Summer of '65

Before cable or the Internet turned us into the Big Brother of Hollywood stars, silent home videos captured the intimate lives of celebrities and were tucked away for safekeeping.  A collection of films from the summer of 1965, belonging originally to Roddy McDowall, has recently surfaced on YouTube, and the videos are simply amazing.  The 60s are my personal Golden Age, and these videos feed into my longing for the decade like woah.

Note: The Robert Redford video is for you, Alexa.

From Open Culture

To Read: House of Leaves

My friend Sarah shared with me recently an image collection of twenty curious literary tattoos, and one of the quotes particularly caught my eye:

"and this great blue world of ours / seems a house of leaves / moments before the wind"

Looked up the quote, found out it's from Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves.  I've heard about the book before, and after reading more about Danielewski's experimental form, I want to find a copy ASAP.  Here's a brief description from Wikipedia:

"The format and structure of the novel is unconventional, with unusual page layout and style, making it ergodic literature. It contains copious footnotes, many of which contain footnotes themselves, and some of which reference books that do not exist. Some pages contain only a few words or lines of text, arranged in strange ways to mirror the events in the story, often creating both an agoraphobic and a claustrophobic effect. The novel is also distinctive for its multiple narrators, who interact with each other throughout the story in disorienting and elaborate ways."

"Separation" by W.S. Merwin

Separation

by W.S. Merwin

Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.


W. S. Merwin, “Separation” from The Second Four Books of Poems (Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press, 1993). Copyright © 1993 by W. S. Merwin. Reprinted with the permission of The Wylie Agency, Inc.

Source: Poetry (January 1962).

It's Movie Season!

The Atlantic has compiled a great list of films hitting the festival circuit this fall, all of which are predicted to be possible Oscar contenders.  Awards aside, just about all of these films look fantastic based on their trailers.  I'm looking most forward to Martha Marcy May Marlene, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and The Artist.

Note: I couldn't find trailers for My Week with Marilyn, W.E., Albert Nobbs, or Rampart.

Time's a-Tickin'

So Jad and Robert have already taught me some mind-blowing facts about time in both the "Time" and "Memory and Forgetting" episodes (sorry for all the Radiolab-related posts lately); though parts of the conversation about time will forever remain impossible for me to comprehend, most of the facts below are quite intriguing.

To read more behind these ten statements about time, check out the explanations here. The points in italics are the ones whose explanations I find the most interesting (among those that I understand, that is).

Ten Things Everyone Should Know about Time
by Sean of Discover Magazine

1. Time exists.
2. The past and the future are equally real.
3. Everyone experiences time differently.
4. You live in the past.
5. Your memory isn’t as good as you think.
6. Consciousness depends on manipulating time.
7. Disorder increases as time passes.
8. Complexity comes and goes. 
9. Aging can be reversed.
10. A lifespan is a billion heartbeats.

Baltimore Club Speaks to My Soul

This post is dedicated to my HWI partner Puccimama.

Thanks to DJ Solly, a fellow DePauw alum from the class of 2010, I was introduced to Baltimore club music my senior year.  I don't know what it is about this specific genre of house music, but every time I hear that Bmore beat, I can't help but move.  Today I've been updating my iTunes with some more dance music, so I figured I should just go ahead and share some of my favorite mixes here!

"California Dreaming" by The Mamas & The Papas (Solly Remix)

"Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by Daft Punk (Diplo Remix)

"You're a Jerk" by New Boyz (Diamond K Remix)

I, Robot

This is awesome.

I really need to listen to the "Talking to Machines" Radiolab episode now (apparently it features the Cleverbot).