When you find an album that spans every moment and perfectly backdrops your day to day, you’ve got something great. Here is a collection of albums we felt portrayed the very best of the year 2009.
iceonthetrail
M83 – Fields, Shorelines and Hunters
Japan11
Yeasayer – Red Cave
artandstars
lionsteeth
slobby
Add one chicken egg, one crazy and determined paleontologist, and some real life Jurassic Park science, and there you have it.
John “Jack” Horner has a vision. When he walks into of one of his classes to give a lecture, instead of carrying a projector or some field notes, he wants to walk in with a live dinosaur. His own creation, hatched in his lab from a bird egg. “It’s small, but bigger than a chicken,” he writes in his new book, How to Build a Dinosaur. “Let’s say the size of a turkey, one day maybe even the size of an emu.” The emu-size dinosaur, he adds, “might have a muzzle or a couple of handlers.”
Sound familiar? Horner was the scientific adviser for the Jurassic Park films. The difference is that unlike in the film, Horner doesn’t need Dino DNA to recreate the reptiles. Which is good, because dinosaur DNA has never been recovered from any source. Horner is working on genetically ‘tweaking’ bird DNA to activate genes that have been dormant due to evolution. and since the birds are direct descendants from dinosaurs, it wont be long before Horner completes his mission. He guesses he will have hatched his first dinosaur within the next 5 years.
Read a more detailed article HERE.
I don’t think I have ever been more excited for anything. This could go a few different ways: the dinosaur hatches and it’s a huge step for the scientific community, and helps students in paleontology better understand a dino’s life. Alternativley, it could be a recreation of Jurassic Park, and we will all be eaten alive. What I’m afraid of, is that every creationist’s head will explode from trying to religiously explain away the hidden dino genes in a chicken. Big mess. Either way, I’m still excited.
-artandstars
We love cover songs here at Bluegrassish.com, so we’ve banded together to pick out a couple of songs each for you to enjoy. Also there is talk of a Bluegrassish Podcast being made. I personally am a avid podcast listener so this seems to be a good way to break into that media form. If you have an interest or suggestions for the podcast please do drop us a line.
Thanks!
Artandstars:
Taken By Trees – My Boys (Animal Collective Cover)
Solange – Stillness In The Move(Dirty Projectors Cover)
Cadence Weapon Ft. Final Fantasy – Mini Tv”s (Chad Vangaalen Cover)
Rock Plaza Central – Sexyback
(Justin Timberlake Cover)
Lionsteeth:
The Constantines – Don’t Be Denied (Neil Young Cover)
Devo – Satisfaction (Rolling Stones Cover)
Anthony And The Johnsons – Crazy In Love (Beyonce Cover)
Broken Social Scene – Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division Cover)
Slobby:
Electrelane – I’m On Fire (Bruce Springstien cover)
The Glimmers – Physical(Oliva Newton John cover)
The Shins – we will become silhouettes (Postal Service cover)
Iceonthetrail:
Bonnie Prince Billy & Tortoise – Cravo e Canela(Milton Nascimento Cover)
Now, I’m definitely not one to read celebrity gossip blogs, because frankly, who gives a shit? However, if said blog is written by a sarcastic and comedic boob-obsessed anonymous male, I give a shit. The Superficial is a celebrity gossip blog unlike any other. This appears on their ‘about’ page:
The Superficial is a brutally honest look at society and its obsession with the superficial. It is not satire. It is not social commentary. It is the voice of our society at its worst. It is first impressions without sense of social obligation. It is the truth of our generation. It is ugly racism. It is jealousy. It is honest.
Just kidding. Our goal is to make fun of as many people as possible.
The superficial is known for its harsh and biting wit and bitter discourse about today’s celebrities and news-makers. And honestly, I look at it everyday. It makes me laugh-out-loud, at its sometimes ‘not safe for work’ and often hilarious photos. The anonymous writer is so funny, I wake up at night hoping one day I could be half as ridiculous as he is.
Here’s a sample:
Here’s Lindsay Lohan shopping in New York last night and giving the paparazzi a clear shot of her fiery chesticles, and frankly, I’m amazed those things are even there. You figure the amount of blow she goes through her chest would be concave by now and she’d be using it as a sort of makeshift glove box. Or at least that’s how I envisioned it in this doodle I made where Lindsay’s uppercutting Godzilla because he stopped returning her texts. But enough boring science talk, you guys came her to see some boobs.
Pics are quasi-NSFW unless your employer has a lax blurred areola policy.
The Superficial: Because You’re Ugly
-artandstars
Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.
This man found this photo in a newspaper, just birds sitting on wires, and had the brilliant idea of taking the position of the birds and making them notes as if on sheet music. It’s simply perfect.
-artandstars
When someone asks me a question like “what is your all-time favorite [insert anything here]?’ I sort of sigh and wander around inside my head for what seems like an eternity- sorting through all those times I’ve said “yes, this one is my favorite!”. But really, we all change, every moment, so i don’t have an all-time favorite of anything. But I do have all sorts of right-now favorites. Like- right now my favorite album is Spirit if… by Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew. And my favorite song of right now? Tbtf by Kevin Drew. The first time I heard this song, the melody and his airy unmistakable vocals nearly killed me. Kevin Drew, you break my heart over and over again.
-artandstars
Now I don’t in general enjoy politically charged art works. This is because they usuallly are so grossly straightforward and lack any sort of right-brain influence. Such creativity craving works should be left to high-school sociology classes. Oh wait, here is an example:
Yes. We all understand that you hate Bush , but do you really have to make bad art about it?
I do however enjoy works of artistry which can subtly hint at politics, but have artistic value separate from what they represent. I like metaphors. I like them a lot. Walton Ford is an American artist who doesn’t have to use images of yelling US presidents, or peace signs, or tanks, to get his political opinions across. In fact, he has artistic talent and the uncanny ability to tap into some creative reserve and vomit beauty onto giant canvases.
His works, at first might appear to be traditional naturalist illustrations and are eerily reminiscent to works by 19th century artist and ornithologist John James Audubon ( his inspiration!). While Audubon revolutionized naturalist illustrations making them engaging and giving them life, Ford is adding to the art world all together. Taking a closer look at one of Ford’s works, one might be taken aback. Offended even. For in every work there is some hidden morbidity or violence taking place which is easy to miss just glancing at the work. His works are fogged to make them appear older, speaking perhaps about history repeating itself.
In ford’s 10 foot work titled “Thanh Haung” , Ford references the vietnam war. At first and even second glances I hadn’t noticed that the tiger’s stripes are silhouettes. after reading more about he work, I found out that they are silhouettes of historic figures associated with the Chinese, French, and American military interventions in Vietnam. You might also notice the wasps attacking the tiger as well as the fire in the background.
Whatever you take from the work itself, It retains it’s amazing detail and colour, which is a trait all good art must have; separateness from it’s meaning.
Either way I suggest you check this out:
