December 24, 2007
OLPC
Oy vey, no Kwanza specials... sorry.
Time to kill while waiting for Santa to arrive/dinner to digest/family to leave? Well, here's a Very Special Holiday Episode fpp just for you. God bless us, every one. [more inside]
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo...
It's easy with the excessive shopping, TV specials, nonstop music, etc. but tomorrow we honor one of mankind's most important people. A man who told parables to the masses of how the meek shall inherit the earth, how to serve man, and how to face our own personal demons. People have built monuments to him, even died in his name. I am, of course, referring to Rod Serling (born 12/25/1924). Merry Serlingmas!
A Motherlode of Ancient TV
A motherlode of ancient TV has been found at a web address near you! Journey now to the dim, poorly produced, and poorly preserved, but somehow incredibly sweet primitive ancestors of today's tv travesties.
See Captain Video hawk his amazing ring. Or gape as Foodini and Pinhead perform acts impossible for mere flesh-and-blood creatures. And these are not 10-second clips--they're whole shows.
And ads.
And Variety (that means a bunch of unrelated entertaining music, dance, or comedy segments, each a few minutes long)--in English, not Spanish like nowadays (cf Sabado_Gigante) [more inside]
And ads.
And Variety (that means a bunch of unrelated entertaining music, dance, or comedy segments, each a few minutes long)--in English, not Spanish like nowadays (cf Sabado_Gigante) [more inside]
Photographs of Authors
Pictures of writers in a thread on I Love Music. Lots and lots of pictures of lots of writers. Another thread from the same board with more pictures (some duplicates). Author photos are most often seen on dust jackets or in the back of books, a practice Frances Wilson wishes to see abolished. One famous connoisseur of pictures of writers is Javier Marías who wrote a whole book on the subject, Written Lives. Here are a few excerpts from the book: William Faulkner, Isak Dinesen (pen name of Karen Blixen) and an edited extract covering a whole lot of authors. [more inside]
Judge a book by its cover.
Site for Henry Sene Yee, book designer. Site includes finished pieces and rejected proofs.
King William College Quiz
The King William College Quiz, apparently now my only FPP in a year (since the last quiz), hopefully as hard as ever, but unlikely to reward my brand of laziness. Merry Christmas! See previous posts for laying out answers, I'll post the Guardians' answer sheet in January.
Moustache Monday
Alices in Wonderlands
Santa visits some interesting places
Oscar Peterson 1925 - 2007
a parable of rodents and men
Peace on Earth - 1939 Disney animation directed by Hugh Harman. And Goodwill to Men, a 1955 remake by Hanna-Barbera.
Clement Clark, No More?
What to my wondering eyes should appear but the suggestion that "A Visit From St. Nicholas," the classic poem which has defined the American Santa Claus, from red suit and big belly to reindeer and chimney-delivery method, was written not by classics professor Clement Clarke Moore but by poet and military man Henry Livingston. Though some think the authorship controversy is sugarplum vision of Livingston's descendents, other scholars the claim: literary 'detective' Donald Foster agrees (though his sleuthing record is not unblemished). Leading historian of Christmas Stephen Nissenbaum, says that either way, St. Nick is the product of the same social world, that of the wealthy white elite in the New York of the early Republic. If the claim is true, then in the convoluted history of the manuscript we've gotten some reindeer names wrong.
Hogfather
He's not, like, a garden item.
Potrait of an internet troll (with actual potrait of the internet troll). Includes one-bedroom apartment, dead-end and part-time jobs, and not-so-secret underground lair.
Totally circular, dude.
Alexander Overwijk draws a perfect circle. Is it really "perfect"? Hell, I dunno. But if it ain't, well, it's pretty close. And see big Al get rounder than everyone else, as he takes top prize at the 2007 World Freehand Circle Drawing Championship. WARNING: Pearl Jam audio on 2nd link. Volume mute is advised.
Santa's Ghetto
Santa's Ghetto: Stirring art from behind the Jerusalem Wall.
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