Koleman Strumpf's Web Diversions

Research:
- Hear how I feel about research sometimes.
- A great economics paper.

Chapel Hill (my old home-town) music:
- CH circa 1996: V.A.N.I.S.H. festival (amazing show, whether or not you agree with the political cause)
- Merge Records: insanely great roster of bands
- Some of my favorites: Superchunk, Archers of Loaf, Southern Culture on the Skids
- CH affiliated:
  - The Mountain Goats John Darnielle (the man behind the MG's) recently moved to Durham, NC! John's songs are amazing--they unfold like novels. Definitely see the MG's live, since they only play at small clubs and feature John's great banter. BTW, I thought the MG's were cool with file sharing based on this article, but I am not so sure based on some additional conversations. Anyway, there are nice links to live shows streams for MG's (and tons of other bands) at the Internet Archive Live Music Archive.
  - The Magnetic Fields: Stephin Merritt's main (?) band is once again on Merge records where they released the amazing 69 Love Songs.
  - Spoon (from Austin,TX), The Arcade Fire (from Montreal), Neutral Milk Hotel (from Georgia or Louisiana). All are/were on Merge records.
  - Bright Eyes is basically Conor Oberst, whose brother is in CH's Sorry About Dresden (BTW, for a group you have never heard of it is amazing how often BE are featured in the New York Times).
- The past: Squirrel Nut Zippers, MayFlies USA, Sorry About Dresden, Flat Duo Jets, June, ... :(
- Cats Cradle: Great place for shows. Sadly the Cradle's smaller cousin Go! Studio is no more.
- Artwork: Casey Burns is an awesome artist who created many ornate flyers for Cat's Cradle shows in the 1990s and 2000s. See the Massive Attack poster below from a 1998 show at the Ritz in Raleigh. I swear Richard Branson, the founder of their label Virgin Records, was handing out a club schedule after that show! BTW here are more details on MA's Fall 1998 tour.
- Triangle Rock
- AMCH: Semi-official home of alt.music.chapel-hill. Here is a related site.
- WXYC: UNC's college (non-NPR) radio station. WXYC is one of the best college radio stations I have heard (and also apparently the first one on the Web).

Winston-Salem music:
- Peter Holsapple: Peter is a member of the dB's a key W-S band (though formed in NYC) from the 1980s. Peter lived much of his childhood in my W-S house! In March 2023 he stopped by and I learned about some of the great music moments made here (and Peter was kind enough to put me on the guest list for a show he was giving at Gas Hill at The Ramkat). Peter signed the wall of my house (below left) and on the right he is at the show I went to flanked by fellow dB'r Chris Stamey (right) and producer/musician Don Dixon (left). BTW here is YouTube video (an hour and a half!), via Zoom from 2021, which recounts W-S music history and where I first met Peter and Chris.
- Mitch Easter: Super-producer whose studio Fidelitorium is in nearby Kernersville. Two stories: Pavement recorded Brighten the Corners at his studio and shortly after that gave a surprise show at Cats Cradle in Chapel Hill to demo it (I was lucky enough to be there): amazingly there is a bootleg of the whole show (28 July 1996). Also he is famous for producing REM's early albums: a little known fact is that REM's "Radio Free Europe" and the Chronic Town EP were both recorded at Easter's original studio (Drive-In, which I think was at one point his parent's garage in Winston-Salem). Anywho meeting Mitch Easter is on my bucket list.
- Ben Folds: I had always thought of him as part of the Chapel Hill scene (well that is where Ben Folds Five formed). But he grew up in Winston as discussed in his 2019 autobiography (in this excerpt on Google Books he discusses the elementary school up the street from me). And he comes back here when he is on tour, nice.

More music:
- Matador records (The New Pornographers, Pavement, JSBX, Yo La Tengo, Cornelius and his1999 show at Cat's Cradle I was at, Cat Power, ...)
- Ninja tune (DJ Food, Coldcut, Amon Tobin. Kid Koala)
- Thrill Jockey records (Tortoise, Mouse on Mars)
- Astralwerks (Air, FatBoy Slim, Chemical Brothers, Basement Jaxx, ...). Lots of great streaming stuff :).
- Stereolab (older site, may go down).
- Massive Attack: In 2003 they finally put out their fourth album, 100th Window. I saw them at Rock Werchter in Brussels (click on the icon below for the amazing festival line-up). The vocals were, unfortunately, pretty weak. Hopefully they will make it to the states so I can see them again (see above for 1998 show).
  Here are some more MA sites:
- DJ Shadow: Another site which is constantly updated with great downloads and reviews of summer 2002 tour (I saw him in Chicago)!
- Radiohead: What's not too like? Cool distribution model too.
- Need web sites:
  - Dan the Automator: producer behind Deltron 3030, Handsome Boy Modeling School, the Gorrillaz, and many others.
  - Rjd2: DJ Shadow, circa 2002.
- More good stuff
  - Sufjan Stevens: Illinois(e) is an insanely great album.
  - Jens Lekman: "sample-happy Swedish singer-songwriter with the boyfriendable baritone" (Pitchfork). His take on P2P: "You can download my entire records with filesharing programs, I don't mind that but if you like my music please support me - buy my records, come to my shows or make a Paypal donation to jens@srvice.com." I am seeing him in Dublin in May 2008.
  - John Vanderslice: power pop music + SF indie producer + former front-man for MK Ultra. Also runs the awesome tiny telephone site.
  - Aimee Mann: not that 'til tuesday nonsense
  - F*cked Up (oh my gosh David Comes to Life is such a good album)
  - LCD Soundsystem
  - Daft Punk (Random Access Memories = epic. Incredible artists on it too. Now when can I see them in concert?
  - The Wrens (one of the unluckiest bands, in a parallel universe they are major rock stars; saw them play at Duke around 2004 or 2005, amazing),
  - Silver Jews No longer around but I was lucky enough to see them at Cat's Cradle.
- Samples in music: on-going project compiling original sources for samples. I submitted the source for DJ Shadow's Mashin' on the Motorway :)
- Rock musicians are going to Hades. You may or may not agree with the authors' premise, but it does list the age and cause of death for many well-known rockers. Be sure and play the "I CHOOSE LIFE" and "I CHOOSE DEATH" game at the bottom!
- Am I right. Song parodies, crazy band names, and (my favorite) misheard lyrics. Just type in your favorite (or most despised) band.
- The Smoking Gun: See what your favorite thug artists have been really up to. Mug shots of the famous and even some B-graders. Frequently updated.
- Ken Nordine's Word Jazz: My best description: imagine if Captain Kirk did spoken word. Definitely give it a listen! BTW, Ken Nordine's new shows are on WBEZ Sunday's at midnight cst.
- MIT List of Radio Stations on the Net
- Allmusic
- Streaming music: (1), (2).
- Streaming concerts: (1), (2), (3).

Web history: The Wayback Machine caches old versions of web pages. One day historians will use this. Here and here are some of my pages.

Web fun:
- Urban Legends: True, False, Undetermined. I like the Disney and Business sections best.
- Annals of Improbable Research: They also run the Ig Nobel Prize (I nominated a paper called "optimal slidesmanship" but it did not win).
- Erdös Number Project: The importance of a mathematician/scientist is inversely related to the number of co-authors needed to reach Paul Erdös (fun fact: Hank Aaron has the very low Erdös number 1 through a jointly autographed baseball). If you prefer pop culture, there is six degrees of Kevin Bacon.
- Kalman filters to predict basketball point spreads: Gets my vote for publication in the inaugural Journal of Awesome Economics (or is that Journal of Irrelevant Economics?).

Southern culture: While I am still a Yankee, I am learning. Try The Dialectizer to translate text or whole web pages into Redneck (or Elmer Fudd or Cockney...).

Coffee: Cofeeegeek.com and Coffeekid.com are great sites. In particular, check out vacuum/siphon brewers-- the Hario Nouveau I own is pictured below (click on for video). Ultra-smooth taste and awesome to watch (plus need to recall high school physics to understand why it works!).

Cigars: The Fuji cigar page has links to tons of distributors, so you can find the best price on your favorite brand. But always remember Mark Twain's wisdom: "I smoke in moderation. Only one cigar at a time."

Gambling
- Horses: What goes better with cigars than horse racing? Too bad gambling is illegal in North Carolina. BTW, here is another nice collection of horce racing links.
- The Wizard of Odds: Ever want to know what the house edge is on a 5 team parlay? Here are the formulae.

MAME (multiple arcade machine emulator): Gen X touchstone and my most recent research killer. This program plays virtually every arcade game from the 1980s (400+ at last count, everything from Pac Man to Mr. Do's Castle) all for free. These are exact clones of the originals--all of your old tricks still work. There is a TON of MAME stuff on the web. The only problem is the sites disappear and pop-up with great regularity-- just type MAME in Google and check out the first couple of matches.
UPDATE: Ah thank you Internet Archive, now they have all you need right in one place:
- Internet Arcade
- Console Living Room

New York Post: All the news The New York Times does not consider fit to print.

The Onion and Tom Tommorrow's This Modern World contain great politically-oriented satire. Both are updated weekly.

Lost childhood: Bugs Bunny, Ren and Stimpy, and of course The Simpsons.

Speaking of cartoons, John Kricfalusi (the deposed creator of Ren and Stimpy) has a cool web-based serial involving George Liquor and his idiot nephew (requires the Shockwave plug-in). It has some of the best animation quality I have found on the web.

Another nice site is Shockrave which has short clips from Comedy Central cartoons (yes--Mr. Hankey from South Park is there), Shockwave-based games, and a place where you can make an interactive music video.

Der Struwwelpeter (Slovenly Peter). One of the most intense children's books ever written (originally in german, obviously. What is it with these guys? Grimm's Fairy Tales are pretty hardcore too). A series of stories from the 19th century with some rather severe lessons. I include below the one about thumb-sucking which is sure to give any five year old nightmares (and likely scar him for life).

"Konrad !" cried his mamma dear,
"I'll go out, but you stay here,
Try how pretty you can be
Till I come again," said she.
"Docile be, and good and mild,
Pray don't suck your thumb, my child,
For if you do, the tailor 'll come
And bring his shears and snip your thumb
From off your hand as clear and clean
As if paper it had been."

Before she'd turned the south,
He'd got his thumbkin in his mouth!

Bang ! here goes the door ker-slam !
Whoop ! the tailor lands her-blam !
Waves his shears, the heartless grub,
and calls for Dawmen-lutscher-bub.
Claps his weapon to the thumb,
Snips it square as head of grum,
While that lad his tongue unfurled
And fired a yell heard 'round the world.

Who can tell mother's sorrow
When she saw her boy the morrow !
There he stood all steeped in shame,
And not a thumbkin to his name.

	"Konrad !" cried his mamma dear, "I'll go out, but you stay here, Try how pretty you can be Till I come again," said she. "Docile be, and good and mild, Pray don't suck your thumb, my child, For if you do, the tailor 'll come And bring his shears and snip your thumb From off your hand as clear and clean As if paper it had been."
Before she'd turned the south, He'd got his thumbkin in his mouth!
	Bang ! here goes the door ker-slam ! Whoop ! the tailor lands her-blam ! Waves his shears, the heartless grub, and calls for Dawmen-lutscher-bub. Claps his weapon to the thumb, Snips it square as head of grum, While that lad his tongue unfurled And fired a yell heard 'round the world.
Who can tell mother's sorrow When she saw her boy the morrow ! There he stood all steeped in shame, And not a thumbkin to his name.

Jump the shark: TV in a nutshell. Can you add to the discussion?

Triumphs of TV capitalism:
- Flowbee: Attach cutting blades to high powered vacuum and place on head. I doubt that will lead to any problems.
- Chia Pets: While visiting their site, notice that the same company makes the Clapper. Could anyone be this stupid twice? I think they are really just part of some Mafia money laundering scheme.
- Hairagami: The new kid on the block. "In Japan, the art of folding paper is Origami. Now experience the art of folding hair with Hairagami." You can use it make a Hair Sushi (I kid you not).
- Mr. Microphone: "Hey, good looking! We�ll be back to pick you up later!" From the geniuses at Ronco (Ron Popeil=genius). Even made it as a Simpsons reference. Seems to have disappeared from existence--even hard to find on eBay.

Name madness:
- No Koleman? According to this 1990 Census tabulation, there is no one with my first name in the US. I will use this when I am audited.
- Another Koleman: Maybe we should start a club. Also, I want that web address.
- Koleman's bbq. In Pontotoc, MS though I have never been there myself.
- Koleman.com: Koleman goes corporate. My name was hi-jacked to form some sort of bike, boat and car trading site. Can I sue like McDonalds to get my name back?
- The meaning of Koleman: See the opinion of the Society of Kabalarians of Canada, a group "dedicated to creating mental freedom in the world by revealing the universally applicable principles of the Kabalarian Philosophy to help everyone live a more progressive, constructive, and healthy life through the knowledge of the Mathematical Principle which applies to language, name, mind, and cycles." It says I will have some big time problems unless I have a "balanced last name." Whoops!
- Strumpf font: Adobe seems to have put a trademark on the Strumpf Font (and they will sell it to you for only $49.99). The description: "True to its comic-strip inspiration, Strumpf is highly animated; every letter has its own bouncy personality ... Use fun-loving Strumpf for setting single light-hearted words or phrases, rather than lengthy headlines or text."
- Strumpf Noir Society: "Black smurf" in French. Part of the open source software development community. Nice graphic :).