How to (and how not to) write poetry -- "selections from columns originally published in the Polish newspaper Literary Life. In these columns, famed poet Wislawa Szymborska answered letters from ordinary people who wanted to write poetry. Translated by Clare Cavanagh." Here is her Nobel acceptance speech, where she charmingly imagines a dialogue between herself and Ecclesiastes.
posted to MetaFilter by vronsky at 6:00 PM on May 6, 2009 (25 comments)

Academia must have discovered the Internets by now... right? I'm interested in finding some academic, long-form journalism, or just generally "high-thought" articles about "low" Internet culture, from memes to 4chan to Anonymous to Second Life. Halp?!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Keter at 1:27 PM on May 6, 2009 (16 comments)

Infinite Monkey Comics! Create a three-panel comic from twitter posts and flickr images, based on the keyword of your choosing.
posted to MetaFilter by Ambrosia Voyeur at 11:41 AM on May 2, 2009 (53 comments)

Obsessed with Jews is a hilariously delightful documentary short about Jewish memorabilia collector, Neil Keller. Keller speaks effusively about Jews in basketball ("Ossie Schechtman, great story. Ossie Schechtman scored the first basket in NBA history.") and Jews in hockey ("The first Jew in hockey was Samuel Rothschild."), although contrary to the Chanukah Song, Keller provides a letter where Rod Carew explains he's not Jewish. The documentary is by Jeff Krulik, that mensch responsible for Heavy Metal Parking Lot. For more Jeff Krulik documentary shorts and a great article on Krulik's days in cable access TV, check the multimedia article here. (Click through the pages. It's worth it!)
posted to MetaFilter by jonp72 at 1:55 PM on February 22, 2009 (24 comments)

What was the first movie to feature the now-cliché scene of the protagonist holding a dead companion and shouting "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" while the camera pulls away?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by empath at 4:08 PM on May 3, 2009 (11 comments)

Papaya is an... indescribable video by Alexander Marcus. Is it satire? Is he even a real person?
posted to MetaFilter by Unicorn on the cob at 1:41 PM on April 6, 2009 (30 comments)

Bizarro fiction isn't really a new genre. Just a new term. The current crop of bizarro authors are generally young and new to being published, with Carlton Mellick III as "both the Johnny Appleseed and the Johnny Rotten" of the newly dubbed genre, who started printing his stories under the header of Eraserhead Press. But what is Bizarro Fiction? A battle between the real William Shatner vs all the film versions of himself, resulting from a failed terrorist attack by Campbellians; bizarro-noir novellas, set in a world of murderers, drugs made from squid parts, deformed war veterans, and a mischievous apocalyptic donkey; or just a nice children's book about two Vampires who compete in a mustache competition to prove who is the faggiest of all. (via a local paper, though I didn't see the article isn't online)
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 12:51 PM on May 4, 2009 (22 comments)

NickCaveFilter: Fifty years ago this very day, Nicholas Edward Cave [previously] crawled from the womb and started to plot.  At 16 he formed his first band which evolved quickly into the Boys Next Door [Shivers].  This in turn mutated into the Birthday Party (1980) who terrorised the post-punk soundscape in Australia and the UK [Release the Bats | Nick the Stripper].  The Birthday Party relocated to England and in 1984 the band imploded in an orgy of drugs and booze.  Shortly after Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were born [The Ship Song - video & solo live | The Mercy Seat - video & live | Where the Wild Roses Grow], and 23 years and 11 studio albums later (not to mention a best selling book, a great screenplay, some acting and several soundtrack projects) he is still going strong.  But, instead of sitting on his musical laurels he decided to get back to basics and, in 2006, grew a huge moustache and formed Grinderman – a four piece with a primeval hybrid Birthday Party/Bad Seeds sound [No Pussy Blues | Honey Bee].  Fellow Mefites, I ask you to raise a glass to Mr. Cave… And, especially if you are not familiar to his work, don’t forget to “look inside” for my primer on the enigma that is Nick Cave, one of the finest song-writers on the face of this miserable planet.
posted to MetaFilter by the_very_hungry_caterpillar at 4:59 PM on September 22, 2007 (98 comments)

A few years ago, Russell Crowe, star of the breakaway Ridley Scott hit Gladiator, ran into fellow Australian Nick Cave and managed to convince the exotic dancer and sometime screenwriter to consider writing a sequel of the Roman period piece for him. The resulting script included the reincarnation of Maximus as the eternal warrior, the betrayal of Hephaestus, the sickness unto death of the Roman gods, the martyrdoms of St. Irenaeus of Lyon and St. Cassian of Imola, the persecution of Emperor Decius, the Crusades, and the Vietnam war; it ended in the men's bathroom at the Pentagon. Here is a review and detailed synopsis of that script, which was unfortunately (though not too surprisingly) rejected by the studios.
posted to MetaFilter by koeselitz at 6:34 AM on May 4, 2009 (43 comments)

The rise and fall of a physics fraudster. In the spring of 2002, the world’s most productive young scientist was a 31-year-old physicist at Bell Labs in New Jersey in the US. With eight papers published in Nature and Science in 2001 alone, Jan Hendrik Schön was emerging with breathtaking speed as a star researcher in physics, materials science and nanotechnology...But in September 2002, managers at Bell Labs released a report [pdf] that...made clear that much of Schön’s data were fake. His discoveries were lies. Many of his devices had probably never existed...On the day of the report’s release, Schön was fired and fled the US to an unknown location. In all, 21 of Schon's papers were withdrawn from Nature, Science and Physical Review Journals.
posted to MetaFilter by gottabefunky at 1:21 PM on May 2, 2009 (50 comments)

Of all the pretenders to the throne of "British Elvis" in the pre-Beatles UK music scene, none had the swagger or moves quite like Vince Taylor.
posted to MetaFilter by fire&wings at 12:53 PM on May 3, 2009 (15 comments)

For those who might be unaware: One of the great basketball games concluded last night in thrilling fashion during triple overtime. It is only par for a series that has gone into overtime for the fourth time in games in six games (one of which was double OT, and last night's aforementioned triple OT). The heroic moments and failures of players are too numerous to count at this point, but five of the six games have been decided by 11 points... TOTAL. On Saturday 8PM EST, what is arguably one of the greatest series ever, will conclude with the final game 7.
posted to MetaFilter by Lacking Subtlety at 10:55 AM on May 1, 2009 (56 comments)

Zardoz speaks to you. A fifteen-page essay on John Boorman's, um, rather unusual film. Other analyses are here and here: Imagine a science-fiction film where the entire special effects budget was spent on cocaine. Not just for the director and script-writer, but also enough cocaine to make the producer and studio heads COMPLETELY UNAWARE of the film's content. That's the only way this film could possibly have been made. (reviews contain major spoilers)
posted to MetaFilter by Prospero at 8:01 AM on September 5, 2004 (27 comments)

The Tarantino Mixtape from Eclectic Method is not the first mashup to cross the audio/video copyright streams, but they are pretty good at it.
via the always excellent giavasan
posted to MetaFilter by hypersloth at 4:03 AM on April 30, 2009 (17 comments)

FREE BOUNCY RIDES, courtesy of Club Animals.
posted to MetaFilter by hermitosis at 10:10 AM on April 29, 2009 (17 comments)

Whose activity should I be watching on Metafilter Music?
posted to MetaTalk by Effigy2000 at 4:21 PM on April 28, 2009 (39 comments)

I am looking for truly undiscovered musicians- ones who had little or no success in their lifetime- and what led to the re-emergence of their work.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by psychostorm at 12:52 PM on April 28, 2009 (38 comments)

Stealing and concealing, rectal bleeding, and being gay. Oh my!
posted to MetaTalk by sixcolors at 8:22 PM on June 11, 2008 (6 comments)

We Don't Want Ads, We Want Art!
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 9:04 PM on April 27, 2009 (49 comments)

From the Dungeon to the Dictionary. A brief discussion of the origins of that least popular form of government, the magocracy, the author analyzes the dweomer of the word itself, consulting many a hefty libram in the process.
posted to MetaFilter by kaibutsu at 12:19 AM on April 27, 2009 (78 comments)

Worth1000 arguably the best place for photoshops on the web, has released their newest creative effort...an online set of image (and eventually audio and video) tools called Aviary (a review here). And look at what it can do (when I looked, there was a three-mouthed monkey - that's definitely awesome)!
posted to MetaFilter by Kickstart70 at 7:14 AM on April 25, 2009 (11 comments)

Where is this picture from?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by tozturk at 9:33 AM on April 23, 2009 (5 comments)

Dance! Rye Rye, Isis from Thunderheist, and RaTheMC are 3 burgeoning emcees that will have you up and on the floor, getting your groove on.
posted to MetaFilter by cashman at 9:42 PM on April 22, 2009 (10 comments)

Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. Geocities, we hardly knew ye.
posted to MetaFilter by awenner at 4:17 PM on April 23, 2009 (109 comments)

Tony wants to know, is it Ghostbusters 2?
posted to MetaFilter by piratebowling at 9:40 AM on April 23, 2009 (62 comments)

Looking for more than just a fruity smoothie...
posted to Ask MetaFilter by doorsfan at 8:07 AM on April 23, 2009 (4 comments)

How to Build: A simple washtub bass. Some variations (on a crazily made webpage). A cookie tin banjo. (Previously) A cigar box guitar, and a cigar box ukulele. A fancy cigar box uke. (Kathy Marsushita's whole amateur luthier projects page is worth checking out, as is this gallery of cool cigar box ukes.)
posted to MetaFilter by OmieWise at 7:25 AM on April 22, 2009 (22 comments)

Who Are The Journeys and Joni's Of Today?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Lipstick Thespian at 7:02 PM on April 12, 2009 (75 comments)

Your business card is CRAP! (SLYT)(via).
posted to MetaFilter by ND¢ at 1:29 PM on April 16, 2009 (119 comments)

Kari Ferrell is on Salt Lake City's Most Wanted List. Apparently Ms. Ferrell has moved from Utah to New York and has been hanging out with the hipsters in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Within the space of a half-hour, Ms. Ferrell was peppering him with questions about his sexual history—how many women he’d slept with and so on. “She was coming on to me, and I was super into it for the first part of it,” he said. “I realized I could have fun after work—but then I was like, ‘Let me check this girl out.’”
posted to MetaFilter by R. Mutt at 8:56 AM on April 15, 2009 (147 comments)

I'm on a search to find a movie that can live up to The Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Please recommend trippy, surreal, psychedelic cult movies.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Juliet Banana at 11:50 AM on April 14, 2009 (64 comments)

The other day I happened to come upon a music video that is just so grooving, so human and so real, that, well, it moved me, darling. Just check it out. After watching the clip, I learned that these guys are mostly disabled by polio (that's why several of them are in those rather unusual wheelchairs) and that they were living on the grounds of the Kinshasa zoo, which is where the clip was filmed. Then I learned that last year they were seeking to bring a lawsuit against the UN. Then I found some other clips. And now I am a major fan of Staff Benda Bilili.
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 3:30 AM on April 26, 2008 (46 comments)

A little over a minute. 174 bpm freestyle joint. Still better than his offered doggerel.
posted to MeFi Music by ShawnStruck at 11:39 AM on April 10, 2009 (2 comments)

Supernatural, best known for his battles with (MC) Juice and his appearances on the Wake-Up Show, freestyle raps the entire lineup (8:33) of this year's Rock the Bells (Hip Hop) Festival as they sit behind him, leaving rap legend Krs-1 saying "That's the essence of emceeing...I'm just floored."
posted to MetaFilter by cashman at 10:09 PM on April 9, 2009 (63 comments)

I'm looking for songs that have a particular kind of chord progression. Specifically songs that have long sequences descending by fourths. For example: ii-V-I-IV-vii-III-vi, like in Gary Moore's Still got the Blues, and similarly in Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive. I'm pretty certain this is ridiculously common, but for whatever reason, I'm coming up dry.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Zero Gravitas at 8:35 PM on April 9, 2009 (15 comments)

Metafilter is certainly no stranger to music mashups, or even live music mashups, but a few artists are taking things a step further with live music and video mashups. Not prerecorded mashups of live music and video, but live performances of DJs (often calling themselves "VJs") mashing up music and video together on the fly.
posted to MetaFilter by Grimp0teuthis at 12:42 PM on April 8, 2009 (14 comments)

What are some good downloadable apps for the iPhone and where can I find them?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by psmealey at 5:55 AM on April 4, 2008 (10 comments)

It began when Mr. Klinsky threw in his two cents, a vague request that a poem he had written for and about his family be lodged in a wall somewhere, Ms. Sherry said, “put in a bottle and hidden away as if it were a time capsule.”
Sometimes when you make a simple suggestion about the remodeling of your $8.5 million 5th Ave. apartment, the designer goes a little overboard. In an awesome way. Don't miss the slideshow.
posted to MetaFilter by Who_Am_I at 7:03 AM on June 12, 2008 (81 comments)

Looping, live: David Ford, Imogen Heap, KT Tunstall x2, Dub FX, Ed Alleyne-Johnson
posted to MetaFilter by flatluigi at 6:14 PM on April 7, 2009 (50 comments)

I'm looking for a podcast of public lectures from prominent people in their fields: people like Jeffrey Sachs, Peter Singer, Toni Morrison. Many universities offer public lecture series online. Which is the best podcast, in terms of big-name speakers and well explained ideas?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by surenoproblem at 2:31 AM on April 7, 2009 (15 comments)

This last year was not a good one for me. I'm looking for recommendations for music and mental exercises to move on and make this next year a better one.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by piratebowling at 9:16 AM on April 6, 2009 (30 comments)

Could it be potentially damaging to my career or personal life to reveal things that I want to reveal about my past? In particular, it pertains to bullying and its effects on me.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 9:56 AM on April 6, 2009 (25 comments)

Sleepy John Estes with Yank Rachel - Mailman Blues
More about Sleepy John Estes
From Stephan Wirz - American Music: Illustrated Sleepy John Estes discography
See also The Tennesseean Encyclopedia - Sleepy John Estes
posted to MetaFilter by y2karl at 8:06 AM on April 5, 2009 (9 comments)

Should you find yourself wandering around the city of Leiden, the Netherlands sometime, you may notice some curious markings on the city's walls.

These Muurgedichten ("Wall Poems") adorn many of the town's streets (clickable map), and many English-language poets are represented: one John Keats, for instance, inside a bookshop; Dylan Thomas, E. E. Cummings, W.B. Yeats, some guy called William Shakespeare, or this ode to Charlie Parker by American William Waring Cuney.
posted to MetaFilter by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:58 PM on April 5, 2009 (15 comments)

Elwin Wilson burned crosses. He threw jack handles at kids. He hung black dolls in nooses. He threw eggs at men. He beat people up at bus stations - people who would one day become United States Congressmen. He lay in wait for the Freedom Riders in Rock Hill, SC ( more Freedom Rides video 1, 2). And now Elwin Wilson is apologizing for what he did.
posted to MetaFilter by Addlepated at 3:25 PM on April 5, 2009 (247 comments)

Animal Charm "Comprised of Jim Fetterley and Rich Bott, Animal Charm's tapes are mind-bendingly inventive experiments in uncanny, surreal montage that defy logical analysis. [Their work] is a tour de force of incongruous juxtapositions, startling dislocations and ingenious visual rhymes assembled from the banal detritus of late night TV." Edge TV::Slow Gin Soul Stallion::Baby Preacher Death Metal::CHANGE! CHANGE! CHANGE!::Computers Smart::A Cat Named Sloopy::Bearobics::Getting ready to use your VCR::Pet Programming::Cat and mouse game::Stuffing::Lightfoot fever::Squidcharm Crashes::more
posted to MetaFilter by vronsky at 6:52 PM on April 5, 2009 (12 comments)

OK, so the mods said on the podcast they liked MeFiMusic posts with kid participation. Emboldened by this I am posting a cover of the Pixies' "Here Comes Your Man," vocals and drums by my son, age 3, cheap keyboard by me attempting to follow his innovative tempo changes. Only listen to this if you really like "Here Comes Your Man," or listening to preschoolers getting their shriek on. Actually, you might also like this if you like preschoolers and hate "Here Comes Your Man" so much that you want to hear violence done to it.
posted to MeFi Music by escabeche at 9:31 PM on March 31, 2009 (15 comments)

If you're like me, you are not a top computer science researcher, and you haven't written a classic book about programming and made it available online for free. Let's review who we're not. We're neither Abelson nor Sussman, and we haven't written Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (previous proof). We're not part of TeachScheme and we had no hand in the writing of How to Design Programs (not even the second edition, natch). Shriram Krishnamurthi didn't need our help to write Programming Languages: Application and Interpretation. We wish we were Simon Peyton-Jones and had a hand in The Implementation of Functional Programming Languages.
posted to MetaFilter by Monday, stony Monday at 9:32 PM on April 1, 2009 (45 comments)

There was no way to simply say, "I read a really bad description in this book last night." I had to scan it and share it for you to understand just how bad it truly, truly was. It is the sort of bad that causes pain and must be shared with other people so you can feel better. Part 1, Part 2. This really is prose so purple that it verges into the infra-red. Some NSFW descriptive naughtiness.
posted to MetaFilter by fearfulsymmetry at 10:45 AM on April 1, 2009 (145 comments)

With so many of our citizens in prison compared with the rest of the world, there are only two possibilities: Either we are home to the most evil people on earth or we are doing something different--and vastly counterproductive. Obviously, the answer is the latter.

Sen. Jim Webb takes on the real third rail in American politics, the entire criminal justice system.
posted to MetaFilter by empath at 5:58 PM on March 30, 2009 (111 comments)