Another interesting point Cleese makes is that knowing you are good at something requires precisely the same skills you need to be good at it, so people who are horrible at something tend to have no idea they are horrible at all. This echoes precisely what filmmaker Errol Morris discusses in “The Anosognosic’s Dilemma,” arguably one of the most fascinating psychology reads in The New York Times this year.
via Brain Pickings & Open Culture.
23 Free Hitchcock Movies Online
A great idea for viewing on any occasion! The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Murder!, The Farmer’s Wife, and many more.
via Open Culture.
How to be Creative – with John Cleese
John D. Rockefeller in his 80s was known to his business associates as a crazy old man possessed by the stubborn and ferocious will to know why the world wags and what wags it, less interested in money than in the solving of a problem in geography or corporate combination. By sources reliably informed I’m told that Warren Buffett, 84, and Rupert Murdoch, 83, never quit asking questions.
via Kottke.
There’s no craft beer scene quite like the San Diego brewing community. According to Times of San Diego, as of August 2014 there are 90 craft breweries local to the Southern California metropolis and experts predict this number will reach the triple digits by the end of the calendar year.
via Wirtz Craft Beer and West Coaster SD.
A new track from Luxury.
And it delivers.
From the beginning, though, Murphy was cost-conscious. Asked to repaint the old convent building the station was housed in to appeal to advertisers, he painted just the two road-facing walls. He kept a picture of the station throughout his career.
via Quartz.
No one may be able to hear you scream in space, but that whole great, black abyss miles above our heads is just teeming with noises.
via Consequence of Sound.
Reading that Apollo Robbins piece reminded me of this splendid writeup on Ricky Jay, also originally published in The New Yorker.
Often, he would begin a performance by demonstrating a not easily marketable skill that eventually earned him a listing in the “Guinness Book of World Records”: throwing a playing card for distance. A properly launched card would go ninety miles an hour. Unobstructed, it could travel a hundred and ninety feet. From ten paces, it could pierce the outer rind of a watermelon. After impaling the flesh of a watermelon with a card, Jay would rifle one card after another into the exact same spot. He also used a plastic chicken and windup toys as props and targets, often inflicting disabling injuries. His patter was voluble, embroidered with orotund, baroque locutions; he would describe the watermelon rind, for instance, as the “thick pachydermatous outer melon layer.”
Craft Beer Community
Beer should be enjoyed with friends. If no friends are available, grab some strangers.
Drinking beer, so you don't have to.
Joel Manahan 