August 31, 2022
Sugar of lead
"The ancient Romans used sapa as a form of artificial sweetener, especially in wines.They eventually found a way to turn sugar of lead into crystal form. This meant that the toxic substance could be produced in the way table salt or sugar is produced today. As a consequence of this innovation, the consumption of sugar of lead became even more widespread, and started to be used in cooking as well. In the 4th century Roman recipe book of Apicius, almost a fifth of the recipes were made with sugar of lead in its syrup form."
August 29, 2022
Insight - China’s Slacker Youths: Why They Went From 'Lying Flat' To 'Let It Rot'
"'Tang Ping' or Lying Flat, was a 2021 movement that rejected the work culture in China. Now, it has morphed into the more extreme 'Bai Lan' or Let It Rot. What behind this new phenomenon?"
August 28, 2022
Rose Anvil - Why 80 yr old British WW2 boots are better than modern boots
August 25, 2022
The Shield and the Sword (1968)
"Alexander Belov is a Russian spy, who travels from Soviet-held Latvia to Nazi Germany under an alias of Johann Weiss. His mastery of the German language, steel nerves and an ability to manipulate others help him to use his connections in the SS to ascend the ladder of the German intelligence."
YouTube has English subtitles!
August 24, 2022
Michelle Thaller - Our Place in the Universe: Cosmology from Ancient Greece to Today
August 21, 2022
Pill Pod Philosophy & Critical Theory Podcast - Dugin: Russia's State Philosopher
August 18, 2022
Good Time Bad Times - The World's Last Colonial Empire: Collapse or Survival?
August 16, 2022
Alan Yentob - Turning The Art World Inside Out (2013)
"After the huge success of recent shows in Venice, London and Paris, interest in Outsider Art has never been higher. But what exactly is it? How do we define it? And who are its gurus and leading lights? Alan Yentob explores this captivating, compelling and magical alternative art universe. "
August 15, 2022
August 14, 2022
Loïc Prigent - Chanel & Angèle! The secrets of their collaboration
"Chanel asked me to follow the creative process of Virginie Viard and Angèle for the stage costumes design of her Nonante-cinq tour. This is my extended version of that work. I was able to film Angèle and Virginie Viard between January and June 2022 and capture emotions that my camera had never seen before. My conclusion is that at the slightest text from Angèle, I'll go back on the road tomorrow."
August 13, 2022
August 12, 2022
Captain Z-Ro - Ep. 22 The Great Pyramid of Giza (1956)
"Like early episodes of Doctor Who, which premiered in the UK more than a decade later, most episodes were melodramatic history lessons for children. No serious effort was made to explain how the time machine worked, and time travel conundra (such as the grandfather paradox) were likewise glossed over.
"Each week after the last commercial, the announcer would intone: 'Be sure to be standing by when we again transmit you to the remote location on planet Earth where Captain Z-Ro and his associates will conduct another experiment in time and space.'"
August 10, 2022
Frontline - Comrades: аll that jazz (1986)
"Sergei Kuryokhin is a popular Russian jazz and rock musician who is disapproved of by the state because his music is difficult to control. Made without the permission of Soviet authorities on a home video camera, Frontline takes a look at the Soviet music subculture and this one talented musician."
Stiob (from the Russian stebat’, to lash or lash out)
"In the mid-2000s, Alexei Yurchak focused on stiob’s formal properties. According to him, stiob requires an ‘overidentification with the object, person, or idea, at which this stiob was directed’ — to the point that is ‘often impossible to tell whether it was a form of sincere support, subtle ridicule, or a peculiar mixture of the two’. Crucially, the ‘practitioners of stiob’ would not be drawn on their positions, ‘producing an incredible combination of seriousness and irony’. This unusual kind of mockery can be interpreted as a reasonably safe strategy of poking fun at an authoritarian regime (e.g. the USSR) when such a regime is going into decline and is no longer scary enough to laugh at in secret only — but is still scary enough not to laugh at openly."
August 08, 2022
August 07, 2022
BBC Archive - Peter Howell gives the Doctor Who theme an '80s remix (1982)
August 06, 2022
Marvel Anime: Blade. Season 1 Ep. 1 His Name Is...Blade
Episode aired Jul 1, 2011