Free Music: Deerhunter “Carve Your Initials Into the Walls of the Night”

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

Flavorwire’s List of “Architectural Projects That Seemed Like a Great Idea at the Time”

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

Website Shout Out: RandomCreepyGuy.com

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

Website Shout Out: Shorpy Photo Archive

January 23, 1924. Washington, D.C. “Midget.” News item, Jan. 20: “The first organized touring Coolidge Marching Club to work for the nomination of the president comes to Washington Sunday morning. It is composed of 25 European midgets, headed by I.S. Rose, New Englander and impresario. The midgets wear buttons and ribbons on which is inscribed ‘Coolidge 1925.

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

Web Hits: This Is Why You’re Fat

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