Magical

On the recommendation of a great musician, Paul and I have been watching Workaholics on Netflix.

It's a pretty awesome show, that has undeniable appeal for the millennial workforce. 3 Ridiculous Slackers living like it's college, but working as telemarketers. Though almost every single premise of this show is unrealistic and farcical, it's actually kind of strangely easy to identify with main characters.

I'm so bummed that there was only 10 episodes! It led to us going online to dig up some of their old material This is one of the gems. Wizards. Rapping. It makes perfect sense.

Clones!?!?!

So baseball season is underway. I can tell because Paul is obsessively checking his yahoo fantasy account. Also because we've upgraded our cable from the most-basic-possible-that-we-only-get-cuz-internet-is-more-expensive-on-it's-own package to whatever-the-cheapest-thing-with-NESN-is package.

Another awkward heralding of baseballs season is seeing Dennis Eckersley all over the place. It really creeps me out to see him, because he looks eerily similar to my dad:

Every time he comes on TV, it totally blows my mind. 

We watched all three games against the Rangers this weekend and were super disappointed by our poor Red Sox. I guess being let down is part of the legacy of being a Boston fan, and there were a few outstanding moments (Big Papi's home runs and Ellsbury overall). But it wasn't exactly a triumphant beginning. Also, I was super aggravated to see George W. sitting in the front row on opening day, carefree as could be. BAH.

Contraptions

Have you seen the new Ok Go video for "This too shall pass"? It's pretty amazing, and features a beautiful Rube Goldberg machine.



I love the way they used lots of different depths, and a long panning shot to make it feel really dynamic. I also think it's great how the machine is primarily designed to showcase cool visual stuff. Even though the energy of the machine is directed through other channels, you get to see falling pianos and wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men on the side.

These things are truly are feats to create. To see the sciencey side of these whimsical machines, check out this video from the 2007 National Rube Goldberg machine contest at Purdue University. Physics-tastic!



1:33 - What an eccentric moustache!

2:02- 2 Indiana Jones themed machines!

2:30- Make that 3...

Caturday XVI

Valentines

From the Higgins Archives: The beginning

My favorite part of being an intern at Higgins is getting to digitalize their extensive Archive Photo collection. It's given me this great window into local history, the Higgins Family, and how the museum really came to be. It also reaffirmed to me that working in archives would be something I'd like to do some day, handling these source materials and learning from them has been really fun.

So how did Higgins Armory get its start? It all started with this tyke:

John Woodman Higgins, pictured here around 1880 with his sister, who clearly blinks too much. This kid went from being your average kilt enthusiast to one of the wealthiest tycoons the city of Worcester ever built. He graduated from WPI, and became the founder of Worcester Pressed Steel at the age of 31. From there he nursed his unhealthy obsession with steel, but that's a story for another time.

What's really cool is Worcester Pressed Steel was a burgeoning company right around the turn of the century. You know what that means:

Ladies in the puffy-sleeves-plus-cameo-brooch look that just screams suffragette! Also waistcoats on dandies and a monster manual typewriter. I think it's neat though that they do seem to have some sort of electricity going, based on the haphazard wires criss-crossing the ceiling. Maybe with them being a big industrial business though, that's kind of a given. It wasn't until I wrote this that I realized I don't know much at all about the history of the electric utility.

I fell in love with this picture, there are so many neat details. This guys moustache screams "middle management". But what's up with overflowing wastebasket under the desk? And the bizarre saw in the corner. What's the deal with this guy?

So you can see, things started pretty simple for JW and company, but it didn't stay that way. Next time: WW2 takes things up a notch.

Suprise History Lesson

One of my jobs at the Quabog Valley CDC (which is not the center for disease control, despite popular opinion) is to drive around to all the town halls and libraries in our service region and deliver our catalogs. I get to drive around with Kelsey, my fellow Commonwealth Corps intern, and see the beautiful western MA countryside like a couple of leaf peepers. We also attempt to schmooze with the local public servants on the side.

It's been pretty cool seeing all the different town buildings, and how they range from the very new and very huge, to the very old and quiant. One of the town halls (I can't remeber which one, but I want to say it was Brookfield) had a little museum-like display put out in the halls of the town offices. One of the cases turned out to be a bizarre tribute to 19th century male facial hair.

The case was full of ceramic shaving mugs, boxes of moustache wax, and a rather grand collection of moustache cups, which was something I didn't know existed.



Apparently, in the age of big-front-wheel-bicycles, moustaches were so cool a special cup was invented to protect ones meticulously groomed whiskers. The cusp of the cup was designed to keep your handlebar dry, and keep your hot tea from melting your moustache wax.

Hipster Horse

I read this exceptionally fine article the on adbusters the other day about hipsters. Basically, how they are a "counter-culture" movement that thrives on nihilism, without a maxim or a goal short of having the coolest bicycle. Their rebellion is all about their image. Interesting too is the fact that hipsters hate to admit they are hipsters. It's probably one of the only cultural posses in American history that has no self identifying members.
The article also brings up a good point about the appropriation of previous movements. Namely, that hipsters love to emulate the trappings of the working class; Flannel Shirts, woolen caps, and PBR. Its a huge part of the identity, that has become cool through the lense of irony. There is no better example of this than the ironic hipster moustache.

Its hard to pinpoint when moustaches stopped being equated with 70's porn stars and started being "funny". I think it kicked off sometime around this:



Personally, I'm not really bothered that people want to wear their sarcastic fads on their faces. In fact, I think that some people even look good with a little lip hair (though I have technically forbidden Paul from having one...). I do think that the trend has gotten a little out of control though, when even horses are doing it to get hipster cred.





This last horse, Alfie, is so proud of his moustache that he runs away if he thinks his owners are trying to trim it. Somebody get this Stallion an American Apparel T-shirt, stat!