The Bosch Project is a selection of ultra high definition images of Hieronymus's paintings that offer the ability to zoom in close enough to see brush stokes and individual cracks in the paintwork.  Bosch's scenes often include minute background elements which would be difficult to see with the naked eye even if you're standing right in front of the actual painting.  It's the work of Rob Erdmann of the Rijksmuseum and he's also given a similar treatment to Rembrandt's Night Watch.

Lockdown Links #8

I’ll Tell You a Story…
"Today, we’re going to answer a huge burning question about The Young Ones. No, nothing to do with flash frames, or hidden fifth housemates. This is the really important stuff. Exactly what is the farty neighbour watching on her television in “Cash”, just before she switches over to Andy De La Tour doing a public information film?"

Fatherland: Limited Edition Blu-ray - Notes on an Essay:
From Frank Collins: "Due for release by Indicator on 19 April 2021, this limited edition Blu-Ray of Ken Loach's Fatherland(1986) features my new essay on the film in the booklet that accompanies the first pressing."

Billie Piper: ‘I know about dysfunctional relationships – what it costs to be a woman’:
"After 25 years in the limelight, the actor says she is finally finding her voice as an actor, writer and now director. Does life imitate art?"

Magary: I tested the dumbest PPE of all time - the Rich Guy COVID Helmet:
"The Microclimate Air is the pandemic accessory you do not need."

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7: Aaron Sorkin samples the menu:
"DB here: Love him or hate him, you have to admit that Aaron Sorkin has carved out a unique position in contemporary Hollywood. If we want to understand craft practice from the position of media poetics—that is, the principles governing form, style, and theme in particular historical circumstances—we can usefully look at him as a powerful example."

What Parler Saw During the Attack on the Capitol:
"As supporters of President Donald Trump took part in a violent riot at the Capitol, users of the social media service Parler posted videos of themselves and others joining the fray. ProPublica reviewed thousands of videos uploaded publicly to the service that were archived by a programmer before Parler was taken offline by its web host. Below is a collection of more than 500 videos that ProPublica determined were taken during the events of Jan. 6 and were relevant and newsworthy. Taken together, they provide one of the most comprehensive records of a dark event in American history through the eyes of those who took part."

Non-geographic postcodes:
"Note that a number of non-geographic postcode sectors are also contained within geographic postcode areas."

San Antonio 10-year-old cashes in on GameStop stocks he was gifted 2 years ago:
"When Jaydyn Carr unwrapped his GameStop shares his mom gifted him for Kwanzaa two years ago, neither mother nor son expected he'd eventually be in the middle of a stock surge."

Lessons from A Pandemic Anniversary:
"It's not just what we know, but how we know it."

Dungeons & Dragons Has an Antisemitism Problem:
"The roleplaying game is one of my favorite things in the world, which makes it all the more disappointing to find coded antisemitic themes throughout."

Lockdown Links #7

No mask, no shop - UK supermarkets insist on face coverings:
"Tesco, Asda and Waitrose will not let shoppers into their stores if they are not wearing a face covering, the British supermarket groups said on Tuesday, joining rivals Sainsbury’s and Morrisons which made the policy change a day earlier."

Public Radio Stations Rebuke 'N.Y. Times' Over Actions In Correcting 'Caliphate':
"An influential group of more than 20 public radio stations in major cities across the country are condemning the actions of The New York Times and its star host of the hit podcast The Daily, Michael Barbaro, in addressing the collapse of the newspaper's award-winning audio series, Caliphate."

Seven shows for lockdown 2021 that you probably haven't watched yet:
"Check out these top TV shows to try."

D.C.’s Vaccine Jackpots Are Getting Out of Control:
"Pharmacies have quietly been offering leftover COVID-19 shots to random people in the store. You can guess where this goes."

“This is a Nightmare:” Big Bang Comics’ John Hendrick on European Comics Retail, Post-Brexit:
"You may have heard of this whole Brexit thing. The departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union has been an eternal process, lasting since the beginning of time and causing an unbelievable amount of stress and debate over that span of time."

Rebekah: the techno DJ fighting sexual abuse in dance music:
"As #MeToo stories start to emerge in the dance scene, UK star Rebekah tells her own as she presses for industry change with her #ForTheMusic campaign."

The art and craft of screen graphics – interview with Daniel Højlund:
"Continuing the ongoing series of interviews on fantasy user interfaces, it’s my pleasure to welcome Daniel Højlund. In this interview he talks about the evolution of motion design in the last ten years, his work process, the balance between ideas and tools, and the pace of working on big sci-fi film productions. In between and around, Daniel dives deeper into his work on “American Assassin”, “The Martian”, “Blade Runner:2049” and the recently released “Pacific Rim: Uprising”."

Writing Godzilla:
"Godzilla was written in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico — Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin’s favourite screenwriting ground. The first draft was started in late October 1996, and was completed in December the 19th of the same year."

Doctor Who The TV Movie Target Paperback:
[From Gary Russell on Twitter: "Look at this glorious cover by Anthony Dry. Beautiful, utterly beautiful. And yes, the text has been *slightly* updated from the original with a couple of moments I was asked to take out in 1996 now put back in, some better geography and a few errors corrected. V proud of this."]

Amazon Unveils A Synopsis For The Lord Of The Rings Series:
"Having spent boatloads of money to secure the rights to, and produce a series based on JRR Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings, Amazon has been at work on the show in New Zealand. And the first official synopsis for the series is online."

Lockdown Links #6

BBC Philharmonic binaural recordings:
"Binaural sound gives headphone listeners a realistic impression of 3D space. Sounds can come from all around you, including above and below, giving a greater feeling of immersion."

Streaming: the restless career of Nicolas Cage:
"While the actor turns the air blue in Netflix’s History of Swear Words, delve into his eclectic back catalogue from Moonstruck to Mandy."

Magic at the End of the Lane: ‘Classic’ Doctor Who, from An Unearthly Child on January 1st to The TV Movie on December 31st:
"(Day Nine — January 9th 2021 Wall of Eyes and Rider From Shang-Tu) I’ve got a bit of a fascination with the TARDIS. Not so much the fictional TARDIS as it appears within Doctor Who, but rather the TARDIS as a prop or a set used in the production of the programme. You may have noticed that in this blog already, because I keep pointing out what I think are interesting things about the prop as I go along."

Remake/remodel: 45 weird and wonderful alternative film cuts:
"All films exist in slightly different cuts but sometimes the alternative versions are fascinating in their own right, with entirely new scenes and different rhythms that enable them to stand on their own against the original. We pick some of the most intriguing examples."

WindowSwap:
"Let's face it. We are all stuck indoors. And it's going to be a while till we travel again. Window Swap is here to fill that deep void in our wanderlust hearts by allowing us to look through someone else's window, somewhere in the world, for a while. A place on the internet where all we travel hungry fools share our 'window views' to help each other feel a little bit better till we can (responsibly) explore our beautiful planet again. Let's travel without moving for now. Let's window swap."

Have a taste of ‘gumbo diplomacy’ by making this Biden nominee’s classic recipe:
"Anyone who has served a big pot of gumbo to family and friends knows exactly what Linda Thomas-Greenfield means when she refers to “gumbo diplomacy.”"

Bong Joon-Ho Talks 괴물 (The Host):
"The budget's scale might be similar, but what we wanted to show and how we do it is completely different. Also, the film doesn't cling to spectacle like many Hollywood blockbusters do. So if you really have to compare it to a foreign film, it might still follow the alien theme, but more than Independence Day it would be something focusing on the family like Signs maybe?"

The Day the Great Apes Died: The Legacy of the 1995 Philadelphia Zoo Fire:
"Twenty-five years ago, the tragedy at the World of Primates building broke the city’s heart and raised a loaded question: What, exactly, do we owe the animals in our care?"

Simon Pegg on where the four Beatles' voices are found in your mouth:
"In this 41-second video, Simon Pegg describes his party trick of showing how to do Beatles impressions based on where they are in your mouth. John is high in your head, Paul is higher, George is on the side of your mouth, and Ringo is right up front."

Lucy and Ardi: The two fossils that changed human history:
"Kermit Pattison, author of Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Ancestor and the Origins of Humankind, tells the story of two skeletons that changed our understanding of the evolution of humans."

Lockdown Links #5

Transformers: The Movie and The Great Toy Massacre of 1986:
"Transformers: The Movie traumatized a generation of kids with a string of startling deaths."

DOCTOR WHO – ‘Revolution of the Daleks’ reviewed by Frank Collins:
"The Doctor escapes from her alien prison with the help of an old friend, and returns to help prevent a disaster."
[Editor's note: Absolutely fair summation of what was a deeply average episode. Chris Chibnall's best decision as showrunner was to hire Jodie Whittaker. His worst was deciding to write some episodes himself. Apart from the odd bright spot usually credited someone else, his tenure has been a catastrophe.]

Climate change: 2020 in a dead heat for world's warmest year:
"New data from EU satellites shows that 2020 is in a statistical dead heat with 2016 as the world's warmest year."
[Editor's note: Of course is bloody is. I'll shut up now.]

The untold truth of Jif peanut butter:
"Peanut butter has a long and interesting history. Evidence points to the Incas being the first people to grind peanuts, and the first person who made peanut butter in the United States was John Harvey Kellogg, who invented a form of it in 1895 (via National Peanut Board). Jif was born more than half a century later in 1958 (via Jif)."

Food at 20: its biggest year:
"20 years ago when BBC Food was first created we would never have imagined how we’d be celebrating its 20th anniversary. The average weekly traffic across all weeks in 2020 was 3.4m unique UK browsers, which was up +74% on the average for the previous calendar year. The peak weekly traffic came at Easter with 6.4m UK unique browsers.. That’s quite a birthday party!"

Chicken tikka masala:
"Chicken tikka masala – we love you. A quintessential British recipe and one that shouldn't rely on a phone call to the takeaway."

What Would Statehood for Washington, D.C. Mean?
"On Wednesday night, Democrats clinched a narrow majority in the Senate, wresting control of both chambers of Congress for the first time since 2011."

Ian McKellen Shares Regret Over Not Realizing Elliot Page’s Struggle on ‘X-Men’ Set:
"McKellen reflects on Page's "difficulty with communicating" during the production of "X-Men."

Roku acquires Quibi’s content:
"Quibi is dead, but its shows will live on."

What I learned playing 30+ years’ worth of Jeopardy! video games:
"From the Apple II to PS4, digital Jeopardy! spans 40+ games and traces the medium's history."

Lockdown Links #4

Doctor Who's Sacha Dhawan on his battle with anxiety: 'Getting help was scary':
"The young actor, who plays the timelord’s arch enemy The Master, talks about his meaty new role in The Great – and reveals how he overcame the fears that used to leave him traumatised in his trailer."

What Anxiety Does to Your Brain and What You Can Do About It:
"Anxiety is a perfectly normal and natural part of being a human. There are always going to be times when we’re more nervous or worried than others, but for some, anxiety is a much stronger, more fearsome force—one that never goes away. But what is anxiety exactly, and what’s going on in your mind (and your body) when it strikes? How do you cope when it takes hold?"

Scoring The West Wing: Q&A With W.G. Snuffy Walden:
"Composer W.G. Snuffy Walden on putting The White House to music."

Blue badge permit 'shocking disparity' revealed:
"People with non-visible disabilities such as autism or Parkinson's disease face a "shocking disparity" when applying for a blue badge parking permit, a BBC investigation has found."

A midsummer night's sax comedy: the return of the lost Shakespeare jazz musical:
"It had the hottest musicians, the coolest singers – and Louis Armstrong playing Bottom. But Swingin’ the Dream was a $2m flop. Can the RSC breathe new life into this big band take on the bard?"

Williamson Art Gallery closure threat would 'leave many people's lives much lonelier':
"Campaigners say losing the 92-year-old gallery would 'leave many people's lives much emptier and lonelier'"

Alfre Woodard Discusses Police Violence and the Ending of Clemency:
"Clemency, the 2019 film directed and written by Chinonye Chukwu, is a masterwork. It centers on the life of Bernadine Williams (played by the marvelous Alfre Woodard), a death row warden facing her 12th execution — that of Anthony Woods (a striking performance by Aldis Hodge)."

Putney to Manchester:
"As part of a Tomorrow's World investigation into transport efficiency, BBC producer Paul Ferris attempts to travel from south-west London to Manchester on foot, buses, underground, overground, BEA coaches and plane. He discovers that it is a bit of a faff. Originally broadcast 6 January 1966."

The Generation that Doesn’t Believe Helen Keller Existed:
"And what that says about the world we’re growing up in."

Microsoft tried to buy Nintendo, but got laughed out of the room:
"The company wanted Nintendo's software for the original Xbox."

Lockdown Links #3

SEEN, READ 2020:
"01/01 LES MISERABLES (’19)"

VR: L - A City Through Its People:
"L— A City Through Its People brings together three distinct exhibitions, the combined archives of which cover a time period of Liverpool from the 1950s to the present day. Spanning evolutions in industry, society, and leisure at a time of rapid change and challenge, they share unique approaches and perspectives in telling a story about Liverpool, its people, and the ideals that lend the city charm and a distinct personality."
[Editor's Note: Co-curated by friend of the blog Laura Robertson. Linked page includes this virtual version of the exhibition at the Open Eye Gallery which now closed due to lockdown.]

Let's all meet up in the year 3000! Inside the immersive Doctor Who: Time Fracture:
"Audiences can explore 17 different worlds, meet Daleks and drink cocktails in an ambitious theatre show this spring."

Put Peanut Butter Powder in Everything:
"it wasn’t very long ago that mainstream nut butter options were limited to the smooth or chunky varieties of peanut butter offered by a handful of familiar brands (or their in-store generic counterparts). Today, reality is far nuttier."

The Oral History of 12 Monkeys, Terry Gilliam's Time Travel Masterpiece:
"Inverse speaks with director Terry Gilliam and nine other people involved in the making of this 1996 sci-fi cult classic."

Why isn’t the UK government talking about airborne transmission of Covid-19?
"Even now, ministers appear reluctant to admit past mistakes and explain to the public how risky meeting indoors really is."

When should you take your Christmas decorations down?
"Christmas might not have felt very fun or festive this year and many of us will be wondering when we should take our tree and decorations down."

Windows 10’s taskbar is getting a big update with new weather and news widget:
"The biggest change to the Windows taskbar for a few years."

Document: The White House Coup, 1933:
"The White House Coup. During the 1930s, some of Wall Street's most famous names plotted to overthrow president Franklin Roosevelt."

Taylor Swift Shut Down Those "Woodvale" Third Album Theories And Said The Whole Thing Was Actually Sparked By Her Own Mistake:
"Always remember to remove secret code names for album titles when mocking up their artwork."

Lockdown Links #1

National lockdown: Stay at Home:
"Coronavirus cases are rising rapidly across the country. Find out what you can and cannot do."

How the Escalator Forever Changed Our Sense of Space:
"Sure, the 19th-century invention transformed shopping. But it also revolutionized how we think about the built environment."

Hope springs: why we might get two years’ worth of quality films in 2021:
"If everything goes to plan, this year we’ll get two awards seasons in one – after a lengthy cinema hiatus, it’ll be all feast, no famine."

Listen to the ‘Revolution of the Daleks’ soundtrack now:
"The soundtrack for the Doctor Who New Year’s Day special, Revolution of the Daleks, is now available on all digital services."

Hair ice: The strange phenomenon of 'candy floss' on trees:
"If you go down to the woods today for a winter walk, you could be in for a big surprise."

Did You Know How Ice Was Preserved In The Deserts Of Persia?
"Ancient structures used to make and preserve ice in the deserts of Persia."

Roku might pick up all of that abandoned Quibi content, raise it as its own:
"The Quibi team may have had trouble finding some poor sap to buy the underwhelming mobile-forward streaming service before its quick demise in December, but it appears that they are still able to rehome its recently abandoned content."

The International Space Station can’t stay up there forever. Will privately run, commercial replacements be ready in time?
"Concerns are rising that the United States could be left for years without a place to send its astronauts if planning doesn’t begin soon for a new space station."

Free Games:
"Epic Games Store gives you a free game every week. Come back often for the exclusive offers. Download a free game or join a free-to-play game community today." [Editor's Note: It's currently Jurassic World: Evolution.]

What Happened to The New Mutants?
"The behind-the-scenes story of an X-Men horror movie five years in the making involves The Breakfast Club, penis graffiti, and a whole lot of rewrites."

Lockdown Links 2.2

Covid-19: Liverpool mass-testing finds 700 cases with no symptoms:
"Public Health England director Dr Susan Hopkins said nearly 100,000 people had been tested over the last 10 days. She stressed that these positive cases would have not been detected otherwise."

Ga. secretary of state says fellow Republicans are pressuring him to find ways to exclude legal ballots:
"Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Monday that he has come under increasing pressure in recent days from fellow Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), to question the validity of legally cast absentee ballots in an effort to reverse President Trump’s narrow loss in the state."

A holiday diamond in the rough: An oral history of The Family Stone:
"The star-studded cast revisits the making of their 2005 angsty Christmas classic."

Not My Job: We Quiz Comic Chelsea Peretti On The Chelsea Football Club:
"We've invited comic, writer and actor Chelsea Peretti — you may know her as self-involved administrator Gina Linetti from Brooklyn 99 — to answer three questions about The Chelsea Football Club, the English soccer team. Peretti's latest film is called Friendsgiving."

Keen to make new friends? Here are simple three techniques to try:
"I would love to have a friend who is like-minded and can give me their opinion when needed. Plus, my eldest child is going to start school next year, and it would be lovely if I had someone to share school tips with me."

Julia Stiles is “extremely embarrassed” by her stint on Ghostwriter
"A working actor since she was 11, Julia Stiles has spent literally all of her adult life in the public eye."

Been getting a lot of questions about the recent sale of my old masters. I hope this clears things up: 

"I just wanted to check in and update you guys. As you know, for the pastr year I've been actively trying to regain ownership of my master recordings. With that goal in mind, my team attempted to enter into negotiations with Scooter Braun."

Universal Strikes Deal With Cinemark Allowing Movies to Premiere On-Demand Early:
"Under their terms, any movie that earns more than $50 million in opening weekend ticket sales has to stay in theaters for at least 31 days, or five weekends. All other titles can be made available to rent on digital platforms after just 17 days."

Three Studios, Three Strategies: How COVID-19 Turned Film Releases Into a Free-for-All:
"Studios were always competitors, but after the pandemic are they all in the same business?"

Academy Museum Gives Debbie Reynolds Her Due as a Costume Conservator:
"When the “Singin’ in the Rain” actress was alive, the film academy turned up its nose at her fabled costume collection. Now it has gone to her son with hat in hand."

Lockdown Links 2.1

 

How long will our DVDs and Blu-rays last? 

"We’re big fans of physical media here for our movies at home – but as Brendon reports, it’s not without a few problems."

‘Fantasia’ Turns 80: Why Its Technological Achievements Can’t Salvage Its Shortcomings: 

"Walt Disney approached ‘Fantasia’ much the way Peter Jackson did his ‘Hobbit’ movies or Ang Lee ‘Gemini Man.’"

[Film Stories] 

Stanley Kubrick and Kirk Douglas wanted Doctor Zhivago movie rights: "Director wrote to Boris Pasternak in late 1950s, previously unpublished material reveals." [The Guardian] 

Rugby School to sell 'rare' Shakespeare and Dickens books: 

"A "rare" Shakespeare book being sold by Rugby School is estimated to fetch up to £50,000 at auction." [BBC News] 

Netflix's 'Dawson's Creek' Theme Song Closes Tortured Saga: 

"Netflix started streaming all six seasons of the WB's "Dawson's Creek" for the first time. It was like the '90s all over again! But with one big difference: The old theme song, Paula Cole's "I Don't Want to Wait," had been replaced by Jann Arden's "Run Like Mad." [Huffington Post] 

Pepe the Frog: Feels Good Man: 

"A Storyville documentary. Pepe the Frog started life in 2005 as a cute cartoon character in an online comic. Today, he is known as an international hate symbol after being hijacked by the alt-right." [BBC iPlayer]

"Oh I won't have it. I'm going to fight it until the bitter end."

TV BBC Archive has posted another massive collection of clips, Eccentrics, enthusiasts and other characters, featuring the kinds of people who these days are setting fire to 5G masts and holding rallies against not wearing a mask in a shop. The title quote is from a blanketed deerstalker who's dead against lamp posts, bless him. Or how about from when Panorama was more like The One Show directed by Bela Tarr, as a farther and son craftsmen discuss the various economic merits of the busts they manufacture.

The tricks to make yourself effortlessly charming.

Life This old BBC article from 2017 bubbled up to the surface of my pocket recommendations and although some of it feels like hogwash, I did find myself nodding along with swathes. The key problem I've seen is when your attempts at charm click over into creepiness. When someone is asking just too many questions and getting just a little bit too close, causing your skin to crawl.  Although that's obviously become less of a problem lately.
[Related: ‘Remember to smile with your eyes’: how to stay safe and look great in a face mask.]

Emojipedia.

Social Media The Empojipedia is a Rosetta stone of digital symbolic communication, showing how various software companies has bent their house style around various emojis. For things like "grinning face" the variations aren't too huge, but the more complex the picture being communication, the greater the variance. This array of unicorns. These athletes. A housing estate.

Be Kind Rewind.

Video  Few YouTube channels come nicher than Be Kind Rewind which investigates the winners of the best actress categories at the Oscars, using this moment of success to talk about the film making business at that time, why the particular actress may have won that award, gender politics and race and a whole lot more besides.

BKR only posts once a month. These are authored, researched essays.  But I've learnt more about film history from these videos than many other sources.  Plus its great for seeing clips of films which time has forgotten.  Her most recent video is the longest yet, about the "feud" between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, debunking Ryan Murphy's tv series as a sham and lies.

Lockdown Links #14

New On Streaming Services:

Little Joe which was released theatrically just before the lockdown, is now available on the BFI Player, both stand alone and Amazon Prime flavours. It's fine, unless you know a tiny area around Hope Street, Myrtle Street and Catherine Street in Liverpool as you spend the whole film shaking your head at the wonky geography. The Foresight Centre is not a school. Is it supposed to be set in Liverpool? No one has an accent despite the shots of the Everyman, down Duke Street towards the Liver Buildings and the interior of the Philharmonic Pub. It's really quite unsettling.

In some ways the how Little Joe is filmed and the substance reminds me of a Liverpool Biennial commission. Without the dramatic elements, if it was just the shots of people tending the flowers, you could imagine it projected on a wall at FACT. That's a complement. Other than that it's a creepy attempt to redo Star Trek's This Side of Paradise in a cold, metropolitan setting.

Netflix's Homemade is a series of short films made in lockdown by major directors and stars. Features Ladj Ly, Paolo Sorrentino, Rachel Morrison, Pablo Larrain, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kristen Stewart and Gurinder Chadha:

Staged, the new sitcom starring the Tenth Doctor and and the man RTD and Moffat joked about taking over the role in the Forest of the Dead podcast commentary is on the iPlayer in full and utterly beguiling.  In my head canon it's set in the same satirical universe as The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot.

The Color of Time, a 2012 art piece about Pulitzer Prize winner C.K. Williams directed by twelve film students at New York University featuring Jessica Chastain and Mila Kunis has turned up on Amazon Prime under the UK title Forever Love and advertising which makes it look like a romcom.  It is not.

Britbox now has a selection of archive episodes from World In Action. The selection seems to be based tangentially with current affairs. There's a piece from '89 about three journalists racing across London using different types of transport and from '92 about twenty people applying for jobs at Manchester City Council.

Links:

What If Moviegoing Is No Longer Fun? The Frightening Realities of COVID-19 Exhibition:
Indiewire on the practicalities of cinema going pre-vaccine. "Movie theaters are made for escape, but that’s a tough proposition if they look like a death trap."

A Decade of Sun:
NASA timelapse of Sol revolving over a ten year period.

Was Penny Lane really named after the slave merchant James Penny?
Incredibly detailed exploration on how Penny Lane was named and where the myth of its connection to the slave owner spread from.

The Observer view on the inept and dangerous handling of the easing of lockdown:
The Observer's Editorial about the mishandled easing of the lockdown. Key sentence: "Social distancing now designated at “one metre plus” had predictably collapsed to one metre minus." People are trusting a government which persistently lies.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the UK:
If you want to keep an eye on UK Coronavirus disease 2019 cases/deaths, they're available on this page at gov.uk.

Jesus Christ, Just Wear a Face Mask!
Metafilter user 109 has had enough of your anti-mask bullshit. I agree. Any time I leave the flat I wear a mask and gloves, even just to visit the front door of the block to pick up a Deliveroo order.  It's a tiny inconvenience and if we were all doing it, could save many lives.

Lockdown Links #12

'Bird of Prey' Filmmaker Cathy Yan Reflects on Box Office and Scene She Fought For:
"In a wide-ranging interview, the director delves into the Ewan McGregor moment she felt was crucial ("it was risky"), and the aftermath of the opening weekend on the female-led film: "What I was most disappointed in was this idea that perhaps it proved that we weren’t ready for this yet.""

Here’s to You, Mrs. Littlefield:
"After nearly four decades, what is there new to say about the pilot of Cheers – widely regarded as one of the best television pilots ever made?"

Film Treasures, Streaming Courtesy of the Library of Congress:
"The astonishment of riches includes up-close looks at our history in hundreds of films. And they’re all free."

7 things to do in isolation:
"Make some matchstick sculptures"

Quibi — the new short-form streaming service for your phone — explained:
"The trouble with Quibi is that everything Quibi does, other streaming services are already doing better."

'Like a permanent bank holiday': museums at greater risk of break-ins during lockdown:
"Reduced security staff and distracted police forces could lead to a rise in art thefts—but there are measures that can be taken to protect collections."

Again, what are museum objects for? And who cares anyway?
"Many of us are at home, practising social distancing or self-isolation as a result of the Covid-19 global pandemic. Friends and family have been sending me messages about how they are spending their time, and sharing their feelings and thoughts, in a period where both communication and loneliness have intensified."

Shakespeare’s secret co-writer finally takes a bow … 430 years late:
"Thomas Watson recognised by literary scholars as the Bard’s forgotten 16th-century collaborator."

Lockdown Links #11.

New on the streaming services.

Hustlers, one of the best films from last year, has been added Amazon Prime.

Season Four of Veronica Mars is now on Starz Play (which I'm incredibly nervous to watch).

Daily Dose of Doctor Who.

Making Doctor Who
"The Lively Arts goes behind the scenes of the UK's biggest sci-fi show." (and extended clip from Whose Doctor Who.)

Links.

A message to our readers (from Sight and Sound): we’re here to stay:
"How we’re planning for the Covid-19 quarantine – from special issues to a new email Weekly Film Bulletin."

Amazon Teams With SXSW to Launch a Virtual Fest:
"The films will stream for free on the platform over 10 days, likely in late April."

‘Star Trek: Picard’ Finale Sparks Philosophical Fan Debate — Is Picard Still Picard?
"Article contains SPOILERS for the Star Trek: Picard season one finale."

Lola Álvarez Bravo’s 117th Birthday:
"Today’s Doodle celebrates one of Mexico’s first professional female photographers, Lola Álvarez Bravo, on her 117th birthday. Known for her portraits of public figures, as well as street photography chronicling decades of Mexican life, she is considered one of the country’s pioneers of modernist photography." (Google Images search)

What are the earliest produced films based on comics?
"Searching the Library of Congress for early examples of comic strip adaptations on film!"

The Worm is Back!
"The original NASA insignia is one of the most powerful symbols in the world. A bold, patriotic red chevron wing piercing a blue sphere, representing a planet, with white stars, and an orbiting spacecraft. Today, we know it as “the meatball.” However, with 1970’s technology, it was a difficult icon to reproduce, print, and many people considered it a complicated metaphor in what was considered, then, a modern aerospace era."

Lockdown Links #10

New on the streaming services.

Classic indie Big Night, directed by Stanley Tucci, has been added to Netflix. Although perhaps not the best film to watch now that we're all fighting over home delivery slots at supermarkets, if you can stomach it, you'll be introduced to the timpano, a glorious mound of Italian food which you'll probably add to you bucket list for when the apocalypse is over. The Guardian posted a celebration of the film back in 2016.


"Daily" Dose of Doctor Who.

Press Play - a new short story by Pete McTighe:

[A useful advert for Britbox and the iPlayer.]


Links.

The Classical Companion Collection:
"In circumstances like these, radio is everyone's friend. So, to help everyone be entertained and diverted – and perhaps teased a bit in the "little grey cells" department – here you'll find links to special collections of music (produced in collaboration with BBC Archive), fun and useful articles and podcasts, and some of Radio 3's best online quizzes."

How the coronavirus hit cinema:
"Like every other part of life, the business of making and showing films has been disrupted in extraordinary ways – and nobody knows what the future will bring."

National Museums Liverpool Virtual tours:
"Have you ever wanted a museum or exhibition all to yourself? Now you can explore at your own pace with our 3D virtual tours. Discover the wonders of our museums, galleries and exhibitions below." [Features the International Slavery Museum and from the World Museum, World Cultures, Dinosaurs and Natural World. -- ed.]

Star Trek’s New Science Advisor Dr. Erin Macdonald On Putting The Sci In Sci-Fi:
"Dr. Erin Macdonald calls herself a “Tattooed Scottish-American N7 Slytherin Rebel from Starfleet.” As an astrophysicist, she worked on the LIGO project that searches the cosmos for gravitational waves. Among her tattoos is a beautiful illustration of the USS Voyager. She regularly hosts science talks at conventions – including the recent Star Trek cruise, which ended just a week or so before the coronavirus shut down the industry – and late last year became Star Trek’s official science consultant, beginning with season 3 of Discovery."

Stuck inside these four walls: Chamber cinema for a plague year:
"We’re in the midst of a wondrous national experiment: What will Americans do without sports? Movies come to fill the void, and websites teem with recommendations for lockdown viewing. Among them are movies about pandemics, about personal relationships, and of course about all those vistas, urban or rural, that we can no longer visit in person."


Some Shakespeare.

The page's the thing – take it from Shakespeare's earliest readers:
"With theatres closed, now is the time to find pleasure in Shakespeare’s texts. His first fans used them for chat-up lines – and read the plays without the baggage of Bardolatry."


Today's Album.

Lockdown Links #9

Livestreaming Your Art:
"Jason Crouch walks you through some of the potential issues and shining opportunities involved in streaming performances."

Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins reveals why she didn’t want to direct Thor: The Dark World:
"The director shares why she really left the Thor sequel all those years ago."

[Editor's note: To save you the click, it's because she didn't think the script was workable and didn't want to be blamed for the mess which came out the other end which would be doubly difficult because she's a woman and that would be the assumed reason. I watched This Changes Everything about women in Hollywood and as that documentary demonstrates, despite Thor: The Dark World doing huge box office (which everyone forgets) because it was thought to be a critical failure, she wouldn't have been allowed to make another film again.]

Todd Haynes’s Masterpiece “Safe” Is Now a Tale of Two Plagues:
"Todd Haynes’s 1995 masterpiece, “Safe,” begins with the camera crawling at something like the speed limit through a meticulous stretch of twilit upscale suburbia that a credit somewhat redundantly identifies as California’s San Fernando Valley, and much more helpfully as 1987."

Why coronavirus might save the BBC:
"It seems the distant past now, but just a few weeks ago there was very real talk of the end of the BBC. Then the virus hit."

BBC Sounds - an audio treasure trove for everyone in the coming months:
"Now more than ever, we know people want things which make them laugh and smile, tell them what’s going on and help support their health, education and wellbeing."

Coronavirus has exposed the reality of a world without work:
"This pandemic is throwing into stark relief a treacherous fact: we depend on employment, both for survival and a sense of self."

Congratulations, Your Kids Are Now Your Coworkers:
"Tips on how to survive the lockdown with your children and sanity intact—by a veteran of working from home."

DC finally reveals the alternate BATMAN: A DEATH IN THE FAMILY art in which Jason Todd lived A rare peak at true DC Comics history:
"Batman: A Death in the Family, the seminal four-part storyline by Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, Mike DeCarlo, Adrienne Roy, and John Costanza, saw the end of Jason Todd as the second Robin at the hands of The Joker — and over 5,000 fans who voted in a phone-in poll to kill him off."

How One Arthouse Theater Rebranded as "Digital Drive-In" to Stay Afloat:
"When Coral Gables Art Cinema was forced to close its doors on March 18, co-executive director Brenda Moe decided to take it digital, inviting patrons to "drive in" to flicks on the theater's website instead: “We have to be clever to keep our doors open.""

Lockdown Links #8

New on the streaming services.

The Veronica Mars film has appeared on Amazon's Starz channel ahead of the fourth season turning up there shortly.

BBC Scotland are repeating Your Cheatin' Heart, John Byrne's 1990 follow up to Tutti Frutti starring Tilda Swinton and John Gordon Sinclair which means it's on the iPlayer here, which Tilda would have shot in the midst of her time otherwise working with Derek Jarmon.


Some Shakespeare.

The National Theatre have announced that during the lockdown they're going to run some of their NT Live recordings on YouTube which includes the 2017 production of Twelfth Night starring Tamsin Grieg as Malvolio starting on Thursday 23rd April until the 30th, which sounds like a great way to celebrate Shakespeare's birthday (which Billington gave four stars).


Links.

Spine-tingling moment Liverpool erupts in applause for NHS workers battling coronavirus:
"One nurse said "it means the world to me and all my colleagues""

For Drive-In Theaters, an Unexpected Revival:
"A retro tradition get a (temporary) boost from social-distancing edicts.."

Elizabeth Parker - BBC Radiophonic Workshop:
"Elizabeth Parker of the Radiophonic Workshop explains how she created the score for David Attenborough's The Living Planet."