Garry Trudeau has taken on creationism before. He’s doing it again, this time commenting on the oxymoronic “Louisiana Science Education Act,” which allows the teaching of creationism in the public classroom. You can view Trudeau’s cartoon in full, and in high res here.
Doonesbury Confronts Creationism in the Classroom
Watch The 39 Steps, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 Classic
Back in 1915, John Buchan published his gripping adventure novel The Thirty-Nine Steps (find free ebook here). Two decades later, in 1935, Alfred Hitchcock directed the first of four film adaptations based on the book, and it’s by far the best. We won’t revisit the plot.
But we will tell you that Hitchcock’s classic, starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll, ranks fourth on The British Film Institute’s list of the greatest British films of the 20th century. And, if you’re wondering why critics give Hitchcock’s film such high praise, simply turn to Marian Keane’s essay on Criterion’s website, which ends with these words:
The director’s deepest subjects—theater and its relation to film, the abandonment of human beings in vacant and foreboding landscapes, the complex human quest for knowledge, and the nature of accidents—abound in The 39 Steps. Hitchcock’s perception of the precariousness of human existence, and his belief in film’s capacity to reveal and reflect on it, lie at the heart of his achievement as a master of the art of film.
Thanks to YouTube and the Internet Archive, you can sit back and enjoy The 39 Steps online. It’s perfect for the upcoming weekend, and it’s one of 15 Hitchcock films available on the web. See our list of Free Hitchcock Films and our larger list of 1000+ Free Movies Online.
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Werner Herzog Loses a Bet to Errol Morris, and Eats His Shoe (Literally)
Almost 35 years ago, sometime in the late 70s, the filmmakers Errol Morris and Werner Herzog made a bet. Correction: At the time, Herzog was a filmmaker, and already a star, but Errol Morris was just a guy obsessed with the idea of making a film about a pet cemetery. ‘I don’t believe you have the guts,’ Herzog told Morris. ‘But if you do, I’ll eat my shoe.’
Morris rolled up his sleeves and got to work. The result is his stunning debut, Gates of Heaven (1978). In response, Herzog rolled up his sleeves, and got to work as well — in the kitchen, where he and uber-chef Alice Waters tried their mightiest to concoct a decent recipe for leather footwear.
Just to complete the documentarian trifecta, the 20-minute short film, Werner Herzog Eats his Shoe (1980), was directed by the great Berkeley filmmaker, Les Blanc. You can watch a shortened version above, or the full version here. The film is also now added to our big collection of Free Movies Online.
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Errol Morris and Werner Herzog in Conversation
Werner Herzog and Cormac McCarthy Talk Science and Culture
Sheerly Avni is a San Francisco-based arts and culture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Weekly, Mother Jones, and many other publications. You can follow her on twitter at @sheerly.
Baba Brinkman: The Rap Guide to Evolution
Canadian “geek rapper” Baba Brinkman first garnered popular attention with a well-received, well-reviewed rap adaptation of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. (To get a sense of the project, check out this brief scene from “The Pardoner’s Tale.”) And we also previously featured his brilliant work on Macmillan’s What’s Your English? campaign.
Brinkman has brought his follow-up show, a fascinating homage to Charles Darwin called “The Rap Guide to Evolution,” to New York City, where it’s getting rave reviews. In the video above, he explains how he went about putting the project together, and how evolutionary science enriched his understanding of the violence and anger so prevalent in the music he loves. The whole talk is great, but if you want to start off with a taste of the rap itself, skip forward to minute 9:03.
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The Climate Scientist Rap (Warning: Offensive Language)
Sheerly Avni is a San Francisco-based arts and culture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Weekly, Mother Jones, and many other publications. You can follow her on twitter at @sheerly.
Jean-Luc Godard’s After-Shave Commercial for Schick
The Dziga Vertov Group (1968–1972) was a film collective co-founded by Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin, named after the pioneering documentary filmmaker Dziga Vertov. Anti-auteur, anti-verité, anti-bourgeois and anti-capitalist, the DVG was also the most radical of the French film collectives, and so, of course, it managed to land a great advertising gig.
But don’t call it a sellout. According to at least one account, Godard and Gorin managed to stick it to their ad agency. Furthermore, they delivered full-throttle irony: Their Schick commercial features a young man and woman arguing over a news broadcast about Palestine … and Palestine was also the subject of an ill-fated 1970 DGV project called “Until Victory.” You can read the fascinating back-story of that film here.
And for the movie geeks: Yes, the actress is Godard regular Juliet Berto.
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Sheerly Avni is a San Francisco-based arts and culture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Weekly, Mother Jones, and many other publications. You can follow her on twitter at @sheerly.
Introduction to Political Philosophy: A Free Yale Course
Stephen B. Smith, a political science professor at Yale University since 1984, has made available a 24-lecture course, Introduction to Political Philosophy, which covers Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Tocqueville.
His approach is highly literary. In his Republic lectures, for instance, he spends a good chunk of the time discussing the metaphors and characters involved. One of Smith’s major concerns is what citizenship amounts to. The lecture above is on Plato’s “Apology,” and while this may be Plato’s most famous work (with its dictum that “The unexamined life is not worth living”), it’s less about political philosophy than about the virtuous life. Smith sees these topics as intimately related, and in his closing lecture, he gives a defense of patriotism, saying that in the ivy league environment, expressing an interest in patriotism is like confessing an interest in child pornography.
Despite his engaging style, he speaks somewhat slowly. If your listening device offers a “double speed” feature, I recommend using this. You can obtain the whole series on the web: Yale web site — YouTube — iTunes (audio) — iTunes (video). You can also find the course in the Philosophy section of our collection, 1,700 Free Online Courses from Top Universities.
Mark Linsenmayer runs the Partially Examined Life philosophy podcast and blog. He also performs with the Madison, WI band New People.
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Oxford’s Free Introduction to Philosophy: Stream 41 Lectures
Blind Guitarist Lives Out Dream at U2 Show
What can I say? I’m a sucker for these feel-good moments. This past weekend, Adam Bevell, who lost his sight more than two decades ago, attended his 20th U2 concert in Nashville. Throughout the show, he held up a sign that read “Blind Guitar Player: Bring Me Up!” And eventually Bono took him up on the offer, inviting him on stage to strum along to “All I Want is You” and then letting him leave with a little party favor — Bono’s green guitar. A class act.
You can catch Adam talking about his experience and playing some more guitar here. And if you like moments like these, then don’t miss this feelin’-groovy moment from Paul Simon’s recent show in Toronto.
via @Metafilter
Star Wars as Silent Film
You know George Lucas’ classic, The Empire Strikes Back. Now roll it back a good 60 years and imagine the silent version. It works unexpectedly well.
H/T to @wesalwan. And don’t miss many landmark silent films in our collection of Free Movies Online. Chaplin, early Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, the first sci-fi and western films — they’re all there. Find them at the bottom of the page…
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