(Rollins)

Henry Rollins writes an open letter to Carrot Top.

(Stunts)

Top Ten Jackie Chan Stunts.



Also, here's a key scene from Jackie's Drunken Master 2, maybe the best overall Kung-Fu film ever made:

(Hear 'N Aid)

Stars. What do you get when you combine We Are The World's smarmy conceit (that over-earnest all-star songs can change the world) with the most ridiculous gathering of hair-metal musicians ever assembled? I'll tell you what. You get 'Stars' by Hear 'N Aid, heavy metal's answer to USA For Africa. Not only did they raise a million bucks for the starving children of Africa, but they inadvertently created one of the funniest ... well ... things... ever commited to tape. Bask with me now in the bloated pomposity of 'Stars', and please ask yourself, as does Ronnie James Dio: Who cries for the children?
He does. Do you?
Well, do you?

(washingtoncitypaper.com)

Doing More With Less: In Defense Of Creative Loafing

A thought-provoking article by Franklin Schneider.

"I’ve been on unemployment three times in the past six years. Each time was better than the last, and each time I stayed on until the last cent was exhausted. I didn’t even try to get a job; it was a paid vacation. This is somewhat unusual from what I can tell. There’s a deep vein of antipathy in this country toward collecting checks from the government.....

.....When you’re miserable, you buy things. It’s the American Way; whatever your problem, there’s a product that can solve it. Have a bad day? Buy some jeans! Just realize that your best years are a distant memory? Buy a big car! This is why a lot of people who make six figures still live check to check—perhaps this 50-inch plasma screen/Louis Vuitton bag/waterfront condo will make my soul hurt less?
But once you’re off the hamster wheel, you find you no longer need to overcompensate. You don’t need consumable solutions because your essential problem—your life sucked—is solved."

via MetaFilter

See also: The Drone Ranger , another great article by the same author:

"If, like me, you go to work each morning and sit in front of a desk, you belong in the professional lineage of Sisyphus, the mythical figure damned to roll a massive boulder up a mountain, only to do it all over again when the rock rolls back down. After all, do you really make any substantial difference from your cubicle? Even if you carry a lot of weight in your office, does it matter, in the big picture, if you move 10 percent more units this quarter than the last? For anyone living a conscious life, office culture inevitably brings the onset of a mild sort of existential despair. Call it the blahs if you’d like: What am I doing? Am I just flushing 40 hours a week down the toilet? And unless you’re a heart surgeon or something, the answer is generally a resounding 'yes.' "

(Retro)

Back in the day, they sure knew how to treat their wimmin folk.

(Failboat)

All aboard the failboat! This amusing internet meme, a severely listing ship with the caption "ALL ABOARD THE FAILBOAT" added, has been making the web rounds for quite some time. Now, WIRED magazine has written a gripping article about a team of the manliest men imaginable - salvage specialists who literally got aboard the actual failboat and attempted to right her, with millions of dollars of cargo at stake and a gigantic environmental crisis looming. This story begs to be made into a movie!

'After more than a day of full-speed motoring through the North Pacific, the Titan team spies the Cougar Ace. ....... as the Makushin Bay approaches, the scale of the ship dwarfs the salvage vessel. In the distance, a 378-foot Coast Guard cutter — complete with helicopter and 76-mm cannon — looks puny compared with the car carrier. It's as if the men have gone through some kind of black hole and emerged as miniatures in a new and damaged world. The Cougar Ace lies on its side, its enormous red belly exposed to the smaller boats around it. The propeller floats eerily out of the water, the rudder flopped hard to port in the air.

"Holy fuck," Trepte mutters.....' (Wired)