the penguin told me to do it.

Postscript: Adam Yauch

Posted: May 5th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Personal | No Comments »

Postscript: Adam Yauch:

Sasha Frere-Jones, writing for the New Yorker, on the death of Beastie Boy Adam Yauch (aka MCA):

And this is the Yauch people remember: a man who could say he was sorry and not feel lessened by it; a man living within the principles of Buddhism and committed to broadening awareness of the political situation in Tibet; and a genuinely quiet person who had become more likely to make a joke at his own expense than anyone else’s. Yauch’s is one of the voices that can signify hip-hop within three syllables—rough, low, and strained. He got a lot done with that voice.

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The Typewriter

Posted: April 24th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Personal | No Comments »

The Typewriter by Leroy Anderson as performed by percussionist Martin Breinschmid and the Strauß Festival Orchestra Vienna.

Jerry Lewis performed The Typewriter in the 1963 film Who’s Minding the Store?:

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How To Watch Star Wars

Posted: April 11th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Personal | No Comments »

How To Watch Star Wars:

  1. Watch Star Wars
  2. Watch The Empire Strikes Back
  3. Don’t watch anything else

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Caine’s Arcade

Posted: April 11th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Personal | No Comments »

Daring Fireball:

If this doesn’t make your day, you’re not hooked up right.

More at Caine’s Website.

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Watched Today

Posted: April 10th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Personal | No Comments »

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (on blu-ray)
Four and a Half Stars

Titanic 3D (on the big screen)
Four Stars

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The Man Who Broke Atlantic City – The Atlantic

Posted: April 2nd, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Personal | No Comments »

The Man Who Broke Atlantic City – The Atlantic:

Johnson is very good at gambling, mainly because he’s less willing to gamble than most. He does not just walk into a casino and start playing, which is what roughly 99 percent of customers do. This is, in his words, tantamount to “blindly throwing away money.” The rules of the game are set to give the house a significant advantage. That doesn’t mean you can’t win playing by the standard house rules; people do win on occasion. But the vast majority of players lose, and the longer they play, the more they lose.

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Earl Scruggs, 1924-2012

Posted: March 29th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Personal | No Comments »

Earl Scruggs passed away yesterday at the age of 88. From his NYT obituary:

Mr. Scruggs and Mr. Flatt probably reached their widest audiences with a pair of signature songs: “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” which they recorded in 1949 with their group the Foggy Mountain Boys, and which was used as the getaway music in the 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde”; and “The Ballad of Jed Clampett,” the theme song of the 1960s television sitcom “The Beverly Hillbillies.” (Mr. Scruggs and Mr. Flatt also appeared on the show at times.)

But he also helped shape the “high, lonesome sound” of Bill Monroe, often called the father of bluegrass, and pioneered the modern banjo sound. His innovative use of three fingers rather than the claw-hammer style elevated the five-string banjo from a part of the rhythm section — or a comedian’s prop — to a lead or solo instrument. What became known as the syncopated Scruggs picking style helped popularize the banjo in almost every genre of music.

Here is Mr. Scruggs, along with Steve Martin and others, performing “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” on Letterman a few years back.

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