John Roderick on Bob Dylan
John of the Long Winters discusses how he came to know Mr. Zimmerman's music – and his opinion of the circumstances surrounding its popular acceptance – in Myth 61 Revisited, a column for the Seattle Weekly.
Martin Scorsese attends free iMovie demo at Apple Store
Another classic from the Onion.
Scorsese, who is widely regarded as one of the most important artists in the history of American cinema, was reportedly fascinated that iMovie was capable of making footage slow down, speed up, or play backward. The living legend said he was also impressed that, by clicking a single button, a complex tracking shot could be instantly changed into black-and-white to fully emphasize the repugnance of masculine insecurities.
As Gruber observes, often the joke is in the headline; here, it's the accompanying photograph that provides the seed.
The OED has seen its final printing
The London Telegraph reports that the Oxford English Dictionary will not be printed again (apparently not to be confused, though, with the Oxford Dictionary of English which will continue a periodic printing).
Penile plethysmography
Good lord; until today, it was a routine practice by a service of the B.C. Ministry for Children and Family Development to assess a convicted sex offender by "attach[ing] a device to his penis [and then] play[ing] images of adults having sex and of naked children while monitoring the youth's level of arousal".
Sounds like something from the early half of this century.
Update (next day): surprise, surprise; the cancellation of this wacky test came down after somebody realized that one of their technicians had been convicted of sexual assault.
Update (April 26, 2011): The BC Children's Representative just released a report concluding that indeed "the penile sensors are invasive." Well, how's that for some solid government research.
Bill Murray will see you now
Great interview with Bill Murray by Dan Fierman of GQ.
Interesting – though fitting – that he hates Los Angeles, and purports to have never seen any episodes of Sienfeld except the last (and thought it was terrible).
Alberta family’s cat found in Yukon
I love reading unusual yet oddly heart-warming articles like this, wherein a cat managed to travel over 1100 km north to Whitehorse.
Update: Not two days later, a similar story where a doggie makes his way home over 80 km south to Winnipeg!
Why people play FarmVille
Good essay here on why people are apparently drawn to that Facebook game, and musing on its reflection of our societal problems.
Code that makes any song swing
Some dude has developed a Python tool that will apply a swing rhythm to any waveform. Some nifty examples. Crazy talk.
(via Andrew)