Kees Vander Putten has just finished a very funny animated video, The Beehive Theory. We're down to The Final Three Weeks. . .what a great time to roll out this summation of our folly in following the leader.
TBT is a satire on George W. Bush's defense and warped theories of the Iraq war. It's short, sweet, and spot-on, with a great soundtrack.
I've met Kees a few times (he's done some animation where I work). He did the entire video on his own (except for creating the soundtrack). Interestingly, Kees is completely self-taught! The video was done in Maya, with a mental ray renderer.
I hope we get more Vander Putten videos soon. Thank you Kees!
The Beehive Theory from Kees Vander Putten on Vimeo.
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Tuesday, December 30, 2008
It was a brutal year for hillbilly food: say farewell to the inventors of Spaghetti-O's, Cheese Whiz, Pringles, and the Egg McMuffin
2008 was a tough year for the junk-food pioneers, following a brutal 2007 in which the guy who has to be the Dean of Junk Food, food scientist Edwin Traisman died at the age of 92 [ed's note: these guys all lived long lives] after having invented what must be the ultimate hillbilly treat: Cheese Whiz.
The Whiz is a jarred (but also available in a spray can), thick, viscous, somewhat sweet processed cheese sauce, with American Cheese as a base that is reprocessed with additional ingredients such as emulsifiers and stabilizing agents like xanthan gum or carrageenan, and citric acid and flavoring compounds (and Annatto, for coloring). I remember it often starring as the filling in celery sticks (and olives when used in its even more processed aerosol form), as well as as a base for various dips, sauces, and emollients.
We didn't know their actual names (only their achievements), but growing up hillbilly in the farmtown of Kent, Wash., these heroes furnished us with many of staples of our diets. [Ed's note: it also makes us wonder about the fates of the creators of Jell-o, Cool-Whip, Fizzies, Kool Aid, Cheetos, Bugles, and Spam].
Kurt Eberling, Sr., after fighting in the Korean War, Kurt snagged a job at the Campbell Soup Company (Jersey's finest!). Somehow he came up with the idea of creating ring-shaped pasta, putting it in a can with meatballs, and sauce, and SpaghettiOs were born. Kurt became a beacon to every Willie Loman in the world, who, one day, hoped to invent The Next Big Thing.
Herb Peterson, Food Scientist, invented the Egg McMuffin in 1972, after endless experiments with all the known and unknown potential permutations of crumpets, croissants, rolls, biscuits, eggs, sausage, ham, bacon, mayonnaise, and cheese. "Pete" died peacefully at home, with his family, in March.
Finally, on May 4th, the inventor of the Pringles can called it a day. Fred Baur was a chemist and food storage expert. He came up with the idea of inserting a uniform, molded, pre-formed potato chip into a can that remarkably resembled a tin sleeve of tennis balls. The best part of his passing: at Baur’s request, he was cremated and his ashes were buried in a Pringles can! Fred also invented freeze-dried ice cream and ultra-efficient industrial frying oils, but neither of these came close to the monolithic impact of Pringles, a food that became an immediate and long-lasting hillbilly favorite.
---o0o---
The Whiz is a jarred (but also available in a spray can), thick, viscous, somewhat sweet processed cheese sauce, with American Cheese as a base that is reprocessed with additional ingredients such as emulsifiers and stabilizing agents like xanthan gum or carrageenan, and citric acid and flavoring compounds (and Annatto, for coloring). I remember it often starring as the filling in celery sticks (and olives when used in its even more processed aerosol form), as well as as a base for various dips, sauces, and emollients.
We didn't know their actual names (only their achievements), but growing up hillbilly in the farmtown of Kent, Wash., these heroes furnished us with many of staples of our diets. [Ed's note: it also makes us wonder about the fates of the creators of Jell-o, Cool-Whip, Fizzies, Kool Aid, Cheetos, Bugles, and Spam].
Kurt Eberling, Sr., after fighting in the Korean War, Kurt snagged a job at the Campbell Soup Company (Jersey's finest!). Somehow he came up with the idea of creating ring-shaped pasta, putting it in a can with meatballs, and sauce, and SpaghettiOs were born. Kurt became a beacon to every Willie Loman in the world, who, one day, hoped to invent The Next Big Thing.
Herb Peterson, Food Scientist, invented the Egg McMuffin in 1972, after endless experiments with all the known and unknown potential permutations of crumpets, croissants, rolls, biscuits, eggs, sausage, ham, bacon, mayonnaise, and cheese. "Pete" died peacefully at home, with his family, in March.
Finally, on May 4th, the inventor of the Pringles can called it a day. Fred Baur was a chemist and food storage expert. He came up with the idea of inserting a uniform, molded, pre-formed potato chip into a can that remarkably resembled a tin sleeve of tennis balls. The best part of his passing: at Baur’s request, he was cremated and his ashes were buried in a Pringles can! Fred also invented freeze-dried ice cream and ultra-efficient industrial frying oils, but neither of these came close to the monolithic impact of Pringles, a food that became an immediate and long-lasting hillbilly favorite.
---o0o---
Monday, December 29, 2008
Holdout in Seattle: Ballard's Edith Macefield turned down $1,000,000 for her ramshackle cottage
Click to enlarge Edith's house -- I took this six months ago, before
the buildings on either side rose to five or six stories (that's her car).
If you want to see Stuart Isett's great photo of the same buildings six
months later, jump to the NY Times article.
You've heard about other "holdouts" -- almost always elderly people who refuse to sell their homes; about people holding up Progress. Well, Edith Macefield in Ballard, did it, and we drive by the results every day. She refused an offer of $1 million from developers (probably four or five times its market value) to buy it. Whoever ends up living there won't have far to go to get to Trader Joe's or L.A. Fitness.
The New York Times must have had a very slow news day, because they just published a long article by about her refusal to sell, and the strange story behind it.
The article alludes to an autobiography she wrote and published that contained some fanciful flights of imagination. That is undoubtedly so. We've always called her Hitler's babysitter around our house. The local Ballard 'paper published a story about her about 15 years ago in which she claimed, among other things, to have worked as the nanny for Hitler's right hand man, Joseph Goebbels (and his wife Magda). No word on how she escaped the white night in the Fuhrer Bunker, when Goebbels killed his entire family as the walls came down around Berlin.
She also claimed in the earlier article to have married a bazillionaire in England after the war.
"The interior of Ms. Macefield’s bungalow remains exactly as she left it," when she died a few months ago.
It's an interesting tale, of Seattle, holdouts, a very interesting and eccentric woman, and an estate controversy. Check it out here, in the New York Times.
---o0o---
You've heard about other "holdouts" -- almost always elderly people who refuse to sell their homes; about people holding up Progress. Well, Edith Macefield in Ballard, did it, and we drive by the results every day. She refused an offer of $1 million from developers (probably four or five times its market value) to buy it. Whoever ends up living there won't have far to go to get to Trader Joe's or L.A. Fitness.
The New York Times must have had a very slow news day, because they just published a long article by about her refusal to sell, and the strange story behind it.
The article alludes to an autobiography she wrote and published that contained some fanciful flights of imagination. That is undoubtedly so. We've always called her Hitler's babysitter around our house. The local Ballard 'paper published a story about her about 15 years ago in which she claimed, among other things, to have worked as the nanny for Hitler's right hand man, Joseph Goebbels (and his wife Magda). No word on how she escaped the white night in the Fuhrer Bunker, when Goebbels killed his entire family as the walls came down around Berlin.
She also claimed in the earlier article to have married a bazillionaire in England after the war.
"The interior of Ms. Macefield’s bungalow remains exactly as she left it," when she died a few months ago.
It's an interesting tale, of Seattle, holdouts, a very interesting and eccentric woman, and an estate controversy. Check it out here, in the New York Times.
---o0o---
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
Farewell to Eartha Kitt & Eartha stands up to Lyndon Johnson on his own turf
click to enlarge
Christmas Day is normally a quiet day in the "blogosphere." I just noticed, however, that over a thousand people stopped by All This Is That on Christmas Day to read an article we published here Saturday, May 7, 2005 about Eartha Kitt standing up to the formidable, sometimes heroic, and often monstrous Lyndon Johnson.
This is one of those times all the blogging is actually worth it. For some reason, there aren't many references on the internet to the Eartha Kitt-LBJ dust-up--All This Is That pops up early in a G.I.S. of Eartha Kitt + LBJ. And all these people are coming here to read the story of how the diminutive Eartha stood up to LBJ in the White House--his home ground!--to question why he was sending hundreds of thousands of our boys to war. It is a fitting tribute for people to remember how she stood up to LBJ.
I saw Eartha Kitt at Jazz Alley in Seattle in 2003. Eartha Kitt, 2003. Jazz Alley, Seattle. Her campy act was a lot of fun; she's was a tease with a sly, cabaret sort of sense of humor. . You can read her obits everywhere, and read about her affairs with Orson Welles, and her stint as Catwoman, but like many people who were alive back then, I admire her for the way she stood up to LBJ at the White House . I wrote about that confrontation earlier here, and included the great picture (above) of LBJ staring her down... She was a hell of a woman, and it's almost shocking she had died. She may have been pushing 80 when I saw her last, but you wouldn't have guessed it from her energy, her voice, or her hoofing.
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Thursday, December 25, 2008
Jesus' 2008th Birthday
Santa just before suiting up
Joseph (not the father), Mother Mary, and Jesus
Video: Jesus' Birthday Party
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Wednesday, December 24, 2008
a hierarchy of paranoia
paranoia under the moonlight - click to enlarge
One recent psycho-sociological study found that:
click to enlarge
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One recent psycho-sociological study found that:
- Over 40% of people regularly worry that negative comments are being made about them [ed's note: who cares!?]
- 27% think that people deliberately try to irritate them [ed's note: I believe in this number. . .it's roughly the same number of people--or, even less, than I probably set out to deliberately irritate on a daily basis]
- 10% think that someone has it in for them [ed's note: It's almost stunning only 10% of the people believe this. . .maybe they don't have office jobs or interactive jobs. If you're really living life, someone has it in for you. . .you're probably not thinking that the person in the next office would feel nothing (or elation) if you failed to wake up the next morning; guess what?: they would.]
- 5% worry there is a conspiracy to harm them [ed note: this doesn't apply to most of us. But there are myriad cases where some, or many, of your compatriots, co-workers, fellow group members, associates, family and relatives, fellow parishioners or dharma center members wouldn't mind it all if your last breath happened right now. ]
20% worry about being observed or followed [ed's note: don't worry; you are.]
click to enlarge
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