Good Morning
Wow, last night I watched this cult movie called The Baby…oh boy…I kept asking myself, wtf? But like some sort of twisted train wreck, I could not look away. Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies: The Baby (1973): or, You Oughta Wean Him, He’s Old Enough
That link will give you an excellent review of this “Horrible Old Movie” as Dr. Paul Bearer would say…holy shit. That was disturbing. One thing however, I bet it is David Vitter‘s favorite flick!
Reading synopses, reviews, and open-mouthed shock reactions for Ted Post‘s 1973 weirdo exploitation romp The Baby, I had somehow got the idea that at least part of the movie’s shock value was inherent in the reveal of its premise–a social worker goes to the house of an eccentric family to assess the needs of their “special” youngest member, only to discover that the “baby” she thought she’d be caring for is in fact a thirty-year old man in an oversized crib and diapers. Therefore I worried that, since I knew the premise going in, much of the effectiveness of that shock reveal would be diffused.
Parishioners, I was happily misinformed–not only about how much the flick’s effectiveness relies on that shock reveal (hint: it doesn’t), but about that knockout premise’s centrality to the plot as a whole. Yes, there’s a thirty-year-old man with the brain of a pre-verbal infant who sleeps in a gigantic crib and occasionally needs his nappy changed, but surprisingly that’s just a small part of what makes the movie tick. It’s merely the soup base, if you will, to which Post and writer Abe Polsky add a variety of savory exploitation ingredients–some diced, some chunky, some pureed–to arrive at a delicious Mad Movie stew.
Anyway, that just blew me away. So much that I am only able to give you a dump of my own this morning. A link dump that is…
A lot of these links are things I have saved up over the last few weeks, so you may have seen them already. They are in no particular order, honestly I am too “weirded” out to get them organized in a decent way.
I thought this is kind of cool, especially for those of you who..like me…get a kick out of letters and words: Artist Transforms The City Of Chicago Into A Giant Typography Playground
It’s strange to think that although we encounter letters and numbers all the time, the little guys are normally confined to a page or a screen. That is, until one bold MFA student dared to take her ABCs out of the two-dimensional world and into her environment — the urban playground of Chicago.
In the “no shit” department: Dollar Stores Are Getting Too Expensive For Many Americans I won’t quote from that article, it’s all been said here before.
This next link is awesome: ‘Aviatrix’ Is My New Word | Dr. Mae Jemison
Tenacity. Daring. Talent. Courage.
Aviatrix Amelia Earhart had these qualities in abundance. Aviatrix was the term for women who flew “flying machines” at the beginning of powered flight. The word bothered me greatly years ago, as aviatrix, a feminization of aviator, seemed to make their accomplishments parenthetical. But I think of it differently these days as I understand the women of that era were different than the men — they had to be “more” and overcome extraordinary barriers to participate in this new adventure.
Amelia Earhart is perhaps the most well known of a genre of incredible women whose life stories offer inspiration, vital insight and critical lessons for us today. (I am a bit chagrined that I did not recognize much of this until after becoming a NASA astronaut and the world’s first woman of color in space.) Earhart learned to fly at a time when flying was dangerous and society considered women less capable than men in almost every sphere of life. Earhart became an international sensation as she set flying records solo and as part of a team. And she continued to strive for more until the last.
Similar elements mark the career of black aviatrix Bessie Coleman, while other aspects diverge due to racial discrimination rampant during the era. Coleman is the first American of any gender or ethnicity to receive an international license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in 1921. Coleman traveled to France to learn to fly because no one in the United States would teach her — no one white, and not even black men! Earhart was the 16th woman to get FAI license in 1923. While Coleman had to learn French and travel to France, Earhart rode to the end of the bus line and then walked four miles to lessons. Working as a manicurist, Coleman saved money and gained sponsorship to pay for lessons and travel. Earhart worked to save money for lessons while getting some help from her mother. They were both tenacious just to get the opportunity.
From Aviatrix to crazy-ass holidays: What crazy national day falls on your birthday?| studentbeans.com
Christmas is great and all but it’s so boring – EVERYONE celebrates Christmas. So we decided to have a look at some unconventional & weird days we could fill the calendar with. First stop, the internet. Unsurprisingly we were not disappointed. Though some of these may be a little obscure (give them a quick Google if you’re unsure), they are all genuine national days somewhere in the world.
My birthday “national day” of April 13… Blame Somebody Else Day…hot damn, that is a great birthday present if you ask me!
As you can see, the artwork for today’s post features winter sports, only a couple of weeks til the winter games in Sochi. Did y’all see this: IOC’s Mario Pescante Rips U.S. For Including Openly Gay Athletes In Official Delegation To Sochi
Here are a few other news stories on the Olympic Games:
Few Americans heading to Sochi Olympics | Travel | The Seattle Times
U.S. ready to ‘extract’ citizens from Sochi Olympics: Hagel – World News
Warning to U.S. athletes: No Olympic uniform outside Sochi venues – CNN.com
And…an update of sorts on the Philippine Heroes of the Night | Dr. Laura Stachel
Moving from Russia, to the Philippines to Cuba: The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Havana’s Remarkable Architecture
Okay, what makes this next link so funny is that Boston Boomer had a similar link in her post yesterday. It is a quiz…and no, I did not put mine in here because she did. Like I said up top, I have had these things saved for a while. LOL
Which American Girl Doll Are You
I took the quiz and got Samantha. But who the fuck is Samantha?
You got: Samantha!
Samantha is basically the Samantha of the American Girls: you’re fabulous and you don’t give a damn about what anyone thinks of your life and who you spend your time with. But that doesn’t mean that you’re clueless, and not generous, oh no. You know that with great power comes responsibility.
So I went and looked up who this chick is…List of American Girl characters – Wikipedia
Samantha Parkington, 1904
Samantha is an only child growing up during the Edwardian period (although American Girl designated her as Victorian). Orphaned at age five and raised by her wealthy Victorian-era grandmother in fictional Mount Bedford, New York, Samantha befriends a poor servant girl named Nellie O’Malley. Eventually Samantha, Nellie and Nellie’s young sisters are adopted by Samantha’s uncle and aunt. The themes of Samantha’s books include women’s suffrage, child labor, and classism.
What Your American Girl Doll Says About the Rest of Your Life | The Hairpin
I never had one of these, they weren’t around in the 70′s, but then…neither did my daughter.
Check out what these American Girl shits are all about now: How American Girl Dolls Have Changed Since the ’90s:entertainment:glamour.com
American Girl dolls ain’t what they used to be, guys. I fell into an AG hole this morning while investigating the latest doll of the year (yes, “investigating”—I’m suspicious of her), and what I found was shocking, just shocking. Kiss the days of historical paperbacks in burgundy plastic goodbye, because the American Girl dolls/fans of today have other kinds of fun in mind. I officially now have a beef with the following:
Isabelle, the Girl of the Year, has ombre hair.
Except it’s not ombre hair (which is already kinda done—make her a teen vampire while you’re at it, AG). It’s just pink streaks. So: You’re welcome, moms everywhere, whose daughters will be dipping their ponytails in various colored substances this year.
Isabelle also sounds like she might be terrible when she grows up.
Not to stomp on any dreams, but Isabelle’s collection includes a studio where she can “design and dance.” She’s a designer and a dancer. I’m sorry, but I don’t think we should be teaching girls to grow up and go to parties calling themselves “designers slash dancers.” That’s how people end up on The Bachelor. In my day, American Girls were either stable hands or blacksmiths! (At least, that’s how I remember it.)
And yet, you know, don’t aim too low either.
Nothing says “We’ve decided to spend all the college money on your brother” like buying your daughter a snack cart they can play-pretend they work at!
I wonder if that hot dog cart comes with a bikini thong uniform…well, my guess is the bikini is extra. (Y’all remember this: Thong-clad Hot Dog Vendor Blasts Critics – Sun Sentinel December 19, 1990)
More map goodness for you: POLL: How Americans Feel About The States – Business Insider
After seeing an excellent poll that asked Europeans what they thought of other European countries, we talked to our polling partner SurveyMonkey Audience to expand the questions and try it on Americans, to see how they felt about other states.
The results were hilarious, informative and tell you everything you need to know about the dynamic between the states.
We asked respondents — 1603 of them — to answer each question with a state that wasn’t their own. The poll was carried out using SurveyMonkey’s Audience feature, which was more accurate predicting the 2012 election than numerous traditional pollsters.
The following maps show that data. Look under each map for details when it comes to the color scale. The darkest color had the highest number of votes, the whitest color had next to none.
The Oscars are coming up…moviemorlocks.com – Stunning Visuals, Editing and Sound!
The Oscar nominations for 2013 came out recently and I was once again put in mind of the different technical categories and how misunderstood they are because when most craftsmen and artists do their job and do it well, the result is a seamless vision. If it’s not, it’s jarring and there’s a problem. As a result, we often associate great technical work with what we can see as obvious: Great cinematography is often interpreted as great, sweeping visuals; Great editing as lots of intricate cuts; Great Sound as the sounds of explosions or music. But, honestly, it’s about so much more.
One of the best authors, I think, has a new book out: Roddy Doyle, Master of Working-Class Family Drama – D.B. Grady – The Atlantic I love his Barrytown Trilogy, and this is yet another book about the Rabbitte family. (The Snapper is my favorite.)
I know you all saw this news headline: As Seen in ‘Goodfellas’: Arrest Is Made in ’78 Lufthansa Robbery – NYTimes.com Know what the defense said about Vincent Asaro, this is funny…they said the fact that he was still alive proves he had nothing to do with the crime. Wow.
More art, this is some cool ass ink: The world’s most spectacular tattoos revealed | Mail Online
Then you have the latest news out of lower Manhattan, oh this pisses me off: 9/11 Museum Admission Fee – The 9/11 Museum’s New Pricing Plan – Esquire
So you want to take your family of four to the 9/11 memorial? You want to mourn or talk to your young kids about what happened at the site? That will now be $96, please.
Late yesterday, the foundation behind the 9/11 memorial quietly voted to charge a $24 admission fee to the soon-to-be-open underground museum at the site. The above ground memorial will continue to be free, victims’ families will not pay, and there will be discounts and three free hours a week.
Sure, the admission fee is in line with other museums in the city (the MoMA is $25 for adults, for example), but you’re certainly not paying to look at art. You’re paying to grieve and learn about the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Ground Zero is already a dark tourism site. Now someone’s just making a buck off that fact.
Assholes…so not only did they make the memorial an underground ridiculously damp embarrassment of remembrance to the dead, a design that the families and most of NYC did not like…but now they are charging folks to go and see it? Yeah, assholes is to nice a name to call them.
I’ll end this post with another gallery…The week in wildlife – in pictures | Environment | theguardian.com
Strange weather has confused many species in this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Divers swim with dozens of West Indian manatees as the animals congregate around a freshwater spring north of Tampa, Florida. Local temperatures dropped below freezing, redirecting the animals to the warm springs at the Crystal River national wildlife refuge
I’ve never seen so many manatees in one place before…
Enjoy your day and stay warm, what are you reading about today?