Yeah, Bill, we can hang

Bill Murray has taken to just dropping in at parties and chilling with random kids. Apparently he’s not being particularly creepy, just hanging out, having a drink, dancing a bit, sharing conversations. It’s an interesting story in the Post that finishes with a funny uban legend:

Then again, perhaps he’s just toying with us all. There’s an urban legend that’s gone round until no one is sure who it happened to, or if it happened at all. It was late one night, a few years ago, when a young man was walking through Union Square Park. He suddenly felt someone behind him, their hands over his eyes. When he turned in surprise, there was Bill Murray, his creased face leaning in close. Bill whispered, “No one is ever going to believe you,” and then just walked away.

Life through an SX-70 lens

This has been blogged ubiquitously today, so much so that the original site exceeded bandwidth. It should be back up soon, but until then there are still pictures around, and more background on the story here. Mental Floss says it best:

He Took a Polaroid Every Day, Until the Day He Died

Yesterday I came across a slightly mysterious website — a collection of Polaroids, one per day, from March 31, 1979 through October 25, 1997. There’s no author listed, no contact info, and no other indication as to where these came from. So, naturally, I started looking through the photos. I was stunned by what I found.

In 1979 the photos start casually, with pictures of friends, picnics, dinners, and so on.

Sadly, the story ends abruptly. But the Polaroids live on, giving their owner’s life a warm tint as only Polaroids can – a Time-Zero flipbook of a man’s daily life from 1979-1997. It’s such a powerful piece of work to me: the thousands of neatly categorized images, the inherent nostalgia of the Polaroid color palette, the mundane alongside the intimate portraits of happiness and illness, and those who lived on and honored their friend with this exhibit – the story of a life recounted by an SX-70.

Old mixtapes and stories

I’m going to steal Ben‘s job for a minute. I can’t resist a good web-based nostalgia site, especially one that elevates analog. CASSETTE FROM MY EX takes old mixtapes, streams them, and posts the interesting stories from interesting people to go along with them:

They were into you, so they made you a tape. Today you dont have a cassette player, but you still cant toss that mix. We share the stories and the soundtrack to your earliest loves.

There are some really great stories and some interesting mixes to be heard. I love the sound of a needle scratching vinyl. This one’s going in my feeds.

Vacationing in Kish

So this guy started a small hotel empire in Iran, and now he wants to bring Disneyland there, too. Most of his biggest ventures are on the island of Kish (just off the southern coast of Iran). I had no idea this island was so much more liberal (a relative term, to be sure) than the rest of Iran – apparently no visas are needed to visit, and some of Iran’s strict social rules are more relaxed. There’s even a dolphin show with dance music:

Mr. Sabet’s 18 Ukrainian dolphins have become the island’s darlings. They perform with Persian dance music, even though dance music was declared un-Islamic, and illegal, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It is produced only by Iranian expatriates in Los Angeles, and Kish is the only place in Iran where it is heard.

Islamic law, it seems, was powerless before the charms of the dolphins. “Even local authorities love them,” said an employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job. “The island’s cleric comes and visits them every week to make sure they are O.K. He keeps complaining that the music is not jolly enough and they might get depressed.”

I’m all for his attitude of bringing more of old Persia into Iran. I think there’s a big popular sentiment towards this movement, and hopefully there can be a gradual, peaceful, cultural revolution in Iran, rather than another violent, bloody one.

THINGS FOR SALE THAT I WILL MAIL YOU:

David Horvitz thinks of things to do. You pay him to do them. He sends you something. A couple of my favorites:

If you give me $1,626 I will go to the small Okinawan island called Iriomote and send you an envelope filled with star-sand (don’t worry, I’ve been there before, I know where to go). I will send it from there.

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If you give me $400 I will take a train to a desolate area with a packed lunch and sit down and read Anna Karenina. I will do this for 6-10 hours. I will repeat the same thing the following days until I have finally read the entire book. Finally! I am only going to do this once, so this is an edition of one only. I will send you documentation of this from the closest mailbox to where I do this. I’ll also write the location of the mailbox on the envelope if you ever wish to go to where I will have sent it to you from.

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If you give me $5 i will write down a secret and mail it to you. NOTE: I am not one to keep secrets. If you buy this, you may receive something that is really serious and may be upsetting, so please keep that in mind.

• Nick Ripley owns a secret of mine.

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If you give me $2,500 I will hire a skywriting jet in Los Angeles in the summer on a sunday to write “I’m Bored” in the sky. I will make a video of it and send you a DVD.

[Found via the always-awesome Heading East.]

The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto

The New York Times has a photo story with images leading up to and immediately following Bhutto’s assassination. The images are shocking and haunting, but they are an important testament to her dedication and sacrifice, as well as that of her supporters.

[There is audio during the slide show – it’s worth listening to; via]