Maura Claire Walz

newyorker:

Night Shift with “The Clock”

When your brain is really feeling fried, dream sequences take over. Kevin Spacey gazes up at the ceiling, where Mena Suvari is floating amid rose petals. Shortly after two-thirty, the Salvador Dalí nightmare from “Spellbound” is cleverly paired with another Hitchcock clip: Jimmy Stewart, who rouses himself after dozing in front of his rear window. The funniest take on sleeplessness belongs to Buñuel. To great effect, Marclay spreads out a sequence from “Phantom of Liberty”: just after one, the husband, struggling with insomnia, sees a cockerel walk into his bedroom. Three hours later, a giant emu waltzes in.

Watching “The Clock” at these obscure hours might also turn you into a feminist film critic. In the movies, men have plenty of adventures in the dead of night: Jason Statham goes on a stakeout, Steve McQueen prowls through tunnels, the gang from “Rififi” pulls off its heist, and the gang from “Scarface” stays up laundering money. But Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, and Sharon Stone have little to do but toss in their sheets.

- Daniel Zalewski on experiencing all twenty-four hours of Christian Marclay’s “The Clock” - the perpetually churning video collage, in which thousands of movie clips have been arranged so that they correspond with the actual time of day.

Read More: Zalewski profiled Christian Marclay in a recent issue of the magazine.

“By presenting a day in the life as a ceaseless parade of fictional narratives, he had confirmed Joan Didion’s dictum that “we tell ourselves stories in order to live” while reminding us that we are all going to die.”

inothernews:

The World of 1950, as Envisioned in 1925.

(via The Guardian)

I love that the schools are between the living quarters and the offices. 

(via npr)

newsweek:

Tweets from kids trying to use Wikipedia for their homework—and failing. SOPA! 

[h/t gangster curator Katie Notopoulos]

I hope social studies teachers everywhere are using this as a teachable moment…

these are all excellent.

nprfreshair:

PRX picks the best youth-made radio of 2011.

newyorker:

Happy Halloween!

“There’s a lot of perspective in this scene, and all of the gobbledy gook: the Oriental rug, grand painting, grand furniture, and grand everything all around. And in the center is a bull’s eye—that little kid standing there, looking at you. He’s just knocked on the door and he’s going to scare the hell out of somebody.” 

- This week’s cover artist, George Booth, chooses eight of his favorite New Yorker Halloween covers: http://ow.ly/7ds5E

wnycradiolab:

Sometimes Pro Tools gets confused, and Jad’s fades start to look like faces…

“Michelle Obama and her children are in town, according to Madame Mere, but it’s a state secret, so only Madame Mere and all Paris know.” — le Carre

newsweek:

An infographic of every book President Obama has read since the last campaign. (Click here to see it in full size.)

npr:

Eudora Welty believed that a novelist had a responsibility to bring alive both the mystery of humankind and the darkness. That’s exactly what she does in this story: As you read the closing line, you know she has captured life in Mississippi as it existed then, as well as the prevailing cultural mindset. The Help does the same thing, but with few hints of darkness. Whether or not you liked The Help’s optimistic tone, read “Where Is the Voice Coming From?” to fill in a piece of the story that’s missing from the minute the credits begin to roll.

Eudora Welty’s Jackson: ‘The Help’ In Context