Kathryn Bigelow
The Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker won best picture on Sunday at the Oscars, and Kathryn Bigelow won best director. Kathryn Bigelow on filming her character studies: “Hurt Locker’s about humanity. It’s about friendship and comeraderie in an absolutely hellish environment, and I think that’s universal, that’s not necessarily gender specific. I’m making a […]
OK Go: This Too Shall Pass
The new OK Go video doesn’t have them dancing. Instead, it’s all a fantastic machine of falling dominoes and rolling marbles and levers moving handles to open latches, tipping seesaws that release springs to shoot balls into the air that, falling, trigger further chain reactions, like water running through tubes and pouring into vessels that […]
Shearwater: Golden Archipelago
Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater started out as a natural scientist and has reworked his travels into a very interesting concept album (and media package) on remote islands. He says he first thought he should become a scientist. “But I kept noticing that the questions that most interested me are things you can’t really investigate with […]
Pigeon: Impossible
Pigeon Impossible, the silent animated film by Lucas Martell released on 9 November that took 4 years to make, passed the 1 million views mark on YouTube after less than 2 weeks online. The film is set in the neighborhood of the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., where two of my nieces and I […]
Fly tricks: Early science films
Source: New Scientist Vocabulary “(Percy Smith) made a gimcrack device made up of a see-saw and two old tin cans. The tin cans slowly filled up with water, and when it would reach the bottom, clunk! it fired the shutter of the camera. And using this extraordinary home-made piece of aparatus, Percy Smith made the […]
The Google “search stories”
Google has a series of charming ads on YouTube called “Search stories” that are just perfect for English lessons. This one was broadcast on Sunday during the Superbowl. I’m going to play a few of the series in my classes tomorrow and have groups develop the profiles and tell the stories of the people doing […]
Allison Schulnik: Hobo Clown
Alison Schulnik‘s clown reminds me of the “Fool on the Hill”: “And the eyes in his head see the world spinning round.” Tired eyes. The music is Grizzly Bear, singing “Why don’t you do any dishes? I always clean up the kitchen fine.” I think this hobo clown needs a hug and a vacation.
