Van Halen & David Lee Roth, with Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang filling in for Michael Anthony. (via Fimoculous)
Author / Edward Champion
Signs of Aging
Click on the cat. I can hear up to 15,000 Hz. (via Quiddity)
Roundup
- Apparently, there’s a nutbar trying to off writers in Turkey. He killed Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and threatened Orhan Pamuk in a courtroom. Perhaps the only way to calm this guy is to get him a blog so he can type out his snarky aggressions like the rest of us.
- You know, I’ve been text-messaging “That’s totally book!” well ahead of the hipsters, which is to say as of fifteen minutes ago. I’m just too lazy to hit the number keys one additional time for C and L.
- The Brits, it seems, are prevaricators when it comes to literature. 40% of Brits lie about reading classics. 10% of men fibbed to their dates about reading a heavyweight novel. Even more criminally, The Da Vinci Code is the book that these folks are lying about reading. If you’re going to lie about literature, the least you could do is up the auctorial standard. I’m happy to tell you in all candor that I’ve never read Dan Brown, have no intention of reading Dan Brown, and would sooner be stabbed in the chest with a sharp icepick than read Dan Brown. (That last sentence alone should demonstrate that one can find a conversational starter within truth.) (RELATED: Maxine has uncovered the full list.)
- “Neck and shoulder massage!” Really, there’s no need for delicacy on this point. We’re all adults here. Should I now refer to other activities as “horizontal biological engineering tests?” Orwell would have had a field day with these euphemisms.
- Valerie Trueblood is in the houuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse!
- New letters from Anne Frank’s father have been discovered. The letters were written shortly before the Franks went into hiding. (via Michelle Richmond)
- HST for Sheriff. (via Jeff)
- Why, oh why books like this? What next? A sex manual penned by Ron Howard? A new Showtime television series called Joanie REALLY Loves Chachi, featuring a bukkake-flecked Erin Moran satisfying everyone at the Leopard Lodge? (via Rarely Likable)
Rage Against the Machine to Reform for Coachella?
It seems that this year’s Coachella lineup has been leaked, with Rage Against the Machine headlining Sunday.
Rage Against the Machine. Who disbanded seven years ago.
If this means that the whiny Chris Cornell is permanently out of a job and Zack de la Rocha has finally come to his senses, then, as we say here in California, hell yeah!
[UPDATE: It’s up at the Coachella site. Rage closing on Sunday.]
This Might Explain Why So Many Scientologists Smoke or Why Tom Cruise is So Intense
New York Times: “Magical thinking is most evident precisely when people feel most helpless. Giora Keinan, a professor at Tel Aviv University, sent questionnaires to 174 Israelis after the Iraqi Scud missile attacks of the 1991 gulf war. Those who reported the highest level of stress were also the most likely to endorse magical beliefs, like ‘I have the feeling that the chances of being hit during a missile attack are greater if a person whose house was attacked is present in the sealed room,’ or ‘To be on the safe side, it is best to step into the sealed room right foot first.'”