The ... Um ... Safety Dance? (A Dance Movie Mash-up)

Via Purple Clover.

Precussive Maintenance

Percussive Maintenance from Duncan Robson on Vimeo and via Colossal. Music by Joel Robson.

Edwardian England and Ireland Circa 1900

The description at YouTube:

This video has been dramatically enhanced in quality, using modern video editing tools. The film has been motion stabilized and the speed has been slowed down to correct speed (from 18 fps to 24 fps) using special frame interpolation software that re-creates missing frames. Upscaling to HD quality was done using video enhancer software.

I have been told that at least part of this film was shot in Cork (Ireland). The music is "Chanson du Soir" and "Arco Noir" from Harvey's Strings of Sorrow album.

I found the video oddly moving -- must be the sentimental music.  Yes, that's it; it was the music ...

Via Miss Cellania.

Renata Adler Rips The New York Times a New One

A few years ago Renata Adler wrote a book about the decline of The New Yorker at the departure of its long term editor, William Shawn, and happened to quote a letter she had written Shawn declining to review a book about Judge John Sirica, famous from the Watergate scandal. "Contrary to his reputation as a hero," Adler wrote, "Sirica was in fact a corrupt, incompetent, and dishonest figure, with a close connection to Senator Joseph McCarthy and clear ties to organized crime."

This single sentence led to a firestorm, mostly in The New York Times. It published no less than eight pieces critical of Adler and her book and mostly critical of the single sentence quoted above. It also refused to print a letter from Adler defending it. Harpers, however, did publish an essay by Adler. There she discusses the sentence and lays out her substantial support for it and, in the process, demolishes the Times's approach, as well as Sirica. Adler's essay is a masterwork of rhetoric and careful thought.

On Whether Radagast Could Indeed Effectively Mush with Rabbits

In an evidently non-canonical portion of the recent movie of Tolkien's classic The Hobbit, the wizard Radagast the Brown travels about on a sled pulled by rabbits. (Wait! Was that a spoiler I should have warned you about? Well, given that Radagast has the same rhetorical value as Jar Jar Binks, I'm going to go with "no.")

Anyway, over at The One Ring.net, Teanne Byerts, who goes by the handle "swordwhale" and is a recreational musher, actually thinks this is a great idea (also not surprising given that Ms. swordwhale's essay is, in fact, on The One Ring.net).  BUT Peter Jackson et al. nonetheless failed by having Radagast's gangline attached to his brush bow, which, apparently, would surely tear his sled apart. He also rides his sled incorrectly and doesn't have a brake. Horrors! Verisimilitude in Tolkien fantasy movies has simply gone into the toilet. It's no wonder Christopher Tolkien hates the movies.

By the way, should your interest in mushing now have been whetted, there is a great series of photos over at The Big Picture (of The Boston Globe) covering this year's Iditarod Trail Sled Race now ongoing in Alaska.

Breaking Dawn Part 2 Won Seven (7) Awards Last Night

Of course, the awards Breaking Dawn" Part 2 won were Razzies. Via Miss Celania.

Jerry Seinfeld Accepting the Award at the Show

I thought Jerry Seinfeld's speech was particularly moving:

Via MetaFilter.

Academy Award Preview: Best Actress Nominee Ann Coulter

The best actress category is controversial this year since Ann Coulter's sexual identity is unknown, but nonetheless her attempt to pretend she's not an asshole was touching if ultimately a failure. Being born without a conscience has undoubtedly been quite a handicap, and I expect her to win the sympathy vote here.

Now I know that Michele Bachman made a strong push this year with her crazy comic stylings, but who can forget Sarah Palin's portrayal as a tragically insane woman in 2008 that brought her accolades from all over? The sympathy vote always wins.

Academy Awards Preview: Best Horror Film

Once again, this is another year where the none of the nominees were released this year. Anyway, it's a tight race, but the likely winner is Mary Poppins:

Also nominated:
        Mrs. Doubtfire

        Uncle Buck

        Sleepless in Seattle

Academy Awards Preview: Best Foreign Language Film Nominee Shadow Pico

I often don't understand foreign language films because they aren't filmed in English, but I thought Shadow Pico was a really moving look into the mental health system:

Academy Awards Preview: Best Picture Likely Winner, The Avengers

Also nominated is Prometheus which has the advantage that none of it makes any sense whatsoever:

Academy Awards Preview: Best Romantic Comedy (A New Category this Year)

Likely winner: The Shining:

Also nominated:
        The Shawshank Redemption

One of the things I love about romantic-comedies -- or "rom-coms" as we in the in-crowd call them -- is how the title always gives let's you know they're upbeat. Like "The Shining" or "The Shawshank Redemption." You just know those are going to be happy movies.

Academy Awards Preview: Best Actor -- Lincoln

I thought Lincoln did a really good job and is pretty much a lock for best actor:

Also, this woman does a really good job impersonating Anne Hathaway and plainly will win best supporting actor:

(I actually thought Anne Hathaway did an excellent job.)

Academy Awards Preview: Best Screenplay Nominee Twilight

With the Academy Awards upcoming in a week, as a public service we at Galileo Feynman have decided to preview some of the key movies up for awards. Today we begin with the cinema classic Twilight.

Also nominated: The Hunger Games:

More Exciting Oscars Star Coverage

More exciting Oscars coverage leading up to The Big Day!

Between Two Ferns: Oscar Buzz Edition Part 2 from Zach Galifianakis

Interviews with the Oscar Contenders

Our award winning coverage of the Oscars begins today with these interviews of the stars who will get awards:

Between Two Ferns: Oscar Buzz Edition Part 1 from Zach Galifianakis

Exciting News About the New Hobbit Movies!

2012: Best-of Lists

I promised to post 2012 best of/wrap-up lists before the end of 2012, which just goes to show you how good my promises are. Well, I am finally doing it, below the break, but let me note, first, that Miss Cellania has a bunch of really good collections of lists from around the internet -- you know, if you really needed these you could have gone there:

• Music wrap-up lists
• Books wrap-up lists
• Movie year end lists
• Sports wrap-up lists
• TV wrap-up lists
• Science wrap-up lists
• Advertising wrap-up lists
• Tech and games wrap-up lists
• People oriented wrap-up lists
• Internet news/events/video wrap-up lists
• Photograph best-of lists
• Blog wrap-up lists
• News wrap-up lists
• Miscellaneous wrap-up lists 

That's a lot to go through (as if one really needs to go through every best-of list), so here's the best ones, in my view (as if one really needs to go through any best-of lists):

Major 2012 Films, in Seven Minutes

Via Neatorama, this is a superlatively edited mash-up by YouTube user genrocks of more than 300 movies released in 2012.  Hpw do you cover 300+ films in seven minutes? Well, you'll have watch -- it really is excellent. The films used are listed here.

Genrocks also made great mash-ups of 2011 and 2010 movies.

So, I Saw the Premiere of the Hobbit this morning (well, at midnight)

I understand it would probably be illegal to have video tapped the movie and downloaded it here, being a lawyer and all, but in lieu of that I give you this exciting trailer for The Lord of the Rings:

By the way, for an excellent review of The Hobbit, see Anthony Lake's write up at The New Yorker.