Friday Ephemera
Uniqlo Grid. Play on the grid. Go quietly insane. (h/t, Coudal.) // The worst fight scene in film history. // Originals versus remakes. Spartans, spooks, body snatchers. // Airplane prangs. // Cowscapes. (h/t, 1+1=3) // Supervillains of the Old West. // Jack Kirby on gods and monsters. // Could Thor kick Superman’s ass? Kryptonian do-gooder versus bombastic Viking with magic hammer. // Chris O’Shea’s X-ray torch. Video. // Via Norm, the hidden genitals of the NHS. // The 1907 Breguet-Richet gyroplane. (h/t, Things.) // Project Echo. // Apollo 17 panorama. (1972) // Biodegradable cutlery. Made from potatoes. // Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens. // Michael Weiss on Ibn Warraq. // Norman Geras on John Pilger. // Julie Burchill on Tesco. // Aaiii!! It’s the Zionist earthquake machine. According to Hamas. // A map of this week’s earthquakes. Most not caused by Jews. // A map of the Lost island. // Virtual Lego. // Modelling the brain may take some time. // Arthur Benjamin and his feats of mental calculation. // Scared of Santa. He knows if you’ve been naughty. // A festive ensemble. // And, via The Thin Man, it’s Big Joe Turner.
Incidentally, TypePad now has a new, and more zealous, spam filter. If anyone has problems posting comments let me know by email. I may have to train the software not to bite everything that approaches. Bad dog.
Originals vs remakes – I reckon the Sodeburgh/Clooney remake of Solaris is better than the Tarkovsky original. I’m not being philistine against Tarkovsky’s slow, meditative film style, which I respect and admire. But the Lem novel is interesting enough to begin with, before Tarkovsky adds his heavy Russian soul into the story. The Sodeburgh film is brain food enough. Sadly it didn’t do well at the box office. It isn’t space opera, and there are no explosions…
Georges,
Tarkovsky’s film is gratuitously dull, unforgivably so. It’s an over-praised experiment, deliberately bled of all life. I quite like the Soderbergh version, despite the sweetened ending; at least it had some subtlety and nuance – and some rather lovely music. (The sequence with Kelvin’s ‘first dream’ is gorgeous, with Solaris forming what look like ghostly neurons in response.) Though neither film does justice to the ideas in Lem’s novel.
Oscar Peterson is dead. We’ll always treasure you Mr. Peterson, even as we miss you. Y’all can find a lot of Mr. Peterson’s works at video.google.com by searching for “Oscar Peterson”. Of the dozens I’ve listened to so far, I’d say start with this, here’s the Oscar Peterson trio performing “Goodbye” in 1961:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ebo12xg4ws
Friday Morning Links
CT Principal bans competitive activities during recess. An Oklahoma State University bans the word Christmas.Virtual Legos. h/t, David ThompsonBonuses surging on Wall Street?Hillary Clinton launches two different Obama attack we…