?’

–From The Devil’s Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science, by Phillip Ball. I’m about 100 pages into it: fascinating so far.

Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, known as Paracelsus

Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known as Paracelsus. Portrait by Quentin Massys.

Posted in Books Publishing and Writing, Education, History, Science | Tagged books, Paracelsus, renaissance, universities | Leave a comment

Linkage

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes:

Explore Angkor Wat.
Racism or not?
Are you a positive person or a negative person?
Given how dull many jobs are, I’m surprised this kind of thing doesn’t happen a lot more often.
Felix Baumgartner — the guy who not long ago free-fell from the edge of space — isn’t going to be doing it again.
Steve Sailer at his best.
How unmanning is modern technology?
Building and living in a really tiny house.
Will S. turns up a great story about bitchez going crazy.
“The world [that economic-indicator statistics] say we are living in and the world we are actually living in often diverge.” Link.
The wonderful ballerina/writer Toni Bentley visits with France’s most famous dominatrix. Back at my old blog I shared my enthusiasm for Toni’s writing. (I get to call her “Toni” because I met her once.)
I see that Toni’s daring memoir “The Surrender” has been turned into a one-woman show, starring an actress named Laura Campbell. The show apparently opened in early 2014. I wonder how it went over.
A denunciation — from the left — of the forced resignation of Mozilla’s CEO.
Don’t forget to visit our NSFW Tumblr blog, where some of us share the depraved things that stir our libidos.

Posted in Linkathons | Tagged architecture, felix baumbartner, linkage, PC, Steve Sailer, Toni Bentley | 2 Comments

Art Du Jour: Egypt and The Holy Land

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

Via Bauman Rare Books:

Inquisitive Western minds first glimpsed the mysteries of Egypt and the Middle East in detail through David Roberts’ folio-sized Holy Land, issued in 41 parts from 1842 to 1849 and containing 250 full-page hand-colored lithographs produced from his magnificent, on-site drawings. Roberts was the first Westerner to be granted permission to enter whichever sacred mosque or monument he desired. His images of these sacred places established what many people even today envision as the aura of Egypt and the Holy Land. “Roberts’ Holy Land has a world-wide reputation; nothing of a similar character has ever been produced that can bear a comparison with it” (Ran, 6). Louis Haghe, considered the foremost lithographer of his time, transferred the exquisitely detailed drawings to stone. …Undoubtedly the most famous of these is Plate 240, the great sphinx, still commonly reproduced in poster art.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Posted in Art, History | Tagged Bauman Rare Books, David Roberts, Egypt, Holy Land, lithographs | 1 Comment

Movie Poster Du Jour: “T-Men”

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:

Posted in Commercial art, Movies | Tagged Anthony Mann, Film, Film Noir, Movie Posters, movies, T-Men | 2 Comments

Naked Lady of the Week: Anna Tatu

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:

This Czech brunette has grown on me. I love her wonky little Elvis grin and the way her still-ripening vivaciousness plays off the sleepy indolence lurking in the depths of her big, almond-shaped eyes. Gotta love the curves, too. The well-fed healthy look might be in short supply in glossy magazines and on the fashion runway, but at least it’s alive and well in the pornier corners of the internet.

These images appear to come from Karups, Met-Art, Domai, The Life Erotic, Goddess Nudes, and 18OnlyGirls. Go there for the full-res goodness.

If you’re at work, don’t proceed unless you want a new job. Happy Friday.

Continue reading →

Posted in Photography, Sex, The Good Life | Tagged Anna Tatu, Czech Republic, naked lady of the week, nude photography | 4 Comments

No Life or Youth

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:

JamesJoyce1902

Stephen watched the three glasses being raised from the counter as his father and his two cronies drank to the memory of their past. An abyss of fortune or of temperament sundered him from them. His mind seemed older than theirs: it shone coldly on their strifes and happiness and regrets like a moon upon a younger earth. No life or youth stirred in him as it had stirred in them. He had known neither the pleasure of companionship with others nor the vigour of rude male health nor filial piety. Nothing stirred within his soul but a cold and cruel and loveless lust. His childhood was dead or lost and with it his soul capable of simple joys and he was drifting amid life like the barren shell of the moon.

— James Joyce

Posted in Books Publishing and Writing | Tagged A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ireland, James Joyce | 6 Comments

Architecture Du Jour: The Ventura Inn

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes:

In the middle of Ventura, CA’s funky and not at all mall-like Historic Downtown Cultural District is this hardboiled-novel-worthy beauty. Fun tilework, dreamy colors, an excellent job of bringing the building right up to the sidewalk, as well as of dividing it up vertically to promote harmony with its neighbors and to respect the human scale generally … (See, modernists: contributing in a positive way to the urban experience is neither complicated nor hard. Why do you keep trying to make us believe it’s rocket science?) Plus: hey, informal yet classy in an appealingly relaxed-but-tough way. Currently in use as affordable housing for the elderly, it was built in 1926, and was designed by the Pasadena firm of Willard Bell and Clarence Jay, about whom I could turn up all too little on the web.

Related

An article about a glamorous if modest Pasadena movie palace that Clarence Jay helped design.
A snap and some info from Flickr user Michael Locke about Jay’s elegant and dignified 1935 Altadena Mausoleum.
A superb Pinterest collection of pix of old Ventura.
An interview I did at my old blog with the down to earth urbanist David Sucher: Part One, Part Two.
“City Comforts,” David’s great urbanism pattern book. Buy a dozen copies and send them to the people who are in charge of development and planning for your county, town and/or city.