Link Dump

Usually I feel bad about doing these so often, but I haven’t done one for almost two months and I don’t have much time tonight, so here are some links to interesting stuff:

  • The Mummy Meets Human Resources – Sometimes I just can’t fit a horror short into the 6 Weeks of Halloween, so here you go. This one’s really funny though.
  • Star Wars Talk to Your Kids PSA – This is an old one, but it’s damn funny and will hit home for anyone who has played a part in introducing someone young to Star Wars. In my mind, there’s no question. Start with the original trilogy and hold off on the prequels as long as possible. Then again, my nieces seem to love the prequels. Even Jar Jar! Gahh! It makes me think that 30 years from now, my niece will be bemoaning that her kids like the Star Wars sequels from the 2020s. Or something.
  • Tiny Legs of Fire – Uh, yeah, I don’t know how to describe this. A bizarre compilation of weird clips. Well worth watching though.
  • timeu.se: What Do People Do All Day? – An interesting data visualization that aggregates data from twitter, plotting various keywords against the time they are mentioned most on twitter. Perhaps not the most rigorous of data sets, but a fun tool to play around with.
  • Floppy Music – Imperial march – Man, some people go to extraordinary lengths to make Star Wars references. Still, I was impressed at how well these guys were able to imitate the Imperial March theme with floppy drives…
  • Innovation Starvation – I think I’m contractually obligated to post about any new Neal Stephenson writing, so here you go. It’s an interesting article, and it speaks to something that kinda hits home for me. One of the reasons I took up beer brewing as a hobby was that most of my creative endeavors ended up being accomplished in the digital world. Sometimes, though, it’s good to actually get hands on with stuff and make things out here in meatspace.
  • Hobo Signs – It turns out that homeless people have an absurdly detailed symbolic language for marking territory. Things range from warnings (“A crime has been committed here. Not a safe place for strangers”) to advice (“A doctor lives here. He won’t charge for his services”) to, well, maybe bad advice (“There is alcohol in this town”). Interesting stuff.
  • Interview with Hank Azaria – A surprisingly interesting interview. I particularly enjoyed his story about working with Pacino in Heat:

    I don’t know if you remember, but I say something like, “I don’t know why I got mixed up with this stupid broad,” and he says [Does a loud, spot-on Pacino impression.] “‘Cause she’s got a great ass!” He just screams it. And that was the line, but Al kind of yelled it for the first time, and he did it so completely out of nowhere that it scared me. So much so that I just went, “Jesus!” Not in character, just as Hank. I got frightened, and I went, “Jesus!” And then Al improvised [As Pacino.] “I’m sorry. Something happens to me when I think about a woman’s ass.” Or whatever it is that he said. And that actually made it into the movie! Michael Mann told me not to improvise, and the one line that I said that wasn’t scripted made it in there because… I don’t know, I guess because it was a good moment. Because I was scared of Al. [Laughs.]

Well, I think that’s all I got for now…