Just what happens to your brain when that daily cup of joe kicks in? Lifehacker has pulled together a nice little primer based on research appearing in Stephen R. Braun’s book, Buzz: The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine. The post also references a short video – “A Brain On Caffeine” – from CurrentTV. It’s re-presented above.
Eudora Welty on “A Worn Path”
First published in The Atlantic Monthly in February 1940, “A Worn Path” is perhaps Eudora Welty’s most prized piece of short fiction. In this video, Welty talks with dramatist Beth Henley about the writing of the famous short story. The two women, it’s worth noting, share a good deal in common. Both are Pulitzer Prize winners who have their common roots in Jackson, Mississippi. Thanks to Mike S. for sending our way…
William Faulkner Audio Archive Goes Online
Image by Carl Van Vechten, via Wikimedia Commons
In 1957 and 1958, the great American writer William Faulkner spent two years as Writer-in-Residence at the University of Virginia. During this stint, he presented several public speeches, gave many readings from his literary works, spoke at countless public events, and answered questions from hundreds of students. The talks were originally recorded on reel-to-reel tapes, and now UVA has digitized the audio collection and made it available through a new web site: Faulkner at Virginia: An Audio Archive. In total, the archive presents 1690 minutes (over 28 hours) of Faulkner recordings. It also includes an archive of photos and newspaper items, as well as an audio recording of a press conference the English department gave when Faulkner died on July 6, 1962. A real treasure. You can dive into the audio trove right here.
Note: To access the audio, you will need a QuickTime player. If your browser doesn’t already support QuickTime, you can download a free QuickTime plug-in here.
Jimi Hendrix Plays “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” Days After the Song Was Released (1967)
When playing a concert in San Francisco in July 2010, Paul McCartney recalled for his audience how the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in June, 1967. The album came out on a Friday, and by Sunday night, Jimi Hendrix learned the songs and opened his own show with a cover of the title track. It would have looked something like this. Watch above. And watch out for your ears!
Related Content:
Deconstructing The Master Track of The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
The Beatles: Unplugged Collects Acoustic Demos of White Album Songs (1968)
In 1969 Telegram, Jimi Hendrix Invites Paul McCartney to Join a Super Group with Miles Davis
Jimi Hendrix’s Final Interview on September 11, 1970: Listen to the Complete Audio
Snagging Free Hitchcock and Fritz Lang Movies Online
Yesterday, we told you where to find Andrei Tarkovsky’s great films online. Meanwhile, over at Brain Pickings, we wrote a guest piece highlighting where you can watch 15 films (all free, of course) directed by Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang, two great directors whose careers moved in parallel from the silent era, to sound movies, and from Europe to Hollywood. Along the way you will encounter some landmark films – Metropolis, The 39 Steps, The Lodger, and M, to name a few. These movies (all in the public domain) and nearly 200 others reside in our collection of Free Movies.
The Civil War & Reconstruction: A Free Course from Yale University
The Civil War was a watershed moment in US history, and it figures centrally in any American history curriculum. If you missed this course during high school or college, not to worry. Now, thanks to Yale University, you can revisit this historical moment with Prof. David Blight, one of the nation’s leading Civil War scholars. The Civil War and Reconstruction “explores the causes, course, and consequences of the American Civil War, from the 1840s to 1877,” looking at how the United States was transformed on multiple levels: racially, socially, politically, constitutionally and morally. You can access the 27 free lectures, presented in audio and video, via YouTube, iTunes, and the Yale web site (plus a syllabus). We also have it on the list of our Free History Courses, a subset of our collection 1,700 Free Online Courses from Top Universities.
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Watch Andrei Tarkovsky’s Films Free Online: Stalker, The Mirror & Andrei Rublev
The stench of Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine shouldn’t taint everything Russian, especially some of its finest cinema. So we’ll give you this heads up: Mosfilm, the largest and oldest film studio in Russia, has posted several major films by Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–1986), on its official YouTube channel. Above, you can watch Stalker, which we’ve covered amply here on Open Culture. Below, stream The Mirror, Andrei Rublev, and Ivan’s Childhood.
The Mirror
Andrei Rublev
Solaris
Ivan’s Childhood
If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newsletter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bundled in one email, each day.
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!
Related Content:
The Masterful Polaroid Pictures Taken by Filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky
Tarkovsky’s Advice to Young Filmmakers: Sacrifice Yourself for Cinema
Slavoj Žižek Explains the Artistry of Andrei Tarkovsky’s Films: Solaris, Stalker & More
Watch Stalker, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mind-Bending Masterpiece Free Online
Andrei Tarkovsky’s Masterpiece Stalker Gets Adapted into a Video Game
Roman Polanski on Making Chinatown
This morning, the Swiss rejected US requests to extradite Roman Polanksi. This decision effectively brings to a close a rather dark chapter in his personal life and lets the conversation return to his filmmaking. Enter our video above, which features Polanski talking about the making of Chinatown, his 1974 neo-noir film, starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston, that landed eleven Academy Award nominations. Thanks Mike for sending this our way…
Three Minute Philosophy — Immanuel Kant
File under comedy. It’s slightly cheeky, at times little crass, but how often do the comedy and philosophy worlds collide? I mean, really?
S. Peter Davis also has three minute takes on Descartes, Hume, Aristotle, Locke, Galileo, Pythagoras, and Aquinas.
via Metafilter
A Brief, Artistic Introduction to Nikola Tesla
This weekend marked the 154th birthday of Nikola Tesla, the Serbian/Croatian emigre whose work on electromagnetism and electromechanical engineering contributed to the birth of commercial electricity. Especially during the past year, his name has regained a fair amount of currency, not least because there’s a very sporty electric roadster now named after him. In honor of his birthday, the clip above gives a very quick and artistic introduction to Tesla’s life and work …
The Monty Python Philosophy Football Match: The Greeks v. the Germans
Today, we’re revisiting a classic Monty Python skit. The scene is the 1972 Munich Olympics. The event is a football/soccer match, pitting German philosophers against Greek philosophers. On the one side, the Germans — Hegel, Nietzsche, Kant, Marx and, um, Franz Beckenbauer. On the other side, Archimedes, Socrates, Plato and the rest of the gang. The referee? Confucius. On May 9, this match was recreated by The Philosophy Shop, a group dedicated to promoting philosophy among primary schoolchildren. The Telegraph gives you more details.
Meanwhile, on a more serious note, you can download free philosophy courses in audio & video. Just visit our post, Download 90 Free Philosophy Courses and Start Living the Examined Life, to get started…
Related Content:
Monty Python’s Best Philosophy Sketches
Noam Chomsky Slams Žižek and Lacan: Empty ‘Posturing’
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