Monthly Archives: August 2016
Ready for a YouTube Rabbit Hole? Watch Every Bill Wurtz Video ♬You’re Welcome♬
If you haven’t heard of Bill Wurtz, I’ll let him introduce himself with his own video:
What you will notice immediately about Bill Wurtz from his videos is:
- He’s cool
- He has a silky smooth singing voice
- He has a keyboard and isn’t afraid to use every button
- Neon typography is his jam
- His animation style evokes jazzy PowerPoint slides
With 394 videos and counting, Wurtz categorizes his YouTube channel under “science.”
His bio on billwurtz.com reads, “accidentally came to earth. it’s weird”
With videos as short as 5 seconds, many of Wurtz’s videos claim to be comprehensive and then fall comedically short.
His 9 minute “history of japan,” however, is surprisingly thorough despite being mostly a joke. Donald Trump makes an eerie appearance at minute 4:00.
And if you watch all of his videos and have some questions for Wurtz, he’ll answer them on his “euqstions” page.
Here’s a good one:
“8.26.16 3:07 pm WHY DO YOU ANSWER QUESTIONS IN ALL LOWERCASE LETTERS?
why do you ask questions in all capital letters”
If this doesn’t feel like a rabbit hole already, I don’t know what is.
You could watch this playlist of every Wurtz upload and just sit back and enjoy the ride. But it’s also equally exciting to pick and choose from his archive based on video titles.
If you’re not cracking up after watching ten of these videos in a row, I’m not sure we can be friends.
Either way I “hope you have a good day,” just like Bill:
The Best Meryl Streep Fan Page of All Time!
Are you a fan of Meryl Streep? You’ve probably seen a lot of her movies then. And with three Oscars and countless nominations, you’ve come to expect Streep’s incredible transformations on screen for characters like Florence Foster Jenkins or Margaret Thatcher… but I bet you’ve never seen her like this:
You can thank Samantha Raye for these lovely internet gems, which she posts on the Instagram account @TasteOfStreep. As a graphic designer and actor in Brooklyn, Raye’s penchant for photoshopping Meryl Streep with food is clearly perfectly natural.
In an interview with the Cut, Raye said, “There are so many great actors that I admire, and I could go on for reams about each one. But come on, Meryl Streep tops everyone’s list… From what I’ve seen in interviews, she has a killer sense of humor and a love of life. No apologies for who she is, and honestly, I think she seems unbelievably cool. Pair that with food, and you’ve got one stellar combo.”
But how does she come up with the food pairings? Raye told Lucky Peach, “I search the Internet and find a picture of her where something about her outfit reminds me of food.” You can read the interview for more in-depth examples.
The resulting images range from tasteful…
…to tasteless (in the best possible way).
Raye started posting in January of this year, and with every post, 2016 becomes all the richer for it. Thank you, Samantha.
Why Won’t My Cursor Disappear While Watching HBO Go?!?!
Raised by the warm glow of the television, I would say that I have a healthy aptitude for the willing suspension of disbelief, but HBO Go is testing my freaking patience with its lousy interface.
WHY WON’T MY CURSOR DISAPPEAR WHILE I’M WATCHING HBO GO ON MY COMPUTER?!?!
No matter what I do when I am in fullscreen, my salient cursor reminds me that I’m looking at a screen instead of bearing witness to Nasir Khan‘s terrible/no good/very bad day while watching The Night Of.
Riz Ahmed is a talented actor, but he spends much of the HBO miniseries staring mournfully into the middle distance. I transformed these moments into an opportunity to illustrate how horrifingly distracting my omnipresent cursor has been in the course of my HBO Go-ing.
This video is what happens when I can’t let go of a grievance at 3 AM.
Broad City for Los Angeles: Ladywood on YouTube
Fans of Broad City know how important the representation of Abbi and Ilana’s friendship is in today’s media landscape. And it wouldn’t be on Comedy Central today if it hadn’t started out as a popular webseries by the same name. If you’re searching for more non-hegemonic representations of modern femininity on YouTube in a sea of makeup tutorials, I cannot recommend Ladywood highly enough.
This webseries is the result of an award winning filmmaker and a Groundlings actor living together and making a thing inspired by their real life friendship. With a healthy list of cast and crew, this project was certainly not shot on an iPhone. To learn more about it, read Auri and Dani’s about page.
I have to be honest, I haven’t watched Broad City nearly as much as I know I should. As a California native, I find it harder to relate to the East Coast themes in the show. The challenges West Coast life presents for 20-somethings are much different from those Abbi and Ilana face in New York City.
In LA’s Little Armenia, Auri and Dani grapple with when to sage their apartment, who to allow as a couch surfer, and how to break a ruinous juice habit. You know, pretty normal stuff for Californians.
Here’s the first episode of four:
You may recognize Auri from the “Guys Experience Periods for the First Time” Buzzfeed video she produced. It went viral and you should watch it, if you haven’t already. But first, warm up with Ladywood‘s “WTF is a Diva Cup,” also known as episode 2.
If you’ve got a lady wood (it had to be said) for this show, check out MyLadyWood.com and share the videos with all your lady friends.
NightLife at the California Academy of Sciences
If you think science is sexy, then the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco has the date night for you! Every Thursday, Cal Academy hosts NightLife from 6 – 10 pm for a 21+ crowd.
Not only are NightLife guests able to wander through the exhibits with cocktail in hand, but every week there is a different theme with special events and guests. So far I have heard Adam Savage speak, watched a movie with Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and watched Lower Dens play.
But my favorite part is how intimate each of the exhibits feels after hours.
The rainforest exhibit is a sealed off area that retains humidity and feels like a futuristic greenhouse
Butterflies flutter freely
Terrariums house amphibians and camouflaged reptiles
This is not a two headed monster: just a gecko and his reflection
Then there are the aquariums
And the dioramas
10 out of 10 recommend
The Beautiful Details of the Montana State Capitol Building
When I was learning the state capitols in 5th grade, I remember wanting to travel to all 50 — even despite the knowledge that Sacramento was far from the most exciting city in California.
15 years later, and I’ve still only been to 5 state capitols.
- Sacramento, California
- Providence, Rhode Island
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Phoenix, Arizona
- Denver, Colorado
Visiting my friend Kate in Helena, Montana this summer provided an excellent opportunity to add another capitol to my list — only 44 more to go!
While exploring Helena, I paid a special visit to the Montana State Capitol Building.
The first thing I noticed about the building was its intricate door knobs.
And this beautifully carved bench was in the ladies restroom of all places.
My favorite painting by E.S. Paxson in the building shows Sacajawea directing Lewis & Clark.
“Welcome to the House of Representatives”
If you look closely at C.M. Russell’s painting, you can see a wolf snarling just above the Speaker of the House’s podium.
My shoes matched the carpet.
Picture Perfect Breakfast in Montana
If there’s anything I love more than breakfast food, it’s my friend Kate’s pictures of breakfast food.
In her reluctant hometown of Helena, Montana, Kate has captured some of the most delectable pictures of dark diners I have ever encountered. For years I have lusted over her beautiful photographs — which you can find on her blog Ze Photographist — but it wasn’t until this summer’s road trip that I was finally able to experience her favorite haunts first hand.
Behold, No Sweat Cafe, with its handwritten menus, motown music and strict “no cell phones allowed” policy
This breakfast table was crowded with multiple cameras and good friends.
The most picturesque buttered toast I have ever seen.
Walking away from the cafe, Kate pointed out downtown Helena’s restored brick wall advertisements and the spot where the used bookstore leaves free romance novels out on the street.
Ed Drew’s ‘Native Portraits’ Drawn from Talking Circles, Fixed on Tintypes
On July 21, Spayne Martinez walked into the California Historical Society at the corner of Annie and Mission Streets in San Francisco. As an Academy of Art University alumna, she probably walked past the building countless times on her way to class in SOMA, but never with a 12-foot picture of her on display in the front windows. Inside, Martinez enthusiastically greeted Ed Drew, the photographer of behind Native Portraits: Contemporary Tintypes, on view at the CHS through Nov. 27.
Martinez beamed as she pointed out her son strapped to her back in the portrait and her cousin’s portrait a few frames down. As a professional portrait photographer herself and a tribal community member of the Klamath Basin, Martinez has a unique insight into the photographic representations of Native people.
Primer Stories Saves the Internet from Itself One GIF at a Time
When was the last time an animated GIF left you breathless? (And not just because you were laughing so hard you couldn’t breathe.)
Whether you pronounce the file format with a hard G or a soft J, the medium is undeniable. GIFs often feature a series of still images ripped from popular videos to create an animated loop. The result is easily shareable and usually hilarious, but rarely an example of fine design.
This is where Joe Alterio and Tim Lillis hope to challenge your idea of what the internet should look like. The designers created Primer Stories in 2015 to share thought-provoking articles that integrate text and visuals for an interactive dual narrative. Based in San Francisco and Seattle respectively, Lillis and Alterio both draw inspiration from the Bay Area’s fusion of art and tech culture. . .
This article was originally published on KQED Arts on 27 June 2016.
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