Seen above is an original Gristleizer, the custom audio effects unit that helped define the industrial sound of Throbbing Gristle (TG) in the late 1970s. TG co-founder Chris Carter made the device in 1977 based on a design printed in Practical Electronics magazine and sold in kit form by Phonosonics. (Cloned Analog Gear posted a PDF of the article.) Apparently, Carter is a quintessential maker. From an interview with him at Planet Origo:

When I was about 12 years old I was given a "Young Scientist" electronics kit that included instructions and parts to build a basic radio, a small amp, a flashing lamp and so on. Which I really enjoyed making. I then subscribed to Practical Electronics magazine and spent my pocket money buying electronic components to build the monthly projects. By the late sixties I was building synth circuits such as oscillators, filters, amps etc. from scratch....

When I joined TG I built an effect unit called a Gristleizer for each of us. This (now infamous) box of tricks consisted of a smallish metal case containing an LFO, VCF, VCA, a pre-amp, various front panel controls and LEDs. Certain settings on the Gristleizers were very distinctive and it's often regarded as imparting one of TG's trademark sounds. We used them on almost everything: synth, guitar, bass, violin, tapes, rhythms and of course on Genesis (P-Orridge's) voice. The beauty of the Gristleizers was that its range of sounds was so extreme, which also meant it could sound completely different depending on the instrument. The sounds included slow modulated filtering, a metallic ring-modulation effect , clipped and fuzzed distortion and tremolo. At the time there was no other battery powered effect unit capable of such a wide and weird range of sounds. When TG finished I was constantly being asked by musicians to build more Gristleizers but it was something I only did for a few friends . Ultimately I built about 10 units in total but I know there are at least two (just about) working

Chris Carter's Gristleizer (Throbbing-Gristle.com), From Which the Gristleizer Came (Matrixsynth), Interview: Chris Carter (Planet Origo)

Dig the psychedelic service provided by Apple Authorized Service centers back in the day. Far freakier than today's Genius Bars. Detail above. Joel posted the full painting over at Boing Boing Gadgets.
Happy Authorized Boxing Day

This image of a threatening snowman is from a 1927 postcard. It was reproduced in a Smithsonian magazine feature about the history of the snowman in pop culture. From Smithsonian:

While no one knows for sure when exactly the snowman began smoking a pipe and drinking hard liquor, it may have started as early as 1890, based on a label from a bottle of whiskey from that year. An 1898 postcard shows a snowman carrying two bottles of champagne off to an office party. On holiday greeting cards from the 1900s through and on (up to the 1930s), the snowman often has a drink in one hand and a pipe in the other, mirroring our society’s changes and America’s fascination with smoking and drinking. This would eventually escalate to the snowman cavorting with women and offering drinks to minors. One could argue that these depictions were, in a way, humanizing, but seeing a tipsy snowman chasing a girl with a stick is disturbing at best.

By 1908, there was clear evidence of his partying ways were out of control. In the silent movie The Snowman by Wallace McCutcheon, a chain-smoking snowman is swigging whiskey and appears in the rest of the film sloshed, inspiring a flogging by the townspeople. This behavior would continue on film and media through magazines and postcards as a pickled, skirt-chasing, under-the-table lush. In other words, he had become a frozen W.C. Fields. By the ‘30s and ‘40s, there is no question, the two started to look alike, both wearing straw hats, putting on more weight and looking more round and sporting crimson noses. And both enjoyed prolific silent movie careers based on their reputations as charming drunks. It’s hard to say if either had copied from the other but they were both enhanced by the other’s notoriety. Ironically, W.C. Fields hated the holidays and passed away on Christmas Day, 1946.

Snowman Gone Wild

UPDATE: In the comments, Bob Eckstein, the author of the Smithsonian article, points out that his book, The History of the Snowman, explains how snowmen developed their drinking problem. He says that his book is filled with many more fun images and deep insight into the secrets of snowmen. Bob also suggests we check out his Webzine, appropriately titled Today's Snowman.

Continuing in our lazy-time retrospective of favorite Boing Boing tv episodes from the past year, we revisit an animated music video gem by Kristofer Ström of Ljudbilden & Piloten, based in Sweden. Here's their blog. Snip from the original BBtv blog post:

This short work is a music video he created for the Swedish electronica band Minilogue. The track is "Animals," and the video features colorful critter-blobs wreaking hyperfun havoc all over an urban real-life-scape.

We asked Kristofer to tell us a little about how this came together, and he explains:

In late 2007 we (me and the band Minilogue) started talking about making a followup to the very popular "hitchhiker's choice" video. At the same time I was doing some VJ-ing for them and found that those little animations i made for that could be characters in their next video. So I started producing a lot of loops of creatures. I hooked up with bart yates, nicholas wakeham and erik buchholtz, and our first thought was to put them all in an animated world... but i didn't really feel it. Then Erik showed me a test of my characters motion-tracked onto some footage -- and there it was. So he went out shooting some spots, rough cuts without the creatures, then we added those little fellas in the footage. Voilá! A longer version will be found on the minilogue DVD, coming this fall, finally! The longer version of "hitchhiker's choice" will be on there too. Some other stuff can be found on our temporary web site: http://varelsen.com. Link to Minilogue's YouTube features. (Special thanks to Claire Jones, and to Cocoon.)

confidence
drunkard's dozen
hr giger bar
sorry i missed your party
how to know when to leave the bar

community art makers

previously on web zen:
n.y.e party music zen

Permalink for this edition. Web Zen is created and curated by Frank Davis, and re-posted here on Boing Boing with his kind permission. Web Zen Home and Archives, Store (Thanks Frank!)

Behold the Devil's armchair. Michael-Anne Rauback has been on a quest for weird chairs this week and this is the third fave find. The 1960s chair above, by Anthony Redmile, is made from malachite, bone, horn, and wood. If I ruled, this would be my throne. Anthony Redmile carved armchair

The great Eartha Kitt passed away today. Obituaries: Washington Post, Reuters, New York Times.

Over at Boing Boing Offworld, Margaret Robertson considers what a "childhood Christmas" exhibit might look like in a videogame museum. An excerpt from his delightful essay:

Part of my work this year has been helping with the launch of the UK’s National Videogame Archive, and it’s meant having a lot of interesting conversations with interesting people about what a game museum might look like. My favourite suggestion so far was that we recreate a childhood Christmas - that childhood Christmas, when whatever it was that changed your life arrived.

So you’d book your ticket, and pay your money, and there when you arrived - alongside the Big Trak or the Tracy Island or whatever it was your sister wanted - there’d be a box with your name on it, wrapped in that papery paper you don’t seem to get any more - and you’d be allowed to rip it open and turn it over and over and over and look at the pictures of Rygar or Pole Position or whatever it was, before taking a deep breath and letting rip on the flaps. At which point a security guard would probably escort you from the premises.

As an idea for a museum exhibit, I admit, it needs a little work, but I’d still love to do it. My big box - my big boxes - would have an ST and a monitor in them, and the tiny, shiny screenshot that I’d pour over would be of Ranarama...

One More Go: Ranarama

Yesterday, I posted that oddity auction scout Michael-Anne Rauback has been seeking unusual vintage chairs this week (just for kicks, not to buy). Here is the second of her top three online finds: A chair fashioned from a child's drum, circa 1940s. Child's Drum Chair

Yesterday, I shared some scanned hand-drawn Christmas cards from children (and their parents) in a K'iche' Maya village in Guatemala -- people who participate in the work of an international nonprofit I volunteer with there, along with family and friends.

This year, we included two additional elders in the foundation's Christmas festivities in the Guatemalan highlands, which brings the total number of participating elders in our Ancianos de Honor program to 22. Two of the most recently honored ancianos are blind. You can see them in the photograph below. They both completed their hundredth birthdays this month. They were brought to our foundation's center by some very caring young people.

Above, the elders receive their gifts from our local director in Sololá, Don Victoriano. It's the first time in the lives of these two new elders that they have received a gift or been honored in this way.

Upon receiving his gift, centenarian Don Juan expressed thanks to Ajaw (the Mayan creator god) and to the givers of the gift who had "the good conscience to remember the forgotten elders."

The Christmas gift baskets they are receiving typically include bread, dried pasta and rice, chocolate and candies, corn flour for making tortillas or tamales, dried beans, fruit, and household necessities. The local project directors, who are from the community themselves, make those arrangements and include things that are customary, and part of the local diet.

These elders are among the most at-risk and neglected members of the community, and often suffer malnutrition and health problems related to a lack of food, water, and protection from the elements. They live literally on the fringes of the village, and fall through the cracks -- they become invisible.
Our foundation works to reach out to them, document their existence and their needs, and provide basic support, bringing them back into the center of the community where they belong, with honor and respect.

We are working toward establishing the same ongoing support system within the community for these elders that we are providing for the children of the village.

- Happy holidays to all of you from the people in our communities in Guatemala and Nima Mam Ajq'ij, Dr. M. X. Quetzalkanbalam, international executive director, and our international staff of directors: Anamaria de To and David To Quiñones, Guatemala; Jolon Bankey, Costa Rica; and Xeni Jardin, Mike Outmesguine, and Mar Doré, USA.

(Photos: Top and bottom, courtesy Don Victoriano; center thumbnails, Xeni Jardin).

Happy holidays from Boing Boing tv! Continuing in our retrospective of favorite episodes from our first year:

Each year, David Silverman (director of the Simpsons Movie, and longtime director of the TV show) illustrates holiday cards for friends and family. Xeni visits him in his home studio for a re-enactment of the craziest years in holiday cheer, complete with tuba carols.

( Flash embed above, and here's a direct MP4 download link. )

The stupendously talented artist Mitch O'Connell emailed me this online greeting that was "glitterized" by Colleen Fry. Thank you, Mitch, and a Merry Christmas to all!

Today at Boing Boing Gadgets, we found an old copy of Ladybird books' How Computers Work, but we're not sure it's from this universe.

British advertising regulators banned a Dyson ad they had already cleared and which they agreed was accurate. Psion finally realized that its "Netbook" trademark is slipping through its fingers.

Joel found a flat HDMI cable you can embed in drywall, John spotted a surreal Windows ad from Japan, and Rob beheld Sony's new not-a-netbook -- or maybe the case it comes in.

Apple's PC market share slipped due to the netbook revolution, a Fry's exec got collared on embezzlement charges, and artists designed bizarre cars for the future.

Don't miss Joel and the BBTV folks' awesome CES preview vid: Tell us how you want us to cover it.

Oh, yes. Merry Xmas (Or whatever!)

I just returned from a YouTube-induced time machine trip back to the cyberdelic 1990s. Somebody posted a 1996 episode of the long-gone TV program "Internet Cafe." That evening, the guests included RU Sirius, the late, great St. Jude, and, er, me talking about cyberpunk culture, online writing, and Web zines. Wearing my bOING bOING propeller beanie (not literally), I gave a quick tour of some of my favorite weird and wonderful Web destinations of the day, including bOING bOING founder Carla Sinclair's pioneering Net Chick Clubhouse. St. Jude is featured in part 1. The inimitable RU Sirius is the star of part 2. My segment starts at the end of part 2 and continues into part 3.

Max Impact is the Air Force's nu metal band. The frontman, Master Sergeant Ryan Carson, was a college student majoring in opera before enlisting. He begins each concert with the invocation: "We're going to rock your face off!" From the lyrics to the Max Impact tune "Locked and Loaded":

“Walk in the shade of the clouds at night,"

"Crawling in the dirt, calling an A-10 strike,"

"Dancing in the shadows, lives are on the line,"

"Bombs are gonna fall, just in time.”

Air Force Nu Metal band (Danger Room)

Arcades are dead. And rightfully so: American arcades never bothered to change with the times (despite a brief dalliance with the public spectacle of games like Dance Dance Revolution).

Not so in Japan, where arcades continue to evolve in surprising ways, in the stereotypical "bigger, crazier" Japanese method, as well as the more pedestrian. Case in point: Yuka Nakajima, queen of "Crane Games", those funny claw machines that are commonly ignored in department store vestibules in the States but big business in Japan. Nakajima is so adept at "UFO Catchers" (the Japanese moniker for all claw machines) that she has an entire room filled with the stuffed bears she has won and is the star of video tutorials included in the games themselves.

I learned about Nakajima in the new book Arcade Mania: The Turbo-charged World of Japan's Game Centers by Brian "The Sweetest Man in Games Journalism" Ashcraft and Jean "Pretty Sweet Himself" Snow. Ash is a pal, so I was a bit worried when I first got my copy; how interesting could a book about arcades be? Turns out I had nothing to fret about. There's a whole new set of human experience happening inside Japan's game centers and it's just as varied and weird and surprising as you could hope it would be.

I too often have an expectation, a caricature, in mind about Japan and its culture that occludes my perception of the people living and playing there. That's natural, of course, and perhaps even welcome: it makes a reading a book that supplants many of my preconceptions so effectively even more exciting.

Arcade Mania: The Turbo-charged World of Japan's Game Centers [Amazon]

Talk about a mash-up.

The legendary  James Thurber wrote the parody,  "A Visit from Saint Nicholas in the Ernest Hemingway Manner" for the Christmas Eve edition of The New Yorker magazine in 1927. The poem's inventor,  Clement C. Moore, will never be the same.

It is my great pleasure to read it aloud:

(Susie Bright is a guest blogger)

(Flash video embed above, MP4 download is here.)

This week, the Boing Boing tv crew is taking a week off, and we've been revisiting some of the episodes that mean the most to us over the past year.

For me, for many reasons, the three episodes we produced from a K'iche Maya pueblo in the Guatemalan highlands were the most personally important. I'll embed one above.

It's about taking a traditional sweat bath, which is something they might well be doing today there during the holidays, provided there's enough water -- that only comes every few days.

Here are all three:

(1) BBtv WORLD: Through the eyes of the pueblo.
(2) BBtv WORLD: Migration, and a Mayan Sweat Bath.
(3) BBtv WORLD: El Molinero.

And other episodes of "BBtv WORLD" about Guatemala are here. But I also wanted to take this opportunity to share something else that means a lot to me. Last night, I scanned some of the hand-drawn Christmas cards from participants in an international non-profit I work with there, and uploaded them to Flickr. These were private cards, sent from folks in the pueblo to project participants in the US (in other words, they weren't for sale or anything, they were just heartfelt communication from one person to another).

I'm sharing some of them here with permission. They're beautiful and very meaningful to me.

Some of the cards refer to the old Mayan gods (for instance, references to "Ajaw", or "Tzaq'ol and Bit'ol", primordial entities who were present at the creation of all things), other cards refer to to Christianity. Some were created by children, others by adults, and the one with the Mayan house and the big Christmas tree and the volcano, thumbnail above? That man is considered the best painter and illustrator in the town. Every one of the cards, all in a stack next to me on my desk here right now, every one reflects soul, kindness, and hope.

To really appreciate them, click on "all sizes" and look at the larger size. The one I received personally read, "Feliz Navidad, y Paz a Todas Las Naciones Del Mundo." I know the woman who drew it, and she's survived so much.

On behalf of the Boing Boing tv team, and my colleagues in the nonprofit that works in that village, I extend that greeting to each of you who reads this blog post today. Friends we know, and friends we do not.

Flickr set: Christmas cards from a K'iche Maya Village in Guatemala

Keita Takahashi, creator of Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy, drew a special holiday greeting for Boing Boing Offworld readers. Detail above. Here is the whole thing: "Happy Holidays from Offworld (feat. Keita Takahashi)"

David Vaughan, aka PC Konk the clown, was made to strip down to his underwear at Birmingham Airport, England when his costume set off the metal detectors. He was booked to do an in-air charity show for disadvantaged children. Apparently, PC Konk was good humored about it. From The Guardian:

A piece of metal on his costume set off the security alarm, prompting security guards to confiscate his plastic handcuffs and order him to strip down to his shorts and T-shirt.

Staff also demanded he put the liquid for his plastic bubble-blowing saxophone into a clear sealed plastic bag.

"I'd made sure I'd bought plastic handcuffs and a plastic whistle but I hadn't realised that the costume had a metal band – I thought it was plastic," said Mr Vaughan, from Shard End, Birmingham.

Clown strip-searched before children's charity flight

This week, oddity auction scout Michael-Anne Rauback has been on the hunt for unusual vintage chairs, not to buy but just to... appreciate. She shared with me her three favorite finds, starting with this gorgeous Pedro Friedeberg Hand & Foot Chair from the 1960s. I'll post the others over the next two days. Pedro Friedeberg Hand & Foot Chair

Musicians and human rights group Reprieve launched a "silent protest" against the use of music for torture and interrogation. For example, the playlists at places like Guantanamo Bay and other US military prisons/bases has included such hot platters as Deicide's "Fuck Your God" and the theme song from Barney The Purple Dinosaur. Musicians like Trent Reznor want to stop the insanity. From Danger Room:

Chloe Davis, a researcher for Reprieve, told Danger Room the Zero dB campaign was planning to work with prominent musicians to lobby the incoming administration.

"It is really important that we seize the chance to alert Obama to this practice," she said. "... I think there will be people on the other side trying to catch Obama’s attention, saying we need to be tough. We’re trying to counter that message."

Rockers To Press Obama on Music Torture

Today, I'm off to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with a new generation of children who've never seen the Pacific Ocean like this before.

Someone called MBA one of "10 Things You Have to See Before You're 10" which made me smile- but it's a really a place that invites multiple pilgrimages over a lifetime.

Here are live webcams of their OuterBay exhibit, Kelp Forest, Aviary, Otters, and others. Just remember there's no substitute for petting the head of a manta ray- softer than goofer feathers.

The MBA is a revelation compared the aquariums I visited as a child in the 60s... where you peered into a series of "boxes" with plant and marine life hiding around. With MBA, it's like the sky- or in this case, the ocean- opens up. The anchovies swirl over your head- yes, you read that right. The comb jellies, as seen above, seem to be sending you secret messages. The architects of MBA give as much thought to mind-blowing design as they do to science, and so it's no wonder the whole environment is a psychonaut's delight.

The latest gizmo from MBA:  Seafood Watch for Your Cell Phone

(Susie Bright is a guest blogger)

I'm not much of a Christmas music person. For me, Tchaikovsky and Guaraldi are pretty much the only things that don't make me hurl. Maybe because they're both a little melancholy.

I really like the YouTube video from a guy who calls himself "alabamaharpist" (aka Steven Todd Miller) above, doing a cover of "Christmastime is Here," my favorite Guaraldi / Charlie Brown Christmas song. The harp is like the unicorn of musical instruments. It's easy for people to make fun of, because it's so pure and innocent. And like the unicorn, it ends up in a lot of bad, cheesy art, and is the stuff of fantasy cons and filkfests. But so what. I think the harp is totally awesome, and Harpo was my favorite Marx brother by far, and Christmas is about the only time of year I'll let my guard down to admit any of this in public, and by the way shut up.

I love this, too, and I could listen to it all day on loop, at least 'til the soy-nog runs out.

So what's your favorite holiday music? Post some linkage in the comment thread here. Internet videos, internet radio channels (surely Soma FM's multiple holiday channels deserve some props), MP3 blogs? What are you eating fruitcake to? Or when you spin the dreidel, what do you spin on the vinyl? Talk to me. Link-discuss-hohoho.

TED2009 (Technology, Entertainment, Design) announced their speaker program. Above is a screen shot of the speakers whose last names begin with the letter M. You can click here then on the tab "Program" for detailed information about all the speakers.

I've attended last two TED events and they've been very inspiring and humbling. I'll be at the upcoming TED in Long Beach, California, too, liveblogging like I did last year and the year before!

I love the way this surfer talks in this TV news interview. (Thanks, Gabe Adiv!)

Over at Boing Boing Offworld, Brandon posted about these joystick coat hooks. They're not DIY, but they certainly could be!
Hanging Joysticks

This purple squirrel has been hanging around Meoncross School in Stubbington, England. Nobody is quite sure where it's unusual fur color comes from, but the school's registrar Lorraine Orridge has a suspicion. From The Telegraph:

"We don't think he is a mutant squirrel but he may have had a mishap around the school. "The old building where we have seen him nipping in and out is a bit of a graveyard for computer printers. He may have found some printer toners in there.

Purple squirrel baffles experts

Joshuah Bearman says:

A New Yorker story about home grown atom bombs! Or really, a home grown atom bomb researcher -- a truck driver who single-handedly reconstructed the still classified construction of Little Boy and Fat Man.

What I love about this particular piece is the motivational parallels between Coster-Mullen and the origins of the bomb he wants to recreate. It was the pure pursuit of knowledge that led to the atom bomb. Physicists wanted to understand how the universe worked at the atomic level, and there happened to be some very serious consequences to unlocking the secrets of the grand watchworks. Now, Coster-Mullen, has dedicated himself to understanding the mechanical watchworks of Little Boy. There is no motivation beyond knowing, but that pursuit too has some potentially serious consequences.

How A Truck Driver Learned to Build An Atom Bomb

The Mayor of Mt. Holly wrote about the wonderful Chris Montez on his blog, and found this 1966 video of his song "The More I See You." Good stuff.

Oh, man how I love Chris Montez. I got turned on to him by my good pal John P. of King Cat fame, and if that is not reason enough to believe that Mr. Montez isn't something of a ray of sunshine on the face of all living creatures, check this!

Those Beatles fellas opened up for Chris Montez at his 1962 London show!

It is alleged that while in London for said show he got into a fight with John Lennon in a pub and that Lennon poured a pint over his head at one point.

Mr. Herb Alpert signed Chris Montez to his fledgling A&M record label, resulting in 3 amazing records of laid back, cheery, latin-infused bliss.

Chris Montez!

Continuing in Boing Boing tv's "Road to CES" series, Joel Johnson at Boing Boing Gadgets sez:

Although we didn't bother with CES last year, this year the Boing Boing team will be out in the cold Las Vegas desert, sifting through piles of sadness incarnate to find the precious products that might actually make our lives — if not truly better — a little happier in the coming year.

I'm more excited about going to CES as I have been in a long time. (Thanks in large part to your suggestions.) We try to keep it positive around here, but sometimes that's easier to do when everyone else seems so down in the dumps.

At least that's how I think it'll be at this year's show. Perhaps the convention won't be quite as bleak as I imagine in this "Road to CES" video we've put together.

Join the discussion thread with Joel, Brownlee, and Beschizza over at Boing Boing Gadgets.

Flash embed over there, and here's a direct MP4 link if you'd prefer to download.

Previously -- here was Xeni's video installment: The Road to CES: What do you want? (BBtv + Boing Boing Gadgets)

---

Sponsor shout-out: Boing Boing TV's coverage of CES 2009 is sponsored by WEPC.com, in partnership with Intel and Asus. WePC.com is intended to be a site where users come together to "share ideas, images and inspiration about the ideal PC." Participants' designs, feature ideas and community feedback will be evaluated by ASUS and "could influence the blueprint for an actual notebook PC built by ASUS with Intel inside."

---

Henrietta and Merna's enthusiastic Christmas cheer is positively infectious. (Via Arbroath)

The Telegraph reports that a Saudi court won't allow an 8-year-old girl to divorce her 58-year-old husband. The court in its wisdom ruled that the girl must reach puberty before she can pursue her case.

The divorce plea was filed in August by the girl's divorced mother with a court at Unayzah, 220 kilometres (135 miles) north of Riyadh just after the marriage contract was signed by the father and the groom.

"She doesn't know yet that she has been married," the lawyer said then of the girl who was about to begin her fourth year at primary school.

Saudi court rejects plea to annul 8-year-old girl's marriage to 58-year-old man (via Anorak)

The LA Times has an article about how cats are popular as food in the Guangdong province.

Dog is eaten in many parts of China, but only in Guangdong do people eat cat. It is rare to see a stray wandering the streets. Many cats served for supper here are shipped down from the north.

The Small Animal Protection Assn. says one Guangzhou-based business captures up to 10,000 cats per day from different parts of China. The cat snatchers are typically formerly unemployed people who use large fishing nets and are paid $1.50 per cat.

"They've eaten all their cats so they have to take ours from Beijing. People don't want to let their cats go out on the street," said Zhao Ming, a 55-year-old physician who was among about 40 people demonstrating in Beijing.

The cat trade thrives in a seemingly boundless gray area of commerce. Police are reluctant to charge the cat catchers with theft because many of the cats involved live outside and, in the famously independent way of cats, are not technically owned by humans, merely fed and nurtured.

Chinese seek to pull cats from the menu

Radley Balko, senior editor at Reason, has an update on Dymond Milburn, the 12-year-old girl who was grabbed out of her front yard by three undercover police who accused her of being a prostitute and then beaten so badly she had to go to the hospital to get her head injuries treated.

Balko has learned that the lawsuit is real, not a hoax as some have suggested. Here's a copy (pdf) of the complaint. And here's a record of the filing in federal court.

In the Houston Press the attorney for the officers Milburn is suing gave a statement:

"The father basically attacked police officers as they were trying to take the daughter into custody after she ran off."

"The city has investigated the matter and found that the conduct of the police officers was appropriate under the circumstances. It's unfortunate that sometimes police officers have to use force against people who are using force against them. And the evidence will show that both these folks [meaning 12-year-old Dymond and her father] violated the law and forcefully resisted arrest."

Says Balko: "As far as I can tell, Texas does appear to allow for a citizen to resist an unlawful arrest if the arrest meets certain conditions:"

Texas Penal Code Chapter 9, Subchapter C, Section 9.31, Subsection C:

(c) The use of force to resist an arrest or search is justified: (1) if, before the actor offers any resistance, the peace officer (or person acting at his direction) uses or attempts to use greater force than necessary to make the arrest or search; and (2) when and to the degree the actor reasonably believes the force is immediately necessary to protect himself against the peace officer's (or other person's) use or attempted use of greater force than necessary.

Balko comments:

Even setting aside the severe beating Milburn's lawsuit says she received at the hands of the police (which is presumably backed by records from the hospital she was admitted to later that night), you're left with several plain-clothes police officers jumping out of an unmarked van, calling a 12-year-old girl a prostitute, then attempting to snatch her from her own front yard. I would think that those actions alone would satisfy the "greater force than necessary" portion of the statute.

Dymond Milburn Update

Amy Crehore posted some preliminary designs for the ukuleles that will be on display at her "Dreamgirls and Ukes" exhibition at Thinkspace in Los Angeles from Feb 13-March 6, 2009.

Ukulele Headstock Art by Amy Crehore

The December 22, 2008 edition of Democracy Now! has a segment about Mike Connell, the Republican IT Specialist who died in a plane crash last week.

A top Republican internet strategist who was set to testify in a case alleging election tampering in 2004 in Ohio has died in a plane crash. Michael Connell was the chief IT consultant to Karl Rove and created websites for the Bush and McCain electoral campaigns. Michael Connell was deposed one day before the election this year by attorneys Cliff Arnebeck and Bob Fitrakis about his actions during the 2004 vote count in Ohio and his access to Karl Rove’s email files and how they went missing,

Guest: Mark Crispin Miller, professor of media culture and communication at New York University. He is the author of several books, including Loser Take All: Election Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy, 2000-2008 and Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They’ll Steal the Next One Too.

Rove's computer guru, Mike Connell dies in plane crash

In the war for blue jean supremacy, there is no more worthy, yet neglected contender than the Wild Ass Jean, complete with six Wild Ass bachelor buttons and red suspenders. Fleece lining, your choice!

I spotted these jeans on the street, not because of the double-duty denim craftsmanship, but because of the little tag on the rear pocket that featured a little donkey kicking his hind legs like he really means business!

Once I arrived at Bailey's woodsman supply site, I realized that I was one chipper behind the curve. The work clothes and boots they offer are the warmest, ruggedest, and strangely, most flattering work togs I've purchased in years.

As a seamstress, I can tell you that making your own jeans is for "advanced members" only. (See my Craft Liturgy: "Life's Too Short for Pants"). For those of you who won't be turned away, I suggest starting with Sandra Betzina's Vogue pattern #7608 -- plus her book, Fast Fit. You will also need two sewing machines set up -- one for straight stitch, one for double -- plus a serger, if you hope to finish your jeans within a month. There is no ballgown that takes as much labor and finesse as a tailored pair of Western jeans -- but your buttons will burst if you pull it off successfully!

UPDATE: Email Bailey's to get on their waiting list for the next supply of Wild Asses! Many sizes are already gone for the Xmas rush.

(Susie Bright is a guest blogger)

My mother died four years ago, on a Christmas week. My father passed the next winter, when the light started changing and the warm days were gone for good.

A nurse called me one night from my mother's hospital bed and talked about the winter chill -- how when the temperatures suddenly dropped, even though everyone was well-heated in the nursing home, a score of people would pass away. The dying of the light at the end of the year was more than just a metaphor.

I feel a kindred spirit with others who've lost close friends and family during the holidays -- our memories of those relationships, warm or troubled, close or estranged, are overwhelming this time of year.

I was fortunate to find a book after my parents died, called Always Too Soon: Voices of Support for Those Who Have Lost Both Parents, which is a collection of interviews with an incredibly diverse group of people who don't mince words about the transformation of loss.

Who knew that actor/rapper Ice-T got his nickname as a result of how cold he became as a child when he lost his mom and dad. I sobbed over Geraldine Ferraro's story, of all people. Each story is  illuminating and comforting, especially during the holiday mania, when "false consciousness" seems to be in overdrive.

Listening to my parent's voices, the little bits of recording I have, is especially poignant to me, more than photo albums. Both my parents were linguists; that's how they met as students, each interested in Native California history.

The only recording I have of my mom, Elizabeth, is her interviews with elderly Patwin tribe members in the 1950s, sharing stories and songs from the last of the original fluent speakers. Even though I don't understand most of what they're saying, I'm spellbound by the timbre of my mother's voice.

In my father's case, Bill Bright, he was a veteran broadcaster from KPFA, and delighted in being on the air. I interviewed him about his life and language interests at length on my Audible audio program: 

MP3 file: Bill Bright, 8/13/28 - 10/15/06

In the first segment, Bill talks about his book, Native American Place Names in the United States. You will learn why the origin of the town name, Loleta, CA, comes from an elderly Wiyot man telling a lumber baron's wife, "Let's fuck!" There's more than one story of American place names like this!  He also explains the political and sexual controversy behind the much-abused word "squaw" -- which is a lot more complicated than you might think.

In the second segment, I asked my dad what was his first experience was of looking at something "erotic." He describes a series of "Tijuana Bibles" that circulated on the Oxnard Union High School playground in the 1930s -- and how his eyes were opened when he came to Berkeley in the post-war years.

At the end of our interview- and this part always makes me cry -- Bill recounts some of Coyote's mythic and erotic misadventures. He sings me a song, in the Karuk language, as a girl would sing to capture the attentions of a young man she might have her eye on. He has such a beautiful voice! He learned this song from Nettie Rubin, one of the native speakers and consultants he met when he was just a young man with a wire recorder, traveling up the Klamath River. She told Bill that since he didn't have a daughter, she was going to have to pass on all her special "daughter songs" to him.

Photo: Elizabeth and Bill Bright, 1954, on Army leave in Florence

(Susie Bright is a guest blogger)

I've been working on a memoir -- which was catalyzed by Tin House editor Rob Spillman when he asked me if I had a story about going to the high school prom, for his new book.

I told him that at my school in the 1970s, only "squares" went to the prom, but that I did have a rather illicit role in a Quaalude-drenched swim-team banquet at the famous Century City Playboy Club.

Did that count? He said yes. On that initiative, the following chapter began:

I was a high school swim team score-girl before I was a commie. I'm glad things ended up that way, because otherwise I never would've been able to touch the Playboy Bunny, and carry on my sensual, if guilty, disposition.

The high school swim team was my ticket to an almost-prom, to halcyon schooldays, to a bartended, dress-up affair.

The Trotskyists, the Yippies, the lavender pinkos -- they gave me guns and a good deal to think about, but nothing soft or fluffy.

I went to a school called University High -- a white, mostly Jewish school in West Los Angeles. Its public face was one-part Hollywood Colony, one part UCLA professors' kids. In the '70s, there was no truly integrated school in the district. A discreet number of black students from South Central Los Angeles were bused into white schools from the time they were in Kindergarten.

It was not a two-way street. It was a cradle-to-cap affair.

Continued...

(Susie Bright is a guest blogger)

My post about Santa Claus's Fortean family tree reminded BB contributor Charles Platt of this delightful greeting card he made in 1994. Of course, as Charles points out, the Satan/Santa connection is no joke to some. Santa Claus: The Great Imposter

(Flash embed above, here's a downloadable MP4 link)

Continuing in our retrospective of favorite Boing Boing tv episodes from 2008, we return to zero gravity today.

With me on the Zero-G weightless flight featured in this episode are Intel Chairman Craig Barrett; my friend Sean Bonner from metblogs; and a bunch of science teachers from grade schools and high schools throughout the United States who were on board to conduct microgravity experiments for the kids back home.

As you watch, keep an eye out for the floating lego robot, a flying pig, and the barfing guy who is totally barfing for reals -- the rest of us did not, btw, I don't get sick in space.

What you see in this episode is what it really feels like, and it feels awesome.

(Special thanks to Peter Diamandis, and George and Loretta Whitesides)

BB pal Bonnie Burton of Lucasfilm and all things Star Wars says, "If Boing Boing readers want to see a REALLY retro Wookiee family photo, check out the Star Wars Holiday Special which aired once 30 years ago -- just in time for the holidays. Great stuff about the Holiday Special here too: link one, link two. The Bantha toy that Lumpy (Chewbacca's son) plays with in the Holiday Special inspired me to do this craft!"

This NYT article puts forth the argument that while our presently crappy economy is hurting retail sales overall, crafting stores and web services that involve crafting are seeing, and will continue to see, a healthy bump:

Craft stores, from giant chains like Michaels Stores to small scrapbook supply shops, are reporting that sales are higher compared with the last holiday season, and online marketplaces for handmade goods, like Etsy, are seeing a boom in listings and transactions.

Sales at Scrap, a craft supply store in Portland, Ore., were up 33 percent in November compared with the year before. The shop’s customers have made a menorah out of yellow plastic bottle caps, Christmas tree ornaments from wood samples and calendars from fabric and paper collages, according to Sarah Dyer, the manager.

“A lot of people are doing a do-it-yourself Christmas, because of the economic downturn but also wanting to make their lives more sustainable, making stuff as opposed to buying more stuff,” she said.

For Craft Sales, the Recession Is a Help (New York Times)

Image: "rua dos remédios," a photograph of a crafting supply store in Portugal, by Flickr user Rosa Pomar.

NSFW, but you can take out your revenge on those rat bastards who ran AIG with this handy Flash game by the incredibly talented animator Joaquin Baldwin.

AIG CATCHER.

I like this clipping from a police blotter in the Silicon Valley area. I don't know if it's real or not, but I hope it is.
"Burrito Baby" on Flickr (Thanks, Kirsten Anderson!)

Bright Eyes (1934)

Starring Shirley Temple, with Charles Sellon -- completely upstaged by uber-brat Jane Withers. I'm starting to see where PeeWee Herman got some of his moves!

One of the best rat-a-tat-tat's is between the Indulgent Mom and her Spoiled Child:

Anita Smythe: Now, dear, practice your piano and Mama will buy you something nice.
Joy Smythe: What?
Anita Smythe: Anything you like. What do you especially want?
Joy Smythe: A machine gun!

Withers was cast- and everyone else sent home- the moment the director, David Butler, heard her impression of a machine gun.

Bright Eyes was quite the splash for our Shirley.  She won the first "child's" Oscar and made a hit out of the film's classic tune, "The Good Ship Lollypop." It was 1934's big Christmas movie. Even the dog in the show was a star- the same pooch played Toto in The Wizard of Oz!

(Susie Bright is a guest blogger)

I wrote for an essay for Good magazine's blog about the rebirth of amateur science. Here's an except:

For 72 years, Scientific American ran its popular “Amateur Scientist” column, which debuted in 1928. Projects included constructing an electron accelerator, making amino acids, photographing air currents, measuring the metabolic rate of small animals, extracting antibiotics from soil, culturing aquatic insects, tracking satellites, constructing an atom smasher, extracting the growth substances from a cantaloupe, conducting maze experiments with cockroaches, making an electrocardiogram of a water flea, constructing a Foucalt pendulum, and experimenting with geotropism. Who knew you could have so much fun at the kitchen table?

Good: The Return of Amateur Science

(Flash embed above, and here's a downloadable MP4.)

Happy Lazy-Time on Boing Boing tv! We're slowing down for the holidays, and taking a few weeks to gloat over all the fun stuff we produced together in 2008. Come join us in the seasonal gloating! Right here, under the genetically engineered mistletoe, by the warmth of burning fuel cells.

Today's installment: Remember when we flew out to the Mojave Spaceport to hang out with astronaut and American hero Buzz Aldrin, Virgin Galactic (and Virgin America, and Virgin everything) founder Sir Richard Branson, Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan, and other space luminaries for the Virgin Galactic launch? Well, why don't we just revisit that moment of glory here. It was a lot of fun. And we're hoping a future episode of our video hijinks will actually take place on the spacecraft. That's what we want for Christmas.

Original blog post here:
BBtv: Virgin Galactic and WhiteKnightTwo with Buzz, Branson, and Rutan.

Why revisit this episode today? Snip from a blog post on spacefellowship.com:

Earlier this week images were appearing on the internet showing that the WhiteKnightTwo craft had been doing some tests in Mojave, the earliest tests showed perhaps two of the engines being used, while a later test showed all the engines working and some further testing. Today we finally saw the four Pratt & Whitney Canada PW308A engines carrying the craft into the air and a huge milestone being reached by Virgin Galactic.

The maiden flight of the craft lasted just shy of one hour and happened today at around 08.15 at Mojave air and spaceport. Rumours suggest that a Beechcraft King Air was used for a chase plane. (...) This key event now leads us into an interesting 2009 when we should see the SpaceShipTwo craft being unveiled.

Read: Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Mothership Makes Maiden Flight.

And, you may also enjoy revisiting this related Boing Boing tv episode, another one of our faves from 2008: Xeni kicks the tech tires on Virgin America (Flash embed below, here's the downloadable MP4 Link).

In case you're joining the party late -- you can watch Boing Boing tv while you're on Virgin America airplanes, we think they're about as awesome as an airline gets, and I believe the Galactic episode above is actually playing on seat-back rotation right now.

COOP and Ruth's new Boing Boing t-shirts featuring COOP's awesome artwork are now shipping! I can't wait until my order arrives. There were only 69 available and Ruth tells me they are selling quickly.
Long-sleeved Boing Boing t-shirt