Archives for November 2008
“We flinch when someone else receives a blow, and neurologists have started to talk about “mirror neurones” in the brain, which make spontaneous representations of what is happening with other people, so you then feel these yourself. And it’s thought that the basis of sympathy – and, to some extent, imitation and incarnation – is partly due to these mirror neurones,” says Oliver Sacks. He explains how this might relate to exceptional acting in a conversation with RSC’S Michael Boyd. (via.)
“Grey can be the most romantic of colours,” writes interior designer Gavin Houghton in More Intelligent Life. More from Dallas Morning News (via.) Although it may be the unluckiest car color, in fashion it’s practical and looks great with everything. I like the chalky-grey bark of exfoliating birch trees or that misty just barely blue smoky grey of the Grant Park stage.
Swapatorium’s 1932 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade photographs.
“I’m prepared to say there are people who are very anxious about being with people. People who can’t leave the house because they’re so chronically impaired. But the DSM made it difficult to distinguish between that small group of chronically impaired people and people who have run-of-the-mill anxieties. Every edition of the DSM has defined more psychiatric disorders than the last. The bar is being lowered all the time. And then, of course, there are the psychotropic medications given to these patients, which can have horrible side effects.” — Christopher Lane, author of Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness
Patti Smith’s Favorite Books. Quite a nice list: “anything by H.P. Lovecraft… Ice by Anna Kavan (or anything by her)”
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of watching The Warriors. It’s wonderful. It’s also being remade by Tony Scott. This is like assigning Eli Roth a remake of Susperia. Was Guy Richie unavailable? (Oh, right, he’s off ruining Sherlock Holmes.) “You’ll still get the same story, but we’re reconstructing the family, reconstructing the characters, and I’m doing it in L.A. The original was in New York and everything went upwards; L.A. goes [length-wise]. And instead of 30 gang members, there’s going to be 3,000 or 5,000,” he said. Fond of humorless screenwriting and MTV-effects and editing (at least, how a septuagenarian imagines it to be,) Scott is the world’s worst director. Look, I don’t have a problem with remaking films. Not even this one (the significance of the post-racial 1979 casting is less bold, but the change in location could be interesting.) I have a problem with cool concepts and cool screenplays landing in the hands of unsuitable directors. Who else could make the life Domino Harvey boring — and with Keira Knightley to play her! There are so many inventive major directors working today (Tim Burton, Michel Gondry, Terry Gilliam, Alex Proyas, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, etc) and plenty of people who would like to make visually interesting movies. So why assign a film with a core strength in its visuals to someone without that sense?
A remarkable Toshiba advertisement using timesculpture, “forth dimensional filmmaking.” Shot with 300 Gigashot cameras. And here’s the making-of. (via.)
“20 percent of the mall storefronts could soon be empty.” What will the remaining structures look like? Check out Dead Malls, which includes maps, a glossary, and histories.
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A collection of interesting ideas curated by
Joanne McNeil. About ➚
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