May 20, 2012
Ramblin' Jack Elliott at Old City Hall, Redding California, 1988
Ramblin' Jack Elliott at Old City Hall, Redding California, 1988
This is Ramblin' Jack in his prime. [more inside]
This is Ramblin' Jack in his prime. [more inside]
/bin/rm -r -f *
Mythbusters' Tested Blog recently posted a special feature from the Toy Story 2 DVD, in which Pixar's Oren Jacob and Galyn Susman recounted how the files for the movie (just 10gb of data!) were almost lost due to both an erroneous Linux command and a bad backup. The folks at The Next Web: Media followed up with Mr. Jacob, and learned that the movie was actually tossed out and reworked from scratch again nine months prior to a release date that was set in stone, not by the computers, but by the filmmakers themselves: How Pixar’s Toy Story 2 was deleted twice, once by technology and again for its own good.
Law & Order & Food
"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime; and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders."
This is them eating lunch. Single link tumblr.
Robert Altman's "3 Women"
And so I descend once more into the mysterious depths of 3 Women, a film that was imagined in a dream. Robert Altman's 1977 masterpiece tells the story of three women whose identities blur, shift and merge until finally, in an enigmatic last scene, they have formed a family, or perhaps have become one person. I have seen it many times, been through it twice in shot-by-shot analysis, and yet it always seems to be happening as I watch it. - Roger Ebert [more inside]
This Could Be the Last Time
Last night, Saturday Night Live said good bye to Kristen Wiig. It did so after an opening featuring Kristin’s small-handed character, Dooneese Maharelle and Jon Hamm. The guest was 70ish Mick Jagger performing with Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters, and Jeff Beck. The show ended with a last dance.
a different take on aspirational fashion
Can using different types of models benefit brands? Ben Barry discusses his Ph.D. research in Elle Canada, making a business case for diversity in fashion: women increased their purchase intentions when they saw models who reflected their size, age, and race. Jezebel summarizes, "Barry's research... casts doubt on the age-old theory that people buy things because advertising stokes their insecurities, creating a need that can only be filled by the advertised product. It suggests that advertising can work by inducing in the consumer feelings of affinity for and identification with the people shown in the ad."
OpenLeaks
OpenLeaks has come into focus as a platform where leakers submit material specifying participating media organizations to receive early access as well as a later date for a full non-exclusive release. In principle, OpenLeaks cannot access the leaked documents themselves until this later release date. [more inside]
Marriage may have changed, but love has not. It still makes people say crazy things. And it’s still a glue that no one has control of.
The New York Times' "Vows" column is turning 20. Lois Smith Brady revisits some of the first couples covered in the column which she has written since its inception (alone for the first decade, and as one of several writers in its second). A companion article describes how the column came about and how it (and the couples it covers) have changed over the years. [more inside]
Serve the public trust, protect the innocent, uphold the law
“I say God bless ‘em, man, go make another ‘RoboCop.’ … I don’t know, you can throw a lot of CGI at it and so forth. The morality that’s endemic to the movie that you just watched is hard to replicate. It makes you laugh and cry and moves you, and it’s hysterical and horrible and all those unbelievable things at once.” - Former cyborg and Italian Italian Renaissance Scholar Peter Weller talks to the Hero Complex Film Festival about the Robocop Remake and other things in the run-up to the films 25th anniversary.
On Dec. 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103, a Boeing 747 jumbo jet carrying 243 passengers and 16 crew members, took off from Heathrow Airport in Britain, bound for New York.
Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, Convicted in 1988 Lockerbie Bombing, Dies at 60. [NYTimes.com] Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the 1988 bombing of an American jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, has died in Libya, family members told news agencies on Sunday, nearly three years after Scotland released him on humanitarian grounds, citing evidence that he was near death with metastatic prostate cancer. He was 60.
We're going to put the trees back too... no, really, we are...
The Canadian oil sand mines refused us access, so we rented this plane to see what they were up to: A slideshow of oil extraction from above Alberta's tar sands fields. (Warning: surreally-coloured pools of water inside) [more inside]
Occupy, Resist, and Produce
The Take is a 2004 film [~90m] by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis about the reclaimed factory movement (worker-managed co-operatives) in Argentina. It's presented here in 9 parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. Also in a convenient playlist for easy viewing. [more inside]
The trick is to rob them in ways that are systematic, impersonal, and almost impossible to trace to individual perpetrators.
How Corporations and Local Governments Use the Poor As Piggy Banks. Barbara Ehrenreich (previously) talks about how the cycle of poverty is perpetuated by wage theft, municipal/criminal fines, and debtors prisons.
Mugabenomics!
PRONOUNS AND ADVERBS MAKE HULK WANT SMASH
AVENGERS IS JOSS WHEDON MOVIE. Film Crit Hulk counts the ways.
Hint: the answer is democracy.
The Costs of Capitalism's Crisis: Who Will Pay? Economics professor Richard Wolff gives some context to the latest economic crisis and suggests a solution to prevent this from happening again.
American "Yaoi"
Yaoi, man-on-man relationship comics aimed at female readers and typically produced by female authors. And now the phenomenon is moving West.
An article from Comics Alliance discusses three webcomics that have gained considerable popularity despite what some would call their niche appeal. [more inside]
"The Music Goes 'Round And Around"
Who's the fool in the Facebook IPO?
Anthropologist and journalist Joris Luyendijk speaks to a former investment banker about stress, disillusionment and the strategies behind the Facebook flotation.
The former MD compares it to insurance fraud: "It seems victimless while in reality everyone's premium goes slightly up."
That's the system, he says: a cartel "skimming off everyone's pensions and savings".
Anthropologist and journalist Joris Luyendijk speaks to a former investment banker about stress, disillusionment and the strategies behind the Facebook flotation.
The former MD compares it to insurance fraud: "It seems victimless while in reality everyone's premium goes slightly up."
That's the system, he says: a cartel "skimming off everyone's pensions and savings".
Russian Skywalking
"Skywalking" Russky Island Bridge. Three Russian teenagers climb up the 300 meter Bridge to Russky Island without any safety equipment. Apparently this is part of a trend calling 'skywalking'. WARNING: Sweaty palms may damage computer.
The Inquisition of Mr. Marvel
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