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Aurora Borealis 360

posted March 15, 2018 #

Seeing the Aurora Borealis has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. This 8K 360 Timelapse is not the same as being there but it seems like it's a pretty solid surrogate.

via Kottke, a harbinger of quality links for 20 years.

Ori Toor 2018

posted March 15, 2018 #

It's been about a year since I visited the works of Ori Toor and his latest creations seem to have gone off the deep end; in a good way. The latest works are jam packed with characters, scenes and fantastic otherworldly creations.

The archive is vast. I'm having a hard time understanding how someone could create this much detailed output in such a small time. Going back through the archive you can see a distinctive shift in style and tone around late May 2017. From there on, it's been beautiful chaos. I dunno what happened but hopefully it continues.

NYT, Overlooked

posted March 15, 2018 #

This new feature from the New York Times, Overlooked, focuses on showcasing obituaries from important and influential women in history that they had, until now, not spotlighted their achievements in their passing. Here's their own take on why their doing this:
Obituary writing is more about life than death: the last word, a testament to a human contribution.

Yet who gets remembered - and how - inherently involves judgment. To look back at the obituary archives can, therefore, be a stark lesson in how society valued various achievements and achievers.
Interestingly enough, the past didn't value these women - at least in terms of honoring them in their passing. All of the names on the list are surprising - i.e. Sylvia Plath, Henrietta Lacks, Ada Lovelace - but it's refreshing to have an easy resource for learning more about them.

See also: When Women Stopped Coding.

Twenty.

posted March 14, 2018 #

20 years of kottke. awesome.

Jordan Lehning, Long Live the Dead

posted March 14, 2018 #

I've long been a fan of Nashville artist / songwriter / producer Jordan Lehning. He's been in a number of great bands over the years but recently shifted his focus to more production work with the occasional solo album finding its way out into the world.

His latest, Long Live the Dead, is no disappointment. I can't quite put my finger on what makes it so enjoyable but his songs seem to carry a light upbeatness anchored by a legitimate melancholy. They also tend to be under 3 minutes; which is a huge benefit for limiting any song from veering anywhere near doldrums.

You can also hear Boonie Tunes, a more ramshackle-y set of songs, and his previous Beatles-y ode, Jordan Sings! at your earliest convenience.

@vidalotrypodcast

posted March 14, 2018 #

As I've mentioned a few times, there's a limited edition series podcast over on We Own This Town focusing on Gore Vidal. The second episode focuses on Vidal's political career and it's beyond fascinating how much of his outlook can be reflected in our current atmosphere.

But my point here is that much of the episodes are supplemented by the Vidalotry Instagram, where you can see video clips, campaign imagery and further insight beyond what you hear in the episodes. Recommending you cruise over there and give it a follow.

WerePups and Fantasy Reborns

posted March 14, 2018 #

Somewhat recently there was a bit of a hilarious Twitter outburst around this tweet in which someone witness a subway rider pulling a tiny "goblin" out of a bag and realized it was dressed exactly like its owner. This, in and of itself, is a perfectly weird and wonderful thing to happen that requires no further information to enjoy.

However, if you did want to dig further you would discover a large subculture of these creatures. The primary source of this style of doll is called WerePups - the "original Real Werewolf Baby." Artist Charity Eriksen makes these bizarre creations by hand. You can read more about her process here but that's not the end of the story...

To fully comprehend all this, we need to start with Reborn Dolls - hyperrealistic dolls representing regular human babies. They are often at rest or peaceful staring ahead. These have been around since the late 30's and can often be used as a therapeutic device to deal with a lost child. It is both creepy and incredibly sad, depending on how you look at it. Out of that practice came Fantasy Reborn Dolls - hyperrealistic babies depicting infant versions of all kinds of characters. WerePups may be focusing on Werewolves but you can easily find a Na'vi Avatar Baby, an upset Vampire baby or a House Elf baby.

So, from that one tweet encounter you can slide deep into a subculture of the Internet that mixes fantasy obsession with a flair of arrested development in motherhood. The Internet is truly a strange place.

Heaven's Gate

posted March 13, 2018 #

If you are roughly my age, it's hard not to have some awareness of the religious cult Heaven's Gate, in which 39 members committed group suicide as part of a prophecy fulfillment to board a spacecraft that was trailing the Comet Hale-Bopp. Images of their shrouded bodies with crisp Nike shoes peeking out are seered into my mind. Their website still exists and the videos of leader Marshall Applewhite are available on YouTube. It's always been fascinating and a bit scary but I didn't really know any of the details behind it.

Enter the Pineapple Street Media show simply entitled Heaven's Gate that explores all aspects of the group through a ten-part series. From the history behind the two founders, to the impact of the families left behind, it's all there. It's respectful of the content and does a great job of not painting those involved as loons or idiots. I binged on several episodes the other day and can't imagine it will take long to get through the rest.

Satoshi Kurosaki

posted March 13, 2018 #

While browsing through various new offerings from Stay Home Club I ran across the work of Satoshi Kurosaki, an artist / illustrator with an amazing ability to create very simple pieces with a lot of character and story. This Tumblr of Life Works is a never ending grid of small square pieces that each tell a story, without any context.

Sometimes it's simply cute, sometimes it's something more or something bizarre - but it's always interesting.

Balloonfest

posted March 13, 2018 #

Oscilloscope Labs has a reliable history of putting out good films but this latest endeavor is especially interesting. They are distributing the Nathan Truesdell short film Balloonfest - a documentary about 1.5 million balloons being released in Cleveland with disastrous results - and marketing it as a pay what you want support endeavor. You can watch the whole film online but if you want to throw a few bucks to the film maker, they're giving you the chance.

It's not a new concept by any means but it's nice to see an established distributor like Oscilloscope embrace it for smaller content that they love.

posted March 13, 2018 #

Googling an artist you’ve never heard of and they have 1 BILLION youtube views. Oh shit! You got old bruh!

posted March 12, 2018 #

here they are https://t.co/aSEuSBJrhL

We Own This Town: Volume 103

posted March 12, 2018 #

Oddly proud of myself for keeping We Own This Town: Music publishing schedule on track. For whatever reason, I'm convinced that releasing on an expected timetable will increase listenership. Who knows, maybe someday someone will even look forward to a new episode!

Volume 103 covers a nice range of new pop/rock songs from the Nashville area - including a cover from All Them Witches of Fleetwood Mac - and a few left-of-center releases, namely the TB8S and NGC 4414 electronic tracks. Definitely proud to hear such diversity of genre coming from here. Maybe you will as well.
Continue Reading...

Future Fonts

posted March 12, 2018 #

The conceit behind Future Fonts is pretty damn great:
Where Type Designers Sell Interesting Work In Progress.
That's it. There's a large repository of typefaces that may or may not be fully fleshed out but it gives creators a place to share their work as they progress and allows designers to support those creators at a fairly low cost.

Really loving pieces like Ohno Blazeface or Macabre for their fun style but also super into something like Arnold for a possible coding display. Lots to enjoy.

When Women Stopped Coding

posted March 12, 2018 #

Really fascinating article from Planet Money on When Women Stopped Coding. It's not so much about the impact that had (as we'll never know) but it's alarming to see such a sharp downturn in the mid-80's as the personal computer is released and marketed towards men, making a bit of a closed culture for welcoming women. I hope we're seeing a bit of a swing back the other way these days...

Just for fun, make sure to read through these summaries on famous women in tech. Someone like Grace Hopper ("Queen of Software") helped design "the first English-like data processing language" - which became COBOL, the Navy standard operating language, which was one of the first languages I had to learn in College. That's 50+ years after she was involved in the military... quite an influence to say the least.

posted March 11, 2018 #

This list of songs that aren’t by @alyankovic isn’t very comprehensive. I can think of lots of other songs he didn’t write. https://t.co/pq810EF0wp

posted March 10, 2018 #

everyone knows a Tess amirite?? #hotelwebsites @ Hotel deLuxe https://t.co/1eOjEtChKO

posted March 10, 2018 #

Everything the light touches is our kingdom, Simba. #SXSW #brandengagement https://t.co/3kSSGqySa0
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