Daily View, 2/21

• According to Slate, the "archetypal music-video nightclub delivers to all entrants the perfect ecstasy of release." I want to go to this nightclub. Oh wait, the article is actually about Madonna, the thrust of her ambition, and all the leotard fabulousnesses of those two new videos that my inner gay man can't seem to stop watching...


• Some brilliant idiot has laced together Oprah's James Frey lashout with her previous interview with Tom "Crazy" Cruise and created a basically accurate reflection of what most of us think about TomKat.


• Oh, those crazy improv kids... Improv Everywhere punks the Strand bookstore's bagcheck with a cell phone symphony, ring-led from nearby Union Square. I made the mistake of forwarding this link to a co-worker, who promptly claimed that her thesis advisor had invented this concept back in ancient times 2001. To that, I say a hearty fuck off. No one said the goofy improv dorks invented the idea, just that they got the Strand. Jesus Christ on a Candy Stick.


• People are still knitting strange things... like the digestive system.


• Big Predator Update: National Geographic reports that shark attacks were down in 2005 but are up over the longterm. Fuck.


• More wierd (historical and otherwise) animal items (including sidebar ads): the Cat Piano


• Apparently Converse is now allowing you to customize your slip-on Chucks. I am enternally entranced by the idea of customization—you can customize your Vans, an array of Nike merchandise, your Timbuk2 bag... I have often built the customized item, but in the end I never, ever actually make it to the cart. Why? Who knows. Somehow I just can't take that final step. Of course, perhaps this is the same freakiness that causes me to enjoy staying home, dressing up, then not going out to show it off. Mental disorder? I guess. Maybe I just like to dress things up. ??


• These are some bad mutha... shut your mouth! Just talkin' bout treehouses!!


• I was a Comm major, and have never been a blonde, so this kind of thing interests me: Slate on TV's Aryan Sisterhood (I thought Katie Couric was a brunette! Damn, I haven't watched TV in years.)


• One of my favorite weird magazines is now blogging: check out the ReadyMade Blog!