Main page
« May 4, 2008 - May 10, 2008
May 18, 2008 - May 24, 2008 »

May 17, 2008

Watch classic drive-in movies at the Internet Archive

The Psychotronic Guide to Archive.org (Archive.org collects moving images, recordings, live music and texts; its Wayback Machine preserves old Web pages from long-gone sites as well.)

Wikipedia defines Psychotronic:

Psychotronic is a film genre made up of horror films, spaghetti westerns, low-budget independent features, exploitation films) that was coined by author Michael J. Weldon, best known for his books, Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film and Psychotronic Video Guide....

The genre takes its name from the movie The Psychotronic Man. After seeing this movie, Michael J. Weldon created an extensive list of reviews of obscure quirky films that he felt were underappreciated by the mainstream and then marketed it as the “Psychotronic Encyclopedia.”

Eye of the Goof hunted down "every film in the archive that also makes an appearance in Michael Weldon's essential guide to midnight movies."

Lots of free weekend fun there, going through the links list from The Amazing Mr. X to White Zombie

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 7:17 PM | Permalink

Cape Cod Times photo: Ted Kennedy's evacuation

There was some scrambling about video, but it amounted to nothing more than you can see now by turning on your TV.

Steve Heaslip of the Cape Cod Times photographed Sen. Ted Kennedy as he was "transported on a stretcher to a waiting Med Flight helicopter at Barnstable Municipal Airport this morning for transport to a Boston hospital."

The Boston Globe reports (Ted Kennedy said to suffer seizure),

Doctors believe that Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts suffered a seizure at his home in Hyannis Port this morning, then a second seizure as he was being transported by helicopter from Cape Cod Hospital to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, according to an official briefed on the situation.

Here's AP, ongoing.

The Kennedys' hometown paper also has a brief story with early details.

The senator is 76.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 2:00 PM | Permalink

May 16, 2008

An Irish wake for Providence musician's mom

Photo / Sheila Lennon
Phil Edmonds and fellow musician Joyce Katzberg last night at the Irish wake for Phil's mom.

Providence musician Phil Edmonds' mom died Monday.

From Maura Edmonds obituary,

EDMONDS, MAURA M. (LARKIN), 88, passed away Monday at the Elmhurst Extended Care Facility. She was the wife of the late Edward J. Edmonds.

Born in Killaloe, County Clare, Ireland, a daughter of the late Patrick and Helena (Loughnane) Larkin. She was a resident of Providence for forty years.

Maura worked as a nurses' aide at the Jewish Home for the Aged where she was known for providing great care to the residents of the home and was an active member of the 1199 New England SEIU Healthcare Union for 12 years before retiring in 1989. She volunteered at RI Hospital Children's Ward for several years after retiring. As a teenager in Ireland, she was a Munster Champion of Irish Step Dancing. She trained as a nurse in Dublin and in London during WW II...

After Maura Edmonds' wake at Gallogly Funeral Home, an Irish wake followed at Patrick's Pub on Smith Street.

Photo / Sheila Lennon

The Gnomes -- one of several bands Phil makes music with -- played, joined by other musicians. That's Peter Breen and Cathy Clasper-Torch under the Guinness sign at Patrick's.

A bit about Phil, from bandmate Otis Read's site:

PHIL EDMONDS As a native of Killaloe, Co. Clare, Ireland, Phil learned to play the tin whistle in a place where he says, "The backyard was the fields." When he was 14 years old, Phil, along with his family, emigrated to America and settled in South Providence, where he still lives. Phil presently plays whistles and button accordion in several Rhode Island ensembles including: The Lucky Band, The Katz' Meow, Killaloe, and The Providence Wholebellies. He also performs with Triple-Decker which is a narrative by Marc Levitt accompanied by musicians from six different countries. Phil is listed as a traditional folk artist with the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. To children he is known as "The Leprechaun".

Phil Edmonds and Otis Read play at the Providence Athenaeum, on YouTube.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 2:45 PM | Permalink

May 15, 2008

A survey of working women, with a transparent hitch

Ask a Working Woman Survey 2008:

Once upon a time,not very long ago, our mothers (sisters, aunts, cousins and ourselves) brought forth on this continent, a new notion, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that when it comes to earning a paycheck, all women were created equal to men...

...Okay, so maybe there have been some glitches along the way in pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. Or not. Either way, we want to hear about it. Tell us what it’s like to be a woman working in America this election year, and we’ll pass what you have to say along to the people who claim they are the ones who can make it better.

The idea is great. I'd like to report my experience.

This may be a hitch for you, or may not:

P.S. If you are not one already, by taking this survey you become a member of Working America, a powerful voice for working people. As a member, you will receive updates and information about how you can make a difference for working families.

This is sponsored by Working America & AFL-CIO. (I think, as a member of The Newspaper Guild, I'm already on an AFL-CIO list.)

So the choice is yours.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 8:13 PM | Permalink

Free iced coffee at Dunkin' today

Between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. today only, Dunkin' Donuts stores nationwide are giving away free 16-oz iced coffees.

I live on iced coffee year-round, so this is a public service announcement.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 8:25 AM | Permalink

May 14, 2008

Rauschenberg's goat; $10 'surprises'; 100 essential jazz CDs; 'Bonnie & Cyde' snared by hair extensions

Monogram, 1959. Robert Rauschenberg. Part of Our Picasso? at ArtNet
.

Robert Rauschenberg: Man at work. A goat story -- a stuffed angora goat story.

The artist discusses his 1959 work Monogram as video of its installation rolls:

 

White elephants online: I imagine two guys with a warehouse full of Job Lot stuff, wondering how to get rid of it. The lightbulb goes on over one's head:

SomethingStore is a fun new website that operates simply: We will send you something, an item selected randomly among many things from our inventory, for $10 (free shipping) and you will find out what your something is when you receive it. What will yours be?

Duct-tape wallet, red sand hourglass, Norelco shaver...

Your something will most likely be brand new, though it may also be refurbished or antique.

Uh-oh.

These will not be your something: "Adult goods and services, Alcohol, Body parts... "

Think it will fly?

 

Musical education: Online Only: 100 Essential Jazz Albums: Online Only: The New Yorker. Classics at The New Yorker, with links that go to Amazon where you can sometimes listen to clips.

Caught by the hair: Feds say hair extensions led to arrest of 'Bonnie and Clyde' | Philadelphia Daily News | 05/13/2008

IN THE END, it was the hair that snagged them.

Jocelyn Kirsch's greedy pursuit of flowing auburn extensions is what finally led to the arrest of both her and her 25-year-old lover, Edward Anderton, thus ending the couple's intricately executed identity-theft scam, federal authorities said yesterday.

The tresses, valued at $2,274 at Center City hair salon Giovanni and Pileggi, were attached to Kirsch, 22, a former Drexel University senior, over 7 1/2 hours in late November. The duo also gave the hair stylist a $250 tip - and a bad check.

Before that, most of the crafty couple's fraud occurred over the Internet, where they purchased items by opening up credit cards, using personal information from friends, co-workers and neighbors in a condo development, the Belgravia, in Center City. But their in-person appearance at Giovanni and Pileggi showed they had become careless, federal authorities said.

"Captured by the hair, that's the joke. But it was the greed of the hair extensions," U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan said yesterday. "Once that check bounced, then there was an ability to go back, actually identify the victim and tie to that a name."

From there, Philadelphia police were able to get descriptions of the suspects and stake out the UPS store in West Philadelphia where one of the victims told cops the couple had opened a mailbox - in her name. One day later, on Nov. 30, the two were nabbed by University of Pennsylvania cops...

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 10:54 AM | Permalink

May 13, 2008

Squirrel for dinner?

Journal / Kris Craig

The ultimate ethical meal: a grey squirrel The Guardian (U.K.) coos,

It tastes sweet, like a cross between lamb and duck. And it's selling as fast as butchers can get it.

That's in England, where the North American Eastern grey squirrel is overrunning their beloved red squirrels. So it's almost patriotic to eat them to help cull the species, at about $6.82 per cleaned squirrel at the butcher shops.

I'm thinking depression-era protein, if things get bad here. Lord knows we have enough grey squirrels eating our tulip bulbs and all the pears from our tree every year.

Texas A&M offers instructions for harvesting acorns, squirrel, opossum and raccoon "(for traditional community coon suppers)", "dressing" and cooking them,:

Squirrel is one of the most tender of all wild game meats. The rosy pink to red flesh of young squirrel is tender and has a pleasing flavor. The flesh of older animals is darker red in color and may require marinating or long cooking for tenderness.

There are recipes for squirrel, although I wouldn't expect much meat from these scrawny city critters.

Here's a recipe for Braised acorn-fed grey squirrel with roasted loin and squirrel pie, garlic mash by Craig James, head chef, at Butlers Wharf Chop House, near Tower Bridge, London.

There's even a review of Butler's squirrel specials in the Evening Standard by restaurant blogger Charles Campion:

During May there is a “squirrel and rook” season. When I visited only the squirrel element had kicked in - and the menu listed “Grey squirrel and rabbit terrine with piccalilli” – the terrine had a good texture, the sweet close-textured squirrel meat ends up pretty much indistinguishable from the rabbit – this would be a great dish for nervous squirrel sensation seekers. On the main course list there is “braised Grey squirrel and Guinness stew with carrots and horseradish dumplings” – very rich and discernibly squirrel, the meat falling from the bones of those long back legs – the dumplings need work, they are a little solid (which need not be a bad quality in a dumpling but can be taken too far) and they also need a bit more of the promised horseradish bite.

UKTV Food offers a recipe for squirrel pancakes, pictured at right.

Other squirrel recipes.

There are reports of prion disease -- Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease -- in five people from Kentucky who all ate the brains of diseased squirrels. (Hard to know how the squirrels might have acquired it on their diet of nuts and berries, though, so the link may be tentative.) Don't eat the brains if you're being fastidious. (Of course, if you're being fastidious you wouldn't be anywhere near a dead squirrel.) Rabies is rare among squirrels.

How to: Squirrel hunts are great ways to enjoy fall days and teach new hunters field skills. - Wisconson Natural Resources magazine

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments 2

May 12, 2008

Dylan art show; Donnie Darko sequel; Lessing: Nobel a disaster

A few links noted along the way:

An exhibition of Bob Dylan's artwork, first seen in November. in Germany at the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz (museum), is to open at the Halcyon Gallery in London's Mayfair June 14.

"The Drawn Blank Series" is based on drawings and sketches made by Dylan while on the road from 1989 through 1992.

Corn-Syrup Price Bolsters Sugar

Without a Wall Street Journal paid subscription, this is all we can read:

Rapid increases in high-fructose corn syrup prices will encourage a return to sugar usage in U.S. soft drinks and foods -- a move that is already gathering steam among consumers -- sugar industry members predict.

Even before demand for ethanol lifted corn prices recently, the nation's smaller soda and food makers began to reject the syrup in favor of sugar as consumers shied away from heavily processed snacks and ingredients.

Dalton Yancey, executive vice president of the Florida Sugar Cane League, said more soda makers are shifting to sugar, with the move based on a trend toward perceived-natural products. Escalating ...

Maybe Coke will taste like it used to again, like kosher or Mexican Coke, made with sugar.

Donnie Darko sequel S. Darko starts shooting May 18, according to ScreenDaily.

Lessing: Nobel win a 'disaster' BBC. Doris Lessing, 88, describes her life since winning the Nobel Prize for literature in October:

"All I do is give interviews and spend time being photographed."

Speaking about her writing, she said: "It has stopped, I don't have any energy any more.

"This is why I keep telling anyone younger than me, don't imagine you'll have it forever.

"Use it while you've got it because it'll go, it's sliding away like water down a plughole."

Slashdot | Have You Changed Your Opinion On eBook Readers?

Carpet of stone: medieval mosaic pavement revealed. The Guardian.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 12:50 AM | Permalink