http://lowbrowculture.tumblr.com/

Connecting nvALT and Address Book

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:26:38 +0100

I use nvAlt (synced with SimpleNote) all over the place, from storing little code snippets to keeping track of ideas and lists over time. Brett Terpstra has come up with a great idea for linking notes with individual people in your address book. Love this.

The Dublin cinema manager who became the only Irish prisoner of Dachau

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:31:32 +0100

The Dublin cinema manager who became the only Irish prisoner of Dachau :

This post shows why Come Here To me is, by a huge margin, my favourite Irish blog.

4,748 Self-Portraits and Counting I think Jeff Harris just...

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:20:26 +0100

4,748 Self-Portraits and Counting

I think Jeff Harris just became my new personal hero.

bonaventurer: Directed by John Ford (1971)

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:59:08 +0100

bonaventurer:

Directed by John Ford (1971)

iheartchaos: Filipino traffic cop is possessed by the funky...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:46:22 +0100

iheartchaos:

Filipino traffic cop is possessed by the funky ghost of Michael Jackson

Even if you’re stuck in rush hour Manila traffic, at least the traffic cop’s a smooth criminal.

Via

Submitted by Delsyd

Butch Walker And The Black Widows - Synthesizers

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:03:46 +0100

Butch Walker And The Black Widows - Synthesizers

Lisa Hannigan - What’ll I Do? Goes to show that all you...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:41:35 +0100

Lisa Hannigan - What’ll I Do?

Goes to show that all you need for a successful video is a decent song, a ridiculously cute singer and a rollercoaster. The rest will take care of itself.

Lighthouse Cinema re-opening

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:37:20 +0100

Lighthouse Cinema re-opening:

I was saying to my missus on Saturday about how I was really sad that I was living away from Ireland for the entirely lifespan of the Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield. Now it’s Monday and they’re announcing that it’s being re-opened!

So let’s see if I can use my new power for good: I am also really sad that Rubicon and Terriers were cancelled.

2 Broke Girls panel turns ugly with racism, raunchiness charges - HitFix.com

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:53:19 +0100

2 Broke Girls panel turns ugly with racism, raunchiness charges - HitFix.com:

I really like Kat Dennings as an actress and was really happy to hear she had landed the lead in a sitcom. But holy shit, 2 Broke Girls is unwatchable. I think they only hired an actual Asian to play the Asian character because they couldn’t hire Mickey Rooney from Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

The Little Prince. Why hasn’t this been done before?

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:24:40 +0100

The Little Prince.

Why hasn’t this been done before?

Guy Laramee’s Biblios project. I can already hear all the...

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:30:31 +0100

Guy Laramee’s Biblios project. I can already hear all the snarky voices saying “Can you do that with a Kindle?”

Oh, the Places You’ll Go at Burning Man! Beautifully...

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:07:18 +0100

Oh, the Places You’ll Go at Burning Man!

Beautifully done.

The Rules

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:39:41 +0100

I’ve been cycling in and out of town almost every day since July. A half-hour in, against the wind. A half hour back, uphill almost the whole way. My entire attitude towards cycling has changed. It’s not just simple transport any more. It’s war. War against myself. War against taxi drivers. War against Dublin weather.

Which is why I love Velominati’s Rules of cycling etiquette. Okay, some are a little fetishistic about the bike itself, which is a little creepy. But this one in particular caught my eye.

Rule #9 / If you are out riding in bad weather, it means you are a badass. Period.
Fair-weather riding is a luxury reserved for Sunday afternoons and wide boulevards. Those who ride in foul weather – be it cold, wet, or inordinately hot – are members of a special club of riders who, on the morning of a big ride, pull back the curtain to check the weather and, upon seeing rain falling from the skies, allow a wry smile to spread across their face. This is a rider who loves the work.

I cycled through ‘monster rain’, down a road where a previously-underground river suddenly became an overground river. Cycling in rain doesn’t bother me any more. With a change of clothes and a radiator, you can cycle through anything.

I also love Rule 12 - “The correct number of bikes to own is n+1.”

While the minimum number of bikes one should own is three, the correct number is n+1, where n is the number of bikes currently owned. This equation may also be re-written as s-1, where s is the number of bikes owned that would result in separation from your partner.

Although, in my case, you could replace the word “bikes” in the previous paragraph with “board games”.

ollymoss: I worked with Studio Ghibli and Mondo to create these...

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:25:16 +0100

ollymoss:

I worked with Studio Ghibli and Mondo to create these two posters for one of my favourite movies. I still can’t quite believe this, it’s such a huge honour.

My Neighbor Totoro is a 20x36 8-colour screen print. It’ll be for sale from Mondo soon and, as usual, I will have some signed APs for sale at some point later.

My birthday is coming up. Totoro is one of my favourite films. Coincidence?

A Proper "Alien" Resurrection

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 03:07:29 +0100

A Proper "Alien" Resurrection:

Speaking of Alien, Mubi is hosting a fantastic assessment of all the little things that make that film so great. Love this line: “Even the design concept behind Saul Bass’ (uncredited) opening titles transforms the viewer’s initial perceptions of something seemingly benign into an understanding of a thing that is concretely threatening.”

Guess what film I’ll be watching tomorrow?

Trailer for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. Love all the little...

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 03:02:13 +0100

Trailer for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. Love all the little nods to the trailer for Alien. Honestly, I haven’t been this excited about a film in a long time.

Golden Snitch Ornament Tutorial Love this. A bit late for this...

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 01:46:21 +0100

Golden Snitch Ornament Tutorial

Love this. A bit late for this year, but I’ve already bookmarked it and set a reminder for next year.

The Sundays - Wild Horses You would not believe how much this...

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:54:00 +0100

The Sundays - Wild Horses

You would not believe how much this songs mean to me.

Video

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:29:31 +0100

In a recent interview with The Nerdist podcast, J.J. Abrams (who, incidentally, comes across as an...

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:34:31 +0100

In a recent interview with The Nerdist podcast, J.J. Abrams (who, incidentally, comes across as an incredibly friendly and yet completely joyless person) suggested that cinemas wouldn’t suffer the same level of decline as traditional book and record shops. His reasoning? He reckons the experience of going to the cinema can’t be properly reproduced, even by the most tricked-out and elaborate TV and surround-sound setups. For him, the collective experience of watching a film in the dark with a group of strangers is so singular that it will always have a place in our lives.

I’m not sure I buy it. This year alone, I had two wildly differing experiences at the cinema that make me question what he’s saying.

First, there was Rise of the Planet of the Apes. At the dramatic high-point point of the movie, the moment at which — spoiler alert! — an ape speaks for the first time, the audience started tittering. This is supposed to be a powerful scene, but let’s face it: it’s a fucking ape talking, so it’s also a little silly. I don’t really blame the audience for laughing. At the same time, this didn’t stop it from completely breaking the illusion and tearing me out of the film. It made me feel stupid for having been so caught up in the movie that I was fully buying it before the laughter made me realise I was invested in a fucking ape talking. If I’m honest, I still resent that audience for doing that to me. If I had been watching it at home, I’d probably have fonder memories of that film.

A few weeks later, I went along to Melancholia, an incredibly powerful movie that I still haven’t fully processed, even months after seeing it. For the most part, this is a small, personal film. It’s a glimpse at someone suffering from depression. The film feels so voyeuristic that projecting it twenty feet tall seems sort of wrong. Maybe that’s also part of the ‘message’ of that film (haven’t worked this out yet - like I said, still processing it). But the film is book-ended by beautiful shots that completely justify being shown on a huge screen, and where the soundtrack deserves an amazing sound-system. The bombastic final shot deserves to be experienced as part of an audience, as people start looking around at each other, slightly dazed and giving each other a full-on Keanu “Whoa”. For me, the ending makes me incredibly happy, almost boastful, that I saw that film in the cinema. No matter what way you cut it, it just wouldn’t have been the same at home. In fact, I think the whole film will be less powerful outside of the cinema.

These are the outliers, though; the most extreme examples of my recent experiences of watching a film with an audience. But for most people, the average cinema-going experience — and I’d question how ‘average’ J.J. Abrams’ cinema-going experiences are these days — ranges from ‘dreadful’ to ‘OH MY FUCKING CHRIST, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!’. Talking, rustling, texting, irresponsible parenting: all of these things appear to be accepted, almost expected parts of a trip to the cinema. As much a cost of entry as the extortionate ticket price. I’d argue that this is one of the main reasons cinema attendance is down 20% compared to last year. People are staying home to watch their movies.

Let’s face facts. Part of the reason for the decline of high-street book and music shops, particularly the larger franchise-type shops, is that the experience of using these shops became so impersonal and unfriendly — in some cases, downright hostile — towards the customers, that people were willing to trade the tangible benefits of the traditional shopping experience for one they can control. Online shopping is often impersonal and unfriendly (although rarely hostile), but it at least has the added benefit of being convenient. What it lacks in humanity, it makes up for in choice. And price. With cinema, we’re seeing the same thing - people are willing to sacrifice the singular experience of seeing a film with an audience for a slightly more mundane experience they control.

And, you know what? I don’t blame them.