The best free cultural & educational media on the web
The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ Category: Current Affairs, Film, Life | ≅ 3 Comments
Earlier today, Tim Hetherington, the photographer who produced and directed the award-winning film Restrepo, was killed in the Libyan city of Misurata. Although interested in diverse art forms, Hetherington spent more than a decade working in war zones. He was a cameraman on Liberia: An Uncivil War (2004) and The Devil Came on Horseback (2007), [...]
≡ Category: Radio, Video - Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
Last year, filmmakers Will Hoffman, Daniel Mercadante, and Julius Metoyer III produced their first conceptual video based on a RadioLab episode called “Words.” Now the trio is back, playing on ideas explored in a new RadioLab episode, Desperately Seeking Symmetry, which meditates on how “symmetry shapes our very existence–from the origins of the universe, to what we [...]
≡ Category: Music | ≅ 1 Comment
So Beautiful or So What – Paul Simon’s 12th solo album (and his first release since 2006) hit the streets and ether last week. Critics are calling it his best album since The Rhythm of the Saints (1990), if not Graceland (1986). And it all starts out with “Getting Ready for Christmas Day,” a song [...]
≡ Category: Physics | ≅ 1 Comment
We have all seen or experienced it. When traveling at the right speeds, bikes can practically steer themselves, remaining upright and defying the pull of gravity. Physicists thought they figured out this minor mystery long ago. But a new paper (read the PDF here) by Andy Ruina (Cornell University) and Jim Papadopoulos (University of Wisconsin [...]
≡ Category: Film, Media, TED Talks | ≅ 1 Comment
Morgan Spurlock’s newest documentary, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, exposes the myriad ways in which popular media is almost wholly sponsored, leased, bought and branded by powerful corporations. Ironically — and intentionally — Spurlock made sure his documentary would also be almost wholly sponsored, leased, bought and branded by powerful corporations. In his very funny TED talk, [...]
≡ Category: Film, History, Politics | ≅ 4 Comments
The vintage video above is an excerpt from a 16 mm home movie showing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on January 20, 1941, the day of his Third Inauguration. This silent color movie was shot by FDR’s son-in-law (Clarence) John Boettiger, who was then working for the Motion Picture Association of America, and the quality of this rare [...]
≡ Category: Film, Literature | ≅ Leave a Comment
Fans of filmmaker Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, My Own Private Idaho, Milk) will love this 1982 short film – The Discipline of D.E. – based on a story by William S. Burroughs. And fans of Burroughs himself will particularly love its theme: The “D.E.” in the title stands for “Doing Easy,” a quasi-Buddhist notion best explained by [...]
≡ Category: History, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Leave a Comment
50 years ago (April 17, 1961), the CIA launched one of its famously botched operations. On that day, 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles stormed the beaches of southern Cuba, beginning an invasion meant to topple Fidel Castro and his Soviet-aligned government. The plan called for airstrikes to soften up Castro’s defenses, then for troops to land on the beaches [...]
≡ Category: Music, Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ 3 Comments
The occasion: A benefit for the arts in public schools. The musician: Cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The dancer: LA/Memphis street dancer Lil Buck. The camera: Director Spike Jonze. The result: A performance that is also the best possible argument for the cause it supports. We could say more, but again, the video speaks for itself. via flavorwire [...]
≡ Category: Books, Literature, Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ 1 Comment
When David Foster Wallace committed suicide in September 2008, he left behind the manuscript for The Pale King, an unfinished novel he started researching back in 1997, not long after the publication of Infinite Jest. The Pale King was finally published this past Friday (April 15), a date that was hardly arbitrary. Offering a lengthy meditation [...]
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