February 26, 2012

A modest title for a piece with modest pretentions

Got 12 minutes to spare? Then feel free to brush up on the evolution of the last 400 years of Classical music by enjoying this video of Paul Drayton's "Masterpiece".
posted by MattMangels at 11:51 PM PST - 9 comments

"I Can Eat 50 Plates Of Beans"

"As such, the film offers an interesting mix of, on the one hand, the surreal impossibility of reasoning with the state and its hired representatives (similar, say, to the writings of Franz Kafka); and, on the other, what seems to be a particularly American breed of libertarianism, one in which even parking meters can be interpreted as 'just a lot of guys laying down a lot of rules and regulations,' where all instances of authority are meant to be, if not resisted, than at least publicly mocked and undercut."--BLDGBLOG weighs in on the classic American film Cool Hand Luke (theatrical trailer). Part of a series entitled "Breaking Out & Breaking In"
posted by bardic at 11:12 PM PST - 15 comments

The Victorian Kitchen Garden & a metric butt-ton of historical reconstruction series

The Victorian Kitchen Garden is a 13-part TV series that aired in 1987 on BBC2. It follows the month-by-month restoration of the Victorian walled kitchen garden at the Chilton Foliat estate in Wiltshire, England. Almost all the episodes are available to watch online. (via hark, a vagrant) It had three sequels - The Victorian Kitchen, The Victorian Flower Garden, and The Wartime Kitchen and Garden - and inspired more recent historical reconstruction programs: Tales From the Green Valley, A Tudor Feast at Christmas, Victorian Farm, Victorian Farm Christmas, Victorian Pharmacy, and Edwardian Farm. (Victorian Farm and Edwardian Farm previously.) [more inside]
posted by flex at 9:17 PM PST - 30 comments

Only Five there are

The correct viewing order for the Star Wars movies. Aka Machete order.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:50 PM PST - 158 comments

Bagpipe Soul!

Bagpipe Soul! Honey Blo on Chic-A-Go-Go. [SLYT]
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:02 PM PST - 15 comments

Passing of a Virtuoso

RIP Maurice André [more inside]
posted by plinth at 7:32 PM PST - 13 comments

The Republican "brand" is collapsing

According to a report by Democracy Corps, the Republican "brand" in US politics is collapsing.
posted by reenum at 7:19 PM PST - 150 comments

Love me, I'm a liberal

Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune - excellent 90-minute documentary of the trenchant folk performer who chronicled civil rights, politics, and the Viet Nam War until death by his own hand in 1976. Although he never achieved widespread popular acclaim, many found him to be the true voice of his generation - with themes that are sadly still relevant today. Just a musical taste to whet your appetite: Love Me, I'm a Liberal. [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive at 7:04 PM PST - 35 comments

Whacky music to enliven your day

Flight of the Bumblebee on Boomwhackers. That is all. (SLYT)
posted by Flannery Culp at 5:33 PM PST - 14 comments

Hollywood Babylon ... and on and on and on

I Went to the Pre-Oscar Celebrity Gifting Suites and All I Got Was This Sense of Disgust [more inside]
posted by philip-random at 5:27 PM PST - 71 comments

Today WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files – more than five million emails from the Texas-headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor

Wikileaks begins publishing 5 millions leaked emails from STRATFOR. [more inside]
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 4:13 PM PST - 135 comments

India declared free of Polio for one year

Recently, the World Health Organisation anounced that India has officially broken the chain of Polio transmission, with no new cases reported in the last year. Following independent checks of the reporting laboratories, Indian Health Minister announced that WHO "has taken India's name off the list of polio endemic countries". [more inside]
posted by metaBugs at 3:46 PM PST - 22 comments

"You know what I think?" she says. "That people's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive."

In Search of Haruki Murakami, Japan’s Great Postmodernist Novelist, a 50 minute documentary exploring Murakami's Japan and culture. via.
posted by timshel at 2:47 PM PST - 28 comments

Fuck Yeah Aerial Photograph

Fuck Yeah Aerial Photography. That is all.
posted by outlandishmarxist at 12:33 PM PST - 11 comments

"Give Back and Learn"

"Fast Company’s four-hour interview with [Martin Scorsese] for their December-January cover story: How to Lead A Creative Life, was ostensibly about his career, and how he had been able to stay so creative through years of battling studios. But the Hugo director punctuated everything he said with references to movies: 85 of them, in fact." Welcome to Martin Scorsese’s Film School: The 85 Films You Need To See To Know Anything About Film [more inside]
posted by zarq at 12:22 PM PST - 37 comments

Twenty photos of beautiful private and personal libraries.

Twenty photos of beautiful private and personal libraries.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:10 PM PST - 52 comments

Fame in Eight and a Half Pounds of Britannium, Copper, Nickel, Silver, and 24 Carat Gold

Since 1983, Chicago's R.S. Owens & Company has been making one of the world’s most famous awards: The Oscar.
posted by quin at 11:01 AM PST - 7 comments

A short movie inspired on Escher's works

INSPIRATIONS A new movie by Cristóbal Vila. (previously)
posted by bleary at 10:09 AM PST - 2 comments

The return of steam on the London Underground

The return of steam on the London Underground. [more inside]
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 9:44 AM PST - 33 comments

Fake War Stories

Fake War Stories "Whenever a group of gamers get together, there's always a period of swapping crazy gaming stories. Role-playing (tabletop or LARP), war gaming, FPS--everyone has a funny story to tell. We've already gotten a number of pretty funny ones." [via mefi projects]
posted by Blasdelb at 9:02 AM PST - 72 comments

Surveillance state located

FBI General Counsel reveals that around 3,000 warrantless GPS trackers were removed after the ruling in U.S v. Jones clarified their illegality (judgement PDF) (previous FPP). The ruling that a mosaic of surveillance technologies may form an issue when considered individually and the FBI's view of likely future judgements on the matter is particularly interesting in the light of the forthcoming cert/standing findings regarding warrantless eavesdropping.
posted by jaduncan at 8:42 AM PST - 20 comments

Choosing good passwords

Choosing good passwords - a straightforward real-world guide for the average user, by AusCERT. Also includes links out to a fun and informative piece on The Top 500 Worst Passwords of All Time, and more in-depth material aimed at the tech and security savvy, like this enjoyable conference talk: Security As If Your Life Depended On It (because it might!). So we can avoid becoming xkcd cartoons.
posted by philipy at 8:38 AM PST - 71 comments

Maybe these are the droids you're looking for

Mos Eisley Performance Hall. You will never find a more wretched hive of burlesque, theatre & entertainment. We should be cautious.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:00 AM PST - 13 comments

"In Vibrant Color"

Rare full-color photos of celebrities of the 1930s and 40s as they appeared in the New York Daily News, taken by staff photographer Harry Warnecke. Warnecke is less renowned than other photographers of the period, but was one of the very first to make use of the challenging tri-color carbro process for these celebrity photos. His work is drawing attention in advance of the opening of a show of his portraits at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC, which opens next week. [more inside]
posted by briank at 6:55 AM PST - 37 comments

In present day, Garfield and Jon have oval shaped eyes, but when drawing this poster I wanted the look from the Garfield of the early 80's, when E.T. was made.

Charles Forsman (previously) has created another Spielberg/funny pages mashup: E.T. + Garfield [more inside]
posted by dubold at 6:48 AM PST - 1 comments

Closer I Am to Van Eyck

Closer to Van Eyck is an ultra-high-resolution look at one of the greatest masterpieces of Flemish painting, the Ghent Altarpiece (previously) an astounding 100 billion pixels in size. Stolen, with permission, from peacay's Twitter stream.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 6:41 AM PST - 16 comments

Circuli

Circuli is a generative musical instrument based on circles (by the maker of Otomata)
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:35 AM PST - 6 comments

"That orbed maiden, with white fire laden, / Whom mortals call the moon."

""The moon is actually expanding or stretching and being pulled apart in some small areas and by a little bit," [CBC.ca] New evidence suggests that the moon, once thought to be geologically cold and dead, is still stretching and contracting on its surface.
posted by Fizz at 4:36 AM PST - 27 comments

The City of Samba

The City of Samba—Tilt shift of the Carnaval party in Rio de Janeiro.
posted by atomicmedia at 4:13 AM PST - 19 comments

Ten thousand dreams ensepulchred with a myriad of crozzled hearts

Cormac McCarthy Pictionary (SLYT)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:23 AM PST - 9 comments

Heart-wrenching

What it feels like to have your spouse die. This left me speechless.
posted by rahulrg at 1:58 AM PST - 55 comments

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