December 2011
28 posts
A Proper "Alien" Resurrection →
Speaking of Alien, Mubi is hosting a fantastic assessment of all the little things that make that film so great. Love this line: “Even the design concept behind Saul Bass’ (uncredited) opening titles transforms the viewer’s initial perceptions of something seemingly benign into an understanding of a thing that is concretely threatening.”
Guess what film I’ll be watching...
In a recent interview with The Nerdist podcast, J.J. Abrams (who, incidentally, comes across as an incredibly friendly and yet completely joyless person) suggested that cinemas wouldn’t suffer the same level of decline as traditional book and record shops. His reasoning? He reckons the experience of going to the cinema can’t be properly reproduced, even by the most tricked-out and...
Has Randy Bachman Solved a Decades-Old... →
I have spent an embarrassing amount of time and almost crippled myself trying to contort my fingers into a shape that sounds like a passable version of the first chord of A Hard Day’s Night. Couldn’t figure it out. Randy Bachman has the answer, and it’s beautiful.
“Graffiti happens at the intersection of ambition and incompetence: people want...”
– Paul Graham on Trolls.
“How to describe Metafilter to a novice?
Well, say there’s a video with a...”
– Metafilter user not_that_epiphanius explains exactly why I love Metafilter
Nintendo's Miyamoto Stepping Down, Working on... →
On the one hand, this is incredibly sad news - the end of an era. But on the other hand, I’m excited to see what he can do with “smaller games”.
“Her mother read her mail
And her Dad was a Policeman
Which I must say worried...”
– — Billy Bragg, From a Vauxhall Velox
Not only is this a perfect simile, it’s goddamned ballsy to drop a term like “contraflow system” into a pop song.
Who's Afraid Of Lana Del Rey? - The Awl →
If you’re as baffled by the whole Lana Del Rey as I am, this is a good place to start. I just wish the author had expanded it a bit more - five lengthy paragraphs about the ways in which people are hating her, barely a mention of why.
B-Sides: Is She & Him's Gender-Swapped "Baby It's... →
As a follow-up to the previous post, Bitch magazine asks if having the woman play the predatory role in the song makes it less date-rapey.
I’m going with “no”. This song is inherently sketchy, no matter what way you spin it.
“Saying that 3D movies are the future of cinema is like saying that Magic Eye...”
– Why 3D movies need to die - The Oatmeal
