Open Culture

Want to Know What Makes the Troops Laugh? Comedian Louis CK in Afghanistan (Quite NSFW)

Ayun Halliday — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:19:34 +0000

The other day, a teenaged friend asked me if the war in Afghanistan is still going on. The answer is yes. Presumably, it won’t be when he reaches draft age.

In the meantime, here’s some extremely NSFW footage of Louis CK entertaining the troops at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan a few years back. Looking for a quick overview of what makes the troops laugh? Cinnabon, schlubby middle aged dudes comparing themselves unfavorably to the audience’s rock hard leanness, and the F word. The one whose non-slang definition is “a bundle of sticks.”

Given the make up of the crowd, it made me uneasy. This was most assuredly not a preaching-to-the-choir situation, though the young audience member who filmed the routine without the benefit of a tripod notes: ” I didn’t even know who he was before this set. He’s one of my top 3 favorites now. I just wanted other people to see him like I did. I wish I could have a conversation with him!”

Hopefully, hero worship will by now have led him to the second episode of CK’ s semiautobiographical show, in which extremely forthcoming gay comedian, Rick Crom, schools a tableful of straight poker buddies on various sexual practices. His matter-of-fact demeanor leads CK to ask how a queer crowd might react to his “faggot” routine. The fact that CK also produced and scripted this show is enough to convince me that his aim is true.

It’s worth noting that the presumably straight (watch his other videos) Youtuber who filmed and hosts this video liked ‘‘Louis CK – Laughing at Gay People” but also Freddie Mercury Google Doodle,

Given CK’s mad respect for anyone serving in the military, perhaps this young man can convince him that it’s time to retire “retard” as a pejorative … even if he’s talking about his own kids.

Louis CK Ridicules Avant-Garde Art on 1990s MTV Show

Seinfeld, Louis C.K., Chris Rock, and Ricky Gervais Dissect the Craft of Comedy (NSFW)

Ayun Halliday is also sick of epilepsy as punchline or shortcut. Follow her @AyunHalliday

The Ramones in Their Heyday, Filmed “Live at CBGB,” 1977

Mike Springer — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:17:00 +0000

Here’s classic footage of the Ramones in their prime, performing at a club in 1977. The film’s opening title says it was shot on June 10, 1977 at CBGB, but that may not be true. Singer Joey Ramone tells the audience that the band’s third album, Rocket to Russia, will be coming out “in about two weeks” as the band launches into a song from the album. But Rocket to Russia was recorded in late August of 1977 and released on November 4. So perhaps the film was shot during one of the band’s October 1977 shows. Whatever the date and place, the Ramones were clearly at the top of their form when this film was made. In the two clips presented here, they burn through the following songs:

Part one (above)

“Blitzkrieg Bop”
“Sheena is a Punk Rocker”
“Beat on the Brat”
“Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue”

Part two (below):

“Rockaway Beach”
“Cretin Hop”
“Oh,Oh, I Love Her So”
“Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World”

The Music, Art, and Life of Joni Mitchell Presented in Superb 2003 Documentary

Josh Jones — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:13:33 +0000

I grew up with the music of Joni Mitchell often playing in the background of my home life. For me she blended with the voices of Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Carole King, and other sixties folkies; my mother—who played instruments like dulcimers and autoharps and could not sing or keep time—loved these women. I will confess, I did not. Familiarity did not breed contempt so much as indifference, and I mistook the softness of the music for cheap sentimentality. This careless listening lead me wrong, especially in the case of Mitchell, whose songwriting is perhaps as poetic, complex, and yet as honest as it gets.

In songs like the absolutely wrenching “Little Green” and the stunning, imagistic “The Hissing of Summer Lawns,” Mitchell’s jazz-inflected compositions demonstrate these qualities in such abundance that they make me shudder. Her visual imagination is particularly on display in the latter, and that enduring quality comes from a lifelong engagement with art, her own and others. Mitchell, we learn in the 2003 CBC documentary above, had a childhood ambition to become a painter. She tells us in voice-over “I always had star eyes; I was always interested in glamour.” Music, for her, was a hobby.

Nonetheless, she made a name for herself locally in Calgary as a folk-singing art student in the sixties, “mimicking” Joan Baez and Judy Collins songs at a coffeehouse called The Depression. A pregnancy—ruinous at the time—thwarted Mitchell’s desire for an art career and, as she puts it, forced her “on the bad girl’s trail, a trail of shame and scandal.” She gave birth to a daughter (the subject of “Little Green”) and, out of desperation, began to birth her music—through an ill-considered misalliance with first husband and musical partner Chuck Mitchell. These painful early experiences pushed Mitchell to write, to “develop her own private world,” she says above. A line from “Little Green” captures the emotional nuances of that world: “You’re sad and you’re sorry but you’re not ashamed.”

Watch the full documentary (with Spanish subtitles) to get more insights into Mitchell’s development as an artist and a person. Mitchell is open, lively, and reflective, as you might expect. She’s as lively as ever as a 69-year-old grande dame of folk music, as you can see in the CBC interview above, taped at her home, where she talks at length about the paintings that line her walls and her songwriting process, while unrepentantly smoking like a chimney.

Watch Joni Mitchell Perform “Both Sides Now” on the First Episode of The Johnny Cash Show (1969)

Joni Mitchell on “When Free is Not Enough”

Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Washington, DC. Follow him at @jdmagness

Hear Charlton Heston Read Ernest Hemingway’s Classic Story, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”

Colin Marshall — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:00:50 +0000

“‘The marvelous thing is that it’s painless,’ he said. ‘That’s how you know when it starts.’

‘Is it really?’

‘Absolutely. I’m awfully sorry about the odor though. That must bother you.’”

Most American readers surely recognize these lines, though it may take a moment to remember where they recognize them from. They open “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” a short story by Ernest Hemingway that first ran in Esquire in 1936, then, two years later, appeared in the collection The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories. (Find in our collection of Free eBooks.) Dealing with the memories and regrets of a writer on safari dying of a gangrenous thorn wound, the story has over the past 76 years become one of the most respected works in Hemingway’s oeuvre and an essential piece of twentieth-century American literature. As often happens with essential pieces of American literature, Hollywood got to it, adapting it into a 1952 blockbuster featuring Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward, and Ava Gardner. (Find in our collection of 535 Free Movies Online.)

Though the starring role of Harry, the fast-fading rough-and-tumble man of letters who sees himself as ruined by affluence and hedonism, went to Peck, I could also imagine it played by Charlton Heston. Even if you couldn’t quite place that bit of dialogue from “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” you’d be immediately able to place Heston’s voice reading the story aloud in the recording available on this HarperAudio Hemingway site. Listen below and see for yourself if the actor’s delivery, so often associated with silver-screen roles meant to project a grand sternness, can also deliver the bitterness of Hemingway’s protagonist, who certainly shares with his creator the conviction that “politics, women, drink, money and ambition” bring writers truly low, down to the point where they can declare, as Harry so memorably does, “The only thing I’ve never lost is curiosity.”

Part one: .au format (5.5 Mb), .gsm format (1 Mb), .ra format (0.6 Mb)
Part two: .au format (5.5 Mb), .gsm format (1 Mb), .ra format (0.6 Mb)
Part three: .au format (5.5 Mb), .gsm format (1 Mb), .ra format (0.6 Mb)
Part four: .au format (5.5 Mb), .gsm format (1 Mb), .ra format (0.6 Mb)

Bonus: Here you can also listen to Donald Sutherland read an excerpt from Old Man and the Sea.

The Spanish Earth, Written and Narrated by Ernest Hemingway

Seven Tips From Ernest Hemingway on How to Write Fiction

Colin Marshall hosts and produces Notebook on Cities and Culture and writes essays on literature, film, cities, Asia, and aesthetics. He’s at work on a book about Los Angeles, A Los Angeles Primer. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall.

Google Wants to Provide Internet Access to Remote Parts of the World with Solar-Powered Ballons

Dan Colman — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:00:08 +0000

Perhaps you live in a developed nation, or a pocket of a developing nation, where internet access is a relatively cheap commodity. Count yourself lucky. Right now, 5 billion people — or two thirds of the world’s population — lack access to an affordable and reliable Internet connection. Which means they lack access to critical information — medical information that can save lives; scientific information that can improve farming; technical information necessary to build a modern economy; and educational resources that can cultivate young minds.

With Project Loon, Google is launching an audacious experiment that will hopefully make a dent in this serious problem. The experiment involves putting a fleet of high-altitude balloons into the air. Powered solely by the wind and the sun, the balloons will fly high into the stratosphere, well above where commercial planes fly, and they’ll beam Internet access back to the ground ”at speeds similar to today’s 3G networks or faster,” claims Google’s main blog. (The clip below explains the gist of the technology.) Right now, they’re running a small scale test in New Zealand (in Christchurch and Canterbury, to be exact) and you can monitor the progress over at Project Loon’s Google Plus page. In the meantime, we’ll keep our fingers crossed and hope the entire world can soon enjoy our collection of Free Online Courses, not to mention the other random curiosities found on the web.

Watch the World Record for the Largest Domino Chain Made of 2,131 Books

Dan Colman — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 19:26:03 +0000

In late May, The Seattle Public Library set a world record for the Longest Book Domino Chain, according to the World Record Academy. Watch as 2,131 books — all part of an upcoming book sale — fall one by one. Apparently, it took 27 volunteers seven hours — and five failed attempts — to pull off this feat for the ages. h/t Metafilter

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus and share intelligent media with your friends! They’ll thank you for it.

Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man (a 52 minute documentary that pays homage to Shakespeare and Company)

Books Lovingly Savored in Stop Motion Film

Going West: A Stop Motion Novel

On Bloomsday, Hear James Joyce Read From his Epic Ulysses, 1924

Mike Springer — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 08:29:56 +0000

Today is “Bloomsday,” the traditional day for book lovers to celebrate James Joyce’s masterpiece, Ulysses (text – audio). To mark the occasion we bring you this rare 1924 recording of Joyce reading from the Aeolus episode of the novel. The recording was arranged and financed by the author’s friend and publisher Sylvia Beach, who brought him by taxi to the HMV (His Master’s Voice) gramophone studio in the Paris suburb of Billancourt. The first session didn’t go well. Joyce was nervous and suffering from his recurring eye troubles. He and Beach returned another day to finish the recording. In her memoir, Shakespeare & Company, Beach writes:

Joyce had chosen the speech in the Aeolus episode, the only passage that could be lifted out of Ulysses, he said, and the only one that was “declamatory” and therefore suitable for recital. He had made up his mind, he told me, that this would be his only reading from Ulysses.

I have an idea that it was not for declamatory reasons alone that he chose this passage from Aeolus. I believe that it expressed something he wanted said and preserved in his own voice. As it rings out–”he lifted his voice above it boldly”–it is more, one feels, than mere oratory.

The passage parallels the episode in Homer’s Odyssey featuring Aeolus, god of the winds. As a pun, Joyce sets it in a newspaper office where his hero Leopold Bloom stops by to place an ad, only to be stymied by the blustery noise of the printing presses and of the various “windbags” in the office. One character tries to entertain a couple of his friends with a mocking recital of a politician’s speech printed in the day’s newspaper. Here is the passage Joyce reads:

He began:

–Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: Great was my admiration in listening to the remarks addressed to the youth of Ireland a moment since by my learned friend. It seemed to me that I had been transported into a country far away from this country, into an age remote from this age, that I stood in ancient Egypt and that I was listening to the speech of a highpriest of that land addressed to the youthful Moses.

His listeners held their cigarettes poised to hear, their smoke ascending in frail stalks that flowered with his speech…Noble words coming. Look out. Could you try your hand at it yourself?

–And it seemed to me that I heard the voice of that Egyptian highpriest raised in a tone of like haughiness and like pride. I heard his words and their meaning was revealed to me.

From the Fathers
It was revealed to me that those things are good which yet are corrupted which neither if they were supremely good nor unless they were good could be corrupted. Ah, curse you! That’s saint Augustine.

–Why will you jews not accept our language, our religion and our culture? You are a tribe of nomad herdsmen; we are a mighty people. You have no cities nor no wealth: our cities are hives of humanity and our galleys, trireme and quadrireme, laden with all manner merchandise furrow the waters of the known globe. You have but emerged from primitive conditions: we have a literature, a priesthood, an agelong history and a polity.

Nile.

Child, man, effigy.

By the Nilebank the babemaries kneel, cradle of bulrushes: a man supple in combat: stonehorned, stonebearded, heart of stone.

–You pray to a local and obscure idol: our temples, majestic and mysterious, are the abodes of Isis and Osiris, of Horus and Ammon Ra. Yours serfdom, awe and humbleness: ours thunder and the seas. Israel is weak and few are her children: Egypt is an host and terrible are her arms. Vagrants and daylabourers are you called: the world trembles at our name.

A dumb belch of hunger cleft his speech. he lifted his voice above it boldly:

–But, ladies and gentlemen, had the youthful Moses listened to and accepted that view of life, had he bowed his head and bowed his will and bowed his spirit before that arrogant admonition he would never have led the chosen people out of their house of bondage nor followed the pillar of the cloud by day. He would never have spoken with the Eteral amid lightnings on Sinai’s mountaintop nor even have come down with the light of inspiration shining in his countenance and bearing in his arms the tables of the law, graven in the language of the outlaw.

For more of Ulysses, click here to find out how you can download it as a free audio book. And to hear a clearer recording of Joyce’s voice made five years after this one, see our 2012 post: “James Joyce Reads ‘Anna Livia Plurabelle’ from Finnegans Wake.”

Stephen Fry Explains His Love for James Joyce’s Ulysses

Marilyn Monroe Reads Joyce’s Ulysses at the Playground (1955)

How to Make Instant Ramen Compliments of Japanese Animation Director Hayao Miyzaki

Ayun Halliday — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 08:20:49 +0000

Writer-Director Hayao Miyazaki is renowned for the gorgeousness of his feature length animations, and storylines that combine indigenous Japanese elements with supernatural whimsy. In a world of Disney princesses, let us give thanks for family entertainment in which an eccentric castle roams the countryside on chicken legs, a stink spirit wreaks havoc in a bathhouse, and a fur-lined cat bus transports passengers at top speed.

The first generation of American children to have grown up on Miyazki films – My Neighbor Totoro was released in the States in 1993 – has entered their college years. A portion of them will have eagerly sought out his latest offering, a semi-autobiographical tale directed by his son, Goro. Some will have felt themselves too mature for such fare. Being college students, both groups are likely to be horking down a fair amount of cheap packaged ramen noodles.

As evidenced above, Miyazaki has some pretty specific ideas on what to do with those. Preparing a late night workplace dinner for his Spirited Away team, the great director rivals Good Fellas‘ sliced garlic maven Paul Sorvino for culinary sang-froid. Stuffing ten blocks of the stuff into a single pot might get an ordinary mortal voted off of Top Chef, but aside from that Miyazaki’s staff meal is an excellent, instant tutorial for those interested in souping up low budget, collegiate cuisine.

Like everything else he does, the end product looks good. Even those who’ve managed to elude the dreaded Freshmen Fifteen may feel themselves in danger of reenacting one of Spirited Away’s most notorious scenes. Oink oink!

Japanese Cartoons from the 1920s and 30s Reveal the Stylistic Roots of Anime

Ayun Halliday‘s favorite moment is when Totoro and the children make the camphor tree grow. Follow her @AyunHalliday

Rick Wakeman Tells the Story of the Mellotron, the Oddball Proto-Synthesizer Pioneered by the Beatles

Josh Jones — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 15:15:15 +0000

Did you know that the Spanish guitar intro to the Beatles’ “Bungalow Bill” was not played by George Harrison, but rather by an odd electronic instrument called a Mellotron, the same strange proto-synthesizer responsible for the flute intro to “Strawberry Fields Forever”? You’ll learn quite a bit more about the “rash breaking out all over pop music” that was the Mellotron in the audio story above, narrated by Rick Wakeman.

From the aforementioned Beatles’ songs to The Band’s “This Wheel’s on Fire” to pretty much every song in 60s pop and 70s progressive rock, as well as in 60s revivalists like Oasis, the Mellotron makes an appearance. It even shows up on Skynard’s “Freebird” of all things. Wakeman sketches the history of the oddball instrument, from its humble beginnings in the garage of California inventor Harry Chamberlin, to its popularization by salesman Bill Fransen, who took Chamberlin’s design and made it his own.

Bear in mind, as we enter the world of Mellotronics, that the instrumental bits you hear throughout Wakeman’s story were played by someone, sometime. The sounds made by this keyboard-like thing are in fact actual parts from live orchestras and sundry other musical arrangements, recorded onto tape loops and configured in an ingenious way so that they correspond to a standard keyboard and a variety of presets and knobby-dially-things. You might even call it an analog sampler. The more technically-minded among you may wish to read this Sound on Sound article for specs. For you enthusiasts, keyboardist Mike Pindar of the Moody Blues—whose “Nights in White Satin” would never have been without the Mellotron—demonstrates the instrument’s inner workings in the short video above.

Inventor Harry Chamberlin originally designed the Mellotron (which he called, of course, the Chamberlin) to re-create the sound of an orchestra at home, or in the local lodge or cabaret, presumably. This is the use Paul McCartney divines in the funky demonstration of his Mellotron above. Sir Paul, in a cabaret setting, does a goofy lounge singer act, then plays the “Strawberry Fields” intro.

Digital synthesizers and computers overtook the Mellotron, as they did all analog electronics. But like all things old, it’s new again, in simulated form, available to iPhone users via the Manetron app (Mellotron also makes a physical, digital version of their vintage instrument). The story and sound of the Mellotron recently inspired a full documentary treatment in the 2010 film Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie, now out on DVD, which may be the most compelling documentary about a pioneering electronic instrument ever made (far better than 2004’s disappointing Moog). As former Beach Boy Brian Wilson says in the film, “the Mellotron stays cool.” And indeed, it does.

via Coudal

The Genius of Brian Eno On Display in 80 Minute Q&A: Talks Art, iPad Apps, ABBA, & More

All Hail the Beat: How the 1980 Roland TR-808 Drum Machine Changed Pop Music

The “Amen Break”: The Most Famous 6-Second Drum Loop & How It Spawned a Sampling Revolution

Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Washington, DC. Follow him at @jdmagness

Bertrand Russell: The First Media Academic?: A Retrospective of His Influential Radio Appearances

Mike Springer — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 19:11:37 +0000

Bertrand Russell was one of the most important logicians and mathematical philosophers of the early 20th century. He was also a tireless campaigner for peace and social progress. Born into an aristocratic British family, Russell believed that the social and political ills of the world could be lessened if people of all social classes had a better grasp of knowledge and critical reasoning. To this end, he devoted a great deal of his time to writing popular books on moral and intellectual matters. He was also a regular presence on BBC radio during the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

Most of Russell’s surviving radio programs have been locked away in the archives for all these years. But in January of 2012, producers at BBC Radio 4 assembled some interesting excerpts from the philosopher’s many radio appearances for a retrospective. Bertrand Russell: The First Media Academic? (above, in its entirety) is a fascinating overview of Russell’s life as a public intellectual. Hosted by comedian and writer Robin Ince, the program includes commentary from two of Britain’s current crop of media academics: physicist and former pop musician Brian Cox and mathematician Marcus du Sautoy, who currently holds Richard Dawkins’s old seat as the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford. There are excerpts from vintage interviews with people who knew Russell, including his son Conrad and his second wife, Dora Black Russell. But the best contributions are from the philosopher himself. Even the most devoted fan of Russell will find something new and interesting to listen to in this excellent assemblage of rare audio clips.

Note: You can download a finely-polished recording of Bertrand Russell: The First Media Academic? from Audible.com. And you could always get it for free by taking advantage of Audible’s 30-day Free Trial. Find details on that here. Whenever a reader signs up for a free trial with Audible, it helps support Open Culture.

Listen to ‘Why I Am Not a Christian,’ Bertrand Russell’s Powerful Critique of Religion (1927)

Bertrand Russell’s Ten Commandments for Living in a Healthy Democracy

Bertrand Russell on His Student Ludwig Wittgenstein: Man of Genius or Merely an Eccentric?