Sans Soleil (Sunless in English) is a 1983 film by French director Chris Marker. The title is from the song cycle Sunless by Modest Mussorgsky. Sans Soleil is a meditation on the nature of human memory and the inability to recall the context and nuances of memory and as a result, how the perception of personal and global histories are affected..
Stretching the genre of documentary, this experimental essay-film is a rich composition of thoughts, images and scenes, mainly from Japan and Guinea-Bissau, "two extreme poles of survival". Some other scenes were filmed in Iceland, Paris, and San Francisco. A female narrator reads from letters supposedly sent to her by the (fictitious) cameraman Sandor Krasna. Sans Soleil is often labelled as a documentary or travelogue, however it contains fictional elements and moves from one location to another without regard to a location or character-based narrative.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Sunless.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The List of Adrian Messenger (1963) is a black and white thriller about a retired British colonel (George C. Scott) investigating a series of apparently unrelated deaths. The film is based on the 1961 novel of the same title by Philip MacDonald. A number of prominent Hollywood actors are advertised to appear in the film heavily disguised in make-up: Tony Curtis, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, and Robert Mitchum. Their identities are revealed to the audience at the very end of the film, when each star removes their disguise and make-up.
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"Coates was convinced he was the best actor in business - or at least that is what he claimed. He forgot his lines all the time and invented new scenes and dialogue on the spot. He loved dramatic death scenes and would repeat them - or any other scenes he happened to take a fancy to - three to four times over." Via: MKF
Monday, October 26, 2009
In 1949 Don Haynes, a 39 year old truck driver, made a bet that he would spend the next 14 months traveling to each of the 48 states while welded inside his car. The car came equipped with a chemical toilet and phone (and, someone suggested, removable floorboards so he could occasionally sneak out). Haynes’ wife was pregnant at the time so when she delivered Haynes had the car lifted on a crane so he could check in on his wife and baby in their second floor hospital room. Unfortunately, Haynes gave up just three weeks short of completing his journey when he lost track of his advance publicity man. Later, he would embark on quest to collect pajamas from the governor of each state though he failed to complete this task as well, stopping after collecting 41. Haynes would return to the car throughout the 50s and 60s- in the late 50s he and wife his shut themselves in and traveled the country billing themselves as “The Nomads”- but what became of the “Seaman of the Sealed Car” after that is a mystery.
Via: Square America
“Enemy tracer bullets weave an intricate pattern as they shoot towards the planes of the Royal Air Force during a night attack on Hamburg. Via: Xplanes
The Mad Potter of Biloxi
Self-styled eccentric George E. Ohr's wild, weird, wonderful pots gathered dust in a garage for half a century. Now architect Frank Gehry is designing a museum dedicated to the artist who made them. Via: Smithsonian Mag
On the radioactive streets of post-war Hiroshima, the mutant Kaba car—hippopotamus sound car of Kabaya Confections (machine translation) trolls for children starved for sweetness in this photo taken in December 1946. Via: 3yen
Sunday, October 25, 2009
"Well, I hope that the small bench, even if not yet saleable, will show you that I have nothing against tackling subjects with something agreeable or pleasant about them, which are thus more likely to find buyers than things with a more sombre sentiment. [..]
There’s so much paint around that it has even got onto this letter — I’m working on the big watercolour of the bench. I hope it comes off, but the great problem is to retain detail with deep tone, and clarity is extremely difficult.
Adieu again, a handshake in thought, and believe me, Ever yours, Vincent"
The Van Gogh Letter Sketches. Via: Bibliodyssey
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
This issue by Dean & Son dates to circa 1950, and shows a couple of pre-war style Grand Prix cars duelling on track. Despite the cover illustration, there are no motoring tales within this book's covers. Via: Old Classic Car.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
George Gross1909-2003) was a great cover artist,. Before the WWII he painted hundreds of freelance pulp covers for Action Stories, Air Stories, Baseball Stories, Complete Northwest, Detective Book Magazine, Fight Stories, Football Stories, Jungle Stories, North West Romances, and Wings. Via: Diesel Punks
William Radam was one of the most notorious 19th century snake oil salesmen in America. This distinctive logo, as well as his ambitious tagline "Cures All Diseases," makes his Microbe Killer tonic bottles a favorite of collectors today. Via: Bad Banana Blog
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Andrew Bush
Person driving somewhere in the last decade of the previous millennium (whereabouts unknown)By Andrew Bush
R is for.
Radiolaria are holoplanktonic protozoa widely distributed in the oceans. They occur throughout the water column from near surface to hundreds of meters depth.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Flatland.
Wiki:
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is an 1884 satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott. Writing pseudonymously as "a square", Abbott used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to offer pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture. However, the novella's more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions; in a foreword to one of the many publications of the novella, noted science writer Isaac Asimov described Flatland as "The best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions." As such, the novella is still popular amongst mathematics, physics, and computer science students.
Several films have been made from the story, including a feature film in 2007 called Flatland. Other efforts have been short or experimental films, including one narrated by Dudley Moore and a short film with Martin Sheen titled Flatland: The Movie.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Edward Ihnatowicz was a Cybernetic Sculptor active in the UK in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. His ground-breaking sculptures explored the interaction between his robotic works and the audience, and reached their height with The Senster, a large (15 feet long), hydraulic robot commissioned by the electronics giant, Philips, in Eindhoven in 1970. The sculpture used sound and movement sensors to react to the behaviour of the visitors. It was one of the first computer controlled interactive robotic works of art. Via: Networked Performance
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Lovecraft on food.
"Speaking of industrio-economic matters—let me assure you that a 2-or-3-dollar-a-week dietary programme need not involve even a particle of malnutrition of unpalatability if one but knew what to get and where to get it. The tin can and delicatessen conceal marvellous possibilities! Porridge? Mehercule! On the contrary, my tastes call for the most blisteringly high-seasoned materials conceivable, and for desserts as close to 100% C12H22O11 as possible. Indeed, of this latter commodity I never employ less than four teaspoons in an average cup of coffee. Favourite dinners—Italian spaghetti, chili con carne, Hungarian goulash (save when I can get white meat of turkey with highly-seasoned dressing)."
H.P. Lovecraft to Mrs. Fritz Leiber, 20 December 1936
Via: HP Lovecraft.com
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