Etc.
There is something inexplicably sexy about chess boxing, a hybrid sport where players battle via both brawn and brains. Each match is a mix of alternating rounds of boxing and speed-chess, and the winner achieves victory through either a knockout or a checkmate, whichever comes first.
Possible spinoffs of the game include Monopoly boxing; because really, can we all agree that Monopoly is just begging to incorporate physical violence?
EDIT: Dang, where have I been? This is so last year.
Chess-Boxing Hits it Big [Time]
Even if your baby isn't quite old enough to appreciate the depth and complexity of nineties alternative rock, they might enjoy Rockabye Baby, a series of albums featuring lullaby instrumental versions of rock songs by No Doubt, Bjork, Smashing Pumpkins, and many other bands. You'll have yourself a cute little Gen X-er in no time.
Another quirky opera has cropped up, this one based upon the movie The Fly. But not the 1958 film...the David Cronenberg remake.
Cronenberg himself is directing the opera, composed by Howard Shore. Cronenberg's movie was released in 1986, but this show relocates the story to the 1950s.
Be aware, the link includes a rather risque picture of sexy fly-guy Daniel Okulitch.
`The Fly' opera is buzz of Paris season [Associated Press]
[via: Google News]
J.K. Rowling gave a pretty amazing address at the Harvard commencement ceremony this week. The complete text of it is available online.
Favorite part, hands down:
Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can't remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.
A British writer with an interest in American culture is composing an opera based upon the life of Anna Nicole Smith.
Richard Thomas formerly penned Jerry Springer - The Opera, which ran a few years ago. No, for real. Harvey Keitel was in it.
Thomas' newest opus will examine the tragic life and death of Anna Nicole.
"I love American culture," Thomas said. "Especially for opera, the stories seem to work on a grander, more epic scale. They seem more extreme -- it's a blessing and a curse."
British writer penning opera about Anna Nicole Smith [CBC News]
No, not that sort of beard. Though doesn't Beard Quest sound like it might be the name of the video game that Xandir P. Wifflebottom is from?
This charming fellow is attempting to grow out as many different facial hair formats as possible. So far he's up to 24. I swear I've seen at least three of these in the movie The Prestige. Or was it The Illusionist? On second thought, maybe it was System of a Down.
The Quest For Every Beard Type [Dyers.org]
Reno 911!'s Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant are planning a musical based upon...wait for it...the songs of Morrissey.
The show, entitled I've Changed My Plea to Guilty, will play out similarly to Mamma Mia!, telling a yet-unspecified story through the use of gay fave Moz's sweet songsmithery.
'Reno 911' Creators Composing Morrissey Musical [Spinner]
If you're anything like me, and anything like Best Week Ever blogger Dan Hopper, you're just a little bit tired of Amy Winehouse. Hopper elevates bloggery to an art form with this ingenius postmodern social commentary that bites straight to the soft nougaty center of senseless celebrity gossip.
Amy Winehouse Blah Blah Blee Blah Blee Bloo Blee Drugs Arrested Drugs [Best Week Ever]
The expression "so bad it's good" gets thrown around a lot these days, and can be applied to many different things, from the movie Troll 2 to the stylings of Fred and Sharon.
And while I feel like the composers of this twenty-two minute long ditty are attempting to join the ranks of the "so bad it's good" brigade, their creation is quite simply so good it's great. You wouldn't expect a mixture of bagpipes, tuba, accordian, opera, rap, western folk, and holiday anthems to be auditorily appetizing, and yet it all works together quite perfectly. It's sort of like how you'd never eat mustard or mayonnaise by itself, but put them together and you get sweet, delectable mayostard.
A Scientific Attempt To Create Most Annoying Song Ever [Wired]
I don't really think that lemon curd cookies and walnut brownies go particularly well with death metal, but the creator of The Black Oven would have us believe otherwise.
Within are several recipes vaguely inspired by black metal and the like. Imagine if the dudes from Metalocalypse had a bake sale and you'll get the basic idea. If you're expecting bonemeal spongecake or something you'll be disappointed, but those chocolate cream cheese cupcakes sound much tastier anyway.
So, okay, remember this? And later, this?
Well, now it looks like the New Kids are getting back together after all, and that Danny Wood is just a mendacious bastard.
Just kidding. Love ya, Woody.
But seriously. Not only will the New Kids be going on a reunion tour, they'll be releasing a brand new album. See for yourself in this incredibly long-winded, relatively sleazy press release.
New Kids on the Block to reunite [USA Today]
A hypocritical politician. A sexual peccadillo. A public toilet. No, it's not The Larry Craig Story! It's the plot of Paul Walker's Ladies & Gents, a new play now being performed in the unpleasant bathrooms of Bethesda Terrace at New York's Central Park.
New to these shores, anyway. According to CBS 3 News, the forty-minute play made quite a splash in European toilets, and a run in New York City was the logical next step after the runs in Great Britain and Ireland. Lame puns aside, the play actually sounds pretty interesting. Ladies & Gents, a thriller, consists of two simultaneous acts--one in the men's room and one in the ladies'--with the audience switching places at intermission.
The play runs three times nightly starting at 7:00 from now till March 29. I really, really, really hope it's the most fun you ever have in a Central Park restroom.
[via: News of the Weird]
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Clip of the Week
It was 1980 and disco was dead, but not in the UK!
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