Arthur C. Clarke, 1917-2008

We are lucky that Arthur C. Clarke, inventor of the geostationary orbiting satellite and author of genre-defining science fiction works such as Childhood’s End, Rendezvous With Rama and 2001: A Space Oddysey was born when he was. Had he been born later, it is possible that some of the finest works in SF would have been snowed under, rendered indistinguishable from the slush pile left by the online blizzard of typing we today navigate. Be thankful that his words met their paper medium in a forceful collision of metal and ribbon. If he were blogging instead, would he (and we) have recognized his ideas as indelible narratives of the celestial frontier? I doubt it.

So long, Sir Arthur.

Saul Bass vs. Star Wars

For a few years now the Saul Bass-inspired “Hitchcock” font has been available on the net, but not until this has someone done something really great with it. Brought to you by - who else - Some Guy On The Internet: the titles to Star Wars if Saul Bass had done them.

(link provided by the estimable Greg Dunlap, he of Cineblog, Drupal development and the Coffee Table Hall Of Fame )

The Abiding Appeal Of Comedy Underpants

I love the National Lampoon from the 1970s. And I also love the defunct DeKalb, IL rock band named Shorty (who more or less went on to become U.S. Maple). But what I didn’t know was that these two cultural forces, separated by generations, had common ground when it came to comedy undergarments.

First: the ad clipped from the back pages of the February ‘77 issue of NatLamp:

Informative booklet!

Fast-forward 17 years and see these underpants in action in the jaw-droppingly brilliant ‘94 Shorty video “Coopie n’ Me”

Dieter Rams: Bitten By Apple?

(Top: 1960s Braun products, designer Dieter Rams.  Bottom: contemporary Apple products, Apple employee Johnathan Ive)

In a case of serial, uh, inspiration, the 1960s work of Dieter Rams, lead designer for German industrial giant Braun bears a more-than-passing resemblance to the current products of a certain Cupertino computer company. Enjoy the comparison of Rams’ designs against the modern iPod, G5, and iMac. Given Steve Jobs’ penchant for expensive German eyewear, perhaps there are bigger surprises than this…

(lifted from That’s Right blog)

Popular Science, April ‘33: Build a Proto-Stylophone

The always-cool Modern Mechanix ran this 1933 Popular Science story reprint yesterday. The message: chase away the blues of the Great Depression by building, tuning and playing an inexpensive monotimbral “electric organ”. If for no reason other than the one-note, tuned-resistor characteristic, I thought right away of the electrical and likely tonal similarities to the much-later Stylophone - and its good works in the hands of Kraftwerk (”Pocket Calculator”) and Bowie (”Ashes To Ashes”). No matter what decade, it’s always a miracle when you can make music from the sound of a crappy apartment building door buzzer. Plans here.