Today is James Baldwin's birthday

He was born in Harlem in 1924, became an accomplished writer in his twenties, moved to France and got involved in the cultural radicalism of the Left Bank, achieved massive success in his thirties with Go Tell It on the Mountain and Giovanni's Room, returned to the United States and became a social and political activist. Aside from novels, Baldwin wrote tons of essays, plays, and poetry during his lifetime. He died from Esophageal cancer in 1987 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence and was buried in New York.

To commemorate Baldwin's birthday, here's I Heard It Through the Grapevine, a free-form, feature-length documentary produced in 1982. The film, made by Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley, follows the writer as he revisits the settings of civil rights struggles of the 1960s in the Deep South and reexamines the movement's ideals twenty years later.

Comments

The Adorable Sculptures of Yen Yen Lo

These images are from a series of wall sculptures created by Yen Yen Lo . Here you can see her intricately textured ceramic pieces, looking downright adorable. Yen Yen Lo's eye for the unique and whimsical is delightful. Apparently they are not intended for kids under 16. Fifteen-year-olds cannot be trusted with fragile stuff. Get them a Funko Pop instead.

What if directors actually looked like the characters in their films?

One of the things I like about the internet is the fact that it provides an endless showcase for the most incredible corners of human creativity. Like, for example, these quirky wooden sculptures by Seattle-based artist Mike Leavitt . For his latest series, King Cuts , Mike transforms some of the most renowned filmmakers into satirical sculptures. They're on view at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in New York until June 11, consists of 16 new hand-carved sculptures of directors like Tim Burton, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino. The artist fused Burton with three of the filmmaker's works; Batman , Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands , while Hitchcock is transformed into one of his own attacking birds. Watch the making of the Tarantino sculpture below. You can also follow Mike on Instagram to see his work in progress.

Good things come in small boxes

Here's a tip: If you lose your child at The Museum of Modern Art, try the MoMa Design Store , where he's likely roaming around and looking for some cool toys. Among the things worth buying is this Science Experiment Toolbox, which contains everything kids as young as four need to conduct over 6 exciting experiments. Made of durable plastic and eco-friendly wood parts, budding engineers, inventors, and problem-solvers will be fascinated by this set. There's a bell ringer, a zoetrope, a waving hand, a climbing frog and a crane to help them learn logical concepts such energy transfer, momentum and gravity. I would have loved this as a kid.

finding cain

Search This Blog