The best free cultural & educational media on the web
The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ Category: Music | ≅ 3 Comments
On a cold day in January 1969, The Beatles, who hadn’t played live since 1965, took to the rooftop of the headquarters of Apple Records, located at 3 Savile Row, in central London. And there they played an impromptu last gig, much to the delight of Londoners on nearby rooftops … and to the chagrin [...]
≡ Category: Film, Music, Poetry | ≅ Leave a Comment
Leonard Cohen, the legendary singer, songwriter and poet, was born in Montreal, Canada, on this day in 1934. In the Book of Longing, Cohen imagines the scene: I was born in chains but I was taken out of them. It was windy. Dried leaves crashed against the walls of the homeopathic hospital. I was [...]
≡ Category: Books, Comedy, iPad | ≅ Leave a Comment
A little David Sedaris on your mobile device? Yes, please! Last week, Hachette Digital released David’s Dairy, a new app that brings six animated short films inspired by David Sedaris’ diary to your Apple and Android devices. The films are short — most run about 45 seconds. They’re characteristically quirky and artfully designed. And the complete app costs runs only [...]
≡ Category: Astronomy, Physics, Video - Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
Earlier this week, NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson tweeted a 14 second time-lapse film of the Aurora Borealis taken from the International Space Station. The short clip called to mind a more extensive view of the Northern Lights shot by Don Pettit, also working in the ISS, back in 2008. (Watch above.) And it raised the basic question: [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs, Music | ≅ 2 Comments
The Israeli mashup artist Ophir Kutiel, otherwise known as Kutiman, strikes again. His latest creation, “This is Real Democracy,” offers a multimedia commentary on the messy state of world affairs. Which way will bankrupt democracies and nascent democratic movements take us? It’s unclear and a little unnerving, or perhaps a reminder of Churchill’s famous dictum [...]
≡ Category: Film | ≅ 3 Comments
Today, we’re rewinding the videotape to the early days of cinema. We’re starting in 1878 and then moving forward, watching eleven cinematic firsts, the moments when entire traditions in film were born. The first horror film. The first western. The first sci-fi film. And all of the rest. Some films we have featured here before, [...]
≡ Category: Audio Books, Books, Literature | ≅ 1 Comment
Le Monde has called Life and Fate “the greatest Russian novel of the twentieth century,” and Martin Amis once described its author, Vasily Grossman, as “the Tolstoy of the USSR.” Now, if you haven’t read the novel, you can begin to understand the reason for all of the high praise. Starting this week, the BBC will [...]
≡ Category: Music, Religion | ≅ 2 Comments
If you’re not familiar with The Westboro Baptist Church, it’s a hate group seemingly masquerading as a religious organization based in Topeka, Kansas. It has only 71 members, mostly from the same family, and they’re known for tastelessly traveling across the U.S. and protesting against homosexuality and gay rights at the funerals of fallen U.S. soldiers. [...]
≡ Category: Astronomy, Video - Science | ≅ 1 Comment
Here’s what a little time and creativity brings. James Drake, a professor of Physics at U. Maryland, downloaded 600 images from The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, stitched them into a marvelous 60 second time-lapse film, then posted it on his Tumblr blog, Infinity Imagined, along with this description of what the viewer sees: A time-lapse taken from the [...]
≡ Category: Music | ≅ 1 Comment
A quick heads up. This weekend you can watch The Austin City Limits Music Festival streaming on YouTube. The 2011 lineup features Stevie Wonder, Arcade Fire, Coldplay, Kanye West, and Alison Krauss, among many others. Get the full list here. Also for a limited time, NPR is streaming Miles Davis, Live In Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series [...]
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