July 18, 2019
“Her books are full of passion and disaster.”
Nathan Gelgud honors Dame Iris Murdoch, born 100 years ago this week, with a graphic appreciation of his “favorite writer” in the NYRB. Elsewhere online: “Iris Murdoch at 100” in The Guardian, “On the Centennial of Iris Murdoch’s Birth, Remembering a 20th-Century Giant,” in The New York Times, and “The Moral Vision of Iris Murdoch,” in the Jesuit review America. [more inside]
Disney's New Lion King Is The VR-Fueled Future Of Cinema
Achieving that photoreal look, the thing that trompes your oeils into thinking you might be watching a nature documentary, wasn’t simply a matter of employing space-age visual effects. Favreau and his crew shot The Lion King as one would any conventional movie: with dollies, cranes, and other tools that let cinematographer Caleb Deschanel get just the right angles. There were even lights and cameras. It’s just that the cameras and lights were nowhere to be found. [more inside]
“There are many risks in the home”
Stevia: Indigenous knowledge, endangered herbs, and biopiracy
Wild stevia grows in remote northeastern highlands along the border of Paraguay and Brazil. While not exactly unpleasant, the plant’s aroma is often referred to as “goat’s scent” by indigenous populations. The pungency does not suggest sweetness. “Western scientists did not ‘discover’ the usefulness of this plant—they were introduced to it by the Guaraní.” [...] Without the help of the Guaraní, there would be no stevia industry. But the plant is now critically endangered in the wild. [The] Guarani hope a lawsuit will help them save stevia’s native habitat and rescue the wild plant from extinction. The Indigenous Tribes Fighting to Reclaim Stevia From Coca-Cola (Atlas Obscura long read) [more inside]
The Reboot to end all Reboots
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot "The stoner icons who first hit the screen 25 years ago in CLERKS are back! When Jay and Silent Bob discover that Hollywood is rebooting an old movie based on them, the clueless duo embark on another cross-country mission to stop it all over again!"
"A Cruel Angel's Edit" : The Lingua Franca of Pop-culture Deconstruction
With the recent arrival of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" to Netflix, the internet was again seized by one of the most squabbled-over animes of all time. But if there is anything about NGE that the internet can agree on, it's that the opening theme song and video, "A Cruel Angel's Thesis", totally kicks ass. Its hyper-paced and heavily-layered editing is at once prototypical AMV eye-candy, while also being a solid narrative deconstruction of a show you'll never really understand. As with other anime fan edits, it quickly became popular to re-cut other anime in the same style. But it was its discursive potential, mixed with the totally over-the-top tunes, that made the "Cruel Angel's Edit" such a powerful meme outside of anime, and has inspired a series of truly high-effort good-posts over the years re-rendering all aspects of culture. Here are some of the internet's best, and below the fold some honorable mentions: Arthur | King of the Hill | Diner's, Drive-ins, and Dives | Regular Show (original) | Super Mario 64 | Marianne Williamson | Drake and Josh | Hey Arnold! | Steam Summer Sale | The Legend of Zelda | Windows 98 | 2018 World Cup [more inside]
A Somewhat Surreal Story About Surrealist Photos
Fernando Lemos, a naturalised Brazilian Painter, started experimenting with photography in 1949 making a series of Surrealism inspired photographs.
“The information from abroad that reached us was very poor, hardly any. On Man Ray, I don’t think he knew anything about him. However, he also had that genius, he knew how to manipulate reality and objective data without obeying its rules and conventions".
An interview, an article and a gallery.
( ART - some images NSFW).
“The information from abroad that reached us was very poor, hardly any. On Man Ray, I don’t think he knew anything about him. However, he also had that genius, he knew how to manipulate reality and objective data without obeying its rules and conventions".
An interview, an article and a gallery.
( ART - some images NSFW).
How not to die at a Baseball Game
Annette Choi at FiveThirtyEight charted where 906 foul balls landed. She's clearly mapped out the most dangerous places to sit.
Some (but not all) of the best Disney songs
The Ringer staff has ranked the 40 "best" Disney songs. Needless to say, the list is wrong, but at least they had the decency to put all the songs on one page, so you don't have to click through. They also made a video in which they discussed some of the contenders, including some songs that didn't make the list. [more inside]
Cats the Musical: 2019 ‘Live Action’ Movie trailer [SLYT 2min 41sec]
“ MEEEEEEEEEEEEMORY! .. ..” It’s a trailer, for the Live Action Movie version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber Musical about Cats. [more inside]
You wanna go for a swim?
The uncle was able to speak fluent English, and pointed out that he couldn’t swim because of his wheelchair. “So what?” replied the muscular gentleman, causing his friend to repeat “It’s Waikiki, ain’t it?”
Alan Moore is retiring.
The magic, irsascible, and deeply conflicted father of modern comics is calling it a day. His work was groundbreaking, dense, mystical, playful, and occasionally, uh, earthy. [more inside]
A sarcastic quip that probably seemed absurd at the time
One Lord substituted for another. Edward Millar and John Semley consider The Wicker Man (1973; previously) and folk horror (previously) in light of anti-Enlightenment culture and reactionary movements. (SLBaffler)
Phase four – we don’t care anymore.
We want to end the taboo: how the US Womens National Soccer Team (USWNT)) used science to overcome period-related performance deficits during the World Cup.
Ralph Lazo, American hero
Ralph Lazo (November 3, 1924 – January 1, 1992) was the only known non-spouse, non-Japanese American who voluntarily relocated to a World War II Japanese American internment camp. (Wikipedia)
Kyoto Animation studio hit by an arson attack
Thirtythree dead and thirtysix injured in an arson attack on anime studio Kyoto Animation this Thursday morning. Confirmed as the worst post-war massacre in Japan, the news hit anime fans hard, with #PrayForKyoani trended worldwide on Twitter. [more inside]
"To The Losers..."
IT Chapter Two [YouTube Trailer] Stephen King's tale of childhood, growth, and evil clown that haunt your dreams comes to a conclusion in part two of the remake of his horror novel IT. Previously and Previously-er. [more inside]
Can Adult Contemporary Radio Figure Out Its Hip-Hop Issue?
"writing as if she’s raising an army of warriors"
ELLE magazine profiles "revenge porn lawyer" Carrie Goldberg ahead of her new book, Nobody’s Victim, in which she expands on the story of how she became the kind of attorney she had needed when she was younger, reveals some of the darker moments of her life, and weaves together stories of her major cases — like suing the dating app Grindr, and representing accusers of Harvey Weinstein — with her analysis of how the law interacts with harassment, porn, power, and privacy. [more inside]
It's not strange
The blistering sight of a chicken in a tutu. Chickens in tutus. More chickens in tutus. #chickentutu
An automated loom is a wonder- but who owns the loom?
“Everybody I talked to at my McDonald’s — along with the many other fast-food workers I interviewed — had had food items thrown at them.“ (Vox) “My body is grudgingly adjusting to the job, but my brain isn’t. I’ve started dreading the monotony even more than the pain. There is literally nothing to do out in the mod but pick. ” (Lit hub) Excerpts from On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane by Emily Guendelsberger. “The app, in its eagerness to appear streamlined and just-in-time, had simply excised the relevant human party in this exchange. Hence the satisfied customer could fantasize that his food had materialized thanks to the digital interface, as though some all-seeing robot was supervising the human workers as they put together his organic rice bowl.” The Automation Charade: The rise of the robots has been greatly exaggerated. Whose interests does that serve?
Imagining positive post-fossil futures
Climaginaries is a three-year research project exploring innovative and creative ways of envisioning what a post-fossil world might look like, and the means through which it can transpire. Through different techniques of imagination, from modeling and scenario techniques to experimentations, visions of societal transformation and cultural representations (e.g. literature, film, art), Climaginaries explores (1) the transformative capacity of imaginaries; (2) how compelling narratives are told; and (3) how they can shape and enable efforts to confront climate change. [more inside]
'Ultra racing - when I first heard about it, I thought, "That's stupid"'
GBDuro 2019 was the first of an annual self-supported ride across the United Kingdom, using a route that includes roads, gravel trails, singletrack and everything in between. Organised by The Racing Collective, it was won by a pro rider Lachlan Morton who had his first steps into ultra racing documented in a beautiful and inspiring short film. [more inside]
If they persist, they cannot lose
Ai Weiwei: Can Hong Kong’s Resistance Win? (NYT) “The youth of Hong Kong, who have grown up well informed by the internet, are keenly aware of the stark alternatives before them. They are accustomed to freedom, personal rights and access to information. They know what they want, what they are defending and the nature of the opposition they face. They have watched the freedoms of Hong Kong — in the media, education, housing, commerce and elsewhere — slowly slip away, and they know that the Communist Party stops at nothing in pursuing its interests.” [more inside]
One Photographer's war in Ukraine
Andriy Dubchak is one of the only photojournalists to have covered the conflict in eastern Ukraine from its beginning. In this article, he shares deeply personal memories from the front lines
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