July 7, 2013
Explore a new world each month with Illustrated Aliens
Andy Martin has a plan to draw a different alien every day for a year, and animate and score a different alien world each month. He's now on month #7. You can see the aliens on the Illustrated Aliens tumblr, or jump right to The Planets on Vimeo. You can read more about his process in this Skwigly interview.
A field of mystical mushrooms and buried treasure
Director Ben Wheatley's latest film A Field in England was released last friday to cinemas, TV, home video, and VOD platforms in the UK. Mark Kermode, with full flappy-handed fervor calls it "very powerful, very strange and very hard to describe."
To coincide, distributor Film4 has published a digital masterclass (contains spoilers) describing the making of the film all the way from commissioning to scoring.
A Plant, a Perch, and a Prophylactic
Huey's taking what they're givin' 'cause he's working for a living
Grantland checks in with 1980s megastar Huey Lewis, who is "hard at play," still relentlessly touring at the age of 62.
After tonight's concert, the band will shower, the crew will load out, and Lewis's 25-person caravan (which he refers to as his "small business") will hop back on their buses and drive 403 miles to Anderson, Indiana, for tomorrow night's gig at a horse track and casino. In the next seven days, Lewis will play five shows in places like Paducah, Kentucky, and Quapaw, Oklahoma, along with bigger cities like Dallas and Cincinnati. Even with the gaudy 1980s sales statistics, Huey Lewis and the News has the work ethic of a 2010s indie band.
After tonight's concert, the band will shower, the crew will load out, and Lewis's 25-person caravan (which he refers to as his "small business") will hop back on their buses and drive 403 miles to Anderson, Indiana, for tomorrow night's gig at a horse track and casino. In the next seven days, Lewis will play five shows in places like Paducah, Kentucky, and Quapaw, Oklahoma, along with bigger cities like Dallas and Cincinnati. Even with the gaudy 1980s sales statistics, Huey Lewis and the News has the work ethic of a 2010s indie band.
"..isn't a huge amount of money compared to what you save in welfare.."
The Center for Investigative Reporting has found that in 2006-2010 nearly 150 female inmates in California were coerced into sterilization without state approval. [more inside]
It's what the words mean.
The dictionary of the Global War on You
A first attempt to “rectify” American names in the era of the ascendant national -- morphing into global -- security state.
Secret: Anything of yours the government takes possession of and classifies.
A first attempt to “rectify” American names in the era of the ascendant national -- morphing into global -- security state.
Secret: Anything of yours the government takes possession of and classifies.
Heavily Distorted
Content Aware Scaling is a Photoshop technique which allows you to selectively change the scale of one portion of an image without affecting the rest of it. This technique can be used on still images (like so) to create insanely proportioned compositions, or on moving images to create shifting, disorienting, and often hilarious animated .gifs (like so, and also). Digital artist Neil Cicierega provides a tutorial and a Photoshop script to do this yourself. [more inside]
not just used to assess how well Harvard first-years carried themselves
"Posing For Posture"
"Posture photos," as they were then called, were taken of every incoming student at many prestigious colleges in the first half of the 20th century, as a part of the registration process. George L. Hersey '51, now a professor of art history at Yale, says, "I was told to show up at the swimming pool, I took my swim test and posed. We were expected to show up and do this." Students acquiesced in the days of single-sex colleges because nudity was a normal part of the college experience, Knight says. "We never wore bathing suits in the swimming pools, it was considered more hygienic that way," he says. "The House [swimming] races were in the nude." And so posture photos were snapped and collected--and saved for later research which was intended to link physique to temperament. This practice--led nationwide by a Harvard researcher--remained widespread through the 1950s and 60s.[more inside]
Az utolsó pákász
Az utolsó pákász (The Last Fisherman) 1977. For those of you who are as into education films of traditional Hungarian fishing techniques as I am.
It cannot, however, keep your cat from messing it up
LEGO Mindstorms can be used in a great many ways, but in terms of building something that perform a task better than your average human, you can't beat a steady hand for lining up dominos. [more inside]
Hunger is hidden
A 5-year-old girl saw the dust trail of the bus and pedaled toward it on a red tricycle. Three teenage boys came barefoot in swimsuits. A young mother walked over from her trailer with an infant daughter in one arm and a lit cigarette in the other. “Any chance there will be leftover food for adults?” she asked. It was almost 1 p.m. For some, this would be the first meal of the day. For others, the last.
In rural Tennessee, a new way to help hungry children: A bus turned bread truck
Don't look at the comments. Do look at the photos.
In rural Tennessee, a new way to help hungry children: A bus turned bread truck
Don't look at the comments. Do look at the photos.
Limited nuclear exchange, pandemic, hypercane, supervolcano...
"While the light of humanity may flicker and die, we go gently into this dark night, comforted in the knowledge that someday Wikipedia shall take its rightful place as part of a consensus-built Galactic Encyclopedia, editable by all sentient beings."
"He then looked up, and saw . . . former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal."
Why Did You Shoot Me? I was reading a book. - A look at America's warrior cops.
PLEASE STOP THINKING ABOUT ZOMBIES
Coming Out Country
Five days ago, young Chicago lounge musician Steve Grand released his first single with no agent, no label: All American Boy. Free download (and donations) here.
Although his Facebook Page is only 6 days old, he is approaching 20,000 subscribers. He writes: I fought with who I was for most of my life. In every way a young person can fight with himself. But starting today... I'm laying it out there. I'm done playing it safe… This is the story I've been aching to tell… it is what I hold dearest to me.
Steve Grand on Twitter.
I have never been a very sound sleeper...
The Moon is Rolling in Her Grave is a video adaptation of the first chapter of the ongoing (since 2003) comic series "No Rest For The Wicked" by Andrea L. Peterson, a fantasy / adventure / horror tale that takes traditional fairytales and turns them on their heads: "Ms. Peterson uses, in conjunction with several more popular fables, folktales that you may have never even heard of. The entire plot actually centers around a little known Grimm fairytale called 'The Buried Moon', while also making reference to 'Red Riding Hood', 'Hansel & Gretel', 'The Girl Without Hands', 'The Boy Who Went Forth and Learned What Fear Was', and many MANY others." [more inside]
"Embarrassed" rap about breastfeeding.
Hollie McNish, Poet Shamed By Breastfeeding In Public, Has The Last Word on breastfeeding in public. [Warning! very uh... colourful language]
"That was never a comedy for me"
"I know I'm an interesting woman when I look at myself on the screen. And I know that if I met myself at a party I would never talk to that character because she doesn't fullfill pyhysically the demands that we're brought up to think women have to have in order for us to ask them out." -- Dustin Hoffman talks about Tootsie and what the movie meant to him personally. Bonus commentary by Jack Lemmon, Robin Williams and Sydney Pollack. Bonus bonus: Siskel and Ebert review Tootsie.
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