“Sunset Portraits, From 8,462,359 Sunset Pictures on Flickr, 12/21/10”. A photo illustration by Penelope Umbrico for The New York Times. I’ve probably become inured to news images, but this was one of those rare ones that stopped me in my tracks. If there were a print of this, I’d probably buy it. Cyberspace When You’re Dead.
“This ongoing experiment in film writing freezes a film at 10, 40, and 70 minutes, and keeps the commentary as close to those frames as possible.” I’ve only read the 10/40/70 on Moon (which I liked), but this seems like a really cool series.
There are two ways of walking through a wood. The first is to try one of several routes (so as to get out of the wood as fast as possible, say, or to reach the house of grandmother, Tom Thumb, or Hansel and Gretel); the second is to walk so as to discover what the wood is like and find out why some paths are accessible and others are not. Similarly, there are two ways of going through a narrative text.
In response to the The New York Times’ Cheney layout gaffe, a reader writes:
I still have a copy of the New York Times from August 8, 1974 — one day before Richard Nixon resigned the presidency. On the front page at the bottom is a photo of Nixon, walking from the Executive Office Building to the White House, juxtaposed with an article headlined, “Many Mental Patients Simply Walk Out.”
Read more here.
Life gets a lot easier when you give up being outwardly sad about anything.
Sabotage. I’ll give Hitchcock credit for starting off in a snappy manner without much preamble, but my attention drifted a good bit here and there. Especially after the heartless, classic package delivery scene, which is both an impossible-to-beat mid-story climax and a colossal waste of time. It’s also really effective, even if you know what’s coming. I kind of resent Hitchcock’s skill at jerking my emotional chain for a few minutes, and then leaving me not caring very much when the moment passes. To his credit, he came to regret the scene later in his career as he developed as a storyteller.
My updated Hitchcock rankings:
Life gets a lot easier when you give up being outwardly sad about anything.
To find out who “you” are, focus not on your intentions but on how to interpret your behaviors.
“Is Eastwood an exploitation filmmaker with aspirations to importance, or an artist who uses violent action to entice viewers into experiencing his films’ more complex aspects?” Part two.
Winning in sport matters because it doesn’t matter in any grander scheme. Because nothing beyond a game rests on which team scores the most runs, we can give it our all without having to consider anything else. Our team is righteous, our opponent is craven precisely because nothing outside the field of play is at stake.
Company Man: Why Bud Selig Is Wrong For Baseball & Why It Doesn’t Matter by Ben Birdsall
Counterpunch: History Robs Tom Molineaux by Graydon Gordian – Norman Einstein’s Sports & Rocket Science Monthly. The tale of a boxing match in 1810.
“Is Eastwood an exploitation filmmaker with aspirations to importance, or an artist who uses violent action to entice viewers into experiencing his films’ more complex aspects?” Part two.
So at the end of just about every year since 2000, I’ve rounded up my favorite (mainly cultural) stuff of the previous 12 months and posted it online. Here are my picks for 2010, which I’ll soon be adding to my permanent Annual Favorites page.
Aside from the great idea of keeping a running annual favorites page, I also appreciate Stephen’s inclusion of museum collections/exhibitions and wines. I keep telling myself I need to keep a beer/whiskey/etc. journal.
wehr:
Amy Stein | Photography | Blog: A Few Questions for Jo Ann Walters
Wow. Check out the whole set.
When I see great portraiture like the stuff here, I am reminded how rare it really is. I was not expecting it to be so good.
wehr:
Amy Stein | Photography | Blog: A Few Questions for Jo Ann Walters
Wow. Check out the whole set.
When I see great portraiture like the stuff here, I am reminded how rare it really is. I was not expecting it to be so good.
Haikus found in the leaked cables. “As is typical, / the Pope stayed above the fray / and did not comment.” (via) Other found poetry-type stuff I’ve enjoyed.
Mark Larson 