From 1907. (via Undine)
Wednesday, November 04, 2026
Rockin' in the Rockies
The 1945 movie Rockin' in the Rockies is the Three Stooges' first feature length movie, despite the fact that it isn't all that much longer than their series of shorts. It is the only lone of their feature films to star Curly Howard. Don't mistake Rockin' in the Rockies with an earlier Three Stooges short titled Rockin' Through the Rockies. In this movie, the Stooges travel to a Nevada ranch to supervise it temporarily, and are accompanied by two ladies who are singers wanting to make it big and get their chance at a Reno casino. So it's a Western musical comedy. (Thanks, WTM!)
The Brain That Wouldn't Die
This movie scared me something awful when I was a little kid. It was released in 1962. From Wikipedia:
The Brain That Wouldn't Die (also known as The Head That Wouldn't Die) is a 1962 American science fiction horror film directed by Joseph Green and written by Green and Rex Carlton.[1] The film was completed in 1959 under the working title The Black Door but was not theatrically released until May 3, 1962, when it was released under its renamed title on a double bill with Invasion of the Star Creatures.[2][3]
The main plot focuses upon a mad doctor who develops a means to keep human body parts alive. He keeps a woman's severed head alive for days, and keeps a lumbering, misshapened brute (one of his earlier failed experiments) imprisoned in a closet.
The Godawan
Godawan whisky is an ecologically sustainable whisky company in India that was named after the critically-endangered godawan, or great Indian bustard. The distillery has worked for 20 years to save the species. Godawan teamed up with Studio Eeksaurus to produce a video about the bird. The song that narrates the story is in the Rajasthani dialect, so you'll want to make sure the closed captions are on and in English.
For this animation, they used 5200 separate ceramic pieces, many custom-made, inspired by the blue pottery of Jaipur. A hundred people spent 15,000 hours creating the film. At about 4:40, we get a behind the scenes look at how the film was made. You can read more about the project in an interview with the director. (via Metafilter)
How To Build a Human Tower
People will turn any activity into a competition. For hundreds of years, the people of Catalonia have built human towers by climbing onto each other's shoulders in a stunt called castell. Of course they've developed competitions for the highest tower, held during festivals. These were for men only until the 1980s, but with the addition of women, the towers can now reach nine or ten levels high.
It's a matter of strength, agility, numbers, and physics. The strongest people are arranged at the bottom in a precisely-calculated formation to build a sturdy, stable base. The middle layers rely on balance or else the tower will fall. The top climbers are lightweight and fearless, often children. BBC Earth Science brings us this clip from the TV series Forces of Nature to show us how these human towers are built. Yes, sometimes they do collapse, although the participants are trained for it, and the bottom layer serves as a cushion for falling bodies. And they are all barefoot to reduce injury. Still, these competitions have ambulances standing by in case they are needed. (via Laughing Squid)
Miss Cellania's Links
Pittsburgh’s ‘Green Man’ was a real person – why the legend outlives the facts. The article includes a video about him. (via Strange Company)
An attempted robbery at a Dollar General will have you in stitches.
A Potato That Tastes Like Roast Chicken? Chefs Say This New Variety Delivers. (via kottke)
As our car sizes grow, new evidence points to pedestrian risk. (via Metafilter)
These jokes are so bad you have to laugh.
A Blast from the Past (2014): What a Blockbuster Movie Can Do to a Small Town.
It's a short list today- I spent last night following election returns.
A Cosplay Tribute to Stan Lee
Sneaky Zebra has brought us cosplay videos from conventions for years. This one is a compilation of marvelous Marvel character cosplayers, illustrating Stan Lee's philosophy of the Marvel universe. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Protagonist
I used to pretend my life was a TV show when I was a kid. I tried to make it more interesting, but eventually figured out no one would want to watch that show, anyway. This comic is from Zach Weinersmith at Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
Tuesday, November 03, 2026
A Historic Home Tour in the Future
Comedian Jake Lambert has gone to the far future, in which he is a tour guide for a typical home from 2026. We don't know if it was an archaeological discovery or a recreation, but it doesn't matter. Anyone who's been on a museum tour will notice he's got the patter down pat.
A Eulogy for Sir Patrick Stewart
Fans are reeling from the death of Sir Patrick Stewart last Wednesday at age 86. Stewart was classically-trained stage actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company who made a successful leap to science fiction by portraying Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek universe and Charles Xavier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Stewart could also be wickedly funny when he wanted to.
In 2015, when Stewart was 75, he appeared at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal. There he gave his own eulogy, highlighting his proudest accomplishments and most cherished memories. While the language is PG, the subject matter may be NSFW and probably not something you'd want to explain to your children. Godspeed Sir Patrick Stewart, you will be missed. (via Metafilter)
PS: If you prefer a more poignant tribute, grab a hankie and watch this.
Movement
Ballet dancer Sergei Polunin stars in the music video for "Movement" by Hozier. He confronts himself, but cannot escape himself. Andrew Hozier-Byrne said Polunin's performance to his song "Take Me To Church" a couple of years ago inspired some ideas in this song. (via Metafilter)
Detective Pikachu
There's a reason movies are not realistic. We already have real life. This comic is from Dami Lee at As Per Usual.
Monday, November 02, 2026
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)