Back in 2023, Cody Fry first teamed up with the Blue Devils
for his track Caves in their Drum Corps International competitive field
show. If a collaboration works, then it’s worth revisiting, and so today we
have the pleasure of seeing and hearing Magic in You. If you need a
little cheering up today, this video may just do the trick. Its enormous joie
de vivre is something to behold.
The high-energy track combines Cody Fry’s signature
orchestral pop style with the world-class brass and percussion power of the
Blue Devils, who have won the DCI World Championship a remarkable 21 times. Not
only is the song great, but the video is a celebration of music – as well as
marching, of course. There is something wonderfully infectious about watching
so many musicians performing with such precision while simultaneously throwing
themselves into the sheer joy of the music. It's great to see Cody (whose Unlikely Marinerwe featured back in May) give his supporting performers the spotlight so often.
And that’s perhaps what makes Magic in You so
effective. It doesn’t feel like a showcase of technical ability for its own
sake; instead, the musicianship, choreography and sheer scale of the
performance all serve to create an overwhelming sense of optimism.There's even a few Busby Berkely-style moments tucked away in there. It’s
difficult not to smile watching it.See
if you can resist the temptation by watching Cody and the Blue Devils perform
the song below.
Although the subject of robots becoming self-aware is
something that we are all a little overused to right now (especially with Ann
Droid, courtesy of the BBC), having watched Andy, I felt I had to share
it for several reasons. Created by Black Elk Productions, It tells the
story of Anne Malone. Elderly, with a
husband in a care home and a son, Nick, who is too busy to be around much, Anne
has recently had an accident. Nick
provides her with a carer who turns out, much to Anne’s surprise, to be an
android. Hastily named Andy, the two
form something of a bond but things quickly go awry and events quickly spiral
out of the control of both human and android.
To say much more would provide you with too many spoilers, so watch the
short and discover what happens.
What is quite remarkable about this is that Anne is played
by Jane Merrow, who also wrote the screenplay.I have to say here that it felt like there was a feature-length project
crying to get out of this short, as sometimes there seem to be not so much gaps
but sleight of hand going on, plot wise.Anne’s neighbour, Pamela (played by Beverly Hills) is criminally
underused, but does manage to get both quirkiness and friskiness across in the
short time she is on screen.I would
have liked to have seen more of her, perhaps an attempt to seduce Andy would
have made for great comedic relief.Plus, Andy’s first foray to the farmer’s market with Anne is a little
baffling – that such an advanced AI robot could malfunction so badly in terms
of interacting with humans!
Regardless, this short does come across as a complete whole
and it is very firmly down to the two leads who are both fantastic in their
roles. I thought the name Jane Merrow
was familiar, and a little research quickly allowed me to discover more about
the actress who has been professionally active since the sixties. It might be easier to list what she hasn’t
been in, but UK productions she appeared in that you have probably heard of (!)
include Danger Man, The Saint, The Prisoner, The Avengers, and UFO. During her time living in America, Merrow
also appeared in Alias Smith and Jones, Cannon, Police Woman, The Six Million
Dollar Man, Hart to Hart, Magnum PI, Airwolf and MacGyver. Phew! And that’s only part of her CV.
If there is one thing that will capture and hold the
attention of most people, it’s a fast-paced game. It might be a video game, played competitively
between family members or friends. It
could be an intense esports match or even one of the crash-style casino games
out there. Whatever the game, there are
close connections to gaming psychology – that is the exploration if how game
design works in terms of the rewards and challenges it presents to its
players. That, of course, includes emotions
which have a massive impact on the way that individual players think and
behave. If you understand a few of the
psychological principles behind gaming psychology, it can really help explain
why some games really do feel impossible to put down – whether it’s for food, study
or sleep!
The Power of Immediate Feedback
You may have guessed, but it’s all about feedback.It’s constant – each and every time a player
makes a decision, they see the result immediately.Then it’s very much up to them to decide what
they are going to do next.Decisions,
decisions!This rapid cycle of action
and response demands one thing – that the brain is focused entirely on the “here
and now”.
Of course, in slower games there are often extended periods of
time between a decision and an outcome – the action, reaction.However, fast-paced games reduce that gap,
usually providing an instant reward.Mistakes
usually provoke a stream of information giving feedback about what to change at
the next attempt.This continuous sense
of momentum makes each moment feel meaningful to the player – and that’s one of
the reasons games sometimes get in the way of “real life”!
Painted by Briton Rivière, this oil painting (usually dated
as created in 1885) shows the reunion between Ulysses (also known as Ulysses),
finally returned to Ithaca after twenty years (Troy!) and his faithful dog
Ulysses. This video by Inspiraggio calls it “one
of the saddest paintings ever made” and although there is a hint of hyperbole
in that description, it is certainly one that is emotionally very charged,
especially for dog lovers.
Odysseus had owned Argus before he went to the Trojan war
and had trained him as a puppy.By the time
he returned, to reclaim wife and kingdom from would-be usurpers who wished to
declare him dead and marry Penelope, the dog was over twenty years old and
unable to stand.Yet despite the fact
that Odysseus was heavily disguised as an old beggar, Argus still recognised him.Yet there is a tragedy behind this reunion.Odysseus could not pet his faithful dog, or
wish him a final goodbye with a few strokes to the dog’s ancient head.Instead, they locked eyes and Argis was able
to die happily, knowing that his master had finally returned.It must have been agony for Odysseus– knowing
that the dog had steadfastly waited for his return, but unable to thank him
through touch lest it gave the game away.
This painting was painted at the height of Riviere’s
fame.He had full Royal Academy Status,
granted in 1881 – the highest honour for a British painter at this time.He was also revered by his contemporaries as
the foremost painter of animals in the land.I won’t go on, as all of this and more is covered in the wonderful
video below.
In Michigan, history is rarely held in one place. It sits in city archives in Detroit, parish memories in Grand Rapids, courthouse files in Lansing, small-town stories across the Thumb, and diocesan records from Marquette to Kalamazoo. The state’s religious history is shaped by distance as much as doctrine. A church in the Upper Peninsula may have served a close-knit town, while a parish in metro Detroit may have been part of a large urban network.
That geography matters when hidden histories begin to surface. Records tied to clergy abuse allegations are connected to schools, parishes, families, and communities that may have carried unanswered questions for years. Once those records are released, arranged, or investigated, they can change how a community understands its past.
Michigan offers a useful example because its Catholic history is spread across several dioceses, each with its own files, leadership decisions, parish assignments, and local memories. Information once held inside an institution can eventually become part of a public record, giving people a clearer view of events that were once scattered, private, or difficult to trace.
Always allow your dreams to last you your lifetime.I guess that’s the message behind this very
sweet animated short, written and directed by Nicholas Arioli.A young boy wants to be an astronaut, as makes
sure that he wears his space helmet wherever he goes, just in case he gets the
chance to reach his destination – the moon.Then one day he comes across a coin operated ride which is – of course –
a rocket ship.At five cents a go, it’s
a must – so his mum leaves him to it while she goes inside the store to do her
shopping.The ride isn’t quite what he
expected – but he figures that is five cents gets him a few bumpy seconds, what
would a whole heap of five cents pieces get him?
There are a lot of theories on the YouTube comments below
this animated short debating what the story is really about.The ambiguous ending and the symbolic storytelling
have assured that.Does the old man die
at the end? What happened to him mother? And why did he spend his own life
selling lemonade?There are countless
interpretations – and I for one like to see this animated short as something of
a meditation on the pursuit of dreams – and that even if they take a lifetime
to achieve, they are still there for the getting.Have a watch and see what you think!
Roger Babson had a problem. His family thought he was crazy or felonious or both. He had started to carve mottoes in to the boulders which lay in the fields near the long abandoned settlement of Dogtown close to his home in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Babson was later to write in his autobiography: My family says that I am defacing the boulders and disgracing the family with these inscriptions, but the work gives me a lot of satisfaction, fresh air, exercise and sunshine. I am really trying to write a simple book with words carved in stone instead of printed paper. Besides, when on Dogtown common, I revert to a boyhood which I once enjoyed when driving cows there many years ago.
I had no idea that this existed until recently.Back in 2024, Kate Bush released a short
animated music video called Little Shrew (Snowflake) – the word in
brackets being the name of the track from her 2011 album 50 Words for Snow
that is used as the soundtrack for this startling and poignant anti-war
story.Apparently, the image of the
destroyed block of flats that you see in the video is based on a real
photograph that Bush saw – an image of the war in Ukraine.Yet the video doesn’t focus on graphic
violence, rather its impact on the young and timid shrew – although the bleak
monochrome of the animation certainly drives it message home.
The animation was written and directed by Kate Bush, with
the help of animation company Inkubis and production company Tomato Twist.If you don’t know Snowflake well, you
might think Hey! That’s not Kate! for about half of the song.That’s because she shared the song with her
son Bertie (Albert McIntosh). In fact, the guitar work on the track is by Dan McIntosh, so father makes three. I like it when people keep it in the family! The
animation was created to help support the charity War Child.It is –
as you might expect – a work of art.
Valencia is a remarkable city.On one hand you have the City of Arts and
Sciences, which looks like it could be set from a science fiction movie (several
have been filmed there).On the other
you have the Old Town, with its sweeping historic squares, not to mention the
cathedral and city hall.It’s like past
and present come together in one seamless motion, particularly if you watch
this hyperlapse by Kirill Neiezhmakov.It’s a masterclass in how timelapses are evolving into an art form – thanks
to great photography and some equally impressive technology.Although we have featured Valencia before on
Kuriositas, I have never seen it look so beautiful as in thisvideo.
Neiezhmakov always carries a folding bike with him, on which
to move between locations.Valencia’s
network of cycle paths enabled him to do this with ease and to chase what he
calls “the perfect light”.Amazingly,
there were no drones involved in the making of this short film – but I for one
certainly wouldn’t blame you if you thought that there were.Instead, the creation of this hyperlapse
involved painstaking work, with each shot created by moving the camera and
tripod manually.Watch the resulting
magic below.
Manny Patel made the first version of this over thirty years
ago when he was a high school student.
Now he has returned to his Star Trek Bohemian Rhapsody media mix as
a celebration of the show’s 60th anniversary (and Queen’s song is
50, so a double celebration). The
footage has been upscaled to 4K, giving the original mashup a makeover. It is certainly a labor of love – each two or
three second clip exactly matches a line in the song. I’ve been a bit cheeky and put the lyrics in
the picture above to give readers an idea of what they are in for (the video itself
doesn’t have any “singalong” subtitles… now there’s an idea!
What we do have is Dr Crusher and Kira Neris getting swept away
with anywhere the wind blows and Odo playing the piano in perfect time to
the song.We have most (if not all) of
the mothers of Legacy Trek featured here as the song mentions “mama” so often,
so why not? You might want to guess whose death is featured for the line Too
late, my time has come, but I reckon you will get that right, no
problem.All told, this is a joy to
watch, to proceed below.
A little mouse, foraging for food, comes across and injured
bird. It has been trapped by the wing and the mouse makes the decision, on the
spot, to help the bird, release it and share its home with it until it is fully
recovered and can fly again. That’s it – a very simple tale, but so beautifully
animated and with great (wordless) character development that it’s simply
(see what I did there?) a joy to watch.This was Casey McDonald’s (aka gothfrog) final film from the School of
Visual arts. She directed, background painted, animated, and did about half of
the cleanup and coloring herself! The rest was handled by her team (credited at
the end).
I do love an animated short that tells a very simple story –
young animators often make the mistake of writing plots that are way too
complex for five minutes or so, and when things get complicated, people turn
off.Yes, this is a very simple story
and told in a way that very young kids can get it, but adults can appreciate it
for the extended visual metaphor it really is.Kindness is its own reward, but sometimes, something done with no obvious
incentive can be the best thing you can ever do.
This is not a new animated short – but there are so many out
there that I didn’t show on Kuriositas when they first came out, mostly because
I didn’t spot them, that I thought I would take the opportunity to showcase
some.So, put this another way – I may
be late to the party, but at least I got there in the end! At the time of
writing Wings has attracted almost 12 million views on YouTube – quite a
feat for a student film.Watch it and
discover why it is so well-loved.
The skyline of modern Shanghai is something of a wonder – it’s
like a mix of Bladerunner, Ghost in the Shell and The Fifth
Element combined, even though that fairly lazy simile doesn’t do it justice (I shouldn’t
really imagine the present using yesterday’s science fiction – it’s there in
front of me). Yet although this is one
of the most striking cityscapes on the planet by day, when the sun sets the city
comes to iridescent life, with lights reflecting across the Huangpu river.
For visitors to this year’s World Artificial Intelligence
Conference (WAIC), the nightly light show that the city offers to inhabitants
and visitors alike was given a further boost with a sequence of dazzling
synchronised projections and animations which were designed to celebrate and
showcase innovation and technology.So,
there is an extra layer of spectacle on top of what is already seen each
evening.The phrase that kept coming
into my mind as I watched this film of the lightshow by LaLin Photography was effortlessly
elegant. Take a look below – it’s
quite dazzling on film – it must have been something special to have been there.
There are several films and shows that have phones boxes
with connections to time travel. There
is of course, Doctor Who – and who could forget the Bill and Ted movies? So,
here’s another one to add to the list – in a way. Threads of Time was created by Kohei
Yamashita in Tokyo, and it follows the trials and tribulations of a young man
(played by Kazuma Ozaki). Perhaps he is a
university graduate beginning the shūkatsu (就活) job-hunting
process, but he isn’t having much luck.
The first thing that we witness is him being turned down for a position.
After he puts the phone down, he notices that someone has
left behind a notepad and a pen, and so writes a message (more of a statement
of his current feelings).The next time
he visits, he finds that there are responses in the notebook.Who wrote them? Well, that’s up to you to discover
by watching the short film below! The film is short but beautifully made. It’s only a few minutes long, and if you need
your spirits lifting a little, it may be just what you are looking for!
Have you ever felt that dread when, on their return from some far flung place, your friend threatens to show you their summer holiday photos? You may have to sit through that particular agony. In the meantime, here is a collection of photographs spanning the first seven decades of the twentieth century which show summer in all its glory. Times and social mores may have changed, but these may still be the type of pictures you wish your friend had taken.
Image Credit Florida Memory
A group of young women make fun of a sign demanding that they wear full bathing costumes while on Florida’s Miami beach. Come on, this is 1934, after all! Sure enough, there were a number of women arrested that year for wearing two piece bathing suits.
This is precious. Le
Grand Saut is the French title, so that translates as The Big Leap
and I think it’s a great name for this animated short, given that the girl protagonist
takes one literally and metaphorically. It doesn’t tell a big story, but
for our young protagonist, it’s something of a coming of age.A simple day at the beach.There’s the sun, the sand – and, of course,
the completely annoying toddler brother that you have to look at (no doubt
while the parents go an have an extended lunch at a local bar!).Perhaps that last bit is reading too much in
to it, but there is another thing – the awakening of attraction.When our young heroine sees a cool young boy
on the beach, it’s pretty much love at first sight – but how do you get him to
notice you?
There are number of outstanding features to this animated
short.First and foremost, it was
created without dialogue (so overcoming any possible language barrier to help
achieve a bigger audience), but the animation is so subtly done that you know
exactly what is going through the girl’s mind at any given time – and the body
language is also expertly conveyed.Both
of these things are difficult to do with animation, so hats off to the students
who created this.The other stand out
for me was how the colours so wonderfully expressed the tone and feel of a day
at the beach – vibrant and saturated with the sun in charge of how everyone
sees the day’s events.It really does
give this animation a lovely, almost nostalgic texture.
The award-winning animated film was directed by Martina
Doll, Anaïs Dos, Coline Reverbel, Kenzo Talma, Edgard Vernier, and Lisa Vlaine
during their time at École des Nouvelles Images. It received the School
Jury Award at the Catch the Moon – Festival Internazionale di Cinema
d'Animazione, the Jury Prize (Prix du Jury) at the Big Cartoon Festival, and
the Best Animated Film Award (Prix du Meilleur Film d'Animation) at the
Kristiansand International Children's Film Festival. The original score was
composed by Aloïs Benoit (MAAAV), with production by Julien Deparis and sound
mixing by Pierre-François Renouf.
Have you ever taken a stroll through a wood and felt that you were being watched? Yet when you turn around, no-one is there. You carry on with your walk but that feeling of disquiet lingers. Perhaps you were being watched by something almost as disquieting as that galloping, mad axe murderer you were dreading. The Doll’s Eyes Plant could be eyeing you up as you innocently ramble. In North America, not just the hill have eyes.
These days,
most people know Kate Bush for Running Up That Hill, which was
iconically featured on Stranger Things.However, outside of the US, ask people of a certain age and they will
immediately cite Wuthering Heights, her 1978 hit, as her most
popular song.In fact, inspired by the music
video that went with it, each year women get together in community events all
over the giff-gaff to recreate the famous dance from the video.They also try their best to reproduce the
flowing dress Bush wore in it, and many don a wig to complete the
ensemble.While you don’t have to be (ever
so gently) bonkers mad to join in a group event like this, I suspect it helps...
The sleepy
English seaside town of Whitstable holds it own version - Whittering Heights (get
it?) and this year the global event was branded as The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever.Apparently, when women (some men have been known
to join in, too) get together in this manner, it is known as a Mass Wuther,
and the one in Penistone Hill, close to the famous Brontë parsonage in
Haworth, is probably the most famous. However, the Whitstable organisers this
year employed a drone to capture the full majesty of this particular Mass Wuther.This Community of Cathies (I counted 33) have been
getting together once a month since February to rehearse the dance – but I am
pretty sure that there has been a lot of bedroom mirror work going on as well.This is a Mass Wuther par
excellence. A captivating community of Cathies.
Whoever thought of filming it with a drone (not to mention
organising that) deserves a Blue Peter badge for this genius move which
allows us to really take in the full spectacle.Hats off, too, to the Cathies in this video.I love the way that each has adapted the
famous red dress and black sash to their own taste, with some versions going
down to the ankle while at least one has gone for a mini version (perhaps Babooshka
Day for you next year?).Hopefully,
that means that these dresses get more than an annual outing.What the original article (as it were) has to
say about Wuthering Heights Day has not been recorded.Kate Bush is famously reluctant to appear or
talk in public and gives interviews once a millennium, but I hope that if she
sees this video it puts a smile on her face as big as mine is right now!
OK, here's the original just for comparison. Oddly, there were two videos for the song. The first featured Kate in a white dress. The one below (known to fans as Version 2) was created for the American market and as you can see, every expense was spared. Still, decades later, it continues to inspire our communities of Cathies to go forth and Wuther. Wuthering Heights peaked at No. 8 on
the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, which is essentially the chart just below the
main Hot 100. It took Kate a while to crack the States.
It was a
long time coming, but the Comic Relief people have finally released Spider-Plant
Man on their YouTube channel. It was
originally created for Red Nose Day (when people buy a red nose to wear
to support charity) in the UK (back in 2006 so makes this sketch –
astonishingly – 20 years old already).
It quickly picked up something of a cult following as it very accurately
takes the rise out of superhero films in general. Starring Atkinson as Peter Piper, this origin
story shows our unlikely hero visiting Very Safe Labs Incorporated and
being bitten in a delicate place by a genetically engineered spider plant.
Cue a transformation
that pleases the reporter no end, especially when an opportunity (very quickly)
arises for him to save his school sweetheart, Jane-Mary, who is being mugged very
slowly by a masked assailant.Of
course, no sooner is she out of peril than she is in peril again, thanks to a
rather bedraggled Batman.Atkinson was
not the only British comedian to lend his talents to this sketch for Comic
Relief.You can see Rachel
Stevens, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Mackenzie Crook, Jim Broadbent and Atkinson’s Blackadder
chum Tony Robinson in the sketch too. I am not too sure who wrote it but if I had to guess I would say it had Simon Pegg's paw prints all over it! It
still stands up very well, despite being 20 years old, and is probably one of
the best Comic Relief sketches ever made.Watch it below.
End of the World, is a track from the first album (Asylum) by Inpatient, and the video is a blast (well, it is
the end of the world…).It’s lyrically
dense – and very funny (love the line about the Vatican, allegedly, but
there are too many standout lines to mention here). The song seems to be a (tongue in cheek) shrug
of the shoulders at the world in general.Let’s self-medicate and get on with it, because we’re all f**ked anyway.Yet when I finished the watching the video, which
is hugely creative and a perfect accompaniment to the song, I was left thinking
that this is more like a call to arms – to make the most of it too. Even if it
isn’t, listening to a song about how screwed we all are cheered me up no end.
Plus, anything with a kazoo interlude gets my vote.
So, who are Inpatient? I went to Bangor University in
North Wales from 1983-1986 and had a fabulous time with some fabulous people,
thank you very much. I loved the (very
small) city and its people – and it’s great to see that Bangor is still
producing brilliance. Ren, a musician,
rapper, singer-songwriter, guitarist, and storyteller, was born there in 1990. Of course,
as he is Welsh, you could say some of those things I just listed were most likely in his blood
from birth. There is something Dylanthomasy in some of these lyrics - but there is fatalism rather than rage (perhaps the message is drink, drink [or insert substance of choice] against the dying of the light - Thomas would no doubt have approved of that).
Now Ren has joined up with Chris
Webby, an American rapper and songwriter from Norwalk, Connecticut known for
fast, technically sharp rapping, punchlines, pop-culture references, and an
independent approach to his music. Mix
in production and some of the song-writing from JP On Da Track and you
have this collaborative project (band?) called Inpatient. This is one of my favourite songs of the year already.
The comments on YouTube are massively positive, with
fans describing the song as a brilliant soundtrack to what feels like the end
of humanity, while somehow remaining incredibly fun. One listener summed it up
perfectly: “I've been talking with friends for several years now about how we
have a front row seat to the end of humanity. You guys just brilliantly put it
to music.” Another wrote, “Only Ren and Webby can make a song about the end of
life as we know it but make it so fun that me and my wife can't stop singing to
it.” Others called the pair “a gift to the world,” thanked them for the music (not in an Abba way),
and declared it their new favourite, with one fan simply calling Asylum the
“album of the year” which is praise indeed.
The excitement
around the collaboration is clear, with comments describing Ren and Webby as
their “two fave artists” and praising them for “smashing it again.” There is a
real sense that listeners aren't just enjoying the song but embracing its
strange, darkly comic message: if we're going to have a front-row seat to the
end of the world, we might as well have Ren and Webby providing the soundtrack.
The video manages to look both home-made and very expensive
at the same time, which is quite a feat. Have a watch...
Somehow we expect their faces to be different, not so staggeringly modern looking. Place them in contemporary clothing and all of these young men would not look out of place in a mall or a high school yearbook. Yet these extraordinary ambrotype and tintype photographs were taken during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Over 160 years separates their lives from our own yet their youthful faces retain a powerful resonance and an immediacy which brings that dreadful conflict feel strikingly close to us..
Who were these young men? What sort of lives did they live during and (one hopes) after the Civil War? The names of many of the young men pictured here are unknown; their fates a mystery. Yet despite the century and a half gap between their careful posing for the camera, some can still be identified. Astonishingly, names can still be discovered, as well as insight in to their character and personality.
So, now you have watched Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey,
you think you know how the Trojan Horse was used to defeat the ancient city?
Pah! Nolan knows nothing!Despite his
movie being an extended homage to Old Hollywood in so many ways, what we
really needed was a touch of The Python.And not one to disappoint, Ben Naumann’s new
comedy short is something I could easily imagine young Cleese, Palin, Chapman,
Gilliam, Jones and Idle doing.Wait, I almost
forgot; they did the Trojan Rabbit scene in Monty Python and the Holy
Grail (1975). Arthur and his knights build a huge wooden rabbit to sneak
into the French castle. The plan goes wrong when they forget to hide inside it
before the French take it into the castle!
In this sketch, the Greeks have not forgotten to climb
inside – but they are faced with some unexpected issues… Will it go right for
them, despite one of them suffering from the intense agony of a repressed fart.
It’s about as historically inaccurate as it should be – I wouldn’t demand anything
less from a comedy sketch by Americans, who only have approximately a day and a
half of history between the lot of them. I would have bitterly complained if we hadn’t been given warrior
girls and the like. But it is funny.The
sketch features Brian Beckerle, Graham McClanahan, Phoebe Black-Toby, Eddie
Tarr, Will Tully, and Harkness Granger. Not a single Greek name among them.
Pfft!
It’s difficult to ascertain the damage that climate change
has caused simply because there are so few places on the planet where we are
not found.Human intervention creates
artificial change, so in order to work out the real impact of climate change,
you need to find somewhere pristine, somewhere we have never been.That’s quite difficult, considering the
billions of us that have spread like a virus over the surface of the Earth!
However, Mount Lico was identified by Julian Bayliss (Oxford Brookes
University) as a place of special scientific interest by using Google Earth of
all things. Image
He recognised Mount Lico as an inselberg – an isolated small
mountain that rises, as if by magic, from a virtually level plain.Think Uluru in Australia, probably the most
famous example of this kind of geographical formation.He spotted that the land round the mountain
was heavily agriculturalized but atop its sheer rock walls of up to 700 metres,
was a pristine forest covering about 30 hectares (74 acres).In a scientific version of Let’s put on a
show he gathered a group of unpaid scientists to go with him to Mozambique
to study Mount Lico’s landforms and vegetation.
The film below was directed by Orlando von Einsiedel and
tells the story of both the climb and the study. It appears on the Nobel Prize YouTube channel. I am not going to do a spoiler alert - find out what they discovered by watching the short documentary. I will say, though, that I was struck by how genial Julian Bayliss
was, and I thought that, if this were ever made into a film, Martin Freeman
would be brilliant as him! I know, I know, I
should be focusing on the content…
Here’s a plea – will someone who knows someone who sleeps
with someone who works with someone who can fund an animated series, please put the relevant person or
persons in front of Samurai Frog Golf.I have no idea why this awesome piece of animation hasn’t garnered
millions of hits, but I guess I would have to ask The Algorithm and it’s
currently not speaking to me.Regardless, this short by Marza Animation Planet deserves a much
larger audience than it got a few years ago.It tells the story of a grizzled old Samurai Frog, who after years of
battle just wants to be left alone to enjoy his golf. What drew me in was the gorgeous animation - such a great deal of time and effort has been put into making this short.
Fate, of course, would have otherwise – and he soon finds
himself the protector of a baby turtle. There is nothing for him to do but to
protect the innocent, but the only thing he could use as a weapon is his golf
club… I will leave the rest to you to watch.I thoroughly enjoyed this and I hope that Marza is still looking for
coproduction partners to continue the story of Samurai Frog Golf in a series! To give up on this brilliant idea would be
such a shame…
When late to open the Commonwealth Games, King
Charles and Queen Camilla had only one option – to requisition the Tardis to
ensure that they arrived on time. That’s the amusing premise of this
intro to the opening of the games (July 23). Echoing his mother’s
(the late Queen Elizabeth II) James Bond escapade for the opening of the London
Olympics in 2012, another Great British Institution (that’s GBI for short) has
been used to create a playful and unforgettable entrance to the Commonwealth
Games 2026, in Glasgow, Scotland.
There's even something of a plot – and while not the new material that
fans might have been wishing for – it’s a typical Tardis tale, with a twist. It’s
the Tardis that kick-starts the whole adventure. Created by the BBC especially for the event, it opens with Olympic cyclist Sir Chris Hoy and comedian
Greg McHugh walking past a seemingly innocuous police telephone box, only for its
phone to ring.On answering, they learn
that their majesties are going to be late for the opening ceremony, but there is no Doctor to whisk them
away - he is nowhere to be seen.Never mind, the Tardis takes matters
into its own (metaphorical) hands.
With a great little cameo from 82-year-old Sylvester McCoy (the seventh Doctor),
this really does push all the right buttons when it comes to providing an
entrance for KC and QC at the Commonwealth Games. And talking of buttons, Hoy and McHugh don’t
really have a clue how to drive a Tardis... but it gives the BBC a great excuse to show off some pretty Scottish scenery. Watch the video below.
Is the internet broken?What would your answer be?My
knee-jerk response, with little to no reflection, is “bloody hell, yes”.Yet giving it a little more thought, I think
my response is more likely to be “it’s as broken as you want it to be”.Throughout history, we have had cultural
revolution after cultural revolution – and whether our distant ancestors would
like us (or vice versa) if we were to somehow meet, we’ll never know. My guess
is that they would be bewildered by us, frankly.Yet each new development presented different opportunities
to different people.Take literacy –
after its development, some wrote poetry while others scribbled graffiti on
walls (Pompeii is a great example, where it survived unlike the scrolls the
poetry was written upon).Then there was
television.The BBC (which made this
video) set out to inform and educate the masses, while the commercial channels
quickly got the upper hand (viewer wise) by bestowing us with gifts like the soap
opera and the advertising break.
And then, of course, there is the internet.On one hand, we have the likes of Jimmy Wales
(founder of Wikipedia) who wish to disseminate and make available knowledge
that in terms of its accessibility, our grandparents could only dream of. Now we can settle arguments in a second, a few
clicks and swipes…but fifty years ago,
if you were debating the name of the capital of Mongolia, and you didn’t happen
to have an encyclopaedia to hand, the correct answer would take a while to
ascertain.You get my drift.On the other hand, we have a host of
companies trying to sell us their product at any cost, social media turning our
children into slavering zombies and artificial intelligence, which isn’t always
right and doesn’t care either way.Add engagement
algorithms into the mix and perhaps the tool had become the master…
There’s a clip in the video below about just that,
really.When asked about the internet by
an interviewer “But it’s just a tool, isn’t it?”, David Bowie responds with:
“No it’s not. It’s an alien life form”.Perhaps he could have added “intent on world domination not by death and
destruction but by stealth and seduction”.The video features interviews with several people who know what they’re
talking about, including Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Hatelab director
Matthew Williams, author (whose novels are free on Project
Gutenberg so he puts his money, as it were, where his mouth is) and
activist Cory Doctorow. There are also some students at the University of
Cardiff, who seem equally as baffled and bewildered by both the past and the present,
bless ‘em.
Get ready for a buzz explosion! The official music video by Avantgardey for their single
Buzz Runner, is finally out – and it doesn’t disappoint. As chaotic
and visually stimulating as you might expect. Although there is no
cohesive story to the video, I would say it is something along these
lines. You might not get what you expect from social media and often
people will post things about you that are hurtful and unnecessary. However,
take solace in the fact that you are an extraordinary individual with real
inner strength and resilience – not to mention the ability to eat cakes many
times your size and deal with the occasion Tyrannosaurus Rex without any
problem whatsoever. Your presence is going to blow up! Well, that’s just my take on it – I think there
is plenty of scope for you to make of this what you want to make of this, and there may be something of a cautionary tale embedded in here... somewhere! As ever for this group, it’s
deliriously frenetic and positively joyous – an Avantgardey video always makes
my day simply because of its incredible joie-de-vivre.
I'm not entirely sure what Buzz Runner itself
means. It reminds me of Blade Runner, so there could be a
connection there, except that here the girls are rushing after the buzz of the online
moment, not androids! Answers on a postcard, please! I think it is about the lengths people go to in order to attract attention on social media. After all, the first line translates as Likes
are oxygen, my oxygen.
At the time of writing, this only just premiered on
YouTube. However, fans are already absolutely loving how chaotic,
hilarious, and packed with detail the new video is, with many saying there is
they are going to have to watch it numerous times in order to take everything
in. The early viewers also praised the incredibly elaborate visuals
and the unique, quirky personalities of each member. There are
several memorable moments that they have pointed out - Nona's dash, Miyuu's
"killer eye-beam," Sei-chan's adorable opening, Pani's sky bowl, the
water backflip, and the unexpected lion (not to mention the
T-Rex!). So, you could say that the reaction is very positive!
The track itself was choreographed by akane, the leader and
creative force behind Avantgardey, who also contributed to the music and
lyrics. If you like Avantgardey, then the video will not
disappoint. If you are new to this Japanese sensation, then… where
have you been?
When I first started to watch this clip from Toomorrow,
I initially thought that it was a very cleverly rendered pastiche of late 1960s
pop music.The colours were spot on, the
costumes were groovy and the music very much of its time.Then I had a wait a second moment
because the girl singer in the clip looked remarkably like a young, pre-Grease
Olivia Netwon-John (or Neutron-Bomb as we would sometimes call
her).Sure enough, a little research
(OK, reading the video's information) told me that it was indeed a 21 year old ONJ, from a 1970
science-fiction musical (the first?). It was about a band kidnapped by aliens (a couple pictured below) to save
their species… with music. I’m not alone in thinking this was a modern-day, very clever take on the late Sixties. Many
people have commented on this on YouTube, with one saying: was going to comment
that this is the most period-accurate sendup I've ever seen... then realized
why it's so "accurate".
If anything, that made me scratch my head even more, because
being a bit of a science-fiction buff, I might not have been old enough to
watch this movie on its first release, but I would almost certainly have caught
it later on TV (and it looks harmless enough to be repeated ad infinitum
as part of summertime scheduling) or on video release. That was, after all, how
I had discovered a number of films, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Planet
of the Apes and Barbarella – I could go on. There was a treasure trove of films from the
late sixties for me to get my teenage paws on.
But not Toomorrow. I had
not even the vaguest recollection of this film – and I would almost certainly
have given it a watch had I known of its existence, particularly because of
Newton-John’s subsequent global stardom.
This is short but very sweet.A young mouse, out on an expedition, falls
down a well.Now, that might not end
well (ah!), but at the bottom, in despair, he meets a new friend who might be
the key to his survival.Yet, this
involves sacrifice.I won’t tell you
anymore because spoilers, but give it a watch, particularly if you are
feeling a little down in the dumps today. The screenshot above might give you a small clue, but I have no doubt that Bottom of the Well will cheer you up!
This animated short was the thesis film for two young
creatives at SVA (School of Visual Arts in New York).Xinyu Shen directed and produced, created the
story and worked on the animation and editing.Meanwhile, Charlie Yuyung Luo was co-producer and contributed character modelling,
look development and the 2D cutscene animation.Together they have created something very sweet – and very special.Have a watch below.
We're not a sports website, so we won't pretend to be
experts on Kevin Keegan's remarkable football career (although I really like him when I was a kid). Like millions of others,
though, we were saddened to hear of his passing. While he will forever be
remembered as one of England's greatest footballers and most charismatic
managers, there's another, rather unexpected chapter in his story that many
people may have forgotten - or perhaps never knew. In 1979, at the height of
his fame, Keegan ventured into the music charts with Head Over Heels in Love,
a surprisingly successful single that became a hit in several European
countries (Top Ten in Germany, where he was playting at the time) and remains a fascinating footnote in the career of a true sporting
icon.
The outpouring of tributes following Kevin Keegan's death
reflects not only his extraordinary football career but also the affection in
which he was held as a person. Just on this obscure YouTube video alone, fans are remembering him as "King Kev," a
footballing legend and a true gentleman whose influence stretched far beyond
the clubs he played for and managed. One supporter recalled following whichever
team Keegan played for as a child, while another said he was the reason they
became a Newcastle United fan in 1994. Others remembered his trademark curls,
describing him as their first crush, or simply mourned the loss of a hero who
inspired generations. Even listeners who first encountered him through his
recording with Smokie shared their sadness. The messages came from across
Europe, with one fan poignantly observing that "Germany mourns an
exceptional English player," underlining Keegan's enduring international
appeal.
As fans around the world remember Kevin Keegan the
footballer, it's worth also remembering Kevin Keegan the entertainer. Head
Over Heels in Love may never rival his achievements on the pitch, but it
remains a charming reminder of a time when one of football's brightest stars
wasn't afraid to try something completely different.
Last year we brought The People of 1925 figuratively back to life in an article that went beyond the politics of the day to focus on ordinary people leading everyday lives. It attracted a wider readership than we expected, so we've decided to follow it up with The People of 1926.
The research is taking a little longer than anticipated (just as it did last year), but look out for the article over the next few weeks. As before, we'll be exploring the faces, fashions, and fragments of ordinary lives from 1926, and, where possible, discovering what happened to those people afterwards.
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And that’s perhaps what makes Magic in You so
effective. It doesn’t feel like a showcase of technical ability for its own
sake; instead, the musicianship, choreography and sheer scale of the
performance all serve to create an overwhelming sense of optimism.There's even a few Busby Berkely-style moments tucked away in there. It’s
difficult not to smile watching it. See
if you can resist the temptation by watching Cody and the Blue Devils perform
the song below.
