Welcome to this week's selection of Picks, where we've been spending some quality time soaking up knowledge at the Information Please reference site. Among other things, we learned that Diego Garcia is a seventeen-square-mile atoll of coral and sand in the middle of the Indian Ocean, that gnomes are tiny subterranean creatures associated with mines and quarries, and that hummingbirds can fly up to 60 miles an hour. We also discovered (to our dismay) that we employed no fewer than 2,623 non sequiturs in Picks last year. Oh well, you can't count your chickens before the cows come home.
Speaking of non sequiturs, what do you get when you mix a healthy dose of Edgar Allan Poe, a dash of Christopher Walken, a dollop of Diamanda Galas, a dram of Dr. John, a shot of Iggy Pop, and a wee bit of Gabriel Byrne? Either an extraordinarily bad case of heartburn or Closed on Account of Rabies, the new album featuring the poems and tales of Edgar Allan Poe. Hal Willner recruited an all-star cast for this 2-CD spoken-word set, including the aforementioned voices and a host of others. Ralph Steadman inked the cover art and the liner notes are composed of text by Charles Baudelaire. At the site you can explore background on the project, read short interviews with some of the producers, or head straight for the audio clip of Chris Walken reading "The Raven." Quoth the 56k modem, "Slow loading, nevermore."
For more in the way of cool multimedia, check out Early Motion Pictures 1897 - 1916, a recent addition to the Library of Congress's awesome collection of online material. Highlights include the Spanish American War, fin de siecle New York, early Vaudeville capers, and the big San Francisco temblor of 1906. Let's not forget the trenchant commentary, selected bibliography, and relevant links. We'd like to give a big shout out to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress. Keep on rocking...
Of course, if you're like us, you probably don't catch many old movies on your cable system. In fact, our provider's steadfast refusal to support quality programming like Celebrity Bowling caused us to cancel our service. Unfortunately this left us without access to the wonders of 24-hour news, so we turned to CNN Audioselect, a live streaming feed of CNN programming online. Now the cable-poor, computer-rich can listen to CNN's round-the-clock world news coverage, including such shows as Digital Jam, Asian Edition, and the ineffable Larry King Live. CNN also provides feeds from its Sports Illustrated and International channels. Listen to it all with free downloads of RealPlayer or NetShow.
Lately we've been kind of distracted checking our new hummingbird feeder. Turns out we're in the migration path of the Rufous Hummingbird, and we can't wait for a sighting. So when we're not peering out the window, we're perusing Lanny Chambers' Hummingbirds! site: picking up tips, looking at pictures of various species, and reading anecdotes about human-hummer encounters, such as the story of Babe, the winter hummingbird. Guess we'll just keep an our eye out for one of our very own.
Of course there's an awful lot of stuff in the sky besides hummingbirds. Why, just yesterday we spotted a couple of pigeons, a satellite, and the planet Venus. We knew it was Venus because recently we've been spending time at Sea and Sky, brushing up on our knowledge of outer space. When we're feeling a bit more down to earth, we like to check out the site's ocean side, getting the lowdown on reef life and playing in the Sea Lab. So whether you prefer starfish or shooting stars, there's a veritable galaxy of information waiting for you here in cyberspace. Where to start? Well, that's just up to you.
When we're not busy looking up or down, we enjoy spending time looking back. In fact, we recently discovered The New York Times' series of article reprints. One of the latest, titled The Times Looks Back: Sputnik, offers original 1957 coverage of the little beeping ball that spooked the West and served as a formal starting line for the U.S.-Soviet space race. The articles allow us to revisit our global perceptions with the benefit of 40 years of hindsight. Read the original October 5th news story, give a quick listen to the Russian satellite's unmistakable sound, then head over to the business section for a word on Sputnik's implications for the stock market. You'll also find a chat transcript with NASA's chief historian, Roger D. Launius.
Finally, in the spirit of the late Henny Youngman, king of the one-liner, we say only this: take your pick(s). Please.