Ira Glass, the Host of This American Life, Breaks Down the Fine Art of Storytelling

Since 1995, Ira Glass has host­ed and pro­duced This Amer­i­can Life (iTunes — Feed — Web Site), the award-win­ning radio show that presents mas­ter­ful­ly-craft­ed sto­ries to almost 2 mil­lion lis­ten­ers each week. What’s the secret sauce that goes into mak­ing a great sto­ry, par­tic­u­lar­ly one primed for radio or TV? Glass spells it out in four parts. Watch them all above.

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:

Lis­ten to Ira Glass’ 10 Favorite Episodes of This Amer­i­can Life

Ira Glass’ Advice on Achiev­ing Cre­ative Excel­lence Pre­sent­ed in Two Art­ful, Typo­graph­ic Videos

Ira Glass on the Art and Craft of Telling Great Radio Sto­ries

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The Photography of The Sartorialist & Musings on the Creative Life

In the lat­est video appear­ing in Intel’s Visu­al Life series, we get a look inside the cre­ative approach of Scott Schu­man, the edi­tor of the very pop­u­lar fash­ion pho­tog­ra­phy blog The Sar­to­ri­al­ist. On the sur­face, this is all about how an influ­en­tial fash­ion pho­tog­ra­ph­er goes about his craft. But the mes­sage – it’s more about doing and refin­ing your per­son­al approach, than for­mal school­ing – eas­i­ly extends to most any oth­er artis­tic endeav­or. Along sim­i­lar lines, if you’re look­ing for insight into the cre­ative process, you will want to revis­it come­di­an John Cleese talk­ing about The Ori­gins of Cre­ativ­i­ty itself…

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“They Were There” — Errol Morris Finally Directs a Film for IBM

In the late 1990s, Errol Mor­ris, the acclaimed direc­tor, was hired to make a film for an “in house” con­fer­ence of IBM employ­ees. Even­tu­al­ly IBM can­celed the con­fer­ence, and the film was scrapped. (Watch a clip of it here.) Now more than a decade lat­er, IBM has brought Mor­ris back, this time to direct a film meant to com­mem­o­rate the 100th anniver­sary of the com­pa­ny’s found­ing. The 30-minute film, They Were There, appears on IBM’s YouTube Chan­nel, and it notably fea­tures music by Philip Glass.

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:

Novem­ber 22, 1963: Watch Errol Mor­ris’ Short Doc­u­men­tary About the Kennedy Assas­si­na­tion

Film­mak­er Errol Mor­ris Gives Us “11 Excel­lent Rea­sons Not to Vote?”

Errol Mor­ris Med­i­tates on the Mean­ing and His­to­ry of Abra­ham Lincoln’s Last Pho­to­graph

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Don’t You Eva Interrupt Me While I’m Reading a Book!

This is for every read­er out there who gets the basic sen­ti­ment. A bit of ran­dom silli­ness, cour­tesy of YouTu­ber Julian Smith.

via The New York­er

MIT’s Vintage 1970 Calculus Courses Now Online … And Still Handy

Long ago, long before MIT hatched plans for its Open­Course­Ware ini­tia­tive and lat­er edX, the uni­ver­si­ty taped a lec­ture series cov­er­ing the equiv­a­lent of a fresh­man-lev­el cal­cu­lus course. Released in 1970, the intro­duc­to­ry class taught by Her­bert Gross was suit­ed for any stu­dent brush­ing up on his/her cal­cu­lus, or learn­ing the sub­ject for the first time. MIT has now revived the lec­ture series, called “Cal­cu­lus Revis­it­ed: Sin­gle Vari­able Cal­cu­lus,” along with two more advanced cours­es. Although times have changed, cal­cu­lus remains the same. And you’ll still find the series to be quite handy.

  • Cal­cu­lus Revis­it­ed: Sin­gle Vari­able Cal­cu­lus (1970) – YouTube — iTunes Video – Web Site
  • Cal­cu­lus Revis­it­ed: Mul­ti­vari­able Cal­cu­lus (1970) – YouTube – iTunes Video – Web
  • Cal­cu­lus Revis­it­ed: Com­plex Vari­ables, Dif­fer­en­tial Equa­tions, and Lin­ear Alge­bra (1972) — YouTube — iTunes Video — Web

The cours­es are also list­ed in the Math sec­tion of our Free Online Course col­lec­tion (where you’ll find many oth­er calc cours­es)…

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Free: Richard Feynman’s Physics Lec­tures from Cor­nell (1964)

Cal­cu­lus Life­saver: A Free Online Course from Prince­ton

MIT Intro­duces Com­plete Cours­es to Open­Course­Ware Project

Beyond the Still: The Largest Online Collaborative Film Contest

A year ago, Canon launched a con­test called “The Sto­ry Beyond the Still,” which encour­aged pho­tog­ra­phers to become film­mak­ers, and help view­ers see “beyond the still” image. Fast for­ward twelve months and we have the final result: A col­lab­o­ra­tive film, now being pre­miered at the Sun­dance Film Fes­ti­val, that stitch­es togeth­er “chap­ters” (or film sequences) cre­at­ed by six con­test-win­ning artists, all under the direc­tion of Vin­cent Laforet. Each chap­ter ends with a still image that cre­ates the jump­ing-off point for the next chap­ter, giv­ing one artist the chance to pick up where a pre­vi­ous artist left off. The com­plete col­lab­o­ra­tive film (above) runs 37 min­utes. You can find more con­test-win­ning video on Vimeo right here.

via @webacion

Watch Alexander Calder Perform His “Circus,” a Toy Theatre Piece Filled With Amazing Kinetic Wire Sculptures

Alexan­der “Sandy” Calder (1898 – 1976) was one of Amer­i­ca’s fore­most mod­ern artists, inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized for his inven­tion of the mobile and his large-scale sculp­tures. At the age of eight, he start­ed work­ing with wire to make kinet­ic sculp­ture (one of his first was a small duck that would rock when pushed, done at the age of 11). Although he became an engi­neer and worked a vari­ety of jobs, he even­tu­al­ly enrolled in The Art Stu­dents League of New York. While there, he worked for the Nation­al Police Gazette, cov­er­ing, among oth­er things, the Rin­gling Broth­ers and Bar­num & Bai­ley Cir­cus­es.

Calder had a life­long fas­ci­na­tion with the cir­cus and, upon mov­ing to Paris in 1926, he cre­at­ed the Cirque Calder, a col­lec­tion of wire sculp­tures with com­plex mech­a­nisms allow­ing them to move and do var­i­ous tricks.  His first show­ing of his cir­cus was to fam­i­ly and friends, but his pop­u­lar­i­ty grew and he was soon giv­ing shows last­ing two hours in Paris and New York.  It was then that his artis­tic recog­ni­tion spread, and he enjoyed a pro­lif­ic career until his death in 1976. The video above comes to us via The Whit­ney Muse­um in NYC, which pre­sent­ed an exhi­bi­tion called “Alexan­der Calder: The Paris Years, 1926–1933” in 2008-09. And we also rec­om­mend watch­ing the 1961 short film, Le Cirque de Calder, where he talks about his toy-like cre­ations.

This is the first of hope­ful­ly many guest posts by Adri­enne Rum­sey.

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!

The State of Wikipedia Animated

Amidst the cel­e­bra­tion of Wikipedi­a’s 10th anniver­sary, Jim­my Wales has nar­rat­ed an ani­mat­ed his­to­ry of the web-based ency­clo­pe­dia, and where he sees it head­ing in the future. One place you can expect to find Wikipedia going (some­thing slight­ly hint­ed at here) is the class­room. In the months ahead, look for Wikipedia to devel­op an “open edu­ca­tion­al resource plat­form” that will help stu­dents make bet­ter use of Wikipedia in the class­room, if not con­tribute to writ­ing stronger articles/entries. The Wired Cam­pus has more on this new ini­tia­tive com­ing down the pike.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Big Thinkers on Wikipedia’s 10th Anniver­sary

John Wayne: 26 Free Western Films Online

westofthedivide1

32 years after his death, John Wayne (né Mar­i­on Mor­ri­son) remains a tremen­dous­ly pop­u­lar movie star. Accord­ing to a Har­ris Poll tak­en ear­li­er this month (Jan­u­ary 2011), Amer­i­cans still rank The Duke as their third most favorite actor, putting him right behind John­ny Depp and Den­zel Wash­ing­ton. No doubt about it, the leg­end of John Wayne con­tin­ues to grow. And hap­pi­ly you can find a gold mine of John Wayne West­ern films online – all free. Today, we have pulled togeth­er a list of 25 films that span five decades of work, mov­ing from the 1930s to the 1970s. You can find them all oth­er­wise list­ed in our col­lec­tion of Free Movies Online.

  • Angel and the Bad­man Free — A black and white West­ern star­ring John Wayne and Gail Rus­sell. Con­sid­ered a rad­i­cal depar­ture from the West­ern genre at the time. Find Inter­net Archive ver­sion here. (1947)
  • Blue Steel – Free – John Wayne plays a U.S. Mar­shal try­ing to cap­ture the Pol­ka Dot Ban­dit. Some con­sid­er it the best of the John Wayne Lone Star films. (1934)
  • Born to the WestFree — Can Dare Rudd prove he is respon­si­ble enough to win the heart of Judy and also out­wit the crooked saloon own­er? Stars John Wayne, Mar­sha Hunt and John Mack Brown.
  • Fron­tier Hori­zon - Free — The Three Mes­que­teers try to pre­vent whole­sale slaugh­ter in this fine Repub­lic West­ern. Stars John Wayne, Ray “Crash” Cor­ri­g­an, and Ray­mond Hat­ton. (1939)
  • Hell­town — Free — Orig­i­nal­ly called “Born to the West,” this John Wayne West­ern was based on a nov­el by Zane Grey, an impor­tant author of West­ern nov­els. (1937)
  • McLin­tock! — Free — Com­e­dy West­ern star­ring John Wayne and Mau­reen O’Hara. Loose­ly based on Shakespeare’s The Tam­ing of the Shrew. (1963)
  • ‘Neath the Ari­zona Skies — Free — John Wayne plays a cow­boy pro­tect­ing an oil-land heiress. (1934)
  • Par­adise Canyon — Free — Fea­tures Wayne as “gov­ern­ment agent John Wyatt who search­es for a coun­ter­feit ring oper­at­ing on the Mexican/Arizona bor­der.” (1935)
  • Rain­bow Val­leyFree — John Mar­tin (John Wayne) is a “gov­ern­ment agent work­ing under cov­er. Lead­ing cit­i­zen Mor­gan calls in gun­man Butch Galt (Buf­fa­lo Bill Jr.) who blows Mar­t­in’s cov­er.” Find the YouTube ver­sion here. (1935)
  • Randy Rides Alone – Free – Jailed for mur­ders he didn’t com­mit, Randy Bow­ers (John Wayne) escapes only to stum­ble into the den of the real mur­der­ers. Enter­tain­ing ear­ly Wayne West­ern. (1934)
  • Rid­ers of Des­tiny -FreeJohn Wayne por­trays Sin­gin’ Sandy Saun­ders and has a rep­u­ta­tion as the most noto­ri­ous gun­man since Bil­ly the Kid. Wayne was the first singing cow­boy, but his singing was dubbed, and it was the last time he “sang” in a West­ern. (1933)
  • Sage­brush Trail — Free — John Wayne plays John Brant who escapes from jail after being wrong­ly accused of mur­der. Fea­tures great stage­coach chase. (1933)
  • Texas Ter­ror — Free – A young John Wayne in a roman­tic West­ern. (1935)
  • The Dawn Rid­er Free — John Wayne plays John Mason, a man aveng­ing his father’s mur­der. A West­ern direct­ed by Robert Brad­bury. (1935)
  • The Desert Trail Free — Ear­ly West­ern with John Wayne. Accord­ing to West­ern­Clip­pings, not Wayne’s finest hour. (1935)
  • The Law­less Fron­tier Free – B West­ern star­ring John Wayne and direct­ed by Robert Brad­bury. (1934)
  • The Lucky Tex­an Free — Jer­ry Mason (played by John Wayne) and Jake Ben­son become part­ners and strike it rich with a gold mine. (1934)
  • The Man From Utah Free – The Mar­shal sends John West­on (John Wayne) to a “rodeo to see if he can find out who is killing the rodeo rid­ers who are about to win prize mon­ey.” (1934)
  • The Range FeudFree — Clint Turn­er is arrest­ed for the mur­der of his girl­friend Judy’s father, a rival ranch­er who was an ene­my of his own father. Stars John Wayne and Buck Jones. (1931)
  • The Star Pack­er Free – “A gang work­ing for ‘The Shad­ow’ is ter­ror­iz­ing the town. John Tra­vers (John Wayne) decides to take on the job of sher­iff and do some­thing about it.” (1934)
  • The Trail Beyond — Free – West­ern star­ring John Wayne, Noah Beery, Sr., and Noah Beery, Jr. (1934)
  • Two Fist­ed Law - Free — After Rob Rus­sell steals Tim Clark’s ranch, Clark starts prospect­ing for sil­ver. Stars John Wayne and Tim McCoy. (1932)
  • War of the Wild­cats Free – John Wayne stars in a West­ern also released under the title In Old Okla­homa. One of Wayne’s bet­ter post-Stage­coach per­for­mances. (1943)
  • West of the Divide – Free – A young John Wayne in a B West­ern. (1934)
  • Winds of the Waste­landFree — The arrival of the tele­graph put Pony Express rid­ers like John Blair (John Wayne) and his pal Smoky (Lane Chan­dler) out of work they try to start a stage­coach route through a ghost town. A rival stage­coach com­pa­ny tries to stop them. (1936)

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!

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The Poetry of Photographer Milton Rogovin

Before the week comes to an offi­cial close, we want­ed to remem­ber and cel­e­brate the life of Mil­ton Rogovin, a social doc­u­men­tary pho­tog­ra­ph­er who, in the tra­di­tion of Walk­er Evans, used his cam­era to cham­pi­on the under­priv­i­leged — the work­ing poor and the under­class­es liv­ing in the Unit­ed States and beyond. He died this past week at the old age of 101. The New York Times revis­its his work in this obit­u­ary, and the short video above gives you a glimpse of the man and his body of work.

Sundance Film Festival 2011 on YouTube’s Screening Room

A quick note for film afi­ciona­dos: The 2011 edi­tion of the Sun­dance Film Fes­ti­val is now under­way. And over the next two weeks, The YouTube Screen­ing Room will bring you short films from fes­ti­vals past and present. Right now, you can watch four new films by up-and-com­ing direc­tors – 8 Bits, Andy and Zach, The High Lev­el Bridge, and Skateis­tan: To Live and Skate in Kab­ul (above). More new films will be added on Jan­u­ary 27th and Feb­ru­ary 3rd. In the mean­time, you can catch sev­er­al oth­er short films that orig­i­nal­ly played at Sun­dance, or were made by Sun­dance Insti­tute alum­ni.

via Switched.com

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