For those who have somehow managed to find themselves the recipient of esoteric knowledge or, the "world's foremost expert on an obscure subject" badge. In which the recipient is the leading expert in a field that few others share an interest in. More available here
I'm quite a big fan of Fellini's work, especially 8½, and came across these Fellini caricatures this afternoon. Fellini's work is always playful on the surface, sadly not enough people scratch below.
Coincidence? I didn't think so either.
These are two examples of globes found on the WorldProcessor site. Some of the works are breathtaking in their complexity and artfulness, but the examples above I found fascinating in their representations of complex issues. The example on the left is a representation of some statistics from 2000, "If all the cars in the world were placed end to end they would circle the globe 72 times". The image on the right illustrates Economic Geography, "In most cases, the equator separates donor and recipient nations of foreign aid. New continents result from shared economic conditions."
Charles Platt has written an excellent article on Sam Cohen, author of Shame: Confessions of the Father of the Neutron Bomb. The article is interesting from a number of viewpoints: Cohen's belief in the morality of his creation, his background with RAND during The Cold War; but also Platt's talent for providing a very good teleological view of how much US foreign policy has remained the same since the close of WW II.
I think the only thing that isn't perhaps given enough depth are the Reagen years. Growing up in the 1980's was a fearful time for many of us. Anyone remember the deluge of nuclear armageddon films like The Day After, a film that my entire highschool was taken to.
Nuclear war did seem like a very present danger and was a time that was filled with a lot of angst for many on the left. I remember long term anti-nuclear demonstrations in the UK that became permanent campsites outside military bases and nuclear facilities. Here in New Zealand we went through our own anti-nuclear transformation. The banning of nuclear warships, which ultimately broke up the ANZUS alliance and created antipathy from both Australia and the US. Then of course French Intelligence decided to come here and bomb the Greenpeace ship, The Rainbow Warrior.
Platt's article also has an insight into the militaristic machinations of history after WW II and succinctly explains Bush, Jr's need to create an omnipresent enemy. This is classic bogeyman stuff. Fear construction to help domestic and foreign policy fall in line with a vision created by right-wing think tanks and gung-ho militarists. Even if those militarists work behind desks and never see the consequences. Profits of Fear
I discovered this photographer some time ago and really liked how evocative her work is. Each shot seems to be a glimpse of a minute part of a much larger narrative.
However, i've been partially obsessed with the above photo for some time now, and still can't quite figure out what it is that keeps me coming back to see it. In part, I think it's because she reminds me of someone in my past, but i'm not sure it's that either. Is it the beauty of the woman in the foreground or the fact that she doesn't want me to tell about the childhood I may have had? Or does she not want me to ask about hers?
Mark McGowan drags a TV by his ear to protest
Berlusconi's control of the political media
Mark McGowan is predominantly a performance artist who tackles some interesting issues in his art: drug addiction, civil liberties, politics and media, and his new work is exploring ownership.
There's been some interesting media stats released in the last few days, a Boing Boing reader discovered that MGM had a gap in their website security (since closed) that revealed a whole mess of data and sales stats they would probably prefer didn't leak. The above image merely confirms what we already know: Digital media is far cheaper to replicate and distribute than the analog (and i'm obviously including VHS here) counterparts of the past. Sony knows this too. Sony has just completed acquiring MGM and now has a full catalog of 4200 of MGM's past glories, which i fully expect to see utilised in the next 6-12 months if Sony can repackage and distribute quickly enough for consumers. Time Warner had been interested in capitalising on the catalogue too, but somehow decided that the $3 billion Sony finally moneyed up with was too much. To me 3 billion sounds a bit cheap. If they hold the rights in perpetuity the only real cost is distribution.
In its day MGM was a phenomenal studio that was as well known for its lavish productions and stars, almost as well known as Michael Bay is known for directing awful films.
MGM was responsible for a number of american classics in its time, for most, as the owner of The Wizard of Oz; but one thing that hasn't been mentioned at all is that Sony is part of a consortium of owners who have purchased MGM, the notable investor in all of this is Comcast and it's pretty easy to see why.
Ted Turner took the United Artists or UA out of MGM/UA in 1986 so he could broadcast the catalogue via his cable channel, and colourise films that should never be colourised (No Ted, The Maltese Falcon is supposed to be that dark). Although, fortunately, that phase seems to have passed from history, it's pretty easy to see why Comcast would want access to the catalogue $ 3 billion is pretty cheap when you can devote an entire channel to MGM catalogue greats, not to mention the obvious next step: Video-on-demand and the potential of digitally cleaning up the catalogue for cinema re-release and the consequent DVD re-releases that will inevitably follow.
There are some excellent U.S. political cartoonists on the web. Some of my favourites are Ted Rall, Pat Oliphant, Ben Sargent, Tom Toles, Clay Bennett (beautiful, amazing work), Tony Auth, Bill Deore etc.
Today I discovered David Rees to throw into that mix. It makes me think of what things like Dilbert should be, if only Dilbert wasn't so lame. But the humour has something of Herbert Kornfeld about it before The Onion decided it was in their best interests to shut off access to their archives. If you're a fan of Herbert's, there even appears to be a Letter-Opener-Of-Death in some of the panels.
Hunter S Thompson 18 July 1937 � 20 February 2005
A good friend of mine's mum was doing her PhD. on American Lit. in 1987 and she let me borrow her copy of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It set my 17 year old brain on fire with ideas and new ways you could think about living your life; narrative, subjectivity; and most brilliant of all: just the possibilities life can have.
Since then i've had copies of most of Hunter's books, most of the time multiple copies, I think i'm on to my fifth copy of Fear and Loathing which has managed to stay on the bookshelf and not be stolen for the last 3 or 4 years. That has to be a record.