Posts that focus on and link to the doings of others.
302 PostsThe Geographics YouTube channel has a documentary on Kowloon Walled City, the once extraordinary and ungoverned enclave in Hong Kong.
Click the image below and then use the magnifying glass to zoom in on a cross-section of the city. Simply incredible.
More details on the image on Spoon + Tomago's site.
Via Metafilter.
Some nice street photography and portraiture by Brit, Charlie Kwai.
More in the Projects section of Charlie Kwai's site.
Stunning two minute video of a Starling Murmuration. Such a glorious phenomena.
From filmmaker Jan van Ijken.
Some wild genius has used Genius — the site generally used to explain Hip Hop lyrics — to completely break down Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
Below are two 60-minute documentaries, made twenty years apart, about Clive Wearing, a Brit with the worst-ever recorded case of amnesia. Clive's memories only last between seven and thirty seconds.
I first read about Wearing in the 90s in Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Sacks later spoke about him on an episode of Radio Lab, and wrote about him again in The New Yorker in 2007.
Wearing is still alive as I write this. He's 86 and has been living with "the illness" for almost 40 years.
Contributors to Wikimedia projects
I listened to this episode of 99% Invisible a while back and have been thinking about it ever since. It explores tradition, religion, class, and the holy work of Parsis who labor in the roofless Towers of Silence, sacred structures where bodies of the dead are left for vultures.
Regardless of what you think about religion, India, or vultures, I promise you, it's a fascinating listen that goes places you won't anticipate.
Lasha Madan
It's reported by Producer Lasha Madan.
The Pudding does a deep dive on climate in 70 international cities over the next 45 years. Mouse your way to misery with data!
Last year they mapped record-high heat in the US:
I love beautifully-crafted things.
Jon-Paul Wheatley hand-makes soccer balls (aka footballs). Though usually they're just for show, he has made balls for Adidas, FIFA, and Burberry.
He recently made a limited edition of 1000 balls which he called The Original 92. They were USD300 each. I didn't hear about them until they were sold out, but probably would have purchased one even though I do not play football (aka soccer), because I love beautifully-crafted things.
Here are some of the balls from his Lab:
Wonderful stuff.
Check out his site, 12 Pentagons, to see the full gallery of other Lab designs.
He's also got a YouTube channel with some how-to vids and other stuff:
Never Too Small's latest episode highlights a Paris apartment belonging to a screenwriter. As always with NTS, the video is pithy, direct, and full of charm.
You can explore other NTS videos on their channel or their website. They also have a magazine. Have to make a note to myself to see if Issues is carrying it.
Though not much of a fan of Gotye, I was delighted when CDK's dance video for Somebody That I Used to Know recently went viral. Unorthodox choreography is my jam. Here are some of my favorites.
Celui qui tombe. Choreography by Yoann Bourgeois.
Kenzo World starring Margaret Qualley. Directed by Spike Jonze. Choreography by Ryan Heffington.
Steve Reich / Come Out. Dancers and director unknown. Choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. I believe De Keersmaeker may also be the brunette dancer, but don't hold me to it because prosopagnosia. If the audio sounds familiar to you, you're probably a fan of MF Doom's America's Most Blunted.
Sia / Chandelier. Dancer, Maddie Ziegler. Choreography by Ryan Heffington.
Welcome Home. Dancer, FKA Twigs. Directed and choreography by Spike Jonze.
And here's the CDK video that inspired this post. Choreography and direction by Sergio Reis. Almost as impressive to me in this one is the clothing.
