24 entries related to Culture — Most recent at top.
Oh Beyonce, helping out kids get up on their feet and be active. You steal my [dancing] heart once again. And here’s the first lady Michelle . Love it. (via kottke.org)
NYT: 10th Annual Year in Ideas •
Hey, how did I miss this? All from doping bicycles, to perfect parallel parking, to social media as a social index. Set in exemplary two-tone typography and accompanied by charming little illustrations and animations. What’s not to like?
And thank you NYTimes for showing the way to all those other newspapers still struggling to understand what to do on this www.
Non, ce n’est pas une maladie vénérienne que tu pognes dans un marécage en Amérique Centrale, mais c’est presqu’aussi désagréable. Le bourdonnement incessant lors des matchs de foot vient de ces trompette de plastique (Vuvuzela), accessoires obligatoires de tout bon fan de foot sud-africain. 127 décibels x 90,000 fans, en continu. Ça, par contre, ça devient vicieux:
Demand for earplugs to protect from hearing loss during the World Cup outstripped supply, with many pharmacies running out of stock. Neil van Schalkwyk, manufacturer of the plastic vuvuzela, began selling earplugs to fans.
La meilleure baguette de Paris est dans le 18e •
Et en plus, le boulanger est d’origine sénégalaise! J’adore le contraste de la chose, ça doit en froisser plus qu’un. Interview de la BBC avec Djibril Bodian ici. (Merci Jacky)10 Tips for International Relocation •
Jan Chipchase (emphasis mine):
2. International relocation is the ultimate excuse to have a brutal clear-out. Give away, sell or recycle everything that that you haven’t used or appreciated in the past year. Sure the odd item that didn’t make the cut will be missed – but this is easily outweighed by the pleasure of finding a new home for things and the psychological pleasure of letting go. In fact I’d go one step further and argue that the practical/emotional jolt that comes from ‘missing’ something helps reinforce its value, which in turn shapes future actions/consumption. Missing things is a Good Thing.
Right up my alley.
If you enjoyed Micheal Pollan’s NYT article “Out of the Kitchen, On to the couch” I linked to last week, here are two other follow-up articles worth a read: 1) Micheal Ruhlman takes a hit at Pollan’s essay, mostly agreeing with him, though despising and retorting to opinions and arguments from Pollan’s food-marketing researcher Harry Balzer, he basically thinks we’re somehow going back in the kitchen more than ever; 2) An 11,000+ word New Yorker article on Julia Child dated December 1974. I admit I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, it’ll have to wait for the weekend, with a coffee on a terrace. But that’s why I use Instapaper! •
Micheal Pollan for the NYT: Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch. If you’re interested at all in contemporary food and television culture, this is well worth a read.
Pollan’s essay overviews the decline of everyday cooking in today’s kitchens. He tackles the question by asking why we, [north] americans, are spending more time watching others cook than cooking ourselves. Like everything around it, cooking has changed from the time Julia was on screen to today’s celebrity chefs kitchen stadiums and unfortunately, cooking shows—or food shows as he retitles them—are not teaching or even inciting us how to cook anymore. The average amount of time one spends in the kitchen making food has dropped to 27 minutes daily, less than half the length of a show on the Food network.
The paradox is explored further and the “decline and fall of everyday home cooking” isn’t evidently solely based on the metamorphosis of television cooking shows. But like many other cultural artifacts, television shows are a good indicator of what’s happening in front of the screens.
•Umair Haque’s Generation M manifesto is dead on. It starts out with:
Dear Old People Who Run the World,
My generation would like to break up with you.
The ideological differences are so blatant, its no wonder so many well-established institutions with their 20th century mentality are struggling to keep afloat. With great power comes great responsibilities, they should be the ones leading the way.
•The NYT lists the english buzzwords of 2008. From “Recessionista” (a person who stays fashionable during an economic downturn without spending a lot of money) to Jack Black’s Kungfu Panda‘s kiai “Skadoosh”. Good typographic/illustrations. •
NYTimes’s Year in Ideas. A is for Automated Anesthesia, B is for Bubble Wrap That Never Ends, C is for Carbon Penance, etc… not people, not products, not events, not news—just ideas and concepts only. •
Photographical remix, weirdest of them all: Man Babies. Ça ferait des belles cartes de fête des pères. •
Ce n’est pas parce que tu n’es plus à l‘école que tu peux laisser ton hamster engraisser et si tu n’as jamais suivi de cours de design, ça fera un excellent début: The History of Visual Communications “will walk you through the long and diverse history of a particular aspect of human endeavour: The translation of ideas, stories and concepts that are largely textual and/or word based into a visual format, i.e. visual communication.” On parle de tout: des roches aux ordis, de l’alphabet égyptien à Helvetica. Et c’est illustré de superbes exemples. •
#72 is a colorless Colors issue devoted to blindness. Best of all, they have released audio readings of the articles. With some imaginatively gorgeous descriptions: sour apples are silver, the sounds shadows in the wind… •
What the F***? Great article on why we curse. The biological unconscious reactions is quite a revelation. Et une étude sociologique est netemment nécessaire afin d’expliquer la particularités des sacres québécois a être toujours beaucoup plus reliés à la religion que chez nos cousins français. •
If you ever need clear, emergency graphic instructions as to ditch the rigidness of the corporate office life and live like our indigenous ancestors of yesteryears, well, here they are. •
Pingmag: New Rave Fashion Trend. Sexy, colorful fluokids, love it. •
Sandra Hassan, Québécoise de Chicoutimi né d’une mère catholique et d’un père mulsulman, écrit à Patrick Lagacé. (Lagacé à interviewé M. Hussan, professeur à l’UQAC, la semaine dernière.) “Il est temps de trouver le juste milieu. Les québécois ont déserté les églises dans les années 60-70 et ont de la difficulté à se définir du point de vue de la religion. Il faut se poser des questions en tant que société. C’est pas parce qu’il y a des «étranges» qu’on doit exiger qu’ils renoncent à tout, à ce qu’ils sont, à ce qu’ils croient. Ce n’est pas non plus une raison pour que les québécois renient ce qu’ils sont fondamentalement. Les arbres de Noël doivent continuer à illuminer les nuits froides de décembre. À Pâques, il faut continuer à fêter la résurrection du Christ. Il faut cependant s’ouvrir suffisamment l’esprit pour ne pas exiger que tous adhèrent à ces croyances (l’attitude des années 60-70). L’accommodement raisonnable exige une part de «raisonnabilité», d’acceptation de l’autre.” À lire. •
Broken Link. “On blank walls and white posters awaiting advertisements, Niko and Andrea cleverly co-opt the space by placing stickers of the “broken link” icon that appears on a web page when when the image is missing.” Clever. •
The Real Story of Super-Heroes. “SUPERMAN: Noe Reyes from the State of Puebla Works as fast-food delivery boy in Brooklyn. Sends home $500 per week.” •