Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts

Friday, August 13, 2021

Senses working overtime #327

1 Jack Kirby 101


Nice little primer on the king of comics.

2 The male gaze theory


Photo by Nate Johnston on Unsplash

Men look at women, women watch themselves being looked at - John Berger (1972)

3 Welcome 2 Prince's America




4 How to gain more from your reading




5 Megan Fox is no longer hiding




Overtime:  


Mary Oliver - Instructions for living a life (courtesy of Austin Kleon via Swiss Miss)

Friday, January 15, 2021

Senses working overtime #297

 Peanut Butter



I'd be hard pressed to live without it - it has always be that way. Here's the history of peanut butter.

Reading


Another thing I can't imagine being without! I have evolved and now read multiple books at once.

This is a fascinating article on the process.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Ed Catmull, cofounder of Pixar, on how they make great movies:

"Initially, the films we put together, they're a mess. It's like everything else in life—the first time you do it, it's a mess. Sometimes it's labeled ... "a failure" ... but that's not even the right word to use. It's just like, you get the first one out, you learn from it, and the only failure is if you don't learn from it, if you don't progress."

Writing from Seth Godin: 
It doesn’t have to be perfect, it can simply be the next thing you do.
George Lucas A Life



The more I read about him, the more I like him!

Overtime: American Graffiti


After reading the chapter on how it was made, I rewatched this during the week. It's a great film!

Friday, April 21, 2017

Senses working overtime #104

1 The Tao of Groundhog Day
Great piece from The New Yorker on one of my favourite movies - made into a stage show. 
 
Andy Karl in the Bill Murray role - on stage!


2 Floating in space
A cool portrait of Italian astronaut Maurizio Cheli’s life in zero gravity.

3 Questions 67 and 68
Thomas Oppong writes thoughtfully on asking questions. Ask - Why shouldn't I read it?

4 Sit-com heaven



Clearly, some people have too much time on their hands. This exhaustive run down on New York sit-com apartments is fun and it includes Seinfeld's one bedroom apartment, so, like, yeah...

5 Reading books you hate
Interesting. I'll maybe give this a go - picking a book that is the opposite of my (ahem) taste. The article hasn't convinced me entirely but I have set myself a challenge of 50 books in 52 weeks so I can afford to do this once.

Now...what exactly is the bizarro world opposite of books I normally read?

Overtime
Stephen King on the rise of Trump. Great great piece. best thing I read all week!

Friday, March 25, 2016

Senses working overtime #49

1 Republican fight



This is a great article from someone who has been going to Republican conventions since, staggeringly, 1952. She writes beautifully - clearly and dispassionately about the unholy mess Donald Trump has brought to the American political status quo. A great read - go to it!

2 British or American?
Ricky Gervais - love him or hate him (I'm in the first camp) has written a great article on the differences between British and American humour.

3 100 Books
How to read 100 books in a year. It's easier than you thought!

4 Pexels

The two best free photo sites I've found are unsplash (featured last week) and Pexels. I typed in autumn and this beautiful picture came up!

5 Donald Trump's language
Great video analysis of Donald Trump's oratory, link supplied by a colleague - thanks Andrew!

Overtime
Great article about nerds, chess club members, Ross from Friends and American idiot culture. Go to it...

Friday, March 11, 2016

Senses working overtime #47

1 National Geographic photos



This lot were unpublished (Mon Dieu!).

2 It's all the same story
I love Neil Young's comment to his audience on one of his live albums (Year Of The Horse from off the top of my head) that - it's all the same song!

This article (a long read from the Atlantic) is in the same superb vein.

3 London!

I love London and I miss it. This site makes me miss it even more. Lost locations of London. You could search around London for years and years and never get bored!

4 London! Again!!
In a similar vein - this Pinterest board called London Moments is grrrrrrreat!!

5 Wile E Coyote


Does Wile E Coyote help explain this crazy old world we all live and breathe in? Why yes, yes he does!

Overtime: I love everything about squirrels

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Senses working overtime #44

I know I'm odd.

Here are five pieces of evidence for the defence:

1 I prefer winter!
Apparently that makes me smarter! Who knew?

2 I need books, lots of...books!
I have always been a reader but my appetite has increased in the last year. I am not alone!

3 Mega composites


Love these odd mega composites from Stephen Wilkes

4 Winter blues
I'm missing London winter weather. Even more so after reading this!

5 Star Wars


These damn fine fan art posters are rilly cool! I've included them before but they just keep coming! Thanks odd fan people for keeping it unreal.

Overtime: My old mate Greg (I've known him forever and he is old, although I'm older) included a really great song on his site this week - Argent's Hold Your Head Up. Indeed they can! But odd? Well it's a prog classic but it's actually a great pop song from the former Zombie.

Until next week...caio for naio.

Friday, May 8, 2015

Senses working overtime #3

1 One of the funniest things I read this week was this article about reading and social media  
So, every new email you get gives you a little flood of dopamine. Every little flood of dopamine reinforces your brain’s memory that checking email gives a flood of dopamine. And our brains are programmed to seek out things that will give us little floods of dopamine. Further, these patterns of behaviour start creating neural pathways, so that they become unconscious habits: Work on something important, brain itch, check email, dopamine, refresh,dopamine, check Twitter, dopamine, back to work. Over and over, and each time the habit becomes more ingrained in the actual structures of our brains. 
How can books compete?
2 Some stunning photography from Michael Shainblum



There's more to enjoy on that link if you like these.

3 If the whole world did a 5 things style post in the blogosphere, and the whole world had watched Barcelona play Bayern Munich during the week, then the whole world would have chosen the sight of Messi torturing the Germans as highlight number three in their highlights list. 

Here's some stunning description from the Guardian's Barney Ronay 
At the Camp Nou Messi scored two brilliant goals, made a third and at times yawned his way around champion opponents like a man tactfully avoiding a gaggle of overheated toddlers in a high street coffee shop. Often he took the ball and shimmied past two or three men, operating within a kind of fermata, events slowed and paused around him, and providing a reminder that he remains one of the great dribblers, master of the flip-flap, the surge, the amphetamine-crazed-millipede shift of feet.
Messi is a freak!

4 I'm a big sucker for the what if? There are a pile of them on line if you like this one at movie posters. I love the fact that they've re-imagined Zappa/ Bowie and Iggy in these roles.

5 Sounds. The thing I've had no luck shaking from my brain all week has been a track by Mumford and Sons, off Babel. Damn thing is so catchy!



Overtime: David Crosby posts some cool videos via his Twitter account. This one especially tickled my fancy: The Grateful Dead on Playboy After Dark. What a hoot!