There's nothing I can add to this video that wouldn't be better said by the description appended to it on YouTube, so here goes:

The album's weighty title song 'Gangnam Style' is composed solely by PSY himself from lyrics to choreography. The song is characterized by its strongly addictive beats and lyrics, and is thus certain to penetrate the foundations of modern philosophy.

Believe me, the foundations of my modern philosophy were changed by this video five or six times before it ended and a few times afterward as well.

[Gawker]

I'm going to speculate that every time someone places a lit firework between their buttocks, alcohol is involved (or a new Jackass movie), but it's good to know the police in Adelaide are looking into it. Also, to add insult to likely significant injury, the man is going to be fined for using fireworks outside of the one day allowed by law in the Northern Territory:

A Northern Territory man who set off a firecracker between his buttocks may have to be flown to a specialist burns unit in Adelaide.

The 23-year-old man was at a party in the Darwin suburb of Rapid Creek on Saturday night when he decided to let the cracker off, NT Police said.

'It appears a party was in full progress when a young male decided to place a firework between the cheeks of his bottom and light it,' said Senior Sergeant Garry Smith.

'What must of seemed to be a great idea at the time has backfired, resulting in the male receiving quite severe and very painful burns to his cheeks, back and private bits,' Snr Sgt Smith said.

A few things I learned today about The Devil's Rain, made in 1975 and showing at the Loft tonight at 8 pm as part of their Mondo Mondays series (only $3 and apparently there's some sort of $1 snack bucket available!):

1. The film stars William Shatner (between the Star Trek series and the movies), Ernest Borgnine, Keenan Wynn, Tom Skerritt, Eddie Albert and John Travolta, who makes his film debut as "Danny the Melting Satanist."

2. Anton LaVey is credited as the movie's technical advisor.

3. The poster promised "absolutely the most incredible ending of any motion picture!"

4. The film's universal panning was considered the end of English director Robert Fuest's promising film career, forcing him to work in television until he returned to the screen with Aphrodite, which Wikipedia describes as a "1982 French soft-core exploitation film".

Pia Carusone, who became well known as Gabby Giffords' chief of staff after Tucson's 2011 shooting rampage left Giffords incapacitated, has landed a job with the Department of Homeland Security. From the Homeland Security blog:

DHS announced that Pia Carusone, former Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, has been appointed as the new Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs. Pia brings a wealth of experience in communications and homeland security issues in Congress and in her new role, will advise the Secretary on all matters related to public affairs, as well as oversee strategic and internal communications. Pia and her team will be responsible for coordinating the public affairs activities of all of the Department’s components and offices, and serve as the federal government’s lead public information office during national emergencies or disasters.

Pia served as Congresswoman Giffords’ Chief of Staff from March 2009 until her resignation in January 2012. During her tenure, she oversaw all border security and homeland security issues for the office. After the Tucson shooting, Pia served as the national spokesperson for the Congresswoman and her family. Pia is a native of Saratoga Springs, NY and a graduate of Bard College.

Slightly Stoopid’s new album Top of the World will be coming out August 14, but to promote the record and to allow fans to get a preview of the new material, the San Diego band is offering a free download for "Don't Stop" from the new album for anyone willing to visit their website and hand over an email address.

The new song isn't exactly groundbreaking, but it does feature the reggae and punk influences of their early material, while mixing in some flavors from hip-hop, but still keeping the laid-back San Diego sound that made Slightly Stoopid a group that sells out shows across the country.

You can pre-order the album on iTunes or on their website, slightlystoopid.com. Also, if you feel like making a drive out to Mesa, Slightly Stoopid will be opening for 311 at the Mesa Amphitheater on August 28.

Here at the Weekly World Offices, we have a constant reminder of the glory days of Lisa Frank here in town: the street our building is on turns into Lisa Frank Drive on the other side of Valencia, although sadly, my window doesn't provide a view of the unicorns and dolphins painted on the side of her giant half-empty building south of us. However, the world hasn't heard too much from Frank herself since her heyday, but somehow The Daily got an interview with Frank, in which she compares herself to Michael Jackson and discusses her latest plan for pink-painted world domination:

“In my own little way, I understood Michael Jackson,” Frank told The Daily in a rare interview, conducted by phone from her company’s sprawling heart-and-star-plastered headquarters in Tucson, Ariz. “I feel really bad for people who’ve had to live under so much paparazzi. We think about it a lot, how well known the name is, but I’m very, very low-key.”

A fifty-something divorcee and mother of two teenage sons, Frank has largely shut out the media since launching her eponymous line of stickers in 1979. Those stickers eventually became an empire of unnaturally hued, surreally adorable school supplies, novelties and crafts. In 2005, Lisa Frank Inc., a private company, declared revenues topping $1 billion over 15 years. “If I use my credit card... and they go, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s Lisa Frank who makes the stickers! I go, ‘Isn’t that the craziest thing that I have the same name?’” she giggled.

[...]

To the delight of fans (see: LisaFrankParty), she broke into apparel last year, selling airbrushed denim skirts and pom-pom sweaters priced under $20. But after a kindred-spirits collaboration with tattoo-print enthusiast Ed Hardy, Frank dreams of affordable partnerships with more formidable fashion figures like Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, or Missoni.

“America likes black,” Frank lamented, pretending to cry. “The only one that I see that’s really doing color is Missoni and, yes, I’m fortunate enough to be able to afford it, but what about the normal working woman?”

Nearly a year's worth of work on the new downtown pizza place Reilly Craft Pizza and Drink wraps up this week as the restaurant prepares for its opening this Wednesday.

The restaurant is located in the old Reilly Funeral Home at 101 E. Pennington St. and co-owned by Tyler Fenton, who we spoke with shortly after he decided to open the place. Hours will be 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., daily.

The menu isn't posted at the restaurant's website or Facebook page yet, but the fact that they open at 11 a.m. this Wednesday is.

I'm a little mystified by the idea of "print exclusives" in general, mostly because I don't think anyone is likely to run out of the house to buy a copy of the Sunday paper just because of a list online, but I guess that's the strategy the Arizona Daily Star is running with, so whatever. However, it might make a bit more sense if a simple search of their website didn't turn up most the articles you supposedly need to get the dead tree edition to read.

Here's their list this week (in italics):

1. Rio Nuevo has solved the mystery of its missing millions. Get all the details.

Here you go.

2. Find out how Democrats plan to turn Arizona blue this November.

Right here.

3. Southern Arizona's streams are losing their flow. Find out what that means to animals, plants — and people.

Found it.

4. CPS formed a SWAT team to close out cases of suspected child abuse and neglect. Columnist Josh Brodesky explains why it failed in Pima County.

Josh Brodesky's series on local CPS issues seems to miss the point of that the Republican leadership in this state needs to take some responsibility for the agency's troubles, but here's his second (?) column on the subject.

5. Meet the new head of TUSD's Mexican American Student Services, and find out what she plans for her new role.

I don't know if I'd take on that position for the pay of $89,633, but the article is here.

6. Election season has begun, and that means political signs are sprouting up everywhere.

I assume this is referring to the Political Notebook, which can be found online here.

7. If you want to go out in style, a new hearse company might be just what you're looking for.

A surprisingly long article on motorcycle hearses is right here, if that's your thing.

I stopped looking when it took more than one search attempt to find the Bonnie Henry column, but you get the idea. Think of all the print sales you're losing, Lee Enterprises! This could explain the quarterly losses, so someone should lock these precious exclusives down.

On Arizona Illustrated's Political Roundtable this week: Tucson Mayor Jonthan Rothschild stops by to talk about the proposed road bonds, annexation, and downtown. Then Pima County Democratic Party chairman Jeff Rogers, Pima County Republican Party chairwoman Carolyn Cox and former state lawmaker Pete Hershberger talk about the week in politics. We tackle the proposed statewide sales-tax proposition, weigh the proposed jungle primary prop, kick around education funding, dig into whether the state's budget surplus means Arizona is on solid financial ground and more.

While most of the non-teenage girl universe has acknowledged that the Twilight books are not particularly well-written, some literary experts from Arizona's middle-of-the-state institute of higherish learning, Girls Gone Wild University and Casino, are taking a bold stance in a new book, that Stephenie Meyer's series of books are...good?

So what has drawn so many fans, particularly teenage girls, to the “Twilight” series?

First, according to Blasingame, Meyer’s skill at “conjuring caring and intertwining between her protagonist, Bella, and young women readers is undeniable.” She also has been successful because she writes with detailed description, Blasingame said.

“She avoids passive voice and opens sentences with what she wants the reader to see and know first, getting right to the action of the sentence.”

Blasingame added, “In every sentence, Meyer leads with the picture that she wants in the reader’s mind and then moves on to the sentence’s action, described by verbs that are spot-on accurate for conveying exactly what she wants the reader to experience through Bella.”

Blasingame used a computer program to analyze the language usage Meyer’s writing, choosing three random but consecutive pages from the first and last books in the series.

He found that Meyer’s writing style/voice “is remarkably consistent, almost mechanically so. One of the most difficult things for authors of novels, especially new writers of long novels, is to sustain voice and style. This author’s statistics, however, change not a whit from the first book to the last.”

He also found that Meyer’s writing style is “simple and uncomplicated but also clear, coherent, and never ambiguous,” the readability is high, and that she consistently uses participial phrases to end sentences.

“Stephenie is a master at giving you a reward for going to the next page,” Blasingame said. “She builds suspense well with very selective prose. She has quite an imagination. It touches something in the unconscious mind.”

Another possibility: teenage girls like vampires and enjoy stories in which boring, uninteresting young women are swept up in an exciting world not of their own creation, regardless of how well those stories are actually told. That's just my theory, though.

[HT: Phoenix New Times]