Nostalgia, Idiom, Space, Monster, Line
Past Futures: Nostalgia in the Age of Escapism
Asher Isbrucker | YouTube | 9th March 2017
A home movie archive prompts an exploration of nostalgia. "In the 17th century, nostalgia was a disease – [Swiss mercenaries] longed for their familiar mountain homeland, and sending them back was the only effective cure. Since then, nostalgia has evolved from a longing for place, to a longing for time, somewhere we can't go. There is no cure for nostalgia as it exists today" (8m 49s)
Kill Your Idioms
Grant Kolton | YouTube | 19th October 2020
Maybe our idioms aren't so accurate. "Pennies saved don't add up to much. Genius is not mostly comprised of sweat. There are some ways without wills. Judging a book by its cover saves a lot of time. It can be quite comfortable between a rock and a hard place. Killing two birds with one stone is actually harder than murdering them one after the other." Charming animated pedantry (2m 01s)
Why Hasn't Space Tourism Taken Off?
The Guardian | YouTube | 22nd October 2020
Well, for starters, "flying is dangerous. It's taxing on the body. You're basically strapping yourself to explosives." The Challenger disaster effectively killed Ronald Reagan's plan to send average Americans into space. 34 years later, Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, and even NASA are dabbling in the beginnings of a commercial space industry (8m 37s)
The B-Movie Monsters That Time Forgot!
Little White Lies | YouTube | 20th October 2020
Brief history of cheap horror. "For those working at the really low-cost end of B-moviemaking, the thinking was clear; any animal seen as vaguely creepy or dangerous in its normal dimensions could only be even scarier when blown up. Pretty soon, anything that swooped, scuttled or slithered was fair game." It is the sense of "invention, daring and sheer fun" that preserves these films (6m 01s)
Clever Video Of The Week
Shostakovich's beloved Waltz. No. 2, visualized with the "Line Rider" video game
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