Happy Solstice Boxing Day to all of you, and also almost-Hanukkah and Sacred Baby Festival and Festivus Eve, too! I may even remember to put up the ol' Festivus Pole this year.
Let's get right into the Nice Things with my favorite Christmas song, shall we?
The Pogues - Fairytale Of New York (Official Video) youtu.be
And yes, that's Matt Dillon arresting Shane MacGowan in the video, and Dillon had to be persuaded to shove MacGowan around a little more roughly. Also, there is no such thing as an NYPD choir, so they went with the NYPD Emerald Society's Pipes and Drums. The Pogues' manager, Frank Murray, "recalled that the Pipes and Drums had been drinking on the coach that brought them to the video shoot, and by the time they arrived they were more drunk than the band, refusing to work unless they were supplied with more alcohol." (Also too, Kirsty MacColl was the best and we do not talk enough about that, as a people. — Robyn)
Best Christmas Mashup Ever!
This mashup of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and The Police's "Every Little Thing She Does" brings me joy. It almost perfectly synchronizes the animation and the song (looks like the creator fiddled with the mouth movements to fit the lyrics), and the "eee-ohs" near the end are just perfect.
Linus Sings The Police better quality www.youtube.com
That's what the Internet is all about, Charlie Brown.
Also, too, I really wish I could find one of those talking Charlie Brown plush dolls (from around 2003 or 2004) that says lines from the show. We need more talking dolls that say things like "Christmas is coming but I'm not happy. I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel. I like getting presents and sending Christmas cards and decorating trees and all that. But I'm still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed."
Maybe we could make a licensed Pogues Christmas plushie set! "Merry Christmas your arse, i thank God it's our last"
Native American Star Wars Is Best Star Wars
Image: Museum of Northern Arizona
We'll probably get around to seeing the new movie soon enough, but we're too busy loving that the Museum of Northern Arizona (in one of my home towns, Flagstaff) is running an exhibit of Star Wars themed art by Southwestern indigenous artists. Called "The Force Is With Our People," the show includes the nifty (and fully operational) R2-D2 droid above, built by Joe Mastroianni and painted by Hopi-Tewa artist Duane Koyawena. Here, give a listen to this fun NPR story about the show and some of the artists:
Take a gander at this awesome "Awéé Yoda" by Diné (Navajo) artist Ryan Singer, from his Facebook page. Finally a thing on Facebook (other than Wonkette) that doesn't suck!
Yes, he'll be selling a limited run of copies, details here.
Some of Singer's work has a more serious satirical bite, like "(De)Colonized Ewok," which imagines one of the furry guerrilla warriors from Return of the Jedi before and after being shipped off to an Imperial version of the terrible Indian boarding schools, which attempted to wipe out Native cultures by taking children away from their families:
"There's always that rebellion kind of attitude or spirit — like the little guy, people that don't have all the power and they're getting trampled over ... Indigenous people ... can kind of feel like the rebels fighting the Empire," Singer says.
Like I say, I'm in nerd love, and terribly, terribly missing northern Arizona and New Mexico right now. One last Singer painting:
OK, make that two more:
Also too, if anyone in Flagstaff can score one of these posters (I don't see 'em in the online museum shop), I'll pay you back!
This Story About A Woman Who Videotaped ALL THE NEWS is amazing
Still from 'Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project,' Zeitgeist Films
This week's "On the Media" (It's WNYC, not NPR, get it right) featured this absolutely fascinating story about Marion Stokes, a retired librarian whose archival orientation and communist politics motivated her to record broadcast and cable news 24 hours a day, from 1979 through her death in 2012. She amassed a collection of some 70,000 tapes. From "On the Media's" description:
About five years ago, documentarian Matt Wolf got wind of the story — a story about an unprecedented archive, and also a story about family, as well as mass media hegemony, race, activism, decades of history, and psychological pathology. Stokes's life is now the subject of a new documentary called "Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project," directed by Wolf. He went in search of the "why" — why this archive, why Marion — and he came away with his own guesses as to the answers. But he also found a new mystery, that of our own news media: the story of us, and how we tell ourselves our own story, minute by minute, year after year.
Listen! Listen!
Really, you have to listen to this. This is one of those radio pieces that just leaves me awestruck. Ms. Stokes built up a record of over 30 years of news and culture, ads included, and the film sounds like an absolute must-see for anyone interested in how mass media shapes what we shrug and call "reality." It's still on the festival/solo screening circuit, not yet in general release; I can hardly wait to see it. And here's an exciting development: The Internet Archive is digitizing all of Stokes's archive and putting the recordings online, a massive project -- and because the recordings captured closed-captioning data, the collection will be searchable, too.
Another Reminder That Much Of Reddit Doesn't Suck
Ahem. There is a subreddit called "IllegallySmolCats." May contain dangerous levels of squee. Most are the readers' own kitties, though some are from furred parties.
This is Artemis. She's on the hunt
Tiny Riley likes to help make the bed
This little stowaway (met on subway)
Smol Catbol (eat your heart out, Baby Yoda, this one's real)
Some people take the Little Criminals theme quite seriously:
And Now It's Yr Random Twitter Stuff!
For aspiring journamalists everywhere. Is there a version for bloggers?
Linoleum? More like linLOLeum, amirite?
Shameless self-promotion:
Please make sure your dog is properly inflated. Underinflated dogs get worse mileage, and can wreck your couch.
Obvious Plant is one of the finest goofy fake products accounts on Twitter.
"TEACHES WONDERS OF BORTH!" Also, I appreciate the attention to detail in the illustration of the mother and child, whatever planet they're from:
Finally, from ProPublica reporter Jessica Huseman, some Walter updates:
That's it! BUY WONKETTE MERCH OR REBECCA WILL FLAY ME!
https://wonkettebazaar.com/products/wonkette-shot-glass-set
[NPR / Museum of Northern Arizona / Ryan Singer Art on Facebook / On the Media / r/IllegallySmolCats]
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