Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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SNL Celebrity Jeopardy, a history
See how SNL’s Celebrity Jeopardy evolved from a means for Norm MacDonald to act out his Burt Reynolds impression to the hilariously absurd Connery-Trebek duels. Videos included of all 14 skits. The first Celebrity Jeopardy sketch aired on December 7, 1996 with Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek, Norm MacDonald as Burt Reynolds, Darrell Hammond as […]
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Record player wedding invite
Graphic designer Kelli Anderson creates a wedding invitation for her friends Mike and Karen that forms a papercraft record player. The resulting booklet is comprised of a cover, two inner pages, a letterpressed band (with instructions and a tear-off RSVP postcard), and a flexdisc on a screwpost. The recipient bends the second page of the […]
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Graph Racers
I guess I’m a little late to this, but Graph Racers is a pretty nifty concept. Take some graph paper, make a course, get at least 2 players, each with their own colored marker and have them race around the graph paper track.
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How to steal like an artist
I nodded my head all the way through Austin Kleon’s “How to steal like an artist.” Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of previous ideas. If there’s one takeaway for self-described non-creative people, it is that. Synthesize, combine, mash up what you already know, and then you’ll come away with something […]
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Review: The Script – Science & Faith
If you like The Fray, Five For Fighting, Yellow Card or any other pop-punkish band, you’ll enjoy The Script and their Science & Faith album. Simple hooks, beats and melodies work with O’Donoghue’s earnest lyrics. At times, there’s a sense of urgency (closer, Exit Wounds) or bombast (Walk Away, which features B.o.B) or contemplation (Nothing).
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An American sportswriter in India
Wright Thompson, for ESPN, tells of India, Cricket, the Cricket World Cup and how life and culture intersect. I turn to Rahul. “Do Indians still love the actual game of cricket?” There’s a pause. “It’s a delicate sort of question,” he says. Another pause. “The thing about Indians’ love for cricket is a lot of […]
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Swamplandia – Karen Russell
Karen Russell’s Swamplandia! feels like a collection of short writing exercises that were combined to form some sense of a novel. The prose is colorful, descriptive and imaginative, so much it reaches eccentric, teetering on contrived to tell a story of innocence lost. The Bigtree clan lives on an island within the Ten Thousand Islands, […]
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Framing pixels
A member of Chase Jarvis’ team writes up how they mounted iPads for an art installation: The challenges: iPads are designed to be interactive, to move between apps. How do you keep people from messing with them, checking their email, pointing them at un-savory sites, or worse yet walking away with them entirely?
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Paul McCuen – Spiral
Taking a sliver of World War II history, cutting edge science in nanotechnology and biology, and a conspiracy of geopolitical consequences, Spiral delivers a smart and tense techno-thriller. Liam Connor, an Irish soldier who was a scientist during World War II, witnessed a horrific event in the Pacific Ocean, where the military took extreme measures […]
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Jambox wireless speaker by Jawbone
Everything about Jawbone’s portable wireless speaker, the Jambox, is well done. The speaker itself, the included cables and charger, the ease of use, the carrying case and even the packaging all show serious thought in the design, presentation and experience of the product. The Jambox comes in four different colors: black, red, grey and blue. […]
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