Sands Casino Implosion
Atlantic City made a spectacle out of the demolition of the Sands Hotel.
Another inflammatory clip of Andy trying to rile up people from the South so they would pay to see wrestler Jerry Lawler whoop him!
Here's an interesting post over at Think On These Things showing the difference between Hilary and Obama's money. Apparently, Hillary gets her dough from richer donators giving larger sums, while Obama gets a lot of the "common folks 50 bucks at a time" donations. I prefer the small donations from the masses over large donators asking for favors later (You mean $50 doesn't get me an ambassadorship?).
Charlie Rose's excellent interview of Blackwater head Erik Prince Monday night stayed mainly on the topic of the civilian death incident in Iraq - but this exchange was a real eye opener.
Since the world seems to be run increasingly by corporations, it's only a matter of time before private business armies are jetting around the world dealing with hot spots for money. This is a job I'd rather see the Marines doing, but the State Department is already farming it out. Prince's ideas in the above link are well intentioned, but, boy, things could get complicated pretty fast. Imagine if employees from a private security firm in China choppered into St. Louis and accidentally shot your uncle...yikes!
Here's a handy moving graphic over at Maps Of War that shows the history of the world's religions.
I've come to admire David Byrne's love of cycling through his website. Here is a great link to a POV video he made while using his favorite mode of transportation through New York City. With narration.
Here's an interesting map that shows which countries block good 'ol free speechin' internet traffic. Courtesy of Strange Maps.
Yeah, Myanmar, is one of them.
Many years ago, not long after his death, there was an excellent tribute to Andy Kaufman held at the Long Beach Museum of Art in California. Hosted by Andy's long time friend and fellow comic, Bob Zmuda, the evening included many rare clips of Kaufman's career.
The clip that follows is Andy at his best. As Zmuda tells it, ticket sales for Andy's match with wrestler Jerry Lawler were sluggish - so Andy shot a couple of inflammatory ads in his back yard to anger fans in Tennessee in order to sell more tickets. Here's one of them:
Creative Review has a good link to some London shots taken by photographer Jason Hawkes here.
When the Lord Mayor leaps over someone dressed as a tomato, well...that's when people get hurt. Full story at BBC.
I put Andy high on the list of people I wish were still alive. October will be Andy Kaufman tribute month here at cellophane - featuring highlights from his career (and it won't be about Latka on "Taxi"). Here's a local news story that aired about Tony Clifton: