By Neale Van Fleet on October 6th, 2023
This is a lighthearted buddy movie about best friends. It’s also a movie about surviving the apocalypse and what it’s like coming to grips with being one of the last humans on earth. This movie starring Sterling K. Brown and Mark Duplass was a complete delightful surprise that straddles some difficult topics and goes unexpected places.
One of the best movies I’ve seen in the past month or two. I don’t want to write any more about it, as the less you know about the plot the better. Don’t read a plot synopsis. Just watch.
By Neale Van Fleet on October 5th, 2023
By Neale Van Fleet on October 4th, 2023
By Neale Van Fleet on October 4th, 2023
Photo
Via, but in all honesty good photos were hard to find, and credits are iffy.
Snelson’s sculptures feel like they should almost not stand up, but work via an intriguing mix of tension and compression (Which Buckminster Fuller would later term ‘Tensegrity’).
Take, for example, this beautiful 60 foot piece, ‘The Needle Tower’, from 1968:
By Neale Van Fleet on October 3rd, 2023
Which came first—the parking spot or the pole? Either way, this seems like someone messed up.
By Neale Van Fleet on September 29th, 2023
The Pudding has an insightful little visual essay about the ongoing epidemic of loneliness. Socialization was understandably hit hard by the pandemic, but we still haven’t recovered to our previous levels. Lack of socialization can lead to a downward spiral, explained here:
in a cruel twist, loneliness makes us feel more threatened by social interactions – the very thing we need. So we crawl deeper into isolation, creating a cycle of loneliness. Former US surgeon general Vivek Murthy writes: “Over time, this vicious cycle may convince us we don’t matter to anyone and that we’re unworthy of love.”
View the article →
Thanks, Lee!
By Neale Van Fleet on September 23rd, 2023
The other day someone asked me if my 10 year-old son enjoyed the fact that his school has a no-homework policy. My answer was ‘no, he doesn’t appreciate it. He’s never had it any other way’. I’m far from believing that the next generation isn’t grateful, but this is honestly the way things should be. My son is less stressed and has a lot more time to spend with his parents and friends, while still being a good student and getting a lot out of school.
Anne Thériault writes for the Walrus:
Kralovec tells me that there is no benefit to homework for elementary school students at all. A meta-analysis published in 2006 by Harris M. Cooper, distinguished professor emeritus at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, looked at all of the homework research that had been done in the United States between 1987 and 2003 and found that homework had “no association with achievement gain” in students from kindergarten through grade five.
Read the whole Article →
By Neale Van Fleet on September 22nd, 2023
Photo by Amir Hamja
This stunning new sculpture at Storm King uses traditional African brick-laying techniques:
It uses a technique known as Nubian vaulting, developed thousands of years ago in the Upper Nile delta. Mudbricks can be laid at an angle rather than in the typical flat orientation, and the technique requires a fast-setting mortar.
The beautiful structure reminds me of an igloo, which obliges me to link to Doug Wilkinson’s unbelievable 1949 NFB film How to Build an Igloo.
Read More about Lookout →
By Neale Van Fleet on September 21st, 2023
Street art by unknown artist.
By Neale Van Fleet on September 18th, 2023
Title says it all.