When Hong Kong cinema finally reached Western audiences in the late eighties, its style was quickly and correctly categorized as a strictly commercial approach to filmmaking. Wong Kar Wai’s arrival changed everything. With the same visual tools that his peers were using to make action blockbusters, Wong started making very personal and extremely poetic films, disregarding the rules of narrative storytelling and challenging traditional Chinese mores. Few of his contemporaries have dared tackle homosexuality as directly as he did in Happy Together. From the dizzying Chungking Express to the hypnotizing In the Mood for Love, Wong’s work is incredibly modern and particularly powerful.

—Laurent Tirard

We rank the films of Wong Kar-wai.

[Right way up now!] Genuine #Gracepoint props from David Tennant’s desk: phone messages for Detective Carver. pic.twitter.com/Mciim4pyqJ

— Chris Chibnall (@ChrisChibnall) November 13, 2014

Gracepoint creator (and Who writer) Chris Chibnall tweeted a photo of star David Tennant’s original props from set – and we weren’t prepared for the feels involved.

Apparently, over the course of the show, Tennant scribbled his own phone messages whenever his character, Carver, would receive a “call.” Keeping in mind that Tennant is the ultimate Doctor Who fanboy, the messages read as follows:

From: Martha Jones
Message: Has information about Sally Sparrow

From: D. Noble
Message: Information regarding the library

From: R. Tyler
Message: Something regarding a wolf?

How.

Dare.

[Update: The intrepid Susan Hewitt of David Tennant News let me know that David didn't physically write the memos himself, but rather took the photo! Thanks, Susan!]

(via Tumblr)

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The 7-year-old San Francisco company has filed nearly three dozen proceedings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to block other tech companies from using the word “zen.” The tech world is known for its bizarre naming trends — as affordable URLs and untrademarked names have dwindled in supply, dropped vowels (Tumblr), odd suffixes (Storify) and bizarre compound words (Pinterest) have proliferated. “It’s just a beautiful, small word,” said David Placek, founder of the naming company Lexicon Branding. Joshua Reeves, the CEO of ZenPayroll, said that the company was looking for a name that communicated the company’s goals of making payroll a simple, “peaceful” process for small businesses, rather than the headache it more often is. “Our philosophy was to be elegant and bring peace of mind to customer support in an enlightened way,” he wrote. Longtime NBA coach and executive Phil Jackson is often referred to by his nickname, the “Zen Master.” Nancy Friedman, a branding consultant who chronicles zen company names on Pinterest, pointed out that business jargon is filled with religious language, like the word “brand evangelist.” There are presently 724 live trademarks containing the word “zen” registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. For Zendesk, ideas associated with zen are now deeply ingrained in the company’s culture and branding. The company mascot is a laughing Buddha, dubbed “The Mentor,” who wears a telephone headset. In its old Market Street headquarters, Asian-inspired green lotus leaves hung over employees’ desks. Zendesk claims that it only seeks to obstruct other companies from adding zen to their name when it could “create a genuine likelihood of confusion with our well-known brand.” Mark Lemley, a trademark expert at Stanford Law School, said that as a business-to-business company, Zendesk could have a hard time proving its customers might genuinely accidentally purchase ZenPayroll’s software for payroll instead of its own customer service software. In some cases, the companies Zendesk has sought to block have just given up, like the startup Zenbillings, which renamed itself Simplero because it lacked funding to pay trademark attorneys to plead its case.

The small town of Somerville, Massachusetts is deeply concerned about the safety hazard posed by unshoveled sidewalks. So concerned, in fact, that city officials are unironically reverting back to some tried-and-true methods of public shaming! According to the Somerville Journal,

With the changes, property owners or tenants have until 10 a.m. to clear snow and ice from the sidewalk in front of their home if the snow stops before sunrise – or 10 p.m. if the snow stops before sunset. Another change will double fines for the first offense from $25 to $50 for owners of single, two, or three-family homes. Fines for second offenses are being raised from $50 to $100 and third offense fines are increasing from $100 to $200.

[Mary Jo Rossetti] said at the meeting inspectional services will put “large, strikingly colored door markers on the properties of offenders,” she said. “[The markers] will not only bring attention to the property owner but will make the neighbors aware of the citation that are being serviced to such properties.”

Alderman At Large Jack Connolly told the Journal Friday marking the doors is “The Scarlet Letter approach to let people know the property has been tagged.”

The city promises it will hire teens to help shovel the properties of residents with mobility issues (see, high schoolers! That mad boring book you’re probably suffering through in English right now is still sorta relevant!).

Should the “Scarlet Letter” approach fail to deliver optimate ostracization, perhaps residents should be encouraged to report offenders? I saw Goody Osburn failing in her civic duty*!

*With the devil.

(Via Uproxx)

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After the star-studded "We'll Meet Again" singalong and the sleigh ride into eternity with Santa, the Colbert Report rolled credits for the final time with Neutral Milk Hotel's "Holland, 1945" playing in the background. It may have seemed a strange choice, but it's one with personal significance to Stephen Colbert.

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via kremlint:

i got the russian spacecraft simulator working

More information http://4archive.org/g/res/42590842

“Spacecrafts use software to provide an interface to the astronauts. There’s a training version of this very software which simulates a flight. It’s what you see in the OP pic. It looks like some 1337 haX0r software since it’s been develeoped in the 60ies until at least 2002.”

The National Film Preservation Board selected the Coen brothers’ film for preservation.

Just when the controversy surrounding the 2014 Boston Music Awards has died down to an annoying whisper, a new one has sprouted up: it looks…

The post Video Scar: Did someone really steal Hallelujah The Hills’ Boston Music Award? appeared first on Vanyaland.

usfspecialcollections:

How’s this for holiday cheer? A secret society featuring duels by members wearing tiger costumes.

Montgomery, Richard R. (1907) The seven tigers of the mountains, or, All for love and glory. New York: Frank Tousey.

From the Dime Novel Collection, University of South Florida.

Fore-edge paintingof Werdenberg, Switzerland from: Tschudi, Friedrich von, 1820-1886.
Le monde des Alpes, ou Description pittoresque des montagnes de la Suisse, 1871.

WKR 9.3.17

Houghton Library, Harvard University

Symphysiotomy is a controversial procedure that has left many Irish mothers with catastrophic long-term health problems. A compensation scheme has now begun, but questions remain over why the operation was used, and where the blame lies

When Mary discovered she was pregnant, she was more than delighted: she was relieved. It was 1981 and although she was just 23 years old, she had wanted a family since she had married three years earlier.

“Expecting our first child was the best thing ever,” Mary (not her real name) tells me from her home in Ireland, her voice softening at the memory. “It was what I had always dreamed of.” Her friends and her three sisters, already mothers themselves, reassured her giving birth was just “aches and pains”, she says. But for Mary – now a lively, funny healthcare worker – it was the beginning of a devastating experience that still affects her 30 years later. And the problems weren’t the natural complications that can trouble any pregnancy. They were the result of a doctor’s intervention.

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"I thought I was being very positive," said Williams, clarifying his "Jesus is the reason for the season" remark at a Hanukkah event in downtown Springfield.

studiosaraeileen:

Paolo Sebastian, F/W 2015

Get on me, blue things.

A 3-year-old likes the sound of someone's name

As the U.S. resumes diplomatic relations with Cuba, travelers can bring back $100 worth of booze.

Today, the Obama administration announced a historic new agreement with the Cuban government, easing travel and banking restrictions that had been in place since 1961. And in good news for booze fans, this means more Cuban rum might be hitting American shores — sort of. The Wall Street Journal reports the new diplomatic regulation will allow American travelers to bring up to $400 worth of Cuban goods back to the U.S., including cigars and rum, although only $100 of the allotment can be used on booze or tobacco.

Cuba's famous Havana Club-brand rum has already had a fraught history in the United States, with mega-distillery Bacardi fighting for the right to sell its own version of the Havana Club recipe in the U.S. (According to Bacardi, its own assets in Cuba were confiscated by the government in the 1960s.)  But don't expect to see Cuban bottles hitting the back bar at your favorite watering hole. Not just anyone can take a trip to Cuba: Tourism is still restricted to those with family members living in Cuba or those with work-related projects in the country. And as the Washington Post points out, cigars and alcohol privately brought back to the United States will not legally be available for resale.

This headline certainly grabbed my attention.  Read the account of Narayan Khandekar, Senior Conservation Scientist at Harvard University, who worked on the restoration of Harvard’s Rothko murals using lighting to recreate the original appearance.  His description of the project in The Conversation, December 16, 2014  seems like it could be part of a future wave of non-invasive “treatment”.   But does it count as treatment?

Learn more from the WGBH TV segment that covered the project:

http://www.wgbh.org/programs/Open-Studio-With-Jared-Bowen-2162/episodes/A-Conversation-with-Keith-Lockhart-57976

 

iwriteaboutfeminism:

(photos and article by Mariah Stewart)

Two Prominent Ferguson Protesters Get Engaged

“You are looking at two people that stood shoulder to shoulder, faced rubber bullets, tear gas and discrimination. … To be a black woman in America is an unfathomably deep struggle to go through day in and day out. And being a lesbian black woman in America — you just see how each level compounds,” Spann said. “These two women represent the idea of freedom. They represent the idea of love and that black lives matter and have power and passion. It comes full circle; it’s like watching poetry write itself.”

heartsqueeeeee

thisishellhere:

mydrunkkitchen sooo true 😂

Pizza Hut done it again. “Maria sama ga miteru” pizza box review. - GIGAZINE

The decline of western civilization continues! Some intrepid data-crunchers over at Proofreader went through the pop charts from Billboard, going all the way back to the 1890s to determine the most common words in song titles by their uniqueness to the decade. For example, no one in the 1920s said disco, because disco has always been dead. Just kidding, no one knew what the hell disco was. Narrowing it down to a top five for each decade, the results might surprise you.

In the Leave It To Beaver era of the 1950s, people liked Christmas. The actual words “Christmas” and “Rednosed” make it into the top five. Timewarp all the way to the 2010s and things aren’t so sugar-and-spice-with-everything-nice. HELL YEAH WE FUCK DIE. Those are our words. Seriously. That really could be the rallying cry of our generation.

Other random thoughts from the results:

“Uncle” was a really popular word for two decades. What’s up with that?

In the 2010s we may want to Hell Yeah Fuck Die, but “we” makes its first appearance after two decades of “U” and “You.” Does that mean we are coming together? Or are just inserting ourselves into the equation more often?

Genres of music pop up in titles often throughout the decades: Rock, Polka, Disco, Mambo, Rag all show up. But for the last 30 years, genres have been absent. We have to start using music genres as verbs; it’s the only solution. I think Trap music lends itself most readily. We need Nicki Minaj to make song called Trapped In The Club.

If you like nerdy data you can see how it was processed here.

(Photo: Proofreader)

 

The post Hell Yeah We Fuck Die: The Most Used Words In Pop Song Titles By Decade appeared first on ANIMAL.

The Galway is a most classic English Country Boot, yet quite urbane by today’s standards. This pair is made in Edward Green’s new Utah leather, which is a printed version of their supple Delapre, and has Dainite soles and a smart tapered round toe.

These boots glide easily between dress and casual occasions. Wear them with a suit when the morning weather is sub-par or on a snowy Saturday stroll. Boots don’t have to be rugged to get the job done, but they do need to be well made, and Edward Green makes them as good as they get.

82 Last, Chestnut Utah, Dainite Soles

So you've already heard how many millions of volumes Harvard boasts. But did you know the University has 97 libraries? Only if you are extraordinarily myopic will you spend all your studying time in Lamont. Harvard libraries can be some of the most relaxing and stimulating preserves in Cambridge-you just have to know where to look. Widener is the granddaddy of the system. Like Bloomingdale's, it sports a lot of everything, but finding it takes the perseverance of-well-a scholar. The ten floors of dark and musty stacks are reminiscent of catacombs, but at the same time the crumbling tomes inspire a rather stately awe. The basement floors are always cool, and despite rumors to the contrary, there are no ghosts of moth-eaten professors still trying to find their way out.

Versailles in the snow at Christmas 

By converting the time to a hex-value, the What colour is it? clock does a lovely job of showing the relationships between adjacent colors in the "Web-safe" color palette. (via Waxy)

Florida cop pulls over and tickets driver for playing NWA's "F#$k the Police".

The officer in question has reportedly had 16 internal offices cases in the 17 years he's been on the force. So he may not be the best of the best.