count me in

“There are an unbelievable number of twists and turns in the story arc of Making a Murderer, it feels like it has to be fictional,” said Lisa Nishimura, Netflix VP of Original Documentary Programming. “Ricciardi and Demos have navigated very complex terrain and skillfully woven together an incredible series that leaves you feeling like you’re right in the middle of the action.” (via)

a new (fake) podcast for you to enjoy, created by friends of 2pz

long read

In 1979, a gay rights activist, communist and Angeleno named Harry Hay — a founder of a neo-­pagan countercultural movement called the Radical Faeries — urged gay men to ‘‘throw off the ugly green frog skin of hetero-­imitation.’’ Instead of fighting for the rights that straights had, like marriage and adoption, the faeries believed that to be gay was to possess a unique nature and a special destiny apart from straight people, and that this destiny would reach its full flowering in the wilds of rural America. So it was perhaps fitting that the faeries began to refer to their secluded outposts as sanctuaries. There are more than a dozen loosely affiliated sanctuaries across three continents today, but in the same year that Hay made his pronouncement, the mother ship of the faeries landed on Short Mountain, one of the tallest points in Middle Tennessee. It remains home to what is almost certainly the largest, oldest, best known and most visited planned community for lesbian, gay and transgender people in the country, a place that one local described to me as a veritable Gayberry, U.S.A. (via)

new podcast for you

someone who doesn't read this blog and therefore won't be properly credited recommended this new podcast and i'm just loving it, so i'm going to recommend it to YOU. it's called the mystery show, and is hosted by starlee kine, from this american life, etc. she just solves mysteries for her friends and it's very funny.

this one's about a writer friend who wrote a book that no one read but then a paparazzi photo of britney spears surfaced and britney was holding the book and starlee sets out to find out how she ended up with it.

HFS.

An ancient statue made as an offering to Osiris, the Egyptian god of death, that is currently housed at the Manchester Museum in England has suddenly started spinning inside its closed display case — and no one seems to know why.

A time-lapse video released by the museum shows the 4000-year-old relic of Neb-Senu slowly turning around inside its case without any apparent assistance from the outside world.

Found in a mummy's tomb some 80 years ago, the statue has been kept encased at the museum ever since.

Its current caretaker, Campbell Price, was the first one to notice the strange phenomenon, and says he first realized something was off when he found the statue askew, reset it, and then found it askew again the following day.

"In Ancient Egypt they believed that if the mummy is destroyed then the statuette can act as an alternative vessel for the spirit," Price, and Egyptologist by trade, told the Manchester Evening News. "Maybe that is what is causing the movement." (via)

mystery solved : 30 rocky top edition

boy, oh boy, do i have an article for you. a query that has been pestering me for years came to an exciting conclusion during this morning's commute. let me begin at the beginning.

on november 15, 2007, i was watching 30 rock. you probably remember. it was the episode guest starring edie falco as a democratic congresswoman from vermont, with whom jack has a tryst. in one of my favorite scenes in all of 30 rock history, the two are conversing at a party, and the following dialogue ensues:

ALEC BALDWIN [to bartender]: I'll have a white rum with diet ginger ale and a splash of lime.
EDIE FALCO: Wow. I never would have pegged you for a University of Tennessee sorority girl.
[EDIE FALCO exits]
BARTENDER: Sir, here's your "Nancy Drew."
ALEC BALDWIN [looking offended]: For men it's called a "Hardy Boy."

LOL, right?

i've always been curious about how this honor came to be bestowed upon my prestigious alma mater, and i assumed i would never ever ever know.

then, i was watching last week's 30 rock episode, in which jack and liz travel to his mother's home in florida after her death. there, they learn that the woman believed to be her housekeeper is actually her live-in lesbian lover. spoiler alert retroactive.

while attempting to confirm their suspicions, the woman drops the following line on her way to heat up a pot of blue gatorade for them:

"I DVRed a documentary about the woman who designed all of Pat Summitt's blazers."

LOL, right?

anyway, i texted fellow 30 rock aficionado thomas wilhelm that i thought there must be a UT alum involved in the writing over there. this was no coincidence.

speaking of coincidences (!!), you may remember yesterday when i alerted you to the latest episode of alec baldwin's podcast in which he interviews lena dunham. i listened to it on the subway last night, and they mentioned a guest from a couple episodes ago, paula pell.

she is a writer on SNL, and lena had some very complimentary things to say about her. i still had that episode on my phone, so this morning, i gave it a listen. alec reminded us that she was mentioned in tina fey's book, during a story about how tina once fought to keep this kotex classic sketch, written by pell, in an episode. they also played the audio from her tylenol BM sketch, in which alec appeared while hosting.

in the midst of their conversation, which was pretty entertaining, alec asks paula where she went to college. first of all, what are the odds that he asks that question. second of all, THE ANSWER WAS THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE.

i followed up with a little more research at my desk when i got to work and confirmed that she has done some writin' for 30 rock.

THE END YOU'RE WELCOME GO VOLS.

(follow @perlapell on twitter)

dave, we're going to catfish you.

if you're not watching catfish, you had better start because its the best show on music television.

it's an internet mystery

check out this katie vance namesakelganger that katie vance's doppelganger rachel cheek found!

what in g-d's name is going on!?!?

greatest mystery of all

this is the last footage of whitney alive. what did that note say!!!

did brandy kill whitney houston? did monica?

did ray-j.

going rogue.

the blog turned italic, and i don't know why.

what it's like.

no spoilers from tonight's "mid-season finale" or anything, don't worry.