March 1, 2009
Online Visual Journalism
They call themselves Visual Journalists. Prime among them is the Bombay Flying Club, a group of photo-journalists who are using the latest web and flash technologies to frame their online news gathering and documentary storytelling. [more inside]
French Drawings
The Essence of Line is a collection of over 900 drawings by French artists "from Ingres to Degas" by the Baltimore Museum of Art. I'd link to some highlights but the site did such a stellar job of it that I'll just direct you there. They also have some sketchbooks. Note that some of the drawings have short essays about them. As a related link, here is the famous Demonographia, with drawings of demons by Louis Breton and descriptions by Collin de Plancy.
MGMT vs France
The French UMP party are being sued by the duo MGMT over the use of their song Kids. UMP paid a standard €53 fee to France's music licensing body, but MGMT's lawyer Isabelle Wekstein says that this was not enough to cover subsequent uses of the song, particularly on the Web. UMP has admitted using it, but said it was a mistake and has offered a symbolic gesture of one euro (£0.89). The story is getting more coverage as the UMP has been pushing hard for a 'three strikes law' that would banish pirates from the Internet after two ignored warnings, which may be close to passage in the French National Assembly.
Though I wish he didn't call it "dreamism..."
Vitaly S Alexius, a Siberian born artist living in Canada, creates some gorgeous digital and traditional art, mostly with a sci-fi or fantasy, vaguely post-apocalyptic theme. He is also a remarkable photographer.
Nick Hornby thinks you'll like (some of) these 40 books.
You strike up a conversation with someone you don't know, and you're getting on OK, and then suddenly, without warning, you hear the five words that mean the relationship has no future beyond the time it takes to say them: “I think you'll like it.” via 3quarksdaily [more inside]
Scientific Squadron Dynaman
USA Night Flight presents Dynaman. 1980s. "Plot -- The Jashinka empire (Combination of the Japanese words for 'evil,' (Jashin) and 'evolution' (Shinka) as an English Word as evilution ) rises from the depths of the Earth to conquer the world. To stop them, Dr. Yumeno assembles five inventors to his laboratory, Yumeno Invention Laboratory and gives them the power to become Dynamen. Each member has their own goal, but as the Scientific Squadron Dynaman, they are united to stop the Jashinka empire in their tracks." There is also a flying octopus.
Keepin' gay club nights safe for the Moral Majority.
Homophobia is still alive and well in... San Francisco?! The DNA Lounge, the high-tech nightclub of former Mozilla/Netscape wunderkind Jamie Zawinski, has apparently run afoul of the local Alcohol Beverage Control board.
In 2008, during a period of time when the DNA Lounge -- with SFPD and neighborhood approval -- successfully appealed an ABC decision blocking the club from offering all-ages live music, the ABC sent agents into the club during their GLBT nights, and are now trying to shut the club down for "lewdness", "discrimination", and "running a disorderly house injurious to the public welfare and morals".(NSFW!) The DNA is determined not to go quietly into this goodnight.
The Nano Song
The Nano Song. Teaching the wonders of nanotechnology to puppets. This is one of the submissions to the NanoTube Contest. [Via]
Character designs, level 2
He only uses two fingers
Just like your grandma, Jason Belmonte bowls with two hands but unlike your grandma he bowls 300s [more inside]
movers and shakers in London town
I'll tell you one thing: if I was in London, I'd mosey on over to the Kinetica Art Fair. It looks like fun.
Even Buffett Makes Mistakes (apparently)
People who like people like you will like you
the doyouinverts sings songs about old friends who don't play videogames anymore, Edge Magazine's scoring system and a love song to an imported Japanese videogame. They are a regular feature on British videogame radio show/podcast One Life Left.
That's where I play tower defense games!
Viking Defense. Another tower defense game, with a few interesting twists. And, of course, Vikings.
This is what normal human genitalia look like
Variations in normal human genitalia. All links NSFW. Breasts (of women who have not given birth; of women who have), vulvae, and penises.
Previously, erection photos. [more inside]
You're a seminal character, Charlie Brown.
A few years ago, we had "Peanuts Meets Marvel." In another thread, someone name-checked Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown. The Web currently brings us Peanuts characters anime-style, a la Jack Kirby, by way of Family Guy and as seen on The Simpsons. (See also this pessimistic vision of a grown-up relationship between Charlie Brown and the Red-Haired Girl.)
David Foster Wallace's unfinished opus
Note, too, that “interesting” first appears just two years after “bore.” 1768. Mark this, two years after. Can this be so? From "The Pale King," David Foster Wallace's last, unfinished novel, parts of which, it turns out, we have already seen.
All the world's their stage
Twelve Angry Lebanese - inmates from Lebanon's infamous Roumieh Prison are putting on an adaptation of Twelve Angry Men - to stunning reviews. [more inside]
Science fiction stories in six words.
Science fiction stories in six words. Some by well known scifi authors. Click "Previous Articles" for earlier stories. For me, A.S. Byatt's is most haunting. A sub-genre of "Six Word Stories".
A Vast Right Wing Noise Machine
While lobbyists line up to torpedo Obama's proposals, and while John Bolton dreams about nuking Chicago, it has been revealed that CNBC correspondent Rick Santelli's recent, supposedly spontaneous on-air outburst against Obama, was most likely a fake-news stunt coordinated by right wing PR operatives. (last link to a Playboy article, but it's SFW) [more inside]
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