BEST.LITERARY.REFERENCE.EVER.

I should really pay more attention to xkcd, because every once and a while there are beautiful gems like this:

  

Don Quixote WIN.

-K

Back in the Shiver Cities

Well, I'm back in the good old Shiver Cities, and MSP is looking beautiful this time of year. Never mind that my eyelids literally froze shut while dog-sledding up in the Boundary Waters two days ago- no one is surprised. As usual, Minnesota is sunny and snowy and, apparently, quite predictable compared to the rest of the country. Yep, congratulations, Florida, you're the only U.S. state (including Hawaii) without snow! However, you do have giant invasive pythons now scouring your cities and towns... hmm. Maybe you could use a good ol' blizzard just like everybody else.

As always, from Natalie Dee

I'm happy to be home. 

-K

Yep.

My roommate just walked in, and what did Pandora start playing after an hour or so of nice normal classical concertos? The Russian Dance from the Nutcracker.

Courtesy of xkcd.com

A Mossbowl.

More good times from Sharing Machine:

Shakespearean Women: You Need a Sassy Gay Friend

Hooray for perpetuating stereotypes. Well, some of the time - when they aren't harmful, and when they are funny, especially when they involve men saying "betch."

As an avid Shakespeare afficionado, well, at least as someone who is dating one, I've often wanted to slap some smarts into quite a few of the Bard's damsels. Now, my feministic concerns are voiced, only in a much funnier way: by members of Second City Theater Troupe, as they shake some sense into Shakespeare's women in their amazing "Sassy Gay Friend" shorts. So far, there are three, one for Hamlet, Othello, and Romeo and Juliet, enjoy!







-K

Half-Red and Half-Blue

You lookin' at me? I love Sharing Machine, happy Friday everyone.

-K

Weekly Prank: Don't Actually Try This One At Home

A warning from the get-go: for all of you amateur pranksters out there looking for your big idea for April Fool's, THIS IS NOT IT. For this week's prank, I've decided to share a clip from what is, decidedly, an awful movie: Out Cold. However, despite the sub-par quality of the film itself, I have rarely even laughed as hard as I did when I saw this part of the movie. Zach Galifianakis, known now for being America's favorite facial-haired funnyman, plays Out Cold's often-drunk and frequently unconscious character, and his friends and brother frequently take advantage of his tendencies, with scenarios ending up like this. Enjoy, but again, I highly advise against causing anyone a potential heart-attack by actually doing this:



-K

From MADATOMS: The Jim Henson Character Breakdown

Direct from MADATOMS, the Jim Henson Character Breakdown- every show/ movie and the more interesting aspects of their characters, which all fit into a few specific categories: http://www.madatoms.com/site/blog/the-muppets-character-flaw-breakdown

I'm a big fan of what is under "The Creepy One" for The Dark Crystal..

-K

Art for Language-Lovers: Wordle.net

In one of the best discoveries I've made since mixing garlic powder in with my tuna salad, I happened across an amazing website called Wordle.net. What exactly is it? Basically, you type in a block of text, a few words, or link to something on the internet, and it generates a very cool artistic word cloud, based on the frequency of individual words and phrases. IT IS SO COOL. I realize a lot of people might not be as excited about this as I am, but here are a few examples of the awesomeness:

My Brief Encounter piece from last week:

 

The lyrics to Dessa's song "551":

And finally, Emila's speech on the frailty of men, as said to Desdemona in Othello:

So seriously, check it out: Wordle.net, and try not to be amused!

-K

Comic-Book Superheroes in the Twin Cities: Would It Work?

Many of you may not know this, and some might, but I am an absolutely HUGE comic book fan. Anything superhero related, and you can pretty much count on me being on board. Yes, I have spent an entire evening creating the superhero personas of myself and my roommates with Marvel's super hero generator, and it was great, I'm not ashamed.

So imagine, much to my surprise, when I was tipped off to a recent McSweeney's article that discusses, albeit brifly, the potential success of America's most beloved superheroes, if they had been located in the Twin Cities.

The real TC superfolk: the delivery guys from Galactic Pizza

Arguably, the biggest problem for many of the superheroes is the Shiver Cities' lack of consolidated tall buildings: Batman could not stand atop a skyscraper in downtown Minneapolis and brood, and Spiderman would have a tough time web-slinging his way between Minneapolis and St. Paul, so he would have to settle for sticking to the side of a truck going down I-94, far less dramatic and incredibly inefficient during rush hour if you ask me. Here's the entire piece, enjoy:

By Keith Pille, courtesy of McSweeney's:

"On the Utility of Minneapolis-St. Paul as a Base of Operations for Various Well-Known Superheroes or Super Teams."

Spider-Man: Poor. The lack of a single, concentrated downtown area would greatly hinder Spider-Man's preferred method of transportation. Given that there's not much higher than three stories after you get out of the two downtowns, swinging from building to building isn't going to work. It's not difficult to imagine Spider-Man standing on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis, hearing that thugs have taken over the Xcel Center over in St. Paul, and cursing under his breath as he runs to I-94, forced to affix a web to the top of a bus and ride it across town.
The X-Men: So-so. Their initial problem would be that no one around here seems to have much of a problem with mutants. With no one trying to wipe them out, the X-Men would lose some of their edge. They would run the risk of turning into hypersensitive college kids who go around looking for the slightest excuse to be outraged.
They'd have more of a reason to stick around, though, after the inevitable burst of mutant jokes on the local classic-rock morning show. Those guys can be very cruel.
Batman: Also so-so. No real deal-breakers to Batman setting up shop here, but lots of annoying obstacles: lack of dramatic places to stand and brood over the cityscape; difficulty of driving the Batmobile at high speeds through some of the St. Paul street vortices (watch the ice on the road!); necessity of getting cozy with two police chiefs instead of one commissioner; and lack of a paralyzing, all-pervading criminal culture (although he'd be welcome to come to my neighborhood, starting with the three middle-aged fat guys who think riding little putt-putt scooters three abreast at 20 mph down Minnehaha Parkway is AWESOME).
Superman: No problem.
The Incredible Hulk: No problem. Hulk's in the Superman club. When your main thing is smashing things, location is less of a factor. Hulk could smash very effectively in Falcon Heights, for example.
Wonder Woman: Poor. People around here just wouldn't cotton to a woman dressed like that, especially one carrying a magic lasso. Well, some folks would like that quite a bit, but some would make a stink about it.
Aquaman: Most people seem to like him, but Garrison doesn't, so it's a no-go.


-K

- - - -

The Best Michael Jackson Tribute Ever: Senior Citizens

In the last year there have certainly been no shortage of tributes to the late great Michael jackson. The King of Pop has had concerts, a movie, countless dopplegangers, and many a photo-montage dedicated to him. Needless to say, it is surprising that so long after his death, I've come across possibly the best tribute to his legacy EVER: old men dancing to Billie Jean. Yes, you read that right, Billie Jean, senior citizen style. Happy Wednesday everyone, enjoy:

The Weekly Prank: The "Sarkozy"/ Palin Phone Call

Hey Shiverers, another frigid Tuesday, and I've gotten a lot of suggestions for favorite pranks, but one has risen to the top this week. Although it is over a year old, I, as well as most of you I'm sure, had forgotten about one of the best prank phone calls ever: the Sarkozy call to Sarah Palin. The illustrious former-governor of Alaska was prank called by two notorious Canadian comedians who pretended to be French President Nicholas Sarkozy and guess what? She believed them! No matter what your politics, this is some downright funny s**t, enjoy the memories.

A Tribute to the Calvin and Hobbes Snowmen

Hello shiverers, to get you over the Thursday slum, I've compiled a collection of what I belive are the greatest winter-inspired cartoons ever created: the Calvin and Hobbes snowman series. Clearly, Calvin is a precocious child, but freaking your parents and the neighbors out is never so much fun as when it is done with the help of snowmen, observe and enjoy:

My personal favorite is the snow-giant looking over the hill.

-K

The Weekly Prank: The Water Bowl Ceiling Trick

Happy Tuesday, everyone. Isn't it great to be in the weather-worn Twin Cities while everyone else in the country freaks out because of all the snow we're getting nationally? Just to prove my point, I saw someone in downtown St. Paul wearing shorts while bicycling the other day... we're a hearty lot...

Although April Fool's Day is a ways off, I thought I'd start a new series where I pull some of the best footage of pranks I could find on YouTube and share it with you lovely people. My first entry, a video of the infamous water bowl on the ceiling prank. The only issue I can see with implementing this is that once they have been humiliated, the "prankee" now has a large stick with which to hit the prankster, which I forsee as causing some serious problems:



See what I mean? That girl now has a broom handle, and she's probably pretty pissed.

Have a good prank to share? Comment!

-K

Commuter Cat

A quick post here amidst a very busy week- I recently stumbled on this lovely little Japanese commercial that advertises, well... I'm not quite sure what it advertises, but it's ridiculous and hilarious, so check it out!

Conglomeration of Incredible Music? Yes, Please!

 TV On The Radio was well-represented in the podcast.

I know everyone is getting fairly tired of "so-and-such of the decade" lists, and normally I would count myself among the over-reminisced masses, HOWEVER, I was just tipped off to a great way to relieve and re-explore some of the best music that the last decade had to offer. With the official Shiver Cities stamp of approval, Pretty Much Amazing's podcast has put together a podcast/playlist of the best songs of 2000-2009. Check it out, as available for online listen or download. Some of my personal favorites that made me act like a proud mother at a parent-teacher conference were:

-MGMT- "Kids"
-Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova- "Falling Slowly"
-Sigur Ros- "Gobbledigook"
-The White Stripes- "Seven Nation Army"
-Bon Iver- "Skinny Love" (Hooray hurrah!)
-TV On The Radio- "DLZ" and "Wolf Like Me"
-Fleet Foxes- "He Doesn't Know Why"
-Arcade Fire- "Wake Up"
-Gnarls Barkley- "Crazy"

Although I don't always agree with particular song choices from an artists' repertoire, I was happy to see that most of my absolute favorite musicians of the last 10 years made the list at least once! So go listen up, or even just check out the list, and tell me what you think!

The Link is here: Pretty Much Amazing, Top Songs of The Decade

Bent Objects- The Secret Life of Everyday Things

After a couple weeks of hiatus, I thought I'd come back strong by sharing with you all one of my new favorite things: Bent Objects. Artist Terry Border takes everyday objects, yearning for an anthropomorphic life of their own, and turns them in to life-like dioramas of hilarity. His blog, also titled "Bent Objects," is great, and he just came out with a book of prints of some of his best works. Here are a few of my favorites...

"Trigger Happy"

"Mail Order Bride"

"Mr. Kiwi Gets Ready for a Day At The Beach"

"Paper Training"

For more, check out the link to his blog above, or just Google "Bent Objects" for more trials and tribulations of inanimate objects...

-K

The Hand-Turkey, Misinforming Children's Sense of Bird-Anatomy Everywhere

from nataliedee.com

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone, I'll be sure to update about my catastrophies in pie-baking soon!

-K

Monday Mood Brighteners

Happy Monday everyone! The year is wearing on and the work is getting harder, and I thought I would lend a hand to whatever procrastination you are partaking in this morning with a few random lessons on life in general... with help from the incredible internet of course.

1. You can do anything if you work hard enough, and dream big enough...

From superpoop.com

2. Always apologize to the people who are important in your life...

From nataliedee.com

3. Always be sure to explain what you mean...

From failblog.org

4. Don't eat shit like this:

 

From thisiswhyyourefat.com

5. Don't let pre-conceptions get you down...

From icanhascheezburger.com

6. Make logical connections...

From upnextinsports.com

7. And finally, smile big....

From sexypeople-blog.com

-K

Marmaduke is Soooo Last Season: The Comic-Goodness of Sharing Machine

I love being an adult. There is really nothing like waking up early, making some coffee and sitting down in front of the computer for the daily mature task of checking out webcomic updates. Wait...

But really, webcomics are a really fabulous way to start the day, and never fail, I always hop on to one of the various crass and often crude comics that the Sharing Machine group hosts. These four comics: Nataliedee, Married to the Sea, Toothpaste for Dinner, and Superpoop all put that little pep in my step that I need every morning, despite the inevitable spitting of coffee because I normally end up laughing too hard to keep my breakfast blend in my mouth.

So happy Wednesday, shiverers, and enjoy some of my all-time favorites from Sharing Machine.

NatalieDee

Superpoop

Married to the Sea

Toothpaste for Dinner

-K