GZA + RZA + Bill Murray = Fun times

Ok, this is the encore to Tom Waits week, where I post one leftover video inspired by the Coffee & Cigarettes post. This doesn't involve the brilliant Mr. Waits, but it does involve Wu Tang Clan and Bill, "Groundhog Day Ghostbustin'-Ass Murray" talking about Mr. Murray's dangerous addictions to nicotine and caffeine. Also, in this post they discuss coffee popsicles, an idea I remember having multiple conversations about with friends on a visit to Chicago a few years back.

Manure Thief?

That's right, a manure thief fell into a vat of cow dung in Germany, then fled the scene buck naked. Now, I suppose if I fell into a vat of dung I would want to ditch my clothes too, but somehow I imagine that didn't entirely solve the problem. Does anyone else read this story and say, "WAIT! WAIT!!!! MANURE THIEF"?????!?!?!?!! Oh good, figured it wasn't only me.

Friday Fun Post

A few tidbits to keep you goin through the weekend... not that I won't necessarily post sometime Saturday or Sunday, but still. It's a list post, the weekend seemed a good excuse for that sort of thing. Now the list:

• There is a disease called Uncombable Hair Syndrome, and you can learn more about it here. The blog post linked discusses how the existence of this disorder points to a few interesting points, one being, "That from a therapeutic point of view, you need to look at the market value of finding a cure, before the whole finding a cure process to the start (i.e. do you think a lot of places are looking at treating uncombable hair syndrome?) Plus, if you take that question further, you can start getting into the arena of neglected diseases." Now neglected diseases are a serious and important topic of conversation. Uncombable Hair Syndrome... well, it's remarkable that it is existent, although I guess it sounds pretty frustrating. Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan
• Bill Gates Semi-Retires today from his full-time position at Microsoft (coverage of where Microsoft stands at this point in today's NYT) to shift into a larger role with the Gates Foundation. I, for one, hope that his shifting focus may allow more of the innovative thinking and rigor that clearly powered Microsoft's success as a company to push into the world of social change. It doesn't hurt to have a great mind choose to sink large amounts of his time and focus into building a better and more equitable world. Cheers, Bill.
• North Carolina offers free replacements for license plates that include the trendy and explicit kiddo speak, "WTF." I wonder if they'll offer the same for LMAO plates next. Details here.
• Finally, muskrats attack St. Louis. People in NC think to themselves, "WTF?" Honestly, I can't really embellish this one any more than that. Wonkette has some coverage, as does the Minneapolis Start Tribune.
  

Tom Waits & Iggy Pop from Coffee & Cigarettes

Here's a fun little piece from Jim Jarmusch's 2004 film Coffee and Cigarettes featuring Tom Waits and Iggy Pop. There's a bizarre energy about the scene, and I remember seeing this movie in a theater and walking away with this scene as one of my favorites, this and the scene with Bill Murray (watch out for it to be posted here shortly!).

Late Night Throw-back (Burgertime!)

That's right, it's Burgertime! A friend got me thinking about Apple IIc games today, and I found that there's an exhaustive list of games for the IIc listed on wikipedia (no big surprise there, actually), and as I started to scroll down, the first thing that caught my eye was Burgertime. I recognized others, but this game was definitely a classic of my childhood, this and Dig Dug!

I don't really know what else to say, except that this brought a huge smile to my face, as I suppose childhood memories are supposed to.

Wonderful Distraction Alert!

This is going to sound dirty, but you should seriously check out porkmoustache. I know, I know, it sounds... well, potentially very strange at the very least, but I would posit that the best adjectives to describe this singular phenomena are quirky and/or goofy. Super happy-making photo fun for your day.

Hat tip to my friend Tiff whose facebook page tipped me off to the moustache!

Laughable

Seriously, I just wanted to throw up a couple recent favorites from Wonkette. Here goes:

• On Tuesday they had a fun and exciting post about one of John McCain's most prominent Democratic supporters. Am I talking about our jowly and pugnacious senior senator from CT, Ole' Joe Lieberman? Nope, I'm of course talking about almost Governor of West Virginia Icky Frye. Don't know who he is? Check it out.
• Yesterday they, like many blogs, covered the new cover from New York Magazine, which prominently features a terrorist fist-jab between John McCain and Barack Obama. Are you wondering to yourself, "Terrorist Fist-wha???" No worrries, I got background for ya right here.
  

Tom Waits Ol' 55

Tom Waits week continues with a classic cut from his 1973 debut, Closing Time, "Ol' 55"



All Music Guide says, "The lyrics are terrific – “Well my time went so quickly/I went lickedly spitly/Out to my ol’ 55” is the song’s opening, and it progresses into a most moving account of a man and his car as one can possibly imagine."

I'll Go All Leviticus On Ya!

So James Dobson has begun trying to convince evangelicals not to vote for Barack Obama, and the Daily Show, as usual, has brilliant coverage of Dobson's comments. They do this funny thing that helps you see some of the irony in what Mr. Dobson has to say, they use what the kids are calling, "context."

Brilliant!

I Don't Wanna Grow Up

Can we call it Tom Waits week? Ok, let's! Here's a brilliant video from I Don't Wanna Grow Up off 1992's Bone Machine.

I Know it Hurts But...

$4 a gallon gas, huh, good God
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me

Ok... maybe not. Nice piece over at the Atlantic today from Megan McArdle about how the pressures of $4 and possibly soon-to-be $5 a gallon gas are having an impact on supply chain management nationwide.

"The good news is that we have information technology that people in the 1975 couldn't even have dreamt of, which is grinding away at the problem of making our economy incrementally more efficient. If the price of oil does come down, we'll emerge from this substantially more productive--good for us, good for our descendants, good for the planet."

While high gas prices and the state of the economy are justifiably going to be a campaign issue this fall, and while I know they're causing a good bit of pain to many Americans. It's nice to see some documentation of the upside, part of which involves people thinking about how to do the things they do more efficiently. It would be lovely if people just worried about that all the time, but when gas is supercheap, people don't so much think about whether they need to drive from here to there. Apparently also large corporations don't think about whether they can consolidate shipments of this or that, etc.

hat tip: Andrew Sullivan

Pehdtsckjmba

Last week my brother tipped me off to this wonderful little tidbit from Tom Waits, who many folks may not know, but he's an incredible and unique musician. This year I've been particularly taken with two tracks of his, "Old 55," a song from his incredibly debut album, Closing Time, and "Hoist That Rag" from the more recent an haunting 2004 release Real Gone. He's come out with a new one, and below you can check out the press conference for his upcoming tour. You'll get not only a brief introduction to Tom and his enjoyable antics, but also a fun new vocab word!