Do We Really Need Another Sherlock?

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 3:12 pm By Joseph Susanka

My affection for the thespian work of Sir Ian McKellen is well-documented. As is my affection for Sherlock Holmes. So you can just imagine how this makes me feel. “The Fifth Estate” helmer Bill Condon is reuniting with Brit thesp Ian McKellen for a feature adaptation of “A Slight Trick of the Mind,” based on the tome by Mitch Cullin. … With his legendary mental powers on the wane and minus his sidekick Watson, Holmes becomes haunted by an unsolved case from 50 years ago where he remembers... Read more

Poppy Hill and the Wonderful Ordinary

Last updated on: January 7, 2015 at 5:57 pm By Joseph Susanka

On the wall above my desk, there hangs a home-made plaque with this Chesterton quote: For a plain, hard-working man the home is not the one tame place in the world of adventure. It is the one wild place in the world of rules and set tasks. I love this quote. Not because my home is particularly wild — as least no more wild than one would expect from a place populated almost entirely by boys. And not because my... Read more

A Little Labor Day Yodeling

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 3:12 pm By Joseph Susanka

I hope y’all have the opportunity to celebrate Labor Day by not laboring. Good times. But for those who are finding today’s holiday more literal than they might otherwise wish, I offer this video as mollification. It’ll be good for what ails you. (I speak from experience, having spent almost the entire 9+ minutes smiling goofily at the sheer joyfulness and fun of it all. While it is safe to say that the gatherings of legends are often fascinating things, it is... Read more

A Quote I Just Can’t Shake

Last updated on: January 15, 2015 at 12:08 pm By Joseph Susanka

Things have been a bit crazy over the past few days, both personally and professionally. (Personally, because “Seven Boys = Crazy” each and every day, without qualification. And professionally, because the opening of a new academic year is always insane.) Over the years, I’ve come to recognize a peculiar, personal tic that pops up every time I find myself in the midst of such insanity: I get earworms. You know, those catchy little things that you didn’t really mean to catch... Read more

Testing the Ol’ Tear Ducts

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 3:12 pm By Joseph Susanka

This video’s been making the rounds over the past few days, but for those that have not yet clicked on it, now’s the time. If it doesn’t make you cry, you might not have tear ducts. …or a heart. For me, its power lies not in the music (which is fairly pedestrian), nor in the generosity of Green Shoe Studio (though it’s a great “Faith in Humanity, Restored!” moment). Instead, it’s those few seconds at the end when you can see... Read more

Who Needs Sweet Nunchuck Skills, Anyway?

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 3:12 pm By Joseph Susanka

There are times when I run into someone who is so much better at something than I am that I can’t even get my head around what’s going on. This is one of those times. That’s Janos Karancz. He’s 18. And…yeah. I don’t even know what’s going on in there. I’ve always enjoyed yo-yoing, but I’m very much a “straight-line yo-yoer.” Up and down, and up and down, and be careful not to breath lest everything become hopelessly tangled. So,... Read more

Claude Debussy: More Than Just Moonlight

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 3:12 pm By Joseph Susanka

Knowing my propensity for both classical music and whimsical animation, a number of friends notified me of the Google Doodle commemorating Claude Debussy’s 151st birthday when it first appeared last night. I’m grateful, because it’s wonderful. But don’t take my word for it. See for yourself. I love the way the lit windows serve as visual reminders of piano keys. And the way the stars, and puffs of steam, and clouds are all synced up to the music, yet still unpredictable.... Read more

Capturing New York’s Past and Present

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 3:12 pm By Joseph Susanka

These are fantastic. OK, so maybe that image doesn’t quite express why this NYC Grid page is so fantastic. But it does contain the seeds of said fantasticness. See that yellow slider in the middle? If you go to the site itself, you can actually shift that slider from side to side, and reveal/conceal the “Before and After” images as you do so. Capturing the past and the present in a single moment, and visually representing the passage of time without any... Read more

Better Parenting through Lunch Preparation

Last updated on: January 16, 2015 at 12:39 pm By Joseph Susanka

An incredibly exciting/demoralizing thing happened last week: we got an entire carton of apples from our local co-op. Exciting because we now have something with which to keep the boys and their outlandish appetites at bay for at least a few days. And demoralizing because we’ve reached the stage where the half-life of a 35-lb bushel of apples is measured in days rather than weeks. Abstractly, I knew that feeding seven boys was going to be an imposing task, even... Read more

A Little Alchemy for Your Friday Afternoon

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 3:12 pm By Joseph Susanka

Looking for a bit of calm at the end of a stressful week? I’ve got just the ticket. Thanks to Vimeo’s Staff Picks (and crainium.net), here’s a wonderful clip from Evosia Studios’ Henry Jun Wah Lee, videographer and creative mind behind some of my favorite time-lapse nature videos. As usual, full-screen HD is borderline imperative. (The Utah winter shots are particularly stunning.) Alchemy is a short film about transformation. In nature, everything is constantly changing: the earth, the sky, the stars, and all living things.... Read more