Yesterday I listened carefully to the fireworks. They were very loud. But I was working so I didn’t see anything. Listening was actually quite fun though, once I realized what they were and that the world wasn’t ending.
Celebrate the fact that the world isn’t ending with these educational linky experiences!
82-yo Ralph Stanley singing “O Death”, in sight of his brother’s grave, asking death to pass him by another year. (got this one from Making Light, I recall)
MightyGodKing photoshops some board games boxes so their titles are more honest.
Buncha Stanford students went to the Galapagos Islands and presented their ruminations on evolution through the medium of hippity-hop music. Both sublime and ridiculous.
Did ya see these Facebook updates from superheros? (Each update can be clicked through to context if you don’t get the reference, too, so everyone can play!)
Liu Bolin – the Invisible Man! Amazing stuff.
Watched some of Pulp Fiction not too long ago. It holds up well, though the scenes between Bruce Willis’ boxer and his girlfriend were even annoyinger, and the script really does use the N-word more than it needs to. But one thing it did have was acutely smart sound design, which is maybe why this works so well: music created out of Pulp Fiction audio samples.
Karen Healey explains why Tessa Duder’s Alex books were so great. NZ teen fiction classics that I’ve never read, but I expect a lot of readers have.
I’m kinda enamoured of the Dangerous Minds blog at the moment – exploring lots of cool stuff. Like these animated stereoviews of Japan from around the turn of last century. Like the artificial hymen. And Tom Lehrer! Worth adding to your regular visits, I reckon.
And how about this list of true historical swordswomen?
And finally… oh man, this is the internettiest thing ever: unused Prince tickets.
2 thoughts on “Fireworks Linky”
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I was just reading a student’s essay about Tarantino which claimed that he used the word nigger so frequently in a conscious attempt to rob it of its weight as a term, make it a less powerful word. They even had something they claimed was a quote about the best thing to do with taboo words being to shout them from the rooftops until they lose their special level of meaning.
They also claimed that the script has black and white people indiscriminately being called nigger, for that same reason.
Matt: that’s an interesting argument, but I don’t buy it, because I think there’s scant evidence for any such intent on Tarantino’s part, and because I don’t think it plays out in the script as if that intent works. And because there’s a lot more to it than “taboo” status; its rooted in power differentials and imposed vs. claimed (semi-historical) identities. I think, to be quite honest, it was Tarantino’s ear for dialogue betraying him; the frequency is the problem for me, not the usage per se. It seems a weakness, a lack of editing discipline; not a fatal blow to the writing but one of its negative features.
That’s what I reckon anyway 🙂