Photo: Alexis Wary & NEXTpittsburgh
scop (noun): Old English – bard, minstrel, storyteller
-
Super Strange Super Villains
Evil or Just Plain Weird? The Vintage Villain Lineup Our most recent challenge over at the Minute Men Newsletter asks folks to identify the six baddies pictured above. If you’re a newsletter subscriber, you know the details. If you’re not, you can subscribe or check out the challenge by clicking here. Either way, read on!…
-
Guitar Superpower
Tied Up in Bows The guitar acquired a new voice in 1969. I remember hearing it on Led Zeppelin’s first album, most notably on the LP’s final track, which featured a series of long notes that sounded like the moaning of a humpback whale … or perhaps the reverberations of some massive heavy-metal machine. Here’s…
-
The Art of Rotoscoping
Animating Life Since 1917 Nearly a century before James Cameron transformed 5′ 7″ Zoe Saldaña into the nine-foot-tall Neytiri in Avatar, cartoonist Max Fleischer pioneered the first motion capture device in his Brooklyn living room. Consisting of a projector mounted behind a transparent easel, the rotoscope machine transformed the art of animation by allowing cartoon…
-
Rockhounds
The Ballad of Marsh and Cope Heard about the Bone Wars? You’re not alone if you haven’t. Back in 1977, I doubt my brother John had heard about it either when I showed up to band practice with a new song called “The Rockhoud Rag.” In truth, it was more bluegrass than ragtime, but I…
-
4.5 Million Podcasts
Are you listening? Lots of folks are. According to Variety, last week’s installment of the New Heights podcast racked up 13 million views in just 24 hours. Of course, it helped that pop star Taylor Swift dropped by to join her buddy Travis Kelce to talk about her upcoming album. I’m sure brother Chris and…
-
Classic Spinoffs
“You Know–For Kids!” Name the Classic A recent challenge in our Minute-Men: Execute and Run newsletter asked folks to identify the classic predecessors to the six books and films pictured above. Some of the contemporary spinoffs–like The Scarlet Letter Man and All for One–are fairly obvious. I figured the titles alone were enough to link…