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Where the Art of Filmmaking All Began

In film, history, video on 22 March 2007 with no comments

Cinema Europe - Where it all Began
Amazon reviews the 6 part series:
British film historians Kevin Brownlow and David Gill have earned their spot in cinema heaven by painstakingly preserving the history of silent cinema in a series of expansive documentaries, most notably the 13-episode 1980 epic Hollywood: A Celebration of American Silent Film. Their […]

Exploring the ethnosphere

In culture, history, video on 17 March 2007 with no comments

In this TEDtalk, anthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis describes the importance of the ethnosphere, “the sum total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations, intuitions brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness.”

Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Registry for 2006

In audio, culture, history, music on 15 March 2007 with no comments

The National Recording Preservation Registry released their list of 2006 inductees, and they’ve put together a great montage of this year’s entries.
The National Recording Preservation Board, mandated by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, is an advisory group bringing together a number of professional organizations and expert individuals concerned with the preservation of recorded […]

A snapshot of the past five years

In culture, history, visualization on 28 February 2007 with no comments

pdf download link
a quite extensive NYT infographic depicting the 5 years since 9/11 in the context of important world events, approval ratings, Homeland Security Threat Levels, US troop fatalities, the weight & blood pressure of George W. Bush, Woody Allen films, word frequencies in State of the Union addresses, top baby names, house prices, number […]

Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz

In history, music, photography on 1 February 2007 with no comments

Alto saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker and pianist Thelonious Monk performing at the Open Door Cafe, New York City on September 14, 1953. The online gallery is full of other great images from the history of jazz.

Glenn Gould - Goldberg Variations

In history, music, video on 31 January 2007 with no comments

Glenn Gould performs the Goldberg Variations.
What are they? Wikipedia offers an introduction:

Tag cloud of Presidential speeches throughout American history

In history, politics, visualization on 5 November 2006 with no comments

A tag cloud visualization of the most frequently used words in Presidential speeches during approximately the past 200 years.
From BoingBoing

Eyes on the Prize

In history on 7 October 2006 with no comments

We gathered around the tv last night to watch PBS’s excellent Eyes on the Prize production.  Kottke.org features a nice intro and further reading:
Using nothing more than archival film footage, on-camera interviews, period music, and a narrator’s voiceover, the stories of Emmitt Till, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the desegregation of southern schools riveted me […]

Documenting Old Tokyo

In culture, history, photography on 17 September 2006 with no comments

This site features an incredible collection of turn-of-the-century photographs from Japan’s capital city: http://www.oldtokyo.com/

Balloons filled with words

In fun, history, literature on 3 September 2006 with no comments

The Evolution of Speech Balloons
During the 18th century, British caricaturists changed the shape of speechballoons from gothic speech-bands or flags into fluffy balloons, our modern speechballoons.I’m using the word speechballoon as the general, inclusive term. (The gothic form of speechballoons are speechbands, flags, scrolls or sheets of paper, the modern form of speechballoons are balloons, […]