THIS is a CLOSE-UP?

Well, this is pretty amazing. The potential for this as a teaching tool is tremendous, obv. You need either Google Chrome or the newest Firefox as a browser to make Google Body work, but viewing anatomy like you would view a landscape in Google Maps is quite an experience. Give it a go.

The Urban Institute For Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids is a cool, fun place: left-of-center movies, even more left-of-center music from time to time (I saw laptop-core savant Jason Forrest there a few years ago), and always bringing the cool art. From now until the end of the month, they have a rather unique exhibit of artist-designed mini-golf holes called 19 Holes . I played there last Saturday ("played" being a loose description of what I did there), surrounded by all sorts of folks clearly having fun with the art. Here are some pics:

...and the teachers are to blame. (Certainly not the banking and financial systems that took part of my tax dollars to maintain those sick and pernicious systems.) Well, that's what the governor Dick "One Tough Nerd" Snyder is promoting through his pro-corporate anti-education agenda. Consider the following Big Six: (1) Gov. Snyder’s proposed budget would slash at least $470 per pupil from every school district in the state, but in some districts it's closer to $1,000 per pupil when other K‐12 funding cuts are included. His budget would also raid the School Aid Fund to pay for community colleges and higher education (which also take steep funding cuts). These cuts will sacrifice the educational future of more than a million Michigan students. Class sizes will skyrocket given drastic layoffs, important student programs will be eliminated, and school employees will continue to be called on to make concessions, on top of the more than $1 billion given up in salary and b...

2004 was the first year I got up the balls to go to an out-of-state festival; armed with my friend and former MWHR colleague Brian Siers, we made the trek to California to see the two-day Coachella festival, featuring a one-two punch of The Pixies and Radiohead closing the first night. I've written about the Coachella trips before, and while the first one was special for many reasons, Brian and I did it better in future trips (for example, flying to Los Angeles instead of San Diego). But the concert landscape of 2004 looked something like this: David Bowie [The Palace of Auburn Hills 1.9] The Church [Magic Stick 3.11] N*E*R*D* / Black Eyed Peas [Clutch Cargo’s 4.9] Coachella Music & Arts Festival (Radiohead, The Cure, The Pixies, Kraftwerk, etc.) [Empire Polo Field, Indio, CA 5.1/5.2] Secret Machines / VHS Or Beta [Shelter 6.12] Franz Ferdinand / Sons And Daughters [Majestic Theater 6.13] Mouse On Mars / Ratatat / Junior Boys [Magic Stick 9.23] Vote For Change (Springste...

Most people know Jimmy Tamborello from his work as one-half of The Postal Service, his one-off project with Ben Gibbard from Death Cab For Cutie. But Jimmy also records under a lot of other aliases, such as James Figurine, Headset, and Dntel. It's from his Dntel persona that the following goodie comes from: Dntel -- Enya Mixes If you enjoy Enya but are looking for some tweaks here and there, then this is for you. And the price is right, as Tamborello is putting it out there for the love of Enya and the love of the project. Which is pretty cool.

...is a laughable and pathetic platitude that comes from the mouths of right-wing politicians all too often these days. (To paraphrase the late great Bill Hicks, every word that comes out of their mouths is now like a turd falling into my drink.) It's clear in the minds of many Republicans that unless we eliminate funding to Planned Parenthood and the like, we should expect abortion franchises to pop up at every corner, akin to the near-viral proliferation of Rite-Aid and check cashing joints, to satisfy this overwhelming 24/7 demand for abortion that does not and will never exist. Thankfully, my only experience with abortion has been researching it for my classes, and while it's certainly the least favorite section of my Human Sexuality class, I would never dream of excising such compelling and important material. (And I'm pleased that the most recent text I chose for the class took the abortion discussion out of the contraception chapter -- abortion as contraception is...

That's what more than one person might do after visiting this site , which details (with no-holds-barred photos) the ongoing travails of sci-fi writer Peter Watts fighting a nasty strain of necrotising fasciitis, otherwise known as "flesh-eating bacteria." When you hear something like "flesh-eating bacteria," your first thought might be "oh, that term is a media-driven exaggeration." You think this until you see the photos, and then you hope with your hopiest hopebone that you never ever become a victim of necrotising fasciitis. Just amazing stuff.

In retrospect, 2003 would have to be considered a down year after the palindromic delights of 2002. I mean, what else is there to accomplish after meeting David Bowie? Driving to New York state to see David Bowie, I suppose. While I don't want to poo-poo the whole year, consider the following shows: Interpol / Calla [St. Andrew’s Hall 1.11] Ladytron / Simian [St. Andrew’s Hall 2.25] Idlewild [Magic Stick 4.24] The Faint / Schneider TM [Majestic Theater 5.15] Adult. / Magas [Magic Stick 5.17] Dave Gahan / Kenna [Majestic Theater 8.2] Electric Six / Junior Senior [Michigan State University 8.11] David Bowie [The Chance, Poughkeepsie, NY 8.19] The Dandy Warhols [The Metro, Chicago 9.6] Fischerspooner / Kenna [Majestic Theater 10.4] See? Not a lot of shows, and what shows there were weren't exactly life changers. But as always, there were some goodies here and there: -- Finally seeing the release of New Sacred Cow (an absolutely wonderful debut from Kenna, who was la...

I'm not sure if Stanley Kubrick and David Bowie ever met -- I could imagine Bowie as the caretaker in The Shining , or in Eyes Wide Shut as the ringmaster of the secret club -- but if it was the early 70s, it might have looked and sounded something like this: JY CINEMASHUP - The Ludovico Technique from Jeff Yorkes on Vimeo .