October 31, 2017
The Batcave, 1983
"A short piece from Reporting London, by London Weekend Television, from 1983."
Dungeons & Dragons – Stranger Things Style
"After watching Stranger Things, I decided to dig into the attic to see if I could find some of my old books and Dungeons & Dragons characters when I was a kid playing back in the early 80s. Somehow, beyond all hope and logic, many of my original characters and play-aids were intact and in near mint condition. I share these with you for a look back to what D&D was like for a 11-year-old kid … way back in 1981!"
October 30, 2017
October 29, 2017
October 28, 2017
Robert Fludd's Utriusque Cosmi Historia, 1617
"Why does Mary have a boob ray and monkey slave in this Renaissance era cosmological diagram?"
October 27, 2017
October 26, 2017
Dan Carlin - The New Golden Age of Oral Historical Storytelling
"Dan Carlin is an prominent American podcaster. Once a professional radio host, Carlin eventually took his show to the Internet, and he now hosts two popular independent podcasts: Common Sense and Hardcore History. This interview driven discussion looks behind the scenes of Hardcore History and explores Dan's thoughts on what he predicts to be a new age of oral storytelling."
October 25, 2017
The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons & Dragons
"In 2017, gathering your friends in a room, setting your devices aside, and taking turns to contrive a story that exists largely in your head gives off a radical whiff for a completely different reason than it did in 1987. And the fear that a role-playing game might wound the psychologically fragile seems to have flipped on its head. Therapists use D. & D. to get troubled kids to talk about experiences that might otherwise embarrass them, and children with autism use the game to improve their social skills. Last year, researchers found that a group of a hundred and twenty-seven role players exhibited above-average levels of empathy, and a Brazilian study from 2013 showed that role-playing classes were an extremely effective way to teach cellular biology to medical undergraduates."
The Uncanny Resurrection of Copy Editing
"So far, my biggest takeaway is that the New Yorker editors had a hard time with the game name. 'D. & D.' ? Really? With the spaces and the periods and all?"
October 24, 2017
October 23, 2017
Magna Carta: Myth and Meaning (February 5, 2015)
"June 2015 will see the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, the ‘Great Charter’ which was signed at Runnymede by King John to resolve a political crisis he faced with his barons. Buried within its 69 clauses is one of immeasurable importance. This is the idea that no one should be deprived of their freedom without just cause, and that people are entitled to fair trial by their peers according to the law of the land.
"At the time Magna Carta did nothing to improve the lot of the vast majority of English people, and all but three of its provisions have been repealed. Yet Magna Carta has come to be seen as the cornerstone of English liberty and an international rallying cry against the arbitrary use of power. It was invoked by opponents of Charles I’s overbearing rule in the 17th century and embodied in the 1791 Bill of Rights in America, where it is still held to have special constitutional status.
"Where does Magna Carta stand today? In a time of secret courts in Britain and the Guantanamo gulag, the threat to rights from terror laws and state surveillance of our online activities, do we need to reaffirm its basic principles? Should we take things even further, as Tim Berners-Lee has suggested, and create a new Magna Carta for the worldwide web to protect our liberty online?"
October 20, 2017
Operation Mincemeat (2010)
"Operation Mincemeat, launched in 1943, was one of the most successful wartime deceptions ever attempted. Masterminded by Charles Cholmondeley and Ewen Montagu, the plan involved the dead body of a tramp and a plethora of faked documents. By convincing the Germans that the Allies planned to attack Greece instead of Sicily, they helped change the course of World War Two."
October 19, 2017
Lulu
"The CIA tried to motivate her with food and playtime but Lulu, presumably a longtime defender of human rights abroad, was skeptical about working for an agency with a long history of election intrusion, warrantless surveillance and assassinations. Like all of us, she wanted treats, but at what cost?"
October 18, 2017
October 17, 2017
Creative interview with artist and illustrator Kate Leiper
"Artist and illustrator Kate Leiper's work immerses you in a world of stories and myth. The co-creator of 'An Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales' talks to me about her method of storytelling."
For example: Theresa Breslin reads from An Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Mythical Creatures.
October 16, 2017
Camille Paglia: Art and Spirituality (Chicago Humanities Festival - 2012)
October 14, 2017
John Dee: Scholar Courtier Magician
"I was lucky enough to be shown around the Royal College of Physicians' John Dee exhibit in mid-January 2016."
October 13, 2017
October 12, 2017
October 11, 2017
Star Trek Continues E03 "Fairest of Them All"
"In the Mirror Universe, Spock faces a choice that determines the future of the Terran Empire."
October 10, 2017
The Owl Service, Ep. 1 (December 21, 1969)
"The Owl Service is an eight-part television series based on the fantasy novel of the same name by Alan Garner. Produced in 1969 and televised over the winter of 1969–1970, the series was remarkably bold in terms of production. It was the first fully scripted colour production by Granada Television and was filmed almost entirely on location at a time when almost all TV drama was studio-bound. It used editing techniques such as jump cuts to create a sense of disorientation and also to suggest that two time periods overlapped. For the series, the book was adapted in seven scripts (later stretched to eight) by Garner and was produced and directed by Peter Plummer. The direction was quite radical and seemed to be influenced by the avant-garde, a noted contrast to what might be expected of a children's serial."
October 09, 2017
Ace Of Wands - The Meddlers, Part 1 (1970)
"Ace of Wands is a fantasy-based British children's television show broadcast on ITV between 1970 and 1972, created by Trevor Preston and Pamela Lonsdale and produced by Thames Television. The title, taken from the name of a tarot card, describes the principal character, called "Tarot" (played by Michael MacKenzie), who combined stage magic with supernatural powers. Tarot has a pet Owl named Ozymandias, played by Fred Owl. The series was later replaced by The Tomorrow People in 1973."
October 08, 2017
Wil Self - The Sexiness of Bikes and Much Else Besides (September 8, 2011)
October 07, 2017
The Barbican: A Middle Class Council Estate
"The Barbican is one of the most remarkable housing estates in the world. Designed in the mid 20th century by British firm, Chamberlin, Powell and Bon and commissioned by the local authority, it is a unique chapter in the story of state-led architecture with much to teach us today."
Residents: Inside the iconic Barbican Estate.
October 06, 2017
Night Mail (1936)
"Night Mail is a 1936 documentary film about a London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) mail train from London to Scotland, produced by the GPO Film Unit. The film ends with a 'verse commentary' by W. H. Auden, written for existing footage. Benjamin Britten scored the film. The film was directed by Harry Watt and Basil Wright, and narrated by John Grierson and Stuart Legg. The Brazilian filmmaker Alberto Cavalcanti was sound director. The locomotive featured in the film was Royal Scot 6115 Scots Guardsman, built in 1927. The film has become a classic of its own kind, much imitated by adverts and modern film shorts. Night Mail is widely considered a masterpiece of the British Documentary Film Movement."
Night Mail (1936)
"In the documentary 'Night Mail' (1936), John Grierson narrates the opening scene with WH Auden's poem of the same name, 'Night Mail.' Auden wrote the poem specifically for the film."
This is the Night Mail crossing the border / Bringing the cheque and the postal order...
October 05, 2017
Adam Curtis - Inside Story: The Road to Terror (1989)
"In The Road to Terror, revolutionaries tell how their dream descended into a nightmare of terror and execution. They speak as exiles in Paris, a city that is preparing to celebrate the glories of the first mass revolution of 1978. Behind its strange images, the struggle for power in the Iranian revolution has followed a pattern uncannily similar to many of the great revolutions of the past: just as 200 years ago in France, the Iranian revolution has gone down the old road from liberation to repression, the road to terror."
October 04, 2017
Bear Island (1979)
"Bear Island is a 1979 Anglo-Canadian thriller film loosely based on the novel Bear Island by Alistair MacLean. It was directed by Don Sharp and starred Donald Sutherland, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Widmark, Christopher Lee and Lloyd Bridges.
"A UN expedition of scientists from different countries come to barren arctic Bear Island, between Svalbard and northern Norway, to study climate change. However, several of them turn out to be more interested in the fact that (according to the film) there was a German U-boat base on the island during the Second World War. American scientist Frank Lansing (Donald Sutherland) has come because his father was a U-boat commander who died there, and as accidents start to decimate the expedition he begins to realise that some of his colleagues are after a shipment of gold aboard the U-boat that his father commanded."
October 03, 2017
Between 1910 and 1930, a series of 2500 ‘special photographs’ were taken by the New South Wales Police Department
"These ‘special photographs’ were mostly taken in the cells at the Central Police Station in Sydney and are of men and women recently plucked from the street, often still animated by the dramas surrounding their ‘apprehension’. Compared with the subjects of prison mug shots, the subjects of the special photographs seem to have been allowed – perhaps invited – to position and compose themselves for the camera as they liked. Their photographic identity thus seems constructed out of a potent alchemy of inborn disposition, personal history, learned habits and idiosyncrasies, chosen personal style (haircut, clothing, accessories) and physical characteristics."
October 01, 2017
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
James Purefoy and Jessica Raine in a radio adaption of the novel by Philip K. Dick, originally performed for BBC4.