The best free cultural & educational media on the web
The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ Category: Music | ≅ 1 Comment
A quick heads up: You can stream The Concert for Bangladesh for free on iTunes this weekend. Exactly 40 years ago (August 1, 1971), Beatles’ guitarist George Harrison and sitarist Ravi Shankar teamed up to stage two benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden, hoping to raise money for refugees from East Pakistan (now independent Bangladesh). The [...]
≡ Category: Art, Film, Music | ≅ Leave a Comment
Take Quentin Tarantino’s movies, then let Eclectic Method deconstruct and reconstruct the scenes, leaving you with The Tarantino Mixtape, which is a little Not Safe for Work. Based in London, the members of Eclectic Method have been experimenting with audio-visual mixing of sounds and images for a good decade. 60+ of their videos appear online, including their latest [...]
≡ Category: History, Technology | ≅ 3 Comments
On January 27, 1994, the Today Show ran a hilarious segment trying to unravel this crazy new thing called “The Internet.” A year later, however, it looks like the media had it all figured out. Check out this 1995 MTV trend piece by Kurt Loder: We got a kick out of the clunkiess of the [...]
≡ Category: Philosophy, Video - Science | ≅ 2 Comments
In 2008, the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins presented The Genius of Charles Darwin, a three-part documentary that was later named “Best TV Documentary Series” at the British Broadcast Awards. During the filming of the program, Dawkins interviewed various experts –Â biologists, philosophers, clergyman, evolutionary psychologists, etc. — and wound up with 18 hours of raw footage. [...]
≡ Category: Life, Technology | ≅ 1 Comment
A story appearing in July’s Stanford Magazine begins with the caption: “An Internet smear campaign nearly destroyed the South Korean star, but he fought back with the only weapon he had: the truth.” And, from there, you’re launched into one of the more flabbergasting stories you’ve read in some time. Give The Persecution of Daniel [...]
≡ Category: Literature, Philosophy | ≅ Leave a Comment
Cynicism. Ruthlessness. Deviousness. Power politics. These words are often associated with Niccolò Machiavelli, the author of The Prince (1532). But, it turns out, he was anything but. He was a sweet man (though something of a philanderer), a profound democrat, good looking, a party animal. In short, Machiavelli has gotten a bad rap, says novelist Salman Rushdie. [...]
≡ Category: Comedy, Film | ≅ 2 Comments
Earlier this month, Netflix upped its monthly subscription by a good 60%, creating what amounted to a bourgeois tragedy for many. If you subscribe to Netflix, then fear not. Help may be on its way. FunnyorDie feels your pain, and, with the help of Jason Alexander (you know him from Seinfeld), they’re promoting the Netflix [...]
≡ Category: Art, Film, Life | ≅ 3 Comments
Back in 2009, the folks at RadioLab tackled another big question: “What happens at the moment when we slip from life…to the other side? Is it a moment? If it is, when exactly does it happen? And what happens afterward?” The show (listen here) inspired filmmaker Will Hoffman to shoot a video the meditates on the [...]
≡ Category: Film, Psychology | ≅ 11 Comments
According this fascinating piece in The Smithsonian, Franco Zeffirelli’s 1979 weepfest The Champ is the most consistently effective tearjerker in the history of film. It’s also the tearjerker most often used in scientific studies of grief and sadness: The Champ has been used in experiments to see if depressed people are more likely to cry than non-depressed people [...]
≡ Category: Beat & Tweets | ≅ 3 Comments
What cultural goodies did we tweet (and re-tweet) on our Twitter stream during the past week? Here are some highlights. Follow us on Twitter at @openculture … or Like us on Facebook. We’ll keep you plugged in… Barcelona 1908: A tram ride shows the old city and its main streets back in the day. Watch above or here. Astronomers Find Largest, Most [...]
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