Fantastic Animation

This is awesome! 'Nuf said.

Champlain Meme

I just came back from the premier of the French dubbed documentary "Dead Reckoning - Champlain in North America" by Mountain Lake PBS. Despite its short 55 minute running time and slightly wooden animation, it's definitely worth a watch (you can purchase the dvd here: http://champlaininamerica.org/). 

Watching the movie, I was reminded of a painful event in the French explorer's life. Soon after I couldn't resist creating this pastiche of a currently popular meme (guess which one):

Original link: http://cheezburger.com/View/5744059392

Definitely Not A Flat Read!

Title: Flat Earth: The History of an Infamous Idea
Author: Christine Garwood
Publisher: Pan
Published in: 2008 (Paperback edition)
Pages: 436

If you're a sucker for weird ideas and strange people, this book is for you! As the title obviously points out, Garwood recounts the fascinating history behind the erroneous idea that the earth is flat. While reading this book, one can't stop making a parallel between fanatical "flat earthers" and the creationism crowd still fighting science in the classroom today. This should come to no surprise, since Garwood immediately links the two in her introduction. As you read on, she immediately dispels the myth that Christopher Columbus was the first man to prove the world was round (in fact, by the Renaissance,  everyone -  or at least, anyone who could read and write - knew our planet was a beach ball in space, rather than a free-floating Frisbee). Nope, notch one for the Greeks for first figuring out the circumference of the planet à la MacGyver, all without the fancy schmancy satellites of today. And yet, even with today's technology that has not only proven the Greeks right but also corrected their measurements to minute exactitude, there are still people fighting reality to this day... Never has the proverb "truth is stranger than fiction" rung more true than in this book. So find a nice flat spot to lay down, and enjoy a good read!

By the way, someone might want to buy this guy a copy...

Who Says History Doesn't Help You Pick Up Women?

I love Barats & Bareta, even though their humour is often hit and miss. But I will admit some of these pick-up lines made me laugh a lot:

Hark! A Good Book!

Title: Hark! A Vagrant!

Author: Kate Beaton

Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly

Published in: 2011

Pages: 166

Kate Beaton masterfully skewers history and literature in this delightful collection of comics. From testosterone-driven macho princes to love-struck nemeses, from delicious anachronisms to blatant drama, this book has it all! No historic figure or literary hero is left sacred by the end of the panels... Oh joy to critics of history!

And don't forget to visit Kate Beaton's website!

http://www.harkavagrant.com/

First Contact

I have a beef to share. It's about most representations of aboriginal/native peoples meeting white man for the first time. It seems to me that almost every time I see a movie or a cartoon depicting the "discovery" of a new land, whether it be about Christopher Columbus or John Smith (I shudder every time I think of that "first contact" scene in the movie The New World), the natives are always shown jumping up and down like a bunch of retarded monkeys pointing to explorers and their ships as if they're some sort of mystical bananas.
I always imagined these initial contacts as being much more dignified and diplomatic. I imagine natives meeting the European man in a quiet, contemplating way, evaluating who are these strange white people reeking the smell of months worth of boat-ridden funk...

Believe it or not, I've had a few heated debates on these representations with colleagues. Imagine how pleased I was to find this video on Jean-Pierre Dutilleux's initial meeting with a tribe isolated from all forms of civilization. As you can see, the reaction is first of fear, then curiosity, and finally, diplomatic. All without jumping and howling like idiots. If anything will bring us close to getting a feel of those first meetings, this is it. (By the way, this is part one of five).