By Xeni Jardin at 1:06 pm Friday, Dec 24
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Phonecam snapshots from a family pilgrimage to the best tamale shop in Los Angeles, Tamales Lilianas, on First street near Cesar Chavez. We passed some beautiful makeshift Christmas altares in the street, big murals of la virgen de guadalupe all decked out with tinsel and fake pine wreaths and Hello Kitty and blinkie Snoopy lights. And guys on the street were selling pirated CDs of of Mexican holiday pop music. Cheesy carols from Los Bukis and stuff, bootlegged, on blankets. I love the street in East LA this time of year.
Tamales are an essential holiday tradition in Mexico and in every place where Mexico is felt. Christmas without them is like going tree-less. There's always a long line at Lilianas if you wait until Christmas Eve to go pick them up, but the longest of lines is a small penitencia to pay for that fragrant corn vapor that fills the car on the drive home. If there is a perfect scent, this is it. I sat in the back seat, with the bag pulled up around my face like I was huffing glue. Maybe Liliana sneaks a little crack into the masa or something. Me intoxican. De dulce, de rajas con carne, de pollo con chile verde, y sencillo, de elote. Irresistibles.
Larger phone-snap images: Steaming hot bag of fresh tamales, La Virgen on Cesar Chavez, and long line outside Lilianas.
By Xeni Jardin at 9:37 am Friday, Dec 24
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Image: Holiday nude shot by tech law journalist
Declan McCullagh, founder of the awesome tech news list
politech.
Link to full-size.
By Xeni Jardin at 9:15 am Friday, Dec 24
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Amazing site with MP3s, artist info, and background on Mexican-themed entertainment from Yugoslavia in the 1950s.
BB reader Dan Berkes says, "Meet the Slavic Mexicans! How a Cold War lover's quarrel resulted in one Eastern European nation's adoption of Mexican music and movies. Does this make Tito the father of the mashup?"
In 1948, the Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito (May 7, 1892 - May 4, 1980) broke up with the Soviet leader Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin (Dec. 21, 1879 - March 5, 1953) and Yugoslavia was on the brink of war with the Soviet Union. There were tanks on both sides of the border and Tito's regime imprisoned many Soviet sympathizers (real or just suspected). Russian films were suddenly not so popular anymore.
Yugoslav authorities had to look somewhere else for film entertainment. They found a suitable country in Mexico: it was far away, the chances of Mexican tanks appearing on Yugoslav borders were slight and, best of all, in Mexican films they always talked about revolution in the highest terms. How could an average moviegoer know that it was not the Yugoslav revolution?
Link. I'm a big fan of Mexican popular music from that same period, but this is pretty mindblowing. Behind the iron sombrero.
Update:
BoingBoing reader meeroh says, "Naturally, the Yu-Mex mashup was parodied, with the parodies often far better than the originals. One of my favorite parodies songs is here (MP3), and the somewhat poorly transcribed lyrics are here.
By Xeni Jardin at 9:00 am Friday, Dec 24
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BB reader
Isaac says,
"Remember the days before George Lucas so tightly controlled the Star Wars franchise? The days when there could be a Star Wars Christmas Special on TV? Cleaning out my garage, I found an old 45 RPM record from 1977: The Rebel Force Band, performing "Chewie the Rookie Wookie" (sort of Motown) and "May the Force Be With You" (imagine a lounge singer doing a version of "Sunrise, Sunset" - that's what it sounds like). Of course, nowadays something like this would never get off the ground; it's just not as sophisticated as Ewoks, Jar Jar Binks, or that Jake kid."
Link
By Xeni Jardin at 8:54 am Friday, Dec 24
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Cool work from a graphic designer who loves typography.
Link (
thanks, Siege)
By Xeni Jardin at 8:50 am Friday, Dec 24
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Snip from
the Register:
Seven people arrested last week by Dutch law enforcement officials for offering links to allegedly copyright-infringing content have been released. The group shared thousands of movies, games and music files through eDonkey and BitTorrent files.
Dutch lobby organisation BREIN remains likely to start criminal procedures against the site owners. BREIN believes that warez group DVD Europe Team, which shares illegal copies of movies as soon as they are released in cinemas, is part of the group that hosted the files.
Link (
Via DMCA-Discuss)
By Xeni Jardin at 8:32 am Friday, Dec 24
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These desperate amateur cookies will do anything to stay warm. Site includes recipes.
Link (
Thanks, Rose).
By Xeni Jardin at 8:29 am Friday, Dec 24
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Chris Hoofnagle from
EPIC says, "Marc Rotenberg and I came up with this list of ten privacy resolutions for 2005. Don't just try to lose weight next year, try to lose the data brokers too."
Link
By Xeni Jardin at 8:27 am Friday, Dec 24
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BoingBoing reader
Uncle Horn Head says, "I heard on NPR this afternoon that in the coming days it will be possible to see the
International Space Station with the naked eye. NASA has posted
a massive list of world cities with optimal viewing times."
That spot was a chat between Ira Flatow and Alex Chadwick on the NPR program "Day to Day," to which I'm a contributing tech correspondent. Here's the audio for that segment: Link
Reader Philip Downey adds, "The site heavens-above.com tells you when ANY satellite is going over anywhere in the world. One neat feature is going back a day in time to figure out what you saw last night."
By Xeni Jardin at 8:23 am Friday, Dec 24
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BB reader Chris from
Bay Area Vegetarians says, "It was cool to see the
earlier post on boingboing about the bio diesel busy. A friend of mine is actually on board and part of the team. They have a blog documenting the trip. It's full of cool photos!"
Link
And reader Eric Case says, "Over at the BiodieselBlog, I posted about something similar back in April: Link. They're using the oil left over from fish processing as biodiesel: Link."
By Xeni Jardin at 8:14 am Friday, Dec 24
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A quick housekeeping note: We're taking our web stats offline for a bit, while we dig into some technical considerations to ensure maximum clarity. We'll make them public again when that's complete.
By Xeni Jardin at 8:07 am Friday, Dec 24
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BB reader
moblog kid says, "A new mobile virus disguises itself as the game metal gear solid, disables all antivral software, and sends the cabir/sexxxy.sis virus to anyone in bluetooth distance. What i dont get is why there is no payload!"
Link
By David Pescovitz at 6:46 am Friday, Dec 24
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Following up on my earlier
post today about JewelEye, Shannon Larratt of the excellent
Body Modification Ezine points to his wife Rachel's personal account of Cosmetic Extraocular Implantation. Shannon says Rachel was the first American to have the procedure done. And I was very wrong in my original post: self-installation is clearly
not an option. Rachel writes:
"The procedure itself involved injecting a liquid to elevate and separate the layers of the eyeball, which helps the surgeon with the placement of the implant under the conjunctiva (in old age, many people build up calcium deposits in this area, so our eye is actually designed to handle material stuck there). A small flap is cut, and the implant is inserted. After it was in place, they began suctioning out the liquid that was used to elevate the layers. After a few weeks, the liquid will dissipate and the implant will become even more visible."
Link
By David Pescovitz at 6:15 am Friday, Dec 24
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BB pal
Terre Thaemlitz, who created my personal
directory page Web
site, just designed the new "Public Record" archive for audio activist ensemble Ultra-red. It's faxtastic.
Link
By David Pescovitz at 3:28 am Friday, Dec 24
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Last week, my wife stumbled upon a small monograph of the work of Iranian graphic designer
Reza Abedini.
Arabic Farsi Arabic (!) script is naturally beautiful, and I think Abedini's compositions, with text often a central graphic element, are incredibly fresh and emotional. Today, my friend Anne Sanger sent me a link to a great "Who's Who in Iranian Posters" page with links to even more information about the country's happening graphic design scene.
Link
By David Pescovitz at 2:45 am Friday, Dec 24
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Developed by the
Netherlands Institute for Innovative Ocular Surgery, the 3.5mm Cosmetic Extraocular Implant (brand name: JewelEye) is available in various shapes
and apparently can be self-installed.
"Earrings, make-up and more recently tattoos and piercings are accepted forms of body cosmetics. Surprisingly, no jewelry is available for the organ that is most important in social interactions, the eye."
Link (via MetaFilter)
Phonecam snapshots from a family pilgrimage to the best tamale shop in Los Angeles, Tamales Lilianas, on First street near Cesar Chavez. We passed some beautiful makeshift Christmas altares in the street, big murals of la virgen de guadalupe all decked out with tinsel and fake pine wreaths and Hello Kitty and blinkie Snoopy lights. And guys on the street were selling pirated CDs of of Mexican holiday pop music. Cheesy carols from Los Bukis and stuff, bootlegged, on blankets. I love the street in East LA this time of year.
