Culture Making items tagged video

The counter-intuitive comparison of all things

2008-11-21T15:30:46Z

Nate: “The video, for all its self-knowingly unironic earnestness (parse that!) is a little longwinded, and at times sounds like an unedited section of a Wes Anderson opening act—but I must say it fared exceedingly well with the small test audience I forwarded the link to yesterday. And, as Andy points out in the book, culture making is all about not just creating new stuff, but about careful and thoughtful cultivation and celebration of the good stuff that's already there.”

a kottke.org post, 29 October 2008

The goal of the creators of The Big Chart, The Counter-Intuitive Comparison Institute of North America (CICINA), is to find the single best thing in the world through an NCAA basketball tournament-style bracketing system. This video explains their plans.

“Is the Bilbao Guggenheim better than McDonald’s french fries?Are penguins better than Miracle Grow? Can anything beat heated seats on a cold November day?”

(via design observer)

An enterprise of world-building

2008-11-21T15:30:46Z

Nate: “OK, so it's not exactly what Peter Berger had in mind when he said "All human society is an enterprise of world-building," but could I resist the charms of this video of the inside of a cardboard-globe factory? I could not. (A video about the manufacture of the clay globe that is the Culture Making logo would, presumably, be a bit simpler.)”

from "Globes," a segment on the Discovery Channel's How It's Made :: via kottke.org

Even if the camera isn’t real

2008-11-21T15:30:46Z

Nate: “A profound parable of the world-making effects of technology, or really rather just the idea of technology (which sometimes can be more powerful than the real thing).”

Animation by Chris Ware, the intro to "The Cameraman," This American Life, Season One, Episode Four

Mera Juta Hai Japani

2008-11-21T15:30:46Z

Nate: “Last night I wisely skipped the presidential debate to watch Raj Kapoor's 1955 Bollywood classic Shri 420, whose opening song, "Mera Juta Hai Japani," has been running through my head off and on for a good decade. The song, like the film, is a fable of modernity, urbanization and globalization: what do we make of a world where everything around us comes from somewhere else? What's lost, what's gained, and what can we hold onto?”

"Mera Juta Hai Japani," from the film Shri 420, performed and directed by Raj Kapoor, music by Shankar-Jaikishan, playback singing by Mukesh

God’s Close-Up

2008-11-21T15:30:46Z

Nate: “Here's the promo for the third episode of the TV version of This American Life, which I've been watching now that it's up on Netflix. The full 30min. story of this painter and his models is, as one would expect from Ira Glass and Nancy Updike, fascinating and beautiful. For me it was also a welcome reminder that it isn't that hard to see the image of the outcast even in such a cringingly Caucasian representation of Jesus.”

Promo for "This American Life with Ira Glass," 5 April 2007

“City Of Immigrants,” by Steve Earle with Forro in the Dark

2008-11-21T15:30:46Z

Nate: “Here's a beautifully straightforward celebration of what cities mean by two rather rural sources: a folk rocker (Earle) plus a northern Brazil-influenced ensemble (Forro). As it plays I can't stop smiling.”

"City of Immigrants" by Steve Earle with Forro in the Dark, YouTube

Ear to the Ground, by David Van Tiegham

2008-11-21T15:30:46Z

Nate: “A few years before the likes of Blue Man Group and Stomp, a percussionist/performance artist takes to the street to sound out the local environment. I think the suit and tie really makes the performance.”

"Ear to the Ground" (1982), featuring David Van Tieghem, directed by John Sanborn and Kit Fitzgerald :: via Boing Boing

Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble

2008-11-21T15:30:46Z

Nate: “As the world (or at least a good 4 billion of us) turn our thoughts towards Beijing this weekend, I recalled this wonderful in-studio performance from 2005, by a musical ensemble led (but by no means dominated -- he's merely a virtuoso among virtuosos) by cellist Yo-Yo Ma. They weave together many of the deep, rich musical cultures along the Silk Road, the ancient trade route linking Europe with the Far East: Persian, Roma, Mongolian, Chinese, etc. It's amazing watching this group of diverse musicians interact with, really listen and respond to, one another.”

KRCW's Morning Becomes Eclectic

Ugandan hip-hop doc

2008-11-21T15:30:46Z

Nate: “Trailer for "Diamonds in the Rough," a documentary about anti-war and -corruption themed hip-hop in Uganda. Looks fascinating and inspiring, though I'm just a tad troubled that, as with Wim Winders' wonderful "Buena Vista Social Club" film, the transcendent climax involves the musicians from the developing world making a triumphant and adulatory tour in the West.”

via Boing Boing

L.E.S. Artistes, by Santogold

2008-11-21T15:30:46Z

Nate: “This song's been stuck in my head off and on for the past few months. My gut interpretation was that it was about the sacrifices involved in pursuing an artist's vocation. The Wikipedia page suggests it's more about frustration with judgmental hipsters, artistic posers, et al. So go figure. Nima Nourizadeh's oddly alluring/disturbing video treatment, meanwhile, is itself a (pretentious? sincere?) homage to a 1973 cult film, The Holy Mountain, itself a psychedelic reworking of material from St. John of the Cross's "Ascent of Mt. Carmel"”

A bit of 1990s Kenyan public transit hip-hop

2008-11-21T15:30:46Z

Nate: “There's quite a lot of cultural info and aspiration packed into this video. I'm not sure whether its plea for greater public safety fell, or would fall, on the young men who work for Nairobi's privately-provided public transit.”

Look, Think, Stay Alive, by Jimmy Gathu, 1993 :: via Africanhiphop.com

Stephen Colbert interviews N.T. Wright

2008-11-21T15:30:46Z

Nate: “Given the constraints of the interview -- super-short, and with against a man in character whose main goal is to be funny -- Wright holdes his own on Life After Heaven. It helps that both men are great wits and, in their way, know their stuff.”

The Colbert Report