Earth Day/Week Goodness

In celebration of Earth Day/Week, I've put together a whole big list of awesome things on the Internet that are environment related.

First off, a blog that I go to every day for news about Global Warming, and probably the most influential climate change blog on the internet: Climate Progress. This blog is great at having very scientific but accessible explanations of climate trends, and also simultaneously delivering some smack-downs to global warming deniers in the Media and on the net. A++ would read again!

Next, Fifty Ways to Help the Planet, brought to you by The Green Line. This is an excellent list of things you can do every day to help the planet - both things you've heard before (about brushing your teeth, or taking shorter showers) and things you probably haven't (choosing matches over lighters, or cutting down on paper napkins). Also, excellent design work on this one; the list is visually nice as well as helpful.

Adding a little humor is Grist.org which is an environmental news site that has a edgy, Stephen Colbert-cum-Jon Stewart side. Hilarious..."If At First You Don't Succeed, Perhaps It Was A Bad Idea" and "Raise Hell, Not Corn" are front page headlines right now. Also, they have a podcast.

Lastly, Al Gore, the man I hold responsible for elevating the issues of climate change to the national discourse. With his Nobel Peace Prize money, he's started an advertising campaign called "We Can Solve It" to promote further action. The ads for this movement are the best part (aside from the whole saving the world bit), as they take two well known polar opposites and sit them on a couch and get them to talk about what a big deal global warming is. Check it out.

PSP Game Review: Patapon

I swear, five minutes of playing Patapon, or being in the same room will having you humming "PATA PATA PATA PON" all day long.

A lot of people have spoken about the gameplay of this PSP game (here, and here, and here), and it is revolutionary, but I'm not going to spend time on it here. What I really want to discuss is the game's aesthetic.

(I must give some credit to fellow blogger K. Adam White, as he wrote on this very same topic not long ago, and introduced me to the game.)

The visual style is credited to a French artist named Rolito (his blog). Simply put, his style is about objects in the foreground having their detail obscured in total black silhouette (with a little white for accent), while the background is awash in a highly saturated color or two with patterns done in subtle variations on those colors. It is a captivating style, and will keep your eyes glued to the glossy PSP screen for hours. In fact, for me at least, it's not just the nifty rhythms that keep me playing; it's also the juicy colors and boldly black and white Patapons that are like delicious candy for the eyes.

Since the foreground is so sparse with detail, your eye is draw to the bright colors of the background - but since the background is nothing specific, or at least nothing that you need to focus on, it becomes more of an experience, rather than a depiction. In a way, it resembles JMW Turner's paintings - colors used to convey experience and emotion or just plain ambiance rather than specific objects or people.

In the interests of full disclosure, I have to admit that my own pet artistic style at the moment is something akin to Rolito's, though less cartoonish and more realistic. Some photos I have taken, like the one to the right, are in the same spirit as Rolito's drawings, though not as "playful".

In fact, to evangelize my own variety of Rolito's style, I've started a new blog: Now Silhouette. A few times a week, I will take a commonplace thing - an apple, an advertisement, google's front page, a Michelangelo, whatever - and redo it in my own style. It should be a fascinating experiment!

In the mean time, three cheers to Rolito and Patapon!

New Music by Awesome People: The Blood Arm

If you're anything like me, you're drowning in music. Music is so pervasive, so prolifically made, and so easy to access and acquire that it may be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff - and there's a lot of chaff. Well, fear not, I have found an awesome band. That you should listen to. Now.

The Blood Arm (wiki) coalesced in LA in 2003 and just recently (2005/2006) became popular when Franz Ferdinand mentioned they were their favorite new band, then invited them to open at their shows. And, in fact, The Blood Arm bears much resemblance to Franz Ferdinand, though with some subtle but important differences.

Namely, two things: a piano, and the lead singer who must be on speed every time he performs. The addition of the piano to the Franz sound is great; it makes the music lighter and more cheerful. Take the song Do I Have Your Attention, for instance: it's quick, it's upbeat, and it's totally awesome. Nevermind that the music video is one of the greatest examples of animation-to-music I've ever seen.

This brings me to the lead singer. Let me just quote Wikipidia: "The band is led by singer Nathaniel Fregoso, who has a reputation being energetic during live shows, including singing from the tops of speaker stacks, hanging off water pipes, waltzing with members of the audience, or stealing off to the bar to swipe drinks during their live shows." (If you know Ben Spalding, this guy IS Ben Spalding.)

Their most recent album, Lie Lover Lie, came out in 2006 and is filled with delightful, catchy songs you won't be able to get out your head. (For an example, take Suspicious Character It's been a while since that album, though, so look for something in 2008...

The SIlk Road Project

On a Friday while at Brown last winter, I heard about a performance happening that night at the little Avon Theater. The rumor going around said that Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble (youtube) was going to be playing a live score to a 1926-something animated, silhouette style film based on the the Arabian epic The 1001 Nights. Better yet, I heard that this was free to Brown students.

I arrived at the theater to see a line that stretched almost a half mile down the street. It was cold, and I had come alone. I made a few phone calls, I watched my breath dissolve with every exhale. The line began to move, and soon I was inside the theater. I was lucky: those who had arrived to the line only ten minutes after I had were past the capacity of the theater, and weren't allowed in.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (imdb), as it was titled, is the oldest full-length animated film. It took a decade for German animator Lotte Reiniger to paste together this epic entirely out of paper-cut silhouettes.

Rarely has this film ever been screened in public, and never again would it be screened with a live score provided by the Silk Road Ensemble, which was at the time in residence at RISD. The music, played on a myriad of world instruments, was vivid and rich, enhanced all the more by it's live performance. The animation, far from being shoddy or "experimental" somehow conveyed more emotion, more humanity, and more drama than any of the more realistic or "cartoon-like" animation of today. It was a once-ever performance, and the sheer emotive force brought by the combination of both music and light - it moved the audience to utter silence at times, and gasps and cheers at others - is something I will remember and carry with me until the end of my days. (Providence Journal Article about the event here)

Yo-Yo Ma has said in various places (namely his podcast) that his motivation for music is actually the study of human relationships - how relationships come and go, their joys and their pains, and the ever more complex interweave of human experience. The historical Silk Road, the amorphous trade route from China to Rome that existed for many centuries, is the perfect medium for this study. The Silk Road was a truly amazing phenomenon: before the age of mass transit and fast travel, people would cross borders and mountains and deserts between them and their far-flung cultural neighbors to trade art, food, stories, and melodies.

The Silk Road Ensemble, which played an original score to The Adventures of Prince Achmed using instruments from every corner of Eurasia, is only a part of Yo-Yo Ma's greater Silk Road Project. The Project is dedicated to both the study of the historical cross-cultural interactions along the Silk Road, but also the potential for contemporary interaction. Asking "What happens when strangers meet?" it brings together artists, musicians, writers, poets, and scholars from Italy to Saudi Arabia to Mongolia, and together creates something that is innately human and truly beautiful.

They Silk Road Ensemble has two CD's out, and I highly recommend buying them both. There is going to be a concert next week at Harvard, Nov. 29 and 30, featuring the Silk Road Ensemble. I'm going, who's coming with me?

Shorpy Shorpy Shorpy!

Yeah, say it: Shorpy. It just rolls off the tongue like honey: Shorpy.

So, what the hell is it?

Shorpy calls itself "The 100-Year-Old Photo Blog", and that is about as apt a subtitle as you can get. It is a blog, and on it people post "vintage" photographs, usually between 100 and 70 years old. These are not the crappy, flea-market quality snapshots, however; the photos uploaded to Shorpy are intended as both entertainment and art.

Usually, the photos depict either some sort of candid situation of daily life, or a posing subject in his "natural habitat". The goal here is to display what life was like in this not-so-distant past, and elicit a certain empathy from the viewer.

Many of these photos are powerful, moving, beautiful, and/or troubling. This one, of a small shop in 1938 Key West, is telling for it's main protagonist: the man on the left, obviously past his prime, but with one more crutch and one fewer leg than normal. One can assume, based on his age, that he lost that leg in World War I.

This one, one of the rare few in color, is a beautiful landscape of a Chicago Railroad yard in 1942 - the very pinacle of the Railroad Era. With a landscape made entirely of trains and cars, and the engines spewing steam like man-made clouds, this image is representative of peak of the steam-epoch, and also a lament for its passing.

Some other favorites of mine: Solomon the Newsie, 1909. Clerk 37, 1942. Rural Mother, 1936.

So, why is it named Shorpy? Well, the blog gets its title from a man named "Shorpy" Higginbotham who, as a boy as young as fourteen, worked in a coal mine in Alabama. His real name was Henry Sharp Higginbotham, and he later served in World War I. He died in 1927 in a coal mine, crushed by a rock.

In 1910, when Shorpy was fourteen and working in the mine, a photographer named Lewis Wickes Hine visited and took some photographs. To our knowledge, only four images of Shorpy survive from this time, and they are eerily haunting. His face seems that of a man much older, cynical, dour. His hands are huge, and his arms are deformed from carrying heavy grease containers during his physically formative years. He is child labor, he is the ultimate end of 19th century business.

In just four images, this mysterious boy nicknamed "Shorpy" embodies both a fantastical past that seems far removed from our modern lives, and a very real, human, mortal past that still haunts us today. That's the draw of Shorpy, and his blog.

the cake is a lie.

On October 10, 2007, Valve Software released The Orange Box, a collection of five games for the Xbox and the PC. In this magical construction-cone colored box was something for everyone, but most importantly, two of the finest games to be made in the last few years: Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Today, I'll talk about Portal, though sometime very soon I'll put something up about TF2 as well.


The premise of Portal (wiki) is so simple it's sexy: no guns, no blunt objects, no grenades, just a portal gun. That is, a gun that shoots portals. Walk though a blue portal, and walk out of an orange portal, no matter where they both are placed.

This makes for easy walking through walls, but also creates some very fun tricks as well. As this image (stolen from Wired Magazine) shows, momentum is conserved when traveling through a portal. Let me repeat that: you keep your momentum when you go through a portal, as if you had gone through nothing at all. This means that (as you can see in 2a and 2b) when you fall into a portal in a floor, you will "fall out" of the other portal in the wall. Furthermore (3a and 3b), falling down a portal in a floor will result in your "falling up" the other portal in another floor. Fun!

But what really takes the cake (*cough*) is Portal's plot. (I will make an effort not to drop any spoilers.) The game is narrated by a computer, GlaDOS (pronounced like "Gladys") in what has to be the creepiest computerized-human voice I've ever heard anywhere. It's creepy, but GlaDOS also likes to crack jokes - or at least you're not sure if she's joking, which makes it even more funny.

This voice (not to mention this game) is so awesome that my friends and I went around for months before the game was realized repeating the parting line of the Portal teaser trailer: "Now you are thinking...in Portals."

The plot is addictive and clever. It's quick though, leaving everyone wanting more. (Spoliers in these links!!) Thankfully, there's the Internet: here's a flash-based side-scrolling version of Portal that's very entertaining. Also, you would be shocked at how many people have covered the cool Jonathan Coulton song from the end credits screen. This guy, these people from England, and - good heavens.

If you're interested - and you should be - Portal is available as part of The Orange Box either in physical box form in game stores or through Steam, Valve's online distrobution system, for $50. (I used Steam, and I liked the experience - it was easy and fast.) It's a chunk of cash, I know, but for five games, at least two of which are quality, it's worth it.

Golden Compasses, Golden Ages, and a Time Machine

In twenty four hours, I came across three movies that are really, really exciting:

The Golden Compass (trailer) is a new film that is due to premiere on December 7. Based on the Philip Pullman novel and produced by New Line (the Lord of the Rings production company), this is apt to be a fantastic fantasy epic.

The book is truly wonderful, the story of a young girl in a world similar to late 19th century Europe, but quite different as well with kingdoms of bears, steampunk-style flying machines, witches, and animal familiars. The book itself is one of those that you simply cannot put down, with intrigue and action (not cheesy action either - nifty, interpersonal action) around every bend. And did I mention that there's a healthy dose of steampunk in this??

Also, the cast seems spectacular: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig (Bond), and Eva Green (best witch ever).

If you want to talk about amazing casts, though, nothing can really top Elizabeth - The Golden Age (trailer). It is the sequel to the 1990's Elizabeth, which was a great film itself. The sequel has brought back a critical mass of the old cast, with Geoffrey Rush (Captain Barbossa of Pirates infamy) and most importantly Cate Blanchett (Galadriel from LotR), probably the greatest actress of the first decade of this century, as Queen Elizabeth. Oh, and Clive Owen (think the stunning Children of Men)is in this too.

The first film was the story of the Virgin Queen's rise to power; this film is the story of the first few years of her shaky rule, and her various conflicts with Spain (ahem...the Armada and all). From what I can tell, we have a Cate-cum-Queen who has found her inner strength to rule, but has to deal with a lot of shit hitting the fan at once and as a result has some degree of melancholy and drama with Clive Owen (who should be Francis Drake, not bloody Walter Raleigh).

Check out the videos on the film's website - they show just how awesome Cate Blanchett is.

Even better, Elizabeth - The Golden Age comes out October 12.

Lastly, an old film: the 1960 production of The Time Machine (trailer). I caught this on television last night, and could not stop watching. No actors of note here, but the adaption of the HG Wells novel is the primary draw.

While it is faithful to many aspects of the book, it updates the plot to accommodate 1960 realities: the time traveler first visits 1917, then 1944, the years of the two great wars of the 20th century. This Time Traveler is forlorn about humanity, about how it is constantly warring, and using science to find new ways of killing men faster and more efficiently. So he also visits 1966 (the "future" at the time), and just barely escapes the nuclear annihilation of London. (Later on, the air-raid sirens used in 20th century London come back to have importance to the 802nd century eloi and morlocks.)

What 1960's culture thought its future would be is fascinating in and of itself. But this film raises some issues about war and time and life and death that are still relevant today, and would be relevant to generations of men both past and future. Well worth watching, as long as you can get over the cheesy-by-today's-standards morlock costumes.