Peter Halsten Thorkelson (Tork), February 13, 1942 – February 21, 2019
I always said the Monkees were a better band than they should’ve been. Rolling Stone has a brief obit here.
Brutalism Is Back
In architecture, that is. Many think it’s hideous, but I’m a fan. According to Jessica Stewart at My Modern Met …
Known for its use of functional reinforced concrete and steel, modular elements, and utilitarian feel, Brutalist architecture was primarily used for institutional buildings. Imposing and geometric, Brutalist buildings have a graphic quality that is part of what makes them so appealing today. The word Brutalist doesn’t come from the architecture’s fortress-like stature, but from the raw concrete its often made from—béton brut.
Full article here; and over here, you can find 10 icons of Brutalism.
These Guy Are Insane
Jump in around the eight minute mark to watch these guys eat the Carolina Reaper, AKA the hottest pepper known to man.
In the first season of Hot Ones, host Sean Evans proved that there’s no wing he can’t handle. But the world of spicy foods doesn’t end at Mad Dog 357 hot sauce. To train for Season 2 and ensure his invisibility on the Hot Ones stage, Sean met up with a true legend of the chili world—Denmark’s ghost-pepper-popping Chili Klaus—to take on the hottest chili pepper known to man, the Carolina Reaper. Special thanks to “Smokin’ Ed” Currie of PuckerButt Pepper Company in South Carolina for providing the heat.
Progress?
I’ve now worked my way up to two Smiths songs that don’t trigger my gag reflex. Enjoy or don’t.
We Want Your Bread So Don’t Make Us Annoyed
This song really gets me in the holiday spirit.
To Crawl Or Not To Crawl
Chip Taylor, legendary songwriter and brother of Jon Voight, is still cranking ’em out at almost 80 years old. A fellow music snob turned me on to this one the other day. See what you think.
Get Me This
Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made
He read hundreds of books on the man and broke the information down into categories “on everything from his food tastes to the weather on the day of a specific battle.” He gathered together 15,000 location scouting photos and 17,000 slides of Napoleonic imagery.
He would shoot the film in France and Italy, for their grand locations, and Yugoslavia, for their cheap armies. These were pre-CG days, and he arranged to borrow 40,000 Romanian infantry and 10,000 cavalry for the battles. “I wouldn’t want to fake it with fewer troops,” he said to an interviewer at the time, “because Napoleonic battles were out in the open, a vast tableau where the formations moved in an almost choreographic fashion. I want to capture this reality on film, and to do so it’s necessary to recreate all the conditions of the battle with painstaking accuracy.”
You could make it yourself if you want, as every single bit of information pertaining to the project has recently been published in the form of a book called Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made.
Guitar Moves With Keith Richards
https://youtu.be/ceWWMfhAvD4
A few years ago, Matt Sweeney had a chat with Keith Richards, wherein the master dropped some wisdom, told some great stories, and demonstrated the open G tuning he used on “Honky Tonk Women,” “Brown Sugar,” “Happy,” and tons of other Stones songs. Amazing stuff.
Legend is a word that’s thrown around probably too much, but there’s no real other way to describe Keith Richards. What else can you even say about the Rolling Stones guitarist? The 71-year-old is not only responsible for creating some of the most monumental music we’ve enjoyed over the last five decades, but his influence—alongside the Stones—have shaped music and the world that surrounds it. Watch our latest episode of Guitar Moves in which host Matt Sweeney lives his dream, freaks out, and sits down with Richards himself. Ever wanted to know how Richards learned how to play the guitar? Well, it started with his grandfather…
https://youtu.be/p4BH_F4zgtA
I Can Relate
Exhibit A
