From the creator of Steampunk Star Wars comes a new reimagining: Western Wars. Sillof has re-imagined classic Star Wars characters as gritty Western ranchers. Which means we get R2 and C-3PO in creepy human form. More »

I’m a Stanley Kubrick fan, but the only film of his that I saw in the theater was Eyes Wide Shut. Which led me to wonder — what were the trailers for his movies like? Short answer: friggin’ nuts. Enjoy. (I’ll start with my two favorites, then go in reverse chronological order.) A Clockwork Orange (1971) Do not watch if you’re prone to seizures.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Perhaps a precursor to the A Clockwork Orange trailer, with its constant cuts.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) A hell of a trailer for a hell of a movie.

Full Metal Jacket (1987) “Sir, does this mean that Ann-Margaret is not coming?”

The Shining (1980) I think this is the real trailer, but the number of fan trailers and spoofs makes it hard to tell.

Barry Lyndon (1975) This is a sort of promotional catalog of good movie reviews read in voice-over. Perhaps a response to the A Clockwork Orange trailer? “A masterpiece. Monumental, a perfect film of epic size.” I know a lot of fans would say its size is perhaps too epic.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Love the title card at the end: “The most dazzling visual happenings in the history of the motion picture! -Time Magazine”

Lolita (1962) How did they ever make a movie out of Lolita?

Spartacus (1960) “Unlikely ever to be surpassed in the magnitude of production.” Pro tip: don’t ever claim unsurpassability in your trailer.

Paths of Glory (1957) Whoa, bad-ass. Way badder-ass than the Spartacus trailer.

The Killing (1956) “Daring hold-up nets $2,000,000!”

Further Viewing Check out Remixing Kubrick and Music Changes Everything. Note: I left out Kubrick’s first two films: Killer’s Kiss and Fear and Desire. If you find good links to those trailers, post ‘em!

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Not hating on folks who choose to abstain or anything, but this movie -- particularly the dad -- will likely scare the effing shit out of you. So will the hair.

Transcript after the jump.

Via. She's sweet sixteen and never been kissed? Never? So what kind of guy does your dad want you to marry? He wants me to marry a guy who's never kissed a girl. What? He wants me to marry a guy who's never kissed a girl. You're kidding. Nope. When you lie down on your wedding bed, what kind of man do you want your husband to be? Do you want him to have saved his love just for you? One who never even kissed another woman, so he can share that just with you? Or do you want a man who's been with women before? One who kissed other women, and didn't wait for you? Which one would you prefer? I'd prefer the one who waited. So would your husband. What's thing thing about kissing? I've kissed guys before and I don't feel bad. Kissing's fun. You're really missing out. So what'd you think of kissing? Did you like it? I didn't kiss him. That's not what I heard. What did you hear? I heard that you and Jerry made out for a while in the living room. That's not true. Maybe the lord is trying to teach you a lesson. If you'd obeyed your father, none of this would have happened. I know. Pamela, a kiss isn't something you shouldn't just give away. It's very special. What does the minister say just after he's pronounced the couple husband and wife? He says, "You may now kiss the bride." We made out and it was great. Then he said our relationship had reached a turning point and that if we really loved each other we should... Jessica...was out with her boyfriend. I told the lord that I wanted to marry the girl that he wanted me to, so I promised him that I wouldn't kiss a girl until my wedding day. And if I did that, if I waited, he'd show me who the right girl was by bringing me someone who did the same thing. I know Pamela's that girl. I love you both. Thanks dad. Fredrick, you may now kiss your bride.

Get ready for another awesome Symphony of Science video! Yes, that’s right, more auto-tuned scientists with cool music and video. (See previous videos: A Glorious Dawn, Our Place in the Cosmos, and We Are All Connected.) In this installment, it’s primarily David Attenborough and Carl Sagan, though about two-thirds of the way in, Jane Goodall makes a splendid appearance. Goodall is an awesome speaker — if you ever have a chance to see her in person, please do so. I saw her at the United Nations in the early 90’s, and she was awesome.

Check out the YouTube page for HD options. Keep in mind that some of the video is sourced from YouTube itself, so it’s not always super-pristine. Check out the Symphony of Science website for MP3 downloads, lyrics, and more info.

The trailer for this upcoming movie on a year in the life of babies from four different countries reminds me how baby faces, baby bodies, and baby behaviors are so universal. Mostly it makes my uterus contract.
I hope it doesn’t fall into a trap of cultural stereotypes so we may all enjoy the effects of pure, uncut cute. via Blue Milk

[Trigger warning]

THE LINE trailer from Nancy Schwartzman on Vimeo. I met Nancy Schwartzman, the director of and a principal in the new short documentary The Line, last year when she was looking for resources about consent in the sex industry as possibilities for inclusion in her documentary. I was really taken with her project, which is not just a documentary about sexual boundaries and the line of consent, but also an autobiographical project about a date rape she experienced, the reactions of her friends, and the eventual (on hidden camera and included in the film) confrontation of her rapist. When I taught my intro to human sexuality course at Rutgers University at Newark last fall, I asked her to be a guest, screen her film, and talk with my students about consent. It was pretty amazing and intense, in a way that I wasn’t entirely equipped to deal with (as an aside, the biggest thing I’ve learned about teaching a sexuality course at the college level is that it is crucial to provide resources and potential avenues of support for students for whom difficult stuff comes up). My classes at Rutgers tend to be pretty gender balanced, racially and ethnically very mixed, and not at all the gender studies crowd – my students take the class because it fulfills an undergraduate science requirement. This means that the class is generally heterosexual and cisgendered (and has a lot of trouble tangling with the concept of cis), but they’re also eager to discuss sexuality in depth, in ways that most of them have never had the opportunity and invitation to do. Nancy handled the screening and conversation afterwards with grace and aplomb, and we really dug into the idea of consent and crossing the line, and we especially talked about men and responsibility. We talked about the idea of enthusiastic consent, which Heather Corinna writes about so well in her piece on Scarleteen, How You Guys Can Prevent Rape. Here’s my most favorite snippet from Heather’s piece:

When someone wants to, really wants to, have sex with us, we’ll know because that person will be taking a very active role, will be saying — if not yelling! — “Yes!” or “Please!” or “Do me NOW!” We may know because that person is the one initiating sex, at least as often as we are. (If you’re going to say that younger women just aren’t like that yet, know that isn’t always true. Some are, but those who aren’t likely aren’t because things are either moving too fast, or they really just aren’t ready for or that interested in sex with you yet.) We’ll know because it will feel like something we are absolutely doing together, that couldn’t happen if the other person wasn’t just as engaged as we are (imagine trying to dance with someone else when they’re just standing there or not really paying attention: same goes with sex). We’ll know because our partners will absolutely not “just be lying there.”

I was really interested in what the conversation and film brought up for men, and several of the men in the class spoke articulately and honestly about how it made them feel and what it made them question. However, the really great stuff came in the form of response papers. Here is a snippet from a response paper that one of my straight cismale students wrote:

I found this documentary to be interesting because of the way it made me think about all of my past sexual experiences. Did I ever cross that line? Was I ever too pushy with a girl? Did a girl ever do something she didn’t want to with me, just to get it over with? Have I ever made a girl feel uncomfortable being alone with me? Questions like this will make a man rethink everything he has done with a woman. This documentary touches on a subject that today still hasn’t clearly been established. There are so many unanswered questions regarding that line, and these types of questions make it difficult for a woman to come forward and allow our judicial system to do what it was created for. Regardless of what the situation may be, I believe the man is more responsible for knowing where exactly that line begins, and where it ends.

If you want to have Nancy bring The Line to your school or community center, you should check out her website and drop her a note. It is a really great tool for moving conversations about consent forward, and Nancy is just amazing – and brave for sharing her own story in such an intense way. She’s working on a curriculum to teach with the film and has lots of thoughts provoking activities that she’s created with high school and college students in mind. You can also be a fan of the film on Facebook and find out where she’s screening it next.

The Ames Window is an optical illusion, in which a strangely-shaped window (with a stick running through it) is rotated slowly. Because we assume it to be a normally-shaped window, our brains perceive the window and the stick interacting in strange ways, seeming to change shape in ways that don’t align with normal perspective shifts. The illusion was designed by Adelbert Ames, Jr., an American artist and psychologist. Ames also created the Ames Room, a similar perspective illusion that was later used to film scenes in The Lord of the Rings, making hobbits appear small. Neat stuff. Here’s a bit more from Wikipedia on the Ames Window, followed by an explanatory video:

The Ames trapezoid or Ames window is a style of window which, when observed frontally, appears to be a rectangular window but is, in fact, a trapezoid. The window is mounted on a rod connected to an electric motor that rotates it about its vertical axis. When it is observed with one eye from about 3 meters or with both eyes at 6 meters, or more, the window appears to rotate through 180 degrees and then seems to stop momentarily and reverse its direction of rotation. It is therefore not perceived vertically to be rotating continuously in one direction but instead is mis-perceived to be oscillating, reversing its direction once every 180 degrees.

This video shows the window, with commentary by Professor Richard Gregory.

(Via Kottke.org.)