The decline of play. As a society, we have come to the conclusion that to protect children from danger and to educate them, we must deprive them of the very activity that makes them happiest...
posted by bitmage
on Oct 13, 2011 -
115 comments
Glengarry Glen Ross endures mainly as a spectacular display of verbal warfare and alpha-male gamesmanship. There’s a musical quality to it, with a great composer and a great chorus hitting the complicated runs of broken dialogue and solos that weave into profane poetry and nuggets of philosophical wisdom. Perhaps the greatest sign of the movie’s success, owed equally to Mamet’s script and this cast, is that it does a great sales job in itself, convincing us that there’s nobility to men who lie for a living — a bill of goods we’re all too happy to buy. [more inside]
posted by Trurl
on Sep 29, 2011 -
67 comments
"Better a broken bone than a broken spirit". So said the appropriately-named Lady Allen of Hurtwood, pioneer of adventure playgrounds - play spaces which sacrificed a little security in the interests of imagination and creativity. Her work on adventure playgrounds - along with the sight of young Londoners playing in the bombed-out sites of post-Blitz London - inspired a young
Richard Dattner, a New York architect now probably best-known for the
Bronx Public Library Center.
[more inside]
posted by running order squabble fest
on Jul 13, 2011 -
65 comments
Psykopaint is really fun, visually interesting and free. It
is a rich internet application in which you can turn your pictures into paintings by grabbing one of the 6 brushes provided and start painting while the colors are selected automatically for you. Created by
Mathieu Gosselin.
posted by nickyskye
on Feb 21, 2011 -
16 comments
Opening Night: October 8, 1985 at the
Barbican in London. It scored mixed reviews, but word of mouth still took hold. In the 25 years since that first show, 45,000 performances have been produced in 42 countries, 308 cities and 21 languages that have been seen by 56 million people. It is the third-longest running show in Broadway history. 40 cast recordings have been released. And on October 30th, 2010, a special concert production of the play based on the book
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
will take place at The 02 Arena in North Greenwich.
(YouTube Video) [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Aug 7, 2010 -
46 comments
My brother found this deer alone and malnourished when it was a tiny baby. My family bottle fed the baby, named Theen, until he was eating grass. Several months later he's very socialized with people, our black lab, and our cats. He is free to wander if he likes and we've seen him with several herds of whitetail and axis deer. Apparently he fits in just fine with them. He frequently comes back to the house to eat some catfood and play with our dog, Buddy. He doesn't care much for deer corn.
One dog. One deer. One ball.
posted by lazaruslong
on Mar 29, 2010 -
55 comments
Amanda Palmer, of Dresden Dolls fame,
returns to her high school in Lexington, MA to assist with an original, student-written play. Running
May 7-9th at Lexington High School, the play, entitled "With The Needle That Sings in Her Heart", is inspired by (and features live music from) Neutral Milk Hotel's
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, and is about "Anne Frank as imagined by an artist, and about how Anne uses her imagination and fantasy-mind to escape the horrors she experiences in a death camp."
[more inside]
posted by The Pusher Robot
on Apr 26, 2009 -
41 comments
A tale of two countries Some time ago, the french & German tv channel
Arte had created an internet extension devoted to audio only,
Arteradio. This website contains hours of audio creations. This is the place where you can listen to
The first radio drama /la première fiction radio /in two languages and one version /en deux langues et une seule version /a BBC-ARTE Radio coproduction /enregistrée à Paris et London /recorded on location /diffusée en hertzien /broadcasted on BBC Radio 4 on February, 4th, 2009 /online on arteradio.com.
You can also listen to
McKenzie Wark, or to
the moment of silence created on September the eleventh 2002, to
Steve, to
English pupils in Paris, to
Susan George, to
Dean Hurley commenting his work, and then dive into the complete unknown, and pure French sounds, like
these testimonies about masturbation, or about
la chanson, like a Paris
postcard, or even a
street snapshot.
posted by nicolin
on Feb 10, 2009 -
3 comments
Explore the playful side of invention and the inventive side of play in
Invention at Play. Learn how play connects to the creative impulse of both historic and contemporary inventors.
[more inside]
posted by netbros
on Jun 1, 2008 -
1 comment
The
antidote to the controlled, indoor world of modern kids might be
Adventure Playgrounds. Messy, chaotic, but counter-intuitively, safer than traditional playgrounds, there are only two in the US:
Listen to
Berkeley's Adventure Playground on NPR, or check out some
flickr shots.
In Europe, where they originated
from the rubble of WWII, and in Japan where they are also popular, the importance of play that involves risks is
better understood. There are
hundreds of
Adventure Playgrounds outside of North America.
posted by serazin
on Aug 18, 2007 -
38 comments
Barbie Recalled. Mattel recalled one of their Barbie products today, a sweet little toy to teach kids responsibility called
Barbie and Tanner. But watching that commercial closely one must wonder, if those magnets are coming out of Tanner so easily, surely they won't stay in your kid. Perhaps the design flaw had nothing to do with magnets but rather such an ill-conceived product. So, after Tanner poops out the magnet, you do
what with it?
posted by Toekneesan
on Aug 14, 2007 -
75 comments
"We can't do anything about it. We just have to
obey." Fulton (Mo.) High School drama students learn that resistance is futile.
posted by Saucy Intruder
on Feb 11, 2006 -
87 comments
OK, Seattleites, see the American flag
here ? On the sidewalk below is where your 3rd & Pine McDonalds now sits. Man, I can see five buildings here that are still standing, but that red brick one at the lower right got replaced
early. Now here's the
Northern Life Tower. Note how the bricks lighten towards the top, so as to make it look taller from below--very subtle, that. It's one of Seattle's two Art Deco buildings, the other being the
Exchange Building. You can cut through that one, coming off the ferry at First Avenue and take the elevator to walk out on Second Ave rather than climb that steep hill, you know.
And consider on what
playground equipment our grandparents got to play. Lucky stiffs--you can't even find a decent 50s era swing set in a park in this town anymore.
Penny Postcards From King County, from
Penny Postcards of Washington, from
Penny Postcards. Man, I loves me some vintage postcards. And if you do, too, check that last link--it's got all 50 states.
posted by y2karl
on Dec 19, 2004 -
17 comments
At what point did the muse disappear and become replaced by the dramaturg? "Scripts aren't written, they're rewritten", goes the cry from all the script gurus - all the literary managers, editors, producers, dramaturgs - not just in theatre but film, too. Why do they say this? Because their jobs depend on it. If scripts were left alone, what would they do?
Dominic Dromgoole writes about playwriting in the UK.
posted by Panfilo
on Dec 19, 2004 -
20 comments
