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The Royal Shakespeare Company presents King Lear, starring Ian McKellen, directed by Trevor Nunn, adapted for broadcast and available in its entirety online.
comment posted at 4:25 AM on Jun-5-09

Have you ever wondered how to explain protein synthesis to your non-scientifically-inclined friends? Have you considered using interpretive dance? Thanks to the efforts of the Stanford University of 35 years ago, you can! Warning! May be too 70s for work...
comment posted at 4:06 PM on Jun-4-09

London Shop Fronts
comment posted at 4:13 AM on Jun-2-09

A creative New York couple and their wonderful, vintage photographs: pioneering filmmaker, Morris Engel, and award-winning photojournalist, Ruth Orkin, who is renowned for her iconic American Girl in Italy.
comment posted at 2:21 PM on May-31-09
comment posted at 2:25 PM on May-31-09

For this generation of teens hugging [video | 02:35] seems to be all the rage at high schools around the U.S. “A measure of how rapidly the ritual is spreading is that some students complain of peer pressure to hug to fit in.” And in some schools hugging has banned. “Touching and physical contact is very dangerous territory,” said Noreen Hajinlian, the principal at a junior high school in Hillsdale, N.J., where hugging has been banned for two years.
comment posted at 4:48 PM on May-28-09

Photos of 1940s New York City.
comment posted at 4:45 PM on May-28-09

Let's slide over to KCRW for an interview with Sly Stone, who, happily, is continuing his gradual reemergence into the public eye. Then howsabout we rewind to 1974, just a few months after the incredible Fresh was released, for another (albeit odd and somewhat awkward) interview on the Mike Douglas Show. And yeah, Sly Stone, we definitely want you to stay.
comment posted at 7:08 PM on May-25-09

“Until the recent Great Rebellion, the Jedi Bendu were the most feared warriors in the universe. For one hundred thousand years, generations of Jedi perfected their art as the personal bodyguards of the emperor. They were the chief architects of the invincible Imperial Space Force which expanded the Empire across the galaxy, from the celestial equator to the farthest reaches of the Great Rift. Now these legendary warriors are all but extinct. One by one they have been hunted down and destroyed as enemies of the New Empire by a ferocious and sinister rival warrior sect, the Knights of Sith.” - The first draft of Star Wars... was awful.
comment posted at 2:54 PM on May-25-09

Pop-sci author Mary Roach shares 10 entertaining facts about the orgasm.
comment posted at 7:25 AM on May-25-09

Donald H. Kirkey, Jr., The Baltimore Sun theater critic interviews H. L. Mencken, part 1 of 8.
comment posted at 7:21 PM on May-25-09

Your household probably gets something like 800 pieces of junk mail per year. Other than sighing and tossing the junk into your recycling bin, what are your options? Of course, I’d urge you to support any one of the numerous current anti-junk mail campaigns (do be aware of any possible conflicts of interest), but until those measures take effect, there is always crafting.
comment posted at 5:49 AM on May-25-09
comment posted at 7:29 AM on May-25-09

Kathleen Supove, pianist extraordinaire. [via]
comment posted at 2:47 PM on May-23-09

A new stadium, paid for with public money, that is far too expensive (even after prices were slashed) for most members of the public to visit, especially during a recession. Bomber Bucks. $5 bottles of water and $48 for a lousy steak. Have the New York Yankees finally pushed their fans too far?
comment posted at 9:42 AM on May-23-09

Rod and Joann Mainhood, from Oregon City, on guitar and accordion, performing "When I Was Hungry Lord You Fed Me". Rod's yodeling in the home stretch is not to be missed.
comment posted at 9:35 AM on May-23-09

Jeff Macke Jeff Macke clears up any confusion you may have had about the markets.
comment posted at 4:21 AM on May-22-09

Bill Peet (born Bill Peed) 1915-2002, was a Disney animator and children's book author. His work defined the Disney style, served as an inspiration for the movie Cars, and has amazed readers with the depth and expression of its characters. An exhibit of his work is running at the Art Institute of Chicago through May 24, 2009 (this Sunday).
comment posted at 3:30 AM on May-21-09
comment posted at 3:34 AM on May-21-09

Travel writer Sophia Dembling's essay Confessions of an Introverted Traveler on Worldhum received so much feedback that she's followed up with Six Tips for Introverted Travelers. I am now absolved for reading Jasper Fforde on the Champs-Élysées.
comment posted at 1:44 PM on May-16-09

Is Doctor Who too scary for kids? Parents surveyed by TheBabyWebsite seem to think so. But is being scared a good thing? (via io9)
comment posted at 2:06 PM on May-15-09

Tonight in Tempe, a forgiving, but not quite forgetful, President Obama gave the commencement address at Arizona State University.
comment posted at 4:30 AM on May-14-09

Fifty cities and towns. Thousands of faces. Personal histories.
comment posted at 6:26 PM on May-13-09

10cc's I'm Not In Love and the story behind it.
comment posted at 4:17 AM on May-13-09

Been to your local cineplex lately and seen IMAX Digital on the menu? Been tempted to pay the extra $5 or so for the expected 7-story screen and mammoth sound?
comment posted at 4:05 PM on May-12-09

Danielle Ate The Sandwich plays the ukelele and sings.
comment posted at 8:10 AM on May-10-09

Welcome to Your Quarterlife Crisis Unrelenting indecision, isolation, confusion and anxiety about working, relationships and direction is reported by people in their mid-twenties to early thirties who are usually urban, middle class and well-educated; those who should be able to capitalize on their youth, unparalleled freedom and free-for-all individuation. They can’t make any decisions, because they don’t know what they want, and they don’t know what they want because they don’t know who they are, and they don’t know who they are because they’re allowed to be anyone they want.
comment posted at 3:25 PM on May-8-09

Outrage is the new flick by Kirby Dick which outs gay politicians in Washington who dedicate their careers to reducing rights for gay people.
comment posted at 3:57 PM on May-7-09

Artist Momoyo Torimitsu: sculptor, performer, illustrator, installation artist. Not interested in being cute. (Discovered via The Rumpus.)
comment posted at 4:28 AM on May-7-09

Just watch this, I think you'll love it.
comment posted at 4:36 AM on May-6-09

Geoengineering and the New Climate Denialism. "[S]ometimes the politics around an issue become so twisted that it's necessary to address the politics before we can have a real discussion about the problems and how to solve them. That's the case with geoengineering."
comment posted at 2:20 PM on May-2-09

Mark C. Taylor, the chairman of the religion department at Columbia, offers a radical proposal in The New York Times for the restructuring of the American university system. Two key components of the proposal entail ending tenure and shuttering academic departments—replacing disciplines with problems, and then tackling them with a cooperative and multidisciplinary approach, e.g. The Department of the Future of Water made up of geologists, anthropologists, political scientists, and ethicists. Should we End the University as We Know It?
comment posted at 10:04 AM on Apr-27-09

Enlightenment Therapy: How a Zen master found the light (again) on the analyst’s couch. [Via]
comment posted at 4:25 AM on Apr-27-09

Lester R. Brown, of Worldwatch and the Earth Policy Institute, has an article in May's Scientific American magazine: "Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?" In the article he addresses three major food-security threats: increased demand, due to the burgeoning population and diversion of staples for energy production; water shortages due to "mining" of fossil aquifers; and topsoil depletion as a result of over-farming. The result? Civilization's demise, not through superpower conflict, but through chaos and failed states.
comment posted at 5:26 PM on Apr-23-09

"The Cleveland Tourism Board gave me 14 million dollars about 8 months ago to make a promotional video to bring people to Cleveland. As usual, I waited till the last minute and I ended up having to shoot and edit it in about an hour yesterday afternoon. I probably should have invested more time."
comment posted at 9:13 AM on Apr-17-09

Are times of recession good or bad for the contemporary art market and artists? "Affordable" is becoming a leitmotif: there are events, international fairs, as well as various galleries. Some collectors and artists are sharing survival tips and tricks; and there are plenty of special offers to be had: Josh Poehlein - screenshot collages, free ; Shepard Fairey - "Obey Eye" screen print, 18 x 24 inches, signed and numbered, at a random time on April 21st: $45.00 ; Michel Gondry - your portrait, signed: $19.95 (allow 6 to 8 weeks for delivery); 'Damien Hirst' - "For the love of Paris" postcard, 10.5 x 14.8 cm, signed and sent: € 1,80 ; Banksy - original, freely usable, high-quality jpg files: free.
comment posted at 4:26 AM on Apr-16-09

Is the world safe, less safe? What in the name of God? Single link to a seemingly unending mass of flash for God. (Help for those who hate flash to hate it even more.)
comment posted at 4:22 AM on Apr-15-09

The Digital Library of Slovenia has (among other things) music [like this] [previously], posters [like this] and photographs [like this].
comment posted at 4:31 AM on Apr-15-09

20 movies which make you wish you'd gone to college from UK flim critic Jo Berry.
comment posted at 8:15 AM on Apr-12-09

"We're a demonstration project, if you would, of all the things that can go wrong at once." "You know Yolanda, I think most people watching this interview think to themselves that if they get cancer and they don't have health insurance that somebody’s going to take care of them," Pelley remarked. "No, no, there's nobody to take care of you," she said.
comment posted at 7:28 PM on Apr-6-09

"Shown backwards it is a heroic film about human experience: A man trapped in the logic of ghosts, trapped in a grayscale 2-D flat world, a photograph inside history, frozen in spectral finity: is unfrozen, and is lured outside of a maze where both his wife and son proceed to ‘undouble’ him and assist him in his war with his self and is finally able to drive away from the Overlook, from the lunarscape of this unreal summit and into a perfect mirror, earthmade."

An excerpt of a large-scale guide to the inner workings of The Shining.
comment posted at 3:42 PM on Apr-4-09

Novelist Chris Paling diary of his time spent on 'Beirut', a high-intensity hospital ward for the treatment of digestive diseases - where a third of patients are there due to the effects of long term alcoholism.
comment posted at 6:18 AM on Apr-4-09
comment posted at 9:54 AM on Apr-4-09

Can Detroit be saved? Its future is in their hands . Meet Detroit city council president Monica Conyers, whose children are chauffered to the pricey Cranbrook Schools in suburban Bloomfield Hills daily by on-duty cops, and who recerntly publicly rebuked a white Teamsters official for daring to speak the name of President Obama during a meeting. She also wasn't interested in the estimated 16,000 jobs that would be created by the proposed Cobo Hall expansion because most of those jobs would be filled by people who "don't look like her."
comment posted at 6:27 AM on Apr-4-09
comment posted at 2:50 PM on Apr-4-09

When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated April 4, 1968, he was helping sanitation workers in Memphis form a union. In 1967, SCLC initiated the Poor People's Campaign to unify the African-American civil rights movement with working people's movements more generally. In MLK's words, "It must not be just black people, it must be all poor people. We must include American Indians, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and even poor whites."
comment posted at 6:43 AM on Apr-4-09

...[Change of scene. We are looking out of a car window; it is raining, or has recently rained. Shops go by.] I treated myself to a taxi. I rode home through the city streets! There wasn't a street--there wasn't a building--that wasn't connected to some memory in my mind. There I was buying a suit with my father. There I was having an ice-cream soda after school. When I finally came in, Debby was home from work. And I told her everything about my dinner with André

And here is Sergio Leone and the Inside Fly Rule's meditation on the only possible other candidate for Best.Movie.Ever.
comment posted at 1:09 PM on Apr-3-09

Although the government has committed almost 3 trillion dollars to rescuing the financial sector, testimony today revealed that 6 months after the start of TARP, basic oversight of the program is lacking (more here and here), including the failure to account for almost 80 billion dollars. Meanwhile, Congress wants to know more about the court-appointed AIG monitor, while Neal Wolin, who helped draft Gramm-Leach-Bliley, has replaced a former hedge fund manager to run TARP--raising more questions about who is overseeing the plans, and about how they are being administered.
comment posted at 4:29 AM on Apr-1-09

Photographer Helen Levitt, known mostly for her New York street scenes, has died at 95.
comment posted at 5:14 PM on Mar-30-09

The recession has hit the theatre world (and the arts scene in general) very hard - but some argue that theatre practitioners aren't doing themselves any favours when seeking funding. The main question insufficiently addressed is "who is the funding for?" - hint: it's not about you. Approaching theatre as a product isn't working, not when MFA acting programs don't often allow its graduates to earn enough to earn back their debt. So now the question is: how can the economics of theatre be changed?
comment posted at 5:58 PM on Mar-29-09