Because my brain hinges on music, here's a lot on that subject. I happily spent (Gregorian) New Years Eve with Jack, Leslie, Jacob and his Hannah - we had a version of wine-and-painting night, the sort where everyone drinks (mostly vodka in our case) and each attempts to paint a version of the same scene. It was discovered that i haven't heard the Weeknd song 'Can't Feel My Face', and Jacob undertook a brilliant Shakespearean reading of the lyrics, followed by the same on youtube, repeat. We couldn't decide if the song describes allergies, drugs or other possibilities. i mentioned that my go-to background music in lab is Aphex Twin, particularly his ambient stuff - this mix is particularly good at distracting my brain enough for me to read papers, so linking it here for documentation.
Other things of note include this live recording of Stromae, especially the remarkably good a capella version of 'Tous Les Memes' starting around 25:40. Another that i was pleased to find is this live recording of the talented Shakey Graves (in a bowling alley?!), wherein he covers the song 'Kiss the Girl' from Disney's The Little Mermaid (around 17:05). i had to look up the original, but it turns out he does a pretty good job despite lacking the familiar 'sha-la-la-la' chorus. Things i'm looking forward to are a new Andrew Bird album coming early April, and a new Lumineers album later that month. (Side tangent: i'm curious to note that the title of the Lumineers album is 'Cleopatra'. i was dubbed 'Cleopatra' by my high school comp. sci teacher when he couldn't pronounce my lengthy surname, and now give Cleo as my name when ordering at cafes and restaurants, as my first name is overwhelmingly common. Bryan refers to this use of an alternate name as a 'coffee shop name', but it turns out, googling that will only yield websites with ideas for naming coffee shops. My own name choice backfires, as it is surprising how frequently baristas mistake 'Cleo' for 'Chloe'.)
Regarding coffee, i came across a slightly hair-splitting article entitled 'Is that Cappuccino You're Drinking Really A Cappuccino', which describes the naming of said beverage after the traditional color of a Capuchin friar's robe, and goes on to describe various related beverages (a latte, with steamed-and-not-foamed-milk, a flat white, with microfoam-and-greater-coffee-ratio), and how shop-specific versions of these blur the lines between distinction. As we're on the topic of preachy NYTimes articles, this article, 'Food and the Single Girl', reflects on dietary habits of people who live alone versus with others. Happy Singles Awareness Day (or Valentines).
Regarding Disney, just in case anyone missed it, here are terrific images of various (other) Disney films re-imagined in the style of Tim Burton by artist Andrew Tarusov. I really, really like Mr. Burton's somewhat creepy, etiolated, minimalist style, and so was thrilled to see those. Happily, Alice In Wonderland as directed by Mr. Burton is already a thing (as is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), and his 'Alice2: Through The Looking Glass' is out May 27th.
Here is the music video that always comes to my mind when thinking of the late David Bowie, featuring himself in pajamas, frolicking in an urban setting ('dancing in the streets') with Mick Jagger. The 1980s were a strange time, sartorially and otherwise.
While recently at IKEA to purchase furniture, i ended up dining there. To occupy myself while eating, i googled about dining at IKEA, and it turns out that someone in Australia has blogged about eating only food from IKEA for an entire week. There is also a compilation/ranking of all the food available at IKEA.
The online publication formerly-known-as-British-Medical-Journal has a well done, tongue-in-cheek Christmas 2015 feature called Zombie Infections: epidemiology, treatment, and prevention (with a hat-tip here).
A wintersport that i learned about the other day is skijoring, applied to a skier being pulled by dog(s) or a horse. The attachment is a belt at the skier's waist. Related is bikejoring, where 2 dogs pull a person on a bicycle (eek!, "Bikejoring can be fun but has its dangers. The dogs may be distracted by wild-life"), and Bryan linked yak skiing, " a skier waiting at the bottom of a slope and a yak at the top of the hill; yak and skier are connected by means of a rope going around a pulley at the top of the hill. To engage the yak, the skier must shake (and swiftly put down) a bucket of pony nuts. This attracts the yak, which charges downhill and pulls the skier upward by means of the rope ".
And finally,
me: how did you come across yak skiing?
'see also'?
Bryan: it was linked to skijoring
me: ah
Bryan: a tenuous connection to be sure
but that's what makes wiki golf possible
me: wiki golf
wiki golf?
