Weekend Edition
The Weekend Edition is our opportunity to delve into the dark places of the internet, and bring back treasures and tales of rare value. This week, we have real fake birds, retro pin-ups of men, and some important advice. Let’s get started!
Some day, we will gather our grandchildren around and tell them stories of a time long past, when Angry Birds wasn’t the most important cultural artifact in all of human history. Then, before we pack them back to their rickety pig-constructed apartment in YellowBirdopolis, we’ll show them these images by Mohamed Raoof, and remember fondly that there were once real birds and real pigs, before the Terrible Misunderstanding Of 2038.
So sure am I that the Betties will love this, I’m tempted to link to it without any word of introduction. But because this is the internet, and we’re never terribly far from a rick-roll, I’ll give you a peek: classic pin-ups, but with men.
I don’t often link to academic papers on physics, but I couldn’t resist this one. After an experiment in Italy seemed to report neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light, amateur physicists have been eager to proclaim that our current understanding is wrong, wrong, wrong. The abstract of this paper is inclined to disagree.
One of the fun parts of writing is putting together a soundtrack for a new project. The idea, for those of you who haven’t heard of it before, is that you find songs which speak to the tone of the story as a whole, or individual characters and relationships. I was thrilled when I discovered this song, which matches perfectly the relationship between my heroine and her husband — who is not, I should point out, our romantic hero. Ooh, conflict.
Anyway, this is Poison and Wine by the brilliant The Civil Wars.
And just in case that’s a little somber for your Saturday morning, I’ll also link to Sweetness and Light’s current favorite, a cute song by geek-rock band Kirby Krackle.
Nerdy Dirty is an online store packed full of adorable gifts for nerds in love. This, I think, is my favourite.
And lastly, an important reminder for everyBetty, courtesy of The Curious Brain:
Have a great day, everyone, and FGBVs to all!
Excellent selection, as usual :0)
Ha. I love the chemistry one. That makes my (long hidden) scientific side just jump for joy.
They’re all good, though.
I loved that song. And Freud calling other people assholes just made me laugh.
Music was great. Adored the academic paper. : )
That has to be the best abstract ever!
Great post! I was able to share the abstract with all the physic geeks in my house, they hadn’t seen it before and loved it! Yay I got to beat them for once.They thought you might like – http://snarxiv.org/vs-arxiv Alastair, but it went right over my head.
OK, I had to google rickroll, so for those who like me are not so savvy:
Rickroll: To post a misleading link with a subject that promises to be exciting or interesting, e.g. “World of Starcraft in-game footage!” or “Paris Hilton blows Busta Rhymes’ dick” but actually turns out to be the video for Rick Astley’s debut single, “Never Gonna Give You Up”. A variant on the duckroll. Allegedly hilarious.
well, I thought it was hilarious.
nice roundup, Alastair. especially loved the surrounded by assholes one. It’s one of the tricky things about dealing with depression– sometimes there are things that are worth being depressed about. It can be tricky sorting out what those things are.
The pin-up guys didn’t show enough skin.
I LOVD how they had those bright-eyed expressions and pursed or pouty lips. It’s a wonderful way to point out the ridiculous.
I loved S&L’s favorite song, but should they really love a song about a female serial killer so much? That was a real jolt! And yet, so cute.
This was a particularly fine selection today. Thank you, Alastair.
Are you writing a romance, Alastair? That’s pretty damn exciting!
Terrific selection as always. Thank you.
and now can I laugh out loud at myself? It’s been a long day and we were outside around a campfire tonight so my eyes are tired and icky. I scrolled through the comments and I swear I read someone’s nom as Amish Betty. Now, I think it would be lovely if we had an Amish Betty here – this is a wonderful place for all people plus the UPR and such. But the whole electricity thing probably makes it hard for an Amish person to join us, so that’s where my brain finally caught up with my sleepy eyes and had a bit of a chuckle. Now I’m going to go bathe my contacts and say goodnight.
I hate you a little for the Civil Wars song. It made me cry. So I got on iTunes and bought the whole album.
The garish birdies put me in mind – which I’d like to put out of mind – the October issue of “Martha Stewart’s Living” in which Martha reveals she collects animals of the taxidermed persuasion. Couldn’t look away from pages of photographs, but — queasy-making. The Marth makes a fine intellectual case for said collection, but, still – queasy-making. Especially the dinner table tableau. Should be cute, but – did I say? – queasy-making.
“I don’t know where this song will end, I don’t care because I’m dead” *snort* That is very, very funny and I would never had heard that song on my own. Thank you Alastair! and Sweetness and Light!
Super cute and super fun weekend edition Bald Betty, thanks for the delightful break from the menial ppwk pile put off until the end of the end of the week as far as it can be pushed…to the end of the end….of..the..week :]
Private Betty! Thank you for the rickroll shortcut def!
p.s. Robena, the academic paper at the moment is over my head, can you hi-lite the humorous key words? Thank so much.
p.s.s. Alastair said, you find songs which speak to the tone of the story as a whole, or individual characters and relationships. After hearing Poison and Wine, I’d like to offer up a suggestion for a companion sound track to that same tone – Over The Rhine, Drunkard’s Prayer. It has the same “soul in the same place” type feeling, and it also reminds me of this video because they recorded this sound track in their living room. I really haven’t heard any of their other music, haven’t ventured past this one album because…maybe it’s just too good to look any further.
I wouldn’t recommend listening to the U Tube versions, they sound HORRIBLE! I’ll be happy to let you borrow my cd of their home recordings of this album, they are absolutely mesmerizing. Funnmy how audio video quality works that way!
http://www.overtherhine.com/cd13.php
Love the weekend edition, particularly the Freud one–my mom (the psychologist) used to have a little saying whenever one of us was doing something or reacting in a way that was particularly Freudian. She’d crook her finger and say, “Um, Sigmund, we need you over here, please…”
Fantastic Alastair.
Love the Freud and love Poison & Wine