Mitch Hedberg: Saved by the buoyancy of citrus

Today is the birthday of my all-time favorite comedian. Mitch Hedberg was born on February 24th, 1968. Tragically, for him and the world, he passed on March 30th, 2005. Although he wasn't around long, his sense of silliness has had a profound effect on my worldview.

Some of his jokes are devastatingly funny. Others aren't funny at all. Oddly, it's his unfunny jokes that make me love him most. I considered naming this site "The Buoyancy of Citrus," after a line from one of his bits. I opted against it for too-many-damn-letters reasons. But it's served as a kind of mission statement none-the-less.

Happy Birthday Mitchell.

The human body is a neat contraption

This is an older clip of Les Twins, a dancing duo from France. Yes, they're twins. And although there are tons of videos of them doing their thing all over the internet, for whatever reason I've always liked this one best. 

The things our bodies are capable of, and our imaginations, continually astonish me. 

Any moment...

I spent last night at the Johnson Public House in Madison, Wisconsin, trying to get some writing done. I was stuck.

Espresso. Still stuck. Sparkling water. Still stuck. A few 3 Floyds wheat ales. Still stuck.

All the while, this wonderfully ginormous painting by Natalie Jo Wright was staring down at me. 

Sadly, in my case anyway, nothing happened.

But today will be different. Any moment...

Francesco Vullo

If you occasionally like your art on the clever side, and yes, I occasionally like my art on the clever side, then the work of Francesco Vullo is worth a look.

The 22-year old Italian digital artist was featured recently in The Creators Project where he said: "My work is strongly influenced by events and contemporary culture and has many ironic nuances and messages of social criticism. I try to reveal irreverent visions of today’s world remixing classic paintings, objects or known personalities with ironic elements and show the negative side of social networks, politics, industry, and commerce."

Yup. I'd say that's exactly what he does. Here's a quick look at some of his work. His insta is definitely worth a follow. And his site is here.

Nahko + Medicine for the People

I've been bouncing around the country the past few weeks for work reasons. Starting to feel the miles. 

But then, when I needed it most, I stumbled into Nahko Bear playing solo, just him and his acoustic guitar. In the middle of a tradeshow of all places. Sometimes life looks out for you like that.

This song is called 7 Feathers. It's always been a favorite.

Tanu stacks coins better than you and I stack coins

So there's this Japanese guy named Tanu that stacks coins like a super genius. He posts photos of his stackings to Twitter. That's about all I know. Because I don't know how to read Japanese. Because I'm not what you'd call "book smart." Or "smart smart."

I've enjoyed stacking a rock or two in my day. But this? This right here? Holy crap!

Here's a glimpse at how he does it. Not a tube of super glue in sight.

Crap Surfer

I'm crap at quite a few things.

I'm crap at most things actually. For the record, I'm not crap if you need help lifting heavy things. I'm not crap if you're looking for overly precious alliteration. But outside of those two fairly narrow skill sets, I'm crap.

I'm a crap surfer too. But I'm not even a good crap surfer. Bill Bankes-Jones, on the other hand, is the world champion of crap surfing. This is his story.

Stickers on guitar cases

Yesterday Charlie Parr played a lunchtime gig in our office. If you're familiar with Charlie Parr, you know how cool that is because Charlie Parr is freaking fantastic.  I'm going write about Charlie another day when I have the time to do it right.

For now, I just wanted to share a handwritten sticker that he had on his guitar case. The line is from a 1941 Almanac Singers song called Talking Union. The Almanac Singers included Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie and goddamn that's a good line.

Blame it on Stevie's wild heart

Justin Vernon mentioned this Stevie Nicks video in an interview I read recently. He sampled her vocal, straight from the video, for the latest Bon Iver album. He said it's his favorite YouTube video of all time, and I'll be damned if I'm not coming around to that same opinion.

It's Stevie casually singing Wild Heart while having her makeup done for a Rolling Stone cover shoot. I'm guessing the video was shot sometime in August 1981. 

She sings like a bird here. Gliding and effortless and free.