Thumbs and Ammo posits the idea: would it be funny to replace guns with thumbs up in stills from movies?
YES!
Death Defying Riders in India's Well of Death
Riders in Allahabad’s Well of Death put on a dangerous show (for both them and the audience)by driving cars and motorcycles inside a wooden and metal cylinder 25 feet high and 30 feet across.
Rumble and Sway - NYC Skies and Skyline in Timelapse
From the video page:
"This video is a mixtape of the 321 different shots we made over the two week period in NYC for the 2013 US Open broadcast on ESPN."
Illustration of the Day - Nick Offerman's Guide to Facial Hair
Nick Offerman’s Guide to Facial Hair, An Illustration by Mike Mitchell.
See also The Justice League of Parks and Rec
Real Men in Chonies and Their Model Counterparts
The Sun UK decided to ask "What real men would look like in pants ads?" And this is their answer.
PLAYMOBIL PEOPLE in Familiar Scenes
Taking scenes of history and literature, Paris artist, Richard Unglik, uses the familiar PLAYMOBIL PEOPLE to stunning, witty and fun effect.
Movie of the Day - Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
I was absolutely mesmerized by this quiet and human documentary, narrated by Werner Herzog, following trappers making a living in the wilds of Russian Siberia.
Get Happy People: A Year in the Taiga »
Revisiting: 5 things I learned today Episode 3-1 (from 2011)
Much of 5 things' beginnings centered around my collaboration with the great Stephen McFadden on our weekly wrap-up show. So let's revisit Season 3, from early 2011.
1. 200 of the Greatest Movie Insults
2 . River Surfing in Munich
3. 100 Most Beautiful Words in English
Some of my favorites:
Lissome Slender and graceful
Mondegreen A slip of the ear
Panoply A complete set
Riparian By the bank of a stream
See them all »
4. The Hype Machine's Zeitgeist for 2010
Included in this (now it seems like a time capsule) are some Zeitgeist Mixes, such as the Knocks one below.
See the whole project »
5. Shooting famous places in the reflections of bubbles http://bit.ly/fY0Xiy
Poets' Poem of the Day - Rules for Captain Ahab’s Provincetown Poetry Workshop by Martín Espada
This is the first in a series of Poets' Poems of the Day, suggested to me by amazing poet friends. Martín Espada was one of the poets that both Luivette Resto and Yago Cura wanted me to read.
Rules for Captain Ahab’s Provincetown Poetry Workshop
1. Ye shall be free to write a poem on any subject, as long as it’s the White Whale.
2. A gold doubloon shall be granted to the first among ye who in a poem sights the White Whale.
3. The Call Me Ishmael Award shall be given to the best poem about the White Whale, with publication in *The White Whale Review.*
4. The Herman Melville Memorial Picnic and Softball Game shall be open to whosoever of ye writes a poem about following thy Captain into the maw of hell to kill the White Whale.
5. There shall be a free floating coffin for any workshop participant who falls overboard whilst writing a poem about the White Whale.
6. There shall be a free leg, carved from the jawbone of a whale, for any workshop participant who is dismasted whilst writing a poem about the White Whale.
7. There shall be a free funeral at sea, complete with a chorus of stout hearties singing sea chanteys about the White Whale, for any workshop participant who is decapitated whilst writing a poem about the White Whale.
8. Ye who seek not the White Whale in thy poems shall be harpooned.
My 5 - Portable Poetry Library - Ryan Nance
Most of my poetry library ( a library I've been very proud of) is in storage, or has been traded, gifted or lost. I've dragged it around the world with me, in cardboard boxes, plastic bins, bags. It's grown. There was a period before I first left for study in Madrid where I thought about winnowing it to the essentials. I would after all not be able to read it all, even given the chance. I ended up adding to it: new books by some of my favorite poets, old books by poets I'd never heard of. It was and is a joy to find, remember and discover new works. Like stumbling upon a neighborhood I'd never once been to before. Delicious. Full of possibility. In this period I was adding young poets ( Ben Lerner, Matthea Harvey, Tracey K. Smith [whose Life on Mars just won the Pulitzer], Christine Hume ), classmates (Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Tom Healy and Ravi Shankar),
The Great Reduction
For a lot of reasons, having a large library, even of slim, tidy volumes, became impossible for me. Storage, display, space, time. I've reduced my library down to the ones I read. Seems a bit self-fulfilling, I know. But, I am often asked (and overwhelmed by the possibilities) for the books and poets I'd recommend people start with. This great filtering reduction of mine has made it abundantly clear.
So here are My 5 Portable Poetry Library
1 - Louise Glück
I haven't always been clear that I got much from her work. It was hard for me, with my life as my only computational material, to access her charged, urgent, masterful poetry. But their phrases and imagery, premises and tropes, have installed themselves as part of my psyche. I refer often to a line or image, find myself recommending. And have made sure that her books have continued to elude the great reduction.
If you haven't read her before I'd say that First Four Books of Poems is a good place to start. You'll find some of the more well-known poems ( Mock Orange, All Hallows).
Her Pulitzer Prize Winning Wild Iris and her A Village Life both offer a vast country of tight, smart, surprising poems.
2 - Donald Revell
Revell was a poet I first read while an undergraduate. I had had a very different expectation of what poetry could be before this period in my reading. When I was asked to respond to a poem for my grad school application, it was The Psalmist from The New Dark Ages that I wrote on. And now, 15 years later, I find poems of his I'd never met before and am relieved to find that the interest and power I'd felt then hasn't worn off. His books have also managed to find a place in my bags and suitcases as my library shrank.
3 - Rainer Maria Rilke
There are a few things (books, songs, paintings, places, tidbits of knowledge) that seem to contain immense and irreducible truth in something which fits into our human scale. Rilke's 3rd Elegy from his Duino Elegies has always been one of those mysteries. I've read it to people when I am ready to sound silly in my enthusiasms. I read it and its bookmates (all phenomenal poems) over and over again. On the very first meeting of grad school first-year workshop, I was asked to name a poet I cherished and explain why it was that one that I chose. I cheated. I chose two. Robert Hass (coming up) because he helped me be a better poet and Rilke because he helped me be a better person. I heard snickers at my nearly religious reverence for these two from my classmates. Rilke never has rewarded my admiration with quotables. In fact, I realize exactly how remarkable his work with the distance I feel it is from normal speech. It isn't the sort of thing you can even try to explain to people without sounding a little kookie. So, instead of explaining, I'll hope to be able to indulge in Rilke talk with more and more people soon.
4 - Robert Hass
I have been prepared with a clear, emphatic answer to the often asked question: Who's your favorite poet? Robert Hass.
His works have been a consistent companion throughout my entire adult life. He has been the author of the words that soothed some of the worst hurts I've ever had to endure; the mind that has inspired the wonder and curiosity of mine that I have become so proud of, helped me formulate so much of my own framework for approaching the world.
His poems are the poems I've read and shared, memorized and given. All 5 of his books have and will survive any poetry reduction. I have bought 5 copies of Field Guide because I keep giving it away and then needing my own copy again.
5 - Mary Oliver
Oliver's work and words are alive with wisdom, energy and balm. I have had to keep her books around because I have needed them. And there is such reassurance that she has such an enormously large body of work, an inexhaustible fountain of some of my very favorite poetry.
my 5 is a series brought to us from the incredibly interesting readers/friends. If you have a point of view that you want to share in your own my 5, drop us a line.
Traditional Japanese Houses and their Visual Geometry in Photos by Yasuhiro Ishimoto
The aesthetic that formed the basis for traditional Japanese architecture and interior design is nuanced and interesting. Reading In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki began for me a path towards appreciating the often stark and geometric choices.
These photos of the Katsura Imperial Villa (16th Century) in Kyoto from Japanese American photography Yasuhiro Ishimoto bring to the forefront the abstractions of shape, space and light in an amazing way.
Kodak No. 1 and Its 125 year old Photos
Consumer photography took a huge leap forward in 1888, when Eastman Kodak debuted the Kodak No. 1 (the followup to the Kodak Box):
“You Press the Button, We Do the Rest.”
This leather-covered wooden box came loaded with 100 exposures, cost $25 (about $650 of today's) and $10 for developing and reloading the exposures.
These examples come from the National Media Museum’s Flickr account.
Song of the Day - Yacht- Psychic City (Classixx Remix)
Yacht (stylized as YACHT, Y△CHT or Y▲CHT) is an American band from Portland, Oregon, Marfa, Texas, and Los Angeles, California. The core group consists of Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans , but expands to include musicians Rob "Bobby Birdman" Kieswetter, and Jeffrey Brodsky as touring members.
Get the song »
Infrared Timelapse of an Empty Philadelphia
This is eery and beautiful.
From the video page:
"This time-lapse was inspired by the “Empty America Series” by Ross Ching and the Nibiran jungle scene in Star Trek Into Darkness. When I first saw the scene in Star Trek, it made me wonder how color infrared would look if we could see it with our own eyes, unaided by IR filters. After seeing the movie and watching Ross’s series I thought about how a totally empty city (such as Philadelphia) would look in Kodak EIR style infrared.
All scenes were shot around Philadelphia using my full-spectrum digital camera and a yellow filter. A full spectrum camera is a camera that has had it's IR blocking filter removed, allowing the camera to see into the infrared. The yellow filter blocks all visible light up to yellow and allows infrared to pass through."
Infrastructure: Los Angeles - A Timelapse
Some of the hidden, amazing sights of Los Angeles, in timelapse form, by Hal Bergman.
Envisioning the Sagrada Familia in its finished state
The famously unfinished Sagrada Família cathedral in Barcelona has given us a video illustrating what it will look like when finished in 2026 with aerial footage over-layed digital renderings.
The Sagrada Família, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is expected to open its doors in 2026.
See also Inside the Sagrada Familia »
Abandoned Buildings Adorned with Anamorphic Paintings
French artist and photographer Fanette Guilloud transforms the walls and floors of abandoned buildings with anamorphic paintings, which can only be seen in their correct image when viewed from a specific vantage point.
See also A Room of Stuff Arranged to Create this Anamorphic Portrait »
Images Evoking Intricate Biblical Calligraphy on the Body
Israeli artist Ronit Bigal in her “Body Scripture II” series uses digital photography overlaid with Biblical Hebrew text.
She explains:
“[The bodies] are almost abstract and enigmatic, arousing the viewer’s curiosity to discover what are the photographed objects, what meanings lies behind the texts; and whether there is a thematic affinity between them or, perhaps are the associations purely aesthetical?”
See also One Thousand and One Dreams »
Antarctica in Photos: 1912-1915 by Frank Hurley
NYC Ballet's Stirring 9-11 Tribute on Top of World Trade Center 4
New Beginnings captures Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain filmed at sunrise on the 57th floor terrace of 4 WTC. With the Freedom Tower as backdrop, and two NYC Ballet Principal Dancers, Maria Kowroski and Ask la Cour.
