The Irrelevant Desk

Brooklyn band The National reached back into the Soviet past for their latest video, channeling a punk band called Zvuki Mu.

A little something I put together on a rare Hendrix recording that’s surfaced from a 1969 gig in London. 

My obit of astronomer Sir Patrick Moore, the eccentric’s eccentric. 

Source:

Watch the past bleed into the present with Ghosts of History. Amazing mash-up of World War II era photos and the present. Click on the photo to see a slideshow.

Sixty years ago today, the “Great Smog” enveloped London. It’s a harrowing story, and the accompanying pictures are mind-blowing. For more, click on the photo above.

(Photo: NT Stobbs via Wikipedia)

Merry F-ing Holiday Period…

Tolkien’s Take on America: Middle Earth’s Fiscal Cliff?
Alex Gallafent, theworld.org

Tolkien’s Take on America: Middle Earth’s Fiscal Cliff?The World

Fans of British fan­ta­sy write J.R.R. Tolkien are gear­ing up for the world­wide release of the first of three install­ments of direc­tor Peter Jack­son’s take on The Hob­bit…

The videos are like something Monty Python might have done as a spoof of the BBC…

The History of Hashima, the Island in Bond Film “Skyfall”
Clark Boyd, theworld.org

The History of Hashima, the Island in Bond Film “Skyfall”The World

If you’ve seen the new James Bond film “Skyfall,” then you were prob­a­bly struck by Javier Bar­dem’s por­tray­al of the vil­lain, Raoul Silva. He’s a bad dude, and his evil isla…

Freaky story I did for today’s show @pritheworld…

The History of Pardoning Turkeys Began With Tad Lincoln
Gilbert King, smithsonianmag.com

Tad Lin­coln, 1853-1871. Photo: Matthew B. Brady, Library of Con­gress

Pres­i­dent Barack Obama par­doned his fourth turkey today, in what many believe is a Thanks­giv­ing tra­di­tion dat­ing back to 1947, when Pres­i­dent Harry Tru­man, stand­i…

Who knew??

On this, Election Day, Sofia introduced us to “Oven Mitt” Romney.