Dress Up Jesus For Christmas

On a recent visit to Peter Gilstrap’s wondrous site, Jesus of the Week (featured elsewhere in this blog), I was introduced to a site where you can Dress Up Jesus for Christmas. You can either purchase the physical version for your lap or play with the free online version on your laptop. Costuming includes The Grinch, Xmas Cookies, Tin Soldier, Snowman and even a fetching Christmas tree dress for you Jesus cross-dressers. Just think of it as a digital blasphemous Colorform (anyone remember them?) This is all the product of NormalBobSmith.com. Exploring the site, there are additional Dress Up Jesus pages and even a Mohammed Dress Up. Bob also gleefully posts hundreds of pages of Hate Mail. But lest you think this guy is just another cocky, arrogant extrovert out to piss off people, have a listen to his NoBS Radio Show where he shows himself to be a thoughtful, even somewhat nerdy guy... living up to the “Normal” in his moniker. Have fun!

The Ceramic Corsets of Nicole Moan

I recently found myself quite intrigued by the ceramic corsets of artist Nicole Moan. Moan’s exotic designs incorporate everything from spikes (a nail fetish sorta thing) to sealife-inspired designs (shells, coral, etc) and even religious iconography (she has, not one, but two Sacred Heart designs). While Nicole sports a nice website of her own, her corsets are probably best viewed here where you can seem them on a variety of models (including the occasional male).

CBGB OMFUG: 1973 - 2006

The final show at CBGB’s, the infamous Bowery hole-in-the-wall that spawned the likes of Patti Smith, the Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Television and many others, was held Sunday, October 15th. The club had lost its lease (and subsequent court battles) to the Bowery Residents’ Committee, a homeless shelter that owns the property. The club (whose name stands for Country Bluegrass Blues and Other Music for Uplifting Gormandizers) was founded in 1973 by Hilly Kristal as a country venue but ended up becoming the host for an angry backlash against corporate rock which later became known as punk.

Chris Stein and Debbie Harry of Blondie performed an acoustic set but the highlight of the evening (said to be broadcast live on SIRIUS radio) were two sets by Patti Smith (pictured above) and band which included guests Richard Lloyd (of Television) and Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Flea (who turned 44 at midnight). The final song of the night was “Elegie” featuring a remembrance for many of the club’s stage denizens who have since died. Smith refused the temptation to get nostalgic stating “CBGB is a state of mind”. After the show had concluded she passed out black buttons reading “What remains is future.”

Bansky's Masterpiece: Paris Gets Punk'd

Guerilla graffiti artist and notorious prankster, Banksy, may have just pulled off his masterpiece. Last week he allegedly smuggled some 500 copies of an “altered version” of the new CD from America’s favorite waste of skin, Paris Hilton, into half a dozen UK record stores. The Banksy version had altered artwork from the original sleeve and the musical contents of the CD are said to be a 40 minute remix rumored to be the work of Danger Mouse. The Banksy art includes a photo of Paris emerging from a limo (with homeless people added in the background) and one photo with the head of a dog superimposed over her image. All copies have been pulled from the record stores and customers are not allowed to purchase them. As of this writing, Banksy versions are going in the $500-600 range on eBay. You can visit Banksy’s excellent website here.

John Murphy's Stupid Sock Creatures

If you have too much time, thread and old socks on your hands (and who doesn't?)... then you might consider following the path of John Murphy. While perusing the stock of a Hastings this weekend this book caught my eye in the teaser aisle. I was originally just going to send this post to my friend, Frippy, but decided, what the hell, let's share. It was very difficult to pick the three representatives above out of the over 200 creatures on Murphy's website. They are all so perfect in their own stupid way.

Ink-Blot Test Wallpaper

I confess that there are times when I exhibit the attention span of a kitten in yard of blowing leaves. I was writing an email and telling my friend about having finally seen the music video for Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy." I was trying to describe it (in case she hadn't seen it) but I couldn't remember how to spell Rorschach. A quick Google landed me the answer in a matter of seconds but I ended spending half an hour or so in various sites displaying all manner of ink blot tests. The most intriguing was www.inkblottestwallpaper.com which not only offers amazing ink blots in both grayscale and color but allows you to download them as computer wallpaper. I grabbed the one above for my Powerbook.

Meg Whitman's Call To Action for Free Internet

If you've ever bought or sold anything through eBay then there is a letter sitting in your inbox from the company's CEO and President, Meg Whitman. If you haven't read it, I strongly suggest you do... right now. Go ahead... I'll wait.

For those of you who didn't get the letter or deleted it unread, here are some of the highlights:

As you know, I almost never reach out to you personally with a request to get involved in a debate in the U.S. Congress. However, today I feel I must.

Right now, the telephone and cable companies in control of Internet access are trying to use their enormous political muscle to dramatically change the Internet. It might be hard to believe, but lawmakers in Washington are seriously debating whether consumers should be free to use the Internet as they want in the future.

The phone and cable companies now control more than 95% of all Internet access. These large corporations are spending millions of dollars to promote legislation that would allow them to divide the Internet into a two-tiered system.

The top tier would be a "Pay-to-Play" high-speed toll-road restricted to only the largest companies that can afford to pay high fees for preferential access to the Net.

The bottom tier -- the slow lane -- would be what is left for everyone else. If the fast lane is the information "super-highway," the slow lane will operate more like a dirt road.

Today's Internet is an incredible open marketplace for goods, services, information and ideas. We can't give that up. A two-lane system will restrict innovation because start-ups and small companies -- the companies that can't afford the high fees -- will be unable to succeed, and we'll lose out on the jobs, creativity and inspiration that come with them.

The power belongs with Internet users, not the big phone and cable companies. Let's use that power to send as many messages as possible to our elected officials in Washington.

Whitman supplies two links through eBay in which to write your representative. I implore you to do this. The form asks for your name, address and phone but that is only to connect with the proper representatives. Please do this. I know it may not hekp but you know that old adage "you cannot win if you do not play." I don't want us to be paying out the ass to meet here again. Savvy?