And there you have it. Not just another week gone by but another year. When we’re faced with the daunting question of what we’ve done with life over the past year. Well? What have you?
Maybe it’s just better to focus on links of varying degrees of interest. Click the ones that interest you. Ignore the ones that don’t. And do better this coming year than you did with the last.
Buy my art here or here or contact me directly to purchase originals.
Visit our family blog: “The Thomas Ten.”
Browse Large Hearted Boy‘s list of “100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads.”
Listen to a mix of some of my favorite songs released in 2015.
Browse my 42 favorite albums of the year.
See the Japanese bookstore that stocks only one book at a time.
Consider the “Life Cycle of a Punk Band”.
Read Stereogum‘s report that Columbia House is relaunching with vinyl.
Read as one Christian military veteran explains: “Why I’m Not a Conscientious Objector”.
Ever wonder “Why hipsters all look alike”?
Read as Time considers “Big Beer’s 5-Point Plan to Crush the Craft Beer Revolution”.
Read as Flavorwire stereotypes “You by Your Favorite Album of 2015”.
Read/listen to Here and Now‘s piece: “The Vietnam War Divided The Country, But Music United The Troops”, examining the book We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War.
Read as FACT considers: “Inside album leaks: how do they happen, how do we stop them, and do they even matter?”
Read as The Atlantic considers “Dorms for Grownups: A Solution for Lonely Millennials?”
Read Noisey‘s report: “The Founder of the Pirate Bay Plans to ‘Bankrupt’ the Music Industry With His New Art Project”.
Read as “Henry Rollins says Donald Trump is ‘just a bored rich guy being crass’.
Read as The Atlantic goes “In Defense of Gentrification”.
Read as The New York Times considers “Our Misplaced Nostalgia for Cassette Tapes”.
Read as The Daily Beast wonders: “Why Did Joss Stone Sell More Reggae Albums Than Any Black Artist in 2015?”
Read The Washington Post‘s piece: “Biblical birth narratives are weird and incredible. We can stop sanitizing them.”
Read as The New Yorker considers “How Amazon’s Bookstore Soothes Our Anxieties About Technology”.
Read Inc‘s piece: “8 Words That Totally Reveal You Are Not a Millennial.” Bummer, I totally saw “awesome”.
Read as FACT wonders “What the hell is going on with SoundCloud?”
See “The world’s most beautiful churches”.
Read about how “How Charles Dickens Secularized Christmas Forever”.
Read about the “small Japanese village claims to be the final resting place of the son of God (and God’s other son’s ear)”.
Read as Ozy argues that we should hire more “hipster” cops.
Read as Consequence of Sound considers: “The lyrics of recent No. 1 singles average at a third grade reading level.”
Watch The Atlantic‘s piece: “Creative Ideas Happen When You Stop Checking Your Phone”.
Read as Pitchfork considers “The Genius And Jazz of A Charlie Brown Christmas“.
Read Fast Company‘s piece: “Teens Love The Modern World, While Thirtysomethings Are Getting More And More Sad About It”.
Browse Time‘s list of “10 Small Things You Can Do Every Day to Get Smarter”.
Read The Atlantic‘s piece: “Finish That Book! You suffer when you quit a story midway through—and so does literature.”
What’s up with “Sweden’s bizarre tradition of watching Donald Duck cartoons on Christmas Eve”?
Do you know “Why Japan is Obsessed with Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas”?
Did you know about “The beautiful Icelandic tradition of giving books on Christmas Eve”?
Read as NPR wonders “Are You A Sucker If You Like Mast Brothers Chocolate?”
Read about “The Science Behind Making the Perfect Cup of Coffee”.
Read as The Atlantic considers “The Challenge of Jihadi Cool”.
Read President Jimmy Carter‘s recent piece: “Losing my religion for equality”.
Browse as NME considers “The 10 Most Pretentious Albums Ever”.
Read as Slate considers the downside of binge-watching your favorite TV shows.
Read as The New York Times warns: “Screen Addiction Is Taking a Toll on Children”.
Read as Ozy considers “Jesus Christ, Marketing Genius?”
Read The Atlantic‘s piece: “Optimism Is the Enemy of Action”.
Read as Cracked considers “The Secret True History Of ‘Jingle Bells, Batman Smells’.
Read as Smithsonian reports that many craft breweries are facing an aluminum shortage for cans.
Read Fast Company‘s piece: “The Untold Story Of The Invention of the Game Cartridge”.
Read Consequence of Sound‘s report: “FOX News says Kendrick Lamar “has done more damage to young African-Americans than racism”.
See very cool jellyfish lamps.
Read as The Chicago Tribune makes a case for “The quiet impact of Obama’s Christian faith”.
Read as The Atlantic strives “Toward a New Understanding of Modesty”.
Read as Newsweek wonders: “Why Did So Many Good Pop Culture Sites Die In 2015?”
Read as Ozy suggests that you really can die from a broken heart.
Read as The Guardian reports: “Ireland becomes first country to legalise gay marriage by popular vote”.
See “Earth as Art: photos of earth from space look like abstract paintings”.
Read as Ozy wonders: “Is Free Will Just A Mind Trick”?
Read as The Guardian considers: “Print survives as a new literature is born”.
Read The Washington Post‘s piece: “In the age of Amazon, used bookstores are making an unlikely comeback”.
Read as Consequence of Sound reports: “Motörhead frontman Lemmy has switched from whiskey to vodka for health reasons”.
- R.I.P. Motörhead frontman, Lemmy Kilmister. Unfortunately, the switch from whiskey to vodka couldn’t do much in the fight against cancer.
- Read as Motörhead drummer, Mikkey Dee says: ‘Motörhead Is Over, Of Course’.
- Read about how How Lemmy and Motörhead Gave Metal Its Umlaut.
- Read as Henry Rollins says: “You Can’t Tell The Story of Rock & Roll Without Lemmy”.
- Read as Consequence of Sound considers “Why Losing Lemmy Hurts So Much”.
R.I.P. Harlem Globetrotter Meadowlark Lemon.
R.I.P. John Bradbury, drummer for The Specials.
Read as Adweek argues: “Why The Beatles Needed Digital Streaming to Maintain Their Brand.”
Read as Bill Moyers (well, actually someone else writing at Bill Moyers’ site) wonders if we’re “hard-wired” to be liberal or conservative.
See the amazing woodcut that took over three years to complete.
Read AV Club‘s “oral history of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s cult classic,” UHF.
Read as Christianity Today considers “Tarantino‘s Incarnational Aesthetic”.
Read about the “Man Has Nothing to Hide—Not Even His Email Password”.
Browse as Stereogum makes their picks for “The 101 Most Anticipated Albums Of 2016”.
Read as The Atlantic defends Amazon one-star reviews: “Honest and unbiased reviews allow customers to trust that they can shop with confidence.”
See the 14-story building that houses the entire population of its city.
Read as “Colbert Explains Exactly How His Interviewing Style Has Changed Since The Colbert Report.”
Read AV Club‘s list of “22 songs that are great despite being pro-Jesus”.
Read as The Atlantic considers: “Middle-Aged White Americans Are Dying of Despair”.
Read as “Will Smith Discusses the Role Christianity Played in ‘Concussion’ at “Relevant”.
Read as Fact Magazine considers: “Pop has an authenticity problem: there’s too much of it around”.
Read as Consequence of Sound considers not just the restaurantification of CBGB: “It gets worse: CBGB branded baby onesies and umbrellas coming soon.”
Watch the 21-minute X-Files re-boot preview.
Ever wonder “Why It’s Hard to Poop On Vacation”?
Read as BBC News considers “the Jelly Baby’s dark past.”
Read as AV Club goes “In praise of artistic theft” by pointing out: “Tom Petty knows what many don’t—that appropriation and originality can’t be separated”.
Read as The Atlantic argues: “America: Abandon Your Reverence for the Bachelor’s Degree”.
Read as The New Yorker argues: “Donald Trump Isn’t a Fascist; He’s a Media-Savvy Know-Nothing”.
Browse Hypebeast’s list of “The 10 Most Pirated TV Shows of 2015”.
Read as AV Club considers the continuing allure of The Warriors: “Greek and literary roots give the cult movie its addictive blend of swagger and mythology”.
Read as Slate wonders “Why are so many drug anthems sneaking their way onto the radio?” as if drug culture were something new.
Read as Tiny Mix Tapes wonders: “”Is information stifling design? Is design stifling art? And the biggest question: How does the production and consumption of music alter the world?”
See the “Winners of the 2015 National Geographic Photo Contest”.
“Hear audio from the first ever concrete record“.
Read as Fast Company considers: How Apple Is Giving Design A Bad Name For years, Apple followed user-centered design principles. Then something went wrong.”
Read Stereogum‘s report that Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker frontman “David Lowery Sues Spotify For $150 Million”.
Read Aquarium Drunkard‘s interview with Jim O’Rourke.
See “Vertical Panoramic Photographs of New York Churches by Richard Silver”.
Read Fast Company’s report: “MIT’s New 3-D Printer Uses Molten Glass As A Medium”.
Read as The Atlantic considers “Why the 9-to-5 Day Is So Tough on Creative Workers”.
Browse Prague‘s unofficial Apple museum.
Read about “How Pantone Became a Global Authority on Color”.
Browse Paste‘s picks for “The 8 Best Breweries of 2015’.
Read as BBC News considers “How the craft beer revolution started”.
Read about “The Psychology Behind Costco’s Free Samples”.
Read as Pitchfork considers “What Your Music Format Says About You”.
Read as FACT reports: “Amazon sold more turntables than any other audio product this Christmas”.
Watch “Fascinating analysis of the way Trump uses words” at Boing Boing.
Read as Yahoo reports: “People Aren’t Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish, Scientists Say”.
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