The Latest from Boing Boing

Chip Rowe's essays
Today at Boing Boing Gadgets
Michael Jackson's FBI file consists of about 600 pages
What a Wonderful World as a zombie soundtrack
Leftie, pacifist, Detroit indie-rock band plays Gitmo library. Interesting tale ensues.
Dark Carnival of the Soul: Gathering of the Juggalos 2009
Snuff Box: "demented genius" Brit-com
Chemex coffee brewing guide
Web Zen: Animation Zen
MAKE, Vol. 19 available now
Mister Jalopy on CNN.com
Walking Dead, Vol. 10: What We Become, relentless comic on zombie apocalypse and the human condition

Posted: 18 Aug 2009 06:44 PM PDT

Today, while researching zines for the book I'm writing about the DIY movement, I came across the website of an old pal, Chip Rowe. (In the late 80s and early 90s I swapped a subscription to bOING bOING for a subscription to his zine, Chip's Closet Cleaner).

Chip's website has a lot of his old essays, which are great fun to read. One, called "Don't Blame Me!" has examples of dumb lawsuits. Excerpt:

These days people look for warning labels on everything. When one guy failed to negotiate a milkshake and his steering wheel and crashed his car, he sued McDonald's. Where was the label on the shake, he asked, warning him not to slurp and drive? A student who fell from a window while mooning passersby sued the university because it hadn't posted a caution sign. (Here's my suggestion: "NO ASSES BEYOND THIS POINT.") A bowler who slipped on popcorn sued the alley for $50,000 for not having "watch-for- kernals-on-the-floor" warnings — which could have been placed besides the "don't-drop-the-ball-on-your-foot" sign.
I kid you not: One guy who munched into a Peanut M&M that didn't have a peanut sued the candymaker because he bit his lip. A party guest who tripped over a dog in a kitchen sued the dog's owner for failing to inform him that he would be walking in the house "at his own risk." An elderly woman who injured her hands while trying to turn on the lights demanded the maker of the Clapper give her $50,000. I applaud her ingenuity.

Chip Rowe's essays

Today at Boing Boing Gadgets

Posted: 18 Aug 2009 05:55 PM PDT

Today at Boing Boing Gadgets, you can read about... * A steel key ring screwdriver set; * The GoPro Hero helmet cam; * A man who faked a webcam suicide; * A light made out of thousands of straws; * USB dongles inside the case (pictured above); * The slim PS3 is here!

Michael Jackson's FBI file consists of about 600 pages

Posted: 18 Aug 2009 05:17 PM PDT

Michael Petrelis submitted a Freedom of Information Act to the FBI for any records in their archive about Michael Jackson.

I expected the agency would reply saying they didn't locate any such records, or that there were only a handful on pages on the late entertainer. I was wrong. A letter from the FBI yesterday informs me they've located close to 600 pages on him. As I've learned from years of filing these sort of FOIAs, it's going to be a while before anything is released, and, when pages are eventually provided to me, they could be quite mundane.

I'll be interested to see what they contain, if only for snoopy, gossippy, kitsch value.

(via instapundit)

What a Wonderful World as a zombie soundtrack

Posted: 18 Aug 2009 02:30 PM PDT

Louis Armstrong meets zombies in this machinima clip that sets the brilliant zombie game Left 4 Dead to the "What a Wonderful World."

What a Wonderful L4D (via Wonderland)

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Leftie, pacifist, Detroit indie-rock band plays Gitmo library. Interesting tale ensues.

Posted: 18 Aug 2009 12:29 PM PDT

Detroit-based indie rockers The High Strung, whose penchant for playing live music in libraries was the subject of a This American Life feature, were invited to play a show at the Guantanamo Bay library this summer. They said yes. What followed is documented in a Vanity Fair article, written by the older brother of one of the bandmembers.

Some of their turnout may have been siphoned off by the presence of another group that had flown in with them [m]ade up of about eight active-duty armed forces members(...) "They're called USA Express," Derek said. "Which is probably the worst band name in the world. That's the best we can do, the all-powerful minds of the U.S. military? Anything would be better than that. The Rangers. The Fighters. Really, anything.
USA Express was also a rock band, but in a different idiom. They played covers of contemporary hits, as instructed by the Army. "Nothing they did was their decision," Derek said. "Where they went, how long they performed, their playlist. The Army said, You have to learn these 60 songs, and your first tour starts in three weeks. Go." For prurience sake, I asked what the 60 songs were. "Something by Pink, 'Freebird,' 'Billie Jean.'" Derek laughed. "That was the highlight of their first show for me actually, 'Billie Jean,' because I was invited to sit in. Their drummer was this 52 year-old dude, and he wanted to perform some dance moves during 'Billie Jean,' so they asked me to cover for him, and he got up and did this Michael Jackson-style dancing while we played.

Video of that "Michael Jackson-style dancing" after the jump. The High Strung Rocks Gitmo (Vanity Fair, thanks Mark Kleiman)

Dark Carnival of the Soul: Gathering of the Juggalos 2009

Posted: 18 Aug 2009 12:37 PM PDT

Artist Derek Erdman, whose "Teens Party with Morrissey" painting was blogged on BB, is as fascinated as we are with the animal species known as the Greater North American Juggalo.

He took it a bit further than we have, though, and attended the 2009 Gathering of the Juggalos, shot lots of photo and video, and published it for your enjoyment.

Here are Erdman's photos from the event. And embedded above, and here: video. (very Heavy Metal Parking Lot).

(via Dangerous Minds, thanks, Richard Metzger, and it looks like The Gathering of the Juggalos has a more lenient fair use policy on photography and videos than Burning Man. Interesting.)

Snuff Box: "demented genius" Brit-com

Posted: 18 Aug 2009 11:57 AM PDT

Richard Metzger has posted an appreciation for the British sketch comedy show Snuff Box, starring Matt Berry (IT Crowd, Darkplace) and Rich Fulcher ("Bob Fossil," "Eleanor," etc., on The Mighty Boosh, which we've been featuring in a series of one, two, three BB Video episodes). Snip from Metzger's post, which includes a bunch of video embeds of his favorite Snuff Box moments:

First broadcast at 11pm on BBC3 in 2006 and never broadcast again, Snuff Box sadly was missed by its target audience, who ended up discovering it anyway, via YouTube and Bit Torrent. (Snuff Box finally came out on DVD in 2008). Each episode begins with Berry and Fulcher (playing "themselves") walking down a white hallway, before choosing a door leading to a typically odd "situation." The pair are employed as government hangmen. They also spend a lot of time in a gentleman's club (where time travel occurs), nursing whiskeys and swearing. There is a LOT of swearing in Snuff Box, so much so that it gives Deadwood a run for the money. It's one of the meanest spirited comedies I can think of (not that this is a bad thing, of course).

SNUFF BOX: BEST SKETCH COMEDY SHOW YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF (Dangerous Minds)

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Chemex coffee brewing guide

Posted: 18 Aug 2009 10:18 AM PDT

The inventor of the beautiful Chemex brewer, Peter Schlumbohm, once said, "With the Chemex, even a moron can make good coffee." Now, Intelligentsia Coffee has produced a terrific video that will show morons how to make terrific coffee.

Previously:

Web Zen: Animation Zen

Posted: 18 Aug 2009 09:23 AM PDT

guard dog
quimby the mouse
my paper mind
cyriak
the brothers mcleod
we got time
disney templates

previously on web zen:
animated zen 2008
animated zen 2007
animated zen 2005

Permalink for this edition. Web Zen is created and curated by Frank Davis, and re-posted here on Boing Boing with his kind permission. Web Zen Home and Archives, Store, Twitter. (Image courtesy Eric Curry. Thanks Frank!)

MAKE, Vol. 19 available now

Posted: 14 Aug 2009 12:28 PM PDT

MAKE Vol. 19 features a special section on robots. Learn how to make a model plane with an autopilot and a small robot with a built-in brain. We'll also show you how to make a comfortable plywood chair, a bicyclist's vest that shows how fast you're going, and projects that introduce you to servomotors. All this, and much more in MAKE Vol. 19

Mister Jalopy on CNN.com

Posted: 18 Aug 2009 08:06 AM PDT

It delights me to no end to see our pal Mister Jalopy as a headline on the front page of CNN.com. The article is titled: "'Mister Jalopy' is the reuse, recycle guru." Jalopy tells me, "A neighbor (that drives a CNG Honda) scolded me for driving a big truck. I told him, "I am the reuse guru!" From CNN.com (photo from MAKE):

Mister Jalopy owns a laundromat and a used-bicycle store, and he operates out of a converted hot-rod repair shop along an industrial strip of land in the shadow of Interstate 5.

He calls his workshop "Hooptyrides World Headquarters." "It's my personal shop where I do my writing, think up my crackpot business schemes, repair bicycles and do my auto maintenance ... where I build the stuff of my dreams."

It's brimming with high-quality tools, odds and ends from 20 years of harvesting garage sales, and machines like a lathe and welder that would delight a working tradesman.

He created the "world's largest iPod." It's housed in a 1950s record console that can now digitize his music off the turntable, and the original buttons control the iPod. He also made an "urban guerrilla movie theater" -- a handmade movie projector sitting on an adult tricycle.

His used-bike shop, Coco's Variety, is named after one of his two dogs. "The credo of my store is 'Faded champions reborn for another chance at glory.' "

He adds: "These old bikes, already manufactured, [are] tenderly brought back to life for someone to love anew. The best bike for the environment is one that already exists. Not one made fresh."

"'Mister Jalopy' is the reuse, recycle guru"

Previously:

Walking Dead, Vol. 10: What We Become, relentless comic on zombie apocalypse and the human condition

Posted: 18 Aug 2009 01:48 PM PDT

"What We Become," Volume 10 of the fantastic and wrenching zombie comic The Walking Dead keeps right on shambling relentlessly toward the total annihilation of the human race. I read it in about 30 minutes, shivered for 10, then read it again. Then shivered some more.

Kirkman, Adlard and Rathburn are masters of pacing, and as the survivors push on towards Washington and the possibility of some explanation, or even salvation, the story never lets up once. This volume focuses on the horrors of war and disaster, and what people become through necessity or weakness, and I can't wait for volume 10 11.

The Walking Dead, Vol. 10: What We Become

Link to Volume 9, Link to Volume 8, Link to Volume 7, Link to Volume 6, Link to Volume 5, Link to Volume 4, Link to Volume 3, Link to Volume 2, Link to Volume 1

Previously: