May 5, 2017
Take a drink every time the narrator says "Victorian style"
It's the everyday lives of everyday people that really bring history alive.
Victorian Farm is a six-part BBC series which does exactly that. Part documentary, part reality show (in the best possible sense), it follows historian Ruth Goodman, and archeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn, as they LARP a year in the life of a restored Victorian farm in Shropshire, England – getting by with only Victorian-era technology, cookery, clothing, and customs. But there's much more... [more inside]
Against Little Free Libraries
“There was something that kind of irked me about the [The Little Free Libraries],” says Jane Schmidt, librarian at Ryerson University in Toronto. “As a librarian, my gut reaction to that was, ‘You know what else is a free library? A regular library.’”
METAPHORS ARE MY LIFE
Brad Pitt opens up to GQ (Prada, $3,499) about his failures as a father and his new life ("I just felt like Brad was a misnomer, and now I just feel like fucking Brad.") and is then pilloried (with his interviewer) in The Gaurdian. Hilarity ensues.
The Toughest Coach There Ever Was
Better Fighting Through Sci-Fi Writing
Late last year, the Army Training and Doctrine Command announced that its inaugural Mad Scientist Science Fiction Writing Contest was open to aspiring writers. The theme: “Warfare in 2030 to 2050.” The results are in, and you can read a few of the ideas that might shape the future of warfare. [more inside]
It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it.
With one miscalculation, by one startled pilot, at 400 miles an hour. And now that Russia is determined to destabilize the West, this scenario is keeping the military establishment up at night.- This Is How The Next World War Starts
The Big Bang Theory but with Ricky Gervais as the whole studio audience.
The Big Bang Theory but with Ricky Gervais as the whole studio audience. Just as terrible as you can imagine it is. [more inside]
Voice transcription by saxophone and drums
A classic scene from Willy Wonka as performed by Gene Wilder, drums, and saxophone. There's a growing series of these, including takes on the USAs recent popular vote loser and random farm animals.
Ryuichi Sakamoto - async
Ryuichi Sakamoto (previously) has released "async", his first solo album in eight years. To the NYT, Sakamoto says: “I actually thought it could be my last one. I just wanted to put down just what I wanted to hear. I wanted to hear sounds of everyday objects — even musical instruments — as things.” Karl Smith at The Quietus "finds a record concerned with the varied states of human life and a sprawling piece of music less fixated on the task of world building than the more daunting prospect of penetrating the complexities of our own universe." Full Youtube playlist from Milan Records. [more inside]
A major economist has died
William Baumol, R.I.P. Best known for Baumol's cost disease, "one of the greatest of living economists" William Jack Baumol died at 95.
Finger Lickin' Good
Give Mom her true heart’s desire this Mother’s Day—a family meal and a romance novel featuring Colonel Sanders. — KFC (@kfc)Promo video, Amazon Reviews
"I did not specifically set out to write on a theme of loneliness."
Filmmaker Dilman Dila describes the joys and difficulties of making a low-budget indie scifi feature film in Kampala. Her Broken Shadow (trailer) is a horror movie about "a single person stuck in one place".
2016 Tiptree Symposium: Ursula K. Le Guin
Last December, the University of Oregon hosted the second Tiptree Symposium, this year focusing on the works of writer Ursula K. Le Guin. The videos of all the panels and speeches are available for streaming. [more inside]
greyscale for the grey gods
Rarely is the question asked: what would you get when you use the style of the Take on Me music video to adapt a Warhammer 40K story. But luckily Richard Boylan did.
Teach me to dance. We have no music here.
The Shit-Kickers of Madison Avenue
From the New Yorker archives: Lillian Ross chronicles the obsessions of private-school teens on the Upper East Side in the mid-nineties.
Forgotten Giants
Thomas Dambo is a Danish artist who makes huge sculptures out of recycled materials. Most recently, he constructed six giants out of recycled wood, and then hid them in the woods in Copenhagen. [more inside]
Victorian Slum House
Apologies if this content is US only, but PBS is currently running Victorian Slum House [link to first episode, 55m], which "takes viewers back to the British slums of the 1800s, where a group of modern-day families, couples and individuals recreate life in London'’s East End as their forbearers once lived between 1860-1900." [Ed. note: I rolled my eyes at it when I first saw it on the schedule but ended up watching it tonight and was impressed by its depth and emotional honesty.]
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