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“If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.”
–Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot
This video has been making it’s rounds on the interwebs this week and I just thought it would be appropriate to remind everyone what a thoughtful, passionate and remarkable human being Carl Sagan was. I mean if autotune can get the kids to listen to anything these days it’s better this than Kanye. If you’re not familiar with his Cosmos series or his numerous books, let me share one of my favorite anecdotes about Dr. Sagan.
He chaired the NASA committee responsible for the content of the solid gold record (not sales, we’re talking Au) that accompanied the Voyager I & II probes into the depths of space containing a message from Earth. This record included greeting in 55 languages and music from Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chuck Berry and Blind Willie Johnson among other representatives from non-western and indigenous cultures. Sagan wanted “Here Comes the Sun” from Abbey Road, but EMI said no. Also on this record is a brain scan of someone in love. For more on this, check out this episode of WNYC’s Radiolab. The probe is now well over 14 billion kilometers from the Sun. In 40,000 years it will be within 2 light years of a star in the next galaxy to us, Andromeda.
Sagan was also a great popularizer of the search for extraterrestrial life and of science in general. Sadly, he passed in 1996 and no one since has quite managed to replace his enthusiasm, love and selfless promotion of a higher understanding of life and its relationship with the universe.
In 1971, amidst the raging political insecurity surrounding the Vietnam War, activist and linguist Noam Chomsky was invited to partake in a debate with French philosopher Michel Foucault on the topic of Human Nature.
The discussion, primarily focused on the concept of whether there is an intrinsic quality to human nature, or if it’s completely conditioned from external influences, was aired on Dutch television, and later transcribed and published as the Chomsky – Foucault debate.
This excerpt, dissects the notion of justice versus power. Each of the intellectual heavyweights stay true to their respective dogmas; Chomsky’s long standing position that absolute power corrupts, and Foucault’s disdain and criticism of psychiatry, but the results are terrifically interesting.
The book not only has a transcription of this debate, but additional original text from Chomsky, and a new introduction by Foucault scholar John Rajchman.
“You who do not practice the defeatist motto: “It’s better than nothing”; you who have a strong enough cinematic eye to impose it on subjects you feel something for; you who will not agree to make a film about sugar production for the simple reason your grandfather was diabetic; you who scorn saccharine sentimentality and refuse to disfigure a work with it. It is you who hold the fate of the documentary–battered and bruised by a thousand blows from all sides–in your hands.”
Jean Painlevé pioneered science films and underwater cinema, and for that matter scuba diving. His familiarizing anthropomorphism and genre-inspiring story telling have changed your lives in ways you probably don’t even know. The Criterion Collection has released 23 of his films and a wonderful biographical documentary. They are beautiful. One more reason French guys are rad.
In 2007, Partizan constituent, Saam Farahmand (27 at the time) was crowned “Best Director” at the CAD Music Video Awards, after a prolific year of creating promos for Good Shoes:
As if this all wasn’t enough, Saam’s opened an art gallery in London to help expose emerging artists, and continues to produce films with his beautiful mix of simplicity, effortless chic and a twist of sci-fi. I for one can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.
Word twittering about New York is that he OD’d last night. Truely an artist and certainly uncompromised. Check this profile from NY Mag and the “confirmation” from gawker.
1968; CBC’s Summer Way program hosts a conversation between Norman Mailer and Marshall McLuhan. The two intellectual giants discuss (read: argue) their stances on violence, the modern man, technology, and the mental processes of interpreting experiences. This is not check-balancing viewing, your undivided attention is requested.
Have you ever solved one of these? Well that’s called CAPTCHA and this is the dude who made it up. It basically started as a test to determine legitimate users vs. spamming software and it worked very well. But Luis thought he was wasting too much of Humanity’s time (±1.666 Million hours in 2007). So what did he do? With the advent of reCAPTCHA, every time you solve one of those annoying verification puzzles you are helping to decipher and digitize some of the 150+ years of non-digital, non-computer recognizable NY Times archives that exist as scans or microfilm. Keep in mind, this started last year and Ahn expects to be done by the end of 2009.
Some other interesting notes:
The Empire State Building took 7 million human-hours to build.
The Panama Canal took 20 million human-hours to build.
9 Billion Human-Hours of solitaire were played in 2003.
Granted, the energy output of a game of solitaire is not equal to one of manual labor, but think about the scale of this. Thanks to Nova Science Now for bringing this up.
John Cassavetes life is the missing John Cassavetes picture, and in 1984’s “I’m Almost Not Crazy”, documentarian Michael Ventura follows Cassavetes through the production of his “last film” “Love Streams”. (1986’s “Big Trouble” is actually the last film he directed, but it was not his script, and has long been speculated that he took the project on merely for the paycheck.)
Cassavetes, known for his fiery disposition, and his ability to evoke incredibly powerful performances from his actors, is in true form here. No holds are barred, and in a time where teams of publicists keep filmmakers from really speaking their mind (well, most of the time at least) it’s refreshing to see someone unmoved by politics and unthreatened by studios public relations departments; saying whatever he wants, whenever he wants.
Watch the entire 60 minute documentary right here:
richard myers, saatchi & saatchi’s creative director for global culture introduces this years event
Every year at the Cannes Film Festival, global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi host a New Directors Showcase, screening a collection of some of the most talented up and coming filmmakers in the world.
Over the past 19 years, S&S’s annual program has helped promote filmmakers like Mark Romanek, Tarsem, the Perlorian Brothers and Spike Jonze. I’m not sure who those guys are, but maybe you’ve heard of them.
This year, S&S has added a new piece to their promotional puzzle, launching a dedicated YouTube page, broadening the esteemed directors’ exposure to the production companies, agents, advertising agencies, and fans that sadly weren’t able to make it to the south of France. The YouTube page will not only house the films of directors honored in the ‘09 precedings, but will also serve as a vault for winners past.
one of my favorites, the impossibly adorable “Her Morning Elegance” by Oren Lavie and Yuval & Merav Nathan
Additionally, the Cannes website is hosting a 75-minute video of this years event. Presumably so that one could turn the heat up in their office, pour a glass of champagne and feel as if they had attended. It’s an interesting watch (in lieu of the really dorky graphic next to the video)
