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In the summer of 1897, the Devil transported a
minor Decadent poet named Enoch Soames one hundred years into the future to see what posterity would make of
his work. The only witness to the affair was the parodist
Max Beerbohm, whose
account of Soames and his journey ensured that at 2:10 P.M. on June 7, 1997, some dozen pilgrims waited in the Round Reading Room of the British Museum
to see the poet appear...
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic
at 10:58 AM on July 22, 2008
(26 comments)
What happens in the shadow, in the grey regions, also interests us – all that is elusive and fugitive, all that can be said in those beautiful half tones, or in whispers, in deep shade.
Here are some short films by Stephen and Timothy, the
Brothers Quay.
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic
at 3:18 PM on February 3, 2008
(14 comments)
American audiences remember
Akira Kurosawa as the genius of the samurai epic, a past master who used the form both to revise and revive Western classics - Shakespeare with
Ran and
Throne of Blood, Dostoevsky with
Red Beard and
The Idiot, Gorky with
The Lower Depths - and to give splendid and ultimately immortal life to new archetypes, as in
The Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Yojimbo. But Kurosawa also made films of his own time. His
masterpiece, in fact, was the quiet story of a gray Japanese bureaucrat dying in post-war Tokyo, and of his attempt to do something of lasting good before he leaves. The film is
Ikiru ("To Live"; 1952).
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic
at 8:17 PM on January 29, 2008
(46 comments)
Last week, the Chicago Reader
laid off four of its best journalists: John Conroy
(previously), Harold Henderson, Tori Marlan, and Steve Bogira. The cuts almost certainly mark the beginning of the end of the paper's role in Chicago as an investigative force and a corruption watchdog. The New York Times
responds with a salute to Conroy and a defense of muckraking's relevance.
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic
at 12:02 PM on December 11, 2007
(25 comments)
The bearer of this letter is an old friend of mine not quite the right side of the blanket as they say in fact he is the son of a first rate butcher but his mother was a decent family called Hyssopps of the Glen so you see he is not so bad and is desireus of being the correct article.
The Young Visitors, or, Mister Salteena's Plan (written 1890, published 1919) is a remarkable little novel that offers an atypical perspective on the recreations of the late Victorian upper classes and boasts some of literature's most comprehensive descriptions of clothing. Its author was
Daisy Ashford, a
nine-year-old girl.
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic
at 10:13 PM on November 4, 2007
(14 comments)
Here are two seminal vampire films: Carl Dreyer's
Vampyr and F.W. Murnau's
Nosferatu.
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic
at 1:01 PM on October 26, 2007
(19 comments)
Yes, that is indeed
Mick Jagger playing a Chinese emperor. And those are, in fact, Edward James Olmos, Bud Cort, and Barbara Hershey heading up the supporting cast of
"The Nightingale," a particularly odd episode of Shelley Duvall's ludicrously star-studded
Faerie Tale Theatre. Throughout its early '80s run, the show used dozens of prominent actors to perform the fairy tale standards, including Klaus Kinski and Susan Sarandon in a virtual remake of the Cocteau
"Beauty and the Beast;" Paul Reubens, James Coburn, Carl Reiner, and Vincent Schiavelli in
"Pinnochio;" Helen Mirren and Brian Dennehy in
"The Little Mermaid;" and James Earl Jones and Leonard Nimoy in a Tim Burton-directed
"Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp." The list goes on and on.
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic
at 7:13 PM on September 5, 2007
(34 comments)
The Jack Trevor Story Memorial Prize "is generally awarded for a work of fiction or body of work which, in the
opinion of the committee, best celebrates the spirit of
Jack Trevor Story. The conditions of the prize are that the money shall be spent in a week to a fortnight and the author have nothing to show for it at the end of that time." The 2006 winner of the prize is
Steve Aylett.
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic
at 5:33 PM on December 11, 2006
(6 comments)
Put a little commerce in your art with Lulu's
Titlescorer, a widget that analyzes your book title's chances of gracing the top of the New York Time's bestseller list.
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic
at 2:04 PM on November 26, 2006
(69 comments)
Shakespeare's
Sonnet 116: read firmly by
Eleanor, skimmed through somewhat hurriedly by
Megan, recited from memory by the cowboy hatted
Bill, and delivered with a vaguely cockney accent by
Will. There are
others, as well.
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic
at 12:02 AM on September 27, 2006
(10 comments)
The visual interplay of helicopters and fan blades in the
opening scene of
Apocalypse Now. The
idiot-future soundscapes in
THX-1138. The concept for the
baptism montage in
The Godfather. The actual cut of the "Director's Cut" of
Touch of Evil. The man responsible for all of these is
Walter Murch, one of the greatest film and sound editors of all time.
More Inside.
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic
at 11:38 AM on September 19, 2006
(20 comments)
Lyrikline: A German site showcasing more than 300 international poets reading their work in 39 different languages.
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic
at 3:45 PM on September 8, 2006
(7 comments)
“Snow-bo:” The heartwarming story of a young child and his wintry friend. One of its creators,
Vera Brosgol, also authored a brilliant--but, sadly, incomplete--webcomic called
Return To Sender.
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic
at 10:10 AM on August 28, 2006
(5 comments)
It’s not too hard to create an
eye-explodingly ugly site on
MySpace.
It’s rather more difficult to elicit beauty (or at least good taste) from the MySpace beast. But coder Mike Davidson has
succeeded. You can find out he did it--and how to do it yourself--
here.
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic
at 10:09 AM on August 23, 2006
(67 comments)
