Allthyngs

Well this is certainly a throwback: a kid at the University of Kentucky got wrapped in toilet paper and set on fire by his frat. I’m pretty glad we’ve calmed down at Vanderbilt to the point where stuff like this doesn’t happen anymore. However, I’ll always remember the story from 6 or 7 years ago when one fraternity forced their pledges to jump over couches that were on fire. One of them was wearing those Dockers stain defender pants. Apparently, those have a highly flammable coating. I think you can see where this went…
My favorite part of this article: “alcohol use contributed to the incident.”

Read about the UK kid on The Huffington Post.

I think I first saw this video around 9th grade and quickly became obsessed. I’ve recently rediscovered it and I can now fully appreciate what these guys are doing. Parkour, or free running, requires absurd physical fitness, and these guys epitomize what’s best about it. They nearly effortlessly scale six story abandoned buildings, leap massive gaps and pull off flips where no one has any business doing so. If I could do half of this, I would be such a boss that I don’t know if I’d need an education. You may remember seeing some Parkour in the opening scenes of Casino Royale. That was cool, but in my opinion these guys put that to shame.

This song is simply the tits. I love the Talking Heads and I love this song. This version of it simply pushes it over the edge. Miles Fisher went to St. Alban’s in DC (one of my rival high schools) and then Harvard. He’s clearly a really smart guy and incredibly talented. He modeled this video after Christian Bale’s performance in American Psycho. The juxtaposition of this song with that movie really puts me in a good place and it’s incredibly clever. Check out the video after the jump (click “read more”).

I’ve never been much of a world traveler. My first plane ride was when I was 16 and I went to Italy for three weeks over the summer with my family. Since then my only plane rides have been on college visits, flights to and from college, and the occasional excursion to Boston or Cleveland. Regardless, it’s something I would like to do more often. Anderson Cooper is one of my favorite journalistic personalities because I find him incredibly honest and down to earth. Here he provides some good tips for travelers, some of which seem self evident, and others which I never would have thought of.

Read the article on Anderson Cooper’s blog on CNN.com

I’m a big proponent of people staying fit and taking care of their bodies. I try not to eat shit and workout as often as possible. While I slack off for sure at college, and maybe consume some things I ought not to, I stay healthy. Additionally, I think athletic participation is great because it keeps you in shape and team sports are great for building relationships. I think anyone who wants to cut gym from school programs is a lunatic and most likely a follower of Chairman Mao. Regardless, I highly question the validity and value of Quidditch as an organized, school sanctioned sport. Judging from this article, it has spread into high schools as well. I enjoyed the Harry Potter series too, and my fraternity just had a “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Pikes” party on Saturday. All of that aside, I worry about those who derive “athletic exertion” from a game founded upon the principle of flying broomsticks and a golden flying snitch. Call me a cynic, but at least I’m sane.

Read more about this “sport” at dailycal.org

This may be one of the best marketing campaigns I’ve ever seen. Not only is it promoting safe sex and spreading awareness about sexually transmitted infections, it’s a fucking camouflage condom. I think it’s incredibly clever and hilarious, and I really hope it succeeds.

Check it out at CamoCondoms.org

I don’t think I’ve seen this sort of rage since I played poorly in our hall competition volleyball tournament freshmen year. We get it Trinity, you’re really good at squash. But apparently this video explains why you made GQ’s list of the top douchiest colleges. Honestly though, take a Xanax or something, because you’re kind of freaking me out.

Read more about the game at WTNH.com

First of all, I’d like to preface this post by saying that I’m upset I missed this tea party convention. Opryland is a 15 minute drive outside of downtown Nashville, and a few of my buddies and I really wanted to drive out to see this debacle. Unfortunately, tickets for the Palin portion alone were running in the $350 range. Regardless, it would have been an experience to be in an enormous arena with hundreds of other people with possibly the lowest IQ of any group ever assembled outside of the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team.

Had I been there, I might have been lucky enough to see first hand that Sarah Palin had to scrawl buzzwords on her palm as if she were an idiot or something. I find this disturbing. Every politician has their buzzwords, I get that. Maybe it’s just a show for a lot of them, but it’s a legitimate part of playing national politics. The fact that she wrote down “tax” is stupid because obviously that issue is coming up regardless, and if you were to forget that I’m sure someone would mention it during Q&A. “Lifting American spirits” is a whole different matter. First of all, that’s neither a position nor a core value/belief. It’s a task that is incredibly difficult to quantify and quite frankly impossible to put down as one of your goals. Secondly, if you do care so much, why is it so difficult for you to keep it in your mind? Palin should just stick to birthing children and giving them absurd names that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

You can read the full story on the Huffington Post

Charles Mee is a really interesting playwright that very few people outside of theater culture know. My cousin directed one of his plays, Wintertime, for her senior project at Boston College. It was insane. The language is brilliant, some of the best I’ve seen in modern plays. There’s also a great sense of originality in characters and language. Not to mention the aspects that seemed to be performed in the midst of a PCP trip. By this I mean intense classical music scores coupled with flashing red lights and the smashing of the set. Like actually tearing up pillows and throwing chairs at a piano. On top of all that, he’s a proponent of putting all of his plays up for consumption online. That means you can read every word of all of his published stories and plays on his website, for free. He’s got a lot of material on his site but I seriously suggest checking out Wintertime as a place to start.

Check him out atwww.charlesmee.org
Read a sample of Wintertime on his website
Or just read the whole thing

Political attack ads always bring me great joy. I consider Maryland a pretty normal area, however, so I think I probably miss out on the really juicy stuff. Take this ad in which California senate candidate Carly Fiorina takes aim at congressman Tom Campbell, decrying him for being a wolf in sheep’s clothing and a “fiscal conservative in name only” (Looks like FCINO is the new slang being thrown around these days). Beyond the fact that they represent Campbell with a demonic sheep which is clearly a man on all fours in a sheep costume (you can see his feet from behind for christ’s sake), I find a few issues with this. First of all, the video is 3 minutes and 21 seconds long. If this came on television I wouldn’t even get to the demon sheep; I’d rather watch another Ron Popeil Table Top Rotisserie infomercial. Secondly, all the sheep imagery is really bizarre; it comes across as a bad SNL skit. A really bad one. Thirdly, the “fall from grace” metaphor with a sheep makes me jump straight to Biblical metaphors. Is this pasture California/heaven and all the sheep angels? When this one sheep gets on the pedestal, does his pride cause him to fall a la Lucifer? My takeaway from this ad is a suggestion that Tom Campbell is satan, and a confirmation that Carly Fiorina’s people are retarded.

Watch the ad on The Huffington Post

While this appears to be an advertisement for cheese from Wisconsin, it’s actually so much more. There’s not a single burger here I wouldn’t devour happily. Wisconsin mozzarella, pizza sauce and pepperoni on burger on crusty ciabatta? Yes please.

Drool away at http://www.cheeseandburger.com

Last night at a party at one of my fraternity’s off campus houses, as we were setting up (I’m a pledge), one of the senior brothers put this song on. This guy happens to be 6′4 230 and jacked beyond belief; 2 years ago he got in a fight with two division one football players and beat the crap out of them. Anyway, he was hammered, commandeered the sound system, put this joint on and began to go crazy. When I got back after the party, I downloaded the song and have been listening to it over and over again. It’s really damn good and definitely a great party starter. Check out the song after the jump (hit “read more”).

Check out Young Ivy’s Myspace page for more of his music

I’ve got a pretty expansive iTunes library and am pretty much open to all types of music. I’ve got over 12,000 songs on my laptop ranging from Tiesto to Brad Paisley to Miley Cyrus to Drake. Sometimes it can be a little overwhelming to find the songs that fit together well with each other to match the type of mood I’m in at the time. This site allows you not only to sort out songs by genre, but it also allows you to choose whether you want the songs calm or lively, dark or upbeat. It’s not nearly as extensive as my own library, but it does a great job of picking out songs that feel right at the time.

Check it out at http://www.musicovery.com/

I’m currently taking a Survey of Entrepreneurship class in school. It’s both interesting and demanding, and it culminates in the creation of a group business plan. The hardest part thus far has been coming up with an idea. We’ve thrown a lot out there: Financial Literacy Courses, Healthcare Consultancy Group, and someone saw the coaster on wheels idea from Family Guy and brought that one up. While Googling for “unique business ideas,” (I guess my creativity has been lacking) I came across this site. Springwise takes the best upcoming business and product ideas worldwide and places them in an easy to navigate forum. Their scope is massive but they remain incredibly discerning in what they put on the site, so you know that you’re only getting the best of the best picked over with a fine tooth comb. When I read through these ideas, particularly the custom designed jeans or some really unique green product, I’m convinced that I’m gazing into the future and that there is great potential in everything there.

Check it out at http://www.springwise.com/

JD Salinger died, Chris Matthews forgot Obama was black, Nancy Pelosi thinks she can pass the Senate health care bill, Ford turned a profit last year, Joe Scarborough almost died, and somebody else already made a product called the iPad. Oops.

I’m pretty sure everyone has had a family photo or two over the year that, when looking back at it, is pretty ridiculous. Personally, I’ll always remember the year our Christmas card had a picture of me and my sister standing in front of the fireplace in our living room; it just so happens that we have an old rifle from the early 20th century hanging underneath the mantle, and I was at the perfect height for it to appear just above my head. The result: 1998 was the year I balanced a rifle on my head for our Christmas card. That photo, however, when compared to some of material on this website, is benign. Why someone has a horse in the prom photo, I know not, but damn is it funny.
Check it out at www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

I read in GQ once that one sign of a doucebag is to be a fan of a roving food cart on facebook. I don’t subscribe to the fojol bros. of Merlindia, but after tasting their culinary excellence this summer, I’m tempted. The fojol bros. serve delicious, preservative free, organic food with a green mission. They drive around Washington, DC in a van and by following them on twitter you can figure out where they are at all times. Everything is incredibly flavorful and unique, not your typical van food fare. When I was working this summer at the Department of Transportation, I would always jump at the chance to stop by when they were in the Southeast Waterfront area. If you’re looking for a quick, cheap, delicious meal to go, fojol bros. is a must.
Check them out on twitter: www.twitter.com/fojolbros
And Check out there website: http://fojol.com/

This guy is truly absurd. Sometimes he comes across as a massive asshat and other times he’s as humble and as full of humility as Mother Theresa. One minute, he’s douching it up on the sidelines and 4 quarters later he’s crying like a child. Regardless, it takes balls to get on an ad, an ad to be aired during the Super Bowl no less, and talk with your mom about how she was told to abort you. That’s pretty insane. This guy may be an NFL flop, but once this ad flies and he moves with Urban Meyer up to Massachusetts to get married, he’ll remain a celebrity for quite a while
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32052.html

I think of myself as very well-dressed. Additionally, I like to think I understand ideas surrounding high fashion. Every once in a while however, certain things are too absurd to fathom. I know that the concepts shown during fashion week in New York or Milan are not intended for widespread general consumption, and runway pieces are just that. However, the clothes have to have some ability to trickle down into something remotely sensible. When the fashion shows begin to look like parodies of fashion shows (Zoolander, anyone?), I think ridicule is certainly in order.

Check it out here

Like many people, I enjoy rap music for certain occasions. It can get you pumped up, you can try to act harder than you actually are as you roll along in your mom’s midsized SUV, and it’s great at a party. A lot of the times though, if I listen to the lyrics, I’m truly puzzled. Some of the lines are so bizarre that they really make me question the mental capacity of these rap artists. “Snacks and Shit” is devoted to the promotion of ridiculous rap lyrics. Two writers find some absurd lines from various rap songs and make a hilarious and often fantastically sarcastic comment about them. My personal favorite is [...]

Check it out at http://www.snacksandshit.com/