Microkhan by Brendan I. Koerner

Entries from September 30th, 2010

Emerging from the Desert

September 30th, 2010 · Comments Off on Emerging from the Desert

I made it through my Vega$ trip without having to set foot inside a Pawn America storefront, so I consider the trip a success. Voyaging back to Microkhan world headquarters today, so please enjoy the vintage Atari ad above as I hurtle through the air at upwards of 500 miles-per-hour. Catch you tomorrow.

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Roboscrews

September 29th, 2010 · 5 Comments

One of my current projects is a think piece about robots, specifically those that may soon be charged with carrying out morally weighty duties. That line of inquiry has led me to delve into the history of robot prison guards—or, perhaps more accurately, robots that were briefly purported to be the prison guards of the […]

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The Magnificient

September 28th, 2010 · 1 Comment

Given my longstanding fascination with North-East India, one of the primary settings for my 386-page labor o’ love, I’ve been following Mary Kom’s boxing career for a good while now. The 27-year-old mother of twins just won her fifth world championship, a feat that earned her a true hero’s welcome in her native state of […]

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Sweatin’ to the Goldies

September 27th, 2010 · 6 Comments

I’m Vegas bound this morning, to work on a dynamite Wired piece that’s currently occupying my creative front burner. As is always the case when I journey out to Bugsy Siegel’s desert dream, my thoughts have recently turned to the ways in which folks work the angles in pursuit of wealth. Most of these schemes […]

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This is What Underrated Looks Like

September 24th, 2010 · 4 Comments

While drinking my birthday bottle of Lucky 13 the other night, the Chubb Rock classic above suddenly came over loud-and-clear on the latest WeFunk show. It reminded me how this heavyset artist rarely disappoints, especially when cuts from his golden age waft across the sonic transom. But perhaps what’s most impressive about Rock is his […]

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Just Rats in a Maze Market

September 23rd, 2010 · 11 Comments

Think about the place where you regularly buy your groceries. After you pass through the sliding-glass door, how do you make your way around the premises? Perhaps you believe you take this path due to habit or preference, but odds are you’re nudged in one direction or another by the store’s physical layout. Some supermarket’s […]

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Dress Your Gang in Acrylic and Wool

September 22nd, 2010 · Comments Off on Dress Your Gang in Acrylic and Wool

My dad once had this chocolate-brown cardigan he’d wear on the rare occasions that the Los Angeles mercury dipped below 65 degrees. It had big knobby buttons and a thick rolled collar, and it generally made him look like the friendly postmaster of some microscopic English village. As a result, I have long associated button-up […]

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Think Think Think

September 21st, 2010 · 10 Comments

In a pensive mood today, as I mark another revolution ’round the Sun while simultaneously grappling with some tough decisions. At times like these, I often ask myself, “What would Genghis do?” But then I watch the clip above, which quotes the Great Khan pretty much verbatim, and I’m reminded that I can find little […]

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Eternal Students at Bovine University

September 20th, 2010 · 3 Comments

According to the criteria laid out by Franklin D. Roosevelt in his celebrated Four Freedoms speech, life is a mixed bag for millions of Indian cows. On the plus side, they are not confined to grim facilities that exist solely to turn their bovine inmates into hangar steaks. But though free-roaming Indian cows are spared […]

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“There’s Only One Law…His!”

September 17th, 2010 · 11 Comments

Nights on the road can get a little dull when you’re traveling solo for work—you end up spending a lot of time alone in your hotel room, eating bad food and watching bad TV. But occasionally the Fates show you a little mercy, by offering up some unexpected entertainment. Such was the case during my […]

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The Tug of Tradition

September 16th, 2010 · 10 Comments

Should you ever wish to rile up a gathering of firefighters, to the point that punches may get thrown, bring up the notion that red is a dreadful color for fire engines. You can maximize your irritation factor by citing the work of one Dr. Stephen Solomon, an optometrist best known for proposing that fluorescent […]

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The Full Plate

September 15th, 2010 · 3 Comments

Apologies, really thought I’d have time to write today. But it’s nearly 8 a.m. here in northern Arizona and I’m several notches less than prepared for a mammoth day of reporting. Thanks, as always, for your forebearance—all will be back to normal by Friday, if not earlier.

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By the Time I Get to Arizona

September 14th, 2010 · Comments Off on By the Time I Get to Arizona

Heading to the rural Southwest this morning for work, so please absorb this dreamy slice of soul as I zoom through American airspace. Back tomorrow, motel WiFi willing.

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Give Us Your Cheap Labor

September 13th, 2010 · Comments Off on Give Us Your Cheap Labor

There’s a classic scene at the beginning of The Godfather II in which young Vito Andolini passes through Ellis Island’s immigration line. It is there that, due to an immigration officer’s carelessness, he is given the mistaken surname of Corleone, which is actually the village of his birth. Moments later, frightened young Vito is informed […]

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Death to Acer

September 10th, 2010 · 14 Comments

I’m writing this post while recovering from a bout of Hulk-like rage, brought about by the sudden death of my Acer Aspire 3810T’s screen. I should’ve known this would happen when I first removed the laptop from the box—the cover instantly struck me as having the strength of tin foil. Thankfully, I had a D-sub […]

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Casketville

September 9th, 2010 · 8 Comments

I’ve recently been reading up on the history of the Blackstone Rangers, the gang whose criminal entanglements contributed greatly to the post-1965 increase in Chicago’s homicide rate. In the course of my research, I started wondering about how the Rangers’ impact on the Second City compared to that of Al Capone’s organization. I had long […]

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M

September 9th, 2010 · 5 Comments

According to the nifty WordPress counter, this is my one thousandth post on Microkhan. Unlike the last time I hit such a significant milestone, there shall be no navel-gazing—in part because I’m too busy working on an afternoon post about Prohibition-era crime in northern Florida. But let me just say thanks to all who’ve stuck […]

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Far More Than a Footnote

September 8th, 2010 · Comments Off on Far More Than a Footnote

Focusing on various paying gigs today, so just a quick music clip to tide y’all over. The above is Segun Bucknor’s brief appearance in the excellent Ginger Baker in Africa; he’s the man in the lime-green vest behind the dancers. With Comb & Razor provides some much-needed background on the largely forgotten Afrobeat pioneer here: […]

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Teach a Man to Fish

September 7th, 2010 · 5 Comments

The last time that Microkhan checked in with Jimmy “Rasta” Lusibaea, he had just found the Lord after a lifetime of sin. The former head of the Malaita Eagles Force (MEF), the Solomon Islands’ most feared militia, Lusibaea had spent years defending his peoples’ turf against ethnic rivals. The MEF was once so powerful that […]

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Live Spot in Brooklyn

September 6th, 2010 · 2 Comments

Though I find myself laboring on Labor Day, I sincerely hope that you have avoided a similarly wretched fate. And if you live in New York City, I hope you’ll carve out some time tomorrow evening to swing by Brooklyn’s Union Hall to check out a rare live appearance by your humble narrator. I’ll be […]

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Matti Nukes Adrift

September 3rd, 2010 · 10 Comments

Of the many death-defying sports that I’ve grown to admire over the years, few astound quite like elite ski jumping. Perhaps it’s not until you witness the sport in person that you really get a sense of just how bananas it is: TV can’t do justice to the true height of those hills, nor the […]

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Back in the Bunker

September 2nd, 2010 · 8 Comments

Sorry, but today’s all about tackling a major project, rather than scooping out a small portion of my brain to share with you good people. Please content yourself with the high-brow electronic music above, as well as the following snippet of anti-jazz hysteria from the April 11, 1921 edition of the Chicago Tribune: Home was […]

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The New Quicksand

September 1st, 2010 · 5 Comments

One of my Slate editors recently made waves with this sharp piece about the cultural demise of quicksand. The gunky stuff, so infamous for ensnaring characters in movies (including The Beastmaster’s beloved ferrets), no longer scares the youth of today. Perhaps this is because kids now realize that quicksand’s lethal potential was always overstated, and […]

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