Tina Fey Brings Bossypants Tour to Google

in Books, Comedy | April 26th, 2011

A day after Pres­i­dent Oba­ma con­duct­ed his much pub­li­cized town hall meet­ing at Face­book, Tina Fey, the star of 30 Rock and the author of the new book Bossy­pants, head­ed to Google, just a few miles down the road.

Last May, Googlers had their riotous romp with Conan O’Brien. Now they get their 60 min­utes with anoth­er come­di­an who came of age on NBC. The con­ver­sa­tion led by Eric Schmidt teach­es you the secrets of improv, how to take pic­tures like a mod­el, the pros & cons of goof­ing on Sarah Palin, and why male and female com­e­dy writ­ers dif­fer in fun­da­men­tal­ly odd ways. Tina Fey is fun­ny. But some­times fun­nier is watch­ing Schmidt try­ing to keep the con­ver­sa­tion from going off the rails. Scroll to the 8:20 mark, and you’ll see what I mean.

Just an fyi: Tina Fey actu­al­ly nar­rates the audio­book ver­sion of Bossy­pants, and you can snag it for free through this Audible.com deal. Details here.

The Kitty Genovese Myth and the Popular Imagination

in Current Affairs, Video - Arts & Culture | April 25th, 2011

On Mon­day, April 18th a 22-year old woman named Chris­sy Lee Polis was severe­ly beat­en by two teenagers at a McDon­ald’s in Bal­ti­more, while sev­er­al bystanders watched and a McDon­ald’s employ­ee video­taped the whole inci­dent. Late last week, the video went viral, and now the employ­ee has been fired, the two girls (one of whom is only 14) are in cus­tody, and Polis is con­sid­er­ing a civ­il suit. The vic­tim, who is trans­gen­dered, told the Bal­ti­more Sun this week­end that she con­sid­ers the beat­ing a hate crime.

Mean­while, the inci­dent has elicit­ed sev­er­al com­par­isons to the famous 1964 case of Kit­ty Gen­ovese, a young woman who was stabbed to death in the court­yard of her New York City apart­ment build­ing while 38 neigh­bors watched and did noth­ing to help her. The wide­spread cov­er­age of her case had a huge impact on both pol­i­cy and the field of psy­chol­o­gy: The NYPD reformed its tele­phone report­ing sys­tem; researchers began study­ing the bystander effect and dif­fu­sion of respon­si­bil­i­ty; and the dead woman became a sym­bol of the dire con­se­quences of inac­tion.

One of the most ele­gant uses of that sym­bol­ism is the chap­ter (above) from the online motion com­ic based on the graph­ic nov­el Watch­men. Gen­ovese fig­ures promi­nent­ly in the ori­gin sto­ry of the superhero/antihero Wal­ter Joseph Kovacs, aka “Rorschach.” Rorschach con­structs both his iden­ti­ty and his cos­tume as a direct response to the pas­siv­i­ty and even cyn­i­cal voyeurism embod­ied by the neigh­bors who heard and watched her die.

But the actu­al reac­tions of the wit­ness­es to Kit­ty Gen­ovese’s mur­der were more com­pli­cat­ed than orig­i­nal­ly report­ed. It’s unlike­ly, for exam­ple, that any of the infa­mous 38 bystanders heard the entire crime, or real­ized its sever­i­ty in the moment. For a fas­ci­nat­ing account of the dis­crep­an­cies between the facts and myths of the case, you can lis­ten to this 2009 sto­ry on NPR, or read this 2007 arti­cle from Amer­i­can Psy­chol­o­gist (the link is to a PDF from the author’s web­site).

The Kit­ty Gen­ovese para­ble is no less moral­ly instruc­tive for being not quite accu­rate. The bystander effect is still real, the McDon­ald’s work­er’s deci­sion to tape the beat­ing last week rather than stop it is still rep­re­hen­si­ble. And of course, Rorschach is still one of the most right­eous dark avengers in pop­u­lar cul­ture. But it’s worth remem­ber­ing that we’re more like­ly to learn from our mis­takes when we dig for the truth, even — and per­haps espe­cial­ly — when the truth isn’t so sim­ple.

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

The Hourglass: A Short Film that Celebrates Time, Slowly

in Art, Video - Arts & Culture | April 25th, 2011

Marc New­son is one of the world’s most respect­ed, exhib­it­ed and award-win­ning design­ers. Accord­ing to his web­site, he’s also the most high­ly-val­ued. New­son’s pieces have set so many records at auc­tion that his work now accounts for almost 25% of the total con­tem­po­rary design mar­ket. It there­fore comes as no sur­prise that the hour­glass­es he has designed for Ike­pod’s reboot cost any­where from 9,000 to 13,000 Euros.

It’s tempt­ing to dis­miss Ike­pod’s new Hour­glass video as a sleek ad for an over­priced prod­uct, espe­cial­ly since that’s exact­ly what it is. But the video is also an ele­gant, visu­al­ly strik­ing trib­ute to a van­ish­ing world, in which time (and time­pieces) seemed to move more slow­ly.

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

The Soundtrack of the Universe

in Astronomy, Music, Science, Video - Science | April 25th, 2011

We think of space as a silent movie, some­thing we see but nev­er hear. Yet space cre­ates a sound­track of sorts (even if sound waves can’t real­ly trav­el through the cos­mos), and now sci­en­tists and musi­cians want to play that sound­track for you.

Ear­li­er this year, Jan­na Levin, Pro­fes­sor of Physics and Astron­o­my at Barnard College/Columbia Uni­ver­si­ty, described how we can math­e­mat­i­cal­ly mod­el the sounds made by black holes. Fast for­ward to the 10:27 mark of her TED Talk above, and you will hear what it sounds like when a lighter black hole falls into a heav­ier black hole. The lit­tle guy bangs against space, kind of like a drumb play­ing faster and faster … which brings us to Mick­ey Hart, a for­mer drum­mer for The Grate­ful Dead.

In 2010, Hart teamed up with George Smoot, a Nobel Prize-win­ning physi­cist at the Lawrence Berke­ley Nation­al Lab­o­ra­to­ry, to repro­duce the sound of The Big Bang and super­novas. (Berke­ley Labs post­ed this super­no­va clip above.) You can read more about the unlike­ly pair­ing and the “Rhythms of the Uni­verse” project here, then expe­ri­ence more celes­tial sounds recre­at­ed by Hart here.

A Perfect Springtime Animation: The Windmill Farmer by Joaquin Baldwin

in Art | April 24th, 2011

April may be the cru­elest month, mix­ing mem­o­ry and desire, etc. But Mr. Eliot nev­er depend­ed on sea­son­al change for his liveli­hood, except per­haps in the vaguest metaphor­i­cal sense. For a more uplift­ing take on spring, here’s The Wind­mill Farmer, a charm­ing short film by one of our favorite young ani­ma­tors.

Joaquin Bald­win, 27, earned his MFA at The UCLA Ani­ma­tion Work­shop. He was born in Paraguay to an envi­ron­men­tal activist moth­er and an artist father, and you can see the influ­ence of both voca­tions in his shorts, which have already won over 100 awards, and often have an envi­ron­men­tal theme. For more infor­ma­tion about his work and back­ground, check out our edi­tor’s 2010 write-up over at Brain­pick­ings. And enjoy those lilacs while they last.

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.

The Beatles: Live at Shea Stadium, 1965

in Music, Video - Arts & Culture | April 22nd, 2011

Here’s a Fri­day treat: The Bea­t­les’ 1965 con­cert at Shea Sta­di­um. At the time, this was the biggest rock con­cert in his­to­ry, with 12 cam­eras, a heli­copter fly­over, and 55,000 scream­ing fans. Best of all were the boys them­selves, still gid­dy enough about their own fame that they were crack­ing up on stage.

You can find a full set list for the show, and don’t miss John Lennon’s ter­rif­ic work on “Tick­et to Ride,” start­ing at minute 10:45. Just the day before, the band appeared on The Ed Sul­li­van Show for the fourth and final time, and we have the per­for­mance here in HD. Watched togeth­er, the two videos give a nice sense of how exhil­a­rat­ing Beat­le­ma­nia must have been.

The full Bea­t­les at Shea doc­u­men­tary (68 min­utes) can be watched over at Veoh.com.

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

Paul Simon’s Christmas Gets Animated in April

in Music | April 20th, 2011

So Beau­ti­ful or So What – Paul Simon’s 12th solo album (and his first release since 2006) hit the streets and ether last week. Crit­ics are call­ing it his best album since The Rhythm of the Saints (1990), if not Grace­land (1986). And it all starts out with “Get­ting Ready for Christ­mas Day,” a song that works well out­side the con­ven­tions of your usu­al Christ­mas song. As The Tele­graph reminds us, the song is over­whelm­ing­ly sec­u­lar, even a tad polit­i­cal:

I got a nephew in Iraq
It’s his third time back
But it’s end­ing up the way it began
With the luck of a begin­ner
He’ll be eat­ing turkey din­ner
On some moun­tain top in Pak­istan.

And it’s writ­ten by some­one out­side the Chris­t­ian faith, though that nev­er stopped Neil Dia­mond, Bar­bara Streisand or Car­ole King from knock­ing out a Christ­mas tune. If there is a spir­i­tu­al ele­ment, it per­haps comes down to this: Quite catchi­ly, the song’s cho­rus builds around excerpts from a 1941 ser­mon by the Rev. J.M. Gates, an influ­en­tial preach­er who became the most record­ed Gospel singer before World War II. Get more on Gates and his sam­pled ser­mon here.

Today, we’re offer­ing three videos that accom­pa­ny this song. First, a splen­did ani­ma­tion fea­tured above. Next, the offi­cial­ly released video. And final­ly a live per­for­mance record­ed on The Col­bert Report late last year.

Morgan Spurlock: The Greatest TED Talk Ever Sold

in Film, Media, TED Talks | April 19th, 2011

Mor­gan Spur­lock­’s newest doc­u­men­tary, The Great­est Movie Ever Sold, expos­es the myr­i­ad ways in which pop­u­lar media is almost whol­ly spon­sored, leased, bought and brand­ed by pow­er­ful cor­po­ra­tions. Iron­i­cal­ly — and inten­tion­al­ly — Spur­lock made sure his doc­u­men­tary would also be almost whol­ly spon­sored, leased, bought and brand­ed by pow­er­ful cor­po­ra­tions. In his very fun­ny TED talk, Spur­lock (Super Size Me, 30 Days) explains how he fur­thered his exper­i­ment in “pure trans­paren­cy” by encour­ag­ing spon­sor­ships of, you guessed it, his very fun­ny TED talk.

Con­fused? That’s because pure trans­paren­cy is a lot eas­i­er to envi­sion than exe­cute. Find out why start­ing at minute 6:18.

via TED

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.

Rare Footage: Home Movie of FDR’s 1941 Inauguration

in Film, History, Politics | April 19th, 2011

The vin­tage video above is an excerpt from a 16 mm home movie show­ing Pres­i­dent Franklin Delano Roo­sevelt on Jan­u­ary 20, 1941, the day of his Third Inau­gu­ra­tion. This silent col­or movie was shot by FDR’s son-in-law (Clarence) John Boet­tiger, who was then work­ing for the Motion Pic­ture Asso­ci­a­tion of Amer­i­ca, and the qual­i­ty of this rare footage is quite out­stand­ing. Watch the full 14-minute ver­sion here.

FDR can first be seen at 2:45, heav­i­ly sup­port­ed by his old­est son James. This is one of the rare moments on film where Roo­sevelt can actu­al­ly be seen walk­ing, and it’s obvi­ous how dif­fi­cult it was for him to walk after polio left him par­a­lyzed from the hips down in 1921. Next, FDR is seen on the pres­i­den­tial plat­form with his wife Eleanor and Chief Jus­tice Charles Evans Hugh­es, tak­ing the Oath of Office and giv­ing his Inau­gur­al Address. The full text of the address can be read cour­tesy of Yale Law School, and a high-res­o­lu­tion scan of the Inau­gu­ra­tion Cer­e­monies Pro­gram has been uploaded by The Library of Con­gress.

FDR was the first Amer­i­can pres­i­dent to suc­cess­ful­ly run for a third term due to the pre­car­i­ous inter­na­tion­al sit­u­a­tion in 1941. (Get the audio file of FDR’s State of the Union from Jan­u­ary 6, 1941 here). After George Wash­ing­ton declined to run for a third term in 1796, it had become an unwrit­ten rule to fol­low his lead. But it was not until the 22nd Amend­ment from 1947/1951 (“No per­son shall be elect­ed to the office of the Pres­i­dent more than twice.”) that this restric­tion was enshrined into law. FDR was, of course, elect­ed for a fourth term in 1945, but died of a mas­sive stroke on April 12, 1945.

By pro­fes­sion, Matthias Rasch­er teach­es Eng­lish and His­to­ry at a High School in north­ern Bavaria, Ger­many. In his free time he scours the web for good links and posts the best finds on Twit­ter.

The Discipline of D.E.: Gus Van Sant Adapts a Story by William S. Burroughs

in Film, Literature | April 19th, 2011

Fans of film­mak­er Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunt­ing, My Own Pri­vate Ida­ho, Milk) will love this 1982 short film – The Dis­ci­pline of D.E. – based on a sto­ry by William S. Bur­roughs. And fans of Bur­roughs him­self will par­tic­u­lar­ly love its theme: The “D.E.” in the title stands for “Doing Easy,” a qua­si-Bud­dhist notion best explained by the short­’s koan-like clos­ing ques­tion, “How fast can you take your time, kid?”

But it is to fans of Bur­roughs’ brief per­for­mance in the 1989 Van Sant clas­sic Drug­store Cow­boy that we ded­i­cate this post. Play­ing the kind, ruined dope-fiend Father Mur­phy — i.e. him­self — Bur­roughs per­fect­ly embod­ied both the allure of his junky aes­thet­ic and its under­ly­ing despair. In the six years between The Dis­ci­pline of D.E. and Drug­store Cow­boy, Van Sant seemed to have trad­ed his youth­ful infat­u­a­tion with a cult hero for the mourn­ful appre­ci­a­tion of a wise but bro­ken man. We high­ly rec­om­mend view­ing both films togeth­er.

Final­ly, in our col­lec­tion of Free Movies Online, you will also find Bur­roughs the Movie (a doc­u­men­tary by Howard Bruck­n­er) and The Junky’s Christ­mas, a short clay­ma­tion film writ­ten by William S. Bur­roughs and pro­duced by Fran­cis Ford Cop­po­la.

via Dan­ger­ous Minds

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.