Wha’cha Going to do With All That Junk?
Eric found Alanis Morissette’s answer to the Black Eyed Peas.
Culture
A Commercial History of the Personal Computer
If you haven’t already seen this go now to A Brief History of Computers, As Seen in Old TV Adds put together with commentary by Harry McCracken at PC World’s Techblog!
It’s been said that the average American will see two million TV commercials by the time he or she turns 65. Doing some quick math in my head, I believe that means that I’ve seen…well, a terrifyingly large number of commercials for PCs and related products over the past 26 years or so. You too, maybe.
One of the many perversely fascinating things about YouTube is that its users have uploaded a remarkable percentage of those ads to the site, including both famous and obscure examples. Watch enough of them, in the right order, and what you have is a history of the PC in American life.
Well, perhaps you should wait until you get home from workas you might want to spend just a bit too much time watching this fascinating collection of commercials.
As cool as many of these ads are Americans might get just a slight feeling of having been short changed if they check out the example of why the author did not include commercials from Europe in his selections:
Q: Where are these commercials from?
A: The U.S., as far as I know. Rule one of European computer commercials: They’re too dirty for American TV.
I don’t agree with the ‘dirty’ description at all but, yes, this one is probably not work friendly.
On The Road
My well-thumbed Signet edition of Kerouac’s On the Road will probably fall apart when next read and it is close to time to re-read this dazzling burst of adrenaline that fired so many, many years ago.
T’m going to wait until next year to read this story again and I’ll leave the old Signet edition on the shelf. Instead I’m going to buy the unedited scroll version that will be released next year!
…Kerouac wrote his breakthrough novel “On the Road” in a three-week frenzy of creativity in spring 1951, typing the story without paragraphs or page breaks onto a 119-foot scroll of nearly translucent paper.
n fact, the Lowell native revised the book many times before it was published six years later, and while the scroll came to symbolize the spontaneity of the Beat Generation, the early, unedited version of the novel never reached the public.
Now, in time to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the novel’s publication, the version of “On the Road” that Kerouac wrote on the scroll will be published next year in book form for the first time, said John Sampas of Lowell, the executor of the writer’s literary estate and the brother of his third wife, Stella. It will include some sections that had been cut from the novel because of references to sex or drugs.
The scroll contains numerous passages that were edited out of the book and uses the original names of characters who were closely modeled on friends of Kerouac, including fellow writers William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.
This is a must read for anyone who participated in or is interested in the culture that spawned the Beat Generation, the sixties, great music and much, much more.
Hey, Cassidy will be at the wheel!
Via Bookslut.
The Essence of Professional Football?
This is downright surreal!
Here is the backstory:
First, Saskatchewan Roughrider’s (CFL) defensive tackle Scott Schultz hammered Toronto Argonaut quarterback Spergon Wynn hard enough to rip off his helmet and lay him flat on the turf.
Just imagine them rolling out the dancers at the 8-minute mark of a quarter!
The reality is that the injury happened on the last play before halftime.
Empowering Children
Peter Tatchell argues that we are ignoring a key element of preventing sexual predation of children:
Cracking down on paedophiles is surely only one dimension of a necessarily two dimensions solution. The current hue and cry one-sidedly prioritises action to identify and exclude actual or potential abusers. This strategy overlooks a key element in the child protection equation: helping young people protect themselves.
Whether this is done in the schools (should they even exist?) or at home which will take a large cultural shift it should be done. There is no excuse for not preparing children for the world they must live in.
Via The Sideshow.