Neil deGrasse Tyson Puts Bill Gates’ Wealth into Funny Perspective

in Business, Random | May 22nd, 2014

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has a way of putting things into perspective. Usually he’s looking at where we — our planet, our civilization — sit in relationship to the larger cosmos. But, in this clip recorded at the University of Washington in 2011, he’s helping us wrap our head around something equally unfathomable and seemingly infinite: Bill Gates’ big pile of money.

via Reddit

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by OC | Permalink | Make a Comment ( 6 ) |

William S. Burrough’s Avant-Garde Movie ‘The Cut Ups’ (1966)

in Film, Literature | May 22nd, 2014

In 1920, Dadaist extraordinaire Tristian Tzara described in his manifesto how to write a poem, Dada-style. It involved cutting up the words from a text, dumping them into a bag and then pulling out the words randomly. “And there you are,” he wrote. “An infinitely original author of charming sensibility, even though unappreciated by the vulgar herd.” Who would have thought that Tzara’s avant-garde methods would be adapted into a successful line of refrigerator magnets?

In 1959, William S. Burroughs had just published his notorious non-linear masterpiece Naked Lunch (heard him read it here) when he came across the “cut-up” methods of British artist Brion Gysin, which were influenced by Tzara. Soon the author started using cut-up techniques explicitly in his own work, particularly in his The Nova Trilogy. Unlike Tzara, who believed that cut-ups would reveal the utter absurdity of the world, Burroughs argued that language was a means of control that locked us into traditional ways of thinking. The cut-up was one way of blunting that control with new, unexpected juxtapositions. Excited by the possibilities of the cut-up, he experimented with it in a number of different media.

The 1966 short The Cut-Ups is probably Burrough’s best-known foray into experimental film, which he made with filmmaker and renowned smut/horror distributor Antony Balch. The film features random, repetitive shots of Burroughs in New York, London and Tangiers spliced together in precise lengths but with little regard for the content of the image. The audio is a cut-up conversation with the words “Yes” and “Hello,” getting looped over and over and over again.

The film is a trippy, mesmerizing experience. The mind struggles to make sense of the chaos. It feels like you’re watching a dream that has somehow short-circuited. When the film first premiered, film audiences were reportedly freaked out. Some declared that the movie made them feel ill while others demanded their money back. You can watch it for free above. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

And if you’re in the mood for some more avant-garde cinematic goodness then you can check out Burroughs and Balch’s first collaboration Towers Open Fire below. It’s NSFW. More avant-garde films can be found in our collection, 4,000+ Free Movies Online: Great Classics, Indies, Noir, Westerns, Documentaries & More.

William S. Burroughs on the Art of Cut-up Writing

William S. Burroughs Reads His Controversial 1959 Novel Naked Lunch

Jonathan Crow is a Los Angeles-based writer and filmmaker whose work has appeared in Yahoo!, The Hollywood Reporter, and other publications. You can follow him at @jonccrow.

by Jonathan Crow | Permalink | Make a Comment ( 4 ) |

Six Animations of Stories and Poems by Shel Silverstein

in Animation, Education, K-12, Poetry | May 22nd, 2014

Shel Silverstein, beloved poet, songwriter, children’s author, and illustrator, perfected an instantly recognizable visual and literary style that has imprinted itself on several generations. We remember the heartfelt whimsy of stories like The Giving Tree (1964) and poetry collections like Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974) and A Light in the Attic (1981) as we remember childhood best friends, first crushes, and summer camp exploits. Many of us raised on his work have gone on to have kids of our own, so we get to revisit those books we loved, with their weird, irreverent twists and turns and wild imaginative flights. Our kids get a bonus, though, thanks to the web, since they can also see several Silverstein poems and stories in animated form on Youtube. Today, we bring you six of those animations. Sate your nostalgia, share with your kids, and rediscover the utterly distinctive voice of the pre-eminent children’s poet.

We don’t get to hear Silverstein’s actual voice in the animations of “Runny’s Hind Keart”and “Runny on Rount Mushmore,” above, two of many poems made almost entirely of spoonerisms from the book and audio CD Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook, posthumously published in 2005.

Instead, Silverstein sound-alike Dennis Locorriere—former lead singer of the band Dr. Hook—narrates. (Silverstein wrote a number of songs for the band.) The poems are as fun for kids to read aloud as they are to untangle. Read full text here.

Just above, we get vintage Silverstein, read/singing “Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too” from Where the Sidewalk Ends. Accompanied by an acoustic guitar, Silverstein turns the poem into a folk ballad, his voice rising and cracking off-key. You may know that Silverstein wrote the Johnny Cash hit “A Boy Named Sue”—you may not know that he recorded his own version and several dozen more songs besides. The video above offers a fair representation of his musical style.

Silverstein published his award-winning collection of poetry Falling Up in 1996, three years before his death and many years after my childhood, so I didn’t have the pleasure of reading poems like “The Toy Eater” as a kid. The poem is an excellent example of what Poets.org calls Silverstein’s “deft mixing of the sly and the serious, the macabre, and the just plain silly.”

Hear Silverstein above read “Backwards Bill,” a poem I remember quite well as one of my favorites from A Light in the Attic. His raspy sing-song narration turns the poem into a funny little melody kids will remember and love singing along to.

Finally, we bring you an animated excerpt from Silverstein’s beloved 1963 fable Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back, Silverstein’s first book written exclusively for children. He is so well known as a writer and illustrator for kids that it’s easy to forget that Silverstein first made a career in the fifties and sixties as a cartoonist for adults, publishing most of his work in Playboy. Silverstein never formally studied poetry and hadn’t considered writing it until his editor at Harper & Row, Ursula Nordstrom, urged him to. Without her intervention, he’d surely still be remembered for his iconic visual style and songwriting, but millions of kids would have missed out on the weirdness of his warped imagination. Silverstein showed us we didn’t have to be sentimental or schmaltzy to be open-hearted, caring, and curious. His work endures because he had the unique ability to speak to children in a language they understand without condescending or dumbing things down. See several more short animations at Silverstein’s official website.

18 Animations of Classic Literary Works: From Plato and Shakespeare, to Kafka, Hemingway and Gaiman

Johnny Cash: Singer, Outlaw, and, Briefly, Television Host

Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness.

by Josh Jones | Permalink | Make a Comment ( 7 ) |

Support Metafilter

in Uncategorized | May 21st, 2014

A couple of years ago, I was asked to name the first five sites I visit each day. Without pause, I rattled off Metafilter, a crowdsourced blog where intelligent contributors highlight interesting things and answer each other’s questions. Metafilter has been around since 1999, and it’s been the source of countless posts on Open Culture over the years. Do a search for “via Metafilter” on our site, and you will see what I mean.

Two days ago, Metafilter’s founder Matt Haughey (see him talk about the history of Metafilter above) stunned readers when he published a post about his site’s financial situation. His post begins: “Today I need to share some unfortunate news: because of serious financial downturn, MetaFilter will be losing three of its moderators to layoffs at the end of this month.” And it ends: “We may have to make hard choices in the future as they come up, but the goal will always be towards having the best place online to share neat stuff, to ask and answer questions, and to have the kinds of thoughtful conversations that make this place what it is.”

Encouraged by its readers, Metafilter launched a fundraising campaign today. Through Paypal you can subscribe to Metafilter for $1, $2, $3, $5, $10, or $20 per month or you can make a one-time contribution. If you’re a fan of Metafilter, definitely consider giving them your support. If you’re not yet a fan, then spend some time at Metafilter and consider giving a hand once you’re hooked.

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Jonathan Safran Foer, Toni Morrison & Steven Pinker Cultivate Thought on Chipotle’s Cups and Bags

in Business, Literature | May 21st, 2014

If you walk into Chipotle, order a drink, and look at the cup, you might see the following literary text:

TWO-MINUTE SEDUCTION
by TONI MORRISON

I took my heart out and gave it to a writer made heartless by fame, someone who needed it to pump blood into veins desiccated by the suck and roar of crowds slobbering or poisoning or licking up the red froth they mistake for happiness because happiness looks just like a heart painted on a valentine cup or tattooed on an arm that has never held a victim or comforted a hurt friend. I took it out and the space it left in my chest was sutured tight like the skin of a drum.

As my own pulse failed, I fell along with a soft shower of rain typical in this place.

Lying there, collapsed under trees bordering the mansion of the famous one I saw a butterfly broken by the slam of a single raindrop on its wings fold and flutter as it hit a pool of water still fighting for the lift that is its nature. I closed my eyes expecting to dissolve into stars or lava or a brutal sequoia when the famous writer appeared and leaned down over me. Lifting my head he put his lips on mine and breathed into my mouth one word and then another, and another words upon words then numbers, then notes. I swallowed it all while my mind filled with language, measure, music, knowledge.

These gifts from the famous writer were so seductive, so all encompassing they seemed to make a heart irrelevant.

Other cups and brown paper bags feature short thoughts by Malcolm Gladwell, George Saunders, Steven Pinker, Michael Lewis, and Sheri Fink, among others. The initiative, dubbed Cultivating Thought, was actually the brainchild of novelist Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close). Years ago, he met with Chipotle’s CEO and posed the question: why not give people a little food for thought on your cups and brown paper bags? Just last week, the Cultivating Thought Author series was launched, with Safran Foer serving as its “curator.”

by OC | Permalink | Make a Comment ( None ) |

Revisit the Golden Age of Max’s Kansas City With Film & Audio From The Velvet Underground, The Ramones, Devo & Talking Heads

in Music | May 21st, 2014

You know the old joke: “if you don’t like the neighborhood, wait ten minutes.” New Yorkers know it the other way around, too. If you like the neighborhood, wait ten minutes; your local haunts will disappear. But while the physical markers of my own New York era shutter one by one, during said era all I ever wanted was for it to be the late 70s again, when you could catch such upstarts as the Talking Heads, Devo, the Ramones, Television, or Patti Smith at Max’s Kansas City. Or even earlier in the decade, when Max’s served as the NYC home base for David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, and even a young Bruce Springsteen.

Despite Max’s hallowed status in the New York rock scene, precious little footage survives from its heyday. The film at the top shows us what producer David Weisman says in voice-over narration is to his knowledge the only 35mm, motion picture-quality film of “the renowned, legendary, unforgettable Max’s Kansas City,” where Andy Warhol “held court every night from midnight till dawn.” Weisman points out local stars of the Warholian scene in the vintage film, reminisces about his own time there, and describes a lighting situation that made filming in the club very difficult. Just above, hear what those denizens in the footage heard: live audio of the Velvet Underground playing “I’m Waiting for the Man” and “Sweet Jane” live at Max’s in 1972.

Filming at Max’s may have been challenging, but clearly, as you see above, one could get it right, even in lesser formats. Here we have classic 1976 film of the Ramones playing “Havana Affair” and “Listen to My Heart” at Max’s during its post-Warhol second phase, when the club became second only to CBGBs as the home of New York punk rock and new wave.

The Ramones film may not be 35mm, but the quality of sound and image surely excels that of every other document from the period, like the short, blurry film above of Devo playing their bizarro take on “Satisfaction” in 1977.

Yet another precious artifact from the late-70s Max’s scene comes to us without any moving images at all, but the audio is quite good and represents a formative moment in the evolution of the Talking Heads, only a trio at the time. Hear them do “Artists Only” above in 1976.

Max’s didn’t only shelter punks and strung-out art rockers. In the early seventies, booker Sam Hood also secured sixties folk mainstays like Dave Van Ronk and newcomers like soon-to-be wildly famous Bruce Springsteen. See the young Boss open for Van Ronk above with an acoustic version of “Growing Up” in 1972.

Max’s closed down in 1981 with a headlining performance by DC hardcore punks Bad Brains, but it has since reopened in another location (1998). The new (gasp!—Midtown) Max’s isn’t Max’s Kansas City in anything but name, but its website at least preserves the memory of the old club’s heady 70s days with more live audio and memorabilia from The Velvets, Sid Vicious, Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers, and many more “Max’s Icons.” Also don’t miss this Flavorwire gallery of classic photographs from 70s-era Max’s.

1976 Film Blank Generation Documents CBGB Scene with Patti Smith, The Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie & More

The Talking Heads Play CBGB, the New York Club that Shaped Their Sound (1975)

Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness.

by Josh Jones | Permalink | Make a Comment ( 3 ) |

Thomas Dolby Explains How a Synthesizer Works on a Jim Henson Kids Show (1989)

in Music, Technology, Television | May 21st, 2014

We’ve all heard the musical fruits of audio synthesis, especially if we regularly listen to the pop of the 1980s. But how, exactly, does a synthesizer work? Ask a modern electronic-music enthusiast and the answer may come out too technical, and at too much length, to bear. But pioneeringly technology-minded singer-songwriter Thomas Dolby, he of “She Blinded Me with Science” (though I’ve always prefer his more elegiac numbers like “Airwaves”), can give you a clearer, more concise explanation.

In fact, he gets it simple to the point of child-friendliness — so simple that he gives it on a children’s television program. The Ghost of Faffner Hall, which ran in late 1989 in England and America, taught lessons about music with a gallery of famous performers — Bobby McFerrin, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Mark Knopfler — in a puppet-rich setting. Those puppets, the denizens (living and dead) of the titular Faffner Hall, came built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, known for their mastery of Muppet craft.

Dolby’s illustration of a synthesizer’s operation involves an unusual work of Muppetry: a fly in a matchbox. “A synthesizer consists of two things,” he says, “an oscillator and a filter. The oscillator controls the pitch of the sound, and the filter controls the tone.” Out, then, comes the box and its slightly unwilling (Muppet) inhabitant. “I want you to imagine the fly is an oscillator, and this box is a filter.” Dolby shakes the box, representing electrical current through an oscillator, which makes the frightened fly buzz. “The harder I shake the box, the higher the pitch!” To demonstrate filtration, he opens and closes the matchbox, harshening the fly’s wail (until, indeed, it turns into a cry of “Help!”). If you’d like to hear Dolby talk more about the intersection of his art and his technology at a higher, albeit Muppetless level, have a listen to his appearance last year on the Nerdist podcast. He long ago, in another context, stated his goal of teaching people that synthesizers “don’t have to sound like a crate of moribund wasps” — an interesting thing to accomplish with a matchbox and a superintelligent fly.

via That Eric Alper

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Colin Marshall hosts and produces Notebook on Cities and Culture and writes essays on cities, language, Asia, and men’s style. He’s at work on a book about Los Angeles, A Los Angeles Primer. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook.

by Colin Marshall | Permalink | Make a Comment ( 2 ) |

Jack Kerouac’s Poems Read by Patti Smith, John Cale & Other Icons (with Music by Joe Strummer)

in Literature, Music | May 21st, 2014

Jack Kerouac was cool before it was cool.

Kerouac’s breakout novel, On the Road, influenced generations of artists, writers and musicians. His prose was vital and messy and new. He wrote frankly about sex, drugs and spiritual yearning. He was young and movie star good looking. And he was a friend with just about every other literary rock star of the era – William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder and Neal Cassady — many of whom ended up characters in his books.

Though Kerouac was best known for his novels — Dharma Bums happens to be my personal fave — he also wrote poetry. His poems read like distilled versions of his prose – freeform, flowing and musical, laced with themes of death, drinking and Buddhism. He once wrote that he wanted his poetry “to be considered as a jazz poet blowing a long blues in an afternoon jazz session on Sunday.”

So it isn’t surprising perhaps that back in 1997 some very cool people like Hunter S. Thompson, John Cale, Joe Strummer and Michael Stipe got together to record the spoken word tribute album Kerouac: Kicks Joy Darkness (download on Amazon or iTunes), which sets his poems to music. Or hear it below on Spotify.

Patti Smith, the godmother of punk, reads his poem “The Last Hotel” accompanied by music from Thurston Moore and Lenny Kaye. You can listen in the video above and read along below.

The last hotel
I can see the black wall
I can see the silhouette on the window
He’s talking, at a rhythm
He’s talking, at a rhythm
But, I don’t care
I’m not interested in what he’s saying
I’m only interested in the last hotel
I’m only interested in the fact that it’s the last hotel
Deep, discordant, dark, sweet
The last hotel
The last hotel
Ghosts in my bed
The goats I bled
The last hotel

Perhaps Kerouac’s best-known poem is “Bowery Blues,” which combines Buddhist notions of “sansgara” (aka samsara), the karmic cycles of birth and death, with a very Beat-like disgust of contemporary American culture. You can imagine this being absolutely spellbinding when read out loud in a smoky coffee shop. Lydia Lunch’s reading is above. The text below.

The story of man
Makes me sick
Inside, outside,
I do not know why
Something so conditional
And all talk
Should hurt me so.

I am hurt
I am scared
I want to live
I want to die
I do not know
Where to turn
In the Void
And When
To cut
Out

For no Church Told me
No Guru holds me
No advice
Just stone
Of New York
And on the Cafeteria
We hear
The Saxophone
O dead Ruby
Died of Shot
In Thirty Two,
Sounding like old times
And de bombed
Empty decapitated
Murder by the clock.

And I see Shadows
Dancing into Doom
In love, holding
TIght the lovely asses
Of the little girls
In love with sex
Showing Themselves
In white undergarments
At elevated windows
Hoping for the Worst.

I can not take it
Anymore
If I can not hold
My little behind
To me in my room

Then it’s goodbye
Sangsara
For me
Besides
Girls aren’t as good
As They look
And Samadhi
Is better
Than you think
When it starts in
Hitting your head
In with Buzz
Of Glittergold
Heaven’s Angels
Wailing

Saying

We’ve been waiting for you
Since Morning, Jack
Why were you so long
Dallying in the sooty room?
This transcendental Brilliance
Is the better part
(of Nothingness
I sing)

Okay.
Quit.
Mad.
Stop

And finally, you can listen to Kerouac read his own poem “MacDougal Street Blues” set to some beats laid down by the late, great Joe Strummer.

Written in Jim Hudson’s window lookin’ out on MacDougal Street
Summer of 1954, when he left me his whole apartment
He went away with his girl someplace:

Parade among Images
Images Images Looking
Looking -
And everybody’s turning around
& pointing -
Nobody looks up
and In
Nor listens to Samantabhadra’s
Unceasing Compassion

No Sound Still
S s s s t t
Seethe
Of Sea Blue Moon
Holy X‑Jack

Miracle
Night -
Instead yank & yucker
For pits & pops

Look for crashes
Pictures
Squares
Explosions
Birth
Death
Legs
I know, sweet hero,
Enlightenment has Come
Rest in Still

In the Sun Think
Think Not
Think no more Lines -
Straw hat, hands a back
Classed
He exam in atein distinct
Rome prints -
Trees prurp
and saw

The Chessplayers Wont End
Still they sit
Millions of hats
In underwater foliage
Over marble games
The Greeks of Chess

Plot the Pop
of Mate
King Queen

- I know their game,
their elephant with the pillar
With the pearl in it,
Their gory bishops
And Vital Pawns -
Their devout frontline
Sacrificial pawn shops
Their stately king
Who is so tall
Their Virgin Queens
Pree ing to Knave
The Night Knot
— Their Bhagavad Gitas
of Ignorance,
Krishna’s advice,

Comma,
The game begins -

Jean-Louis
Go home, Man

- So tho I am wise
I have to wait like
Anyotherfool

Lets forget the strollers
Forget the scene
Lets close our eyes
Let me instruct Thee
Here is dark Milk
Here is Sweet Mahameru
Who will Coo
To you Too

As he did to me
One night at three
When I w k e i t
P l e e
Knelt to See
Realit ee
And I said
‘Wilt thou protect me
for ‘ver?’

And he in his throatless
deep mother hole
Replied ’ H o m ’

Pull My Daisy: 1959 Beatnik Film Stars Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg

Jack Kerouac Reads from On the Road (1959)

Jack Kerouac’s Naval Reserve Enlistment Mugshot, 1943

Jonathan Crow is a Los Angeles-based writer and filmmaker whose work has appeared in Yahoo!, The Hollywood Reporter, and other publications. You can follow him at @jonccrow.

by Jonathan Crow | Permalink | Make a Comment ( 1 ) |

Neil deGrasse Tyson Puts Bill Gates’ Wealth into Funny Perspective

William S. Burrough’s Avant-Garde Movie ‘The Cut Ups’ (1966)

Six Animations of Stories and Poems by Shel Silverstein

Support Metafilter

Jonathan Safran Foer, Toni Morrison & Steven Pinker Cultivate Thought on Chipotle’s Cups and Bags

Revisit the Golden Age of Max’s Kansas City With Film & Audio From The Velvet Underground, The Ramones, Devo & Talking Heads

Thomas Dolby Explains How a Synthesizer Works on a Jim Henson Kids Show (1989)

Jack Kerouac’s Poems Read by Patti Smith, John Cale & Other Icons (with Music by Joe Strummer)

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