One Year in 40 seconds

in Random | December 29th, 2008

Here’s what it looks like if you plant a cam­era in the same loca­tion for one year and snap pho­tos through­out the chang­ing sea­sons. Video is strik­ing but ran­dom. So we’re fil­ing it under “Ran­dom.”

Remembering Harold Pinter

in Theatre | December 26th, 2008

Harold Pin­ter, the Nobel Prize-win­ning play­wright, died in Lon­don on Wednes­day. As The New York Times obit men­tions, when Pin­ter won the Nobel in 2005, his declin­ing health pre­vent­ed him from attend­ing the awards cer­e­mo­ny in Stock­holm. Instead, he gave his accep­tance lec­ture  — “Art, Truth & Pol­i­tics” — via a record­ed video, which we’re post­ing below. (You can also watch it on the Nobel web site here or alter­na­tive­ly read the tran­script.) The speech runs a good 45 min­utes.

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Christmas Eve in the Trenches, 1914: When Warring Sides Laid Down Their Arms & Joined Each Other in Song

in History, Music | December 23rd, 2008

Right in time for Christ­mas Eve…

World War I was a relent­less­ly grind­ing and bru­tal war. Europe had nev­er expe­ri­enced any­thing like it. But there was one notable moment of respite, a brief moment when human­i­ty showed back through. Christ­mas Eve, 1914. The mov­ing sto­ry of what hap­pened that night gets recount­ed in John McCutcheon’s touch­ing song, Christ­mas in the Trench­es. The video below includes the back­sto­ry and the song itself. You can also watch a live per­for­mance here, and get the lyrics here. Hap­py hol­i­days to all. And thanks Sheryl for the tip.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

E‑Books Finally Here to Stay?

in Books | December 23rd, 2008

The New York Times thinks that e‑books may have final­ly turned the cor­ner in 2008. The Kin­dle is sold out until Feb­ru­ary (which mess­es up my Christ­mas plans). Sales of Sony’s e‑book read­er have tripled over last sea­son. And we’re now see­ing e‑books hit the best­seller list. The dig­i­tal age for books may be upon us.

David Lynch on His Favorite Movies and Filmmakers

in Film | December 22nd, 2008

In a quick 59 sec­onds, David Lynch tells you the films and film­mak­ers that he likes best (see below). In equal­ly suc­cinct videos, though with a bit more salty lan­guage (read: lan­guage that’s not ide­al for work), Lynch also gives you his thoughts on prod­uct place­ment and the whole con­cept of watch­ing a movie on an iPhone. 

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The Nepotism Special

in Music | December 22nd, 2008

Here it goes:

Woody Allen on The Dick Cavett Show Circa 1970

in Comedy, Television | December 11th, 2008

Bad clothes, real­ly bad TV sets, not so good hair, and some briefly good com­e­dy — that’s what you get when Woody Allen hits the Dick Cavett Show in or around 1970. Watch it below, and get oth­er seg­ments here, here, and here. And find it on our YouTube Favorites.

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Google Brings Magazines To The Web

in Google, Media | December 10th, 2008

Just last month, Google announced that it was bring­ing the mas­sive LIFE Mag­a­zine pho­to archive online. Two mil­lion pho­tos are already uploaded, and anoth­er 8 mil­lion will be com­ing online soon.

This week, they’ve made a new announce­ment. The upshot? Google has reached an agree­ment with mag­a­zine pub­lish­ers to dig­i­tize their his­tor­i­cal archives. This will bring mil­lions of arti­cles to the web, and you’ll be able to access them through Google Book Search. Old media keeps com­ing over to new media.

Among the titles, you’ll find New York Mag­a­zine, Pop­u­lar Sci­ence, Pop­u­lar Mechan­ics, Moth­er Jones, Run­ners World, Ebony, Men’s Health, Veg­e­tar­i­an Times and more.

PS Google has also post­ed the top search terms of 2008. It’s a win­dow into the Zeit­geist. Have a look.

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Radio Free World

in Media | December 9th, 2008

Radio­Be­ta is a newish ven­ture that allows you to reach radio sta­tions around the globe, to cre­ate your per­son­al playlists, and lis­ten to them for free. Just search by geog­ra­phy or genre, and then start lis­ten­ing in the play­er on Radio­Be­ta’s web­site.

Obvi­ous­ly, you will encounter many sta­tions on Radio­Be­ta broad­cast­ing in a for­eign lan­guage. To learn a new lan­guage, please vis­it our col­lec­tion How to Learn Lan­guages for Free: Span­ish, Eng­lish, Chi­nese & 37 Oth­er Lan­guages, and you’ll be on your way.

via Life­hack­er

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Footage of Nietzsche’s Final Days

in Philosophy | December 7th, 2008

Niet­zsche’s final days weren’t ones that you’d wish on any­one. Some biog­ra­phers spec­u­late that he con­tract­ed syphilis, which even­tu­al­ly trig­gered his decline into mad­ness in 1899. Two strokes fol­lowed, then pneu­mo­nia and it was all over in August, 1900. The footage below is appar­ent­ly from 1899, and we’re now adding it to our YouTube Favorites, which cur­rent­ly has 399. Who wants to put it over 400?
 

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