Right… I’ve never properly rooted around in the New British Artists concept from the 90s, but they did represent a turning point in the postmodern art world, specifically in the quotidian aspect of people like Tracy Emin. I’ll put it bluntly: she is the opposite of the sorority girl who goes to college to land a job at a corporation that will give her a salary to merely exist and create value for the company. She walked out on a televised art roundtable, obviously drunk and with a splint on her finger, and the British television-watching public thought it was the coolest thing ever. Well, kinda. Remember this was the 1990s, way before Big Brother, The Bachelor, Masterchef, and all the kitschy reality television that has basically been … Read More

Following the concept of reality-is-hilarious-and-surreal behind overheardinnewyork.com (to which I’ve contributed my own eavesdropping hilarity) we find the Ch.ill version appropriately named Overheard in Chicago. Some gems: Homeless Guy: “If I’m the auto dudes, I’m going to Congress and askin’ for 50 trillion dollars. You gotta start ‘um high and work ‘um down. Business basics, man. That’s why they failin’.” – Wacker and Jackson Guy: (on cell) “How much? For a freaking window? It’s a car! Are you crazy? I might as well put bricks in where the window was! Screw seeing! At least they won’t be able to break it again!” – Oakton and Skokie Boulevard, Skokie Good times.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the internet phenomenon of RickRolling, a virtual bait-and-switch prank that redirects a curious user to Rick Astley’s part one of his two-part wonderdom. As the web is wont to do, a BarackRoll’d version popped up featuring Obama “singing” Mr. Astley’s claim to fame via clever and involved editing. In a hilarious mashup with green-screen action, McCain gets BarackRolled at his own nomination. The frustrated mannerisms and odd / creepy facial expressions of McCain are pretty much the same he exhibited at the final debate where he got pwned by Obama’s clear intelligence, vision, integrity, and steady-handed grasp of the important issues. Enjoy!

Here is a graphical way of portraying electoral college vote predictions realtime: Here’s an interesting look at How Close were the Presidential Elections. It looks at the smallest number of total votes that need to be switched from one candidate to another, and from which states, to affect the outcome of the election, and provides a strange view of an alternate reality that could have been.

You know, I just love self-reflexivity from a humor standpoint, all critical analysis aside. Here’s two recent favorites: The funny part is that the Onion has been including realtime RSS feeds on their main page, meaning if you search for key terms you get thrown to the Onion home page and barraged with parody. Brillz. Who’s the campaign about? Love it. Moar!

McCain’s top words appear to be country, work, fight, Americans, make, and going. Obama’s top words seem to be promise, America, time, McCain, American, and work. The word clouds were made with Wordle, a free online tool that lets you create word clouds from pasted or linked-to text.