• It will be very rewarding to me to take care of him, because he tried to take good care of me in prison.

    I was relieved by how respectful this was of the subjects & the viewer.

    My Brother’s Keeper | Guardian Documentaries

  • 0107 – b moll — what a fantastic little film.

    Bright nights, lonely crowds – a Tokyo train speeds through urban contradictions | Aeon

  • The war is over on paper, but the war is not completely over on the land. … I challenge anyone to say “in 200 years the job will be done.” So we can say the Démineurs are the last soldiers on the French territory.

    Clearing unexploded WWI munitions from Zone Rouge. [via Aeon]

  • The Postal Service uses advanced technology to deliver mail with handwritten addresses, huge volumes of periodicals, and packages of many different sizes. This video helps the public better understand the magnitude of the Postmaster General’s sabotage of the USPS.

  • Art conservation is a field I know nothing about, so this excellent 35-minute video explicating the methods, materials, & ethics of the conservator’s work fascinated me.

    The Conservation of a Cornelius Jansens Portrait | Baumgartner Restorations (YouTube)

  • It’s well past my bedtime on a work night, but I’m up late rejoicing because I live in an era in which hobos have high definition cameras & YouTube channels.

  • I’ve long enjoyed Brad Leone’s It’s Alive! videos for Bon Appetit, even as the emphasis on preparation of “living” food as diminished over time. His visit to a pottery studio in Austin is a great example of his self-deprecating humor & genuine rapport, which buoy the series.

  • Nonagenarian philosopher Herbert Fingarette (1921–2018):

    Why am I concerned about [death]? My argument was there’s no good reason for it. My sense of realism tells me, well, no good reason or not, it is something that haunts me, the idea of dying soon.

    Being 97 | Aeon

  • Untertitel auf Deutsch: [atonales Banjo Solo]

    Emotion is for simple folk;
    Art should be arcane.
    Some compositions feed the heart,
    my daddy’s fed the brain.

    I love the modulation of the second chorus.

    (Gimme Some of That) Ol’ Atonal Music | Merle Hazard (YouTube)

  • A glimpse into the work of a second-generation Chicago art conservation studio. What an incredible world we live in, with technology able to open up little knotholes into métiers such as this for us.

    The Restoration of Ave Maria | Baumgartner Restoration (YouTube)

  • Fifty years ago today, The Beatles (with guest keyboardist Billy Preston) ascended to the roof of Apple Corps to play a 42-minute set. It was their final public performance. Here, they play “Don’t Let Me Down,” which isn’t the song I’d choose from the set, but the one available.

  • Buddy Holly’s “duet” with Gregory Porter, made using the vocal track from a tune released sixty years ago, has utterly charmed me. Gregory Porter‘s one of my favorite singers. I’ve loved Buddy’s music since my elementary school days; I wish he was still around to sing it. [video]

  • The theorbo went to England as well. It was brought in by Inigo Jones in the 1600s, but he was stopped at Dover at customs, as they thought the instrument was a Popish engine to destroy the king.

    I hope my brain concocts dreams of what John Fahey would’ve played on a theorbo.

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