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.

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.

Good luck staying dry-eyed through this moving tribute to Jim Henson, which features a group of puppets trying to cope with the death of their beloved creator. It’s a long time since we’ve seen the so-called stages of grief dramatized so beautifully and with such economy.

A few weeks ago, we posted New York Times critic A.O.Scott’s thoughtful three-minute look back at the surrealist classic Un Chien Andalou. The 1929 Buñuel/Dalí production may well be the world’s most famous bit of early surrealist cinema, but it was not the first.

Lucian Freud, distinguished artist and grandson of Sigmund Freud, died yesterday at the age of 88. The painter was best known for his contributions to figurative art and his uncompromising portraits, which The New York Times has collected in an impressive online gallery.

As if your Twitter, Google +, and RSS feeds weren’t overwhelming enough, you can now watch a time lapse video of a year’s worth of The New York Times — in 12,000 screenshots. Enjoy, and try not get dizzy.

Being John Malkovich director and longtime Beastie Boys collaborator Spike Jonze has directed yet another music video for the band: A high-concept sci-fi extravaganza that features zombies, GI Joe action figures, and, as usual, a soundtrack with a pretty decent hook.

 
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/6974132[/vimeo]
Rob Shaw’s dark animated short The Machine was voted Best Film at last week’s Robot Film Festival in New York City.

In his 2007 New Yorker essay on performance artist Chris Burden, the critic Peter Schjeldahl wrote that most of Burden’s oeuvre consisted of “powerful works that deal ingeniously with aesthetics and ethics of power.

Kudos to How to be A Retronaut for finding this great clip of Jack Kerouac playing pool in early 1967. We bet he was the coolest player in that particular room (at the Pawtucketville Social Club, in Lowell, Mass).