Tuesday, December 23, 2014

From Cassandra: When it’s charisma vs. intelligence, charisma usually wins. (See also: politics.)

Swiped from Shelly: Did you know Björk released an album when she was eleven? Did you know she read the Nativity Story on Icelandic TV, also at the age of eleven? I didn’t, until today!

Lainey’s annual Gingerbread House Challenge has been posted. These people create a house which is also a work of art in about twelve hours, using only edible ingredients. This year’s competition includes a Sesame Street scene!

And finally, here’s a holiday video made by Bunny for our friends and family. Thanks for reading!

Monday, December 22, 2014

Happy Monday! Hope your solstice was lovely.

From Cassandra: Lights, Camera, Christmas! 

Regular readers of Folderol know I’m a big fan of Dada. Flavorwire lists ten female Dada artists who need more recognition!

While this is probably not the time (here in America, at least) to promote this sort of art, I do appreciate the “murdered furniture” project in Paris.

Weird Fiction has been around for ages, but is having a revival of sorts. Jeff Vandermeer is a master of the genre, and he wrote an article on it, too.

Friday, December 19, 2014

Happy Friday! And happy birthday to my mom, too!

After I posted about the spontaneous Erasure singalong in London, Zazoo sent me this amazing moment on a British street corner. You might need to know your ‘80s pop songs to get what’s going on, but it’s pretty great.

In more retro news, also from Zazoo: Beetlejuice 2 is a go, with Tim Burton, Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder returning!

Swiped from Kim: an online Spirograph. This may destroy your productivity, be warned.

From my mom: The radical roots of Wonder Woman. Yes!

 From Cassandra: The Simpsons, bringing insight to universities. See, pop culture can be educational!

Happy holidays, everyone! We’ll be on a reduced posting schedule through the rest of the year, but we’ll be around. In the meantime, enjoy one of my favorite holiday songs. See you next week!


Thursday, December 18, 2014

Have I linked to the Public Domain Review before? If I have, you should go back and check it out anyway, because there are wonderful articles like this one on a fake catalog for a fake library, created during the Renaissance.

The Library of Congress blog has an entry on holiday shop window displays. Lots of artists and authors are mentioned, from Andy Warhol to L. Frank Baum.

Bill Lucey has all the season’s facts and figures in one handy post!

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Lady M’s Haunted Parlor is celebrating the holiday season in style! Her post on Christmas trees is especially great.

If you’re looking for gothy Christmas music, Ethereal Dreams has the album for you!

UK readers: Has anyone been to Talliston? It’s a house in Essex with themed rooms, and it looks amazing.

Also UK-related: If you start singing Erasure on a subway platform, you might be surprised how many people join the fun!

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Wassily Kandinsky gets his own Google Doodle for his birthday, hooray!

Suffrajitsu now has its own website. Look out!

J. M. De Cristofaro has made an amazing cyberpunk wristwatch. Go look.

Jim Bachor creates beauty out of Chicago potholes with mosaics.

For the modernists among us (like Bunny): here’s some home décor to covet.

Monday, December 15, 2014

Monday again? That means it’s time for art.

Cinema: Vulture assesses the most valuable movie stars of 2014. Also, if you can’t/won’t see the Hobbit trilogy, here’s a handy summary done in LEGO. 

Music: Did Anna Magdalena Bach write some of the music attributed to her husband? The Telegraph gives one side of the argument, the New Yorker another.

Literature: Welcome to transrealism, a new possible genre in fiction.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Happy Friday!

From Julie: Prehistoric abstract art has been discovered! Well, it was already discovered, but now it's confirmed.

From Cassandra: Does money make you mean? (You know the answer to this already, I bet.)

Slightly related, via John Green: Blake Fall-Conroy has made an art piece which is a brilliant commentary on the minimum wage argument.

From various friends: Cards Against Humanity is celebrating Ten Days of Whatever, and there are puzzles and comics and all sorts of crazy shenanigans, including this comic which I sent to Bunny. (Bunny did not build snowmen as a child, and now I know why – he’s an alien. Or immune to snow golems. Either one works.)

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone! See you next week.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

It’s that time of the year when the “notable” and “best of” lists begin to arrive. Here are a few:

“I Can’t Breathe” and other notable quotes of 2014 have been compiled.

The A.V. Club lists their favorite books of 2014. (I haven’t read any of them. Go, me!)

Overshare” is the word of the year, according to the Chambers Dictionary. According to the OED, on the other hand, the word of 2014 is “vape.”

If you’re not into lists, consider this New Yorker article on the city’s endangered bookstores, or ponder the impact of information warfare

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Okay, so I was reading about machines used during the heyday of spiritualism, and through that I discovered there was a well-known spiritualist in the middle of Athens County during the 1850s. The things you learn!

Then I discovered the Kindertrauma website, and I’ll be there the rest of the day. Join me, won’t you? (Especially you, Cassandra. I know this is right up your alley!)

Tuesday, December 09, 2014

How is it possible that I'd never heard of the Witley Wonder before today? An underwater dance hall, now left to the elements? Amazing! A full photo exploration is out there as well.

Wednesday, December 03, 2014

Hello! Folderol will be taking the next few days off as we get organized for the holidays. We’ll be back next week with more links!

In the meantime, here’s a catch-all of odds and ends.

Wanna design a Christmas tree light display? Made With Code shows you how! I tried it and although my tree is not very impressive, learning how to design it was very cool.

John Scalzi’s Whatever is in the midst of its annual Holiday Shopping Guide week, where people can post their suggestions and creations.

You can help the Large Hadron Collider end the world…er…search for the Higgs Boson by looking for anomalies in the data.

Denizens of New York City, here is the Rat Information Portal you’ve always wanted! (It’s pretty neat. Provided you're okay with rats, I suppose.)

Tuesday, December 02, 2014

Looking for some escapism today? Read on!

Would razor blades hidden in caps work as practical weapons? The Bartitsu experts look at Peaky Blinders. 

Artist Jessica Joslin has a new exhibition coming up, and it looks fantastic.

The future is coming – at Starwood hotels, you’ll soon be able to open your room door with your phone. 

Girls Just Want to Have Fun, circa 1912: a rendition. 

Girls Just Want to Have Fun, circa 1849: a guide to Philadelphia’s brothel scene.