mbf tod@y

SPACE: earth

 

MISSED CONNECTIONS: sophie blackall's visualizations

Handmade Portraits: Sophie Blackall from Etsy on Vimeo.

 

MY HEROES: alamo drafthouse's phone policy

 

"We do not tolerate people that talk or text in the theater. In fact, before every film, we have several warnings on screen to prevent such happenings. Occasionally, someone doesn't follow the rules, and we do, in fact, kick their asses out of our theater. This video is an actual voicemail from a woman that was kicked out of one of our Austin theaters. Thanks, anonymous woman, for being awesome.

For more info on the Alamo Drafthouse, visit www.Drafthouse.com."

MAGNITED STATES OF AMERICA is the new all your base are belong to us 

ITALY: key ingredients, according to tim parks

On The New York Reviews of Books, Tim Parks lists the key ingredients of Italy - these are the structural reasons why Italy cannot possibly change:

• "A tradition of regional rather than national loyalties (exacerbated by the fact that government is actually strongly centralized); a high level of organized (but not ordinary) crime;
• the power of the family in every sphere of life, but notably the economy
• the melodramatically assertive tone of the labor force in all professional, commercial, and unionized sectors, whether they be taxi drivers, pharmacists, or steelworkers;
• a flare for making life complicated through bureaucracy and then for overcoming complication through evasion and petty corruption;
• A multitude of political parties with strong ideological or regional leanings; 
• A Church with a propensity to undermine rather than reinforce people’s loyalty to the state; 
• A tendency in general to foment and then thrive on a gap between the official version of events and their actual course, between rules and practice, appearance and reality."

Cul-de-sac.

Read the entire article here

 

ITALY: concrete jungle

"Nei prossimi 20 anni, 600mila ettari di suolo italiano potrebbero essere sommersi da una colata di cemento. A puntare il dito contro l'urbanizzazione sfrenata della Penisola, che procede a un ritmo di 75 ettari al giorno, sono Fai e Wwf con il dossier Terra Rubata - Viaggio nell'Italia che scompare." (WIRED)

 

WIRED

SHIT: baristas say @ four barrel coffee

 

FOOL ME ONCE: shame on me

BREAKING NEWS: italy discovers that the rest of the world lives on a 24/7 schedule

"Among the inconveniences of Italian life that I remain unused to after 12 years here, not least irksome have been the legal restrictions on business hours. It's always seemed absurd that a resident of the world's eighth-largest economy should be unable to buy a screwdriver or a pair of socks on his lunch hour, or that a restaurant should have to shut one day a week, no matter how many people want to dine there." (Francis Rocca, The Wall Street Journal)

read more (image from travelsjournals)

MAKE IT PERSONAL: Williams-Sonoma Says: "No 'SEX' for you!"

Pure comedy.

Did you know that you cannot have the words "AFTER" and "SEX" monogrammed on West Elm's towels because "It is a violation of Williams-Sonoma's policy"?

No, really. 

Which part?

"SEX"? Or "AFTER"?

How about "POST" and "COITUS"? Will it fly?

File under: "The Joy of Personalization"

ITALY: circa 2011

Photo credit: Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters