Month: October 2014

Halloween Linky

This has been blowing up on social media in the last few days, which tells me I should have put it in last week’s linky instead of holding it over for this Halloween special. It is one heck of a musical number: Cannibal Shia LaBeouf. (via Svend)

Good Guardian piece on the origins of Halloween.

Star Wars triple-header:
1. Site dedicated to tracking every single astromech droid (the squat rubbish-bin looking ones, like Artoo)
2. Every screen death in the original trilogy
3. Loads of close photo shots of the spaceship models from the films. Most of these pics were new to me.

A very fair evaluation of the phenomenon that was the Blair Witch Project, 15 years on.

I knew Scroobius Pip had started a podcast – but I didn’t know the guest after Zane Lowe was ALAN MOORE. (Thanks Angus D!)

Beautiful maps of space through the ages (via Maire)

And finally, in keeping with the day, an updated Monster Mash:

Goldblum Linky

Sheet music for Jeff Goldblum’s laugh from Jurassic Park.

My friend Warren’s new project is getting covered at the AVClub, choice. Lego recreations of famous film moments!

And here’s number three from the AVC – The Wire event at Paleyfest, featuring loads of cast members and David Simon, talking straight about the show. I haven’t watched this yet, one day…

How the public apology became a tool of power and privilege (via @saniac, whose description I also stole because why not)

Early camera tricks: headless photo portraits from the 1800s

Star Wars characters and vehicles, relocated to the contemporary world, embedded in arty B&W photography. Actually way better than I just made it sound.

And finally, Dawson’s Creek as performed by dachsunds wearing wigs.

History Linky

Old amigo Malcolm Craig, formerly of this parish but now back in that parish, has launched a new podcast (with a friend). It ties in more-or-less with the undergrad American history course they’re teaching at University of Edinburgh. First ep is about slavery, and is up now in all the usual podcasty places.

Urban design foolishness of the week: apparently the standard city street lane in the US is 12 feet. That is… very wide indeed. And it’s killing people.

Master Jedi David-R Kenobi advised me that the completely mad shot-by-shot recreation of Empire Strikes Back is now finished. He recommends the asteroid sequence, at 38 mins-ish. I just randomly clicked into several places, and of the bits I saw, the C3PO at 34:45 was my favourite. Perfection.

British military black ops teams planted fake evidence of black masses in Northern Ireland to convince people that paramilitaries were also Satanists, or something. (via Robert Whitaker)

Deadspin’s explainer for Gamergate is great. Because Gamergate is a mess. It started with dumb misogyny, grew, and currently claims to be a respectable movement for journalist ethics in computer games, but identifies the principal ethical dangers as “social justice warriors making games all feminist and stuff”. Or something. (The death threats continued of course.) But better than talking through the madness of Gamergate, this article also identifies the patterns sitting in here and how they are the future of the culture wars – when the Tea Party is made up of digital natives, these are the tactics they’ll use. A great read, if hugely frustrating.

I’ve linked before to the marvellous levitation photos of Natsumi Hayashi. I received an email: she’s got an Artsy page now, love from a person connected with Artsy. Artsy is a thing with artists where you can follow them, explore their work, buy prints etc. Check it out.

Predator: The Musical. The voices for all the supporting characters are perfect.

And finally, pretty sure this is indeed the worst cat ever. Certainly the least photogenic.

Misconception Linky

The world’s most contagious falsehoods – things that ain’t true that keep getting spread around… (via Steve Ellis)

Newsweek has a short piece on the Swedish pre-school adoption of a gender neutral pronoun. (via Jenni)

Nate Silver with some wisdom:

Adventure Time gets a gritty reboot that apparently tugs at the heartstrings if you know Adventure Time

New Yorker writer eagerly tells us why the Twin Peaks revival will suck: because every other revival sucks. Crucial flaw in his argument: no other revival has ever been entirely directed by David Lynch.

Cool comic by Toby Morris on just going out and creating stuff. His inspirational example: Flat 3, which I raved about last linky.

If you have some questions about feminism, the Womansplainer can help you. Very reasonable rates.

Anita Sarkeesian’s talk from XOXO, about the crazy harrassment she was subjected to for the crime of being a woman on the internet, is now up. It’s well worth watching. Not pleasant viewing, although there’s a positive atmosphere in the room and even a few jokes.

That leads into this piece – an epic no-holds-barred account by Kathy Sierra, who was targeted by online trolls, and one in particular. Essential, and somewhat bleak, reading.

And finally, this just got announced and it cheered me right up: Archie vs Predator

L-Boogie Linky

Talib Kweli writes a stirring defence of Lauryn Hill. I still remember listening to Miseducation for the first time, getting enraptured by it.

Comics that retell Lovecraft stories in one page. Only a few so far, but they’re all pretty great.

This is shaping up to be my most-shared tweet ever. I should have taken a better photo.

Via Gem Wilder – interview with special effects head about the intricate opening shot of Back To The Future:

BTTF – The Opening Scene – Kevin Pike Interview – Part 1 @Jamieswb from Jamie Benning on Vimeo.

JSTOR Daily – this looks great! Weekly feature articles on a range of subjects, plus daily blog posts that provide backstory to complex issues of the day, all linked in to scholarly articles within the JSTOR archive. Top of the line as I type: a detailed smackdown of that claim that couples who split the household chores have less sex.

Swedish scientists competing to sneak Dylan lyrics into their publications.

Five-and-a-half minutes of Reza Aslan smoothly taking apart the blind prejudice of CNN anchors trying to interview him.

Everyone seems to love this GE lightbulb ad starring Jeff Goldblum. It is pretty special.

Kiwi webseries Flat 3 has returned for another 6-episode season! I love this so much. Gleefully profane with loveable characters and just watch it watch it watch it. The new season starts with Episode 13:

And finally, this has to be seen to be believed – re-editing David Cameron word-by-word so he ends up rapping over the “Lose Yourself” beat. And the rapping is amazing. Loads of internal rhymes, great rhythm, some incredibly smart couplets, and brutally on-point. I am just in awe of this. If you haven’t seen it yet, watch it now. If you have seen it, watch it again, because it can never be watched too many times.