Jekyll2022-03-13T15:04:49+00:00https://braintoast.com/feed.xmlbraintoast dotcomA zine of a website. Taking up space on the internet since 1999.Plastic Razor Blades2022-03-11T00:00:00+00:002022-03-11T00:00:00+00:00https://braintoast.com/tools/plastic-razor-blades<p>I don’t recall where I first heard about them. It feels like something I’d get from Kevin Kelly or Mark Fraunfelder. (edit: They’ve been mentioned a number of times on <a href="https://kk.org/cooltools/">Cool Tools</a>, so that’s almost certainly the source.)</p>
<p><a href="https://plasticblades.com">Scraperite plastic razor blades</a> are one of those things that initially seem dumb, but have turned out to be fantastically useful to have on hand.</p>
<h2 id="what-are-they">What are they?</h2>
<p>They’re the same shape and overall dimensions as a typical steel single-edge razor blade and made of plastic. They’re not <em>sharp</em>, but have a thin stiff edge. Great for scraping without risking gouges you might get with an actual razor.</p>
<h2 id="why-are-they">Why are they?</h2>
<p>If you’re trying to get a sticker or label off of something like a plastic jar or coated glass, a metal scraper or blade wants to scratch. These are unlikely to do any damage.</p>
<p>When I mop our floors I carry one of these to convince any tenacious little bits to come up off the floor. Our floors have a factory-applied, tough-as-hell UV-cured finish, but I’d still hesitate to use a metal scraper or blade on them. At least not as casually as I do these plastic blades.</p>
<p>A key feature – which is obvious, but didn’t occur to me at first – is that they fit into most tools or holders made for a regular razor blade.</p>
<h2 id="available-variants">Available variants</h2>
<p>Three other colors are available, each made from a slightly different compound for a range of characteristics. The blue ones are more resistant to edge wear and supossed to be more resistant to bleach/chlorinated chemicals. The yellow blades are less flexible, but also more brittle. The black blades are similar to the orange blades, but are marketed as a verison for “trade professionals.”</p>
<p>The general purpose, orange blades will put up with pretty agressive solvents. I’ve used them with acetone and the like without issue.</p>
<h2 id="theyre-plastic-but-not-necessarily-single-use">They’re plastic, but not necessarily single-use</h2>
<p>I recommend finding the smallest package you can. Being made of plastic <em>sounds like</em> single-use, but the useful lifetime of these is often longer than I get from a metal blade. Even with regular use, I go through no more than a handful in a year.</p>
<p>I try to buy the largest reasonable amount of things in the interest of value and efficiency. It seems I bought a box of 100, so I’ll probably have these on hand until I die.</p>
<h2 id="related-meta-recommendations-cool-tools-and-recommendo">Related meta recommendations: Cool Tools and Recommendo</h2>
<p><a href="https://kk.org/cooltools/">Cool Tools</a> has turned me on to so many neat things over the years and deserves a mention regardless. Go subscribe to <a href="https://www.getrevue.co/profile/Recomendo">Recommendo</a> if it looks like your thing. It’s one of my favorite regular weekly newslettery things.</p>jasonOne of those things that initially seem dumb, but have turned out to be fantastically useful to have on hand.Sisters with Transistors (2020) – Electronic Music’s Unsung Heroines2022-03-04T00:00:00+00:002022-03-04T00:00:00+00:00https://braintoast.com/music/sisters-with-transistors<p><em>Maryanne Amacher photographed by Peggy Weil</em></p>
<p>Award-winning <a href="https://sisterswithtransistors.com/">Sisters with Transistors</a> from filmmaker <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5165413/">Lisa Rovner</a> is really, really, really good and gives some long overdue credit to some of electronic music’s most pivotal innovators.</p>
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<p>“Technology is a tremendous liberator. It blows up power stuctures.”
— Laurie Spiegel</p>
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<p>Loaded with archival footage of and interviews with electronic music’s pioneering women, it dives into the technology, the musicians, and how they used that technology to work around the exclusionary power structures in music created by men for men.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/laurie-spiegel.jpg" alt="Laurie Spiegel" /></p>
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<p>“We women were especially drawn to electronic music when the possibility of a woman composing was in itself controversial. Electronics let us make music that could be heard by others without having to be taken seriously by the male dominated Establishment.”
— Laurie Spiegel</p>
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<p><em>So many</em> greats appear: Suzanne Ciani, Pauline Oliveros, Delia Derbyshire, Laurie Spiegel, Daphne Oram, Bebe Barron, Wendy Carlos, and loads of others.</p>
<p>This film is a great watch if you recognize any of these names or none of them. (Maybe even more if you’re in the latter group.)</p>
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<ul>
<li><a href="https://sisterswithtransistors.com/">Film website</a></li>
</ul>jasonIn praise of hands (1974)2022-02-03T00:00:00+00:002022-02-03T00:00:00+00:00https://braintoast.com/film/in-praise-of-hands-documentary<p><a href="https://www.nfb.ca/film/in_praise_of_hands/">In Praise of Hands (1974)</a> (~28 min, National Film Board of Canada)</p>
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<p>This short documentary pays tribute to the craftsmen everywhere whose work adds color and richness to life. Filmed in the Canadian Arctic, Finland, India, Nigeria, Japan, Mexico, and Poland, it shows the special skills of artisans working at their crafts - stone sculpture, pottery, ceramics, weaving, dyeing, puppet making, embroidery. Each indigenous skill is a reflection of the culture of the country.</p>
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<p>Interesting for the subject matter and as a snapshot of the time.</p>jasonShort documentary hows the special skills of artisans working at their crafts in seven countries around the globe.Howard Hesseman Dead at 812022-01-30T00:00:00+00:002022-01-30T00:00:00+00:00https://braintoast.com/asides/howard-hesseman<p>Actor Howard Hesseman died from complications from colon surgery in LA on January 29, 2022.</p>
<p>He did all sorts of great work. (👉<em>This is Spinal Tap</em>👈) But as a kid aspiring to work in radio, even a ficticious sitcom radio station became an obsession. His character Dr. Johnny Fever was hugely important to short me.</p>
<p><em>Johnny Fever Awakens From The Dead</em> is a favorite clip from WKRP.</p>
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<p>“The music became the ninth character of the show…”</p>
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<p><em>From a 2012 interview with Howard Hesseman about Motorcity Comicon.</em></p>
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<p>Over the course of reading a number of memorials and obituaries, I learned he was born in Lebanon, Oregon, a town a couple of hours away from where I currently live. Inconsequential, but neat to me.</p>jasonRIP Dr. FeverAdverts from London pirate radio 1984-19932022-01-15T00:00:00+00:002022-01-15T00:00:00+00:00https://braintoast.com/radio/london-pirate-radio-adverts<p>UK record store Boomkat has released a series of compilations called <a href="https://boomkat.com/artists/death-is-not-the-end"><em>Death Is Not The End</em></a>, recordings of ads that appeared on London pirate radio 1984-1993.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://boomkat.com/products/london-pirate-radio-adverts-1984-1993-vol-1">London Pirate Radio Adverts 1984-1993, Vol. 1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://boomkat.com/products/london-pirate-radio-adverts-1984-1993-vol-2">London Pirate Radio Adverts 1984-1993, Vol. 2</a></li>
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<p>Scanning the airwaves of a golden era in London history between 1984-1993 when dancehall soundsystem culture fostered the early stirrings and full rush of hardcore, Death Is Not The End turn their beady ear to one of the epicentres of UK rave music with stacks of raggo vignettes advertising everything from Greek salons to school reunions, video shops, datelines, drug helplines, and dances, each set to backdrops of contemporaneous club, rare groove, jungle and house.</p>
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<p><em>London Pirate Radio Adverts 1984-1993, Vol. 1</em></p>
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</div>jasonRadio and rave nostalgia with a cherry-picked volley of adverts from London pirate radio 1984-1993...Betty White Dead at 992021-12-31T00:00:00+00:002021-12-31T00:00:00+00:00https://braintoast.com/asides/betty-white<p>Truly one of the most remarkable careers in show business. That photo above is her on the set of <em>Life with Elizabeth</em>, circa 1956. (she was the first woman to produce a sitcom)</p>
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<p>“I have no regrets at all. None. I consider myself to be the luckiest old broad on two feet.” — Betty White on her career.</p>
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<p>We were lucky to be touched by such a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_White">great body of work</a>. Thanks for the laughs, Betty.</p>
<p>I still think this Super Bowl ad from 2010 is fantastic.</p>
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<p>On January 17, 2022, what would have been her 100th birthday, a documentary movie about her life and career <em>Betty White: 100 Years Young – A Birthday Celebration</em> will be shown in theaters.</p>
<p>The trailer for <em>Betty White: 100 Years Young – A Birthday Celebration</em></p>
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</div>jasonTruly one of the most remarkable careers in show business.A new album from Aimee Mann – Queens of the Summer Hotel2021-11-22T00:00:00+00:002021-11-22T00:00:00+00:00https://braintoast.com/music/aimee-mann-queens-of-the-summer-hotel<p><img src="/assets/images/aimee-mann-qotsh.jpg" alt="Aimee Mann’s latest album Queens of the Summer Hotel" /></p>
<p><a href="https://aimeemann.com/home">Aimee Mann’s</a> latest album <em>Queens of the Summer Hotel</em> features 15 songs inspired by the book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68783.Girl_Interrupted"><em>Girl Interrupted</em></a> written by Susannah Kaysen. I’m an easy sell on Aimee Mann records, but this one really is exceptional.</p>
<p>Find it on your <a href="https://orcd.co/amsim">streaming platform of choice</a> or order it <a href="https://www.musicglue.com/aimee-mann/store">straight from the source</a> (vinyl shipping is delayed until mid-December.)</p>
<p>Here’s the first video – <em>Suicide Is Murder</em>.</p>
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<p><em>So</em> good.</p>
<p>And the video that spawned a decades-long crush.</p>
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</div>jasonAimee Mann’s latest album Queens of the Summer Hotel ... I’m an easy sell on Aimee Mann records, but this one really is exceptional.The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:002021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00https://braintoast.com/books/first-collection-of-criticism-by-a-living-female-rock-critic<p>I stumbled across this super enjoyable compendium of <a href="https://www.jessicahopper.org/">Jessica Hopper</a>’s music writing at the bookstore earlier this year. It’s a revised and expanded edition of the book she first published in 2015. This edition is almost twice as long.</p>
<p>Chances are you’ve read her work at some point. But if you’re not familiar with her, even better.</p>
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<p>“Jessica Hopper’s criticism is a trenchant and necessary counterpoint not just on music, but on our culture at large.” —Annie Clark, St. Vincent</p>
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<p>I’ve been using some of the pieces as a way to dig back into recording artists I haven’t listened to in a while with a new perspective or more backstory.</p>
<p>If you’ve ever been one to read a music review in an arts or alt weekly (For me, <em>City Pages, Twin Cities Reader, The Stranger, Mercury</em>) you should enjoy this.</p>
<p>Buy from an indie bookseller <a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780374538996?aff=braintoast">at IndieBound</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780374538996?aff=braintoast"><img src="/assets/images/jessica-hopper-book-cover.jpg" alt="The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic by Jessica Hopper cover art" /></a></p>jason“Jessica Hopper’s criticism is a trenchant and necessary counterpoint not just on music, but on our culture at large.” —Annie Clark, St. VincentIn the Shop: Refinishing and relabeling an old gift hammer.2017-08-06T00:43:26+00:002017-08-06T00:43:26+00:00https://braintoast.com/diy/in-the-shop-refinishing-and-relabeling-an-old-gift-hammer<div class="youtube-wrapper">
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<p>This heavy-ass hammer was my father’s. Now it’s mine.</p>
<p>My dad gave me a little sledgehammer years ago. I’ve been hanging up more of my hand tools lately and this thing was looking tired. I gave it a new label and some refinishing so it can be a little sharper in the shop.</p>
<p>I got to play around with some great water decal stock on this one. I’ll definitely be using that stuff more often.</p>jasonI've been hanging up more of my hand tools lately and this thing was looking tired. I gave it a new label and some refinishing so it can be a little sharper in the shop.Kristin Battles the Bots2008-11-06T21:30:43+00:002008-11-06T21:30:43+00:00https://braintoast.com/asides/kristin-battles-the-bots<blockquote>
<p>Instead of “I will get back to you…love, kristin” it makes me say, “I will get back baby bad balls to you…love cretin”</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.kristinhersh.com/im-fighting-more-robots/">Kristin Hersh: I’m Fighting More Robots</a></p>jasonInstead of “I will get back to you…love, kristin” it makes me say, “I will get back baby bad balls to you…love cretin”