jim henson

Playing catch-up at the end of a holiday weekend; that's how it goes sometimes...

1. Perhaps you've already heard the news, but it bears repeating;

Just when you think all the bushes have been beaten and all the rocks overturned, the
long-missing scenes from
Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' have been found, some 80 years later, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Follow the link above to the Guardian UK's report on the news that had come from Germany's Die Zeit newspaper last Wednesday.

A recent partial restoration of Lang's 1927 science-fiction film masterpiece that I saw around 2002 came as something of a revelation to me.

That version already represented a night-and-day world of difference from the standard truncated version that I'd seen in film history classes as a teen.

Aside from being a beautiful, cleaner print, there had been enough previously missing material added to make the plotline more whole.

Suddenly 'Metropolis' was a vibrant and captivating film, instead of the curiously tantalizing artifact it had always been, in my previous experience.

But now?? Wowie Zowie! Can't wait.

A finally-complete and fully restored version is said to be ready for theatrical release in 2009, with DVDs to follow soon after from Kino International, who released that most recent 'authorized restoration' edition to disc.

See you there.

2. Elsewhere in an imagined cinematic dystopian future, there's a helpful little article at io9, 'Doomsday: 8 Rules For Surviving The Apocalypse'.

Basically a roster of the warnings we might feel inclined to yell at the screen in our local multiplex, having learned the same lessons again and again in previous models of the same movies we see made again and again...

(via IMDb)

3. ... and then there's the imagined dystopian present...

Thanks to 45 rpm for passing along a link to the video clip below, ▼ a hyperactive media barrage set to an equally hyper cover of REM's 'It's The End of the World As We Know It' using Bush-sampled vocals. Wheeee!



4. Air Guitar; Just because it's 'not real' doesn't mean it's not really serious business.

Well, 'serious' is a relative term, judging by an article at
Vinyl Word about the Los Angeles Regionals of the
Cuervo Black US Air Guitar Championships that were held at L.A.'s Troubadour at the end of June.

You can check out a gallery of reporter David Sprague's photos of the event here.

(Thanks to noneemac for the link!)

5. Myself, I can honestly say that 'style' and 'shoes' are just about mutually exclusive concepts in my own life.

I'd go without shoes if I could, but instead wear identical pairs of the same ordinary supportive and extra-wide walking shoe day after day, and seek out the same exact model when they wear out. Problem solved, no thought required, I'm done. That's me.

But show me The Virtual Shoe Museum?
I'm fascinated, and continue to explore the galleries for more examples of all the beautiful, fanciful, or outrageous shoes they've collected - - An amazing and delightful array of concepts expressed in footwear.
Check it out!
(Found via FFFFOUND!)