Starlings: God's Screensaver

Starlings are one of many species which exhibit swarm behavior.  In swarming species, emergent behaviors arise from relatively simple rules, like each starling adjusting to the average position and speed of the handful of birds around it.

The Adventures of a Cardboard Box

The Adventures of a Cardboard Box from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

Today, find joy in something simple.

Rise of the Retronauts

Salon recently published an article titled Will Nostalgia Destroy Pop Culture?  It's interesting reading, but a brief summary might go something like this:  For reasons not entirely clear, the current generation of young people is increasingly obsessed with rehashing and repurposing retro culture—a trend which threatens our capacity for innovation.

At first glance this article (which promotes author Simon Reynolds's new book Retromania) is the same "we've reached the end of history" story we've all heard many times before.  In fact, there are some excellent arguments being made which support the idea that almost nothing is original.  But it seems like Reynolds may have a point.  Since reading this article a week ago I can't help but see retro everywhere I go (see gallery below).

There is another startling aspect to pop culture's current obsession with the past as well.  Never before in human history have science and technology progressed so rapidly.  Technologically, we are living in a golden age of innovation with no end in sight.  So why are we living in the past?

Reynolds offers one possible reason which makes a lot of sense to me:

The past has taken the place of the future in people's imagination. That might have something to do with politics as well ... No one can quite picture a future that seems positive or exciting. At one time the future seemed to suggest grand projects. Now the space shuttle program has been shut down. If I look at what young people are watching on TV and at the movies, when they're looking for heroism and romance, they're watching quasi-historical fantasies, it's not future fantasies. It's "Game of Thrones," "Harry Potter," and that kind of thing, as opposed to going to outer space or the year 3000.

Speaking as a young adult struggling to enter the professional world in the Great Recession, I can report that it is much more comfortable reminiscing about an idyllic past than wondering where my next first paycheck is coming from.  It is no marketing accident that Nickelodeon is promoting its heavily publicized 90s throwback programming block ("The 90s Are All That") with the slogan "Remember When Life Didn't Suck?"

Reynolds also points to the 1960s—the cultural yardstick we've been using to gauge progress for the last fifty years—to illustrate all the momentum we've lost:

In terms of how it was covered and how it was felt at the time, the '60s was just a long period where there was a sense of hurtling forward. It was happening on multiple fronts simultaneously -- the beginning of feminism, civil rights, the space race, the Beatles and all that. In the early-to-mid-'60s, there was a lot of very modernistic space age-looking fashion. On every cultural front, people were breaking down barriers. In pop music, it's the decade the other decades have all defined themselves against. Punk was the inversion of the '60s in a lot of ways, but it still kept a little of that idealism and the belief in change. The '80s were defined in a lot of ways as a repudiation of '60s ideas, and '90s rave culture was a return to drugginess and all that.

And as turbulent as that decade surely was, maybe there was an optimism then that we lack now.

Reynolds also suggests that our stagnation (too strong a word?) may have something to do with the very same technological innovation which is juxtaposing our backwards looking culture:

It was gradual, but with the arrival of the Internet, and broadband access, and the rise of this kind of strange collective archiving thing, [looking backward] became irresistible. Now people put stuff on YouTube because it feels like they're doing something worthwhile and this enormous archive has developed ... Now all the records in the known universe are basically accessible at the click of a mouse ... I remember living in a culture of cultural scarcity.

Perhaps our collective pessimism combined with our unprecedented access to all things passed is too tempting for today's youth—why live in the depressing present when it's so easy to re-experience the twee trends of yesterday?

I'll admit that there is an abundance of nostalgia nowadays.  I consider myself as guilty of perpetuating retro culture as anyone—recent blog posts have covered snacks of the 90s, Jim Henson, Mad Men, and I Love Lucy, not to mention my weekly-ish series of classic cartoons.  But I'm not sure I buy Simon Reynolds's conclusion, that our fascination with the past is going to corrupt our future.  Some might argue that never before has a generation of people been so aware of their roots.  And isn't that something to be proud of?

The Atlantic responded to all the retromania with The '90s Are All That' and the Ever-Accelerating Nostalgia Machine, a sound rebuttal to cautionary voices like Reynolds, arguing that the latest wave of affection for the near past is nothing new.

What are your thoughts?  Are we too obsessed with the past?  Too afraid of the future?  Or are we just as creative (and nostalgic) as we have always been?

For more, you can check out my visual diary of retro culture after the jump.

"Jerry, Jerry, Quite Contrary" [SMC]

This one seems appropriate, since my new favorite pastime is bothering the kitten while he sleeps.

Jerk Chicken with Pineapple Salsa and Sweet Coconut Rice

Kelsey and I made a delicious dinner tonight—Jerk Chicken with Pineapple Salsa and Sweet Coconut Rice.

Photos by Kelsey (with Instagram)

Action shot—grilling the chicken.

Salsa—so colorful! And a great combination of sweet 

(pineapple, bell pepper), tangy (scallions), 

and spicy (jalapenos).

Delicious!

I really do love my big cookbooks, but more and more frequently I find recipes on allrecipes.com, which is a great community of online foodies.  I can browse recipes that are well rated and reviewed by other users, and before I make anything I read the comments, where others have offered suggestions and modifications which often improve the final product.

For the rice recipe, one user suggested subbing coconut milk for some of the water—a small adjustment which completely made this whole meal pop!  (The coconut creaminess of the rice balanced the spiciness of the salsa and chicken wonderfully.)

T-plus 20 minutes or so...

Great food, with great company.

---

Jerk Chicken Recipe

• chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
• Jamaican Jerk Chicken marinade

Marinade chicken overnight.  Grill, brushing on extra marinade sauce.  (I like to use my cast iron skillet in lieu of a proper outdoor grill)

Sweet Coconut Rice Recipe (adapted from allrecipes.com)

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 1 red apple, chopped
• 1 pinch curry powder
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 2/3 cup brown rice
• 1 tsp molasses

Heat oil in saucepan.  Add onion and apple, cook until onion is translucent, stirring frequently.  Stir in curry powder, water, and coconut milk.  Add rice and molasses.  Cover, reduce heat to low.  Simmer for approx. 45 minutes, until liquid is absorbed and rice is soft (may need to add up to 1/4 cup water).

Pineapple Salsa Recipe (adapted from allrecipes.com)

• 2 cups chopped pineapple (fresh or canned)
• 1 chopped red bell pepper
• 1 small jalapeno, chopped
• 2 scallions, chopped
• 1 to 2 tbsp minced cilantro
• 1 tbsp brown sugar

Combine ingredients in bowl.  Serve with chicken.

The Shining = House of Leaves

Mental Floss posted a great series of videos exploring the spatial impossibilities that riddle the film sets for The Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick's classic horror movie The Shining.  While watching, I couldn't help but think about Mark Danielewski's horror novel House of Leaves, which chronicles a family's life inside of a house that is larger on the inside than on the outside.

While the disorienting effect is much more subtle in The Shining, the device used by Kubrick and Danielewski is the same.  I wonder what it is about these spatial violations that is so unsettling.

Upon closer comparison I also notice that these impossible buildings aren't the only plot devices shared by The Shining and House of Leaves.  Other elements the two stories have in common are:

• mazes
• an isolated nuclear family 
• nonsensical manifestos
• a protagonist who slowly but inevitably descends into madness.

It seems that Kubrick and Danielewski were plumbing the same depths, so to speak.

Part 1

Part 2

I highly recommend both the movie and book.  I can't comment on Stephen King's original novel, never having read it, but I'm sure it's very enjoyable if you're into that sort of thing (personally I can't seem to get into King's stuff—too dark even for me).

As a bonus, here is the climactic river-of-blood scene from The Shining.  I've only seen this movie once, and it definitely got under my skin, but this 30 seconds of film is forever burned into my memory for reasons I don't completely understand.

Of course I don't want to leave you with that in your brain, so here's the cleverly edited trailer for Shining, which made its way around the internets a while back, and proves that Peter Gabriel can suck the scary out of anything.

---

(Untitled Fragment)

Little solace comes
to those who grieve
when thoughts keep drifting
as walls keep shifting
and this great blue world of ours
seems a house of leaves 

moments before the wind.

Lucy at 100

Today is Lucille Ball's 100th birthday!

"Twenty-three percent alcohol?!"

I believe she is and will always be one of the funniest people on television (although I may be biased—I Love Lucy is one of my absolute favorite shows).  This clip from one of my favorite episodes made me laugh when I was a kid as it makes me laugh now.  And that is the magic of Lucille Ball—her timelessness.  Can we honestly point to any contemporary TV personality today who will charm audiences in 50 years?

Not only was Lucille Ball a comic genius, but she was a pioneer for the entertainment industry—she was the first woman to run a major television studio (Desilu, founded by her and Desi Arnaz), she and Arnaz developed the three-camera filming style which would become a staple of sitcom production for decades, and she was among the first people to successfully fight the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Lucille Ball has also been featured on the cover of TV Guide more than any other person.

The Museum of Broadcast Communications has a great bio on the life and legacy of Ball:

Her comedic skills were grounded in the style of the silent comics, and Buster Keaton, with whom she once shared an office at MGM, seems to have been particularly influential in the development of Lucy's daring exploits, hang-dog expressions, and direct looks at the audience ... So distinct were her rubbery facial expressions, that scriptwriters for I Love Lucy referred to them with specific code word notations. For example, the cue "puddling up" directed the star to pause momentarily with huge tear-filled eyes and then burst into a loud wail. "Light bulb" was an indication to portray a sudden idea, while "credentials" directed the star to gape in astonished indignation.

Life magazine also released a gallery of unpublished photos of the star, many from her modeling career before she established herself as the undisputed "first woman of television."

Happy birthday, Lucy!

Happy Birthday, Mr. President

To celebrate his 50th birthday, here is a picture of your President taking a bike ride in his dad jeans.

Sweet.

What's in a slogan?

The Atlantic recently ran an interesting feature about the science and history of advertising slogans. In addition to their gallery of timeless (and not so timeless) corporate mottos, the feature includes a brief article that illustrates the challenge and reward of crafting the perfect slogan.

Ideally a [brand] positioning taps into our underlying human motivations. The desire to be a good parent. The need to demonstrate status. The urge to have a good time. This is harder than it seems. Let's say you're Johnnie Walker whisky. Do you stand for casual hedonism? Well, you make rare, expensive liquor. So do you stand for luxury? Well, bar tenders serve you at dives. It took two years and extensive market research to identify the positioning of history, optimism, and personal progress captured by the slogan "Keep on Walking."

(And without a slogan that, you couldn't get an ad like this.)

Consumerism is a value that is highly regarded in the American majority culture—our lives are so saturated with slogans that it's easy to forget how deeply certain advertising is woven into the fabric of our collective experience. I think it's safe to say that the most enduring slogans say as much about us as a culture as they do about the products they promote: Just do it. Have it your way. The Breakfast of Champions. 

For more, read The Science of Slogans: The Best and Worst Ad Campaigns of All Time.