36: Thousands of little poops

January 2, 2009 10:37 PM

Most of this podcast covers the Best Posts of December Contest as we determine our favorites and come up with a list of winners (results are inside), then follow it up with favorite posts from other sections of the site. Recorded on January 2, it's just under an hour long.

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Best Post Contest for December

Classic Animation Remixed (worked on for several months) by Rhaomi

Namaste, Welcome to my Kitchen (Manjula's Kitchen) by Ambrosia Voyeur

Traditional Christmas songs written by Jews by grobstein

Beverly Hillbillies Casino by mudpuppie

Rainbow Connection covers by cavalier

Just People, Talking (Studs Terkel) by Miko

Film location scout in NYC and their new blog by grumblebee (we discuss this page a bit)

Classic Radio Shack Catalogs by davebush (1980! 150 in 1!)

Arty posts bonus:

woodblock100 offered a free print for the best post about art, so we picked a favorite from all posts tagged as art.

Pill Art by rageagainsttherobots

Pipe Cleaner Pixels by Knappster (vw bus)

Dorkbot by funkiwan (a photo of someone leaving a comment -- old meetups, DaShiv!)

100 Cereal Box Covers by Brandon Blatcher

Surrealist art by Maria de los Remedios Varo Uranga by CheeseDigestAll (one of her famous works)

Final tally
First place: Rhaomi (Cartoon Network post)
Second: Miko (Studs Terkel post)
Third: Ambrosia Voyeur (Manjula's Kitchen post)

Art post winner: CheeseDigestAll (Surrealist Art post)


Music links

December Challenges were Holiday ("broken christmas") themed, one (of many) favorites was Christmas Rhapsody (also played at the end)

Talk section of Music featuring How to do music while being a parent


MeFi Projects

Did you try rebooting?


MeFi Jobs

Front-end web developer at US News & World Report


Ask MeFi links

Name that restaurant where this waffle came from

Puzzling kitchen gadgets

The public bathroom discussion which showed up on MetaTalk

$11,000 for the cheapest coffin at a funeral home?! (ColdChef showed up)

Useful things: Good NetFlix streaming documentaries, How to become an interesting person to talk to, and How to learn about other people's professions through blogs.


Music Challenge for January

Record a song to be played simultaneously with another. Example song mashup with two songs.

posted by mathowie to MeFi Podcast at 10:37 PM (57 comments total)

Yeah, but what's up with gas prices?
posted by hellojed at 12:28 AM on January 3 [1 favorite]

First place: Rhaomi

Heh, at least no can say he didn't earn it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:29 AM on January 3 [3 favorites]

Hot damn, I thought this wasn't going up till Monday. I've got no prepared speech to deliver! I fear I might be pulling a hindmost here, but here goes...

First off, thanks to Matt for putting this whole thing together. I don't know how the total prize money compares to Mefi's monthly ad revenue, but whatever it is, it's a great investment. I had my post percolating for a very long time, and it was held back mainly by inertia (and maybe a little bit of stage fright). But the December contest's challenge to excellence motivated me to finally sit down and get it done, and to do it right. And it's a great feeling to take a look around when that work is done and see that you are in the company of some very fine colleagues. Awesome props to everyone that participated -- it made for deep and satisfying reading on those cold Alabama nights.

Also, thanks to the commenters for all the great feedback on my entry. Looking back, it was such a mindblowing feeling when I first encountered these videos a few months ago. There's probably a long German compound word that could express it better, but basically these shorts had been part of my daily unwinding routine as an elementary-schooler 10+ years ago -- and in the intervening years, I had totally, utterly forgotten about it all. But from the moment I first saw that first clip, every last shred of it came flooding back. The music, the characters, even the rhythm and timing of the dialogue. It was unreal.

So my main goal for the post was to take this intoxicating feeling of recollection, concentrate it by dredging up every last clip available on the internet, and then drop a Weapon of Mass Nostalgia on an unsuspected Mefi population. Thanks again to everyone who dropped by with a personal story or memory as proof that it worked -- and special thanks to those who added a few more leads to the story. (I'm collecting links on these and will update the post soon).

Lastly, I'd like to say that while the prizes are cool, I feel good about winning this for another reason. When I first joined Mefi last year, I was astounded by the quality of what had gone before. Trawling back through the archives I found a seemingly endless supply of fascinating stories and information. I saw it as a monolith of Internet Greatness, with myself just a lowly noob. This contest was an opportunity for me to reciprocate for all the months of laughs and learning, to chip in a little with some of my own experiences, to help build a small part of this site's legacy. So, though some might think these contests are all about the iPods and the cashmoney, I'd like to see them as evidence that Metafilter has not jumped the shark. That it's not just a record of coolness past, but a vital community still able to find the best of the web -- and that anyone, even a newcomer like me, has the power to burnish that already-sterling reputation.

Thanks again for the opportunity, and congratulations to everyone who participated along with me!
posted by Rhaomi at 12:40 AM on January 3 [7 favorites]

Oh, and lest the podcast speculation make everybody think I'm some kind of hermitic FPP Wizard, toiling in secret for OMG SIX MONTHS to assemble my post, the truth is much lamer. I'd run across the Cartoon Cartoon Fridays theme on YTMND, and a search for the original music led me to composer Michael Kohler's professional site. Reading his list of pieces led me to the various shorts and music videos on YouTube, and I had a great time watching them all over a week or so. I considered making a post out of it, but there was a lot of material and I was being distracted by the Democratic primaries, so I just filed it away for later. That was sometime in March/April/May.

It wasn't until September (and several FPPs later) that I resumed work on the post, tracking down the highest-quality videos of all the Shorties and Groovies and assembling them into a formatted list. But then I encountered the World Premiere Toons, and that list was far longer than what I'd already done, so I gave up for awhile again. The December contest inspired me with a clear deadline, so after Christmas I spent time finding the missing videos. I put together all the pieces and supplemented it with some last-minute resources in a crunch session the night before I posted. So, although I've been thinking and working on this for several months, most of that time the videos were collecting dust in my bookmarks folder.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:48 AM on January 3

yeah, whatevs guy. alls i know is that fucking reboot page is dope.
posted by dogwalker at 2:50 AM on January 3 [1 favorite]

Great, I hope we get another edition of "Who googled the most?" next century.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:07 AM on January 3

Hot damn, I thought this wasn't going up till Monday.

Hey so did I! Thanks for getting this out so quickly mathowie
posted by jessamyn at 7:11 AM on January 3

Good god, what a post, Rhaomi! It makes me want to create one of those graphics like "Look at this fucking post! This shit has the history of cartooning goddamn! Holy shit this shit is so comprehensive you can smell Bugs Bunny's breath on the back of your neck. You know you wish you made this shit, Smithsonian. Holy fuck when you scroll down fast you actually see a moving cartoon goddamn!" etc.
posted by cashman at 7:30 AM on January 3 [1 favorite]

Rhaomi, you forgot the Academy, Jesus, and Michael Ovitz.
posted by jonmc at 7:40 AM on January 3

Wait, doesn't Rhaomi get a gold star by their name?
posted by Rumple at 8:52 AM on January 3

Jess, the ladies are germophobic, and so they attempt to hover over the seats when they whizz.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:07 AM on January 3

Also, Jingle Burn still kind of scares me.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:12 AM on January 3

You're allowed to think about your post before throwing up the first thing off the top of your head? Why didn't anyone tell me about this?

Congrats Rhaomi!
posted by lukemeister at 9:30 AM on January 3

Just to be clear, I didn't win?

I am glad some of these were highlighted. I would have never caught the Indian food prep one, since I missed it the first time around, and I love reading about woodblock printing. I know it was a prize, not a post, but I found woodblock100 link to be worth a look.
posted by cjorgensen at 10:09 AM on January 3

I am a failure.
posted by Joe Beese at 10:32 AM on January 3

jessamyn - Some women hover over the toilet seat instead of actually sitting down. (Just to be clear - not me!)
posted by typewriter at 10:55 AM on January 3

Can those of us who didn't win get demotivational posters as consolation prizes?
posted by lukemeister at 12:28 PM on January 3 [1 favorite]

OMG this is better than graduation day!! I have demonstrably made the transition from mere favorite slut to Accredited Favorite Whore, Third Class! I love it!

I feel like Manjula is the real champion, though. Namaste!!


I need the cash, Matt!! ...Which I will spend either on Indian food... Or on airfare because I have to go to Japan in May to present at a conference, my first. Is expensive. I'm discussing Space Ghost and its difference from the other Williams Street cartoons as a postmodern political demonstration of the collapse of spaces and time, and the role of television in that collapse. By which I mean to say, if there's one thing I personally love more than Indian food, it's Cartoon Network! Congrats, Rhaomi!!!

I can hardly wait to hear the podcast. I'm on the road home from a dusty druggy Slab City campout. What fun news! Thanks!!!
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:35 PM on January 3 [5 favorites]

Holy cannoli. I'm totally thrilled! Thank you to all the mods. It's so interesting to hear people talking about what they like about posts - I've been hanging here long enough that I think of posts now as sort of a form or genre, like a sonnet or squib or feature story, with their own sort of schools of aesthetics. It's really sort of validating to hear that the kind of stuff I thought was interesting was interesting to others, too.

Jessamyn makes a good point about what movitated me to choose this topic - oral histories are frequently done by libraries and museums and stuff, and then they sort of languish unless they end up on somebody's syllabus somewhere. It was great to unearth some good examples and share them, and there are plenty more out there. I also wanted to shed a little light on oral history as a method, and how you do it - because anyone can do it and it's amazingly fun, and transformative for the interviewer as the interviewee.

I think there are basically two major categories of post, kingdoms or phyla or what-have-you: the first category, which is "hey, I stumbled across something really cool on the web, and here it is," and the second category, which starts with a topic and then presents the best web resources you can find on it. Years ago I realized I was pretty much never going to be the one to find the stuff in the first category. I'm not a programmer or web person or media person, so I don't get exposed to the new/awesome stuff that appears on the web very early on. I'm way downstream on that stuff. But what I can offer is awareness of stuff that comes up because of my non-web interests. It was funny to hear some of the mods express surprise that people work on their posts for a while. I certainly do, and it's because doing the second-category post usually requires combing through the web finding really good links, storing them, and then trying to figure out how to make the narrative section that presents them. To me, it's good if there's a logical approach to the presentation, and if the words and the links themselves have some relation, rather than just making a 1:1 match.

Anyway, thank you!

It might be because both our fathers were in electronic engineering, but my childhood experiences with Radio Shack almost exactly resemble Jessamyn's. I'm intimately familiar with the place. Just recently my SO was looking for some audio doohickie and was at Best Buy getting really frustrated because no one knew anything about it. At some point he said "where I else can I get this thing? You think Radio Shack would know anything about it?" and I said "AbsoLUTEly. Those guys know everything." The staff are kind of geeky and clingy and overinformed and highly attuned to small specifications, but when that's what you want, that's what you want. I swear my dad went there every week in the late 70s and early 80s, and I often went along to play with the handheld games and listen to the different headphones while he checked out circuit board bits and whatever all that other stuff is. We did have a reel-to-reel player in our home, and I learned to splice tape on it. And he and his friends were huge audio geeks. I guess there's something to that thought of exposing girls to technology - I didn't turn out to be a techie myself, but I'm definitely not mystified by or afraid of technology, and for at least part of that I credit Radio Shack. I'm glad they're still in business.

Also, woodblock100's work is incredibly beautiful, and I highly highly recommend taking a look at it and considering the gift prints next year. Glad to see the attention his work is getting...another amazingly talented MeFite.

I also really enjoyed the music challenge. It's been a great month to be here. Thanks to everyone!
posted by Miko at 1:44 PM on January 3 [1 favorite]

In order to properly celebrate diversity, I humbly request that the next contest is designed in such a way that I am able to win despite my disabilities and special needs.
posted by Meatbomb at 1:59 PM on January 3 [1 favorite]

I have to go to Japan in May to present at a conference, my first. Is expensive. I'm discussing Space Ghost and its difference from the other Williams Street cartoons as a postmodern political demonstration of the collapse of spaces and time, and the role of television in that collapse.

My favorite part is how that's not a joke.
posted by cortex at 2:16 PM on January 3 [3 favorites]

Ambrosia, check yer email and get back to me with an address and I'll send a novelty sized check post haste.
posted by mathowie at 2:22 PM on January 3

Congratulations to the winners (she says, with clenched teeth and a fake smile).

No, seriously, congratulations! Good work!
posted by amyms at 2:47 PM on January 3

Wow! Thank you very much to the mods for the shoutout/links. I'm kind of embarrassed by how much support and encouragement I'm getting from the MeFi community, especially considering how little I am able to contribute. The work I do is kind of 'isolating' in a way (many long hours at the benches), and these communications from the people who enjoy the results are much appreciated. Thank you all!
posted by woodblock100 at 3:46 PM on January 3

In order to properly celebrate diversity, I humbly request that the next contest is designed in such a way that I am able to win despite my Meatbomb's disabilities and special needs.

Fixed that for me.
posted by Sparx at 5:01 PM on January 3

I still love you, jessamyn, even though now I see that I still don't have an iPod.

/me finds the first "Free iPod" banner ad on the internets and clicks and clicks and clicks until his wrist hurts, before collapsing in tears...
posted by not_on_display at 5:08 PM on January 3 [1 favorite]

You got an iPod for your birthday, dork.
posted by jessamyn at 5:20 PM on January 3 [1 favorite]

Get a chatroom, you two.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:00 PM on January 3

/me gets a chatroom
posted by not_on_display at 6:10 PM on January 3

/me too
posted by jessamyn at 6:21 PM on January 3

We should do this every month. I'd chip in a $5er towards this cause, and if 600 or so other Mefites did the same, you'd cover the iPod expense for the whole year. Alternatively, you could do a $100 gift card to Amazon.com or for Paypal (and might even be able to finagle a donation from them in exchange for a smaller banner) which would reduce it to only $1200/yr.
posted by spiderskull at 8:03 PM on January 3

Anoint me king, you two.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:07 PM on January 3 [1 favorite]

My favorite part is how that's not a joke.

This from the guy who makes a living by adjudicating amongst "people" on the internet and then singing to them. Who doesn't love Manjula probably because he can't even handle spicy food. Well, I guess Indian food might be a bit hazardous to eat while not wearing pants. I'll try to craft pantslessness-friendly posts in future, my liege.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 8:49 PM on January 3 [3 favorites]

he can't even handle spicy food

Spicy food is like an impolite dinner guest in my mouth. It's all like "hey look at me LOOK AT ME I'M TALKING HEY HEY HEY LISTEN TO MY STORY ABOUT WHAT I SAID TO KELLY AT THE MALL C'MON HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY" and I'm all like, hey, for fuck's sake, spicy food, I am trying to taste other things here too so would you please just quiet down but spicy food just goes "SHE SAID MARLA LOOKED TOO SKINNY SO I SAID LOL YOU'RE JUST PISSED BECAUSE THAT HOMELESS GUY ASKED YOU 'WHEN YOU WERE DUE' AND OMG IT WAS SO FUNNY".

Fuck you, spicy food. Except for you, wasabi—you know how to scream something hilarious and then hush the fuck up again two seconds later, and I love you for that.
posted by cortex at 9:30 PM on January 3 [11 favorites]

After the October thread about Weird Al, I went on a listening binge, & then realized I had prime material to completely warp my nephew's minds (they're under 5). If they listened to much of his stuff, they'd then hear the originals, but they'd have the impression that Weird Al was first, that he was often amiably ripped off, but in fact Weird Al was the prime musical force of the late 20th Century.

A friend (who is a parent) talked me out of it. For now.
posted by Pronoiac at 2:28 AM on January 4 [4 favorites]

Congrats, all! Keep up the great work.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 10:40 AM on January 4

Gosh, I had no idea I was even in the running, that's how thick headed I am... I just (for once) had an idea to post something, and it previously hadn't been done! Neat!

I love you all in a very real and internet way. And congrats to all the fabulous winners. W And Rhamoi, your post is quite literally going to live in my firefox tab list for the rest of 2009..soo... thanks for that :)
posted by cavalier at 11:39 AM on January 4

See? If we had a 3 minute edit function, that "W " could be removed! Just saying! XOXO
posted by cavalier at 11:40 AM on January 4

yay!
posted by anotherpanacea at 1:16 PM on January 4

And so ends the reign of stavrosthewonderchicken.
posted by tellurian at 2:52 PM on January 4

Mr. F is eagerly anticipating the Miami Vice casino with wakeup calls by Wham!, just so you people know what you've unleashed on the collective gestalt here.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 3:49 PM on January 4

There's been quite a string of podcast titles which set focus below the waist. May I propose we shift our gaze upward, somewhat? For example, I would have titled this podcast after cortex' statement, "Attention, users! Do not be crass like us!" or something like that.
posted by Riverine at 7:42 PM on January 4

See? If we had a 3 minute edit function, that "W " could be removed! Just saying! XOXO

Maybe if we had an 8 year edit function, the other "W" could be removed, too... Just saying!
posted by inigo2 at 7:13 AM on January 5 [2 favorites]

There's good news, inigo2!
posted by Pronoiac at 9:35 AM on January 5

I'm going to start on next December's post now. When I am done it will be a 5 page essay with each letter linking to an individual site. That'll win for sure!

Oh, or a SLYT post if I can't find enough links.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:54 AM on January 5

ZOMG, I've been mentioned in a podcast. This goes up there with my submission being approved by Slashdot!
posted by furtive at 10:41 AM on January 5

Welcome to the z-list, my friend.
posted by cortex at 10:49 AM on January 5

Whoo hoo, my post about Dorkbot got mentioned. Even neater, it appears Douglas, Dorkbot's progenitor, ponied up for a metafilter account to answer in thread!
posted by funkiwan at 12:10 PM on January 5

I would like to hear a memu post from cortex of him doing a cover of Weird Al's impression of Ethel Merman doing a cover of Smoke On The Water.
posted by shmegegge at 1:48 PM on January 5

Weird Al was the prime musical force of the late 20th Century.

I never [well, hardly ever] listened to any music of my own choosing until later in jr. high, with the exception of Weird Al.
I... knew that he was doing parodies, I guess. Of what I had to guess.
I was pretty sure that he wrote all of the words and tunes in the polkas himself, though.

So, to a limited extent your plan has already happened.

It results in impatience with people who sing bohemian rhapsody about 10 times too slowly, mainly.
posted by Acari at 11:58 PM on January 5

Weird Al was absolutely the first album I ever had, bought in a grocery store, on cassette. Mister Frump in the WHAT? I had no idea. Sefl-titled. About 1988. before then, all Id' heard was BNilly Joel amnd the oldies station. I remember quite clearly buying, in order, an oldies mix (including Sherry and Yakkity Yak) and only then, third, my NKOTB record.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:07 AM on January 6

Pffft. I didn't want to win anyways.

or rather, what Joe Beese said.

/cries
posted by Bageena at 10:01 AM on January 8

What's the song at the end of this podcast?
posted by odinsdream at 3:29 PM on January 14

Dang. I stumbled across Manjula's Kitchen a couple of months before Ambrosia Voyeur's post (while researching naan techniques), but for some reason posting it to MeFi didn't even cross my mind. I coulda been a contender!

Oh well. Hats off to Ms. Voyeur for spreading the Manjula love!
posted by the littlest brussels sprout at 3:42 PM on January 14

odinsdream, it's Christmas Rhapsody.
posted by cortex at 3:50 PM on January 14

Talk section of Music featuring How to do music while being a parent

Aw, shucks...
posted by saulgoodman at 9:48 AM on January 15

cortex; thanks. I swear I read the top of this page at least a dozen times before deciding to ask about it. And yet...there it is.
posted by odinsdream at 6:09 PM on January 15