What Happens When a Cat Watches Hitchcock’s Psycho

in Random | December 30th, 2017

Let’s sus­pend dis­be­lief for a moment and watch Hitch­cock give new mean­ing to “scaredy cat.” Enjoy.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rules for Watch­ing Psy­cho (1960)

Hitch­cock­’s Secret Sauce for Cre­at­ing Sus­pense

Alfred Hitchcock’s 7‑Minute Mas­ter Class on Film Edit­ing

Alfred Hitch­cock Presents Ghost Sto­ries for Kids (1962)

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The Vincent Van Gogh Action Figure, Complete with Detachable Ear

in Art, Random | December 20th, 2017

If you liked Mr. Pota­to Head, you may love the Vin­cent Van Gogh Action Fig­ure, which raised $142,000 on Kick­starter this sum­mer and can now be pur­chased for $35 over at the Today is Art Day web site. Made of PVC and stand­ing 5 inch­es high, the action fig­ure comes with:

  • 2 remov­able ears (Van Gogh cut his left ear)
  • 1 ban­daged ear
  • 1 paint­brush
  • 5 mas­ter­pieces and 1 card­board easel
  • 10 fun facts about the artist on the box

Oth­er fig­ures includ­ed in the col­lec­tion include Fri­da Kahlo and soon Ver­meer, da Vin­ci, Magritte and Rem­brandt. Enjoy.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Edvard Munch Scream Action Fig­ure

The Fri­da Kahlo Action Fig­ure

Famous Philoso­phers Imag­ined as Action Fig­ures: Plun­der­ous Pla­to, Dan­ger­ous Descartes & More

Hierony­mus Bosch Fig­urines: Col­lect Sur­re­al Char­ac­ters from Bosch’s Paint­ings & Put Them on Your Book­shelf

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What Happens When a Jazz Musician Accidentally Texts His Wife with Voice Recognition…While Playing the Trombone

in Random | November 24th, 2017

 

A cou­ple of days ago, Paul Now­ell (aka Paul the Trom­bon­ist) sent out this sim­ple tweet, show­ing what hap­pened when his iPhone’s voice recog­ni­tion sys­tem hap­pened to cap­ture his trom­bone ses­sion and turned it into words. The tweet went viral. And now, 65,000 “Retweets” and 198,000 “Likes” lat­er, you can see how the orig­i­nal record­ing ses­sion went down. Enjoy the demo below:

 

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

via Metafil­ter

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Miles Davis Dish­es Dirt on His Fel­low Jazz Musi­cians: “The Trom­bone Play­er Should be Shot”; That Ornette is “F‑ing Up the Trum­pet”

Farmer Ser­e­nades Cows by Play­ing Lorde’s “Roy­als” on the Trom­bone

Direc­tor Michel Gondry Makes a Charm­ing Film on His iPhone, Prov­ing That We Could Be Mak­ing Movies, Not Tak­ing Self­ies

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Filmmaker Creates a Luxury-Style Car Commercial to Sell a 21-Year-Old Used Honda Accord

in Random | November 11th, 2017

This is not your aver­age car com­mer­cial. It has the look and feel of the lux­u­ry car com­mer­cials you’ve seen so many times. And yet it fea­tures a car with 141,095 miles on it. Film­mak­er Max Lan­man cre­at­ed the ad to help his girl­friend sell her used 1996 Hon­da Accord. For rea­sons you’ll quick­ly under­stand, the video went viral, clocked more than 5 mil­lion views this past week, and when the car was list­ed on eBay, bids soared to $150,000–before eBay appar­ent­ly pulled the plug “due to con­cerns around ille­git­i­mate bid­ding.” Enjoy the ad. And remem­ber, “Lux­u­ry is a state of mind.”

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

178,000 Images Doc­u­ment­ing the His­to­ry of the Car Now Avail­able on a New Stan­ford Web Site

Hunter S. Thompson’s Edgy 1990s Com­mer­cial for Apple’s Mac­in­tosh Com­put­er: A Med­i­ta­tion on Pow­er

Jim Henson’s Com­mer­cials for Wilkins Cof­fee: 15 Twist­ed Min­utes of Mup­pet Cof­fee Ads (1957–1961)

 

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An Online Trove of Historic Sewing Patterns & Costumes

in Design, History, Life, Museums, Random | October 20th, 2017

As Hal­loween draws nigh, our thoughts turn to cos­tumes.

Not those rub­bery, poor­ly con­struct­ed, sexy and/or gory off-the-rack ready­mades, but the sort of lav­ish, his­tor­i­cal­ly accu­rate, home-sewn affairs that would have earned praise and extra can­dy, if only our moth­er had been inclined to spend the bulk of Octo­ber chained to a sewing machine.

Not that one needs the excuse of a hol­i­day to suit up in a fluffy 50’s crino­line, a Tudor-style kir­tle gown, or a 16th-cen­tu­ry Flem­ish out­fit with all the trim­mings.…

Accoun­tant Artemisia Moltaboc­ca, cre­ator of the his­tor­i­cal and cos­play cos­tum­ing blog Cos­tum­ing Diary, has primed our pump with a list of free his­tor­i­cal medieval, Eliz­a­bethan and Vic­to­ri­an pat­terns, includ­ing ones for the gar­ments men­tioned above.

Click through the many links on her site and you may find your­self tum­bling down a rab­bit hole of some oth­er cos-play­er’s gen­eros­i­ty.

That link to the cus­tom corset pat­tern gen­er­a­tor may set you on the road to cre­at­ing a per­fect­ly fit­ted Viking apron or a good-for-begin­ners tunic. (“Bring out yer dead!”)

Fan­cy even more choic­es? Moltabocca’s Free His­tor­i­cal Cos­tume Pat­terns Pin­ter­est board is a ver­i­ta­ble trove of dress-up fun.

The Los Ange­les Coun­ty Muse­um of Art’s Cos­tume and Tex­tiles Project has detailed down­load­able PDFs to walk you through con­struc­tion of such anachro­nis­tic fin­ery as a 1940’s Zoot Suit, a 19th-cen­tu­ry boy’s frock (above), and a man’s vest with remov­able chest pads (hub­ba hub­ba).

An 1812 Ohio Mili­tia Officer’s Coat from the Ohio His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety.

A pair of Nan­keen Trousers cour­tesy of the Roy­al Ontario Muse­um.

A bul­let bra (hub­ba bub­ba redux!)—pair it with a 1940s Vogue hat and hand­bag and you’re ready to go!

A Regency Drawn Bon­net and an Improved Seam­less Whale­bone Under­skirt from E. & J. Holmes & Co, Boston, 1857.

If you’re feel­ing less than con­fi­dent about your sewing abil­i­ties, you might make like an upper-class Roman in an Ion­ian chi­ton.

Or just curl a syn­thet­ic wig!

Press some­one else’s seams with a straight­en­ing iron, then kick back and enjoy the vin­tage ads, pho­tos of antique gar­ments, and the peri­od infor­ma­tion that often accom­pa­nies these how-tos. And check out the 1913 patent appli­ca­tion for Marie Perillat’s Bust Reduc­er, a mir­a­cle inven­tion designed to “pre­vent flesh bulging while pro­vid­ing self adjustable, com­fort­able, hygien­ic sup­port.”

Begin with some of Cos­tum­ing Diary’s his­tor­i­cal sewing pat­terns before delv­ing into its mas­sive pat­tern col­lec­tion board on Pin­ter­est.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Browse a Col­lec­tion of Over 83,500 Vin­tage Sewing Pat­terns

Kandin­sky, Klee & Oth­er Bauhaus Artists Designed Inge­nious Cos­tumes Like You’ve Nev­er Seen Before

1930s Fash­ion Design­ers Pre­dict How Peo­ple Would Dress in the Year 2000

Ayun Hal­l­i­day is an author, illus­tra­tor, the­ater mak­er and Chief Pri­ma­tol­o­gist of the East Vil­lage Inky zine. Her cur­rent sewing project is 19 head­pieces for Theater of the Apes Sub-Adult Division’s upcom­ing pro­duc­tion of Ani­mal Farm at the Tank in New York City. Fol­low her @AyunHalliday.

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If You Drive Down a Stretch of Route 66, the Road Will Play “America the Beautiful”

in Random, Travel | October 12th, 2017

If you find your­self in New Mex­i­co, trav­el­ing down a stretch of Route 66, you can dri­ve over a quar­ter mile-long rum­ble strip and your car’s tires will play “Amer­i­ca the Beau­ti­ful.”  That’s assum­ing you’re dri­ving at the speed lim­it, 45 miles per hour. Don’t believe me? Watch the clip above.

As Atlas Obscu­ra explains, the “Musi­cal High­way” or “Singing High­way” was “installed in 2014 as part of a part­ner­ship between the New Mex­i­co Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion and the Nation­al Geo­graph­ic Chan­nel.” It’s all part of an elab­o­rate attempt to get dri­vers to slow down and obey the speed lim­it. “Get­ting the rum­ble strips to ser­e­nade trav­el­ers required a fair bit of engi­neer­ing. The indi­vid­ual strips had to be placed at the pre­cise dis­tance from one anoth­er to pro­duce the notes they need­ed to sing their now-sig­na­ture song.”

You’ll find this par­tic­u­lar stretch of road between Albu­querque and Tijeras. Here’s the loca­tion on Google Maps. Oth­er musi­cal rum­ble strips have popped up in Den­mark, Japan and South Korea.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Negro Trav­el­ers’ Green Book, the Pre-Civ­il Rights Guide to Trav­el­ing Safe­ly in the U.S. (1936–66)

Jack Kerouac’s On The Road Turned Into Google Dri­ving Direc­tions & Pub­lished as a Free eBook

Ancient Rome’s Sys­tem of Roads Visu­al­ized in the Style of Mod­ern Sub­way Maps

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The Velvet Underground Meets Lawrence Welk

in Music, Random | September 14th, 2017

The worlds of the Vel­vet Under­ground and Lawrence Welk are pret­ty far apart. On the one side, you have a grit­ty New York band city writ­ing lyrics about shoot­ing up hero­in. On the oth­er, a band­leader whose “cham­pagne music” charmed TV view­ers across Mid­dle Amer­i­ca for 27 straight years. And yet. And yet.

In this 2007 YouTube clas­sic, director/producer Dar­ren Hack­er found a way to cross the chasm, mash­ing up VU’s 1968 song “Sis­ter Ray” with footage from the Lawrence Welk Show. As he explained to Dan­ger­ous Minds, “I rigged up 2 ancient VCRs and a CD play­er across my liv­ing room floor, layed down on my stom­ach, cued every­thing up and then man­u­al­ly acti­vat­ed all 3 devices at pre­cise inter­vals, live…in real time. One take, no edits…” Every­thing lined up, just like that.

Enjoy “Lawrence Welk Meets Vel­vet Under­ground” and imag­ine a moment when, cir­ca 1968, VU went main­stream on the mil­que­toast Lawrence Welk Show.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

An Ani­ma­tion of The Vel­vet Underground’s “Sun­day Morn­ing” … for Your Sun­day Morn­ing

A Sym­pho­ny of Sound (1966): Vel­vet Under­ground Impro­vis­es, Warhol Films It, Until the Cops Turn Up

The Vel­vet Under­ground & Andy Warhol Stage Pro­to-Punk Per­for­mance Art: Dis­cov­er the Explod­ing Plas­tic Inevitable (1966)

Hear Lost Acetate Ver­sions of Songs from The Vel­vet Under­ground & Nico (1966)

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54 Cats Riding Out Hurricane Irma in Ernest Hemingway’s Key West Home

in Literature, Random | September 10th, 2017

The Ernest Hem­ing­way Home and Muse­um pro­vides a sanc­tu­ary to 54 poly­dactyl (six-toed) cats.  Accord­ing to the muse­um, a ship cap­tain once gave Ernest a white six-toed cat, and now some of its descen­dents live in the Hem­ing­way Home and Muse­um locat­ed in Key West–precisely where Hur­ri­cane Irma is now mak­ing land­fall.

As cura­tor David Gon­za­les explains above, he and the 54 Hem­ing­way cats have no plans to evac­u­ate. They’re going to ride out the storm and pro­tect the nov­el­ist’s his­toric home. We wish them all the best. The same goes to all of our friends in Flori­da. We’ll see you when the storm pass­es.

You can see some of the Hem­ing­way poly­dactyl cats here.

via Metafil­ter

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Sev­en Tips From Ernest Hem­ing­way on How to Write Fic­tion

Ernest Hem­ing­way Cre­ates a Read­ing List for a Young Writer, 1934

Hem­ing­way, Fitzger­ald, Faulkn­er: A Free Yale Course

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