Happy Birthday to legendary footballer and amateur filmmaker Jacques Tati!
"Books are, let’s face it, better than everything else. If we played cultural Fantasy Boxing League, and made books go 15 rounds in the ring against the best that any other art form had to offer, then books would win pretty much every time. Go on, try it. The Magic Flute v. Middlemarch? Middlemarch in six. The Last Supper v. Crime and Punishment? Fyodor on point. And every now and again you’d get a shock, because that happens in sport, so Back to the Future III might land a lucky punch on Rabbit, Run; but I’m still backing literature 29 times out of 30."
—
Nick Hornby
“For ten years we had all been told to go out and die for freedom and democracy; but now the war was over, The Red Shoes told us to go out and die for art.” — Michael Powell
(Source: strangewood)
William Faulkner resigns from his job at the post office...
October, 1924
As long as I live under the capitalistic system, I expect to have my life influenced by the demands of moneyed people. But I will be damned if I propose to be at the beck and call of every itinerant scoundrel who has two cents to invest in a postage stamp.
This, sir, is my resignation.
(Signed by Faulkner)
(Source: vintageanchorbooks)
Once in a while you come across a YouTube video with “No description available” and you just go… “You’re goddamn right, no description available.”
(Source: youtube.com)
NPR’s Lost and Found slide show of old color photos dating back to the 1930s taken by Charles Cushman is magical. Grade A internet.
60 Years of Presidential Attack Ads, in One Video
Thanks to a retrospective from Museum of the Moving Image, which compiled dozens of presidential campaign spots from 1952 through 2008, viewers can dive deep into the fascinating history of a unique stripe of advertising. David Schwartz, chief curator at the museum, breaks them down by year, type, and issue, providing background on the impact of certain groundbreaking spots. For the short attention span of today, we’ve created a montage of excerpts, focusing on negative ads and including two spots from the 2012 contenders, taken from their YouTube channels.
"When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at 4:00 am and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for 10km or swim for 1500m (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at 9:00 pm. I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind. But to hold to such repetition for so long — six months to a year — requires a good amount of mental and physical strength. In that sense, writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity."
— Haruki Murakami’s daily routine. Also see Murakami on writing and running, then dive deeper with his What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. (via explore-blog)
(Source: , via explore-blog)
The entire Criterion Collection in 2.5 minutes.
