Reading Offline: Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments
by Alex Boese
Really odd book about various "scientific" experiments, some gruesome, many just insane. Have't yet gotten to the elephants on acid part, but am definitely freaked out by the "let's decapitate an animal and try to keep just the head alive" chapter. Ugh.
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay
by Nancy Milford
I never read much of Millay before, but Milford wrote a really interesting biography of Zelda Fitzgerald, so I was interested to see her next book. Still in the first chapter, but the prolog was amusing in itself. I always appreciate reading the background of how the author started on the book.
Kitchen Confidential Updated Ed: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
by Anthony Bourdain
I gave this to Jon as a gift a while back and only just recently remembered I never did borrow and read it myself. Am very amused so far. Sadly it's not the updated edition I've linked to - preface in our copy's dated Nov. 2000. Wonder what's been added/changed/corrected.
The New Kings of Nonfiction
by Ira Glass
Collection of nonfiction articles previously published in various magazines. Bought a while back in an airport and there are still a few articles I haven't finished reading. I really liked the Bill Buford article that became Among the Thugs.
...About?...
Batgrl is a pop culture junky who loves to mess about with cameras and video games. And is constantly amused by Jon, who she did honest and truly did meet online. Though she's been blogging since the '90s, evil sp@m'rs managed to break the old blog, and thus there's only more recent stuff here. (No great loss, actually!)
Ok first of all, I'm not all that big into football. But having said that, Louisiana was my home turf for a few years, plus the fact that I'm seriously in love with New Orleans even now - so yeah, I was rooting for the Saints.
However I do have to say that the one commercial that had me talk back to the screen - er, in a gleeful way as opposed to an "oh come ON, you must me kidding" type of comment - was the Budweiser commercial where the horse and the bull have a little friendship. I can't find it online yet, but I'm sure it'll be around. And when the bull runs through the fence at the end I turn to Jon and say "hey! that's the Schlitz malt liquor bull's thing!" And when he looks at me blankly I say "oh tell please me you at least know your beer commercial trivia!" I thought all guys were required to know the beer commercials of their era, especially if they went to college and/or lived with roommates at any point. (Isn't it a requirement that everyone bring beer and watch football together? And critique the ads? I thought that was a required guy thing.)
Apparently not. But thanks to YouTube I can fill you all in:
Ah 1978, and so many ham-handed cultural concepts going on there. But there's the bull, who always appeared at the end, crashing through the wall/door/scenery. Perhaps because my grandfather had cattle (and the longhorn in tonight's Bud ad reminds me of it), and perhaps because when I visited my grandparents we watched a lot of football - but whatever the reason, I have fond feelings towards the Schilitz bull. Actually it probably came down to the crashing through the wall thing. As a kid that was always a great thing. (Remember the Kool-Aid Man crashing through the wall? Now I'm suddenly curious as to whether that was the same advertising house putting out both those commericals.)
Somehow I'm betting Jon also never heard about the aliens that drank their Rellim reeb with their fingers.
We used to talk about that one at school. Or at least my Dad and I would laugh about it - it's much funnier if you can say "with their fangers!" in a southern accent.
See, this is why I was good with the section on advertising back in my mass comm days. Seriously, it was loads of fun to study and laugh over this sort of thing - and to wake up students with "I know you've watched thousands of ads by this point - you realize this makes you an expert, right?!" (Not to mention come up with reasoning and economics behind why it's important to study.) I think I need to get back into serious trivia gaming before my leet skillz get all rusty.
Update:
Jon now claims that "everyone knows the Schlitz bull" and that he was merely messing with me. I am doubtful. I should have quizzed him about Rellim reeb before posting about it.
Ok I had to look it up - I know the whole "better man than I, Gunga Din" and the story behind it - but totally forgot it was by Kipling. And yeah, I'll bet a lot of folk have no clue where the line comes from. But if you look at that link to Wikipedia, it is still being referenced in media - Hellboy (the comic) for instance. Suddenly I feel the need to buy comics - must resist...
