Author name: hubs

2015 SXSW Music Torrent

After a rough patch last year, SXSWTorrent.com is back in full force. This years SXSW music torrent contains 844 files totaling 5.41GB with more to be released later this month.

SXSWTorrent.com has music showcase torrents going all the way back to 2005 – 11 years worth of torrents with over 11,000 songs.

If you’re not interested in downloading/seeding but still want to listen to the music you might want to try this SXSW music page. Also, somebody has been trying to create a Spotify playlist of this years showcase artists as well.

We Who Are Your Closest Friends (A Poem For Valentines Day)

we who are
your closest friends
feel the time
has come to tell you
that every Thursday
we have been meeting
as a group
to devise ways
to keep you
in perpetual uncertainty
frustration
discontent and
torture
by neither loving you
as much as you want
nor cutting you adrift

your analyst is
in on it
plus your boyfriend
and your ex-husband
and we have pledged
to disappoint you
as long as you need us

in announcing our
association
we realize we have
placed in your hands
a possible antidote
against uncertainty
indeed against ourselves
but since our Thursday nights
have brought us
to a community of purpose
rare in itself
with you as
the natural center
we feel hopeful you
will continue to make
unreasonable
demands for affection
if not as a consequence
of your
disastrous personality

then for the good of the collective

Phillip Lopate, 1943

Definitive List Of Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet Part 2014

Greg Rutter has once again created a definitive list of the 99 things you should have already experienced on the internet unless you’re a loser or old or something. Once again, it is a little YouTube heavy, me thinks. But it still a great way to burn an evening. There are a bunch on this years list that I haven’t seen yet. Maybe I really am getting old or something.

01) First Kiss
02) Apparently Kid
03) Hater Blockers
04) The Ice Bucket Challenge
05) In My Mum’s Car
06) Swedish Soldier’s “Greased Lightning”
07) Skateboarding Cat
08) Mr. Pimp Goodgame
09) Kayden and Rain
10) Runner Falls In The Snow After Interview
11) Shia LaBeouf – Live
12) Climbing The World’s Second Highest Tower
13) Snowboarding NYC
14) Brian Williams Sings “Rapper’s Delight”
15) Twitch Plays Pokemon
16) 10 Hours Of Walking In New York As A Woman
17) Cleaning Dancing Roommate
18) Seth Rogen’s Alzheimer’s Senate Testimony
19) Fake Chef Pranks Morning TV Shows
20) Glow Stick Blows Up In Kid’s Face
22) Two Women Caught Stealing Canopy On Beach
22) The Camera In The Mirror
23) Barack Obama’s Between Two Ferns
24) The Ice Cream Van
25) Demon Baby Attack
26) Good Looking Parents Sing “Love Is an Open Door”
27) Superman With A GoPro
28) Andrei Linde Celebrates Physics Breakthrough
29) KTLA Anchors React To Earthquake
30) Louis C.K. and Bradley Cooper
31) Grandmas Smoking Weed For The First Time
32) I Might Boycott Bath And Body Works Rant
33) BASE Jump From The Freedom Tower
34) Instant Karma
35) Action Movie Kid
36) Slow Life
37) Coke + Nutella + Mentos + Durex ITALIA world record
38) Circle Of Life On Flight Home
39) When Mom Isn’t Home
40) Classroom Phone Call April Fools Prank
41) Kids React To The Walkman
42) The Futility Of Existence
43) Kicked In The Head By A Train
44) Baby Conducts Choir
45) Dog Carjacking
46) Reveal To Grandpa
47) Tiny Hamsters Eating Tiny Burritos
48) 100 Days Of Dance
49) Tempura Shrimp Canon
50) Shovel Fight
51) Ellen’s Oscar Selfie
52) Three Year Epic Selfie
53) My Cat Saved My Son
54) Bunny Eating Rasperberries
55) 300 Sandwiches
56) Amazing Jam Session
57) 26 Country Proposal
58) Aug(de)mented Reality
59) Basejumping Dog
60) Luigi Death Stare
61) Full Cycle Inside A Dishwasher
62) Blatant Racism In Cheektowaga, NY
63) Sir Mix-A-Lot With The Seattle Symphony
64) All By Myself
65) Musicless Music Video: Dancing In The Streets
66) Fireworks Filmed With A Drone
67) F*ck Her Right In The P*ssy
68) I Dare You To Watch This Entire Video
69) Pallate Surfing
70) An Oscar-Worthy Toddler Tantrum
71) Zach King’s Magic Vines
72) Sadie Doesn’t Want Her Brother To Grow Up
73) British NFL Commentary
74) Things You Can’t Do When You’re Not A Toddler
75) Seal Wants To Surf
76) Been Walking Up Late For Some Reason
77) Between Two Ferns: Brad Pitt
78) People Power Frees Man Trapped By Train
79) The Gap by Ira Glass
80) East Hills Mall Back To School Commercial
81) Wisdom Teeth Ice Bucket Challenge
82) That J Crew Gingham Shirt
83) Run, Walter, Run!
84) Mascot Traffic Accident
85) Grandpa and Grandmaster Flash
86) Mutant Giant Spider Dog
87) Jam Session Bat Attack
88) First iPhone 6 Gets Dropped
89) You Poked My Heart
90) Dog Thinks Terrace Door Is Closed
91) I Smell Like Beef
92) Kid Goes Diva
93) Auto-complete Song
94) Love At First Touch
95) Dallas Airport Homophobe
96) Walking On Clean Ice In Slovakia
97) Coyote & Crow Dance
98) Crash And Burn Weezer Cover
99) iPhone 6 Plus Bend Test

I always try to add a few that I think Greg Missed, so here you go:
100) Deez Nuts

Unedited Footage Of A Bear (Sponsored by Claridryl)

On the heels of “Too Many Cooks”, comes Adult Swim’s horrifying, disturbing and genius “Unedited Footage Of a Bear”. It begins with candid footage of a bear, as promised in the title. The bear footage is interrupted by a fake infomercial for a side-effect-prone nasal spray called Claridryl. It then rapidly devolves into chaotic violence. It aired for the first time on Adult Swim this week in their 4am infomercial slot. It’s dark, uncomfortable and brilliant.

The video’s “Skip Ad” button will take you to the promotional website for Claridryl. Let the website play all the way through or click the house about 10 times. The video was directed by Alan Resnik of Alan Tutorial fame and Memime fame.

Some side effects effects may may occur. If side effects occur occur please form a second opinion. Your inside affects your outside side effects; Claridryl affects your insides effects on your outside. Please choose sides before consulting Claridryl. Claridryl is not responsible for switched sides, insides or out. What were you thinking? Claridryl is not related to that.

Lowest Discrete Auction

Lowest Discrete Auction

After months of playing, I’m finally winning at Lowest Discrete Auction. The game works sort of like a reverse auction where you attempt guess what you think is the lowest distinct number out of all the players (currently there are 232 players). Creator Nick Berry describes describes the rules like this:

At the end of every day Multiple times a day (currently four scheduled, and some ad-hoc), out of all entries, the lowest distinct number is selected as the winner. When a new competition starts, all previous entries are automatically re-entered. If you win auction, others might guess the same number as you on later auctions, duplicating you and invalidating your low distinct status. Similarly, players who guess lower than you and have been blocked out, might move into the winning position by another player changing their guesses!

Top 10 Most Banned Books: 2013

For the past few years, during Banned Books Weak, I have put together a list of the top ten most banned books of the previous year. Out of 307 challenges (a decrease from the 464 challenges reported in 2012) as reported by the Office for Intellectual Freedom, here are the top ten:

2013

  1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
    Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence
  2. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
    Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
  3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
    Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
  4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
    Reasons: Nudity, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
  5. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
    Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group
  6. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for A Girl, by Tanya Lee Stone
    Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit
  7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
    Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
  8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
    Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
  9. Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
    Reasons: Occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
  10. Bone (series), by Jeff Smith
    Reasons: Political viewpoint, racism, violence

Click these links if you are looking for the top 10 lists for previous years with easy links to Amazon: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001.

Additionally, in 2010, I put together a list of the 100 Most Banned & Challenged Books Of The Decade by aggregating several lists from the American Library Association.

Black Rage


In light of the recent events in Ferguson, Lauryn Hill released her powerful song “Black Rage” on SoundCloud last week. She has been performing the song live for years now but it is only recently that she has released a recording of the song. Lauren Hill describes the emotional song as an old sketch that was recorded in her living room (you can hear the voices of children in the background).

Modeled after “My Favorite Things” with with lyrics that cut deep, the piece bring to the forefront not just of the depth of Ferguson’s injustice, but its context. The lyrics can be found below.

BLACK RAGE is founded on two-thirds a person
Rapings and beatings and suffering that worsens,
Black human packages tied up in strings,
BLACK RAGE can come from all these kinds of things.
BLACK RAGE is founded on blatant denial
Squeezed economics, subsistence survival,
Deafening silence and social control.
BLACK RAGE is founded on wounds in the soul!

When the dogs bite
when the beatings
When I‘m feeling sad,
I simply remember all these kinds of things and then I don’t fear so bad!

BLACK RAGE is founded: who fed us self hatred,
Lies and abuse while we waited and waited?
Spiritual treason, this grid and its cages,
BLACK RAGE is founded on these kinds of things.
BLACK RAGE is founded on draining and draining,
Threatening your freedom to stop your complaining.
Poisoning your water while they say it’s raining,
Then call you mad for complaining, complaining.
Old time bureaucracy drugging the youth.
BLACK RAGE is founded on blocking the truth!
Murder and crime, compromise and distortion,
Sacrifice, sacrifice who makes this fortune?
Greed, falsely called progress.
Such Human contortion.
BLACK RAGE is founded on these kinds of things.

So when the dogs bite
And when the ceilings
And when I’m feeling mad.
I simply remember all these kinds of things and then I don’t fear so bad!

Free enterprise, is it myth or illusion?
Forcing you back into purposed confusion.
Black human trafficking or blood transfusion?
BLACK RAGE is founded on these kinds of things.
Victims of violence both psyche and body
Life out of context IS living unGodly.
Politics. politics
Greed falsely called wealth
BLACK RAGE is founded on denial of self!
Black human packages tied in subsistence
Having to justify very existence
Try if you must but you can’t have my soul
BLACK RAGE is made by unGodly control!

So when the dogs bite
When the beatings
And when I‘m feeling sad,
I simply remember all these kinds of things and then I don’t fear so bad!

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