NEWS: The British Bill of Rights (or how Human Rights are not so universal after all)

Photo: The Procrastinator Times ©

UK's new government isn't wasting any time says Thomas Gorton in Dazed Magazine, "Boris Johnson has shut down ten fire stations in London, Iain Duncan Smith is pressing on with his plan to cut £12 billion of welfare funding and Michael Gove – a man who once wrote of his support for hanging – is in charge of scrapping the Human Rights Act, a law that's been in place since 1998 to ensure that our human rights are protected." But now the Tory party wants to replace the Human Rights Act with a "British Bill Of Rights".

Gorton asked Bella Sankey, director of policy at human rights organisation Liberty, what that change in law might mean for her. This is a small extract of her thoughts: "At best, the repeal plans are merely a vapid attempt to indulge xenophobia and English nationalism. At worst, they’re a conscious bid by Government ministers to unilaterally renounce the universality of human rights and choose when and to whom they apply. As well as diminishing all of our rights, axing the Act would give a green light to tyrannical despots the world over – if UK leaders think it’s fine to limit human rights to certain groups, why shouldn’t they?" Read full article in Dazed. E.T.P. 3'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Image via Yahoo!

You might not have noticed yet, but if you have an iPhone the new U2 album is sitting there in your Music Library. Thanks to Daniel Bean now you can learn how to get rid of it. "During the company’s iPhone and Apple Watch event Tuesday, Cook was joined on stage by the band and explained that the collection of 11 songs, which you know by now is titled Songs of Innocence, would be “going out for free” on iTunes. What wasn’t explained at the time was that it would be gifted to us whether we liked it or not and be a son of a gun to get rid of if we didn’t feel like looking at it on our iPhones." Read it in Yahoo! E.T.P. 3' (absolutely worth it, of course).

PS. BTW, apparently Apple spent US$ 100 million to buy you that U2 album... and they say that musicians don't sell albums anymore. 

Photo via WIRED.

And since we are on it, let's have a look at Wired's article: The Disappointing Design of Apple's New Gadgets by Gadi Amit. "Apple’s software environment is innovative and clearly superior in cohesion and experience, but its industrial design is what we were all watching for this week at the launch of the iPhone 6, 6 Plus and Apple Watch. The centrality of Apple’s industrial design is Steve Jobs’ legacy; it is what dictates Apple’s brand dominance, its marketing storyline and its strong effect on every one of us. And it is here where Apple went slightly wrong." Read full article in Wired. E.T.P. 6'

Great selection of New York Fashion Week SS15 collections made GIFs: From Proenza Schouler's country club vixen to Wang's love letter to sneakerheads. Links to photos of the collections included. Have a look in Dazed Magazine. E.T.P. 7' 

Photo: BBC's Sherlock via Quartz.

Leo Mirani writes an intersting article in Quartz: Why people love paying for Netflix but hate paying for the BBC. The key might be as having the choice. " It is the voluntary nature of Netflix that makes subscribers feel like they’re getting value. If they spend hours browsing, they conclude it is they who are indecisive, not the service that is lacking in choice. If they don’t like it, they can stop paying. Perception of the BBC is tainted by its compulsory nature. Despite the tremendous news-gathering, Sherlock, Planet Earth, and all the other flagship shows, the British public resents not having a choice in the matter. Yet that is what makes the BBC what it is; without the mandatory fee, it would slowly crumble. It is this dichotomy that both the network and the public must live with." Read full article in Quartz. E.T.P. 3'

The Procrastinator (Some) Times Sunday 31st of August

EDITORIAL

This last weekend of August really caught me in the middle of "la rentrée", as the French call it. I've just come back from my holidays and somehow, I'm still in a different rhythm/state-of-mind that prevented my from delivering to you an extra-large, large or medium edition of The Procrastinator. This one will be a small one, but a very very nice one as, aside from the necessary (and specially dense this week) news section, there are my favorite sections: Culture & Entertainment, introducing Miranda July's new app, and some interesting Anaïs Nin thoughts on writing, Our Weekly Procrastination at the Oscar Muñoz exhibition "Protographs" @ Jeu de Paume Museum in Paris, In Dog We Trust sharing 28 ingenious things for your dog you had no idea you needed, and the letter C of ABC: Artist, Book, Celebrity.

Hope you enjoy this little edition. Happy reading, happy Sunday et bonne rentrée pour tous!


NEWS

Daily Show Video Still.

Even of you have been on extended holidays you have to heard something about the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by a white police officer, in Ferguson, Missouri; about the justified protests that started demanding justice; and, of course, about the disproportionate response of the local police to the protests. If you don't know anything about this case, or if you want to watch a pretty critical summary of the Ferguson situation, the media coverage and what it means to be black in America, Jon Stewart is, of course, your man. “Race is there and it is a constant. You’re tired of hearing about it? Imagine how f***ing exhausting it is living it”. Watch the video and read The Independent's article. E.T.P. 11'

Video still via NPR.

"The Ebola epidemic in West Africa is out of control, a major reason is corpses. Health Department teams can't pick them fast enough, and it's not easy to watch." This is how starts the visual reportage made by NPR about the body collectors in Monrovia, Liberia's capital. Nurith Aizenman writes about one of the most dangerous jobs in the time of ebola.
"When I wake up in the morning, I will pray to God to give me strength and focus," says 21-year-old Sorie Fofana.
His job is collecting the bodies of those who die from Ebola in Monrovia, Liberia's capital city of roughly 1 million people. Before, Fofana was an artist, making designs for T-shirts. The new job pays better — $1,000 a month. But every morning, the lanky, laid-back Fofana has to steel himself to go out and do the job." Read full article and watch the video in NPR. E.T.P. 10'

Photo: @spiritusdivino in Twitter via Dazed.

Raising awareness for Gaza: "While the West chucks endless buckets of water around, Palestinians have responded with their own version of the craze – the Rubble Bucket Challenge. The idea is simple: raise awareness for the political situation in Gaza by replacing ice and water with debris from bombed-out buildings.
Palestinian journalist Ayman al-Aloul and Jordanian comedian Mohammed Darwaza have spearheaded the movement, with both releasing videos of themselves pouring rubble on their heads.
"We looked for a bucket of water, however the use of water is more important than to go over our heads," Aloul says in his video. "This challenge is for all people who sympathise with the Palestinian people. We ask for solidarity from those who have followers and audience." Read full article in Dazed. E.T.P. 4'

Photo  via BBC.

Devastating chronicle by Lina Sinjab in BBC: Hope fades for Syrians one year after chemical attack.
"It is to the world's shame that it witnessed such a massacre and remained unmoved. We don't seem to matter to anyone. This issue about human rights and democracy is only a lie that the West and UN use when it suits their interests." Read full article in BBC. E.T.P. 4'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo via Dazed.

So, Miranda July just released a very Miranda July App called "Somebody". This is how it is described in Dazed Magazine: "Ever wished a stranger could break up with someone for you? Ever needed to tell your platonic friend that you're completely in love with them but can't bring yourself to do it? Artist/actress/writer Miranda July's new app "Somebody" lets strangers deliver messages verbally, meaning that you can legitimately say "At least I broke up with you face to face". The app works by sending a message intended for you to the nearest Somebody user, who then has to track you down to deliver the information." You can chose who is going to deliver your message, and when you receive one, rate the deliverer. This video directed for July and produced by MiuMiu explains everything better.

I already have the app and sent a message, hope it's delivered soon. If you still don't have it, go ahead, it sounds like a fun/weird (aka Miranda July) technological-art-experiment. Read full article in Dazed Magazine. E.T.P. (with video): 12'

Photo via Brain Pickings.

A very nice post by Maria Popova in Brain Pickings: Anaïs Nin on Writing, the Future of the Novel, and How Keeping a Diary Enhances Creativity: Wisdom from a Rare 1947 Chapbook. "In December of 1946, Anaïs Nin was invited to give a lecture on writing at Dartmouth, which received an overwhelming response. The following summer, after receiving countless requests, Nin adapted the talk in chapbook titled On Writing, which she printed at her own Gremor Press — the small publishing house Nin founded in 1942 out of disillusionment with mainstream publishing, which led her to teach herself letterpress and self-publish a handful of elegant manually typeset books with gorgeous engravings by her husband. On Writing, in which Nin considers the future of the novel and reflects on what keeping her famous diaries since the age of eleven taught her about writing, was published in a limited edition of 1,000 copies, 750 of which were for sale. Only a few are known to survive." Read full article in Brain Pickings. E.T.P. 7'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Images: Peter Mendelsund book jackets for The Trial, Hopscotch and of course Cover.

I 'discovered' book jacket designer and Knopf's Associate Art Director, Peter Mendelsund about 5  years ago when I came across the wonderful design work he did for Kafka books and his very interesting reflexions on what make Kafka, Kafka. I found everything extraordinary, honest and refreshing, and being a Kafka fan myself I entered in contact with him, he turned out to be a really nice person and a super interesting character. Back then I started following his blog, where he shows not only his finished works but also a little bit of his process and his thoughts on design and books. One of his most famous covers are the ones he did for Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, one of the ones I love most is the one he did for Rayuela, the beautiful English edition I own (shown above).

This past week I discovered that now he is publishing two books of his own (two!). One is Cover a full color collection of his design work of the past eleven years, that includes a little bit of writing, as in his blog, "as well as essays from some of the writers and designers I’ve been fortunate enough to know, and/or work for and with over this short span of time" -says Mendelsund. The second book is an exploration into the phenomenology of reading What We See When We Read, a remarkable work of nonfiction where Mendelsund "combines his profession, as an award-winning designer; his first career, as a classically trained pianist; and his first love, literature—he considers himself first and foremost as a reader—into what is sure to be one of the most provocative and unusual investigations into how we understand the act of reading," according to the Amazon summary (that sadly has no author specified). 

Several articles appeared about Mendelsund's books, I chose two: one nice interview in LA Times (E.T.P. 5') and a great Q&A about the utility of book covers in the digital world in Slate (E.T.P. 3'). Go ahead and find out more about Peter Mendelsund nice work, and if you read his books, please let me know so we can discuss them! (WWSWWR is due to be released in the UK in September 10th).

Photo via the Badass Digest.

We are as deeply shocked and sad as everyone else with Robin Williams' dead. Here are some links with the best homages from the Internet, including five in-depth interviews compiled by Long Reads. Robin William's greatest lesser-known roles, compiled by Dazed Magazine (including a clip from one of my favorites: The Fisher King). A heart-warming article by Sarah Larson in The New Yorker called Robin Williams: The Best Weirdo. And finally, a piece in The Guardian by Dean Burnett on why we should not call suicide a 'selfish' act: "News of Robin Williams’s death due to apparent suicide, said to be a result of suffering severe depression, is terribly sad. But to say taking your own life because of such an illness is a ‘selfish’ act does nothing but insult the deceased, potentially cause more harm and reveal a staggering ignorance of mental health problems."

Also, the photo above was taken from a FB status of the Badass Digest, this little story can be read as  the photo caption:  

"When Christopher Reeve was in the hospital, awaiting a back surgery that had a fifty/fifty chance of killing him, a man burst into his room. He was wearing surgical scrubs, talking in a Russian accent, and said he was there to give a rectal exam. It was Robin Williams; the two men had been roommates together at Juilliard. Later Reeve said of his life-long friend:

“For the first time since the accident, I laughed. My old friend had helped me know that somehow I was going to be okay.”

That's sort of what Robin Williams did for all of us."

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo via Dazed Magazine.

Dazed Magazine has a summer project called States of Independence  where they have invited their "favourite 30 American curators, magazines, creatives and institutions to takeover Dazed for a day." One of them is Kenneth Goldsmith, author of one of the books that helped shape my thesis, my thoughts around writing in the digital era, and justifies somehow the appropriation and re-contextualization used in the Procrastinator as a way of generating new content: "Uncreative Writing." According to Dazed, he is on a mission to tell us why we should care about poetry while featuring the diet poems of Mira González, as well as some Microsoft Word poems and found poems.  In Dazed words: "artists are flocking to poetry these days precisely because it's an orphaned and evacuated space, ready to be repurposed with poetry that looks nothing like the kind of poetry you see (but don't read) drizzled across the pages of The New Yorker. Instead of sonnets, we see apps, image macros, hacked photoshopped images, found language, hardcore programming, and YouTube videos posing as poetry. Suddenly, poetry looks interesting again." Read full article and all the poems in Dazed Magazine. E.T.P. 12'

Photo: Chronicle of a summer. Jean Rouch & Edgar Morin, France 1961

The BFI polled 340 critics, programmers and filmmakers in the search for authoritative answers to the question: What are the greatest documentaries of all time? Nick James believes that one of the most remarkable things about the Top 50 documentaries list is that it feels so fresh. "One in five of the films chosen were made since the millennium, and to have a silent film from 1929 at the top of the list is an absolute joy. That allusive essay films feature so strongly throughout demonstrates that nonfiction cinema is not a narrow discipline but a wide open country full of explorers." Some of the documentaries are classics like Chronicle of a summer, The Thin Blue Line, Sans Soleil and, of course, Nanook of the North. On my side, I still have a lot of documentaries to see, which is of course, great news. Read the list with comments from the curators and prepare for a well documented summer here. E.T.P. Days (months?).

Images: stills from Emoji Among Us via Laughingsquid.

"Emoji Among Us” is a nature documentary parody by stock footage company Dissolve that explores the role of emoji in the world. The parody was inspired by the work of Sir David Attenborough, and features stock footage from Dissolve’s library. E.T.P. 2' http://laughingsquid.com/emoji-among-us-a-nature-documentary-parody-exploring-the-role-of-emoji-in-the-world/

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Photo via The Independent.

The moon will appeared unusually large and bright on Saturday evening, but if you couldn't see it, worry not because this was just the first of three so-called ‘Supermoon’ events that will take place this summer. "On 12 July and at 01:38 (GMT) on 9 September, it will become full on the same day it is in perigree, and appear in the sky as an enormous, glowing orb." Read full article in The Independent. E.T.P. 2'

Photo via Dazed.

Thomas Gordon in Dazed Magazine writes: "Sci-fi authors have long predicted that robots will take over the world, but that moment may be closer than you think. Louis Del Monte, a physicist and the author of a new book, The Artificial Intelligence Revolution, has warned that humans won't be running the world anymore in 30 years time – robots will be." Read full article in Dazed Magazine. E.T.P. 2'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo via Dazed.

Contrary to the English, as Dazed Magazine points out, North Korea really sucks at self-deprecation "the country has just submitted an official complaint to the UN over the forthcoming release of James Franco and Seth Rogen's comedy, The Interview.
In the film, Franco and Rogen play two undercover journalists who are recruited by the CIA to asassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. Two weeks ago, a spokesperson described the film as a "blatant act of terrorism and war" to a state news agency. Now the country has taken the issue to the United Nations, with its UN ambassador Ja Song Nam writing a letter of complaint to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon." Read full article and watch The Interview's trailer in Dazed Magazine. E.T.P. 3'

Images via Les Inrocks.

Raphaële Bezin is young French filmmaker from the Ecole supérieure d’arts de Paris-Cergy who made as final dissertation a movie called "Une estéthique de coups (des opérations d'artistes)" that analyses different practices of appropriation in cinema: from the Hollywood remake, to hidden quotations, supercuts, and even parodies. An interview with Raphaële (in French) and her movie are available in Les InrocksLab. E.T.P. 3' (article) and 1h 4' (movie).

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo via The Telegraph.

Bernardette McNulty compares her first Glastonbury experience with the 2014 edition. "For my first Glastonbury (1994), I snuck in in the middle of the night hidden under a blanket in the back of a decrepit transit van with several other stragglers, as the driver flashed his trader’s pass. In fact, for most of my early twenties my friends and I used to hitch down to the festival, much as the first 1,500 hippies did in 1970. Nobody could beat Marc Bolan’s grand entrance that inaugural year, arriving in a velvet-covered car." Full article in The Telegraph. E.T.P. 3'

Full coverage of the 2014 in videos, photos, articles, podcasts and tweets by the BBC live from Worthy Farm, here. 

And the Sunday edition of the Glastonbury Free Press here: http://cdn.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/GFP-Issue-3Web.pdf

Photo via Dazed Magazine.

"From the mad Dane's sex-addict epic to bellboy hijinks à la Wes, here are the films that got us excited this year. " The ten best films of 2014 so far according to Dazed Magazine. We've only seen 3 (shame). What about you? Read full article in Dazed Magazine. E.T.P. 5'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo via Dazed.

Now you can get a uni scholarship for playing video games! "Robert Morris University in Illinois has become the first college in the United States to offer scholarships to professional gamers who play League of Legends, one of the biggest PC games in the world.
The university's new scheme is now seeking to recruit high-school gamers under the principle that this League of Legends – which attracts 27 million players a day – is a sport equal to other traditional athletic pursuits like rugby and soccer." Read full article in Dazed Magazine. E.T.P. 2'

Photo via the New Yorker.

Emily Nussbaum writes in The New Yorker about watching TV on the gym: "When you watch television for work, many questions come up regarding your viewing habits. How do you watch so much? And don’t you get tired of watching? No, actually: I like television. And in my case, I have the benefit of multiple screens. There are plenty of shows that I watch on a swanky flat-screen TV with high-definition magic. There are others that I watch on a computer, either full-screen or popped out in the corner, so I can type while I watch. There are shows that I watch on my iPhone, too, lying in bed, with headphones on. This approach works nicely with Netflix, and for a Hulu catch-up on network shows that I’ve missed, and whenever I watch this way, in the darkness, I can hear the distant screams of cinephiles, which sweetens the experience all the more." Read full article in The New Yorker. E.T.P. 5'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo via Dazed Digital.

Larry Clark is selling his snapshots at £100 a pop. According to the director, this sale is for "all the kids that come to my shows in their thousands and could never afford ten to fifteen thousand dollars for a print... This is a pay back to all the skate rats and collectors who would like a souvenir so I can die happy". Read full article in Dazed. E.T.P. 2'

Photo: The Procrastinator (some) Times.

This past week The New Yorker shared Haruki Murakami short story Yesterday. This is how it begins: "As far as I know, the only person ever to put Japanese lyrics to the Beatles song “Yesterday” (and to do so in the distinctive Kansai dialect, no less) was a guy named Kitaru. He used to belt out his own version when he was taking a bath. Yesterday Is two days before tomorrow, The day after two days ago." Read full story in The New Yorker. E.T.P. 25'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo: "Elio At Dusk". Nan Goldin via Dazed Digital.

Talking children, movies and Instagram with the godmother of the snapshot. "At 60, Goldin is still incorrigibly herself: direct, a bit difficult, a bit mischievous, dead smart, dead self-possessed and terribly beautiful. She has those thick golden Goldin curls and wears a crisp dark-blue suit. She has a husky New York-tinged drawl, and regularly uses ‘honey’ as a form of address. She’s back in the room, and she wants to know how old I am. I am 32. She is glad! She makes one of her exasperated proclamations: “I am never talking to another person under 30 again as long as I live.” Phew." Read full article in Dazed Digital. E.T.P. 10'

Photo via The Atlantic.

Elizabeth Segran explores in The Atlantic the work perspectives of graduates from humanities Ph.D.s. "There is a widespread belief that humanities Ph.D.s have limited job prospects. The story goes that since tenure-track professorships are increasingly being replaced by contingent faculty, the vast majority of English and history Ph.D.s now roam the earth as poorly-paid adjuncts or, if they leave academia, as baristas and bookstore cashiers. As English professor William Pannapacker put it in Slate a few years back, “a humanities Ph.D. will place you at a disadvantage competing against 22-year-olds for entry-level jobs that barely require a high-school diploma.” His advice to would-be graduate students was simple: Recognize that a humanities Ph.D is now a worthless degree and avoid getting one at all cost." Read full article in The Atlantic. E.T.P. 6'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo via Dazed Magazine.

In the 20th anniversary of Pulp Fiction, Dazed Magazine asks: what was really in the briefcase?

In honour of the cult classic's 20th anniversary, they look at the top theories of what that faint golden glow could be. Read article in Dazed Magazine. E.T.P. 7' 

Photo via Mashable.

Leila Hatami, Iranian actress and mmber of the jury at Cannes Film Festival, is facing increasing blacklash in her country, including a call for public flogging — all for a kiss on the cheek. Hatami sparked outrage amongst conservatives in Iran for giving Gilles Jacob, the president of the Cannes Film Festival, a peck on the cheek on the festival's red carpet last week, where she is a member of the jury.Read full article in Mashable. E.T.P. 5'

Photo via The Independent.

Featured in The Independent a short and fun 30'' clip of Morgan Freeman on helium announcing an upcoming documentary about the mysteries of the universe called Through the Wormhole. Great idea as everyone wants to see Morgan Freeman in helium, right? Watch the clip via The Independent. E.T.P 31''

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo via Dazed Digital.

"Michael Fassbender is one of the most in-demand actors working today, but although he plays the eponymous character in Frank, he spends most of the film in disguise. Quite a departure from his member-swinging days in Shame. Cast as an avant-garde rock musician – inspired by comedian-musician Chris Sievey's alter ego, Frank Sidebottom, Fassbender's famous mug is hidden under a papier-mâché head for almost all of Lenny Abrahamson's offbeat dark comedy. The film gives the 12 Years A Slave star his craziest role to date. We talked to him about Frank the character and being scared shitless by the Shakespeare play that actors dare not name." Read full Article in Dazed Digital. E.T.P. 6'

Photo: Lost River via The Guardian.

So many movies, so little time! The Guardian shared his list of key Cannes 2014 films to look out for. "The 67th Cannes film festival opens on Wednesday with new movies from Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Ryan Gosling, David Cronenberg, Abel Ferrera and more." Have a look at this top 25 in The Guardian. E.T.P. 8'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Image via Dazed Digital.

As with most technology news this is as interesting as disturbing: "Google might be cracking down on drug sellers, but don't worry: the darknet has you covered for all your illicit search needs. A new search engine called Grams has popped up, and it promises to make it easier for you to find black market goods including drugs, guns, stolen credit card numbers and even fake £100 Tesco vouchers." Read full article in Dazed Digital. E.T.P. 5'

Image via Fast Company.

The jokesters at Someecards have created a series of brutally honest job titles to restore order to a world gone mad with euphemism. Each entry stares deep into the soul of a modern job title and reduces it down to the main task for which its bearer is responsible. "Head of IT," for instance, is now transformed into "Director of Turning Things Off and Back On," a tactic that even the least computer-savvy individuals have learned works most frequently. Read more brutally honest versions of job titles in Fast Company. E.T.P. 3'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo Marshall McLuhan via e-comunicación.

I just handed in my dissertation this past Friday, but you can never have too much McLuhan I guess. This is why I share this post from Monoskop. "McLuhan corresponded with a vast number of people, including Duke Ellington, Woody Allen, Jacques Maritain, Rollo May, Susan Sontag, Eugene Ionesco, Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, Bob Newhart, Hubert Humphrey and Jimmy Carter.
These letters have been selected from a large collection, now in the Public Archives of Canada, and offer a valuable commentary on McLuhan’s work and, in some instances, the most lucid and detailed explanation of his ideas available." You can read the full article and download the letters in this new website I've just discovered: Monoskop. E.T.P. 3'
(The download page looks really suspicious, but I had no problem. Click the smaller "download" button though, the big red one is spam).

Photo via Dazed Digital.

"If you've been anywhere near your laptop or phone in the last 36 hours, you've almost definitely seen people talking about First Kiss, the video that features 20 improbably attractive strangers make out with each other for the first time. As with most feel-good viral videos, not all is as it seems: the short film by rookie director Tatia Plleva is actually from Wren, a clothing brand based in New York. But by racking up 24 million views – and counting – since it was put on YouTube at around 2 PM Monday, some people are already deeming First Kiss to be an "unprecedented achievement" for a fashion film. In fact, it just might be the most successful fashion film ever made".  Read full article in Dazed Digital. E.T.P. (including video): 8'.

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Image via Dazed Digital.

Image via Dazed Digital.

Juman Malouf's Character Sketches. "The Grand Budapest Hotel recreates a by-gone era through its arresting visuals and dialogue. The charm and vibrant colours of the film gradually darken with a sense of melancholy as the forces of history conspire against a vanishing world. Juman Malouf – a writer and an artist in her own right – has recreated the eccentric characters in the film as sketches, a kind of flattening of their personalities, distilled into the thin lines and fine details of her penned efforts. With a paper-doll poise, these sketches sit alongside an illustrated screenplay of the film, published by Faber & Faber." The Grand Budapest Hotel will be in UK theaters March 7th. Read full article and watch the sketches in Dazed Digital. E.T.P. 4'

Photo via The Playlist

The Act of Killing is one of the greatest documentaries I've ever seen. It is as impeccable as it is disheartening and definitely worth see it. The Playlist presents an interview with director Joshua Oppenheimer. "While the field is a tight bunch of worthy contenders, it's arguable that few of the Best Documentary nominees this year boast the level of critical acclaim that has greeted "The Act Of Killing." The BAFTA for Best Documentary, and the Berlin Film Festival Panorama Audience Award are among a slew of honors the film, produced by Errol Morris and Werner Herzog, and directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, has received. If you've watched the film, you know there's a lot to discuss, so why not spend nearly an hour with the filmmaker about how it put it all together?" Watch the video in The Playlist website. E.T.P. 54'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Grand Budapest Hotel still via Dazed Digital.

Dazed Magazine share with us its must-see list for the Berlinale: "The Berlin Film Festival kicks off next week. From the director’s cut of Lars Von Trier’s sex addict epic Nymphomanic to the on-form latests from Richard Linklater and Wes Anderson, here’s what not to miss if you can make it to Potsdamer Platz to soak up the goodness". Read full article and watch some cool trailers in Dazed Digital. E.T.P. 15'

Michel Gondry selfie at The Berlinale via Télérama

Also in the Berlinale mood Michel Gondry decided to document the beginning of the festival with his phone and share some selfies with the world. Silly but cute. Have a look in Télérama. E.T.P. 2'

Mia Farrow, Woody Allen, and their children Dylan and Ronan, January 1988. Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images via The New York Times.

Finally, I don't know if this article belongs to the Culture & Entertainment section, but due to a better section to be placed is here. Woody Allen responded in a letter published by The New York Times to the revived accusations made by her daughter Dylan Farrow in a letter published recently also in the NYT. This whole Farrow-Allen thing makes me think of the term 'character', but in a sort of legal way (as portrayed in TV). When someone is testifying in court (in TV court, that is), sometimes the lawyers share with the jury facts about that witness' life to help them see his 'character', because ultimately what he is saying and what he considers the truth will be filtered by its morality and his beliefs. Perception can be more powerful than facts.
By reading the comment section on every article published about this whole thing you can tell that most of the people commenting already made their minds long before the article was published, the section was just an opportunity to air their opinions. Maybe because it was an old issue, or because these are very public figures, but one thing is clear: they listen what they want to listen and ignore or disregard the rest. I'm not saying that there is no one out there that on the light of these new letters being exchanged, changed his or her mind about Woody or Mia (Dylan, unfortunately is a victim no matter what), I'm just saying that I haven't seen one single comment that doesn't seem to come from a person who already though that Farrow was a lying snake or Allen was an old perv.
Sometimes manipulating people seems to be the easiest thing on earth, sometimes changing one person's mind proves to be an impossible task. I am, of course, one of the persons that already have an opinion and probably won't change it. What about you? What do you think? Read Woody Allen's letter in The New York Times. E.T.P. 6'

The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 2nd of February Edition

EDITORIAL

Hello everyone and happy Groundhog Day! This edition of the Procrastinator goes out in GMT so by the time I'm writing this I really don't know what is going to be Punxsutawney Phil prediction about the winter, but it doesn't matter, because we have our own. Oh yes, we put together a special Groundhog Day section to honor one of our favorite films, as well as one of our favorite weird rituals of this weird world we live in.

In the news section we have an NSA/Snowden/Facebook triangulation going on, we also have articles about asteroids and genetically modified monkeys; the SS14 Barneys campaign and sex with Google Glass; female advertising, writer's sleeping habits and Michel Houellebecq. Finally our In Dog We Trust section is also a special lovely Groundhog Edition.

We hope the winter turns out to be shorter than we expected. Follow us in Twitter if you want to be  informed about Phil's predictions, and all in all have a happy Sunday and a happy reading!



NEWS

Photo via The Independent.

The first news of this week in our edition is the nomination of whistleblower Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize. "Two Norwegian politicians say they have jointly nominated the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden for the 2014 Nobel peace prize. The Socialist Left party politicians Baard Vegar Solhjell, a former environment minister, and Snorre Valen said the public debate and policy changes in the wake of Snowden's whistleblowing had "contributed to a more stable and peaceful world order". Read full article in The Guardian. E.T.P. 2' and/or The Independent. E.T.P. 2'

Image via Dazed Digital.

This brings us to our second news: a very complete article published in Dazed Digital in which, having learned some of the NSA encryption methods, Stephen Fortune compiled Ten Ways to Fuck the NSA. "While code-breaking supercomputers are mentioned in the disclosures Bruce Schneier, one of the most respected cryptography experts commenting on this matter, assures us that the NSA have not been able to code-break any of the crypto used by cypherpunks and activists to shy away from prying eyes. Absolute clarity on the matter is unobtainable, as the NSA's capabilities in this regard are a tightly guarded secret. Against this backdrop it's not surprising to hear that 86% of (US) internet users have attempted some method of covering their tracks online. But the time has past for half measures: if you want to fuck the NSA check out our top 10 list." Read full article in Dazed Digital. E.T.P. 12'

Image via TIME with my Facebook non-meaningful procrastination info.

Non-meaningful Procrastination.  Finally, our 3rd article this week is about this crazy place that need no NSA to discover everything about our lives, because we just share it all without even think twice: Facebook. "Facebook will celebrate its 10th birthday next week. Created in a dorm room by Mark Zuckerberg and a few friends, TheFacebook.com came to life on Feb. 4, 2004. In its decade of existence, the social network has attracted 1.1 billion users, and all their pokes, wall posts, baby photos and engagement announcements add up to a whole lot of time." TIME magazine invite us to use their calculator so we can have an estimate of how much time we have wasted on Facebook. My case is not as dramatic as many others, I guess because I refused to sign in for a long time. Now I'm lost, like everyone else. Argh. At some point this year I'll sign off, this is my Chinese New Year resolution. Go ahead use TIME's calculator. E.T.P. 6 - 10'