Disco Stu – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Disco Stu is a fictional, secondary character from The Simpsons. He is a disco aficionado and is usually featured wearing a rhinestone-encrusted leisure suit. He often refers to himself in the third person (putting a big emphasis on “Stu” and then pausing before saying anything else) and is noted for being mentally stuck in the Disco Era.
He first appeared in the episode Two Bad Neighbors, during a neighborhood yard sale day. Near the beginning of the episode Homer and Marge search their attic for items that might sell. Marge suggests Homer’s old Rhinestone Night’s Fashion Gun. Homer protests, “…I need it to rhinestone up my old clothing!”. Marge then holds up Homer’s old leather jacket complete with rhinestone lettering. “Who’s Disco Stu?” Marge asks, referring to the words on the back. Homer explains, “I wanted to write ‘Disco Stud’ but I ran out of space” then mutters to himself “Not that Disco Stu didn’t get his share of the action”. Disco Stu becomes a character later in the episode as part of a callback gag. Homer solicits his jacket to patrons of the rummage sale; One of them calls out “Hey Stu! You should buy that!”. Disco Stu is revealed and says, “Disco Stu…doesn’t advertise”. He was probably intended to be a throwaway character but he turns up in many later episodes.
We had a little house party last night. After dinner, an obligatory Sing Star session and a few cocktails we were ready to hit the local hot spot, Kaivohuone. It is owned by Sedu Koskinen, a well known restaurant mogul here in Helsinki. He operates a whole bunch of restaurants under the corporate umbrella of SK-Ravintolat. Just like Disco Stu, Kaivohuone or Kaivo as it is sometimes more affectionately referred to, is mentally stuck in a forgotten era. It’s well worth visiting if you are interested in seeing a big crowd of all kinds of pumped up people preying for a one-night affair or preferably even shorter relationships.
Posted by api at 17:20 - No Comments »
LED
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits incoherent narrow-spectrum light when electrically biased in the forward direction. This effect is a form of electroluminescence. The color of the emitted light depends on the chemical composition of the semiconducting material used, and can be near-ultraviolet, visible or infrared.
LED technology has made a big impact on both interior & architectural lighting and, more recently, on fashion and street culture. Check out the innovative Night Writer and “Throwies” from Graffiti Research Lab.
Blinking rings and scrolling belt buckles have been around for a while, but have you seen LED license plates, backpacks, shirts yet. Check out tbuckles.com.
Posted by api at 10:23 - 3 Comments »
Welcome to WindFire Designs
Very little is known about this kite. Sighted here at Burning Man 2005, it seems to be bringing the desktop of your computer outdoors (pfff, finally). Quad-line control, asymmetrical framing, invisible stainless fittings, and opposed-bow tensioning for the sail make this incredible kite look digitally pasted right into the sky. But it isn’t. Carefully designed by Tim Elverston, this high-end addition to the WindFire collection marks the beginning of the WindFire OS Series. Stay tuned and don’t worry, we’ve got all the logical extensions of this series in the works!
Kites were invented in China about 2500 years ago. Two kitemakers, Gongshu Pan and Mo Di were famous in Chinese traditional stories around that time. In the 13th century, kites were used in a war as a sort of crude telecommunication device to deliver messages behind the Mongol lines. The strings were cut and the kites landed among the Chinese prisoners, inciting them to revolt and escape.
Some other early uses for kites included fishing (with hooks and bait) and making music (with strings and whistles).
Posted by api at 10:28 - 3 Comments »
Bums’ Paradise
Bums’ Paradise is a 53-minute documentary that depicts the lives of the men and women who lived in the ten-year-old Albany Landfill community prior to their eviction. It follows them through the eviction and documents them one month after the eviction. The film emphasizes their concepts of community as well as the amazing art that they created. Instead of being a documentary about homelessness, Bums’ Paradise considers the question: What if the homeless — the indigent, the bums — told their own stories? This is exactly what filmmakers Tomas McCabe and Andrei Rozen set out to explore with the Albany Landfill residents. Both McCabe and Rozen shot for five months. Landfill resident Robert “Rabbit” Barringer was also given a camera to film life as he experienced it as a resident on the Landfill. What unfolds is a rich and complex story showing the full spectrum of human experience. We see segments on love, family, home, politics, community, art, insanity, and addiction: Paula and Chris are a couple — Sparky paints pictures on broken pieces of concrete — Rabbit talks about social egalitarianism and Marxism. Ashby talks about his experiences with the police; “Mad” Mark talks about a gas or liquid drug that induces hypnosis. Jean Paul reveals his shattering thoughts facing jail time versus being evicted:
For a long time I have had a soft spot in my heart for bums, wanderers, hobos, travellers.. whatever you want to call them.
A lot of phenomenal documentary movies have been made about the subject. One of my favorites is Dark Days by Marc Singer. It really opened up my eyes to the harsh reality and hopelessness that some of these people are facing. I’d love to see Bums’ Paradise as well. I don’t know what kind of education movies they are showing at schools these days, but here is probably one fine candidate for that purpose.
Posted by api at 12:48 - 2 Comments »
Trixe Tracker
The daily sleep chart visually shows awake, transition and asleep periods on a 24-hour scale.
Sleep Telemetry breaks the sleep cycle into three parts: Putting your child down for a nap, falling asleep and waking up. Recording the transition time is optional, but it can be useful when setting up a sleep schedule. By tracking the nap start times, you can see if there are patterns in your bedtime and naptime routines.
I never realized how much scientific and statistic fun you could have by having a baby!
How Does Milk Inventory Work
Part 1. Creating Milk Inventory
When you record a pumping session, you have the option of tracking the milk as virtual inventory. To do this, you assign milk to different storage containers (bags or bottles) and indicate how much milk you are putting in each container.
Sleep Telemetry Tables! Virtual Milk inventories! Predictive Diaper Management!
Recording diapers is easy. You can either record diapers as they are changed, or you can input the information at the end of the day.
Anyone remember how home computers were marketed with recipe databases in the 80’s? I mean, how could you possibly cook anything without a computer based recipe database? How on earth could you take care of a real, live baby without a computer?
I find the Sleep Probability Chart especially fascinating.
Posted by api at 12:25 - No Comments »
While walking down the Via Buenos Aires in Milan I spotted what appeared to be a decent pen store. Since I broke my Zebra miniature ball point pen, I’ve been looking for a replacement. The store was called La Stilografica and it proved to be a treasure chest of great pens. They had all the usual suspects of luxury pens such as Mont Blanc, Aurora, Omas etc.
I ended up buying several miniature ball point pens including several 10 euro pens and a “bullet” version black matte finished Fisher Space Pen.
The cartridges of conventional ball point pens are open to permit ink to be fed to the point. The secret behind the Fisher Space Pen lies in the unique design characteristics of the ink and the high precision manufacturing tolerances of the ball point and socket. The ink is fed to the ball point by gas pressure permitting the pen to write in any position. An additional benefit of the closed design is that it keeps the pen from drying out giving the Fisher Space Pen an estimated 100 year shelf life.
I like the long shelf life and the fact that it writes well in extreme conditions. It’s a perfect example of functional yet beautiful modern design and engineering. The bullet model has been on display at the New York Museum of Modern Art.
Posted by api at 20:31 - No Comments »
Diesel Wall 2006
Artist: Nicolo Piacentino
Title: V’IN SANTO
I wanted to create a contrast between the crowd of young people that every night meet up in the Diesel Wall square and the crowd of believers that every Sunday listen to the Angelus in Piazza San Pietro, Rome. As the people who live in the houses overlooking the square would tell the crowd to go to hell, in the same way the Pope bless them.
I’ve never been to Italy before, but after this quick trip, I wouldn’t hesitate to call Milan one of the fashion and style capitals of the world. People spend huge amounts of money on fashion, interior design and food. One of the t-shirts I spotted said “Will work for shoes”. That sentence sort of sums up the attitude of some of the fashion slaves.
While walking down one of the trendy boutique streets I noticed this piece of wall art apparently sponsored by Diesel.
I wasn’t able to capture the highly visual atmosphere of the city all that well in my holiday snapshots, but have a look at my Milan travelogue gallery if you are intrigued by this city.
Posted by api at 23:34 - No Comments »
Parco Nazionale Gran Paradiso – Official pages
Parco Nazionale del Gran Paradiso was the first national park established in Italy. It includes a large territory of high mountains, from the 800 meters of the bottom of the valleys to the 4,061 meters of the Gran Paradiso peak. Larch and fir woods, wide alpine grasslands, rocks, and glaciers make up an ideal scenery for the life of a rich and various fauna and for a visit leading to the discovery of the wonderful world of the high mountains.
I’m off to Gran Paradiso National Park via Milan. To cut a long story short, I booked cheap flight tickets to Milan at Stockmann Hullut Päivät sale as a sort of an impulse purchase. It was a delight to find out that there are some magnificent hiking opportunities in the area. Nazim, my contact in Milan, kindly booked a night at Rifugio Vittorio Emanuele II, which is one of the mountain shelters near the Gran Paradiso peak. I’m also meeting one of the producers of the excellent Dialogue in the Dark exhibition. My old friend Ilkka Suppanen, a veteran Milan visitor also gave quite a few good tips for the more urban sections of the trip.
Resuming regular scheduele for blog updates around mid-June.
EDIT: The trip was a great success. Tons of fun and tons of excellent cuisine. I’m definitely returning there one day. Here are the travelogue photos from the Aosta valley.
Posted by api at 19:38 - No Comments »
