Author: Ryan Dunn
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Quote of the Week #021
Nancy Astor: “Winston, if I were your wife, I’d poison your tea.”Winston Churchill: “Nancy, if I were your husband, I’d drink it.”
(randomly quoted by Texas Tech coach Mike Leach after beating #1 ranked Texas)
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Pipe Wrench Fight
Some things don’t need words. Thanks Nic.
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Bad Word Pairs #020
“Candy Corn”
I know it’s Halloween and I hate to be a miser on such a whimsically haunted day, but I have a bone to pick with a popular fall product. Candy Corn, how do you pretend to call yourself a candy, when all you really are is a three-layered piece of wax with some sugar mixed in.
Sure you might look delicious while being pumped out of the machines in your factory (another shameless Unwrapped plug here), but other than giving the appearance of Autumn in a glass bowl on a kitchen table, you are nothing short of gross to this grown-up’s taste buds.
(Confession: I used to like candy corn, but that was when I was twelve, and had no clue about the dozen or so fillings and root canals I was later to undergo. Damn you candy corn!!)
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Quote of the Week #020
“A professor is one who talks in someone else’s sleep.” -W.H. Auden
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You Can Vote However You Like
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at this. All I know is that when I was twelve years old, I didn’t know the difference between a democrat or a republican or a communist for that matter. These children know about McCain and Obama’s tax plans apparently. Maybe they could get us out of this economic crisis?
Thanks for this, Vince.
Ron Clark Academy “You Can Vote However You Like“
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Angular Abstractions
The art of Victor Melamed.
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Little Thin Soul
The art of Eleanor Davis.
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Three Sneezes
Obama Sneeze.
Panda Sneeze.
Toddler Sneeze.
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The Pocko People
The art of Pocko People.
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If I Drove a Motorcycle…
This would be the type of motorcycle I would drive. Oh, and I would also be a multi-millionaire in this alternate version of reality. It’s undeniable how beautiful these Confederate Machines are, however, so enjoy (if you haven’t seen them before).
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Bad Word Pairs #019
“Troubled Assets”
By now we are all aware of the $700 billion bailout signed into law by the government. But I’m not sure many (including myself until recently) really understand how much money that is. With $700 billion you could send a stimulus check to every single American over the age of 18 for $3.5 million.
The reason for this bailout is to buy up the “troubled assets” now left by the greedy assholes on Wall Street who treated the American Dream like the hottest stock on the market . . . and lost once they noticed that house prices couldn’t sky rocket forever. And now they’re nationalizing their losses, and asking the American people to pay it back with their tax dollars, the same Americans they used to get into their little mess in the first place.
Give me a break with these “troubled assets.” It makes me nauseous just thinking about them. It’s hard to scale back the size of government when the free market is knocking on its door to stop the greed-mongers from throwing our country into a full on depression.
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Timeless Mogollon
The art of Mogollon.
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Top 5 Obscure Nicknames
(FOR BOYS, MOSTLY)
5. HAL (short for Harry)
I’ll go into more detail a few names down, but ‘Harry’ is a variation of ‘Henry’, and the Normans didn’t like pronouncing the letter ‘R’ very much, and so the shortname for ‘Harry’ might have been ‘Har’ (pronouced ‘hair’), but the ‘R’ became an ‘L’ and this is where ‘Hal’ came from.
4. DICK (short for Richard)
So now we know the Normans didn’t like pronouncing the letter ‘R’, right? This means that while ‘Rick’ was a more obvious nickname for ‘Richard’, the Normans traded the ‘R’ with a ‘D’ leaving us with the flattering nickname ‘Dick’.
3. CHUCK (short for Charles)
Once I learned the root of ‘Charles’, this one wasn’t that odd, but I serve these names up to you on the premise that this knowledge is obscure at best. Apparently ‘Charles’ in Middle English is ‘Chukken’, which is where the nickname ‘Chuck’ stems from. That was easy, wasn’t it?
2. JACK (short for John)
The Norman/English have commandeered my top 5 list again. This time they went and added a term for ‘little’ onto many of their names. That suffix was ‘-kin’. So Jenkin (or little John) became corrupted into ‘Jakin’, which subsequently became truncated into ‘Jack’. Well, duh!
1. HANK (short for Henry)
Similar to ‘Jack’, there was a variation of Henry called ‘Henkin’, which also became ‘Hankin’, then truncated to ‘Hank’. Once you know about the ‘-kin’ suffix it makes some sense, but without that insight, it’s mighty arbitrary looking.
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Deadbirds and Flowerheads
The art of Olaf Hajek.
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Addicted to FactCheck.org
Ever watch the news and feel like you’re getting nothing but spin, regardless of how objective the media tells you they are? I feel that way, and usually have to balance my CNN viewing with some FOXNEWS just to see two sides of the same issue.
Well that’s where FactCheck.org comes in handy, because it tries its hardest to demystify the BS you tend to see on a day-to-day basis from both sides of the aisle. And I’ve found it to be a great tool. Perhaps they favor the left just a LITTLE more in their choice of articles (out of the 12 articles on the homepage, for instance, 2 of them debunked Obama, while 6 of them debunked McCain, leaving 8 articles comparing both candidates at once).
In any case, if you’re dizzy from the political spin, check it out, and get a better sense of what’s going on in the political world.
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Something’s in the Air
The art of Adam Cvijanovic.
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Top 5 Rap Producers
(RAP, NOT HIP-HOP)
5. DJ Muggs
He started making latino-infused heavy beats with Cypress Hill, and then went on to make “Jump Around” with House of Pain, just one of the members of the classic Soul Assassins group. I’ve always liked the style of Muggs records, and was highly impressed when he teamed up with Wu-Tang’s Gza to record an impressive comeback record entitled “Grandmasters”. I’d say he’s one of the more underrated and overlooked producers around.
4. Pete Rock
For “Mecca and the Soul Brother” alone, Pete Rock makes my top five. He also produced one of the only Run DMC songs I really liked, “Down With the King”. Add to this his work with Wu-Tang on his solo album “Soul Survivor”, and you have one of the most consistent producers of all time.
3. Dr. Dre
Though he wouldn’t make my top 50 as an emcee, you would have to be a fool to exclude Dr. Dre from any top producers list. He is too humble to admit it, but you can thank Dre for the success and exposure of both Snoop Doggy Dogg and Eminem. He proved on “The Chronic” that he could meet and exceed the legendary status of his original group N.W.A. Dre is a machine in the studio, he just doesn’t quit. He’s got a new album coming out with Eminem, and one final solo album before he shifts his focus exclusively to other artists.
2. DJ Premier
Anyone who can make Guru sound dynamic on a track knows a thing or two about producing. He and Guru were better known as Gang Starr, and put out some of the grittiest albums of the 90’s. It doesn’t hurt that Premier kept that tonality alive with some of the most memorable tracks for artists like Nas, Rakim, Jay-Z, Notorius B.I.G., Dilated Peoples, Common and KRS-One. His best single track, however, has to be Jeru the Damaja’s “Come Clean”.
1. Rza
This one was sort of a no-brainer for me. I like to think of the Rza as the Tarantino of rap music. Which was why it didn’t surprise me when he was asked to compose some music for the Kill Bill films. Wu-Tang, when they came on the scene with their ensemble cast and ghetto music videos, changed the game as we all knew it. He took shaolin samples and the kung-fu vernacular and fused it with break beats, and the results were revolutionary. I’m still waiting for another “Enter the 36 Chambers,” but in truth, we only need one of those for a lifetime.
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Obama/McCain Roast
This is too awesome not to post. The two presidential nominees go toe-to-toe roasting one another at a recent dinner. This is the best debate we never saw.
MCCAIN: “Maverick I can do, but Messiah is above my pay grade.”
OBAMA: “‘Barack’ is actually Swahili for ‘That One’.”
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Quote of the Week #019
“Expectations. Execution. No explanations, and no excuses.” -Tony Dungy
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Top 5 Most Googled Presidents
(RESULTS ARE APPROXIMATE)
5. Ronald Reagan – 11,300,000 hits
4. John F. Kennedy – 14,100,000 hits
3. George Washington – 16,800,000 hits
2. Bill Clinton – 21,600,000 hits
1. George W. Bush – 47,600,000 hits
NOTEWORTHY
– John McCain has more hits than all of these presidents, with 60,900,000 hits, and Barack Obama has more than John McCain, with 76,300,000 hits. And they’re not even president yet!
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Bon Iver “Wisconsin”
This b-side on Bon Iver’s 4AD-released EP “For Emma, Forever Ago,” evokes whispers of a haunted winter. It’s just beginning to be autumn, but I still enjoy the chill in this recording. I also appreciate any song giving props to my home state. Listen for the chorus, when his voice rises above its confiding murmur.
“Wisconsin” – Mp3
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Addicted to UNWRAPPED
This Food Network show is like the parts of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood where he would tour those factories and discover how things were really made.
Only like a thousand times better, because as a snack food junkie, I get to see where all the treats I know and love truly come from.
It helps that Marc Summers is the host (for most all episodes), since I always enjoyed Double Dare on Nickelodeon when I was a boy. A little nostalgia just helps set the mood.
If you haven’t checked this show out yet, please do. Here are a couple Youtube clips I found . . .
Candy Corn
Corn Dogs
Disney World
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Cyrk
The art of Cyrk.
In the late 1940’s, the Polish Government approached a small group of artists to design posters for their Film Department. The artists agreed only on the condition that they control the subject matter, that they have the freedom to push beyond the typical clichés already riddling the world of art and design.
From this mutual agreement, a golden age of artwork rose to fame, known as the Polish School of Posters. This era lasted until the 80’s, and the fall of communism brought capitalism to the country. This shift changed the landscape of commissioned art by the government. Where there used to be an average of 1,000 commissioned posters in the 50’s, there are today only about 100 per year.
I’ve found a nice comprehensive collection of posters from this era. The most prolific venue apparently was the Polish Circus. It’s quite a stunning collection to peruse. And keep in mind that these talented artists emerged from a country bruised and battered by the effects of WWII, and went on to create some highly influential, innovative, and isolated artwork around.
