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2012/01/02

Neatorama

Neatorama

Tipper vs. Music

Posted: 02 Jan 2012 05:09 AM PST

The following is an article from the book Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges into Music.

People around the world have been trying to regulate music for centuries, but in the 1980s, Tipper Gore launched the first campaign to rate albums. Here’s the story of how a vice-president’s wife took on graphic lyrics in music and won …sort of.

DARLING TIPPER

In 1984, Tipper Gore, wife of then-senator Al Gore, bought Prince’s Purple Rain album for her 11-year-old daughter Karenna. They put on the VD and Gore liked it …until she got to “Darling Nikki,” a very sexually explicit song, and one Gore thought was inappropriate for an 11-year-old. Had she known, she never would have bought the album.

Gore did some more “research” on the level of vulgarity in popular music -she watched MTV for a few hours and found more songs that troubled her, including Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher,” and Mötley Crüe’s “Looks That Kill.” “The images frightened my children, they frightened me,” she said. “The graphic sex and the violence were too much for us to handle.”

She started talking to some friends -wives of prominent Washington businessmen and politicians- and decided to use her influence to do something about it. With Susan Baker (wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker) , Pam Howar (wife of powerful realtor Raymond Howar), and Sally Nevius (wife of Washington City Council chairman John Nevius), Gore formed the Parents Music Resource Center, or PMRC, in 1985.

PMRC’s stated goal: to raise parental awareness of “the growing trend in music towards lyrics that are sexually explicit, excessively violent, or glorify the use of drugs and alcohol.” The group even suggested that the increase in some crimes in the previous 30 years directly correlated with the popularity of rock music -rape was up 7% since 1955 and teenage suicide was up 300%.

PMRC TO RIAA: X, V, D/A, O!

In early 1985, the PMRC sent a letter to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA, the music industry trade organization) and asked it to stop releasing sexually explicit or violent recordings, or at the very least, give albums a rating so parents could judge for themselves if the music is appropriate for their child. “Exercise voluntary self-restraint,” the letter read, “perhaps by developing guidelines and/or a rating system, such as that of the movie industry.” Gore actually had a very specific labeling program in mind. Sexual content would be marked with an “X,” violent content would be marked with a “V,” drug and alcohol mentions got a “D/A,” and promotion of occult themes got an “O.” The letter, signed by the wives of over 20 Washington politicians and businessmen, was sent to 62 record companies as well. Only seven responded and all refused to implement any changes.

THE LINK BETWEEN MUSIC AND HEARING LOSS

In 1985, using their clout (i.e. their husbands), the PMRC convinced the United States Senate to hold hearings on the alarming content of popular music. The PMRC testified, detailing their concerns about the harmful effects of sex and violence in music. Several major musicians testified against the PMRC. John Denver said he was “strongly opposed to censorship of any kind,” partially because censors often misinterpret music. (In 1973, when the government was in the midst of an anti-drug crackdown, the FCC asked many radio stations the refrain from playing Denver’s song “Rocky Mountain High,” even though the song is really about enjoying nature.) Dee Snider of the band Twisted Sister argued a similar point: Gore said his song “Under the Blade,” which Snider said he wrote about an upcoming surgery, was about bondage and rape. “Mrs. Gore was looking for sadomasochism and bondage, and she found it. Someone looking for surgical references would have found those as well.”

But Frank Zappa gave the most pointed commentary. “The proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes on the civil liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years with the interpretational problems inherent in the proposal’s design.”

Zappa went so far as to suggest that the RIAA and Congress had made a deal: The RIAA would agree to some meaningless, superficial labeling (to look good in the public eye. In return, Congress would pass a bill that the RIAA was strongly lobbying for: the Home Recording Act, which would outlaw copying music onto blank tapes (the RIAA said unauthorized copying had cost them billions in sales).

CENSORSHIP? OH, BE QUIET

Gore repeatedly assured the Senate and the public that what she was trying to do was create accountability, and let parents know what kind of music their kids were listening to -that it definitely not censorship. But was it? While the PMRC’s most talked-about goal was the labeling system, it actually had some other demands, too. They wanted to:

* establish a rating system for albums and concerts

* require song lyrics to be printed on album covers

* have albums with explicit cover art kept under store counters

* make record companies break contracts with performer who engaged in violent or sexually explicit onstage behavior

* pressure radio and television not to air objectionable artists

Some of those points were unrealistic (it would be impossible to print an entire album’s worth of lyrics on the cover of a CD or cassette), but politicians ultimately found themselves having to agree that forcing record companies or radio stations to ban any musicians the PMRC found offensive would violate the artists’ First Amendment rights.

DID IT STICK?

On November 1, 1985, before he hearings were even over, the RIAA bowed to the pressure of the PMRC (and growing public sentiment -a national poll said 75 percent of Americans favored a labeling system). Ultimately the RIAA agreed to place stickers reading “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics” on albums deemed offensive. Record companies would do so (and determine what albums get stickers) at their own discretion. Every objectionable album would get the same sticker, not a specific label as Gore had initially proposed. The “Parental Advisory” sticker would have no legally binding effect on stores. It didn’t prevent stores from selling stickered albums to minors, nor did it require them to keep offensive albums behind the counter, unless they wanted to. Wal-Mart opted not to carry stickered albums at all (a poicy that still stands).

THE OPPOSITE EFFECT

So did labeling curb “offensive” music, or at least get kids to stop listening to it? Probably not. In fact in Heavy: The Story of Metal, a documentary about 1980s hard rock, members of the bands Mötley Crüe, Quiet Riot, and Poison all claim their album sales went up after getting stickered. “The sticker almost guaranteed your record would be bought by rebellious kids,” said Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx.

___________________

The article above was reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges into Music.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!

Atlas Obscura’s Ten Most Popular Places for 2011

Posted: 02 Jan 2012 03:58 AM PST

Atlas Obscura took many readers on trips around the world without leaving their computers in 2011. They’ve compiled a list of their most popular places -to read about, if not to travel to- over the past year. Some you read about here; others may be new to you, but all are fascinating. Shown is Cactus Dome in the Marshall Islands, a concrete cover over a nuclear crater left after US weapons tests, just one of the ten places you can visit online. Link

Top 10 Photoshop Disasters of 2011

Posted: 02 Jan 2012 03:55 AM PST

Photoshop Disasters is always good for a laugh -or a nightmare. I may be seeing this model and her “elbow that won’t quit” in my dreams for some time to come. She is one of the Top 10 Photoshop Disasters of 2011, but she’s not #1. Link

A Seriously Epic Lord of the Rings Tattoo

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 10:03 PM PST

You’ve seen the eye of Sauron back piece, but this one chest piece truly captures the epicness of the film and book series with its amazing detail and vivid colors.

Link via Geeks Are Sexy

How Much Maru Is Too Much?

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 09:58 PM PST

(Video Link)

Is triple Maru too much to handle?

Another Great Geek Girl Bra

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 09:54 PM PST

Back in August, I showed you guys the Angry Birds bra, but for those gals who prefer old school games to those available through smart phones, you might prefer this fun Pac Man bra instead.

Link Via Geeks Are Sexy

When 80′s Cartoon Characters Star In An Urban Outfitters Catalog

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 09:48 PM PST

Chilean artist Fabian Ciraolo thought it would be fun to show what 80s cartoon characters looked like when dressed up in fancy retro clothes. Is it just me or do the hipsterific outfits and pouty faces of the models make most of the pictures look like pages from an Urban Outfitters catalog set in a cartoon world?

Link

The Ultimate Gift For An Arrested Development Fan

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 09:41 PM PST

If you watch Arrested Development, then you know there’s always money in the Banana Stand,  which is why this is such a great gift for any fan of the show.

Link

Guerrilla Grafters: Turning Public Trees Into Fruit-Bearing Trees

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 08:52 PM PST


[YouTube Clip]

Money doesn't grow on trees, but that doesn't stop a group of renegade agriculturists from turning public trees into a provider for bountiful harvest by grafting fruit-bearing branches.

Meet the Guerilla Grafters:

What makes them guerrillas is the fact that this grafting is illegal. As the group’s Tara Hui explains, “people think of fruit trees as kind of a nuisance.” That’s both because of the mess they might create in the form of rotten fruit and the vermin they might attract in the form of rats. Depending on the species you’re using, grafting might also run afoul of patent law. The Guerrilla Grafters address the first two problems by making sure each grafted tree has a “steward” who can monitor and take care of it.

Andrew Price wrote the article on Fast Company: Link

World’s Oldest Divorce

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:51 PM PST

Divorcing a spouse due to marital infidelity is sadly not uncommon. But what is newsworthy is how a 99-year-old Italian man divorced his wife after learning of that she had an affair ... 60 years ago!

The Italian man, identified by lawyers in the case only as Antonio C, was rifling through an old chest of drawers when he made the discovery a few days before Christmas.

Notwithstanding the time that had elapsed since the betrayal, he was so upset that he immediately confronted his wife of 77 years, named as Rosa C, and demanded a divorce.

Guilt-stricken, she reportedly confessed everything but was unable to persuade her husband to reconsider his decision.

She wrote the letters to her lover during a secret affair in the 1940s, according to court papers released in Rome this week.

The couple are now preparing to split, despite the ties they forged over nearly eight decades – they have five children, a dozen grandchildren and one great-grand child.

Link (Photo: Shutterstock)

Cthulhu Guitar Will Drive Your Audience Insane

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 04:58 PM PST

When that fabled day comes and this guitar arrives on the stage, the world will never be the same. Ikon Customs, a maker of imaginative guitars, created this instrument in the image of the dark lord.

Link -via Technabob | Photo: Marc Bertone

Is Mexico An Inherently Racist Society?

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 04:50 PM PST

In 1940, psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark performed the groundbreaking "doll experiments" study on children's attitudes on race using white and black dolls (the study was repeated in 2005 and documented by Kiri Davis in the film A Girl Like Me). The study showed how minorities view themselves in respect to racial stereotypes.

Recently, the Mexican government released a YouTube video on racism in Mexico - which brought a lot of comments on this thorny question: is Mexico an inherently racist society?

The kids are seated at a table before a white doll and a black doll, and are asked to pick the "good doll" or the doll that most resembled them. The children, mostly brown-skinned, almost uniformly say the white doll was better or most resembled them.

One child in the video with mixed-race features says the white doll resembled him "in the ears."

"Which doll is the good doll?" a woman's voice asks the child.

"I am not afraid of whites," he responds, pointing to the white doll. "I have more trust."

Mexico's National Council to Prevent Discrimination, or Conapred, in mid-December began circulating the video, modeled on the 1940s Clark experiments in the United States. The children who appear in it are mostly mestizos, or half-Spanish, half-Indian, and a message said they were taped with the consent of their parents and told to respond as freely as they could.

Daniel Hernandez of The Los Angeles Times reports: Link

Man Charged with Making and Then Trying to Spend a Fake $1 Million Bill at Walmart

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 03:00 PM PST

Was it counterfeiting or a postmodern approach to monetary expansion? Either way, police in Lexington, North Carolina allege that a man approached a register at a local Walmart with $476 worth of household goods. He tried to pay for them with a $1 million bill that he made himself:

Store staff called police.

Fuller was later charged with attempting to obtain property by false pretense and uttering a forged instrument, both felonies, court records show.

A warrant says of the fake million-dollar bill: “There is no such thing.”

The largest bill in circulation is a $100 bill. In 1969, federal officials discontinued the use of $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills because of lack of public use.

The largest note ever printed was the $100,000 bill, which featured President Woodrow Wilson. The bills, which were not available to the public, were printed from Dec. 18, 1934, through Jan. 9, 1935, and were used for transactions between Federal Reserve banks.

Link -via Stuff | Photo: Deborah Fitchett

Ape Can Start Fire to Cook a Meal

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 02:48 PM PST

Kanzi, the bonobo that surprised researchers with its linguistic skills (he had learned lexigrams naturally, simply by watching its mother), added a new skillset that will be handy when the apes rise up to take over the world: he can start a fire to cook meals!

Dr Savage-Rumbaugh, of the Great Ape Trust, in Des Moines, Iowa, adds: ‘Kanzi makes fire because he wants to. He used to watch the film Quest For Fire when he was very young which was about early man struggling to control fire. He watched it spellbound over and over hundreds of times.’

He was also fascinated by the camp fires his keepers made to cook food. And he was encouraged to interact with humans and copy them. At the age of five, he was making small piles of bone dry sticks.

David Derbyshire of The Daily Mail has the story (with lots more neat images): Link (Image: still from video by Great Ape Trust)

Dr. McCoy Teapot

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 01:51 PM PST

“Hey Jim-boy, y’all ever have a real cold, Georgia-style mint julep, huh?” You won’t be able to mix one in this teapot, or even Georgia-style sun tea. But you can brew up some hot tea (no, not Earl Grey). Artist Mark Nathan Stafford made this sculpture for the Ossuaries Project. Pour water into the top and tea out of the left ear.

Link -via io9 | Ossuary Project Website

Champagne Marshmallows

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 01:00 PM PST

What are you going to do with the leftover champagne from last night? BraveTart suggests making champagne marshmallows. They can taste toasty or tart, depending on the type of champagne you use and how much vanilla you add. Find the recipe at the link.

Link -via Tasteologie

Spelling with Shoelaces

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 12:46 PM PST

What a fun idea! Neatoramanaut Anton Hecht shot this clever video where words are spelled with shoelaces:

This was made with dance students from Newcastle College and filmed in Central arcade in Newcastle Uk. The writting is a homage to [the poet Charles Bukowski] about how small things can cause us great harm. Thanks to Busker Bill who played behind us. The shoelace design was Mick Davies and Catherin Dufton helped put the moves together.

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - Thanks Anton!

Take a Guess about What a Facial Product Called “Snail Cream” Is Made of

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 12:00 PM PST

Now rub it into your face. It’s good for your skin! And tremendously popular in South Korea:

‘Super Aqua Cell Renew Snail Cream’ contains 70 percent snail extract, and the company says it pays great attention the quality of that 70 percent.

The snails, the same kind that can be found on menus in French restaurants, are fed red ginseng while being raised in Korea in order to ensure quality slime. [...]

The snail cream, made from 21-percent snail extract, is currently the company's best-selling product.

"I had severe adult acne," says fan Mina Oh, 26, who began using snail cream last winter when her boss introduced her to the product.

Oh says that the snail cream is so sticky she has to slap it onto her face with a spoon. That doesn't bother her at all.

"I could feel my skin getting much better," she says. She plans to continue using snail-based creams.

Link -via Dave Barry | Photo: Flickr user Silver_sh

Cookie Monster Stainless Steel Water Bottle

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 11:11 AM PST

Cookie Monster Stainless Steel Water Bottle - $11.95

The New Year is here! The resolutions are made! Will 2012 be the year you get your inner cookie loving monster under control? Get inspired to stay hydrated and get active with the Cookie Monster Stainless Steel Water Bottle from the NeatoShop.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fun Water Bottles! Oh, and once you are over all the exercising be sure to come back and check out all the exciting Food & Drinks!

Link

A Realistic Painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 09:27 AM PST

In 1851, Emanuel Leutze painted General Washington and his army crossing the freezing Delaware River on the night of December 25, 1776 on their way to successfully attack the Hessian mercenary garrison at Trenton, New Jersey. That painting became one of the great icons of American historical art.

It was not, however, an accurate depiction of the event. So artist Mort Kunstler completed detailed research on the actual crossing and cataloged the errors in Leutze’s painting. Then he created the above painting, which he thinks best represents that frozen night’s journey across the river.

News Story and Full Size Image -via Marginal Revolution

The Kissing Dinosaurs of China

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 09:00 AM PST

For the ultimate experience in romantic getaways, try China’s Dinosaurs Fairyland. The city of Erlian is home to rich fossil beds, so you can find an appropriate theme park there. Among its attractions are enormous, concrete models of dinosaurs. This one should really be worked into a dystopian movie someday.

Link -via io9 | Photo: Asia Wheeling
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