StumbleUpon | AirToob's URL reviews

AirToobs reviews - StumbleUpon

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:45:20 -0700

I know that time is an issue for many people... So much to see, so little time...

Here are a few suggestions if you want a quick sample of what I think are the best of these pages.

Fun Stuff:

Selections from Classic Peanuts
Sock It To The Holidays (Carol Of The Bells) - a hilarious review of economics in 2008
White Christmas by Joshua Held - the coolest, funniest Christmas video ever?
Oktapodi - hilarious animation of the trials of true love
Mamma Mia! The Movie - if this doesn't cheer you up, nothing will!
Corsican Cats
Spend an evening with Diana Krall
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Most enjoyable movie of 2007: Ratatouille
St Trinian's (the movie) - wonderful political incorrectness
Zing-iest comedy movie of all time: Some Like It Hot
Miss Russian Army beauty contest
Tigger Shot: The uninvited bouncing had gone on long enough...
Technology for country folk
Childhood joys: bed bouncing
Bear Feet: grizzlies snooze the afternoon away...
Dog and cat in perfect harmony... Awwww...

Beautiful Stuff:

"Elixir" by Melanie Delon
"Healing" by Hyung Jun Kim
"Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme", Simon and Garfunkel
"For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her", Simon and Garfunkel
"River Man", haunting autumnal song in 5/4 time by Nick Drake
Beautiful stained glass by Robert Oddy
"Leaping to the high wild mountain" - snow leopard
Beautiful window frost patterns
"Dream..Dream" by Rarindra Prakarsa
"Quietness", "Sparkling", "Companionship" - pictures from the Maldives by Ahmed Zahid

[Continues in Part 2]

Brians Place - Brians Blog

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 08:54:12 -0700

People who like my StumbleUpon pages may like to know that I have opened a different blog as part of my web site.

The new blog is an assorted collection of thoughts and opinions that I have accumulated over a long period of time (a bit like those dusty old boxes in the attic), turned into something that I think people might actually want to read. People familiar with my SU pages will recognize several of them, although in the new blog I can be a bit more long-winded.

If you aren't in a hurry and don't mind reading stuff without too many pictures, you are welcome to make a cup of coffee and stop by!

Autumn & Unchained Dreams

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:36:09 -0700

This is from the spiritual (non-SU) blog of a rather wonderful lady called Jonie. She has divided her blog into a number of sections, each with a theme illustrated by beautiful pictures and thoughts. Jonie is obviously deeply Christian, but her blog will strike a chord with many people of other faiths, or none.

The only problem I have with her blog is that she doesn't credit the authors of the wonderful pictures that she finds, so I can't tell you who was responsible for this one.

Jonie's blog was one of many good things to be found on the pages of meleona. Thanks, Kamelia!

sunsets

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:16:49 -0700

One of many pictures of West Highland sunsets by one of my favourite photographers, Steve Carter

[My previous post on Steve Carter]

A Glorious Dawn

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:35:13 -0700

Randy Cassingham adds a great deal of value to this extraordinary video, which is why I am directing you to his site first.

From Randy's blog:

I'm really taken with a video released on YouTube last week. It's an Auto-Tune, which is the name given to soundtracks that use the audio plug-in of the same name. Auto-Tune was designed to correct the pitch of vocals, but clever music creators realized they could use it to make spoken word recordings musical. This is a fantastic example of the genre.

It's not just fantastic because it's a clever use of Auto-Tune; I've seen that and it's fun, but it's not amazing. But in this video, John Boswell not only put some spoken word to music with compelling visuals, but he also managed to distill the essence of what Carl Sagan was saying with his groundbreaking 1980 13-hour TV series, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. (It also features a brief interlude of words from physicist Stephen Hawking.)

...

I know not everyone will like the Auto-Tune effect, and it starts out a bit weird, but it's only three and a half minutes, so stick with it: it's worth it. I recommend you play it twice: once to watch it, and then again while reading along with the lyrics, which are below...

If you like Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking, or even if you have never heard of them, don't miss this one.

Thanks to my off-SU friend Lynn for sending it to me!

Gleaming Lights of the Souls, Yayoi Kusama on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:21:58 -0700

From the page:

In Gleaming Lights of the Souls [by Yayoi Kusama] visitors are invited to enter a Tardis-like chamber, whose small interior unfolds into a magical encounter with infinity. The small room is mirrored on all four sides, with a shallow pool of water on the floor. A changing constellation of small LED lights hung from the ceiling produce an infinite chain of endless reflections, transforming the small white cube into a distinctly otherworldly place.

This obsessive patterning began on the canvas with the infinity net paintings of the 1960's, but quickly evolved into large scale installations where every available surface was colonised by the same pattern. Sometimes associated with the psychedelic art movement, Kusama herself traces her obsessive patterning back to the hallucinations which she began to experience as a young child in the 1930's, and which continue to this day. Her work often incorporates mirrors to multiply the obsessively repeated patterns to infinity. In her infinity mirror rooms, at once joyful and terrifying, we the viewer, like the artist herself, experience the universe and ourselves obliterated in the endlessly recurring forms...

NASA captures vivid shot of sand dune at the bottom of a Martian crater | Mail Online

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:01:01 -0700

From the page:

It is one of the most dramatic images ever to emerge from Mars.

In fact, this extraordinary photograph is so clear that even the sand dunes at the base of the half-mile wide canyon are visible.

Experts even believe that they can see the tracks of a Mars lander on the left-hand corner of the Victoria Crater.

This image of the Victoria Crater in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The reduced image above does no justice to the original. Check out the original hi res images from NASA/JPL, and visit the HiRISE link if you would like to see some more truly awesome stuff.

Thanks to dayseye for this one - one of many beautiful and fascinating things to be found on her pages.

If you like this...

[Slide show of Saturn - commentary on images from the Cassini spacecraft]

Sand Art: When Beaches Become Giant Artistic Canvases

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:16:53 -0700

From the page:

Peter Donnelly is an artist who can truly claim to see the bigger picture while attending to the devil that's in the detail.

He is also an artist who is far from precious about his work, since few mediums can be as transitory as the one he chooses to work in. While humankind has surely been creating artworks out of sand since long before we have been able to preserve any trace of their fleeting existence, few sand artists can have worked on such a scale as Peter Donnelly. And few revelled so much in the march of the incoming tide.

Gratefully snaffled from the beautiful pages of my friend (and gold stumbler par excellence) expressioniste.

Scott Prior

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:06:35 -0700

Beach House in Fog

Summer Cabin Kitchen

Wonderful examples of the use of light in painting by Scott Prior, one of my favourite artists

[My previous post on Scott Prior]

sollunes review - StumbleUpon

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:51:12 -0700

My friend Louis found this on Culturazzi, a great culture site well worth visiting.

(Unfortunately the original location/author of this photo has been mislaid... still trying to find it!)