wasting bandwidth since 1999
The Mountain Goats is one of those bands that has been around seemingly forever, creating a steady stream of great music year after year. I discovered them about fifteen years ago when a friend recommended their album, “We Shall All Be Healed”.
That same year they released “The Sunset Tree” which includes one of my favorite songs of all time (from any performer), “This Year”. It’s a surprisingly upbeat tune in which the singer declares his intention to escape an abusive home environment.
There’s much to like about Stephen Cobert’s Late Show that debuted last September, starting with the opening credits. The visuals are hard to describe, a video flyover of New York scenes, modified using techniques that make the images look like a combination of miniatures and a color saturated drawing, slightly out of focus at the edges to give a dream-like feeling.
Many different inexpensive and free image editing programs allow amateurs like me to play with the technique (like one of my pretty lame attempts at the right) but it takes real artistry to create the 45 seconds that open Colbert’s program every night.
Now the show has released a longer, “director’s cut” version of the opening video 1 with about 90 seconds of unreleased footage. As a bonus, it’s backed by the full version of the show’s wonderful jazz-funk musical theme. Go. Watch. Enjoy.
And I’ll go back to playing with my software.
YouTube hosts a wonderful gem in which Stephen Colbert* interviews Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium and in the same class as Carl Sagan when it comes to explaining complex science topics to a general audience. The result is a smart, funny, and very entertaining discussion.
They cover a variety of topics but I especially love Tyson’s assessment of our academic system.
Our academic system rewards people who know a lot of stuff, and generally we call those people “smart”. But at the end of the day, who do you want, the person who can figure stuff out that they’ve never seen before, or the person who can rattle off a bunch of facts? At the end of the day, I want the person who can figure stuff out.
During the audience questions, someone asks about how he would improve the scientific literacy of American society. His answer includes the advice that parents need to allow and encourage their children to experiment and explore the world around them, even if it does get a little messy at times.
In the schools, I don’t have a problem with the fact memorizing, but don’t equate that with what it is to be wise or what it is to be smart. Smart should be some combination of facts, yes, but also what is your lens on the world? How do you figure things out? You promote that by stimulating curiosity. Â I don’t see enough stimulating curiosity in this world.
The whole thing (from January 2010) is well worth an hour or so of your time. Watch.
*As himself, not Stephen Colbert the character
Sound advice (and some far-too-close-to-reality satire) about the SAT and test prep companies from last night’s Colbert Report.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Stephen’s Sound Advice – How to Ace the SATs | ||||
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If you take enough of their math classes [Princeton Review], you may even learn their formula for turning children’s fear into cash.
Some English teachers may not want to hear what Stephen has to say about essays.
As only he can, Stephen Colbert totally nails a photographer who was arrested for committing the terrorist act of taking pictures.
Of Amtrak trains.
For the annual Amtrak photography contest.
Priceless.
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