Ted Mills
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Writer, filmmaker, photographer, cocktail maker & shaker, film instructor. Host of funkzonepodcast.com Producer of Curious Coast for @KCRWinSB
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Articles by Ted Mills
Sci-Fi Writer Arthur C. Clarke Predicts the Future in 1964: Artificial Intelligence, Instantaneous Global Communication, Remote Work, Singularity & More
Are you feeling confident about the future? No? We understand. Would you like to know what it was like to feel a deep certainty that the decades to come were going to be filled with wonder and the fantastic? Well then, gaze upon this clip from the BBC Archive YouTube channel of sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke predicting the future in 1964.
The Young Punk Rockers The Linda Lindas Play a Tiny Desk Concert Gig (at the Public Library)
The last we checked in with teenage girl power-punk band The Linda Lindas, they were tearing up the Los Angeles Public Library (Cypress Park branch) with their lockdown-hit “Racist, Sexist Boy.” After eleven-year-old drummer Mila de Garza recounted the xenophobic encounter that led to the song, the band unleashed some true noisy angst befitting a group twice their age. It was the song of rage we needed at the time, the clip went viral, and they soon got a record deal.
Bars, Beer & Wine in Ancient Rome: An Introduction to Roman Nightlife and Spirits
When they finally get those kinks worked out of the time machine and we can take a tourist trip back to Rome—having signed the non-intervention paperwork, of course—we’re going to need someone to guide us. I propose that should be Garrett Ryan, host of the Told In Stone YouTube channel, PhD in Greek and Roman History, and author of Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants: Frequently Asked Questions about the Ancient Greeks and Romans.
Lou Reed Album With Demos of Velvet Underground Classics Getting Released: Hear an Early Version of "I'm Waiting for the Man"
In 1965, Lou Reed was a 23-year-old graduate stalled in a music and art career he wasn’t sure would take off. A few years earlier a doo-wop single recorded with high school friends had been released to no avail. More recently, a parody of dance-craze singles “Do the Ostrich”, created by Reed and performed by a pick-up band of musicians, had also made its way onto wax and then right out of people’s memories. However, John Cale was in that pick-up band, and soon the two were fast friends.
Ambient Kyoto: Brian Eno Stages His First Large-Scale Exhibition in Japan
If you live in Kyoto or are traveling to Japan in the next two months or, who knows, maybe you have a whole lotta miles saved up on your credit card, Brian Eno has a career-spanning exhibition going on at the former welfare centre of the Kyoto Chuo Shinkin Bank. The above live stream recording features a selection of previously released ambient work, along with a panel of Japanese “Eno Experts” chatting about the musician/producer/artist/thinker.
Terry Gilliam Visits a Video Store & Talks About His Favorite Movies and Actors
Letting a beloved film director wander through the aisles of a well-stocked video store feels like such guaranteed YouTube fodder that it’s a surprise it really hasn’t been done until recently. But then I remind myself that the video store itself is a thing of the past, and to see one so well stocked, Library of Alexandria style, is news itself. For the above video, the director browsing the DVDs is none other than madcap genius Terry Gilliam. The video store is Paris’ JM Video.
Martin Scorsese Foundation Launches Virtual Screening Room, Letting You Watch Restored Classic Films for Free
Since 1990, Martin Scorsese has devoted the non-filmmaking part of his career to film preservation, whether that means the classics of Hollywood or world cinema.
When Orson Welles Became a Speech & Joke Writer for Franklin Delano Roosevelt
in History, Politics | May 11th, 2022 Leave a Comment FacebookTwitterReddit As someone who had mastered radio, film, and stage at such a young age, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Orson Welles once flirted with the idea of running for office. It never happened, but Welles got pretty close in 1944 by ghost-writing speeches for Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s re-election campaign.
How People Imagined in 1948 What Cars Would Look Like in the Future
With a few exceptions, car design of the last two decades has been stuck in a rut, with a sameness on the outside—-aerodynamic, sleek, rounded—-hiding the advancements under the hood and in the control panel. That’s why it’s always a hoot to check out mock designs from the past, especially when they are being used to forecast the future. This short 1948 film from Popular Mechanics shows three possible cars of the future, all of which for various reasons, never really caught on.
Discover 18 Underground Bands From Ukraine
in Music | April 19th, 2022 Leave a Comment FacebookTwitterReddit When it comes to supporting the Ukrainian people in their battle against the Russian invasion, it helps when an opportunity matches our own interest. On this site that means directly funding the artists of Ukraine if possible. Fortunately, this new video from YouTube creator Bandsplaining will point you in the direction of 18 Ukrainian underground bands that deserve a listen and your money (if so choose).
If Fritz Lang's Iconic Film Metropolis Had a Kraftwerk Soundtrack
in Film | April 13th, 2022 5 Comments FacebookTwitterReddit The case of the copyright history of Fritz Lang’s influential sci-fi masterpiece Metropolis is as convoluted as the history of its film print. Lang’s vision, and his original almost-three-hour cut was doomed to censorship right from the start. The Nazis took out its more socialist scenes. It’s been edited, colorized, put back together and restored. Wikipedia currently lists nine different versions.
Watch Brian Cox of "Succession" Read Hunter S. Thompson's Profanity-Laden Letter
in Letters | April 1st, 2022 1 Comment FacebookTwitterReddit Brian Cox has maneuvered over four decades of acting while remaining a bit anonymous from one role to the next. Or at least that was the case until his star turn as Logan Roy, the stentorian patriarch at the center of HBO’s Succession. Now it is hard to separate Cox from his character.
When James Brown Played Rikers Island 50 Years Ago (1972)
in Music | March 18th, 2022 Leave a Comment FacebookTwitterReddit Though not as well known as Johnny Cash’s concerts at Folsom and San Quentin prisons, James Brown’s 1972 concert at Rikers Island equally quelled rising tensions, and displayed the humility of the artist at the top of his game. Fifty years ago on March 16, Brown and his full band played two sets in front of a crowd of around 550.
Fan Faithfully Reconstructs Cream's Final Concert: Watch a New Version of the Show with the Correct Song Order and Run-Time (1968)
in Music | March 15th, 2022 Leave a Comment FacebookTwitterReddit The original rock supergroup, Cream, lasted two years, changed the course of rock music, barely held together because of rancor between members and said goodbye in 1968. Their farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London was one for the ages. Maybe not their best performance, but one of their most energetic. And inside the cavernous Hall, the three men laid down a wall of undeniable sound.
A Digital Archive of Hieronymus Bosch's Complete Works: Zoom In & Explore His Surreal Art
Very little is known about the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch. And I am going to suggest that is a good thing. Would it help to know that this man who created truly inspired, endlessly fascinating views of heaven and hell, of creature-filled gardens of debauchery, had a particular point of view on humanity? Or that he thought there was a “correct” way to understand his paintings?
Starship Titanic: The Video Game Created by Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), with Help from John Cleese & Terry Jones
“The starship Titanic was a monstrously pretty sight as it lay beached like a silver Arcturan Megavoidwhale among the laserlit tracery of its construction gantries”–writes Douglas Adams in The Life, The Universe and Everything, the third novel in the Hitchhiker’s Guide trilogy–“a brilliant cloud of pins and needles of light against the deep interstellar blackness; but when launched, it did not even manage to complete its very first radio message —an SOS—before undergoing a sudden and...
How the 1968 Psychedelic Film Head Destroyed the Monkees & Became a Cult Classic
The 1960s moved very fast. The Beatles started 1963 as four freshly scrubbed moptops from Liverpool. By 1968 they were hairy hippies dabbling in drugs and mysticism. (And writing some of the best music of all time, don’t get me wrong!). Then there were the Monkees. Created by Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider in 1966 as a loving homage to the Beatles 1964–65 Richard Lester films, it too quickly changed. By 1968, the show and the band had run its course.
How the Riot Grrrl Movement Created a Revolution in Rock & Punk
The Riot Grrrl movement feels like one of the last real revolutions in rock and punk, and not just because of its feminist, anti-capitalist politics. As Polyphonic outlines in his short music history video, Riot Grrrl was one of the last times anything major happened in rock music before the internet. And it’s especially thrilling because it all started with *zines*. Women in the punk scene had a right to complain.
Read the Original Serialized Edition of James Joyce's Ulysses (1918)
In the second decade of the 20th century, American editor Margaret C. Anderson published The Little Review, a monthly literary journal of modernist and experimental prose, poetry, and art. Four years into its existence, at the beginning of 1918, Anderson announced to her readers this: “I have just received the first three instalments [sic] of James Joyce’s new novel which is to run serially in The Little Review, beginning with the March number. It is called “Ulysses”.
Rare Arabic 78 RPM Records Enter the Public Domain
in Music | February 1st, 2022 Leave a Comment FacebookTwitterReddit Public Domain Day is not just about the famous works that get released—-this year Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh and Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises were the best known-—but the archives that suddenly open up when any potential argument over copyright bypasses its sell-by date.
How a Fake Cartoon Band Made “Sugar Sugar” the Biggest Selling Hit Single of 1969
Rock critic Lester Bangs described bubblegum pop as “the basic sound of rock ’n’ roll – minus the rage, fear, violence and anomie.” The short-lived genre had its roots in the Please Please Me era of the Beatles’ minus the sex and the sarcasm. But from the Beatles we can trace a pretty solid path to the Archies. Not that we deserved this band as an inevitability, but the cartoon concoction is one of a thousand variants from that infectious strain of post-war pop.
Discovered: Lost Johnny Cash Concert Recorded by the Grateful Dead's LSD Chemist Owsley Stanley (1968) Original
On January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash recorded his famous live concerts within the walls of Folsom State Prison, California, a week into what would be one of his busiest years of touring. While Columbia Records worked on trimming down the two sets into one LP, Cash set off across the States, into Canada and back, playing almost every night, and returning to the West Coast for a final stop at the Carousel Ballroom in San Francisco.
The Bialetti Moka Express: The History of Italy's Iconic Coffee Maker, and How to Use It the Right Way
in Food & Drink | January 7th, 2022 7 Comments FacebookTwitterReddit I am sure that many an Open Culture reader has a Bialetti Moka Express in their kitchen. I know I do, but I must add that I knew little about its history and apparently even less about how to properly use one. Coffee expert and author of The World Atlas of Coffee James Hoffmann introduces us to the appliance we think we know in the above video. Alfonso Bialetti didn’t originally get into the coffee business.
75 Post-Punk and Hardcore Concerts from the 1980s Have Been Digitized & Put Online: Fugazi, GWAR, Lemonheads, Dain Bramage (with Dave Grohl) & More
Between 1985 and 1988, a teenager by the name of Sohrab Habibion was attending punk and post-punk shows around the Washington, DC area. What set him apart was the bulky video camera he’d bring to the show and let roll, documenting entire gigs in all their low-rez, lo-fi glory. Just a kid trying to document a great night out.
A Deep Study of the Opening Scene of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds
in Film | December 27th, 2021 Leave a Comment FacebookTwitterReddit Quentin Tarantino loves a cat-and-mouse scene, when forces of power and potential violence enter rooms, commandeer them, and play with their hapless victims. Think of Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules taking care of two hapless, out of their depth frat boy dope dealers—all the while helping himself to their Kahuna burger—in Pulp Fiction. Terrifying, hilarious, and electrifying: it has become one of his hallmarks.
Hear Brian Eno Sing The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" as Part of The Best Live Album of the Glam/Prog Era (1976)
After leaving Roxy Music and its tour-record-tour-record cycle, Brian Eno became a studio recording artist, creating multilayered masterworks of progressive pop, proto-punk, and ambient environments, often on the same album. As a fan, however, you had zero chance of seeing Eno play any of this live. That is, except for one brief moment in 1976 that just happens to be one of the best live albums of the glam/prog era: 801 Live.
Stephen Sondheim's 40 Favorite Films
A true cineaste, a friend once told me, will have the most eclectic “best of” list, forged from a deep love of cinema and an absolute confidence in their choices. There will be no looking at a Great Movies book, no consideration of public taste. They have not a care for legacies or film schools. That’s why this recently unearthed list of Stephen Sondheim’s favorite films is such a fascinating read.
Catherine the Great of Russia Sends a Letter Urging Her Fellow Russians to Get Inoculated Against Smallpox (1787)
I got my booster shot the other week and through the miracles of modern science I barely knew a needle was in me before the pharmacist told me it was over. (I also didn’t feel any after effects, but your mileage may vary.) I mention this because before needles, before injectable vaccines, there was something called variolation. Since ancient times, smallpox had a habit of decimating populations, disappearing, and reappearing elsewhere for another outbreak. It killed rulers and peasants alike.
Blade Runner and Alien TV Shows Confirmed by Ridley Scott
in Film | November 26th, 2021 1 Comment FacebookTwitterReddit Ridley Scott is 83, and good on him for not slowing down. The Last Duel came and went, but it actually existed and was an original idea, based on a true historical event, and with a script from Nicole Holofcener, and featured a re-teaming up of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. And as of this writing, House of Gucci is set to open and give us some salacious scandal and murder among the hoity and toit, just in time for Oscar season.
Dare We Say Things are Looking Up?
At least as of this writing, autumn is fully upon us, the wind is chilly, and we are (please please please) getting back to some normalcy. I mean, we actually had a First Thursday Art Walk amid the Pianos on State Street! Let’s keep it up, everybody. Also, by the time you read this our local elections will be over. What might that portend for the arts in Santa Barbara? Will any artists be able to *live* in Santa Barbara?
How German Expressionism Gave Rise to the "Dutch" Angle, the Camera Shot That Defined Classic Films by Welles, Hitchock, Tarantino & More
Expressionism was an art movement that set out to take the internal—emotions, the human condition itself—and make it external, with paintings that made no attempt to recreate reality. It was a break with the classical schools of art that had come before. It was modern, very modern, very colorful, and exciting as hell. And it was soon to run headlong into that most modern of art forms, filmmaking, in the 1920s.
Fred Armisen Teaches a Short Seminar on the History of Punk
in Music | November 16th, 2021 Leave a Comment FacebookTwitterReddit Long before Fred Armisen became known as a SNL cast member or one half of the dynamic duo behind Portlandia, he was a drummer in a punk band called Trenchmouth. Based out of Chicago, the band released four albums between 1988 and 1996 before disbanding. In that time, Armisen did a lot of drumming and saw a *lot* of bands. Many would go on to grab the fame that seemed to constantly elude his band.
Richard Pryor & George Carlin Appear Together on a Classic Episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
George Carlin and Richard Pryor never got to star in a film together, so this appearance of the two on this 1981 Tonight Show clip is a great, rare chance to see two giants together. Actually, make that three, because host Johnny Carson shows why he set the standard in that very American genre, the late night talk show. It’s also an opportunity to see how much has changed in the world of late night. Late night talk shows are almost exclusively a political affair these days.
When The Who Saved New York City After 9/11: Watch Their Cathartic Madison Square Garden Set (October 20, 2001)
in Music | October 29th, 2021 Leave a Comment FacebookTwitterReddit A little more than a month after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, with the nation and world still reeling from that day, Madison Square Garden hosted The Concert for New York City. A benefit concert of the first order, it was also a thank you to the sacrifice of NYC’s fire and police departments, which had lost many members during that day.
Demystifying Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' "Red Right Hand," and How It Was Inspired by Milton's Paradise Lost
Youtuber Polyphonic has done a good job of looking at some hoary old classics of ‘60s rock, but he doesn’t always dip his toe in taking on contemporary music, or even considering a modern canon. Pronouncing what is essential listening of the last few decades is a minefield, especially among the ranks of Commentus YouTubus. So their choice to explore Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ “Red Right Hand” is a deft one.
A Sneak Peek of Peter Jackson’s New Beatles Documentary Get Back: Watch the New Trailer
In much the same way David Lynch gave us way more Twin Peaks than we’d ever hoped for in 2017, Peter Jackson and the Beatles are giving us nothing like the little seen and quickly shelved Let It Be documentary from 1970, but a full six hours of the final musical works of the Beatles.
A Walking Tour Around the Pyramids of Giza: 2 Hours in Hi Def
One of the first things tourists learn about the great Pyramids of Giza is how they are not far away in some remote location. Turns out they’re just photographed that way with the Western Desert as backdrop. Turn around and you’ll see not just the bustling city of Cairo, but a freakin’ golf course. The next thing tourists learn is that there’s a lot of walking if you want to take in both pyramids and the Sphinx.
David Bowie's Lost Album Toy Will Get an Official Release: Hear the First Track "You've Got A Habit Of Leaving"
in Music | September 30th, 2021 Leave a Comment FacebookTwitterReddit To the serious Bowie fan, the unreleased self-covers album Toy is not a secret. This collection of reworked pre-“Space Oddity” songs recorded with his touring band from his 2000 Glastonbury appearance was bootlegged a year after it was shelved in 2001. And it has been re-pressed illegally nearly every year since, sometimes as Toy and sometimes as The Lost Album.
A Gigantic Violin Floats Down Venice's Grand Canal with a String Quartet on Top
in Art | September 24th, 2021 Leave a Comment FacebookTwitterReddit It looks like something out of a Fellini movie: a string quartet floating down the canals of Venice on a gigantic violin. Not a boat masquerading as a violin, like when you dress up your pet for Halloween and just slap some funny ears and coat on it, but an actual 39-foot long violin, made of several kinds of wood and metal by master boatbuilder/wood sculptor Livio De Marchi.
The Strange Magic of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile"
in Music | September 16th, 2021 1 Comment FacebookTwitterReddit Poor Polyphonic. He was just about to deliver another perfectly mixed treatise on a classic rock magnum opus when the YouTube algorithm and the Jimi Hendrix Estate stepped in to stop him before publishing.
What It's Like to Actually Fight in Medieval Armor
in History, Sports | September 17th, 2021 Leave a Comment FacebookTwitterReddit Ever wonder what it was like to really fight while wearing a full suit of armor? We’ve featured a few historical reconstructions here on Open Culture, including a demonstration of the various ways combatants would vanquish their foe—including a sword right between the eyes. We’ve also shown you how long it took to create a suit of armor and the clever flexibility built into them.
Exercise Extreme Mindfulness with These Calming Zen Rock Garden Videos
in Philosophy | September 10th, 2021 Leave a Comment FacebookTwitterReddit The Internet is a place where the ancient past and the modern and trend-driven can collide and produce wondrous things. The concept of ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) took off in 2007, describing the pleasurable tingling response from various stimuli, such as whispering, or quietly being read a story, or listening to the closely mic’d sounds of paper.
The Brilliant 19th-Century Astronomical Drawings of Étienne Léopold Trouvelot
in Astronomy, Science | September 2nd, 2021 Leave a Comment FacebookTwitterReddit The first photo of the moon was taken in 1850 by Louis Daguerre, from whom the daguerrotype gets its name. We have no idea what that first image looked like as it was lost in a studio fire. But the need to catalog the heavens with modern tools had started, and was both fascinating as it was lacking.
The Life & Music of the Godmother of Rock and Roll, Sister Rosetta Tharpe
When I was a wee lad I was interested in the history of rock and roll. Where did it come from? Who started it? But also when I was wee, there didn’t seem to be a lot of information around, certainly not in my library downtown. But when Muddy Waters died in 1983, I started to understand that rock and roll was sped-up blues, and pieces started to slot together. However, women weren’t part of the equation. (Blame Rolling Stone Magazine).
Inside MK-Ultra, the CIA's Secret Program That Used LSD to Achieve Mind Control (1953-1973)
If the CIA ever wants to change its motto to something hip and trendy that the kids’ll like, may I suggest “f*ck around and find out”? Because in this above mini-doc on the secret LSD mind-control experiments known as MK-Ultra (1953-1973), they were certainly doing a lot of the former, and then they took a lot of the latter and sent it down the old memory hole. Could the Soviets be developing mind-control programs? The CIA, as several of these accounts tell us, became convinced they were.
Watch the First Two Hours of MTV's Inaugural Broadcast (August 1, 1981)
Not everyone on August 1, 1981 had a VCR at their disposal, and not everybody stayed up until midnight. But fortunately at least one person did, in order to tape the first two hours of a new cable channel called MTV: Music Television. Did they know it would be historic? MTV certainly hoped it would be: they equated the premiere of this 24/7 video version of radio with the moon landing. People born long after this time might wonder why a MTV Music Video award statuette was honoring Buzz Aldrin.
Don Felder Plays "Hotel California" at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, with a Double-Neck Guitar
in Music | July 30th, 2021 2 Comments FacebookTwitterReddit Pete Townshend played one. Jimmy Page famously brandished one. John McLaughlin basically started his own post-Miles Davis jazz group based around one. But the double-neck guitar played by Don Felder on The Eagles “Hotel California” may be the best known to all the children of the 1970s.
When David Bowie Played Andy Warhol in Julian Schnabel's Film, Basquiat
Many actors have played Andy Warhol over the years, but not as many as you might think.
Radiohead's Thom Yorke Releases a Super Creepy Version of "Creep"
in Music | July 14th, 2021 Leave a Comment FacebookTwitterReddit Like many bands with a killer, career-launching debut single, Radiohead has had a long, love-hate relationship with 1992’s “Creep”. There’s no way they would have become stadium fillers without it, but they’re also understandably sick of it. According to setlist.fm, they played it over 310 times between 1992 and 1998, and then they kind of dropped it from their gigs once they entered their Kid A phase.
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