Friendzone Linky

Fantastic, infuriating piece by David Roberts at Grist – is it possible to convince the American right wing that climate change is real? (Go on, take a wild guess.)

Vox: Three reasons why NZ has the best electoral system in the world. I could niggle with the details, but I’m genuinely pretty happy with the system we have here.

Opening credits for an imaginary Buffy animated series. So good! And packed with in-jokes.

Now here’s a treat: the entire film “Hopeless” is available to watch free on the NZ On Screen site! It’s kind of an NZ slacker comedy, but with so much heart to it, and a lovely shaggy-dog rhythm. I last watched it just a few years ago, and it held up very well I thought. Bookmark this one for a quiet moment, highly recommended!

David R pointed out to me that the “Star Wars minus the music” thing I linkied last week was just one of an amazing set of vids by the Auralnauts. Here’s an 18-minute reimagining of Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones, using redubbed dialogue and clever editing to tell a rather different tale. It is marvellous!

15-minute Firefly fan film that is apparently pretty good. (I haven’t watched it.)

That speech Emma Watson gave at the UN on feminism and how men need it too – it really is very good. (I have watched this one.)

And – because the website for it was actually tricky to find, google didn’t even give it to me the other day – here is the actual campaign site for He For She, which is the UN thing she’s promoting. I’ve signed up.

Wildlife photos of the year

Tumblr of beautiful, close-reading analysis of Gaiman’s Sandman. (I can’t handle these kind of animated images, but the content seemed good while I stayed.)

Soderbergh has a re-edited Raiders of the Lost Ark to force focus on the visual storytelling, shot composition, and other elements of what he calls “staging” (John Fouhy tipped me off on this first).

One of the highlights of my week at the moment is watching (a big chunk of) weekly comedy-news show, Last Week Tonight. Fronted by the divine John Oliver, this show has transcended the format pioneered by the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, producing lengthy explainers using archive-trawling and some investigation to really educate you about something that is genuinely worth getting grumpy about. It is a very special show. It airs Sunday night in the USA, then the big story gets uploaded to YouTube the next day so everyone can watch it. (It gets regionlocked out of the Uk for another 24 hours I think so their local affiliate can broadcast? Anyway.) And the big story is BIG. It is usually fifteen solid minutes of exploration into one story. If you haven’t jumped on the LWN train yet, start right here with this piece from the latest show on the Miss America Beauty Pageant. It does what you expect, and then does a whole bunch more stuff that you won’t expect, and it absolutely nails every aspect. Also, it’s funny as hell. Watch this, people!

Oliver, of course, is well-known to podcast aficionados for his co-host role in long-running comedy news thingy The Bugle. The Bugle has just had its first new episode since Oliver got really busy doing something or other – hopefully they’ll manage to keep them coming. Give it a listen!

And finally, this music video about horror movie monsters as high-school students going to prom is very, very good. And absolutely PACKED with gags and references. I caught heaps but I know I missed lots more. (The song is… forgettable.)

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