October 1, 2011

Arthur Penn's "Night Moves"

[Arthur Penn's Night Moves] does belong to a traditional, indeed obsolescent genre, but the distance it keeps from it (not an ironic or critical distance, just a distance) is such that genre-related expectations become irrelevant. Most of the time, the story line seems to meander aimlessly, taking in extraneous material, doubling back, going round in circles (the aimless is deceptive, a smoke screen obfuscating the complex, rigorous organization of an exceptionally well-structured script). The "mystery" aspect of the plot is dealt with in the most peculiar, topsy-turvy manner, withholding not the solution of the problem but the problem itself until the very end, when, in a dazzling visual tour de force, both are conjured up almost simultaneously. - Jean Pierre Coursodon [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 9:27 PM PST - 19 comments

Beauty Queen Sister

Indigo Girls' 14th album, Beauty Queen Sister, will be released on October 4th. You can hear it now in its entirety thanks to Folk Alley. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 9:11 PM PST - 14 comments

The Last March of the Ents

The Battle of Isengard from Lord of the Rings, depicted in 22,000 LEGO bricks.
posted by joannemerriam at 9:01 PM PST - 37 comments

17th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition

The 17th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition has begun (voting is open until November 15.) Most of the games can be played online in your browser; all are available for download. Meanwhile, the intfiction forum has chosen the Top 48 Interactive Fiction games. [more inside]
posted by Zed at 8:28 PM PST - 22 comments

I kept the dogs shut in babe, but I think that I escaped

Marian Call, Alaskan singer-songwriter known for I'll Still Be A Geek When Nobody Thinks It's Chic, has released Something Fierce, a fan-funded album. Listen to the whole thing. Lyrics and liner notes. Listen to her previous albums, Got To Fly and Vanilla.
posted by NoraReed at 7:02 PM PST - 12 comments

Women in Electronic Music

"Daphne Oram was the first woman to direct an electronic music studio, the first woman to set up a personal studio and the first woman to design and construct an electronic musical instrument." [previously: 1, 2, 3] [more inside]
posted by spiderskull at 7:00 PM PST - 13 comments

He Was a Crook

"Nixon will be remembered as a classic case of a smart man sh*tting in his own nest. But he also sh*t in our nests, and that was the crime that history will burn on his memory like a brand." Hunter S. Thompson eulogizes Richard Milhous Nixon.
posted by HotPants at 6:09 PM PST - 72 comments

Big Dumb Objects

Chris Foss: The Joy of Starships (More Chris Foss here)
posted by Artw at 3:47 PM PST - 35 comments

Here comes a Lion... oh yes, it's a Lion...

Nants ingonyama bagithi baba! It's been nearly two decades since that glorious savanna sunrise, and once again The Lion King is at the top of the box office. It's a good chance to revisit what made the original the capstone of the Disney Renaissance, starting with the music. Not the gaudy show tunes or the Elton John ballads, but the soaring, elegiac score by Hans Zimmer which, despite winning an Oscar, never saw a full release outside of an unofficial bootleg. Luckily, it's unabridged and high-quality, allowing one to lay Zimmer's haunting, pulse-pounding, joyful tracks alongside the original video (part 2, 3, 4), revealing the subtle leitmotifs and careful matching of music and action. In addition, South African collaborator Lebo M wove traditional Zulu chorals into the score, providing veiled commentary on scenes like this; his work was later expanded into a full album, the Broadway stage show, and projects closer to his heart. Speaking of expanded works, there were inevitable sequels -- all of which you can experience with The Lion King: Full Circle (download guide), a fan-made, three-hour supercut of the original film and its two follow-ups. Want more? Look... harder... [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 3:28 PM PST - 23 comments

What? No Hut-Sut Rawlson on the Rillerah?

A brief history of lyrics that aren't lyrics (1964-2008) SLYT
yeah, I'm kinda disappointed they didn't start at an earlier date, with all the potential doo-dahs, shooby-doos and weem-a-ways...
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:25 PM PST - 37 comments

The Iceman aka The Razor Blade aka The Master of The Telecaster

Hours of video performance in celebration of the birthday of Texas Blues guitar master Albert Collins, October 1, 1932 – November 24, 1993.
posted by madamjujujive at 12:47 PM PST - 19 comments

'Biblical Womanhood' A year of living by the book

As an evangelical Christian, Rachel Held Evans often heard about the importance of practicing "biblical womanhood," but she didn't quite know what that meant. Everyone she asked seemed to have a different definition. Evans decided to embark on a quest to figure out how to be a woman by the Bible's standards. For one year, she has followed every rule in the Old and New Testaments. (FAQ) Her project is set to end today. [more inside]
posted by Blasdelb at 12:03 PM PST - 149 comments

"Which business owner is right?"

Why big business needs unemployment benefits. 'Many business leaders are shrugging off the forthcoming expiration of extended unemployment benefits, but they may regret it. In this downturn, every little bit of extra money in consumer pockets counts.' 'Steve Burd, the CEO of Safeway (SWY), told an analyst during the company's last earnings call that he did not think temporary benefits provided a meaningful boost to consumer confidence. "There are those that would argue that unemployment benefits, the longer they are, the longer people stay unemployed," said Burd, whose supermarket chain did $41 billion in sales last year. The CEO went on to cite the theory that extending unemployment insurance artificially props up wages, slowing the pace of economic recovery.' 'Some Republicans have already come out against renewing the emergency aid. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is currently running for president, recently said that he thought it was "fundamentally wrong to give people money for 99 weeks for doing nothing."' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 10:51 AM PST - 85 comments

"On the playground, at the store, walking on the streets. They creep us out, and make us sick to our stomachs. I'm talking, of course, about Ginger kids."

The war against red-haired males. [Time.com] Cryos International, the world’s largest sperm bank, recently announced that it will be turning away redheaded donors at the door. The company’s red-haired sperm supply is full up, and not often called upon. Clinic director Ole Schou told a Danish newspaper that parents are inclined to select donors who are physically similar to themselves, and red’s rareness makes it an unpopular choice.
posted by Fizz at 10:38 AM PST - 102 comments

A landscape of the mind

''Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains'' is the greatest surviving masterpiece by Huang Gongwang (黄公望 1269-1354), one of the Four Yuan Masters; considered one of the finest of all Chinese paintings, it served as a model and inspiration for many subsequent literati artists. The scroll suffered fire damage in the early Qing and was divided into two parts. This summer, a special exhibition at the National Palace Museum in Taiwan reunited these two portions of Huang's masterwork for the first time in 360 years.
posted by Abiezer at 10:32 AM PST - 18 comments

"Unfortunately, his NBA career will probably be derailed by a complete inability to understand or carry out the fundamentals of defense."

Air Bud come to life (via)
posted by Copronymus at 9:17 AM PST - 32 comments

Not Dopey, not Grumpy, not Doc, not Bashful, not Sleepy, not Happy

Achoo, Achoo, Achoo Not Dopey, not Grumpy, not Doc, not Bashful, not Sleepy, not Happy
posted by cjorgensen at 9:15 AM PST - 15 comments

'The most excellent painter that England hath yet bred'

Britain's finest Baroque portraitist, on a par with Frans Hals, has been all but forgotten, but a new BBC documentary and associated website seek to address that. William Dobson, 1611-46, was painter to Charles I's court during the English Civil War, and the turmoil of the period meant that much of his biography and even the names of the subjects of his portraits were lost. But many of his portraits have survived, and they're astonishing. [more inside]
posted by rory at 4:13 AM PST - 18 comments

The Space of Imagination

Dr. Dan Durda [bio; vita] is a veritable Renaissance Man, having hobbies that others would call careers; most notably, he is an accomplished astronomer, jet pilot, cave diver, and Fellow of the International Association of Astronomical Artists.

Oh yeah, about that art stuff -- there's a lot [more inside]
posted by troll at 2:24 AM PST - 5 comments

seeking sunken ship, shrinks study stories

Two Aussie psychologists studied the 66-year-old testimony of 70 German sailors rescued after their boat sank. The ship which sank it, the HMAS Sydney, also sank ... taking 645 sailors with it.
After analyzing the stories the shrinks - knowledgeable in the vagaries of storytelling - found that the Germans weren't lying. They crowdsourced the stories, sat down together with a map of the Indian Ocean and ...
posted by Twang at 12:35 AM PST - 21 comments

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