Snapshot of a Dictator: Brezhnev

Leonid Brezhnev had a love affair with medals; despite his complete lack of notable achievements, he ended up with at least 114 at last count, many of which he gave himself. Toward the end, Brezhnev's KGB nurse and companion was said to be giving him a "steady stream of pills". Though he remains dead, the Bay Press muses on his ultimately vapid legacy. Brezhnev was in some ways either the Britney Spears or the John McCain of Soviet politics.

Early Music for Machines

American composer Conlon Nancarrow, who had fought on the "wrong side" of the Spanish Civil War, whiled away his years in exile in Mexico City in the mid-20th century meticulously punching holes in scrolls made for player pianos. The resulting sounds are truly something to behold. (Several other early "machine music" artists worth listening to also appear on this page.)

"Reality" Remade

The implications of this clip are mind-boggling. It's a painstakingly detailed re-enactment of a scene from a reality show (The Hills), and a startling dystopian vision of a permanently writerless Hollywood. It's also subtly brilliant satire starring bona fide actors James Franco and Mila Kunis.



Come back, writers! We at least need our news out here!
Courtesy of defamer.com

A Thousand Words?

The phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words" has been said in various ways throughout history. It may have originated as a Chinese saying, or with Napoleon, or the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev, or a 1920's trade journal writer called Fred Barnard; since we don't know its origins anymore, it's called a proverb.

Ironic, perhaps, that today we can hardly trust the origins or veracity of the many pictures we see. Manipulation is a more common practice than many realize, and it's getting harder and harder to spot. Below are links to notable altered photos past and present.

Some examples here

A more thorough investigation by Dartmouth here

(P.S. Is that Trotsky's ghost behind Katie Couric?)

Britain's "Crazy Rulers" Documentary

Though we at the Bay Press seek to avoid duplication of content currently circulating in other major media, some stories merit amplification. One example is the excruciatingly strange documentary Crazy Rulers of the World (part one), which recently aired on the UK's Channel 4.

However many grains of salt you take it with, this piece will entertain and possibly frighten. It is at least a fascinating insight into the types of characters a bloated military bureaucracy creates. Prepare to learn about a spoon-bending U.S. general, the "Earth First Batallion", and the army's apparently ongoing forays into new age mysticism and paranormal research. Inspired by the 2004 book The Men Who Stare at Goats. The veracity of the claims aside, spellbinding stuff.

Credits: www.boingboing.net, www.deadrobot.com

Orson Welles, Terror Clairvoyant

Twenty years before 9/11, in a sensational documentary called The Man Who Saw Tomorrow, Orson Welles interpreted a Nostradamus quatrain to mean that a Middle Eastern "King of Terror" would attack New York in 1999. The incredibly hokey, but still spooky enactment shows, among other things, a model of the World Trade Center falling as a turbaned warlord watches from his bunker. Welles' near-planetary girth at the time is nearly as scary as the apocalyptic destruction in this clip (via YouTube).

Stay What?

An ad for the Hilton Garden Inn, appearing today on msn.com, almost seems to suggest something other than a hotel stay. Considering the ad was seen around 3am Pacific, they may be "hitting" a certain target market.