February 2012
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Kurt Vonnegut on the Daily Show, circa 2005
Kurt Vonnegut: I do feel that evolution is being controlled by some sort of divine engineer. I can't help thinking that. And this engineer knows exactly what he or she is doing, and why and where evolution is headed.
Jon Stewart: I always felt in your writing that you were both admiring of man but disappointed in him.
Kurt Vonnegut: Yes, well, I think we are terrible animals. And I think our planet’s immune system is trying to get rid of us and should.
Jon Stewart: Kurt Vonnegut, if I may, it's sad to see you lose your edge.
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“It’s hard when you ask the audience to go on a different trip than the one they...”
– Francis Ford Coppola, in an insightful interview with The Talks
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Moby's LA Architecture Blog →
Yes, the musician, DJ and electronica artist also likes taking architectural photos on the side. From his first post:
new york has big architecture. paris has grand architecure. most cities have big, grand, old, and well documented architecture. l.a has idiosyncratic weirdness. sometimes beautiful. sometimes strange. sometimes painfully banal. so when i walk/drive around l.a i’ll take pictures...
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Werner Herzog on Chickens →
Roger Ebert once said, in an open letter to Werner Herzog:
It is safe to say you are as admired and venerated as any filmmaker alive—among those who have heard of you, of course.
This basiclaly sums up why I am so willing to listen to Herzog talk about chickens. His Germanic drawl is utterly captivating, even when discussing poultry.
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Early copy of "Mona Lisa" discovered in Madrid →
In case you haven’t heard, the earliest copy ever found of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” was discovered by the Prado Museum in Madrid earlier this week. From the Financial Times:
Art authorities at both the Louvre and the Prado have accepted that the picture is not merely a copy but was painted by a key pupil in the same studio. Its composition, they say, developed...
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“If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you’d best...”
– George Bernard Shaw
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Happy Birthday, Mr. Glass
Well, it appears one great’s birthday follows another’s. Classical composer (and former taxi driver) Philip Glass turned 75 today, and in celebration “Symphony No. 9,” his latest work, was premiered at Carnegie Hall. The three-movement piece is already the number one album in the iTunes “Classical” section, and you can buy it here.
Interestingly enough, a...
January 2012
21 posts
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A look at Jack the Dripper's life and art →
In celebration of Jackson Pollock’s 100th birthday, Time magazine has kindly put together an 11-photo slideshow of the latter half of the artist’s life, starting with his move to Long Island.
If you’re a fan of Pollock and never visited his studio in East Hampton, I highly recommend it. You are allowed to walk through the studio, atop layers of paint that had once dripped from...
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“An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing...”
– Charles Bukowski
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Newt Gingrich promises moon base by 2020 →
I feel that this post needs no commentary.
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A letter of note for aspiring editors
The site Letters of Note recently posted a funny tidbit about great American writer and editor H. L. Mencken. Apparently then rookie novelist William Saroyan had hopes of being a magazine editor, and looked to Mencken for advice. This was the tactful letter he received:
25 January, 1936
San Fransisco, California
Dear Saroyan,
I note what you say about your aspiration to edit a magazine. I am...
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“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”
– Truman Capote
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Evolution of the Penguin logo →
Penguin Books publishing company was founded in the 1930s, and revolutionized the industry by selling high quality, low-priced paperbacks, mainly through major department stores. The website Logo Design Love has kindly chronicled the evolution of Penguin Books’ signature penguin logo, which you can read about by clicking the link above.
If you like the simple, cutesy-vintage look of earlier...
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The trailer for Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom →
iTunes has released the first trailer for Wes Anderson’s new film, Moonrise Kingdom, and you can click on the link above to watch it! How exciting! The script was written by Anderson and Roman Coppola*, and the website features a short summary:
Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, MOONRISE KINGDOM tells the story of two twelve-year-olds who fall in love,...
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Wikipedia's list of bow tie wearers →
What do Sigmund Freud, Winston Churchill, and Pee-wee Herman all have in common? They wore bow ties.
My parents recently bought me a bow tie for Christmas, and today I have set about learning how to tie it. Early on in my internet travels, I have already come across a Wikipedia article providing a list of notable people who wear bow ties. At the top appears a quote from The New York...
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Paul Goodman as Prophet
I’ve recently read two articles on the “Renaissance Man” of the sixties, Paul Goodman*, both in response to the recently released documentary Paul Goodman Changed My Life. The two articles are by Roger Ebert and A.O. Scott, and they both make similar points: 1) That Goodman was a household (or at least, college dorm) name but is now relatively unknown, and 2) that Goodman’s...
December 2011
9 posts
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An interview with the man behind Hawking's voice →
New Scientist recently interviewed Sam Blackburn, the man responsible for Steven Hawking’s characteristic voice synthesizer, who will soon be leaving his post. The Q&A covers how Hawking communicates, whether he will be able to in the future, and why Blackburn insists on not updating the software.
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WatchSome scientists from the UK recently filmed what are thought to be new species of sea life in an area of the Indian Ocean once thought inhospitable. The video itself is silent and slightly boring, but towards the end a plethora of sea life emerges, and what I thought was a rock quickly turns out to be a pile of (at least what appears to be) crayfish. From The Telegraph:
The images were recorded...
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The Uncanny Valley
The Atlantic recently published an article on Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin, and why many have been finding the title character’s face creepy rather than lovable.
Tintin’s original face, while barebones, never suffered for a lack of expression. It’s now outfitted with an alien and unfamiliar visage, his plastic skin dotted with pores and subtle wrinkles. While all the...
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“I don’t want to blame the knowledge; I want to blame the behavior of...”
– Neil deGrasse Tyson
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November 2011
8 posts
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“I’ve learned that simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights...”
– Andy Rooney (via kateoplis)
R.I.P. Andy Rooney. Hope there are plenty of things to monologue about in Heaven.
October 2011
6 posts
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