One day in 1984 character actor
Stephen Tobolowsky (
Groundhog Day, the original, unaired pilot of
Buffy The Vampire Slayer) was walking down the street when
Jonathan Demme pulled up and asked if he wanted to see a movie he was finishing. Tobolowsky accepted: taking his girlfriend
Beth Henley, they went to the
Academy Linwood Dunn Theatre to watch the rough cut of the movie,
Stop Making Sense. The audience in the otherwise empty theatre consisted of
Tobolowsky, Henley, and Demme, along with members of
Talking Heads, including
David Byrne and
Tina Weymouth. Later,
Byrne passed
Tobolowsky on his
bike and asked if he wanted to work on a
new movie. Interest sparked again, and during the ensuing collaboration Tobolowsky shared his past experience of psychic phenomena. Inspired, Byrne went on to write
Radio Head. The song was heard by
Thom Yorke and became the name of his
band. All of this is a true story, based on
puzzling evidence.
[more inside]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul
on Jul 17, 2011 -
46 comments
James Burke's popular television show
Connections is
available in its entirety online. Connections, which ran in 1978, was a unique take on the question of historical and scientific advancement. From wikipedia: "The series traced paths of invention and discovery through their interrelationships in history, with each episode chronicling a particular path, usually in chronological order. ... It was followed by the 20-part Connections2 (1994) and then the 10-part Connections3 (1997) series. Later, it was shown in more than 50 countries and appeared in about 350 university and college curricula. Additionally, the
book that followed the series was also a best seller."
[more inside]
posted by SpacemanStix
on Dec 9, 2010 -
76 comments
"Every day there are untold millions of comments, texts, and online interactions. Millions. And each one says, I am here and I extend my consciousness to there. There might have been a time when humans were content to sit and simply be, like the goat I saw yesterday sitting contently in a patch of sunshine at the Lincoln Park Zoo. That time was long ago. We want the news. We want to chatter and gossip. We want to say "I am alive" in a billion billion different ways. And now here is internet, providing such an easy, easy way to do
that."
posted by nomadicink
on Nov 19, 2010 -
35 comments
James Burke does Youtube. A very conscientious fan has begun creating a wonderful collection of two of James Burke's shows on youtube. There are many
episodes up and more to come of both
Connections and
The Day The Universe Changed. Catch them while you can.
posted by YoBananaBoy
on Jun 11, 2007 -
45 comments
Kizmeet. Craigslist's "
Missed Connections" can be an entertaining read, but it ain't exactly efficient if you're actually trying to locate that tempting hottie you lost in the crowd. At this new site, you can post and search for him or her according to the specific location (bar, gym, coffee shop, market, etc.) where your eyes first met. No word yet on
whether this actually works either. [via
Curbed, oddly enough]
posted by GrammarMoses
on Oct 20, 2006 -
7 comments
Global Voices Online. I was a bit surprised to find that this hasn't been posted. Global Voices aims to foster a more diverse online conversation primarily through spot-lighting blogs written by people all over the world. It started last October and has really picked up steam these last few months.
posted by panoptican
on Oct 29, 2005 -
9 comments
