This is how...: October 2009

Friday, October 30, 2009

20 Costumes That Will Earn You a Halloween Beating

From the Article:

#20. Spongebob Adult Man's Costume

"Aside from the "Would you like to buy some Bibles?" look on the model's face, it's the white leotards that seal the wearer's fate. Or possibly the little red dick-tie."

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Afghanistan

Gary Farber at Amygdala has an informative piece on the situation in Afghanistan, focusing on three crucial questions:

Can the government in Kabul become one that most Afghans regard as legitimate?

That is the antepenultimate question, rather than which military forces or strategy should be used.

The penultimate question is: if so, can we help the government in Kabul become that legitimate government?

The ultimate question for America and NATO is: if so, how high a price is too high a price for us to pay to help the government in Kabul become that legitimate government?

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Get Pumped: god/the universe/whatever answers prayers

Radiohead to record NEW ALBUM this winter

There’s been a lot of speculation on Radiohead’s next album. Would it ever be recorded? Or would be just get digital tracks, EP’s or whatever made the press. Ed O’Brien confirmed that a new Radiohead album (yes, album) is in the making.

It was the interview in The Believer that kick-started a lot of rumours on Radiohead’s future. Thom Yorke told the magazine: “None of us want to go into that creative hoo-ha of a long-play record again.(…) But we’ve all said that we can’t possibly dive into that again. It’ll kill us.” The news hit the press worldwide.

Radiohead have spent this Summer in the studio, releasing tracks online like ‘Harry Patch (In Memory Of)’ and ‘These Are My Twisted Words’. This sort of seemed like they were serious about not releasing albums in the future. But guitarist Ed O’Brien has confirmed that the band is in fact interested in recording more albums and the follow-up to ‘In Rainbows’ is actually in the making.

Ed O’Brien told NME that with sessions planned this winter the band would “definitely” be releasing a full album physically next year.
“We were misquoted,” claimed O’Brien of Yorke’s comments, loudly adding, “WE WILL BE MAKING AN ALBUM!” Although he said the band hadn’t decided how it would be released, he said the album would come out on vinyl and CD whether it first arrived as a download or not.

“We love the artwork; that’s really important, the physicality,” he explanied. “And we all like vinyl. That’s not going to go away. I still like CDs as well. I got the Speech Debelle CD the other day – I nearly downloaded it from iTunes but I thought, ‘No. I want the physical thing.’”

O’Brien wouldn’t be drawn on specific tracks, but suggested that recent free download ‘There Are My Twisted Words’ was not a marker for the album.

On releasing ‘These Are My Twisted Words’ online he said: “It’s a kind of one-off. It could have been a darker side of ‘In Rainbows’ – it’s got that autumnal vibe, we’re leaving the summer and going into the darkness.”

He added that with Radiohead set to reconvene in their Oxfordshire studio this winter, the season might similarly affect the new songs. “Typical Radiohead,” he laughed. “We’re going into the studio in winter. It’s always miserable! Are we at the whim of the seasons? We are! When you’re in a studio in the countryside, the music you make is definitely affected by what season it is.”