Bass Reeves is one of my favorite historical characters from the Old West so it’s essential that I pass this on.

According to the Art of Manliness:

Who was the greatest Deputy U.S. Marshal of the Old West? Wyatt Earp? Wild Bill Hickok? How about Bass Reeves? Bass who?

Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves was arguably the greatest lawman and gunfighter of the West, a man who served as a marshal for 32 years in the most dangerous district in the country, captured 3,000 felons, (once bringing in 17 men at one time), and shot 14 men in the line of duty, all without ever being shot himself.

He was also a black dude.

Read the full article here

Warning: You’ll probably feel like a wuss by the end.

In what may prove to be one of the douchiest public relation moves ever made by two self-important websites comes news that Pitchfork Media and Tumblr stole the subdomain of a Tumblr blogger, which had been established more than a year ago.

From HIPSTERRUNOFF.com:
“Pitchfork Media.com, the world’s largest music reviews site started a Tumblr version of their blog. Tumblr is a micro-blogging community which has a loyal, growing user base, filling a niche somewhere between livejournal and twitter. Websites often start tumblr version of their websites in order to reach content creators who are looking to share their high level content on a daily basis. This was probably a ‘good idea’ to reach out to the tumblr community, but the acquisition of their URL has started a ‘huge’ backlash by tumblr and pitchfork fans + users.

“The URL pitchfork.tumblr.com had been squatted upon by the tumblogger Tumbledore. Unfortunately, he woke up one morning to see that his tumblr URL had been taken from him and given to pitchfork. At this point, we can only speculate that Pitchfork purchased the URL from tumblr. Other conspiracy theories say Tumblr and Pitchfork were looking to combine their user bases in order to get a lethal amount of mad internet page views.

“From Tumbledore’s rant against the Tumblr corporation:

‘Recently, one of my friends who is subscribed to my pitchfork tumblr was surprised to see a sudden change in the content I was posting. That’s because Tumblr stole my subdomain and gave (sold?) it to Pitchfork Media Inc. Keep in mind that the word “pitchfork” is not a proprietary name, it is a noun dating back to the year 1364, so they had no legal right to the word or the subdomain. It clearly wasn’t a case of impersonation as none of my posts had anything to do with music. If there was some kind of content quality threshold that failed to be met which led to my blog’s demise, then 98% of Tumblr should now be blank. Is it possible there’s a certain amount of time that can pass between posts before Tumblr deletes your blog? If so, they should probably make that information public just in case someone accidentally makes the mistake of going on vacation.’”

Read Tumbledore’s account of what happened here
Read Hipster Runoff’s article in full here
Read Pitchfork President Ryan Scriberer’s defense here
Read Tumblr’s defense here

For even more Pitchfork drama read The Daily Swarm’s article about the site here

posted by: Harold Johns III

via Them Thangs

posted by: Brent Carter

From the site:
“Every Monday, Bad Panda Records distributes one song by a different artist freely, legally and digitally only.

“Bad Panda Records has been made possible by the cooperation of friends, who share a great passion for music and an interest in the future of music industry. The number of contributors to Bad Panda Records have been growing thanks to a common desire to voluntarily and freely help the cause by taking part in the project.

“Inspired by the illuminating Wired article written by David Byrne in 2007, and by the pioneering Free Music Movement aiming for music ‘liberalization’ since the early 90s, and finally by Lawrence Lessig that laid the foundations of a free music culture, Bad Panda Records believes that Creative Commons (CC) has articulated a radical view of what this might look like by advocating the freedom of creative work, which can be altered, used, shared and even commercially used by others. Artists can choose to publish their work among six different main licenses, that allows their music to be shared and used freely for other projects as long as the artist is given attribution as the original creator. CC licenses work alongside copyright, allowing artists to legally share their work while maintaining all of their rights and the licenses given to the author, instead of losing them to lawyers or publishers. Many musicians are already making use of these licenses to disseminate their music and build creative dialogues with fans and other artists. Consider the file-sharing debacle that continues to plague the music industry. Artists are already finding their music shared for free online, outside of their control. Rather than wasting many precious resources attempting to kill music piracy, it seems more practical to embrace sharing and develop something appropriate for the post-napster world.”

The amount of music available on Bad Panda is limited since it started in December of 2009, but those who run it seem to have the proper commitment and inspiration to keep it going strong for many Mondays to come.

Also check out our posts on RIP! A Remix Manifesto and the Free Music Archive, both of which also deal with Creative Commons.

Books aren’t usually the first medium that comes to mind when art is concerned – but take a look at BibliOdyssey and be prepared to be blown away.  Every entry features a piece of book art and (usually) an explanation about the art, the book it was originally published in, and other deliciously nerdy facts. Warning – between the pictures and the accompanying blurbs, you’ll be in BibliOdyssey land for hours and hours. It’s a day-killer, and it’s massive with tons of archives.  Also included are links to source material where available, which when clicked can open up a whole other treasure trove of rare, beautiful, and incredible images.   A must for anybody who loves books for more than the words,  is looking for a new place to find some amazing book art created from thousands of years ago to yesterday.

From Galvanizing Albini: Among the inspirations for Mary Shelley’s gothic classic ‘Frankenstein’ from 1818 were the (in)famous experiments carried out in public by the physicist Giovanni Aldini (1762-1834) at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1803.

From Nuclear Reactor Wall Charts: Snupps (Standardized Nuclear Unit Power Plant System): Kansas City Power & Light Co., Burlington, Kansas. Wall chart insert, Nuclear Engineering International, November 1975

See more here

posted by: Meghan Bainum

From Brandon Cox (Deerhunter/Atlas Sound’s blog):
“Responding to several requests I have dug up an old copy of this 2005 Deerhunter CD-R. It features only me and Moses and is very experimental in nature. This was during our ‘tape phase’ when we would often play shows as a duo (or as a trio with Colin) playing only tape machines and vocal loops.

Tracklist:
1. Bright and Early (8:30)
2. Cicadas (3:56)
3. Rotation (8:03)
4. But I’m A Boy (6:54)
5. Three Dolphins Melting into Orange Wax (4:20)
6. Snow Dogs (2:12)
7. Dogs are Cool (3:41)
8. Homorobotic (3:54)
9. Cordless (2:05)
10. When I Taste Blood (2:53)

“Recorded live to 2-track cassette machine at Moses’ old house on North Ave & Ponce. ‘Mastered’ at the Old Notown building on my dad’s ancient PC using Soundforge. Scans of all orignal artwork from the Notown Xerox Machine included.”

Download “Crave Your Initials…” here

posted by: Harold Johns III

Sometimes while researching a blog post you’ll find another site has already beat you to it. In this case, while gathering information on the most offensive architectural projects on hold due to the economic recession I came across Flavorwire’s list of  “Architectural Projects That Seemed Like a Great Idea at the Time.” Their list conveys many of my ideas in much simpler terms, so I’ve decided to abandon my effort and simply pass along the information from Flavorwire.

Included in the list are six projects, like the under water hotel known as Hydropolis (pictured above) in Dubai, that are so absurd in scope and cost you’ll wonder how anyone, even an international banker, could be convinced to build them.

Read the full list here

posted by: Brent Carter

In the tradition of AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com, People of Walmart, and People of Public Transit comes RandomCreepyGuy.com, another hilarious photo blog with the the aim of finding and documenting the creepiest creepertons to have ever ruined a posed picture.

posted by: Harold Johns III

The image above is from Calvin Coolidge’s Presidential 1925 campaign and shows one example of the extraordinary vintage images found on Shorpy’s Photo Archive. The site which takes its name from Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner from the turn of the century, has collected thousands of high-resolution images from the Library of Congress research archive plus those submitted by Shorpy’s online members, providing a wealth of information about America’s history from the 1850s to the 1950s. Included in the collection are iconic photographs by legends likes Dorthea Lange, Lewis Hine, Walker Evans and Jack Delano. Trust us, this is one image filled internet site you won’t have to feel guilty about losing yourself in its content for hours.

November 1910. Birmingham, Alabama. “Donnie Cole. ‘Our baby doffer,’ they called him. This is one of the machines he has been working at for some months at the Avondale Mills. Said, after hesitation, ‘I’m 12,’ and another small boy added, ‘He can’t work unless he’s twelve.’ Child labor regulations conspicuously posted in the mill.” Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.

idea by: Meghan Bainum
posted by: Brent Carter

Hearing facts like two-thirds of American adults are either obese or overweight doesn’t illicit much of a response anymore. Maybe a greater effect could be achieved if somebody actually documented the greasy, calorie-stuffed, explode-your-heart-out-of-your-chest food that makes America the foremost authority on fat. Exactly what the creators of the single-topic blog This Is Why You’re Fat have been doing since it started in February of 2009. And what they’ve found so far is nothing short of frightening.

Each artery-clogging dish submitted features a close up photo and its own silly name like The Coronary Breakfast Club, which is a buttered toast club sandwich with six slices of bacon, two eggs, topped with cheddar cheese and covered with beef gravy. You think that’s bad, it’s just the tip of the deep-fried iceberg. Consider serving The Porkgasm for your next dinner party. All you do is take some bacon strips, bacon sausage, ham sausage, ham slices, smoked pork sausage and roasted pork belly, surround it with ground sausage, shape into a pig, wrap it all in bacon and roast it all up in a big pan. Or maybe you could make a sandwich filled with ground beef, bacon, corn dogs, ham, pastrami, roast beef, bratwurst, braunschweiger (whatever the hell that is) and turkey, topped with fried mushrooms, onion rings, Swiss/provolone/cheddar/feta/Parmesan cheeses, lettuce and butter on a loaf of white bread, appropriately named The 30,000 Calorie Sandwich. There are plenty of others we could name but I think I just threw up in mouth a little, so we’ll let you tour the rest of the site on your own.

posted by: Harold Johns III