Film

Some lightly edited “best of” bits from recent tweets.  I’ve sorted these items into categories with a special bonus at the very end.  For more along these lines, just follow @TheOccasional.

Ideas, Culture, & Society

• Has the complexity of information and the need for hyperspecialization brought us to the end of polymathy? [via @Yousefzadeh] If so, I can’t think of many “experts” that inspire much confidence these days (e.g., economists).  I hope and believe that generalists are still needed to ask “stupid” questions that can upend the settled conventions of specialists.
• The Internet and social media can bolster democratic movements and help dictatorships smother dissent. [via @openculture]
• So, what’s the difference between Something 2.0 and an unSomething?  A look at the latest in tedious jargon. [via @siibo]
• The surprising ways metaphors shape your view of the world. [via @ GirlsSentAway]
• Jim Leach, the new Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities profiled in the Washington Post.
• Annals of Despair: 35% of American voters are either “Birthers” or 9/11 “Truthers.” 2% are BOTH. [via @morganfahey]

Media & Digital Culture

• 500 billion hours of video online in five years, playable anywhere on 12 billion devices. Is this the future of TV/video/film? If so, we will need critics, filters, and trusted connoisseurs more than ever.
• In one week, all the national NPR shows covered these books and authors.  It is an impressive list, but one smart, energetic podcaster (working mostly alone) competes respectably. There are many, many book-related podcasts, but they remain obscure to many.  Is there a way to make podcasts more “discoverable” for your average Joe Browser?
• Derek Jacobi introduces the sublime delights of English language poetry across the ages in digital audio. [via @NaxosAudiobooks]
• Perfect insomnia cure: “Permanent Bedtime” — recordings of the BBC Radio weather forecast for shipping [via @ettagirl]

Books

• A very important and interesting essay on the role of publishing houses and branding in the new information environment.  Lots of food for thought.
• Mark Twain’s Book of Animals: at least as much humor and insight as you’d expect.
• The “case” for books. The importance and value of keeping books [via @ettagirl]
• What first-time authors go through to promote their books (now that publishers don’t do much). [via @jagbhalla & @roncharles]

Art

• Pakistani contemporary artists on display at NY’s Asia Society http://bit.ly/pKx8x
• “Jack the Dripper” was secretly purposeful? The hidden structure to Jackson Pollack’s painting [via @kottke]
• Renowned Fisher art collection of more than 1000 modern works going to SFMOMA: [via @marissamayer]
• How an art historian is helping New York City police officers to “see.”  A wonderful program. [via @SmithsonianMag]

Architecture

• Chilling blueprints of Auschwitz.  A reminder of how the Holocaust was carefully calculated and meticulously planned. [via @BBCHistoryMag]
• Preserving modernist architecture has proven to be a big challenge as work from the 1960′s goes under the microscope [via @culturemonster]

Film

• Hooray for Nollywood! Pieter Hugo’s photos of Nigeria’s booming film industry [via @PD_Smith & @cmonstah]
• A lovely silent film gem from 1896: the Serpentine Dance [via @ettagirl]
• Director Jane Campion interviewed about Bright Star, her new Keats biopic. [via @thebookslut]
• The growing creative and economic influence of the Toronto Film Festival. [via @Richard_Florida]

Science & Nature

• Fearful writer explains why we musn’t trifle with the Giant Squid!
• Magnificent giant redwood trees in National Geographic.

Music

• The old, weird America: a blog exploring the folk and traditional music genres recorded by Harry Smith. [via @walterolson]
• Scott Timberg celebrates Glenn Gould as an artist responsible for, among other things, “the best hangover medicine I know.”
• First, someone rediscovered Iranian funk, and now (as @EliLake: reports) there is Thai funk music: “Like the cuisine, it’s hot.”
• The Baltimore Symphony’s recording of Bernstein’s Mass is STILL on the classical charts after a month. Congrats to @BaltSymphony. [via @naxosrecords]
• David Byrne: an appreciation and retrospective.

History

• A long and compelling article on how the Kennedy family commissioned then blocked William Manchester‘s classic narrative Death of a President. [via @CapitolClio]
  
• Additional awe-inspiring info on the “Staffordshire Hoard.”

And, finally…

• Separated at birth? Or is newspaper magnate and Tribune Company owner Sam Zell moonlighting as a model?  It would appear so from this screengrab of a Network Solutions ad: http://twitpic.com/itmm6.

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