Chapter 6 of the World Wide Web

This week is late, and not very long. The reason it's late and not very long is because I became a mother on Thursday. The little gentleman was four days early, so was a bit of a surprise. Seeing as I had been pressuring him for weeks to arrive on the 10th (you know, for 10/12/14), it hardly seems fair to blame him. Anyway. Here is the internet, last week, now. 

I'm afraid we're going to look at space again. I know I go on about space, but just...just...OK? Here is a cinematic tribute to that big old...space out there. Odd that Contact isn't in there. Thought that was very beautiful, and man! Talk about a twist. 

Music: Hans Zimmer - Mountains (Interstellar Soundtrack) Lyrics: «Do not go gentle into that good night» by Dylan Thomas Voice: Anthony Hopkins FILMS: «2001: A Space Odyssey» (1968, dir. Stanley Kubrick) «Alien» (1979, dir. Ridley Scott) «Aliens» (1986, dir. James Cameron) «Armageddon» (1998, dir. Michael Bay) «Avatar» (2009, dir. James Cameron) «Battleship» (2012, dir. Peter Berg) «Cargo» (2009, dir. Ivan Engler, Ralph Etter) «Elysium» (2013, dir. Neill Blomkamp) «Europa Report» (2013, dir. Sebastián Cordero) «Event Horizon» (1997, dir. Paul Anderson) «Gravity» (2013, dir. Alfonso Cuarón) «Guardians of the Galaxy» (2014, dir. James Gunn) «Interstellar » (2014, dir. Christopher Nolan) «Lockout» (2012, dir. James Mather, Stephen St. Leger) «Lost in Space» (1998, dir. Stephen Hopkins) «Man of Steel» (2013, dir. Zack Snyder) «Mission to Mars» (2000, dir. Brian De Palma) «Moon» (2009, dir. Duncan Jones) «Oblivion» (2013, dir. Joseph Kosinski) «Pandorum» (2009, dir. Christian Alvart) «Prometheus» (2012, dir. Ridley Scott) «Solaris» (1972, dir. Andrey Tarkovskiy) «Solaris» (2002, dir. Steven Soderbergh) «Star Trek» (2009, dir. J.J. Abrams) «Star Trek: Into Darkness» (2013, dir. J.J. Abrams) «Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope» (1977, dir. George Lucas) «Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi» (1983, dir.Richard Marquand) «Starship Troopers» (1997, dir. Paul Verhoeven) «Sunshine» (2007, dir. Danny Boyle) «The Fountain» (2006, dir. Darren Aronofsky) «The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy» (2005, dir. Garth Jennings) «The Last Days on Mars» (2013, dir. Ruairi Robinson) «The Signal» (2014, dir. William Eubank) «Thor: The Dark World» (2013, dir. Alan Taylor) «Transformers: Dark of the Moon» (2011, dir. Michael Bay)

I love this flashback to my youth, in the shape of a cassette tape achieve called Tapedeck. "apedeck.org is a project of neckcns.com, built to showcase the amazing beauty and (sometimes) weirdness found in the designs of the common audio tape cassette."

This is from 2012, but so what if it's old?! 

London's Crossrail project is churning out some stunning images. What I'd give to get into one of those tunnels. 

Mad Max is looking really good. I'm actually looking forward to this. 

The world goes mad Summer 2015. https://www.facebook.com/MadMaxMovie From director George Miller, originator of the post-apocalyptic genre and mastermind behind the legendary "Mad Max" franchise, comes "Mad Max: Fury Road," a return to the world of the Road Warrior, Max Rockatansky. Haunted by his turbulent past, Mad Max believes the best way to survive is to wander alone.

Well that's it for this week as I think I have a good excuse so there. 

Ze Internet. Chapter 5

This week went incredibly quickly and nothing really amazing happened. To me, at least. All kinds of crap happened out there in the world. Don't get me started on America and their trigger happy cops. Our baby hasn't appeared yet, which is, quite understandably I think, all that I'm waiting for right now, so while I wait, you can look at this week's selection of crap from the internet. Lots of videos this week for some reason. Watch them. Do it. 

Let's revisit space to start with. Face it; you can never have enough. This is extremely beautiful, and quite thought provoking. 

For more information and stills gallery, please turn to: www.erikwernquist.com/wanderers (Just in case my website runs slow, here is a link to an imgur album version of the gallery: http://imgur.com/a/Ur5dP) ----- UPDATE: I don't know what to say, except thank you! And thank you again! For this fantastic and absolutely overwhelming response to this little film. Please excuse me for not being able to reply to you all in person, but I assure you that I read every word you write, and what you say warms my heart. Making this film has been a work of passion, and it is such an invaluable reward to see that it is received with the same kind love, energy and optimism that was put into it. I know I speak for Caj, Cristian, Mikael, Hanna and everyone involved. This flood of optimism and appreciation right here will forever be a reminder to me, that the world is full of people who share hopes and dreams of a grand future for humanity - be it on this world or on others. Also; I have promised to make the video downloadable, and that will happen shortly. I just need to make a few updates to the end credits before I do that. So, please hang on. ----- Wanderers is a vision of humanity's expansion into the Solar System, based on scientific ideas and concepts of what our future in space might look like, if it ever happens. The locations depicted in the film are digital recreations of actual places in the Solar System, built from real photos and map data where available. Without any apparent story, other than what you may fill in by yourself, the idea of the film is primarily to show a glimpse of the fantastic and beautiful nature that surrounds us on our neighboring worlds - and above all, how it might appear to us if we were there. CREDITS: VISUALS - Erik Wernquist - erik@erikwernquist.com MUSIC - Cristian Sandquist - cristiansandquist@mac.com WORDS AND VOICE - Carl Sagan COLOR GRADE - Caj Müller/Beckholmen Film - caj@beckholmenfilm.se LIVE ACTION PHOTOGRAPHY - Mikael Hall/Vidiotism - mikael@vidiotism.com LIVE ACTION PERFORMANCE - Anna Nerman, Camilla Hammarström, Hanna Mellin VOCALIST - Nina Fylkegård - nina@ladystardust.se THANK YOU - Johan Persson, Calle Herdenberg, Micke Lindgren, Satrio J. Studt, Tomas Axelsson, Christian Lundqvist, Micke Lindell, Sigfrid Söderberg, Fredrik Strage, Johan Antoni, Henrik Johansson, Michael Uvnäs, Hanna Mellin THIS FILM WAS MADE WITH USE OF PHOTOS AND TEXTURES FROM: NASA/JPL, NASA/CICLOPS, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, ESA, John Van Vliet, Björn Jonsson (and many others, of which I unfortunately do not know the names)

Here's some more space. Well, typography and space. It's a great post about typography in Alien, a movie with a tagline so perfectly terrifying that it still gives me the shivers, 28 years after I first read it. 

Now let's look at brains! How strange to see one like this instead of the usual grey, solidified lump we get to see. I must admit I was shocked to see it so...gloopy. 

In this teaching video, Suzanne Stensaas, Ph.D., Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah School of Medicine, demonstrates the properties and anatomy of an unfixed brain. WARNING: The video contains graphic images, a human brain from a recent autopsy. Background noise is unrelated to this brain or the deceased.

Where there's brains, there's zombies. This is an excellent zombie short from 2013.

Stranded in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, a man sets in motion an unlikely plan to protect his precious daughter.

And back to space. This is a nice cartoon of 'The most astounding fact', originally spoken by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Almost better hearing him say it. 

Here is what London would look like if we turned off all the lights. I find this so captivating. I long to spend time where there is zero light pollution. The closest I came was this summer, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We were listening to one of the park rangers give a short lecture about the canyon, when I just happened to look up and there, in all its wonderful glory, was the Milky Way. I didn't have my camera with me, and wasn't sure how I'd go about taking a photo even if I did (pretty sure there's more to it than wide angle lens and long exposure. Or is there?), so instead I just sat open mouthed, gazing upwards at the night sky. It was magical. 

In a metropolis like London light pollution makes the night sky invisible. Only a few of the brightest stars and asterisms force their celestial light through the man made glow of the city. The night sky, one of the most beautiful of natural wonders is extinguished from view. Blackout City is an experimental timelapse film that makes the invisible, visible. It attempts to show what the night sky would look like If there were ever to be a total blackout in the South East of England on a clear, moonless, summers night. I started shooting this project back in August 2013 and have been slowly gathering footage when conditions were right. Although each shot in this film is a composite, all footage is real. The city shots were captured during the day and processed to look like night and the night sky shots were captured from dark locations around the South of England to ensure that the stars are astronomically correct for the latitude of London. I have also processed the astro shots to be more sympathetic to what the naked eye would see in terms of saturation and detail. The internet is saturated with well-processed images of the Milky Way that show phenomenal colour that are the result of fantastic low light DSLR technology. Don’t get me wrong I love these images, I am one of the people who endeavours to create them! But in reality the Milky Way does not look like this; so in order to make this film more believable I have chosen to process the shots this way. I first got the idea for the film when I read an article about a blackout in LA in 1994 where people called 911 reporting these strange clouds floating in the sky, those clouds where in fact the Milky Way. It made me think about how the lights from cities have made many of us lose our connection to the night sky. We live in a fast paced man-made world whereby it is all too easy for us to become disconnected from the natural world around us, isolated from what is actually real. There are many other aspects of the human condition that this film could touch upon which could make its’ intentions appear somewhat complicated, but is essence the film's agenda could not be more simple; to inspire people to get away from the city lights, go somewhere quiet on a star-filled night and simply look up. This project is purely non-profit but I would love the opportunity take the Blackout City idea to different metropolises across the globe as each city with it's specific latitude will reveal a different sky. If anyone thinks they can help to make this happen please connect with me through the links below: To see more of my work please visit: www.nicholasbuer.com For direct enquires please mail me at: contact@nicholasbuer.com You can connect/follow me on all the usual social media sites: facebook.com/nicholasbuerphotography instagram.com/nicholasbuer twitter.com/nicholasbuer 500px.com/nicholasbuer Main track is by The American Dollar ‘As We Float’ (Ambient) Licensed at: www.theamericandollar.info/licensing For motion control I used the Stage One Dolly System by Dynamic Perception www.dynamicperception.com © Nicholas Buer 2014

OK, final space related thing this week, that new Star Wars trailer.

Wes Anderson PRESENTS JJ Abrams PRESENTS Star Wars: The Force Awakens video by: jonah feingold check out some of my shorts: http://www.jonahfeingold.com twitter: https://twitter.com/jonahfoundgold song: Françoise Hardy - Le Temps de l'Amour thanks: jeremy mittleman may the force be with you

And now for something completely different. 

Made by Matthijs Vlot. www.mattatjeoorlog.nl As seen at VPRO www.cinema.nl youtube version: youtu.be/MfIWsXZRaIs www.facebook.com/ant1mat3rie www.twitter.com/yomattie

Have a good weekend. 

Internet. Chapter 4

This week I rant about Jurassic World (which was almost about human-dinosaurs hybrids soldiers). That's at the end so you don't have to sit through it, but you should read it anyway and agree with me, because I'm sure you'll agree. 

Let's start with something really depressing. Here's some dude from One Direction 'meeting' his fans. I've only ever asked one famous person for their autograph (Tracey Ullman. She told me I'd made her day). 

Do you agree with these 80 moments that shaped the world? I think I do. 

Women can't play football.

Centipedes and millipedes. Never liked either of them, and now I really don't like millipedes.  

The Snowman is sacred to me. I watch it each and every year without fail, and usually cry too, because I'm a big baby. This should make me furious, but it doesn't. 

Christmas mash by Si Bennett - Magical vocals by Si Haward and Robert Katz as the boy!

Well, I mean, why not. 

BUY MEATSPACE HERE: http://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/fiction-poetry/meatspace,nikesh-shukla-9780007565061 First, we landed a probe on a comet. Now we've sent a lamb chop into space. And the results were so beautiful you'll never look at your dinner in the same way.

Lovely, lovely, lovely art deco ads for Rolls Royce. 

They say this is by a man called Simon Beck, but I'm sure it's aliens. Just like crop circles. Apparently Simon walks 20 - 30 km a day to create these patterns. They're very nice. 

That now very famous note from LEGO (which is real).

OK, here's my rant. 

The trailer for Jurassic World came out this week. Now, you might recall me saying that I went to see Jurassic Park eight times in the cinema. This is true, but not entirely my fault. It came out during the summer holidays, and I just so happened to be going through a popular phase when lots of people came to visit me at my parents house in the countryside. All my friends lived in London, so I'd basically grab any chance for a visit. My social life was....limited. Anyway, every time some came to visit they'd ask if we could see Jurassic Park, and I, because I was so nice, said 'but of course'.

It was never boring. Not once did I get tired of seeing it, and I am perfectly happy to watch it today. In fact, I am willing to watch it and might watch it again soon, come to think of it... It is an excellent film. The effects are spectacular, the shocks and scares real enough to make adults clench their buttocks (but not too scary for children), and the lack of gore - something hard to do in films that want to shock today - isn't noticeable until you notice it and then it's quite surprising for a film which features a fair few people getting eaten. The dialogue might not win any Oscars, but it works. The actors work, the roles work, the chemistry works, and it's a great split between content for adults and content for kids. There are many stand out moments - the water on the dashboard, the whole kids trapped in the car scene (constricting iris to glass roof - Christ the whole thing is brilliant, not to mention seriously bum clenching), the 'clever girl' moment, the entire raptors in kitchen scene, basically any scene with Jeff Goldblum, but especially the chaos theory one, the first time we/they see a dinosaur, and of course, the moment the T-rex kills the raptors, and a banner reading 'When dinosaurs ruled the earth' floats down. I actually wanted to clap when I saw that, and I'm not a cinema clapper. 

I'm pretty sure there are more great scenes, but let's face it - you might as well just watch the film. I absolutely loved the fact that the park's shop featured Jurassic Park merchandise that of course you could later buy in real shops in the real world. Life imitating art...or...something even more profound. In short, I love this film. I've actually never really thought about it so much, but there you go. 

So you can imagine my disappointment when I saw the Jurassic World trailer. There seems to be far too many rip offs from the original, and as much as I love Chris Pratt, he just doesn't quite come across....right in this trailer. Obviously, what annoyed me the most is the fact that the big bad is a genetically modified dinosaur. What in God's name do we need that for? One of the biggest - if not the biggest - reasons the first film worked so well was because dinosaurs are basically really bloody scary. They have lived. We know they're big, scaly, toothy and essentially just made for killing and eating and other bad stuff you don't want to be at the wrong end of. The idea of them unleashed on us is really bloody scary. As soon as you bring in something man-made, the fear factor drops about 90%. It's not real. It's never lived. It's all make believe. It's just another monster movie - not necessarily a bad thing at all, but why the need to make something believable, unbelievable? Why bring in something fake when there are so many good things to work with? Presumably it's because if they didn't, it would basically be a complete and utter rehash of Jurassic Park, instead of a 90% rehash of Jurassic Park.

I, as you might guess, am unimpressed. I'll see it, I'll definitely watch it, but I'm telling you now - I won't see it eight times. 

Jurassic World - Official Trailer (HD) The Park Is Open June 12 http://www.jurassicworldmovie.com/ Steven Spielberg returns to executive produce the long-awaited next installment of his groundbreaking Jurassic Park series, Jurassic World. Colin Trevorrow directs the epic action-adventure from a screenplay he wrote with Derek Connolly. Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley join the team as producers.

See you next week.