Everything Went Black

Black Flag’s bars logo is easily one of the most iconic pieces of band-related art ever. It was created by Raymond Pettibon, older brother of Greg Ginn, who founded the band and SST Records, their label.

Pettibon, who pitched-in on bass early on in the band’s career, created the logo after suggesting the band change their name from Panic to Black Flag when they discovered another band shared the moniker. The logo was meant to look like a rippling black flag, and meant to symbolize anarchy by being the opposite of a white flag which stood for surrender. Also, it was easy to replicate, which led it’s mass reproduction, not just on high school notebooks but on walls, arms, t-shirts, etc., where it continues to be one of the most ripped-off logos in music. There’s even a coffee table book in the works called “Barred for Life,” with nothing but photos of Black Flag tattoos. Here's a few examples of it’s proliferation and inspiration.

For The Kids

Curious Pages is a blog that scans and posts strange children’s books that time forgot. Boldtype browsed through their archive and caught up with the site’s editors to hear what sparked the idea:

You bill yourselves as “Recommended Inappropriate Books for Kids” — which rules. How did the blog come about?

Lane Smith: So many of the kid book sites out there are either overly earnest, overly protective of impressionable young minds or just flat out self promotional. We wanted to create a list of cool, subversive books. We also enjoy parodying those other sites.

Bob Shea: It was Lane’s idea, which I thought was really funny. He has such a huge library of these strange titles; it’s the perfect thing to share online. Not as good as tweeting what we have for breakfast, or reposting YouTube videos of a cat playing the piano, but it seems to work for us.

You guys celebrate “the offbeat, the abstract, the unusual, the surreal, the macabre, the inappropriate, the subversive and the funky.” What were some of the books that sparked these criteria?


BS: I like any book that I can’t believe actually got published. Like Grammar Can Be Fun by Munro Leaf. It’s a great book, but it looks like he dashed it off on the train ride to see his publisher. I also like foreign books that look like they came from space. Like the Danish book Den Rode Kuffert (The Red Suitcase) by Elin Bing. Not in an “oh, it’s foreign so it’s inherently funny” kind of way, but in that the sensibility is so much different than English titles.

LS: I like Struwwelpeter by Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann. Written in 1845, it contains tales like “The Dreadful Story about Harriet and the Matches.” These tales do not end well.

What’s your favorite illustration that you’ve posted?


LS: I’m partial to the illustration of the Tin Woodman in Arnost Karasek’s version of The Wizard of Oz (1962). As we say on the site: Ever wonder what the Tin Woodman would look like if rendered by Paul Klee?


BS: I always like Lane’s posts better. He posted Puff by William Wondriska and I was really jealous. I didn’t speak to Lane for a month and I demanded (via email since we weren’t speaking) that he give me credit for posting it. I may have made most of that up, but it’s a great book.

And the strangest, coolest book that you wish more people had heard of?


BS: I Don’t Know What This Is Called.


LN: I’d have to go with A Head for Happy (1931). For some reason there are a number of children’s books that feature headless characters. This one is probably my favorite for the surreal story but also the delicate and beautiful pictures by Helen Sewell.

Here's Curious Pages’ most "Awesome and Inappropriate Books for Kids":

• Struwwelpeter by Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann2.

• The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey3

• A Head For Happy by Helen Sewell

• Fables You Shouldn’t Pay Any Attention To by Florence Parry Heide & Sylvia Worth Van Clief and Victoria Chess

• I Know an Old Lady by Rose Bonne, Alan Mills and Abner Graboff

• How to Make an Earthquake by Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson

• Grammar Can Be Fun by Munro Leaf

• The Dead Bird by Margaret Wise Brown and Remy Charlip

• The Bomb and the General by Dr. Umberto Eco and Eugenio Carmi

• Baby, Mix Me a Drink by Lisa Brown

Ostia

Christ, What an Asshole!

Charles Lavoie shows how "Christ, What an Asshole!" is basically the answer to the New Yorker Magazine Caption Contest. Always.

Makin' Bacon

There's a new way of cooking bacon!

All you need is: bacon, tin foil, some string, and, supposing youhave laying around, an old worn out 7.62 mm machine gun that is about to be discarded with about 200 rounds of ammunition.

1) You start by wrapping the barrel in tin foil. Then you wrap bacon around it, and tie it down with some string.

2) you then wrap some more tin foil around it, and once again tie it down with string.


3) It is now ready to be inserted into the cooking device. I ripped the tin foil a little bit getting the barrel inserted. that part of the bacon got severely burned by hot gasses.


4) After just a few short bursts you should be able to smell the wonderful aroma of bacon.


5) I gave this about 250 rounds. but I think around 150 might actually be enough. But then again I don’t mind when bacon is crispy. Ahh the smell of sizzling bacon mixed with the smell of gunpowder and weapon oil.


6) And the end result: Crispy delicious well done bacon.

Dual Modes Of Turing

Buzzed By The Fuzz

A federal appeals court says three Seattle police officers did not employ excessive force when they repeatedly tasered a visibly pregnant woman for refusing to sign a speeding ticket. They were nearly outnumbered - what else could they do?

The lawyer representing Malaika Brooks said Monday that the court’s 2-1 decision sanctioned “pain compliance” tactics through a modern-day version of the cattle prod. And Malaika ain't no cattle. “To inflict pain on a person if that person is not doing what the police want that person to do is simply outrageous,” said the woman’s attorney, who planned to ask the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear Friday’s 2-1 decision that drew a sharp dissent from Judge Marsha Berzon:

“Refusing to sign a speeding ticket was at the time a nonarrestable misdemeanor; now, in Washington, it is not even that. Brooks had no weapons and had not harmed or threatened to harm a soul,” Berzon wrote. “Although she had told the officers she was seven months pregnant, they proceeded to use a Taser on her, not once but three times, causing her to scream with pain and leaving burn marks and permanent scars.”

The majority noted that the M26 Taser was set in “stun mode” and did not cause as much pain as when set on “dart mode.” The majority noted that the circuit’s recent and leading decision on the issue concerned excessive force in the context of a Taser being set on Dart mode, which causes “neuro-muscular incapacitation.” Stun mode, the court noted, didn’t rise to the level of excessive force because it imposes “temporary, localized pain only.”

The majority reversed a lower court judge who said the woman’s rights were violated. The lower court’s failure to distinguish between the two levels of pain modes “led the court to err in finding excessive force.”

The woman was driving her 12-year-old to the African American Academy in Seattle when she was pulled over on suspicion of speeding in 2004. The child left the car for school and a verbal spat with the police resulted in the woman receiving three, 50,000-volt shocks, first to her thigh, then shoulder and neck while she was in her vehicle. An officer was holding Brooks’ arm behind Brooks’ back while she was being shocked.

Brooks gave the officer her driver’s license, but Brooks refused to sign the ticket — believing it was akin to signing a confession. She was ultimately arrested for refusing to sign and to comply with officers asking her to exit the vehicle.

“A suspect who repeatedly refuses to comply with instructions or leave her car escalates the risk involved for officers unable to predict what type of noncompliance might come next,” Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall wrote for the majority. She was joined by Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain. “Therefore, while using the Taser three times makes this a closer case, we find that it does not show excessive force in light of the corresponding escalation of Brooks’ resistance and the fact that it was the third tasing that appeared to dislodge her such that the officers could finally extract her from her car and gain control over her”.

Excessive? Ask her kid with electro-static brain damage as a result.

Gay? Really?

Ricky Martin is no longer denying the rumors: He's gay. Hey, thanks for clearing up what everybody already knew. The only person surprised about this is Ricky Martin. Of course you're livin' la vida homo.

In a statement posted via Twitter in both Spanish and English - so that no stone was left unturned, Martin said: "I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am." Yeah, fortunate that he goes globetrotting looking for exotic ass, and not just trolling South Beach bars.

Martin (38) said he decided to reveal the truth after working on his memoirs helped him realize that he had to be free with himself, and not keep any more secrets. "From the moment I wrote the first phrase I was sure the book was the tool that was going to help me free myself from things I was carrying within me for a long time. Things that were too heavy for me to keep inside," he said. "Writing this account of my life, I got very close to my truth. And this is something worth celebrating." I'm sure some boys already got very close to your "truth" too...I'm just surprised you didn't know it.

Martin said one of the reasons why he kept his homosexuality hidden was because he was told by some that it would hurt his career. That's right, the same people who listen to him are reading Popular Mechanics and watching rugby, not having Bravo channel marathons. Martin, who is the father of two boys born via surrogate in 2008, said he couldn't continue to hide his sexuality now that he is a father: "Enough is enough. This has to change." Yes, it does! You need to out yourself if you have kids via surrogate. That's too obvious so you ought to fess up.

In more interesting gay developments, half of Americans say they would support an openly gay president, while slightly more would be in favor of a gay Supreme Court judge or secretary of state, according to a new poll commissioned by Vanity Fair magazine and television's 60 Minutes.

Just under a third of Americans questioned in the poll said they support the so-called Tea Party movement, a grass roots right wing activist movement that has held a series of protests around the nation to voice their dissatisfaction with the government. Almost a third of Americans said the Tea Party movement is the beginning of a much needed revolution, while 15% said they were too extreme to be taken seriously.

The issue of homosexuality has been in the spotlight in the United States recently after the Pentagon issued new rules making it harder for the U.S. military to discharge gay personnel, an interim step to ease enforcement of the existing "don't ask, don't tell" policy while Congress considers repealing it. The move to repeal the law, in place since 1993, has been attacked by some groups on the right, who say it may lower moral and damage the operational effectiveness of units with gay personnel.

In the sporting world Americans are more liberal. Just under two thirds say they would support a gay commissioner of baseball and a gay Super Bowl quarterback, according to the survey. The support for a gay Miss America was the same as for a gay secretary of state, at 56%.

Let My People Go...Mosh

Metallica's "Creeping Death" set to the movie The Ten Commandments. Happy Passover!

(not kosher)

(Another) MAGNA / Cannibal Flower Weekend

You've got your reminder, so we hope to see you Saturday night. And if you're able to wake up early Sunday morning, there's the Aussie GP, which should be far better than the sluggish parade in Bahrain two weeks ago.

Best of the week: James Cameron has always been outspoken...being one of the most profitable filmmakers in history will do that to you. This week he's has a few quotable remarks.

First, the Avatar DVD will be released solely with the movie. The picture tells you all you need to know. But the real sauce comes from his comments about Glenn "Dickbag" Beck.

"Glenn Beck is a fucking asshole," Cameron said at a news conference to promote the DVD release of Avatar. "I've met him. He called me the anti-Christ and not about Avatar. He hadn't even seen Avatar yet. I don't know if he has seen it."

Cameron was likely referring to Beck's reaction to his controversial 2007 documentary, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, which raises questions about Jesus' resurrection. Beck introduced a CNN interview with Cameron by saying, "Many people believe James Cameron officially has tossed his hat in the ring today and is officially running for anti-Christ."Cameron eventually did some back pedaling after blasting Beck, but suggested the two sit down to discuss political and environmental issues.

"I think, you know what, he may or may not be an asshole, but he certainly is dangerous, and I'd love to have a dialogue with him," Cameron said. And Cameron explained that Beck is dangerous because "his ideas are poisonous." "I couldn't believe when he was on CNN. I thought, what happened to CNN? Who is this guy? Who is this madman? And then of course he wound up on Fox News, which is where he belongs, I guess," Cameron said.

And just a few weeks back, he slagged Clash Of The Titans for half-assing the 3-D process. Way to go Jimmy, call it like you see it.

Plus: Hot Tub Time Machine writer Josh Heald recently wrote a short piece about the process of getting his film made. If you're old enough to remember One Crazy Summer and Better Off Dead, then, like me, you're looking forward to this. A small excerpt below:

The second burning question people always ask is, “What the hell was the pitch meeting like when Hot Tub Time Machine got sold?” I wish it was a crazier story. I wish there was blackmail or other nefarious business practices involved. There’s probably a version of the story where a movie executive has a vendetta against his bosses and buys the film for the purpose of bringing down the organization – and perhaps bringing about the complete destruction of the entertainment business as we know it. It was actually a very normal meeting.

It was May 2008. I had an extremely detailed outline for the screenplay, a lot of which is represented on screen. It was early in the week when I met with MGM, who completely understood the potential for this movie. They snapped it up and told me to get to work on the script. Twelve weeks later, I handed them the first draft – and at that point, the project moved into overdrive. The name Cusack came up and before long, we had a director. And a killer cast. And a green light. I had written Rob Corddry’s role specifically for him, so I was especially thrilled when he loved the script and came aboard. And Craig Robinson and Clark Duke could not have been more hilarious and perfectly cast.

Also: The Indian military has a new weapon against terrorism (and Pakistan) - the world's hottest chili.

After conducting tests, the military has decided to use the thumb-sized bhut jolokia, aka "ghost chili," to make tear gas-like hand grenades to immobilize suspects. The bhut jolokia was accepted by Guinness World Records in 2007 as the world's spiciest chili. It is grown and eaten in India's as a cure for stomach troubles and a way to fight the crippling summer heat. The pepper has more than 1,000,000 Scoville units, the scientific measurement of a chili's spiciness. Classic Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units, while jalapeno peppers measure anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000. Trials are also on to produce bhut jolokia-based aerosol sprays to be used by women against attackers and for the police to control and disperse mobs.

However, that won't stop Anadita Dutta Tamuly. Last year she ate 51 one the peppers in under two minutes. She then shocked onlookers by smearing handfuls of seeds into her eyes.

And: It’s recently been discovered that a species of jellyfish, the turritopsis nutricula, can revert back to its first stage of life, meaning it is the only known animal with no natural limit on its lifespan. It could theoretically live forever when kept away from predators and other dangers.

The jellyfish can perform transdifferentiation, changing one type of cell into another. Some animals can perform limited transdifferentiation (e.g. starfish regrowing limbs), but turritopsis nutricula can turn back the aging process on all of its cells. Because they are able to bypass death, the number of animals are spiking. They’re now found in oceans around the globe rather than just in their native Caribbean waters. I think somebody has to find a way to make those delicious so they can thin them out. Lobster was once a sea-spider before they found a little butter...

Best picture of the week:

Lindsay Lohan assumes the position...a familiar one

Best bonus links:

• Man Puts Dead Squirrel On Penis And Shows Kids - The headline is enough to merit posting.

• Name Of The Year: Better Bracketology - NCAA basketball is lame, and the hoopla around the tournament is grossly overated. So if you have have a bunch of nonsense to follow, at least let it sound like nonsense.

• Sandra Would Have Hit Jesse With A Baseball Bat - And not just once. I think she would have beat the tattoos right off him.

• California Initiative To Legalize Marijuana Qualifies For November Ballot - And I will vote yes on that. Twice.

• Killer Icicles Terrorizing Pedestrians In Russia - Worse than the KGB and more difficult to avoid than seceding satellite state, it looks as though there's a new Red Scare.

• MTV Sets Schedule For Final Season Of The Hills - It's already been forgotten, but soon it will also be gone!

• RNC Loses Bid To Raise Unlimited 'Soft' Money - Anytime the words Republican and lose are in the same sentence, I'm happy. And bonus points that it negatively effects their fund raising.

• NHL Players' Union Approves New Head Shot Ban - Nut shots, eye gouges are still permitted.

• Weird Trading Cards From Japanese Mayonnaise Packaging - You mean, your mayonnaise doesn't have trading cards? Processed egg fat isn't the same without it!

• Death From GHB And Chardonnay - Vulgar and disgusting, but a decent sync job.

• No. 1 UConn Routs Temple, 90-36 - Gee, not a surprise from the month-long basketball fiasco where people care more about fantasy standings than knowing anything about more than three teams.

• Almost All The Naughty NSFW Images On Wikipedia In One Place - Granted, it's no better than doing a Google search, but it's like finding a dirty picture in a textbook at school. Cheap

• Dog Eats Police Car - It probably just wanted the cute little blue chew toys on the inside. They make a squeaky noise and are filled with doughnuts.

• He Said Yes! - As in, "Chris Evans agreed to play Captain America." Which has to be better than if the part had gone, as rumored, to Ryan Phillippe, John Krasinski, Mike Vogel, Garret Hedlund, Scott Porter, Chace Crawford, Michael Cassidy, and almost every pretty non-brunette male actor in Hollywood under 30.

• Teenage Girl Gives Herself Carpal Tunnel From Sending 4,000 Texts A Month - And 3,800 were to the same person. Do you really need to send "OMG!" after every single thing?

• Reciting Pi While Balancing Books And Spinning A Rubik's Cube - Pretty impressive, but let's not feel bad when she ends up not going to prom. We're going to point right back to this.

• Scientists Look To Tobacco As A Potential Biofuel - Are we talking the plant leaf or the discarded chaw? That would be cool to watch Earl spit a ball of murky chew juice down onto his tractor engine. That's a scientific win-win.

Worst of the week: Dumb Americans have always had extreme views of President Obama, but a controversial new survey shows some real insanity. suggesting that 40 percent of adults believe he is a socialist, and about a quarter of survey participants thinking the president is a racist, anti-American and even doing things Hitler did.

The results come from an online Harris Poll involving 2,320 adults (?) who were surveyed online between March 1 and March 8. Respondents were read each of 15 statements and asked whether they thought they were true or false. The sample of people was selected from among roughly 4 million people who agreed to participate and are given "modest incentives". The results were then "weighted to reflect the composition of the U.S. adult population". Take a look and see if it makes any sense, or if we're a country full of lunatics.

Here's the percentage breakdown of respondents' views of President Obama:

38% say he wants to take away Americans' right to own guns.

32% say he is a Muslim.

29% think he wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one world government.

14% of Americans say President Barack Obama may be the Antichrist.

29% think he has done many things that are unconstitutional.

27% say he resents America's heritage.

27% say he does what Wall Street and the bankers tell him to do.

25% say he was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president.

25% say he is a domestic enemy that the U.S. Constitutions speaks of.

23% say he is a racist.

23% say he is anti-American.

23% say he wants to use an economic collapse or terrorist attack as an excuse to take dictatorial powers.

20% say he is doing many of the things that Hitler did.

If that's the case, America must be destroyed.

Plus: There's a reason Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber exists. And any one of them would be far less annoying than this wigger bitchboy.

And there's too much media in the world about him. Here's a promo clip about Bieber for an upcoming MTV show, which consists of him blow drying his hair. This isn't like having a talent like Freddie Mercury sing random newspaper columns, or Picasso making doodles while talking on the phone. It's a pre-pubescent turd who is working his gay q-tip doo - and that's actually passing for advertisement?

Currently, the authorities are trying to indite Bieber's manager for a mall appearance frenzy, but if they really want to punish people for a crime, it should be the fans for having such shit taste.

Also: Jennifer Love Hewitt's new book came out this week, The Day I Shot Cupid: Hello, My Name Is Jennifer Love Hewitt and I'm a Love-aholic -- no really, that's what the damn thing is called. Well timed to coincide with getting dumped I might add. She gave an interview to USA Today about how ridiculous she is. I think that's what the point was.

"It's not the ideal situation," she says about the flame-out of her relationship, "but the thing I'm really happy about is that I never say in the book that I know how to find perfect love or how to be in the perfect relationship." So then what's the point? Just to share your failing wisdom? "I'm thrust back into the dating world as the book is coming out, so I feel more than ever that people will know I'm kind of with them in the trenches." And realize that perhaps you're a touch full of shit about your own advice

She says it isn't tough being single again. "It's what life handed me, and I'm OK with it." Sure. "I know wholeheartedly that I'm a really good partner. I think I'm a really good girlfriend, and I think that I could be a really good wife. I know that I love being able to give my love out to someone. I know there is somebody great out there for me." She's like a living, breathing dating site commercial.

Despite being a "serial dater" and unsuccessful relationships with the likes of John Mayer and actor Ross McCall, she says, "I'm a hopeless romantic. I love love. My middle name is Love. Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday. I want to have a family and children. I am a sucker for every romantic comedy that comes out." No, you're female equivielent of a man-child. Grow up orenjoy old maidenhood.

Worst picture of the week:

it was a bad idea for the presidential election, so how desparate are you to bring that unqualified idiot back again?

Worst bonus links:

• 147 Toddlers Infected In Uzbek HIV Outbreak - It must be that gay, intraveinous drug lifestyle that they're known for. When will these children grow up and see the consequences of their actions?

• David Arquette: Why We Named Our Daughter Coco - Because you're a dumb motherfucker.

• Divorce Attorney Says Dennis Hopper Is Dying - Though he just got a gratuitous Walk-Of-Fame star, it's sad that he's withering away from cancer. That is pretty much the only way to win in a divorce.

• Hamilton Stopped By Police / Virgin Fuel Tank Not Big Enough - F1 news in advance of the race in Melbourne, neither effecting the outcome. Hambone likes to make burnouts leaving practice, and Virgin made a rookie mistake.

• Transformers 3 Hires More Quality Actors to Have Giant Robots Pee On - In this economy, everybody will take work just to get a paycheck. Horrible work for a undeserved paycheck.

• Is This What You Want? - Fuck and no. Green Day stopped being interesting years before their magnum opus crap "American Idiot". So how awful does a Braodway show look based on that? It makes the Spider-Man musical look like a Sondheim production.

• Glenn Beck On Martin Luther King And Gandhi - Nobody needs to hear what this raging dumbass has to say about those men. He's not even good enough to mention their names. Next up, Dick Cheney on Mother Teresa.

• Panthers’ Booth Leaves Game After Check To Head - Does this guy have a target on his back or what? That's the second blast of the season - and he was already out for 45 games after the first hit.

• Heathrow Worker Warned In Scanner Ogling Claim - He was told to stop having fun at work.

• Bin Laden Warns US Not To Kill 9-11 Mastermind - It would really hurt his feelings.

• Vatican Declined to Defrock U.S. Priest Who Abused Boys - Do you want the Church to start punishing their own for following doctrine? Beside, what good is defrocking him after he defrocked all those boyd?

• Chinese Boy Born With A Record 31 Fingers And Toes / 1 In 10 Chinese Adults Are Diabetics, Study Finds - Their toxic food and medicine production foreshadowed a country with a serious health issues.

• The Peanut Butter Man - I have no idea why...but he exists.

• Study Finds Status, Not Wealth, Closely Linked To Happiness - I find that my wealth increases my status. But more importantly, the more money I have, the happier I am. I'm not sure what you can buy with a million status...but a million dollars goes pretty far.

• Trainer's Family Wants SeaWorld Death Video Sealed - There is a valuable lesson in watching the animal kingdom go berserk. I don't know what it is, but maybe after I see the video a few times, it will ocme to me.

• I'm No Hacker, Says Man Who Cracked Obama's Twitter - That's right up there with, "I'm no criminal", says many who robbed convenience store. Innocence through misdirection.

• The First Legal Gigolo In America Quits - I guess that disputes the notion that men will fuck anything. The nice thing about prostitutes is you're paying them to leave, not for the sex, but in his case they were paying to stay.