Argh. Journalist returns to Steubenville to see how things have changed since “that whole rape thing”. Spoiler: they haven’t.
Via Maire, a discussion of Racism and Middle-earth, going into detail about what Tolkien wrote (and didn’t write) about skin colour and race and ethnicity, and how that got refracted through the Jackson films, and the implications thereof. (This is a PDF compiling articles from this blog, so if you’re on mobile or otherwise PDF-averse you can presumably find plenty to read there.)
Did you hear that story about four illegal immigrants at a podunk southern school who beat MIT in a robotics competition? You will – there’s a movie coming. Wired has put the original story, from 2001, back up as a prominent feature. But the teachers involved didn’t stop there – they then turned their attention to the gender imbalance at STEM. Result: an all-women robotics team.
Every Frame a Painting – I’ve linked to a couple of his vids before – looks at Jackie Chan’s HK and US films to show some of the many ways U.S. directors don’t know how to shoot comedy. (via Hugh D)
Seth Rogen and James Franco play the Freaks & Geeks computer game. Kind of lovely if you are a F&G nerd, probably incomprehensible if not…
Digital alteration of Hollywood bodies has hit a new level in the last few years. Everyone knows about Photoshop and magazine covers – but there’s a new trick in town, and it’s top secret.
Twitter accounts @ireland and @sweden hand over the keys to a different person every week. It’s pretty cool.
25 Invisible Benefits of Gaming while Male – a lovely short video, via Feminist Frequency. Benefit #25 is brutal.
Nature makes all its articles free to view. Progress!
The amazing Jordan Peele tweets the entire story of “The Babadook” – in emoji. (I haven’t seen The Babadook yet, so I can’t vouch for the accuracy of Peele’s summary. Must get on that.)
David Simon, in typically lengthy detail, discusses converting The Wire to HD and widescreen framing, what was gained and what was lost in the transfer. I found this fascinating!
Article on the typography of ALIEN descends into some lovely film nerdery extending far beyond the initial subject, revealing several things about the film I’d never heard of before. Such a good article! (via Luke Crane)
Dangerous Minds talks about John Carpenter’s amazing film The Thing and has pics and a video showing how closely it hews to the detailed storyboards. (Which were by Mike Ploog! Who knew!)
William Gibson on how Neuromancer was a commissioned book, and how that came about. I’ve never heard this story before, thanks D3vo!
Via Jenni, eleven seconds of penguin perfection. (You need the sound.)
The John Clarke Repatriation Society of New Zealand
And finally, via Andrew S, this is… wow. Just watch the first ten seconds and I dare you not to stick around for the rest.
I can confirm that the emoji retelling of “The Babadook” is accurate 🙂
I made it to the fourth word of the title of the racism article. Life is too short to read stuff by people who can’t spell.
I had to check to make sure that organ thing was true.
It should not be.
The organ guy is my new hero.