View from the Ledge (June 13, 2016)

View From The Ledge

(Chuck channels the spirits of his landmark 1980-1996 zine)
June 13, 2016

Undernews from the Calif. primary last Tuesday (locking Hillary in): Judge Scott Steiner (reprimanded for sex in chambers with an intern and a lawyer), re-elected! (having run, naturally, on a "family values" platform). And of course, Judge Aaron Persky (sentence for Stanford rape less than sentence for groping, so message to gropers . . . hey, might as well . . .), re-elected!. U-S-A! U-S-A! [Washington Post]

End Game Is Upon Us: All 66 books of the King James version of the Bible were released as translated into emojis ($2.99 on iTunes--seriously). The Lord cannot be pleased. (If you don't know what "emojis" are . . . good for you.) [The Guardian (London)]

If you regard David Lynch as too conventional, Brit Martin Creed is now at the Park Avenue Armory in NYC with an array of his "best" work, i.e., stuff that directly attacks his anxieties (e.g., barfing, dumping, smelly cheese). NOTW mentioned his Turner Prize exhibit a few yrs back, which was simply a room with lights that just flicker on and off, 24/7. An "artist"? "I'm a person who tries to do things . . . in a field that is commonly known as art." The Daily Beast is on it.

In Chicagoland (Mount Prospect), decent citizens were aroused and turgid with fear at the small-business entrepreneurial success of Tykables--a retail store catering primarily to the needs of adult fetishists who identify as babies (thus requiring diapers, bonnets, oversized cribs, strollers, etc.). So far, it's a word-of-mouth business, with an appointment required for entering. [WBBM-TV]

A Univ of California, Davis research team believes it's more efficient to grow human organs in the lab inside the bodies of pigs. [BBC News]

The Classic Middle Name: Christopher W. Hill, 44, gets 50 yrs in the slammer from a judge in (love it that I have news from here) Harlan County, Ky. He's the third Christopher W. Hill on my list. [Harlan Daily Enterprise] [ed. This would be a good place to link to my complete list of middle-name-Wayne murderers/accused murderers, but it's kinda way out of date and needs me to check a few many things on it, so . . .]

Powers That Be in Torrelodonos, Spain, figure the most effective way to deter "messy dog" owners is, in the middle of town, this huge, inflatable device modeling a swirl of dog caca. [The Local (Madrid)]

What's Really Weird: America has 310m people, the world 7.2bn, but all it takes for something to be labeled "viral" on the Internet is maybe 1m? That's 0.3223 percent of Americans, 0.0139 percent of Earthlings. Why are we so obsessed? [Please consult G.Orwell, 1984*] Latest (chides fivethirtyeight dot com) is Jerry Seinfeld citing a "groundswell" of demand for a Bee Movie 2. Spoiler: There's not even a murmur. [AVClub.com]

* In fact, I might as well declare it in Post #1 of this VFTL: There's a lot of 1984 in what I'll be writing.]

Back on Wednesday. Thanks this time to Chris Bailey.