Brendan I. Koerner's Blog, page 89
January 21, 2010
Against Ivan Barleycorn
More than we might care to admit, cultures are defined by their attitudes toward alcohol consumption. And so it makes sense that amateur anthropologists can learn a lot by paying attention not only to consumption habits, but to the psychological tactics that societies use to scare folks away from Demon Rum.
Those tactics are on display in this engrossing gallery of public service ads from the National Institutes of Health. Take, for example, the brutal earnestness of Dutch anti-drinking ads, ...
January 20, 2010
The Genius of Robert Vince
When we were just a few years older than Microkhan Jr. is now, we developed a serious fascination with the Pippi Longstocking movies. At the time, it didn't occur to us that the characters' voices were dubbed, or that Pippi's Popeye-liked strength defied logical explanation. All we cared about was the special bond that "the world's strongest girl" shared with Mr. Nilsson, her crafty monkey sidekick. Their irresistible relationship convinced us at an early age of the veracity of a Hollywood...
No Ice Cream in Karachi
We were all set to start the morning on a light-hearted note, but then we stumbled across this eye-popping (and curiously underreported) Richard Holbrooke quote:
"Karachi, the world's largest Muslim city, 18 million people, had about four hours of electricity a day during the worst of the summer months. And we want to do things to help address that problem," he said.
This reminded us of something we once heard Robert D. Kaplan utter about Pakistan, several years prior to the coining of the...
January 19, 2010
"Superfly Snuka Jumping from the Turnbuckle"
Looking to use some Amazon credit we scored over the holidays, we flirted with the idea of finally picking up an album that we've long coveted: Sean Price's ultra-rare Donkey Sean Jr. mixtape, which features the oft-remixed (and eternally amazing) "60 Bar Dash." Lo and behold, however, we're not the only folks with such ideas in mind, as evidenced by the hefty price tag for the mix CD—$199.87 as of this posting, up $8 over night. Either something is askew with Amazon's pricing software, or...
Thorned Bonanza
We're certainly all for the Czech Republic's willingness to step up to the plate and become a laboratory for drug-policy reform. But in their haste to craft decriminalization legislation that could kick in with the New Year, Czech lawmakers appear to have done a grave disservice to a rising agricultural sector: the cactus industry:
A week ago, the government approved the list of hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms, including hemp, coca, mescaline cactus and magic mushrooms, and decided that...
A Sadder Breed of Fail Whale
What to do with beached whales who can't be guided back out to sea, and so perish on the sand? In parts of New Zealand where the indigenous Maori hold sway, this has become quite the conundrum. The trust that oversees Maori fisheries recently proposed harvesting such unfortunate cetaceans for meat—arguably a more humane option than traditional whaling, though perhaps lacking a certain ceremonial oomph. But that suggestion may conflict with a Maori custom that calls for dead whales to be...
January 18, 2010
Slow Daze
Hopefully y'all are far away from the screen today, though we certainly know what it's like to labor for a heartless boss who shrugs his shoulders at MLK Jr. Day. If you're toiling for a paycheck today, please take a 2:42 respite to enjoy El Michaels Affair's take on "C.R.E.A.M." (above). Live version featuring Raekwon (and lamentably mediocre audio) here.
As for ourselves, we're stealing the holiday to continue work on our Secret Major Project™, then spend a few hours teaching Microkhan Jr. ...
January 15, 2010
The Antidote to Cathy
Sorry, but we just couldn't bear to have that dreadful Cathy clip atop the blog all weekend. So we'll instead leave you with this 1970 campaign ad, which we discovered while reading about Spiro Agnew's proto-Tipper Gore act in the Rome (Ga.) News-Tribune. Ms. Dickinson eventually lost this election in a landslide, but we still admire her moxie to the utmost. And we imagine the Sherwood Road bedroom she shared with her husband was an icy place well into 1971.
(h/t Eric J. Herboth)
The Absolute Nadir of Animation
One of the greatest movie-review slams we've come across in recent months is Nathan Rabin's brutal takedown of I Hate Valentine's Day, the latest project from My Big, Fat Greek Wedding mastermind Nia Vardalos. The whole pan is full of choice insults, but the apex comes in the kicker: "If the comic strip character Cathy were to make a movie, this would be it."
We share Rabin's loathing of Cathy and her strip, which struck us as deeply, almost embarrassingly unfunny even during our...
The Roots of the Trainspotting Generation
"There is nothing sadder than an aging hipster," Lenny Bruce once opined. While there's certainly a kernel of truth to that statement, we believe the late comedian missed the mark by just a few degrees. Far sadder, in our estimation, is an aging drug addict, whose aims to recapture lost glory not by feigning interest in the musical trend du jour, but rather by plunging a heroin needle into their arm ad infinitum.
Such gloomy souls haunt the streets and "estates" of Edinburgh, Scotland, the...
