The Ruminator is a new groupblog that launched about a week ago and is just figuring out its voice as its many writers make their first posts. I’m a contributor, and my first post is up. It’s about how, when music shops and bookshops close down, there’s some additional consequences:
One by one, these stores are closing up for good. As they close I wonder if there is something at work here beyond the normal swell and fade of commerce and retail, something with an impact that reaches beyond “retail therapy” and the ding of a cash register. I can’t shake the feeling that this is a change that matters, and that what we are losing here will reduce us, irrevocably. [Read the rest]
There’s plenty of other Ruminating writers there, too. Go check ’em out.
25 fictional detectives & their #1 moves (mash, you’ll wanna see this…)
David Simon brings the ruckus on the US senate’s failure to pass even massively-watered-down gun regulations.
Do not touch, a crowd-sourced music video. Fun! (via Sammyh)
Not much money at all can buy you a fake Facebook girlfriend
The dangers of thinking like an economist
Alison Brie does memes:
Conan O’Brien hosts an 80-minute chat with writers from the golden age of The Simpsons. Marvellous! Had this on while cooking dinner over two nights, enjoyed every minute.
This image should NOT be seen by the whole world (via Hugh Dingwall)
The myth of Margaret Thatcher
and What we talk about when we talk about Thatcher
Riverbend, the Iraqi blogger who was posting regularly in the buildup to the invasion, and after, has made a new post after years of silence, marking the 10th anniversary of the war’s beginning.
Star Wars characters modelling fur for Vogue in 1977
There’s a GREAT clip circulating of Patton Oswalt improvising the plot of a new Star Wars movie (part of a Parks & Recreation story apparently) – I watched it, it was awesome, but the one I watched is no longer there and I can’t find another with permission to view from NZ. Google “Star Wars Filibuster” and try your luck, it’s well worth a look.
Oh my god! They killed Sean Bean!
Perhaps the definitive analysis of those bloody eagles not flying to Mordor
My buddy Dan’s story “Waking The Taniwha” has been published at Wily Writers (guest editor: Richard Dansky) and I still haven’t listened to it but it’s been up a while now so I’m linking to it anyway.
And finally, via my sister Beth… absolute worst pictures of men and cats