Uncouth Reflections

Because They Could

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Sax von Stroheim

Sax von Stroheim writes:

The sedentary lifestyle of farming allowed a vast elaboration of material culture. Food, shelter, and artifacts no longer had to be portable. Births could be spaced closer together, since mothers didn’t have to continuously carry small children. Food was now storable, unlike the typical products of foraging, and storable food could be stolen. For the first time, humans could begin to accumulate wealth. This allowed for nonproductive elites, which had been impossible among hunter-gatherers. We emphasize that these elites were not formed in response to some societal need: They took over because they could.

–Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending, The 10,000 Year Explosion

Posted in Politics and Economics | 4 Comments

Neon & Cocktail Du Jour

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

Catching a show at the Pantages? Cocktails first at the Frolic Room.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Posted in Food and health, Photography, The Good Life | Tagged cocktails, Los Angeles, neon | 3 Comments

Krautrock

Posted on February 23, 2014 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:

Posted in Music | Tagged Can, Faust, Germany, Kraftwerk, Krautrock, NEU! | Leave a comment

Architecture Du Jour

Posted on February 23, 2014 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

The Vogue Theater in Hollywood, CA, 1935

Click on the image to enlarge.

Posted in Architecture, Movies | Tagged art deco, Hollywood, Los Angeles, neon | Leave a comment

Bargain Bin Vinyl Du Jour

Posted on February 22, 2014 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

One of the nice consequences of the vinyl resurgence is that, as people sell their old collections, there’s a lot of cheap stock out there. For every coveted first pressing of a hip Miles Davis album there’s 500 copies of some 70s Osmonds corniness that can be had for next to nothing. While musically these discs might be average to poor, many of them (especially the pre- or non-rock genres), have a lot of visual charm and interest. Because this stuff can be had for $5 and under, it makes for a fun and cheap hobby. For example, the one above cost $2. I hope to share more in the coming weeks.

Have any of you gotten swept up in the LP revival?

Related

I bought this fine specimen at Fingerprints Music in Long Beach, CA.
Sir Barken shared some thoughts on vinyl here and here.

Posted in Commercial art, Music | Tagged album covers, cheap hobbies, Columbia records, E-Z listening, vinyl | 2 Comments

Replacing the Banking System

Posted on February 22, 2014 by Epaminondas

epiminondas writes:

It’s no secret that many of us have a visceral dislike of bankers and banking. And some of us have fantasized about burning down a few banks…along with the bankers inside. As an alternative to such delights, here is someone who suggests that eliminating banks and replacing them with software is quite achievable. We can only hope.

Posted in Politics and Economics | Leave a comment

Linkage

Posted on February 22, 2014 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

While Miami has the largest number of surviving Art Deco buildings of any place in the world, the number 2 city on the list might surprise you. Back here, I toured some Art Deco buildings in downtown L.A.
Gizmodo wonders if Frank Gehry is the world’s worst living architect. (Answer: it’s a tie between him and Thom Mayne.)
You know things have gotten bad for the president when he’s lost the comrades of the People’s Republic of Santa Monica. (H/T Glynn Marshes)
Does Clarence Thomas’s continued silence during oral argument demean the Supreme Court? FWIW, and not to put too fine a point on it, but I think Toobin’s article is a lot of cynical bullshit. As Thomas has said and as Toobin points out, pretty much everything you need to know about a party’s arguments are contained in their briefs, which the parties, who are among the finest legal minds in the country, spend hundreds of hours preparing. Then the Justices’ clerks – hand-picked from the top law schools in the country – prepare bench memos for the Justices analyzing the issues and probing the arguments. Each side is given its day in court as a courtesy, but practically speaking, it’s symbolic and hardly necessary. After oral argument, the Justices then confer amongst themselves. (As the book Supreme Conflict points out, Thomas has been a significant figure in some of those conferences, discussions which the public never sees.) Finally, the Justices, with varying degrees of assistance from their clerks, write their opinions. Toobin, a long-time legal reporter and Court analyst, knows all this but he laughably says that Thomas “isn’t doing is job.” Oral argument is a very, very small part of that job. It’s exactly this sort of intellectual dishonesty to score political points that prompted me to stop reading Toobin’s columns.
James Ellroy hates hipsters, liberals, rock ‘n rollers, the counter-culture, and movie people.
Are Bronies, and the world-at-large for that matter, ready for the first My Little Pony porn?
In general, I’ve grown weary of how CGI is used in movies, but I wholly support its use here.
A treasure trove of trashy 70s-ness to explore. (H/T Paleo Retiree)
A supercut of movie dream sequences.

Posted in Architecture, Books Publishing and Writing, Linkathons, Movies, Politics and Economics, Sex | Tagged '70s movies, art deco, Bronies, Clarence Thomas, dream sequences, Frank Gehry, James Ellroy, Jeffrey Toobin, Mumbai, My Little Pony, President Obama, Santa Monica, Supreme Court, Thom Mayne | 4 Comments

Naked Lady of the Week: Alexis Texas

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

When Taschen editor Dian Hanson needed the perfect booty for the cover of the book you see above, she choose Alexis Texas. Texas, a well-known porn star, probably needs no introduction for the rump-centric among you. She has performed in hundreds of hardcore scenes, virtually all of which prominently feature her callipygian derrière. But hey, why shouldn’t they? Her ass is one of the wonders of the modern world. Thankfully she’s also an enthusiastic performer, with just the right amount of white trash naughtiness to temper her sunny bleached-blonde looks. Tumblr is full of GIFs and you can find plenty of her scenes at the usual places.