There’s nothing like watching a relatively serious, seemingly well-researched episode of machiavellian political TV, getting self-congratulatory about how you’re managing to understand the political jargon and follow weaving plots, feeling wholly immersed, feeling nearly like a very intelligent fly on a White House wall — only to have Kevin Spacey turn to you, swat you off the wall and back onto your couch, saying something heinously on the nose about power vs. money. All House of Cards watchers know the experience of the show’s winding narrative being unceremoniously broken by a jowly sideways glance at the camera; if you are, for some reason, a proponent of the controversial style choice, try watching all instances of the show’s pseudo-Shakespearean fourth wall-breaking back to back.
After listening to so much of Frank Underwood’s mint-julep-full-of-gravel voice, other abrasive or alien sounds may suddenly seem easier to tolerate. Like, for instance, the sound of slime mold(s?) doing a piano duet, which scientists have captured for the Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival, and which The Creators Project reports belongs to a “niche field” called “biomusic.”
Re: biomusic and alien voices, The New York Times has a feature on the process behind the installation of Björk’s MOMA exhibit, noting that Björk allegedly asked architect David Benjamin to “design [her] a room that feels like you’re in somebody’s intestine” for her “Black Lake” installation. Though the Björk exhibit will surely be home to many sonic and natural wonders, it’s doubtful it’ll be able match the true wonder of unfettered nature: today, the Internet has become particularly engaged in a fight between a woodpecker and a weasel. Naturally, images from Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” video have already been photoshopped onto the weasel.
Lastly, the first images of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden have been released. Gordon-Levitt plays the whistleblower in Oliver Stone’s upcoming biopic, simply titled Snowden. And while fans of lanky and/or controversially heroic men have gotten their big news for the day with these photos, it’s crucial that we make sure to represent fans of controversially creepy men and their seemingly creepier fathers, as well.