July 10, 2013
The camera never falls over during a scene. Actors are always in frame.
Music for FLAC Player
"Back in the golden age of the compact disc, 1994, Jos Smolders [discogs.com link] released Music for CD Player, a collection of 99 short tracks intended for the listener to sequence.
He’s now released a sequel in the form of an 1,100-track album, titled Music for FLAC Player. Yes, that is 1,100 tracks, the overwhelming majority of which are one second or less in length, and all but 30 or so of which are under 45 seconds. [more inside]
Basically, She's A Lannister
Let us come together this, July the eleventh, to celebrate the feast of
Saint Olga, Olga the Beauty, descended of the Izborsk princes, Princess of Rus, Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga. Please, allow me to tell you the tale of this fine Christian woman, sainted in both the Roman Catholic and Russian Eastern Orthodox Churches. [more inside]
She's not quirky
Trailer for the newest indie romance movie about a guy who falls in love with a girl who's just not...quirky or anything.
"Are you John Schlitt?" "You know it - the one and only!"
For Petra fans: The Making Of Back To The Street. A 3 minute excerpt from a 30 minute home video documenting the making of the 1986 album. Includes a brief tour of the studio and accommodation, and features (at 1:02) some isolated vocal and instrumental tracks from the song 'Whole World'.
the scenic route to nowhere
Photographer Dietmar Eckell has taen a series of pictures of wrecked airplanes. It's called "Happy Endings," and no one was killed in any of the 15 crashes.
Boris The Bear
Boris The Bear was the second original series to be released on the Dark Horse Comics imprint. A meta-referential comedic take on the the independant comics of the era, the series was about a comic book obsessed bear who, three or four frames into the first issue learned he was in fact a robot. What proceeded was one of the all time greatest mass-slaughters of popular comic characters. Copyright be damned.
"These are good people! Strong people! Part of my family is a Mexican!"
The Republican Party is in a bind on immigration; after being saddled last year with a presidential nominee who notoriously suggested "self-deportation" as a solution to the issue and earning a mere 27% of the Latino vote, it was widely expected that the Republicans would find a way to appeal to that important—and growing—voting bloc. They may well yet, but it currently appears that the bill recently passed by the Senate is most likely dead on arrival in the House, to the satisfaction of certain voices on the right.
But compare the rhetoric of 2013 with the remarks made by then-candidates Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush at a forum in 1980 and consider how far the Republican Party has shifted...
Pimps don't commit suicide.
The World Ends with a Handshake: Unraveling the Apocalypse of 'Southland Tales' A writer meets Richard Kelly, writer/director of Donnie Darko, and talks about his flop Southland Tales and its enduring cult of fans.
Toshi Seeger, R.I.P.
Toshi Seeger has passed. In the fullest sense of the word, the partner of Pete Seeger, and of some seventy years, has passed away. Pete once said that without Toshi, "the world would not turn nor the sun shine.” She was 91.
Disney Voce
This is a video I’ve wanted to dish for years--a video that contextualizes Disneyland within the political and cultural events of the early 1950s. “Disneyland Voce” is distilled down from a dozen home movies, all shot in 1955, during the first five months that Disneyland was open to the public. Here’s one reason I love home movies: they reveal the vacation experience as taken by the average guest. Disney has produced reels of film documenting the park during its early years (most notably “Disneyland U.S.A.” in 1956 and “Gala Day at Disneyland” in 1959), but professional footage presents the park under ideal conditions. Home movies lay down the scenery as a typical guest would have experienced it. If you’ve ever wondered what it was like to visit Disneyland when it first opened, buckle into your DeLorean and hit the play button on YouTube. [more inside]
How is this less realistic than a guy with radioactive spider powers?
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly for this month's cover story, Andrew Garfield, the current star of the rebooted Spider-Man movie series, offered a new take the character's love interest:
“I was kind of joking, but kind of not joking about MJ,” he tells EW. “And I was like, ‘What if MJ is a dude?’ Why can’t we discover that Peter is exploring his sexuality? It’s hardly even groundbreaking!…So why can’t he be gay? Why can’t he be into boys?” Garfield even has an actor in mind: “I’ve been obsessed with Michael B. Jordan since The Wire. He’s so charismatic and talented. It’d be even better—we’d have interracial bisexuality!”[more inside]
Foul Deeds Will Rise
"Is it possible to kill 1 million people and then forget about it? Or if it has been erased from consciousness, is there an unconscious residue, a stain that remains?" Filmmaker Errol Morris writes about Josh Oppenheimer’s documentary film The Act of Killing [trailer]. The film, which was produced by Morris and Werner Herzog, is an examination of the Indonesian mass killings of 1965-66, in which between 500,000 and 1 million people died. It is getting amazing reviews. Previously.
Visualizing the Bechdel test.
Visualizing the Bechdel test. Datawankery and female representation in film.
"You are very welcome to this sad, tattered and abused old world."
"We have not learned, even, to live with our fellow man. Instead we have perfected more means to annihilate him -- to wipe him (and ourselves) from the face of the Earth." A 1974 letter from Lieutenant Colonel Clyde S. Shield, lead test pilot for the Manhattan project, to his newborn grandson.
The Dissolve
Music review site Pitchfork has branched out. Today marks the debut of The Dissolve, which will be dedicated to film. With talent acquired from Slate, NPR and the AV Club, the website is starting with a high pedigree.
Startup 101: Decency
On Monday, Toronto received over 100mm of rainfall, leading to severe flooding, power outages, and hundreds of thousands of stranded drivers and transit users.
Uber, a startup that matches taxis with passengers, instituted "surge pricing" - did they break the cardinal "don't be an asshole" rule?
Stately, plump Buck MullZZZZZZZZ
What makes you put down a book? A Goodreads infographic on the what, when, and why of abandoning a book, and what keeps people reading.
A life well lived.
"In life, things happen twice if you're lucky. There's the father you get and the father you choose." [more inside]
Out in the streets. Out with my robots
The Other Person is You
There is a lot about Kundalini Yoga and White Tantric and Solstice that is very unbelievable. Does a turban really hold your brain together? Does one day of White Tantric Yoga really equal years worth of meditation? If you revolve your life around Solstice, as Yogi Bhajan says, will everything really be taken care of? I laugh at all of it, but I keep coming back, so I either believe it, or I want to...
Drink not included
Coffitivity is a website that allows you to listen to the sounds of a coffee shop on your computer. The New York Times's Well Blog has the details.
"It's not clear we have that much time."
As Andrew Haldane, director of stability at the Bank of England, put it in a historical overview a few years ago, ‘there is one key difference between the situation today and that in the Middle Ages. Then, the biggest risk to the banks was from the sovereign. Today, perhaps the biggest risk to the sovereign comes from the banks. Causality has reversed.’ Yes, it has: and the sovereign at risk is us. The reason for that is that in the UK bank assets are 492 per cent of GDP. In plain English, our banks are five times bigger than our entire economy. (When the Icelandic and Cypriot banking systems collapsed the respective figures were 880 and 700 per cent.) We know from the events of 2008 and subsequently that the financial sector, indeed the whole world economy, is in an inherently unstable condition. Put the size together with the instability, and we are facing a danger that is no less real for not being on the front page this exact second. This has to be fixed, and it has to be fixed soon, and nothing about fixing it is easy.- "Let's Consider Kate," John Lanchester, London Review of Books (via)
Blink and you'll miss it
In response to a listicle on pop-punk where "most of the picks were just early 2000s-era crapcore Warped Tour bands" the Jaded Punk Blog has a more 'authentic' list,"36 Pop-Punk Albums You Need To Hear Or Just Go Fucking Die.". A list which seems to beg the question "What is pop-punk? Is this more like this, or more like this? [more inside]
We should keep going and see how many titans we can lose in ten minutes
How does your EVE Online alliance top losing 400 billion ISK to corporate espionage? Why, by losing 309 billion ISK on a single ship of course! [more inside]
#toomucheffortfortoolittlereward
I came to Twitter because I had a book to sell, and my misgivings about the whole enterprise meant that I would never be any good at it. A phrase comes to mind: I was “pissing into the void.” For 1 year, 4 months and 22 days—or 508 days total—Twitter became part of my daily thinking ritual.
Writer Benjamin Anastas says Goodbye to Twitter Village. VQR editor Jane Friedman comments.
Dan Akroyd and Tom Hanks would not approve
Somebody make them stop - they're so soft!!
Because everyone needs a little (slyt) adorbz in their life.
Here's my secret: I practiced everywhere.
"People who watch me dance today sometimes assume I've been dancing for many years. I made this video so you could see the awkward body that started just one year ago." (SLYT) Via Kottke
Shipwreck Log, Marine Traffic and Sailwx, for your ship tracking needs
Have you found it difficult to find information about a specific shipwreck when you only have its location, date or vessel's name? How about a find information on maritime accidents 3 weeks ago, 6 months ago, or even last year? Shipwrecklog.com was created to solve these issues. We designed our site and tools to make researching recent and historical maritime accidents easier. If you'd prefer to track active ships, you might enjoy Marine Traffic (prev: 1, 2), which tracks ships by way of their Automatic Identification Systems (prev. And as can be expected from any *spotter website, there's also a gallery of images from users. For even more sea-faring information, check Sailwx (prev), where you can track ships by type, locate bouys, and see tides, currents and weather.
Hunger Strike Against Solitary Confinement
30,000 prisoners in California have launched a hunger strike to protest the conditions under which "segregated" prisoners are being detained.
The Five Core Demands:
1. Eliminate group punishments and administrative abuse.
2. Abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria.
3. Comply with the recommendations of the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons (pdf) recommendations and end long-term solitary confinement.
4. Provide adequate and nutritious food.
5. Create and expand constructive programming. [more inside]
The Five Core Demands:
1. Eliminate group punishments and administrative abuse.
2. Abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria.
3. Comply with the recommendations of the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons (pdf) recommendations and end long-term solitary confinement.
4. Provide adequate and nutritious food.
5. Create and expand constructive programming. [more inside]
The Decline of North Carolina
The New York Times' lead editorial on the Moral Monday arrests (Previously on Metafilter), ending federal unemployment benefits, failing education programs, racial discrimination, and new abortion laws.
I am plant, and as such I should be watered by my master
Houseplants of Gor, an extract from a sadly unpublished entry in Dave Langford's favourite exploitative bondage sci-fi pulp series. Not written by John Norman.
Assume A Cylindrical Cow
D.O.G.
For all those times you spent bored under the merchandise sign at an urban jazz festival, sweating, wrapping your head in striped garments, ripping the soles off your shoes in a primal fury, this man would like to dance for you.
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