Spike Jonze and Beastie Boys, Together Again

in Film, Music, Video - Arts & Culture | July 21st, 2011

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.

The song is called “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win,” and the ver­sion we’ve post­ed above is the 11-minute direc­tor’s cut.  You can watch a short­er ver­sion here, but why would you ever want to?

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Col­lab­o­ra­tions: Spike Jonze, Yo-Yo Ma, and Lil Buck

Ful­ly Flared, the 2007 skate­board­ing film direct­ed by Spike Jonze

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.

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Jack Kerouac Plays Pool, 1967

in Literature, Video - Arts & Culture | July 19th, 2011

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). But we’d also bet that he copied that cool, taut per­sona from Paul New­man’s turn as “Fast Eddie” Fel­son in the clas­sic movie The Hus­tler filmed six years ear­li­er.

For more great moments in Beat his­to­ry, check out Ker­ouac and Gore Vidal meet­ing William F. Buck­ley, Alan Gins­berg’s Tug­boat Ride and William S. Bur­roughs Shoot­ing Shake­speare, all oth­er­wise found in our col­lec­tion of 275 Cul­tur­al Icons.

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.

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Darwin: A 1993 Film by Peter Greenaway

in Film, Television, Video - Arts & Culture | July 18th, 2011

Although British direc­tor Peter Green­away is best known for fea­ture films like The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Pros­per­o’s Books, and The Pil­low Book, he has also com­plet­ed sev­er­al high­ly respect­ed projects for tele­vi­sion, includ­ing this 53-minute explo­ration of the life and work of Charles Dar­win. Dar­win is struc­tured around 18 sep­a­rate tableaux, each focus­ing on anoth­er chap­ter in the nat­u­ral­ist’s life, and each con­sist­ing of just one long unin­ter­rupt­ed shot. Oth­er than the nar­ra­tor’s voiceover, there is no dia­logue.

As with most Green­away films, the visu­al com­po­si­tion of indi­vid­ual scenes in Dar­win reflects the direc­tor’s fas­ci­na­tion with Renais­sance paint­ing (he was first trained as a mural­ist).  In 2006, Green­away even embarked on an ambi­tious series of video instal­la­tions called Nine Clas­sic Paint­ings Revis­it­ed, in which he applied his often con­tro­ver­sial vision to The Last Sup­per, The Wed­ding at Cana and oth­er famous art­works. You can watch an inter­view with the film­mak­er about The Last Sup­per here. Even bet­ter, watch his 2010 UC-Berke­ley lec­ture on the inspi­ra­tion and phi­los­o­phy behind the entire project, which we’ve includ­ed in our col­lec­tion of 275 Cul­tur­al Icons. We’ve also added Dar­win to our col­lec­tion of Free Movies Online.

via Bib­liok­lept

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.

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Good Vibrations: Guitar and Cymbal Caught on Video

in Music, Video - Arts & Culture, Video - Science | July 15th, 2011

This gor­geous video of a cym­bal (shot with a Phan­tom at 1,000 frames per sec­ond) made our morn­ing. And then Kot­tke’s find below — bril­liant footage of vibrat­ing gui­tar strings — made our after­noon.

Hope you enjoy them as much as we did, and have a great week­end!

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.

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A Secret Bookstore in New York City

in Books, Literature, Video - Arts & Culture | July 14th, 2011

The Paris Review blog, which just gets bet­ter and bet­ter each week, post­ed Andrew David Wat­son’s love­ly video yes­ter­day about Michael Sei­den­berg, who moved his shop, Brazen­head Books, into his New York City apart­ment after his book­shop rent sky­rock­et­ed. “It’s a con­tin­u­a­tion of just me being a book­seller in the way that I want to be… If it’s all about mon­ey, there’s just bet­ter things to sell. Just sell crack. That’s a much bet­ter busi­ness.” As for where he’s locat­ed, he says “My name is in the phone­book, and any­one can call me… I’m hid­ing in plain sight. Come find me, vis­it me, and I’m yours.”

A spe­cial h/t to Rachel Rosen­felt and The New Inquiry for first intro­duc­ing Wat­son (and us) to Brazen­wood Books.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Books Savored in Stop Motion Film

Going West: A Stop Motion Nov­el

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.

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Christopher Walken Reads “The Three Little Pigs”

in Comedy, Literature, Video - Arts & Culture | July 12th, 2011

You’ve heard him read Lady Gaga, you’ve seen him rem­i­nisce with his fel­low lov-ahs on Sat­ur­day Night Live, and you’ve heard him sub in for Leonard Lopate on the radio. But we’re not sure if any of Christo­pher Walken’s appear­ances can beat his dement­ed spin on “The Three Lit­tle Pigs.” Mr. Walken’s read­ing of the poten­tial­ly ter­ri­fy­ing sto­ry is unchar­ac­ter­is­ti­cal­ly jol­ly (he’s going for laughs, not chills), and we freely rec­om­mend it for chil­dren. Espe­cial­ly chil­dren from Brook­lyn.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Wern­er Her­zog Reads “Go the F**k to Sleep” in NYC (NSFW)

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.

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Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” for Eight Pianos

in Music, Video - Arts & Culture | June 28th, 2011

This fan­tas­tic ren­di­tion of Wag­n­er’s “Ride of the Valkyries” was record­ed at the tenth anniver­sary cel­e­bra­tion of the pres­ti­gious Ver­bier Fes­ti­val, and fea­tures eight of the world’s most respect­ed pianists — Evge­ny Kissin, Lang Lang, Emanuel Ax, Leif Ove And­snes, Claude Frank, Mikhail Plet­nev, Staffan Sche­ja, and James Levine. It’s just one of many stel­lar per­for­mances avail­able on this very well-regard­ed con­cert dvd.

Give the piece a lis­ten, espe­cial­ly if you’ve ever con­sid­ered “Valkyries” too over­bear­ing. The all-piano arrange­ment does full jus­tice to the music’s pow­er, while also reliev­ing some of its bom­bast. A def­i­nite win­ner. H/T @brainpicker

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Clas­si­cal Music: A His­to­ry Accord­ing to YouTube

How a Bach Canon Works. Bril­liant!

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.

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Sylvia Plath Reads “Daddy”

in Poetry, Video - Arts & Culture | June 17th, 2011

What do you get for the father who has every­thing? How about a healthy dose of canon­i­cal resent­ment, in the form of Sylvia Plath’s most famous poem, read by Plath her­self, from our list of Cul­tur­al Icons?

Or, if you’d pre­fer some­thing that says “I love you” with a lit­tle less ran­cor, you might want to go with a video that’s guar­an­teed to make him smile.

Hap­py Father’s Day!!!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Antho­ny Hop­kins Reads Dylan Thomas

Vir­ginia Woolf: Her Voice Recap­tured

Ernest Hem­ing­way Reads “In Harry’s Bar in Venice”

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.

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