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RANDOM LINKS FOR 3/27/12

March 26th, 2012 by Clark Humphrey

As a treat for those of you who actually read these things (and I know there are at least a few of you out there), here’s the original version of the song that was at the center of last night’s Mad Men season premiere. It’s “Zou Bisou Bisou.” It was originally recorded in 1960 by Gillian Hills. One of the stars of the French “ye ye” genre, she also appeared in the landmark British films Beat Girl, Blow Up, and A Clockwork Orange.
Questionable medical study of the day: Somebody says regularly eating chocolate can make you thinner.
Here’s the site for the folks who want to bring the Seattle monorail project back from the dead. (By sticking with the previous monorail proponents’ planned Ballard to West Seattle route, they’re also inheriting its high cost, requiring two major all-new bridges.)
Here’s WashDOT’s CGI video of how the new 520 bridge will look. Without, you know, the highway noise or smell.
And here’s what Amazon’s proposed three new high rises would look like.
“Unemployed Nation” is a series of “hearings,” in which the mayor, city council, and others will “listen to the men and women who have lost their livelihoods and more.” The sessions are Friday afternoon at the UW’s Kane Hall and Saturday afternoon at City Hall.
There’s a new site up helping locals find affordable rental housing.
The fired transgender Miss Universe Canada contestant from Vancouver would like you to think of her as “a woman—with a history.” (The protest petition is now online.)
How to make money despite being in the news business: A Houston Chronicle society reporter was outed for moonlighting as a stripper. Apparently at least as much for the money as for any undercover writing gig (though she has made a pseudonymous blog about her stripping life).
Under the British common-law heritage, prostitution per se has been quasi-legal in Canada. But businesses facilitating prostitution have been banned. Now, the province of Ontario’s highest court has approved legalizing brothels. The common-sense reason: it’s better for a sex worker “to work indoors, in a location under her control.”
Another country where hooking is legal, but making money from other people’s hooking isn’t: France. That’s where the ex-Intl. Monetary Fund boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn, already disgraced from sexual assault charges, has been accused of involvement in a pimping ring based at luxury hotels. (I know people who believe those IMF/World Bank guys have always been pimps for the corporate elite, but this is something different.)
Big Brother Dept.: A public school district in Brazil is issuing school-uniform T shirts with computer chips sewn in, capable of tracking every student’s every move.
If you believe the New Yorker, the most influential and sleaziest newspaper in Britain isn’t owned by Murdoch.
Even before the Legislature revived state tax breaks for filmmakers, one feature project (from a local writer-director) was already underway. And it’s got such great stars—Lee Majors! Gary Busey! Margot Kidder! Edward Furlong! Seahawks player Marshawn Lynch! I tell you, I sense a date with Oscar!

One Response

Art Marriott writes:
March 28th, 2012 at 2:08 pm

Oh, great…if the monorail project is revived using the same route, the real-estate acqisition exercise for rights-of-way and stations will have to be done all over again. All the properties bought for the last run were sold after the shutdown, many for bargain prices. It’s a pretty safe bet that this was how the our friend the so-rich-he-doesn’t-have-to-shave Mr. Hansen obtained the sliver of land south of Safeco Field which he proposes to use as the starting point for a new NBA hoops palace.