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At a 1998 conference on technology and life, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams once proposed the notion of a sentient puddle. Imagine it “waking up one morning and thinking, ‘This is an interesting world I find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself in — fits me rather neatly, […]
The expression “YOLO” may now be just passé enough to require explanation. It stands, as only some of us would try to deny remembering, for “You only live once,” a sentiment that reflects an eternal truth. Some bodies of religious belief don’t strictly agree with it, of course, but that was also true 24 centuries […]
It’s a sad fact that the vast majority of silent movies in Japan have been lost thanks to human carelessness, earthquakes and the grim efficiency of the United States Air Force. The first films of hugely important figures like Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu, and Hiroshi Shimizu have simply vanished. So we should consider ourselves fortunate […]
This Is Spinal Tap came out more than 40 years ago. At the time, says director Rob Reiner in a recent interview at San Diego Comic-Con, “nobody got it. I mean, they thought I’d made a movie about a real band that wasn’t very good, and why wouldn’t I make a movie about the Beatles […]
It seems not to be documented whether the Santa Ana winds were blowing when Maya Deren and Alexander Hackenschmied shot Meshes of the Afternoon. But everything about the film itself suggests that they must have been, so vivid does its atmosphere of luxuriantly arid paranoia remain these 62 years later. Despite its runtime of less […]
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The Merrie Tales of Jacques Tournebroche And Child Life in Town and Country (1909) is a collection of short stories set in the 1400s by French writer and Noel Laureate Anatole France (1844 – 1924). The 1923 edition contains illustrations from woodcuts by the British artist Marcia Lane Foster (1897-1983) and endpapers by Aubrey Beardsley. … Continue reading "The Merrie Tales of Jacques Tournebroche, 1923" The post The Merrie Tales of Jacques Tournebroche, 1923 appeared first on Flashbak.
Almost every famous Greek God or Goddess has a Roman counterpart, many of whom were used to name the planets in our solar system, like Jupiter (Zeus) and Neptune (Poseidon). The Romans adopted much of Ancient Greek religion, renaming deities while retaining their core attributes and characteristics. Hestia and Vesta are two such goddesses, residing […]
How Important was the French Revolution? JamesHoare Thu, 08/07/2025 - 08:38
The struggle for control over every aspect of life is common in modern Western society. However, this approach can be juxtaposed with the ancient Chinese religious and philosophical ideas of Taoism. Taoism offers a guide for living a free-flowing life that is guided by the harmonious state of the universe. It perpetuates the belief […]
“I look at these photographs and feel the overwhelming sensation of the noise of these low-flying aircraft. Yet I could leave what seemed like a war zone. And it was a kind of war, long-time residents trying for normalcy and the powers that be wanting them out.” – Michael Philip Manheim on Logan Airport, Boston, … Continue reading "Logan Airport Versus Neptune Road, Photographing Boston’s ‘War’ of 1973" The post Logan Airport Versus Neptune Road, Photographing Boston’s ‘War’ of 1973 appeared first on Flashbak.
