12.16.2009

Bits: 12.15.09


• After the Vancouver City Council forced the removal of an art billboard (mildly) critical of the Olympics, the piece in question -- Olympic rings with four frowny faces and one smile, created outside an art gallery -- is back up, and the Council promises they won't clamp down on galleries this way again.

• "St. Gaudi"? PRI's The World did a segment last night about the movement to canonize the Spanish architect, but apparently it's been going on awhile.

• Dischord Records co-founder and Minor Threat drummer Jeff Nelson put an autographed test pressing of his old band’s 1983 EP, Out of Step, up on eBay -- and sold it for nearly $6k.

• My favorite from the "Crappy Bootleg DVD cover" Flickr pool is this pirated Star Wars DVD from Malawi: Along with Anakin and Padmé, it features Schwarzenegger with a big-ass gun and the subtitle, "Science Fiction Perform Distinctive." (Thanks, Ron.)

• Thanks to a Facebook campaign, Rage Against the Machine's 1992 F-bomb-laden single "Killing In The Name" is edging out a tune by the winner of Simon Cowell's The X Factor on the top of the UK's holiday charts. Cowell called the campaign "cynical" and "stupid," but RATM's Tom Morello is a fan. Best part: The Facebook group is soliciting donations to the homeless group Shelter, which has earned more than £30,000 so far.

• Shuga Records asked me to come up with a top-10 list of best albums of 2009. Here it is.

Weird Al does guest vocals on "I Bleed" at a recent Pixies gig.

Mediaite looks at the last decade in logos.

No comments: