April 30th, 2008 | brainjuice
It turns out that one of the readers on my mailing list runs Cocoa Nymph in Vancouver. "Artisanal chocolate" is the term, apparently. The site is basically chocolate porn. Can you miss a city you only lived in for two weeks? You can when Cocoa Nymph is there.
(Vancouver also has amazing beer and seafood.)
WARREN ELLIS
Coilhouse - 20 Nov 09
This one goes out to Nadya, Zo, and especially Courtney Riot, our beloved creative director. Hang in there, babies.
Post tags: Coilhouse, Serious Business
Coilhouse - 20 Nov 09
Well hello there!
Do you lack healthy boundaries? Are you guilty of the compulsive overshare? All-too-eager to share gory, palpating details with complete strangers that no one besides your own mother and/or proctologist would ever want to know?
Non-consensual rape anecdote telling. Tactical uterus hurling in lieu of real intimate contact. The “I wasn’t breast fed enough so now I need to publicly air my personal anguish to feel properly nurtured and validated” power point presentation. “Cry For Help” cutting (across the street, not down the road). Cloaking references to life-shattering trauma in Obfuscating Yet Ominous Faerie Singsong? (patented by Tori Amos). “Fuck You Daddy, I’m a Suicide Girl Now!” blog posts. Spontaneous primal scream therapy in the supermarket. If you have ever attempted one or more of these maneuvers, chance are, you’re a TMI Avenger.
Relax. You’re among friends. And you’re gonna loooove Body Memories. A squirm-inducing, low budget indie film directed by the same fella who brought us one of the most fabulous independent documentaries of the decade, Body Memories is…
…one man’s journey inward to find meaning in his life. He becomes an archeologist of the soul, digging through the layers of his past. Evocative images blend with a riveting performance that uncovers family secrets and buried traumas.
Enjoy.
(More clips under the cut.)
Read the rest of “I’m bad… I’m a man… I HATE my penis.”
Post tags: Crackpot Visionary, Culture, Film, Gender, Sexuality, Silly-looking types, Surreal, Testing your faith
Coilhouse - 20 Nov 09
Every time an issue of the magazine goes to print, things somehow turn Highly Inappropriate here at Coilhouse. This is apparent to anyone who was there on Twitter during the hours of our final revision deadline last night. And it’s only going to get worse before Issue 04’s out. So to celebrate, a video of Miss Piggy singing “Fuck the Pain Away” by Peaches. It’s that kind of day.
[via Shannon]
Brian Wood - 20 Nov 09
Will Blanche, ?The Newly Constructed Towers of the World Trade Center Seen From the South Side on West Street, May, 1973? (via These Americans)
See also: Mitch Epstein, ?West Side Highway, New York City? [looking towards World Trade Center] 1977
Kung Fu Monkey - 20 Nov 09
John Robb - 20 Nov 09
Short Answer: divide it.
It's long been my contention that Iraq was stabilized at an acceptable level of controlled chaos due to a happy accident by al Qaeda (in an attempt to expand/lead the loose insurgency in a new direction). What did they do? They blew up the Golden Mosque in Samara in 2006. This act of symbolic terrorism did indeed disrupt social networks as anticipated, however the consequences were ultimately disastrous for the Iraqi open source insurgency.
The reason for this is it broke the dynamics of the open source insurgency in ways the US and Iraqi government's COIN efforts could not. First, it created a permanent split between Sunni and Shiite insurgent groups/militias. Coopetition ended. Second, it motivated large Shiite militias to start an ethnic cleansing of Sunni areas. This put acute pressure on Sunni guerrilla groups who were too small (by design to avoid US counter-pressure) to defend themselves against large militias operating in the open. The result was an opening, very close to the one I described in my 2005 NYTimes OpEd, that allowed the US to convert Sunni guerrilla groups into militias that were not loyal to the central government (in direct contradiction to its COIN manual).
It's a nice example of the dynamics of many to many conflict, social network disruption, and the development open source counterinsurgency.
See this excellent description at the blog, "Musings on Iraq" for more detail on the ethnic cleansing operations. It also includes this money quote: "the majority of the Sunni insurgency gave up and switched sides to align with the Americans rather than face annihilation at the hands of the Shiite militias, Al Qaeda in Iraq, or the United States."
NOTE: it's pretty clear from the above that social network disruption (either through attacks on symbolic targets or blood and guts terrorism) is like playing horseshoes with live hand grenades. It's ultimately a losing strategy for advancing an open source insurgency. Social network disruption is very likely to break standing order 6: don't fork the insurgency.
Girl Farts - 20 Nov 09
John Robb - 20 Nov 09
Some random items of interest:
Jean Snow - 20 Nov 09
Beautiful (and simple) site design featuring the illustrative work of Yorifuji Bunpei. Via Paul Baron.
you’re missing out on a lot of things in vancouver.
Oh, believe me, I know. What pissed me off most about the GLOBAL FREQUENCY pilot not being picked up was not getting to move to Vancouver for six months of the year.
Hey, nice, I didn’t know about this shop, thanks for the address!
(and yeah, it’s a shame… first time I comment here, and instead of thanking you for all the awesome stories, I thank you for a chocolate shop tip…)
We would’ve loved to have had you here.
“I miss Vancouver”…
You and me both, sir.
I’m currently struggling to focus on anything but my upcoming trip out thataways, and that’s not until August!
Now I need to find Cocoa Nymph.
Chocolate is great after a nice sushi dinner.
Now I must drag my chocolate-whore self across English Bay to acquire the luxuries.
I am actually going to a dinner tonight at FigMint that’s pairing Crannog beers with each course:
* Roast Venison with Smoked Chocolate and Espresso Jellies with Bogtrotter Brown Ale
* Foie Gras Torchon with Braised Kumquats and Spiced Streusel with Red Branch Irish Ale
* Lemon Sorbet with Grapefruit & Micro Basil Salad with Beyond the Pale Ale
* Pork Belly Confit with Black Truffles, Pork Scratching, Wild Mushrooms, Apricot-Marjoram Jus with Hell’s Kitchen Ale
* Le Peral Blue Cheese with Poached Organic Prunes and “Burnt” Onion Foam with Back Hand of God Stout
Sometimes I love this city.
Amazing - I’ve been wanting to get out of Vancouver for years now, and suddenly I kind of want to stay.
Amazing.
Vancouver misses you as well. (Although that Global Frequency pilot was…meh.)
BJ, have you tried FigMint’s Cheeese Tasting? Four cheeses, four whiskies. Ian had it one night and was drunk for two days. They also have this stunning drink called Mint, made with an infusion of Concorde grapes. Amazing. I love that place.
Good timing on posting this. I’m headed to Victoria with my wife next week for a conference, and Vancouver is just a train ride up the island. Now we’ll have to check it out.
Warren,
Thanks enormous bucket-loads for your posting and comments! If there’s some way we can send you a box of your very own chocolate porn, please let me know.
Sorry David, Vancouver is on the mainland. However you can take a train up-island to Nanaimo and catch a ferry across the Georgia straight. Takes about three hours.
Or spend a little extra and grab a float plane from Victoria harbour. It’s just a 30 minute flight.
Pia, I haven’t tried that (Wednesday was my first visit though I doubt my last) but it sounds great. I have had a couple of very good experiences with a four cheese, four beer pairing at DIX.
You’ve also reminded me that I want to do one more whisky orgy at the Shebeen before they move.
I miss Vancouver too. I used to hit up Pezzo Pizza on Robson quite a lot when living downtown several years back. Additionally, Olympia Seafood on Thurlow has the best fish’n'chips in the world.
Warren, I can understand why you miss Vancouver. I’ve lived here my whole life and I will never call another city home.
Turns out I live just up the street from Cocoa Nymph and have never been there. That will change tonight, I promise you that.
Come back soon Warren. Vancouver misses you too.