maybe it feels great » Mike

Extreme Chess

Mike — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:42:59 +0000

A new phenomenon is sweeping the nation. Anybody care to play a game?

Click on the picture to learn more.

The Land of No Smiles

Mike — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:41:16 +0000

Foreign Policy Magazine is playing host to a set of rare and arresting of pictures of North Korea taken by photographer Tomas van Houtryve who posed as a businessman looking to open a chocolate factory. See the entire photo essay here.

Imaginary Summer Reads

Mike — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 05:03:12 +0000

The Believer has a nice little article:

Short Takes On
Books That Don’t Exist
Eleven Essential, Imaginary Beach Reads for Summer
by Steve Hely

My favorite one is called The Empty Staircase by Omar Perus (translated by Richard Milner)

The late Ottoman Empire is the setting for this comedy of manners that follows the ever-failing efforts of a lecherous piano teacher to seduce his students. Perus, long-renowned in his native country, makes a riotous first entry into English through the deft hands of Milner, a scholar in residence at the Canadian Institute for Asia-Minor Studies.”

How awesome is that? Can anyone come up with their own imaginary book descriptions?

Eurovision Is A Sight Alright!

Mike — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:13:38 +0000

Every year, each country member of the European Broadcasting Union submits a song to the annual Eurovision Contest. The people vote, and a winner is declared. It’s quite the event; just look how entertaining Ukraine’s submission was last year from Verka Serduchka. As Wikipedia describes him, “In 1990, Andriy Danylko started to create the character Verka Serduchka, a flamboyant middle aged woman and train conductor.”

Unfortunately this year looks to be an especially contentious one. Known for its gay following, the contest will take place in Moscow, whose mayor has called homosexuality “satanic” and gay people “weapons of mass destruction.” Watch the video after the jump…

With a gay pride parade in the works for the week of the contest, it should be a pretty raucous, and potentially violent event.

I don’t understand why people can’t just groove with the music.