October 29, 2007
Put Words in the Mouths of the Dead
An American mashup artist let passers-by put words in giant zombies' mouths last week.The show, called Txt of the Living Dead, projected 15-foot-wide, black-and-white stills from George A. Romero's classic 1968 horror flick Night of the Living Dead onto buildings. Text messages from random people on the street then filled comics-style speech balloons that were added to the images in what New York artist Paul Notzold called an "SMS-enabled interactive street performance."
"It's all uncensored, and that's the beauty of it," said Notzold...
[...]
Notzold smiled as he told the story of projecting one night beside a public-housing project in the United States. A small boy looked on thoughtfully, then beamed up at him and said: "OK mister, now I get it: I can make the windows speak!"
(via wired news and txtual healing)
Posted by Groonk at 06:26 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Art, On the French
July 05, 2007
The Zazou: The French Might be Re-writing their History Again
whether or not the Zazou were real, I can’t say. French recollections of collective resistance seem to be exaggerated wishful fantasies to disguise the fact that they basically just rolled over. But of all the possibly imaginary demarcations of the French Resistance, the Zazou are the ones I most hope to have been real.The Nazis description of the average Zazounian: ““Here is the specimen of Ultra Swing 1941: hair hanging down to the neck, teased up into an untidy quiff, little moustache a la Clark Gable… shoes with too-thick soles, syncopated walk.” An armada of listless youths, taking to the streets in their zoot suit uniforms, swaggering and swinging their pocket watches on their chains, to fight the fascists with the power off le jazz hot!
Digging deeper: 1940-1945: The Zazous | grow-a-brain
(via the marvelous new blog Ectoplasmosis)
Posted by Groonk at 06:04 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, On the French, WorldWarII
February 20, 2007
French Forced to Give Up Smoking, Whining Surprisingly Limited
Not any more. The plumes of smoke that once wreathed the great thoughts of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, as they puffed away at the café Les Deux Magots on the Left Bank, have been banished by the chill winds of change.
That famous French chain-smoker Serge Gainsbourg once sang an anthem to the habit, entitled "God smokes Havana cigars".
Well, if He does, He will no longer be smoking them in this cafe nor in many others - and absolutely not in offices or government buildings.
(via bbc news)
Posted by Groonk at 08:27 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of On the French
August 18, 2006
Urban Ninjas have all the Fun
I'm noticing more Le Parkour videos making the circles these days. Where the hell were those vids when I was looking for them 3 years ago?
The art of Le Parkour is french, in case you wondered.
Posted by Groonk at 07:48 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Martial Arts, On the French, Research, Video
July 10, 2006
The Science of Sleep has Yarn Ponies
And really, can you beat a film with yarn ponies? I know I often sit around my house and wonder, "What can I think up today that has a yarn pony prancing about in a dreamlike state?" If I think of something that has no pony with a thread-like visage, I throw that idea right out the window.
That's what makes The Science of Sleep a trailer you want to watch. Cause otherwise I would have wasted five written pages in trying to explain what I just saw.
(via ONTD)
Posted by Groonk at 08:06 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Movies, On the French, Trailers
July 06, 2006
Daft Punk's "Electroma" is a Little Weird
To anyone who has not seen "Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5olar 5ystem" this Daft Punk movie teaser might seem a tad strange. Interstella 5555 was an anime movie done in the style of "Captain Harlock" himself, Leiji Matsumoto. It was set entirely to Daft Punk's album Discovery and had no dialogue. I own it and think the damn thing's brilliant.
So I watched Electroma's trailer figuring that DP was up to similar tricks.
WTF? Robot marriage? Robots on a rip roarin' road trip? Robot's clad in black leather? I don't know what this movie's about but I'm sort of intrigued by it.
Clips from Interstella 5555 can be found on "God's loving heart" here, here, and here.
(via I Watch Stuff who gets gracious kudos from me for naming YouTube "God's loving heart")
Posted by Groonk at 12:45 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Movies, Music, On the French, Robots, Trailers, Video
December 02, 2005
Face / On
"Today, the patient is in excellent general condition, and the graft is normal," the surgical team, led by Jean-Michel Dubernard of the Edouard Herriot Hospital in Lyon, said in a statement.
The operation was performed on Sunday 27 November at the University Hospital Centre (CHU) in Amiens, northern France, and the surgical team says further details of the procedure will be issued on 2 December.
The woman’s injuries were so severe that she could scarcely speak or chew. "This type of injury is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to repair by the usual maxillofacial surgical techniques," the statement says.
The breakthrough ends a race between teams in France, the US and Britain to perform the procedure first. "Now they’ve done it, I can breathe a sigh of relief," says Peter Butler, head of a team hoping to perform a similar procedure, but with a whole face, at the Royal Free Hospital in London, UK. "Now, the pressure’s off, which is great."
Heh. All that pressure to make a John Woo film come true.
If this keeps up, the entire world will be nothing but John Woo moments.
Hyperkinetic, choreographed action. Slow motion sequences. "Mexican Standoffs" galore.
You get my meaning.
(via new scientist)
Posted by Groonk at 11:03 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Health, On the French
September 06, 2005
Lance Armstrong likes Pissing off the French
And who doesn't really?
"While I'm absolutely enjoying my time as a retired athlete with Sheryl and the kids, the recent smear campaign out of France has awoken my competitive side," Armstrong said. "I'm not willing to put a percentage on the chances, but I will no longer rule it out."
(via myway)
Posted by Groonk at 09:13 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of On the French, Sport
August 19, 2005
Books for all Hours!
PARIS (AP) - Readers craving Homer, Baudelaire or Lewis Carroll in the middle of the night can get a quick fix at one of the French capital's five newly installed book vending machines.
"We have customers who know exactly what they want and come at all hours to get it," said Xavier Chambon, president of Maxi-Livres, a low-cost publisher and book store chain that debuted the vending machines in June. "It's as if our stores were open 24 hours a day."
Stocked with 25 of Maxi-Livres best-selling titles, the machines cover the gamut of literary genres and tastes. Classics like "The Odyssey" by Homer and Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" share the limited shelf space with such practical must-haves as "100 Delicious Couscous" and "Verb Conjugations."
"Our biggest vending machine sellers are 'The Wok Cookbook' and a French-English dictionary," said Chambon, who added that poet Charles Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs du Mal" - "The Flowers of Evil" - also is "very popular."
Regardless of whether they fall into the category of high culture or low, all books cost a modest $2.45.
Read lady, read!
(via 7d)
Posted by Groonk at 03:27 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Books, On the French
April 23, 2005
French blogeur revolution
Spurred by a culture of popular expression and debate that can be traced back to France's 17th-century salons, the French are embracing weblogs with a greater zeal than anyone on the European continent.Take a recent Paris warehouse party, which hooked up 200 local bloggers in person for the first time, an illustration of the European web's best-kept secret -- when it comes to blogs, the French can't get enough.
(via wirednews)
Posted by Groonk at 12:47 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Blogged, On the French
March 22, 2005
Slap the French Out
Ho-lee damn.
I've been looking for this game for ages.
I have nothing against the French, I swear. But damn if that game isn't fun.
SUPERSLAP!
(via DT)
Posted by Groonk at 04:57 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of On the French
March 12, 2005
World War I Color Photos
The first experiments with color photography were carried out in 1904 near Lyon in France, where father Lumire owned a photographic factory. In 1907 the Lumire brothers patented the autochrome process they had invented.
And because of that, the French are the only ones to have true color photos of World War I.
At least that's how it was explained to me.
Seeing all those full color photos is neat and eerie. It makes the last great war seem as if it happened yesterday.
There are tons of other full color WWI photos waiting for you to look at them.
(via rocketboom and other sources)
Posted by Groonk at 04:25 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of On the French
September 30, 2004
Best French sf you never read
I need to expand my range of authors:
Kirk McElhearn has translated and posted two chapters from Pierre Bordage's novel The Warriors of Silence. Bordage is one of the best-selling non-English-language sf writers in the world, with 20 novels to his credit, widely translated into languages other than English. McElhearn hopes that in posting these chapters, he'll stir interest in the US and UK for Bordage's work
link was boingboinged
Posted by Groonk at 03:37 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Books, On the French
July 16, 2004
French anti-AIDS posters
How fucking French:
A French anti-AIDS organization created these ads depicting super-heroes with the disease. Link one, Link two (PDF files).
Posted by Groonk at 01:05 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of On the French
May 06, 2004
A Day Late...
...but still worth knowing.
[Cinco de Mayo] originated with a surprising battle. In 1861, France, England and Spain sent ships to Mexico to settle a debt. Within a few months, an agreement was reached and the British and Spanish navy set sail toward home. But the French ships, by order of Napoleon III, began an attack. On May 5, 1862, 6000 soldiers under the commander of the French forces tried to capture the forts of Loreto and Guadalupe in Puebla de Los Angeles, Mexico.Union forces were then rushed to the Texas/Mexican border under General Phil Sheridan, who made sure that the Mexicans got all the weapons and ammunition they needed to expel the French. American soldiers were discharged with their uniforms and rifles if they promised to join the Mexican Army to fight the French.
Two thousand Mexican men, led by General Ignazio Zaragoza, fought back hard and held the fort. Although smaller in number, the Mexican army won this battle but they did not win the war. The French conquered the country, and in 1864, a European emperor was put on the Mexican throne. Three years later, after a reign filled with problems, the emperor was deposed and killed.
In gratitude of the help that Americans provided during the battle, thousands of Mexicans crossed the border after Pearl Harbor to join the U.S. Armed Forces.
Even during the short period of French rule, the Mexicans celebrated Cinco de Mayo. They changed the name of the town where the French were defeated to Puebla de Zaragoza.
via teknesia
Posted by Groonk at 07:36 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, History, On the French, USA
February 09, 2004
The new war in France
PARIS - Rahma is a 19-year-old senior, and straight-A student, at the Vocational High School in Savigny-le-Temple, a stark, working-class suburb of Paris. A devout Muslim, she chose two years ago to wear a veil, even in school, where she majors in hotel and restaurant commerce. Wearing the veil, or hijab, she said, is a free expression of her faith. But, in France it may soon be a criminal act.France's National Assembly is expected Tuesday to approve a controversial bill, drafted by President Jacques Chiracs conservative cabinet, that would ban all conspicuous religious dress, and symbols, in public secondary schools.
And while the prohibition would affect large Christian crosses as well as Jewish skullcaps, the target has been the nation's growing Muslim population.
[...]
"I love this country," said Gudwara. My children were born here. They are French. When they make a law like this, it is very bad for us, and very bad for France, because it divides our communities and our children.
More news:
The veil is seen as the most visible symbol of this radicalisation. It is also a question of women's rights, said Mr Vincent de Coorebyter, director of Belgium's Centre for Socio-Political Research.'The veil is seen as a sign of discrimination,' he said.
Muslim women, especially those who wear headscarves, are viewed as victims of a repressive religion and culture. European feminists and politicians shrug off suggestions that the veil can be a fashion statement, a legitimate expression of a new 'girl culture', or that not all women who opt for the veil are being forced to by their husbands, brothers or fathers.
In ironic contrast to the effort to 'emancipate' Muslim women, young Muslim men continue to be the target of job discrimination, French police prejudice and public distrust.
Posted by Groonk at 09:03 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of On the French, Politics, Religion, World
January 22, 2004
The french piss off more folk
The incident, involving 50-year-old Jagmohan Singh from the Paris suburb of Bobigny, comes amid fresh reports that the French government has come with a unique compromise solution for French Sikhs: hairnets instead of turbans.
Posted by Groonk at 01:31 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of On the French, Religion
July 21, 2003
On the French
Welcome to what I think will become a regular title here on GDN, "On the French." As most anyone knows, the French are always doing something that makes other countries, usually Americans or English, snirk and growl out the word, "French" under their breath.
For as long as I can remember to do this, I dedicate this and future entries to Frenchisms. Hey I made a word. Think it will catch on like "courriel"?
PARIS -- Goodbye "e-mail," the French government says, and hello "courriel" the term that linguistically sensitive France is now using to refer to electronic mail in official documents.The Culture Ministry has announced a ban on the use of "e-mail" in all government ministries, documents, publications or websites, the latest step to stem an incursion of English words into the French lexicon.
The ministry's General Commission on Terminology and Neology insists Internet surfers in France are broadly using the term "courrier electronique" (electronic mail) instead of e-mail a claim some industry experts dispute. "Courriel" is a fusion of the two words.
The move to ban "e-mail" was announced last week after the decision was published in the official government register on June 20. Courriel is a term that has often been used in French-speaking Quebec, the commission said.
The 7-year-old commission has links to the Academie Francaise, the prestigious institution that has been one of the top opponents of allowing English terms to seep into French.
Feh. French.
Posted by Groonk at 07:35 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of On the French, Technology
