NCC-1701, Beta Version.
[Found here.]
Category: Cool
Tacky Raccoons Greatest Hit
Folks–
On 21 December 2007, the record was set for the amount of traffic in one day, with almost 15K. That record was broken yesterday with over 20,500 hits.
Thanx to the folks who linked on Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon, Twitter and Facebook, and thanx also to our regular visitors. Y’all made my day.
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Late breaking news: WordPress is having a contest, and this post is our official entry.
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[Update: After reconsideration, we decided to delete the poll. It was pointless, as we’ll never have a “tip jar” on this site.]
[Update: Famous last words.]
Norton
Joshua Abraham Norton (c. 1819– January 8, 1880), the self-proclaimed His Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, was a celebrated citizen of San Francisco, California, who in 1859 proclaimed himself “Emperor of these United States” and subsequently “Protector of Mexico.”
Born in London, Norton spent most of his early life in South Africa. He emigrated to San Francisco in 1849 after receiving a bequest of $40,000 from his father’s estate. Norton initially made a living as a businessman, but he lost his fortune investing in Peruvian rice.
After losing a lawsuit in which he tried to void his rice contract, Norton left San Francisco. He returned a few years later, apparently mentally unbalanced, claiming to be the emperor of the United States. Although he had no political power, and his influence extended only so far as he was humored by those around him, he was treated deferentially in San Francisco, and currency issued in his name was honored in the establishments he frequented.
Though he was considered insane, or at least highly eccentric, the citizens of San Francisco celebrated his regal presence and his proclamations, most famously, his “order” that the United States Congress be dissolved by force (which Congress and the U.S. Army ignored) and his numerous decrees calling for a bridge and a tunnel to be built across San Francisco Bay.
Saturday Matinee – Plympton, Little Feat, Bonnie Raitt, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits
Bill Plympton is one of the last of the great hand-drawn animators. Amazing stuff, his.
I know this is early, but when I saw the post at Weasel Zippers about Holdren telling the FCC to force broadcasters to air “population control” messages, I thought of Chairman Mao.
Which naturally made me think of this: A version I’ve never heard–no Lowell George, but another very good (recently) dead guitar player.
Tip o’ the tarboosh to cbullit of Soylent Green for that link and comment.
So what the heck. Little Feat with Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris and Jesse Winchester, all on the Midnight Special 1977.
Pure Three-Chord rock n roll from Iggy Pop. The perfect bass line cracks me up: bombombombombombombombom…
Haven’t posted any Tom Waits in a while, so here you go. It’s all about the lies.
Swimming with Hedgehogs
Meet Mr. Rorschach and his dog Spot
Chunky Maggots
I really like this and I don’t know why, but I guess it’s coming soon.
[Found here.]
Saturday Matinee – A.B. & the D., C.T.A., B.G., and Dan
Archie Bell & the Drells doin’ the “Tighten Up.” No lip synching there.
Chicago Transit Authority from 1970. Chicago was a lot of funk and whiteboy soul and I loved this band before it got all weeny. They were cool, even after “Color My World,” the slow-dance-rubbing-anthem for teenagers everywhere. (Janessa Vapors was in great demand whenever it was played.)
“Sweet Home Chicago,” a Robert Johnson song, as performed by Buddy Guy in the Elmore James style. I might be mistaken, but it looks like the late Stevie Ray Vaughan‘s band Double Trouble is backing him up. Dan Aykroyd & John Belushi’s “Blues Brothers” resurrected the song, but dedicated it to Magic Sam.
Now for something completely differnet. At the TR board meeting today, we discussed whether or not we should allow/encourage submissions of links to the Utoobage that demonstrate the various talents of our Loyal Readers.
The answer was a solid but wavering YES.
So here’s our first submitutante, Dan, who knows how to shred a guitar and doesn’t mind posting it on the Utoobage. Note that he’s torn the head off his electromo-gitfiddle since it was obviously in his way.
What kinda man follows Tacky Raccoons? Well, there you go. If anyone else would like to contribute, post your hidden talents, toss us some emailage and maybe we’ll give you some pro-bono face time.
Your pal,
Bunk
The .Gif Friday Post No.99 – Fish attack Circus
“Fishy gon’ getcha, gon’ getcha!”
[Top one found here. The last three, with the description below, are from here (and the first of the three is not an animation).]
“The Musée Mécanique is a museum that houses scores of mechanical toys ranging from Victorian penny arcade toys to automata to early 20th Century fortune tellers to pioneering forays into animation to 1980s video games, all collected by San Francisco resident Edward Zelinski. Within these walls you can see: an opium den’s inhabitants luxuriating in their lair, a drunkard’s delirium tremens-inspired dreams, both a French and an English execution scene (!!!), a sultan’s harem, dancing monkeys, the famous “Laughing Sal,” and an epic, ambitious 1930s fairgrounds scene rich in colloquial detail complete with freak show and a angry caged gorilla (see above). And all this to the creepy sounds of tinny carnival music fading in and out from the activated amusements surrounding you.”
Oct
Saddened by the loss of his long-time hunting friend Inqui, Suaciq O’Neil mourns in front of a Fuji Kōgaku camera with a 50mm lens using 400+ASA film pushed to 1000, with a manually reduced f-stop that he mentally calculated as being in the realm of either 20/3×0.5, 21/3×0.5, 22/3×0.5, 23/3×0.5, or 24/3×0.5, and with an octopod for stability in the frozen arctic wind.
“Watch out where the huskies go,” he warned.
Tacky Raccoons 
