Portal: No Escape (Live Action Short Film by Dan Trachtenberg)
so. new year, new discovery. fried curry leaves go REALLY WELL with mandarin oranges. approximately 2.5 leaves per wedge.
Oh, the Places You’ll Go at Burning Man!
lovely
We watched Bill Cunningham New York today.
Here’s his work on the NYT website.
He comes across as a real sweet old man, and a marvellous talent. His mind is a veritable treasury of all New York’s fashion for the last… It’s difficult to say, really. He makes references to things going back to the beginnings of the 1900’s.
I love how Bill looks at modern fashion pieces and if he sees that they were taken from elsewhere, he puts the two pieces— the original and the copy/inspiration— side by side for comparison. That probably puts the fear of god in fashion designers all over NYC.
It’s not always a bad thing to copy, and the film doesn’t show us Bill’s thoughts on the matter. It would have been nice to know, though.
Then we watched Herb & Dorothy.
I don’t like the implication of this film. That is, there’s some sort of objective standard by which we can tell what good art is. Herb and Dorothy, the film says, have that “aesthetic eye”. They home in on good art like heat-seeking missiles on a delicious warm body. Of course I disagree that such a thing as “good” art necessarily exists. How can it when half the measure of a good art piece is how the viewer responds to it?
Still, it’s a film that gives me hope that I can still be a collector even though I’ve just received maybe the 400th rejection letter for a civil service job. I should start collecting art too. Or just buy anything that I like. Maybe budget $5 per month for it. (HAHA.) Sadly, I don’t have the luxury of my own place. Even bringing a potted plant home meets with so many loud objections. This house is so oppressive.
Anyway, as the film began, I wondered, if Herb and Dorothy visit so many art events in New York, surely Bill must have been to some of the same ones. And sure enough, he appears in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot.
Fun films.
Hey, everybody. If you still haven’t heard about Codeacademy and Code Year, check out what they posted today:
In less than 7 days, more than 300,000 people pledged to learn to code in 2012 (you can still sign up!)
Today, we’re proud to announce that we will be working with the White House to get more kids and adults learning to code. With their Summer Jobs+ program, the White House has been working on finding jobs for hundreds of thousands of people over the summer. We think learning to code is an integral part of finding a job in the 21st century economy, so we’ll be helping out by rolling out a course called Code Summer+. This will be a shorter course than Code Year that aims to teach people the basics of programming. You can find a bit more on the White House’s blog.
They use a couple of interactive windows to teach you Javascript in Code Year, which I think is great since Javascript is one of the most common languages in use right now, perhaps especially in Singapore. (The other language I would really push for is HTML5, the latest hottie on the block, but that’s a whole other story.)
It’s quite easy so far, although at points frustrating. Some of the instructions can be way too brief. I do believe they need better writer-teachers. But it’s still wonderful! I don’t have to wade through textbooks as thick as my skin anymore!
npr:
Drink Coffee? Off With Your Head!
Most folks who resolved to cut down on coffee this year are driven by the simple desire for self-improvement.
But for coffee drinkers in 17th-century Turkey, there was a much more concrete motivating force: a big guy with a sword.
Sultan Murad IV, a ruler of the Ottoman Empire, would not have been a fan of Starbucks. Under his rule, the consumption of coffee was a capital offense.
The sultan was so intent on eradicating coffee that he would disguise himself as a commoner and stalk the streets of Istanbul with a hundred-pound broadsword. Unfortunate coffee drinkers were decapitated as they sipped.
Murad IV’s successor was more lenient. The punishment for a first offense was a light cudgeling. Caught with coffee a second time, the perpetrator was sewn into a leather bag and tossed in the river.
But people still drank coffee. Even with the sultan at the front door with a sword and the executioner at the back door with a sewing kit, they still wanted their daily cup of joe. And that’s the history of coffee in a bean skin: Old habits die hard. —Adam Cole
i don’t know if it’s the caffeine, the taste or the 50 teaspoons of sugar i dump into my every cuppa, but i hate how much i love this drink. here’s a cute video about it!
Table with Accumulator (16 Jan 2012), by Me While Watching This.
CES 2012: Transparent Samsung Smart Window.
what on earth. first aurasma and now this? rich neighbours gonna get this stuff and make my house look like a rat’s hole in a sewer.
blog.reddit — what’s new on reddit: Stopped they must be; on this all depends. (via mediafuturist)
i… will do the same. i didn’t do that earth hour power out thing but i will do this.
zomg it’s going to be so difficult. maybe i should buy a ticket to kalimantan now or something. go touring so i don’t miss the net.
SINGAPOREANS, DOING ANYTHING THAT NIGHT? INVITE ME PLS.
