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