Times Square LEGO Bar

Speaking of Protohuman Scarcity Mentality Theory, my mind was blown when I went to the giant Toys-R-Us in Times Square, in Manhattan; because they had this amazing LEGO buffet, something I had only dreamed of as a child. When I say I dreamed of it as a child, I'm not speaking figuratively. This very display, where a fella can fill a bag with all the parts needed to finish whatever said fella is working on, without compromises, figured prominently in my own personal dreamscape (and, I'd imagine, the dreamscape of anyone who's ever spent any serious time building with LEGO).

Sure, the parts are a bit limited, as the bins of bricks are meant to be parts for the dumb New Yorkey keepsake models in the center of the display, beneath the clock. I don't have a better photo of them, because I was too embarrassed to take the shot. LEGO Statue of Liberty, LEGO Apple, LEGO I <3 NY, LEGO guy-who-stands-motionless-and-demands-money-when-you-look-at-him, etc. I ignored the models and went straight for the parts, filling up a small plastic bag that turned out to cost about $20. Not a bad deal, actually, considering the number of parts I was able to cram in there; compared with the number of parts in your average $20 lego set.

I'm just now noticing the vaguely Socialist frieze at the very top of the display. Pretty sweet. Call me boring, but I think my hands were shaking when I grabbed a fistful of these:

Hey, you art people

So you guys who went to art school: What's the art theory/psychology behind repeating patterns in art? They've been there forever, so somehow there's a subconscious trigger in the brain to find repetition aesthetically pleasing.

Something like Joseph Cambell's universal myth theory, maybe?

Because we see it so often in nature?

Because it's mathematically sophisticated?

Because it reminds us of the concept of excess, which was a good thing to have in hunter gatherer days?

*sniff* if only i was as cool as FPM Tanaka Tomoyuki

well, maybe i can keep reaching for the stars.



maybe if they played this along to the footage of the FEENIX on MARZ, NASA wouldn't seem so dull. still, all things considered under the Bush regime, it's pretty amazing anything got off the ground. yay science.

nostalgia washing over me

Lookit!

Lookit who's new! More music and and semaphore and everything! 

                

Tokyo

Paris

New York

And look, that's why the music is so good--It's AI-BU9 Fantastic Plastic Machine!

Phoenix lander, as seen by HiRISE

Gonna nerd out for a sec here, but this is one hell of a shot: It's a close-up from yesterday of the Phoenix lander descending through the Martian atmosphere, as seen by a satellite that just happened to be orbiting Mars at the time (the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, in fact). That is rad.

Just about as rad as this: a photo from one of the Mars rovers looking back at its discarded heat shield, next to one of the spots it bounced at whilst landing. And the SCIENCE they do isn't half bad, either.

Towel day

Happy Towel Day, ladies!

ahhahahhahahahahh

hahahahahahahahha whoa lordie

La Mariana is For Sale

So La Mariana Sailing Club is for sale! At least it was, as of September 2006. Maybe that's why we all thought it was closed or closing.


It needs some fixing up, but I'd think about doing it, if I found uranium in my yard. It's unbelievable that it's the only functioning tiki bar on the island. I mean, unless you count Tiki's Grill and Bar. Which I'm having a tough time doing.

McSorley's

Funny how things tie together. So here's Mr. Pony reviewing his trip to NYC, I recently read the Preacher comics he lent me, then this mention of McSorley's pops up on Laughing Squid. 

Ever been there? Looks like Ennis did a pretty good job capturing what it must have been like back then. Of course, the point of it is that it would look to be about the same if you were to walk through the door now as it did over 100 years ago. Although I bet they wore less baseball caps back then.

The effects of liquid nitrogen on a human body

I'm pretty sure this clip from "V" the original miniseries deserves its own post.

I ated a Kobe beef hot dog

On my last day in NYC, I went into restaurant in Bloomingdales called "David Burke," which (at the time) seemed to be a really bad name for a restaurant. Kind of unappetizing! Turns out it's the name of a superchef, this guy (David Burke) who seems to have had the same basic idea that my friend Annie and I had. I kind of don't want to talk about the hot dog now, because I'm a little sad that now Annie and I won't be able to get filthy stinking rich off of our idea.

Anyway, the reason I ate there was because you could see the menu from the street, and on the menu was this:

Kobe beef bad-ass dog
With mustard oil, angry onion jam, all-natural, antibiotic and hormone-free

Or something like that. Okay, I was like. So I went in and ordered it and ate it. Somewhere in there I photographed it (see above). I'm not going to review it properly, because I think food reviewing requires special writing skills I don't really have. Here are some things I was thinking, though; during this process.

1. Making a hot dog out of Kobe beef sets an awfully high expectation.


2. All this stuff surrounding the hot dog itself made me slightly suspicious. The flame-toasted bun of "real" bread, the deep-fried onion slivers, the "angry onion jam" (a kind of relish, I think), the sheer size of the dog itself (about the size of a baby's arm), and even the sheer lack of antibiotics all seemed just a little like misdirection.


3. Even the most pampered, massaged-by-giant-naked-women, beer-fed Wagyu cow has lips, and it has an asshole.

I'm not saying it wasn't good. Hot dogs are good. That's just it, though. All hot dogs are pretty good. I think 99% of the hot dogs available for sale today hover between 5 and 5.5 on an imaginary deliciousness scale of one to ten. At least to my palette, they are incapable of being any better or any worse. I think the only way you can move them up or down on the scale is to be hungrier, or smear them with some horrifying non-food substance (respectively).

Don't get me wrong; I don't think this is a scam, or anything. I'm the first person to say that the Emperor looks fucking fabulous, and anyone who can't see that is a goddamned idiot. I do think that this particular Kobe hot dog may have been wasted on me. While I consider myself an eater and and enjoyer of all things food, I can't say that the Kobe anything really shone through. Still, I give the Kobe beef bad-ass dog from David Burke at Bloomingdales 5.4 stars--a fine rating, as hot dogs go.

Flyers, Part 3

Ha ha

Flyers, Part 2

Walking down this tunnel connecting the L Train with the 1 Train at 14th Street, I saw this other flyer that really does speak for itself.

Dan Smith Will Teach You Guitar

So while I was in NYC I saw some things printed on signs on walls. I got a shot of a real DAN SMITH WILL TEACH YOU GUITAR flyer in front of a candy store on Broadway and 78th St. These things are everywhere, and there's something really powerful about them. You know what's powerful about them? Dan Smith is what's powerful about them. He seems friendly enough at first glance, but after you see a second poster on the same late-night walk to the train, and then a third, and a fifth, and a ninth; something in his face starts to creep under you, under your pants and under your skin, and the lump in your throat swells, and you see his face again and again and again and his confidence, his inhuman confidence turns your blood to ice and drops you to your knees; and you realize just as you black out, cell phone in hand, thumb dialing furiously; that "Guitar" is just the beginning of what Dan Smith will teach you.

My friend Will Disney wrote a short story about Dan Smith here. Mr. Smith is also online at dansmithwillteachyouguitar.com. I will not be watching that video.

This , for instance, seems a much more practical DIY invention.

Power a TV with a AAA Battery

The crown jewel in the DIY Video Movement.

New Tettix EP

Listening to new EP by Pieces of Things Favorite Tettix about the "life and death of an evil tyrant". The Tyrant's Parable is pretty lush so far, with the usual strangely-not-corny steadily-building drama directed by evocative track titles. Cover art by Tettix! Check it out, you haven't already.

Turbo, my 3-year old, still really loves Earth's Assault on the Central AI. He calls it "the going too fast music."

Tettix's latest newsletter indicates he's going under the knife later this week. We wish you good fortune on your double hernia operation, brother!

Music find #231

Could someone redo this with straight-up ukulele and without the pan flute? Okthxbai!  ^_^

Wish I would have met this guy when I was four years old.

A South Korean artist has brought some children's visions to life.

Super soldier

I apologize if I've said this before... in Japan, companies are developing robotic suits like this so people can more easily lift the elderly and perform other peaceful tasks. But in America, there always seems to be a militaristic purpose behind projects like this. (Of course, Japan doesn't need to invest much in its military because the U.S. still provides for its defense.... but let's set that aside for now...) Anyway, check this out:

Rex Jameson bikes and swims regularly, and plays
tennis and skis when time allows. But the 5-foot-11, 180-pound software engineer is lucky if he presses 200 pounds — that is, until he steps into an "exoskeleton" of aluminum and electronics that multiplies his strength and endurance as many as 20 times. ... "Everybody likes the idea of being a superhero, and this is all about expanding the capabilities of a human," said Stephen Jacobsen, chief designer of the Sarcos suit.

Anyone see this?

Outstanding.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Okay. Look what you started. Now I'm done. Going to sleep now.

Brickmation for Ween's "The Mollusk"


Why haven't pony or galspanic made this yet?!?

battle of the 60's cartoons.

better than?

FINE. I'll post. Learn from the funk. Learn damn you.

For Pone...

Lookie

wow.

another discovery while surfing flickr
glad to see he's a fan of lego as well.

hrm.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMG

Cuteness that borders on torture. BUt they cats! So they likes it.

Hey

There's a fishing show on television right now. I just watched him reel in a fish. It's not a fish I recognize, but the host of this television program repeatedly insists to his viewership that this fish is of substantial size. He will be attempting to catch another fish soon. I happened on this television program by total accident!

I'll will keep the readership up to date on this.

Sincerely,

Litcube

ugh...

My new Hell

Dare I?

Dare I believe?

Mountain Apple Man vs Mr. Opala Man

Hawaii now has its very own superheros!

Modeled after Kamen Rider and other tokusatsu-style shows, "Mountain Apple
Man" is the first superhero of its kind in Hawaii ....

In Episode 1, Karl becomes Mountain Apple Man and fights Mr. Opala Man, a
trash-making, poison-spraying villain played by Jun Castro. Mr. Opala Man turns
out to be Mr. Ortiz, an instructor at the local college, who was brainwashed by
the evil Mad Toad.

Mad Toad returns in Episode 2, and tries to take over the world by
hypnotizing Hawaii's youth and turning them into coqui frogs.

Apparently this is showing on Oceanic Cable channel 27. A new episode is planned every month. They're currently on Episode 2.

I am in New York City.

I am in New York City. This is a view from where I am staying. I am staying in a hotel. My room is on the eleventh floor. I flew in on a plane. The flight was at night, and uneventful. I read a magazine, and slept some.

I am about to leave the hotel room. I will use the door, and then the elevator, and then another door. Before that, though, here is a picture of the sink in my hotel room. The sink is made of metal. This is remarkable.

Dumptent, or SIRLOIN?

Why Japan will survive any holocaust the Thunderbirds of the Northern republic throw at them. It's all about the GIGA DRILLL BUREEEEAAAAKAAAAAAAA. But don't take my word for it.

Good Stuff

Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes

FREE

Tomorrow is free comic day!!

FREE

Tomorrow is free comic day.