Sunday, August 28, 2005

Before and After

Norm (left) when he was still a Democrat and a mayor before trying to win the governor's race (losing miserably to former WWF wrestler, Jesse "The Body" Ventura). Dick Cheney then personally told Bush patsy (now Governor) Tim Pawlenty to vamoose the Senate race so the east coast turncoat would be able to run unopposed against the man Coleman called 'the worst senator in Minnesota history'. Wellstone however, often referred to as the "best senator in Minnesota history", inched ahead of Coleman, and in the days before the election "mysteriously died in a freak plane crash". (Cindy Sheehan's mother had a "sudden stroke" right when her protest story reached the highest level of the news cycle, and had to leave the gates of Guantanamo Bush in Midbrain, Texas to attend to her Mother.)

At any rate, $6,000 later (20% trophy-wife discount applied) and the way smoothed by the removal of both Tim Pawlenty and Paul Wellstone, the Cheney lapdog had new cosmetic teeth and was installed in the Senate to aid in the return of the effective swing vote of Cheney's occasional presiding role in the Senate. In other words, Jar-Jar Binks.

UPDATE: Coleman ingratiates himself with the American Dental Association.

12 for 12

Thanks to White Castle you can get a year's subscription to Mad magazine for 12 bucks. Oh - and if you buy ten sliders, you get one at the counter.

Greg the Bunny - Episode 1

Annie Hall Style.

The Real World

Friday, August 19, 2005

Celebrities Playing Ping Pong

Caffeine, Spiders, and Other Drugs

Hunter S Thompson Sendoff Tomorrow

The cannons are in place, the 400 person outdoor bar with chandeliers has been constructed, the fireworks are ready, and the 2 million dollar price tag has been paid for by Johnny Depp for the celebration at Owl Farm tomorrow night. The celebrataion will be marked by shooting his ashes over the property with a giant cannon constructed in the shape of his own Gonzo symbol.

Late 70s Sticker Collection

I remember most of these like it were yesterday. Puffy stickers appeared in the early 80s.

Happy Birthday Penguin

Penguin Books is 70. And to celebrate they've published a pretty interesting series of 70 books for about 2.70 each. It's a nice combo of fairly recent authors and some older ones. Check it out. Then buy me the box set.

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Caesar

"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."

- Julius Caesar

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."

- Theodore Roosevelt

Friday, August 12, 2005

Horrible Recipes From the Past II

If you recall the first batch of horrific recipes from the 60's and 70's then you might enjoy this equally abhorrent weight watchers batch of recipe picture cards from 1974. Did people actually make this stuff - or just use it to springboard actual recipes against? If you have pictures of people eating 70's era food like this, you have to email them to me.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

English Breakfasts


Ahh - nothing like baked beans, french fries, soft eggs, and canadian bacon for breakfast. Eventually one kind of likes it. But once you escape it never occurs to you to eat it again - until you return of course.

The Last True Republican

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

--President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1952

Monday, August 08, 2005

Did you Know...


...that Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president to have been born in a hospital? That no NFL team, which plays its home games in a domed stadium, has ever won a Superbowl? That the name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan"? Read on..

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Mystery Science Theater History


Mystery Science Theater appeared for the first time ever as a Twin Cities program Thanksgiving of 1988 on a local UHF station - KTMA Channel 23. I started college the same year - and later discovered that I lived on the same floor of the same dorm Joel Hodgson lived in when he went to my college. Every Sunday, I would head up to the top floor where the TV lounge was with Andy (a guy on my floor with similarly bizarre interests) and watch this insane program called Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was pretty much the funniest thing I'd seen - except for maybe Letterman in 1984. At any rate - here's a history of the show, starting with the KTMA days.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Bush: U.S. to Stay in Iraq Despite Deaths


If we had actually elected this "man" I'd be pissed. What I don't get is why the nation is still pretending that he was?

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Ken Nordine

The undisputed King of Voiceovers - since the 1940's this guy with the 'impossible baritone' has been a radio standard voicing over every product made from toothpaste to Taster's Choice coffee. (Do they still even make that stuff? I loved the weird close-up of that guy's face on their packaging - almost as much as I think it's '19' cereal the one with a picture of two people's faces for no apparent reason on the box. I'll have to look into that...)

Eventually he got bored and invented, starting writing, and performed what he called 'Word Jazz' - it can hardly be described without hearing it yourself. The first time I heard him I was half-asleep in a red Saab somewhere in South Dakota in spring of 1992 driving back to Minneapolis from Seattle and it was playing quietly on public radio and I woke up having no idea what I was listening to or whether I had been dreaming. The car went out of range of the radio signal and it took me ten years to figure out what or who it even was.

One of his CDs, Colors has him scatting a song for each color in the wheel, meticulously describing and even berating the 'personalities' of some of them. Though he started to show up artistically early in the Beat generation era, he's been described as more akin to Edgar Allen Poe and Kafka than Ginsberg or Kerouac. If you've heard William Burrough's Dead City Radio (and if you haven't, you should) you have some general idea. Enjoy.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

The Current In-Studio

All the in-studio performances since the inception of the new station.

Monday, August 01, 2005

Bizarre Street Signs

What IS that bug?


Run across a bug you've never seen before? This site can help.

Moog Jr.


Electronic music making toys from the 70's and 80's.

Bush Halo


"Our purpose is to bring you documentation to our media-supported claim that George W. Bush is indeed not only our nation's leader, but our spiritual lighthouse and embodied salvation."

(Condoleeza) Rice is Always Angry

The Fiend Show

If you liked Muffin Films, you might like Amy's online animated show, Making Fiends - now in its second season. Or her other web based show, Big Bunny.

Hold on to that Feeling


One of the more bizarre Flash animations I've seen - I recalled seeing it a few years back. Sit back, turn up your speakers, and watch this freak's interpretation of the magic that is... Journey.
Almost matches the 1983 Journey arcade game in weirdness..