Open Culture Beat No. 1

Here’s some­thing a lit­tle exper­i­men­tal for you. We post many great cul­ture links on our Twit­ter stream. But we real­ize that you don’t nec­es­sar­i­ly stay glued to Twit­ter … or even use it all. So a cou­ple of times each week, we’ll give you our favorite cul­ture links from around the web. If you like the idea (or not) let us know. Now to the links:

• Cannes gives Jean-Paul Bel­mon­do the Palme d’Or more than 50 years after “Breath­less”.

• Jim Hen­son died on this day in 1990. Some let­ters about his wide­ly adored cre­ation, the Mup­pets. By Let­ters of Note.

• The world’s most inspir­ing book­stores. A pho­to gallery.

• Stephen Hawk­ing on heav­en. “It’s a fairy sto­ry” for peo­ple afraid of death.

• Tru­man Capote on Mar­lon Bran­do in The NewYork­er, 1957.

• Yale Dig­i­tal Com­mons, a fan­tas­tic new online resource for art & arti­facts.

• Lars von Tri­er stirs up Cannes with Hitler, Nazi quips.

• Kurt Von­negut reads the begin­ning of Break­fast of Cham­pi­ons.

• Book cov­ers that almost were. A NYTimes pho­to gallery.

• Bob Dylan: Writ­ings 1968–2010 by Greil Mar­cus.

• The BBC’s essen­tial guide to video edit­ing.

• George Mason Uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sor helps cre­ate viral rap videos — about eco­nom­ics.

• William Bur­roughs, the beat writer, panned by the Turk­ish state.

• How Writ­ers Build the Brand. The long tra­di­tion of self-pro­mo­tion, from the Ancient Greeks to Hem­ing­way.

Sources: @kirstinbutler,  @pourmecoffee,  @philosophybites,  @jaredbkeller,  @steverubel,  @stevesilberman, @ebertchicago