Christmas Eve in the Trenches, 1914: When Warring Sides Laid Down Their Arms & Joined Each Other in Song

in History, Music | December 23rd, 2008

Right in time for Christ­mas Eve…

World War I was a relent­less­ly grind­ing and bru­tal war. Europe had nev­er expe­ri­enced any­thing like it. But there was one notable moment of respite, a brief moment when human­i­ty showed back through. Christ­mas Eve, 1914. The mov­ing sto­ry of what hap­pened that night gets recount­ed in John McCutcheon’s touch­ing song, Christ­mas in the Trench­es. The video below includes the back­sto­ry and the song itself. You can also watch a live per­for­mance here, and get the lyrics here. Hap­py hol­i­days to all. And thanks Sheryl for the tip.

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E‑Books Finally Here to Stay?

in Books | December 23rd, 2008

The New York Times thinks that e‑books may have final­ly turned the cor­ner in 2008. The Kin­dle is sold out until Feb­ru­ary (which mess­es up my Christ­mas plans). Sales of Sony’s e‑book read­er have tripled over last sea­son. And we’re now see­ing e‑books hit the best­seller list. The dig­i­tal age for books may be upon us.

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David Lynch on His Favorite Movies and Filmmakers

in Film | December 22nd, 2008

In a quick 59 sec­onds, David Lynch tells you the films and film­mak­ers that he likes best (see below). In equal­ly suc­cinct videos, though with a bit more salty lan­guage (read: lan­guage that’s not ide­al for work), Lynch also gives you his thoughts on prod­uct place­ment and the whole con­cept of watch­ing a movie on an iPhone. 

 

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The Nepotism Special

in Music | December 22nd, 2008

Here it goes:


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Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 — Karajan or Muppet Style

in Music, Video - Arts & Culture | December 21st, 2008

A cou­ple of big blogs recent­ly high­light­ed a clip of the Mup­pets doing Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth. It’s cute, and I was hard­ly sur­prised that the video logged 3.6 mil­lion views on YouTube.

Not far behind, at 3.2 mil­lion views, is a long video show­ing Her­bert Von Kara­jan lead­ing a live per­for­mance of Beethoven’s Ninth. The fact that Kara­jan, one of the world’s best-known con­duc­tors, lags behind a bunch of pup­pets is unfor­tu­nate, no doubt. But it’s also heart­en­ing in some ways. It tells me that high cul­ture is still com­pet­ing for an audi­ence. So here it goes. Kara­jan in action:

(You can get Part 2 here, and we’ve added both clips to our YouTube Favorites. Also you can find more vin­tage Beethoven/Karajan footage in this guy’s video col­lec­tion.)

 

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It’s a Wonderful (Scratch That, Miserable) Life

in Film | December 19th, 2008

About the Christ­mas clas­sic, “It’s a Won­der­ful Life,” a New York Times op-ed had this to say today:

It “is any­thing but a cheery hol­i­day tale.” It “is a ter­ri­fy­ing, asphyx­i­at­ing sto­ry about grow­ing up and relin­quish­ing your dreams, of see­ing your father dri­ven to the grave before his time, of liv­ing among bit­ter, small-mind­ed peo­ple. It is a sto­ry of being trapped, of com­pro­mis­ing, of watch­ing oth­ers move ahead and away, of becom­ing so filled with rage that you ver­bal­ly abuse your chil­dren, their teacher and your oppres­sive­ly per­fect wife. It is also a night­mare account of an end­less home ren­o­va­tion.”

And, with that, we present the 1947 film direct­ed by Frank Capra and star­ring James Stew­art:


 
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Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2008

in Astronomy, Science | December 19th, 2008

Accord­ing to Dis­cov­er Mag­a­zine…

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U2 at Live Aid, 1985

in Music | December 19th, 2008

Let me indulge in a brief bit of nos­tal­gia for a sec.  Some­how my once way­ward friends and I scored tick­ets to Live Aid back in 1985, which meant that we got to spend a scorch­ing day at Philly’s JFK Sta­di­um, watch­ing live acts that includ­ed Led Zep­pelin, Eric Clap­ton, Cros­by, Stills, Nash & Young (leav­ing aside a campy Bowie and Jag­ger video). But some­how what still stands out for me are two acts piped in from Lon­don’s Wem­b­ley Sta­di­um —  U2’s 12 minute ver­sion of  “Bad” (below), which launched the band into inter­na­tion­al star­dom, and, yes, Queens’ set: Bohemi­an Rhap­sody & Radio Gaga, Ham­mer To Fall & Crazy Lit­tle Thing Called Love (also below), and We Will Rock You/We Are the Cham­pi­ons.

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Open Culture was founded by Dan Colman.