April 19, 2011
"I've always loved this photograph, but I can't figure out why."
Four Photographers on Three Wheels: William Eggleston's Tricycle and Before. Mark Feeney's lecture examines the humble tricycle in twentieth century photography. He compares photos by Helen Levitt, Garry Winogrand, Bill Owens and, of course, William Eggleston.
'Cause you know I'm coming home soon.
Nantucket Sleighride takes its title from 19th century whaling slang. The song is dedicated to the memory of Owen Coffin, ship's mate aboard the Whaleship Essex. [more inside]
2011 Pulitzer prize winners in easy-to-read format
Longform.org has the 2011 Pulitzer prize winners in unadorned plain text. Instructions below for using Longform with Instapaper. [more inside]
Please step away from the cell phone, Sir.
Should Cops Be Allowed to Scan Your Phone During a Traffic Stop? In Michigan, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a complaint [PDF letter here] alleging that Michigan State Police officers used forensic cellphone analyzers to snoop in drivers' cellphones during routine traffic stops. [Before they fulfill an ACLU FOIA request, the MSP wants a $272,340 deposit up front to cover their costs of retrieving analyzer data, which is obtained without the cellphone owner's knowledge.]
I am vengeance. I am the night. I am Batman.
The AV Club has been writing in-depth recaps of Batman: The Animated Series. They were originally written by Leonard Pierce but after a small scandal Oliver Sava has taken over the write-ups. They've already covered some of the series best-loved episodes, including Feat of Clay, Heart of Ice, and the Mask of the Phantasm film. [more inside]
"These records of what men and women absorb with diligent neglect of health and spiritual welfare."
"What's on the menu?", the New York Public Library asks. Cincinnati Ham, Champagne Sauce. Baked Weakfish. Republican Punch. Cup of Beef Tea. [more inside]
The Master of the Capsule Review
Long before he wrote DVD reviews for The New York Times, Dave Kehr spent 11 years at the Chicago Reader perfecting the 100-word capsule review into a vehicle for his succinct, astute writing on a wide variety of films. All of them can be read for free at the Chicago Reader's website. Additionally, his long-overlooked long reviews have just been collected and published. [more inside]
post-apocalyptic dravidian baroque
Kris Kuksi makes sculptures, paintings, and drawings. A time-lapse of his sculpting process and a walkthrough with details. He has a book and sells his sculptures. His most famous work is perhaps Church Tank. [Previously]
Monarchy, you see, is a hereditary disease that can only be cured by fresh outbreaks of itself
Just A Smack On The Ass
Just A Smack On The Ass: A Tale of Sexual Assault, Vengeance and Nervous Swearing. Stop Street Harassment offers further ideas for targets and bystanders to think about. [more inside]
A Fatwa Against Pets
we're gonna need more speaker cones
The Ballad of Halo Jones
Alan Moore and Ian Gibson's epic story The Ballad of Halo Jones concluded 25 years ago today (bar the odd strange one page appearance hinting at why it did not return). Despite being unpopular with readers at first due to it's female protagonist and relative lack of action it is now rightly regarded as one of 2000ads classic stories. However despite Quality Comics reprinting a color monthly version (which was anything but quality) it has remained a rarity in the US, until now. But how would the other 6 chapters of the planned 9 part chapter have gone? Moore revealed how it would have ended in a recent interview.
The Mystery of the Hipster Cops
Comics writer Scott Synder has noticed that the same two background characters appear in a number of different Marvel and DC comics. Who are these 'Hipster Cops'?
Elisabeth Sladen Has Died
She was Sarah Jane Smith: intrepid reporter, beloved companion, and stalwart defender. She was in two different spin-offs. The BBC is confirming that Elisabeth Sladen of Doctor Who and environs, is dead at 63.
Making trails through the Mail Rail
Urban explorers surreptitiously gain access to the Post Office Railway underneath London, take lots of photos.
Hamsters are serious business.
There are many ways to be immortal. Israel Aharoni, a Jewish biologist working in Turkish-controlled Jerusalem, imagined that his enduring legacy would come from giving Hebrew names to the animals of the Holy Land.... In the spring of 1930, Aharoni staged an expedition to the hills of Syria, near Aleppo, one of the oldest cities in the world. His quest was simple: he wanted to catch the rare golden mammal whose Arabic name translates roughly as 'mister saddlebags.' [more inside]
It happens
The Tao of Poo We can exhaustively explore every aspect of athletic life -- victory, defeat, violence, racism, drugs, brain damage, paralysis, death -- but nothing reveals as much about the physiology, psychology and sociology of sport as the excretory experience of athletes.
Oh, doctor!
This book goes there, that book goes there
ShelvAr: an augmented reality app for shelf-reading library stacks, from Miami University Augmented Reality Research Group (MU ARRG!).
Before sharks swam in formaldehyde, there was Piss Christ
Andres Serrano (some NSWF images) has made controversial art for decades, with his piece Piss Christ causing controversy shortly after it was created in 1987. In 1989, the photograph initiated outrage against the National Endowment for the Arts because of "anti-Christian bigotry". Then the piece was physically attacked two times in one weekend, when it was first shown in the National Gallery of Victoria in 1997. In December 2010, the Collection Lambert museum of contemporary art in Avignon, France opened a show called "I Believe in Miracles" that includes pieces of minimal art, conceptual art and land art, and includes Piss Christ. The photograph had been shown in France before without disturbance, and had been shown without incident in Collection Lambert for four months, but around 1,000 protesters marched to the museum on Saturday, and on Sunday vandals succeeded in attacking the picture, breaking the plexiglass shield and slashing the photograph. The museum is open again, and the damaged work is still on display. [more inside]
Fantastic Version of the Cups and Balls
Tommy Wonder Performs the Cups and Balls I ran across this performance of one of magic's oldest tricks. It's probably the best version I've seen so far. In my opinion it's even better than Dai Vernon's.
cheeseburger cheeseburger do it again
What we do is what we do. The brand new DEVO video takes the crowd-sourcing/focus-grouping element of their album Something For Everybody to the music video world. It's a 360-degree video where the user can control the camera. (For the lazy among us, there's also a "random" button that moves from shot to shot.) The link also includes a brief interview with DEVO co-founder/video co-director Gerald V. Casale.
You Love Purple!
Too crazy for Jan? Impressive.
Jan Brewer, the Governor of Arizona, has vetoed the controversial 'birther bill' that would require presidential candidates to provide AZ's secretary of state with proof of citizenship before they could appear on the ballot, up to and including a 'circumcision certificate'
Bruno Munari
"Bruno Munari was an Italian artist and designer, who contributed fundamentals to many fields of visual arts (painting, sculpture, film, industrial design, graphics) and non visual arts (literature, poetry) with his research on games, infancy and creativity." Here are a collection of Bruno Munari's Faces. You can see more of the maestro's work in this short documentary: 1, 2, 3, and on this Italian children's show from the 1970s. And here are scans from some of Munari's famous illustrations for children's books.
War is Boring
'Star Wars' Producer Gary Kurtz Reflects
'Star Wars' Producer Gary Kurtz Reflects When George Lucas and I began planning the first film, we had no idea what it would become; the kind of devotion it would attract... So what was it that made Star Wars so different, so special? I can give you one small example of the kind of care we took when putting the film together...
Philosophical Referee Symbols
"Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit."
Tron without the headache
2D glasses for 3D movies! Hank Green, one half of the VlogBrothers, comes up with a solution for people who'd like to watch 3D movies without the headache.
Grete Waitz 1953-2011
Some holoalphabetisms - in Japanese
Inspired by a recent AskMe, a search for videos featuring the 'Iroha Uta' turned up a number of interesting versions. The iroha is a pangram based on the Japanese syllabary, and thus uses each of the 48 characters once and only once (Wikipedia explanation). Let's start with the 'lovely' Hatsune Miku singing it. (Bonus: she includes hand symbols for each character - used by this young lady for her version.) [more inside]
Habit Judo
Having trouble forming (and then keeping) good habits? Habit Judo may be the answer. [via mefi projects] [more inside]
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