March 21, 2013
Try Not To Think Of Christopher Cross
While best remembered for his starring role in a horrible movie, once upon a time, the man had some chops. A surprising mix of world-tinged fusion and straight ahead jazz from 1969, I give you:
"The Dudley Moore Trio"
"The Dudley Moore Trio"
Harvey Weinstein. The most thanked person through the years.
I'd like to thank the Academy — "More than 200 Oscar speeches were pulled from the Margaret Herrick Library database and surveyed." Find out who has done the two-hand clutch, who thanked their male partner - all with linked YouTube goodness. You can even roll-your-own and find out who it most matches.
Panoramas on Four of the Seven Summits
Google Maps surmounts four of the Seven Summits: Aconcagua (South America), Kilimanjaro (Africa), Everest Base Camp (Asia), and Mount Elbrus (Europe). It's not quite a "street" view of the Grand Canyon, but 360 degree panoramas.
Gone in 70 seconds
Let's build a ship - Timelapse builds the world's largest ship in 70 seconds Building the world's largest ship - the Maersk Tripple E
More than just his little wife
People have something to say about Mrs. Carter's new song. "Women do not have to be humble, nice, and modest all the damn time," says Sesali Bowen of Feministing. "Beyonce's new single marks a change in direction for the independent woman the US president handpicks to play at his parties," says Rush Limbaugh. The song "dangerously [straddles] the line between female empowerment and subjugation," says Rahiel Tesfamariam of the Washington Post. "We should view Beyonce's feminism as complex," says Akoto Ofori-Atta of The Root.
Can a woman who sings "girls run the world" and "bow down, bitches" be a feminist?
Read the lyrics here.
"It’s like Kate Bush if she knew how to write a good song."
What makes the music critics at Collapse Board more interesting than the ones at Pitchfork or Rolling Stone or the AV Club? Well, for one thing, they have more fun: witness The Audacity of Barry Manilow, or their take on Kimbra's "Vows", written as a response to the outrage they received after a negative Gotye review. When they love something, they love it with relish – they think Micachu understands 2012 like no other musician, argue that Nirvana was the biggest thing since the Beatles, and think Lana Del Rey is more interesting than her lips. And when they dislike something, they make no qualms about disliking it – they rip into Titus Andronicus something good, describe a Matt & Kim album as "an excellent litmus test for weeding out fluff-eating imbeciles", and express more ambivalent opinions about My Bloody Valentine and The Mountain Goats. They also, predictably write frequent critiques of music criticism.
Ewald von Kleist, last of the July 20th conspirators, dead at 90
Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist, plotter against Hitler and founder of the Munich Conferences, died on March 8th, aged 90. [more inside]
shell games
Closure pare one: Self Destruct
Nine Inch Nails has posted tape 1 of the 1997 VHS-only release Closure on Vimeo. It's a 75-min long documentary of the Self Destruct Tour, both on and off stage, includes (not necessarily musical) appearances by Marilyn Manson and David Bowie, amongst others.
Sing
The Raven That Refused To Sing, a melancholy animated music video for Steven Wilson's (Porcupine Tree) solo song. [slyt]
Just In Time For The Equinox
About a week ago a series of tweets began to appear promoting a new TEDx conference taking place with all the normal social media bluster and back-patting - but was it? The event's isolated location should've set off warning bells (previously) when the tweets from "TedxSummerisle" because increasingly worrisome as the conference tumblr began posting videos with titles like "Our Friends the Bees, and Nanotech" and "The Secret Science of the Ancients". (via)
Who are you?
Keep an eye on your mates when you're out – You look after them, they look after you. It's all about having fun and making it home safely. It's not about being a hero – it's about doing something small. (7:58) A New Zealand PSA about sexual assault prevention focusing on bystanders [WARNING sexual assault triggers abound] [more inside]
one great sentence can equal one great post
Stop Making Fun of Leaked Washington Post Blogger Job and Start Applying for It, Says Slate's Dan Kois
World Wide Maze, a Chrome Experiment
World Wide Maze is a "Chrome Experiment" that turns any website or search into a playable three-dimensional "Monkey Ball"-style maze game. You can control via the keyboard or link to your phone to turn it into a tilt-sensitive remote control. (Chrome browser only, obviously.)
"I like these calm little moments before the storm."
For those of us who would like to celebrate the 55th birthday of one of the greatest actors of his generation, enjoy this majestic collection of clips: Gary Oldman Loses His Shit. [more inside]
CS Lewis' The Inner Ring
There are no formal admissions or expulsions. People think they are in it after they have in fact been pushed out of it, or before they have been allowed in: this provides great amusement for those who are really inside. It has no fixed name. The only certain rule is that the insiders and outsiders call it by different names. CS Lewis on The Inner Ring.
From Ruins to Birth
A couple of years ago developers of Johnathan Blow's upcoming video game "The Witness" tapped landscape architect David Fletcher (Fletcher Studio) and architect Deanna VanBuren (FORUM Design Studio) "to help synthesize what was, at the time, a remote, anonymous island setting without much context . . . Witness required the landscape architects to reverse engineer a site from ruins to birth." (Previously)
Highest Ranked Charity in America Celebrates 27th Anniversary
As a young boy Henri Landwirth survived the death camp of Auschwitz. He lost his childhood to the war and was determined that this should not happen again in the future. Later, as a successful hotelier in Florida, he helped arrange free vacations for children with life-threatening diseases to Walt Disney World and SeaWorld. Sadly, the time it took to set up a vacation was long and when one child, Amy, died from leukemia before her wish could be fulfilled, Landwirth founded "Give Kids The World." [more inside]
Nvidia's new face-rendering tech
Nvidia showed their new face-rendering tech, FaceWorks, at the annual GPU Technology Conference this week. It runs on a Titan ($1000) graphics card. More info here. Compare. [more inside]
Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!
Richmond City Jail hosts a father-daughter dance, bringing fathers and daughters together beyond the visitors booth (photos).
“I just gotta break this cycle I’m in. I’m just tired of it,” Andre Morman says, adding that he can’t wait to see his youngest daughter. “I haven’t been able to pick her up in nine months.” [more inside]
The Dreams Of Big Data
Does Big Data Mean The Demise Of The Expert - And Intuition? - "Data-driven decisions are poised to augment or overrule human judgment."
What Is Big Data? [more inside]
What Fresh El is This?
As part of a public-private partnership intended to defray badly-needed capital improvements, the Chicago Transit Authority will peddle predatory debit cards to its riders.
"It was on stun... now it's on kill."
Prop Wars is a fantastically entertaining short film about three friends fighting to the death using iconic props from movies. [via]
Lower the ever living fuck out of your cholesterol
So You Want To Be A Pixel Artist?
Ah yes, the grass tile...Generally the first tile anyone does, because hey, if you're making an RPG, and you plan to have it take place on a world, you're probably going to need grass. [...] Grass, when you think about it, is millions of tiny blades randomly growing at different upward angles, and unless it's been stamped down flat or mowed to perfection, doesn't look smooth. So why make a tile that does? [more inside]
"There was no return from apostasy."
Leaving the Witness. "In one of the most restrictive, totalitarian countries in the world, for the first time in my life, I had the freedom to think." [more inside]
Women, they're just like us!
Women enjoy video games, to the astonishment of local TV newsreaders. Women enjoy science, to the astonishment of Facebook users.
Probiotics...better than valium?
Why the bacteria in food like yogurt may be the answer to anxiety and depression. Probiotic-rich food is good for your gut, but it may also be good for your brain, say researchers.
Take a load off
"I've found myself wondering lately, out of all of these songs - and many others - why has "The Weight" emerged as the iconic American standard? Why is this the mood-setting song in Easy Rider? Why is this the song that 22 year-olds still put on when they start their first road trips across the country? Why, since Levon Helm's passing nearly a year ago, do Americana musicians overwhelmingly close their shows with "The Weight"? Why did the GRAMMY Awards choose "The Weight" as its group sing-along for the musicians we lost this year - and why was it the only performance of the night that had everyone in the audience singing and dancing?"
Beetlejuice... Beetlejuice....
Pretty much the best Minecraft rollercoaster ever made. (Warning: Dubstep)
Also from the same people. [more inside]
Jim Hall / Blue Comma
The second most tattooed man in the world. Jim Hall, a retired Baltimore city planner, very articulately discusses in this article and associated video how he has tattooed and modified himself into a work of art and personal sexual fantasy he calls Blue Comma.
Hands down the illest ventriloquist this side of the Mississippi River
To celebrate the release soulful Southern fried stoner rock band Clutch's new album, Earth Rocker, LA Weekly have put together a list of the Top Ten Awesomely Absurd and Absurdly Awesome Clutch Lyrics. It doubles as an introduction to Clutch, though you can just jump into the title track and Crucial Velocity from Earth Rocker.
Mood Of The Times
The Expression of Emotions in 20th Century Books. March 20, 2013. Fear Factor Increases, Emotions Decrease in Books Written in Last 50 Years. 'We find evidence for distinct historical periods of positive and negative moods, underlain by a general decrease in the use of emotion-related words through time. Finally, we show that, in books, American English has become decidedly more “emotional” than British English in the last half-century, as a part of a more general increase of the stylistic divergence between the two variants of English language.' [more inside]
"Sailing to Sicily"
Jeff Sullivan, newly reunited with the Seattle mariner's blog "USS Mariner", offers his thoughts on the Marlins releasing former (and hugely disappointing) Mariner Chone Figgins--odds on, the end of Figgins major league career. [more inside]
« Previous day | Next day »