60% of the world’s art comes from China. Most of it is reproductions of major works.
Dafen is a village surrounded by the thriving metropolis of Shenzhen, and the origin of most of the world’s reproduction oil paintings. In the popular imagination Dafen’s artists produce anonymous works for unknown customers, operating no differently than a faceless […]
Lottolab.org is a pretty fun site. R. Beau Lotto is a researcher at the University College London and has created some interesting illusions, among other things. The illusions can be found via a link on the front page.
See the website for the version that works.
SIFF has the Werner Herzog film, “Rescue Dawn“. It stars Christian Bale as Dieter Dengler, a pilot shot down on his first mission in Vietnam. It was a rather conventional movie; I didn’t know that Werner Herzog knew how to make those.
I have seen many Werner Herzog films over the years, and he […]
For those who don’t know, ‘419′ is the term used to describe the phony email games run by Nigerians to con people out of money. A guy in England, reverses the scam with hilarious results. Check them out:
419 Eater
Before creating the television show, The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin wrote the movie, The American President. It is one of my favorite movies. The penultimate scene is at the end of the movie were President Shepherd faces down his critics. From link:
INT. THE PRESS BRIEFING ROOM - EARLY MORNING
ROBIN is on her last drops of […]
A good example of why net neutrality is imporant is covered, indirectly, by this article from the Washington Post.
For years, old recordings have piled up in the archives at Verve Records, including beloved jazz tracks that had no market big enough to justify pressing new discs. But thanks to the Internet, music lovers are rediscovering […]
James Wolcott makes a discovery.
I believe I have discovered the sacred text that inspires and animates ferocious, fur-bearing authors such as David Brooks, John Tierney, NRO’s Stanley Kurtz, and Harvey Mansfield–author of Manliness (which gets a rough going-over in next weeks NY Times Book Review by Walter Kirn)–to assert male prerogative and keep women […]
New York Magazine reviews Our Brand is Crisis. Read it, see the movie.
It’s hard to know whether to marvel or weep when James Carville goes into his Bill Clinton–meets–Looney Tunes act in Rachel Boynton’s knockout documentary Our Brand Is Crisis—the context is so morally topsy-turvy. As a high-priced consultant to the 2002 […]
Trent Lott has had a love/hate/hate relationship with the White House since he lost his leadership position over his loose lips. At Crooks and Liars, there is a video from Hardball where Lott says that he will override Bush’s veto on the ports issue. Snarky movie paraphrase:
Is this the end of Rove?
Paul Rudnick, writing in The New Yorker, has some fun with the Vatican’s recent pronouncements about homosexuality and the priesthood.
A MEMO FROM THE VATICAN
by PAUL RUDNICK
From: His Holiness
To: All seminaries
Subject: While the Church approves of ordaining “transitory” homosexuals—that is, those men willing to take subways and buses rather than taxis—according to our most recent […]