Ryan Gosling Stands Up For Truth, Justice, and the Lower East Side Way
We realize here's only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why The Atlantic Wire is unveiling a new late afternoon feature highlighting the day's video clips that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:
RELATED: Crusading Paper Reveals Secret Hand Controlling Politician's Powerful Friend
It seems like Ryan Gosling has been in everything this year, but the shaky, minute-long clip of the actor supposedly stepping in to stop a street fight is as compelling as anything he offered audiences in Blue Valentine, Crazy, Stupid, Love, and All Good Things. We can't shake the feeling that the footage may have been staged (Gosling's visually distinctive, bicep-flattering horizontal-striped sleeveless undershirt somehow seems false), but the way he glides into the frame at the 30 second mark is reminiscent of Fred Astaire, if Fred Astaire had ever had to step in and break up a heated argument at a Lower East Side intersection. [YouTube via Jezebel]
RELATED: OK GO Rocks Out With the Muppets, Muppets Hold Their Own
If you've never read David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest, or just don't recall the details of Eschaton, the novel's extraordinarily detailed playground game in which "8 to 12" players use "400 tennis balls so dead and bald they can't even be used for service drills anymore" to recreate nuclear worldwide nuclear war in "an open expanse equal to the area of four contiguous tennis courts," there's a good chance you won't know what to make of Parks & Recreation creator Michael Schur's video for The Decemberists' new-ish track, "Calamity Song." If you are familiar with the book and Eschaton, you may feel a little jealous that Schur is the man who gets to put the game on its feet. That's natural, the director tells the New York Times in an interview. "If [Martin] Scorsese had directed it,” confesses Schur, “I would have been like, why does he get that gig?" [The New York Times and NPR]
RELATED: French Tic Tac Ads Are Intense; Google's Galloping Doodle
Fahrenheit 451 author Ray Bradbury turns 91 today. To mark the occasion, Open Culture unearthed a clip of the author, which appears to have been recorded to coincide with the 1969 film release of The Illustrated Man, based on a book of Bradbury's stories, discussing his creative process and the role of stories in culture as a whole. It's informative and maybe just a tad windy. Which is acceptable, when you're Ray Bradbury. Also: check out that messy office! [YouTube via Open Culture]
RELATED: Why Yes, We'll Watch Ryan Gosling Break It Down to C+C Music Factory
Pixar's two new film projects dominate coverage of Disney's D23 expo in Anaheim this weekend, but the event also included a live performance of "Rainbow Connection" by Kermit the Frog and Rowlf the Dog in advance of Jason Segel's reboot of The Muppets. And it's Atlantic Wire policy that any new performances of "Rainbow Connection" by two or more original Muppets shall be included as the last post in a video roundup. [YouTube]
RELATED: The 'Shame' Trailer Is a Cardio Workout; Hold the Muppet Backlash
