The Station Agent (2003) | Full HD Comedy/Drama movie
Finbar McBride, a quiet, unmarried man with dwarfism, deeply loves railroads and leads a solitary existence. He works in a Hoboken, New Jersey, model train hobby shop owned by his elderly and similarly taciturn friend, Henry. He keeps to himself and is uncomfortable when people react to his size. When Henry dies, Fin learns that the hobby shop is to be closed and that Henry has bequeathed him a rural property with an abandoned train depot on it. He moves into the old building hoping for a life of solitude but becomes reluctantly enmeshed in the lives of his neighbors. Cuban American Joe Oramas operates his father’s roadside snack truck while the elder man recovers from an illness, and artist Olivia Harris is trying to cope with the sudden death of her young son two years earlier and its ramifications on her marriage to David, from whom she is separated. Olivia’s initial and second meetings with Fin involve her dangerously distracted driving. Cleo is a young girl who shares Fin’s interest in trains and wants him to talk to her class about them. Emily, the local librarian, is a young woman dismayed to discover she is pregnant by her ne’er-do-well boyfriend.
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Considered one of the greatest films ever made, Floating Weeds (Japanese: 浮草, Hepburn: Ukigusa) is a 1959 Japanese drama directed by Yasujirō Ozu, starring Nakamura Ganjirō II and Machiko Kyō. it is a remake of Ozu’s own black-and-white silent film ‘A Story of Floating Weeds’ (1934).
Plot
During the summer of 1958 at a seaside town on the Inland Sea, a travelling theatre troupe arrives by ship, headed by the troupe’s lead actor and owner, Komajuro. While the rest of the troupe goes around the town to publicize their appearance, Komajuro visits his former mistress, Oyoshi, who runs a small eatery in the town. They have a grown-up son, Kiyoshi, who works at the post office as a mail clerk and is saving up to study at the university. However, he doesn’t know who Komajuro is, having been told he is his uncle. Komajuro invites Kiyoshi to go fishing at sea.
When Sumiko, the lead actress of the troupe and Komajuro’s present girlfriend, learns that Komajuro is visiting his former mistress, she becomes jealous and visits Oyoshi’s eatery. Komajuro chases her away quickly and confronts her. He tells her to back off from his son and decides to break up with her. Sumiko calls Komajuro an ingrate and reminds him of the times she has helped him out in the past.
One day, Sumiko offers Kayo, a young actress from the same troupe, some money and asks her to seduce Kiyoshi. Although Kayo is initially reluctant, she agrees after Sumiko’s insistence without being told why. However, after knowing Kiyoshi for some time, she falls for him and decides to tell Kiyoshi the truth about how their relationship started. Kiyoshi is undaunted and says it does not matter to him, and eventually their relationship is discovered by Komajuro.
Komajuro confronts Kayo, who tells him of Sumiko’s setup, but only after asserting she now loves Kiyoshi and is not doing it for money. Komajuro attacks Sumiko and tells her to disappear from his sight. She pleads for reconciliation but he is indignant.
Meanwhile, the troupe’s old-fashioned kabuki-style performances fail to attract the town’s residents; the other actors pursue their own romantic diversions at local businesses, including a brothel and a barber shop. Eventually, the manager of the troupe abandons them and a principal supporting player absconds with the remaining funds. Komajuro has no choice but to disband the troupe, and they meet for a melancholy last night together. Komajuro then goes to Oyoshi’s place and tells her of the break-up. Oyoshi persuades him to tell Kiyoshi the truth about his parenthood and then stay together with them at her place as a family. Komajuro agrees.
When Kiyoshi returns with Kayo, Komajuro becomes so enraged that he beats both of them repeatedly, leading to a tussle between Kiyoshi and him. To stifle the brawl, Oyoshi reveals to him the truth about Komajuro. Kiyoshi first responds that he had suspected it all along, but then refuses to accept Komajuro as his father, saying he has coped well without one so far and goes upstairs. Taking in Kiyoshi’s reaction, Komajuro decides to leave after all. Kayo wants to join Komajuro to help him achieve success for the family, but a chastened Komajuro asks her to stay to help make Kiyoshi a fine man, as Komajuro’s always hoped. Kiyoshi later has a change of heart and goes downstairs to look for Komajuro, but his father has already left, and Oyoshi tells Kiyoshi to let him go.
At the train station in town, Komajuro tries to light a cigarette but has no matches. Sumiko, who is sitting nearby, offers him a light. She asks where he is going and asks to accompany him since she now has no place to go. They reconcile and Sumiko decides to join Komajuro to start anew under another impresario at Kuwana.
The spacecraft Zero-X is bound for Mars, carrying a crew of five astronauts. But when the craft experiences a critical mechanical fault shortly after take-off, the crew are forced to eject to safety while the multi-million dollar spacecraft crashes into the ocean. Two years later, an investigation committee releases the official report on the crash, concluding that the cause of the crash was sabotage. While the mission is put on hold, the committee decides that extra security measures would be required for a re-launch. After some debate, they decide to call on the services of International Rescue. The Thunderbirds machines, with the help of London Agent, Lady Penelope, make sure that the second launching attempt is successful. Once the craft lands on Mars, the crew start to explore the planet and collect rock samples, but when they encounter unexpected problems, they are forced to return to Earth sooner than planned. On re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the crew encounter further problems when a lifting body (one of two remote controlled wings equipped with additional engines and undercarriage and used, one above the nose-end of the spacecraft and one under the engine cluster at the tail, for take-off and landing) suffers a mechanical fault and collides with the rear of the craft, damaging the escape unit circuit. With the crew unable to escape, it is again up to International Rescue to save the astronauts, as well as a town in the Zero-X flightpath, from disaster.
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a compendium of invented words written by John Koenig, that aims to fill holes in the language—to give a name to emotions we all feel but don’t have a word for. Book version coming this fall from Simon & Schuster! The author’s mission is to capture the aches, demons, vibes, joys and urges that roam the wilderness of the psychological interior. Each sorrow is bagged, tagged and tranquilized, then released gently back into the subconscious.
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre.[1][2] He is among the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time.[3]
Marilyn Monroe (/ˈmærəlɪn mənˈroʊ/MARR-ə-lin mən-ROH; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic “blonde bombshell” characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as an emblem of the era’s sexual revolution. She was a top-billed actress for a decade, and her films grossed $200 million (equivalent to $2 billion in 2024) by her death in 1962.[1]
Born in Los Angeles, Monroe spent most of her childhood in foster homes and an orphanage before marrying James Dougherty at the age of 16. She was working in a factory during World War II when she met a photographer from the First Motion Picture Unit and began a successful pin-up modeling career, which led to short-lived film contracts with 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures. After roles as a freelancer, she began a longer contract with Fox in 1951, becoming a popular actress with roles in several comedies, including As Young as You Feel and Monkey Business, and in the dramas Clash by Night and Don’t Bother to Knock. Monroe faced a scandal when it was revealed that she had posed for nude photographs prior to fame, but the story resulted in increased interest in her films.
Monroe became one of the most marketable Hollywood stars in 1953. She had leading roles in the film noir Niagara, which overtly relied on her sex appeal, and the comedies Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, which established her star image as a “dumb blonde“. The same year, her nude images were used as the centerfold and cover of the first issue of Playboy. Monroe played a significant role in the creation and management of her public image, but felt disappointed when typecast and underpaid by the studio. She was briefly suspended in early 1954 for refusing a film project but returned to star in The Seven Year Itch (1955), one of the biggest box office successes of her career.
When the studio was still reluctant to change Monroe’s contract, she founded her own film production company in 1954 with her friend Milton Greene. She dedicated 1955 to building the company and began studying method acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. Later that year, Fox awarded her a new contract, which gave her more control and a larger salary. Her subsequent roles included a critically acclaimed performance in Bus Stop (1956) and her first independent production in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), for which she received a BAFTA nomination. She won a Golden Globe for her role in Some Like It Hot (1959), a critical and commercial success. Her last completed film was the drama The Misfits (1961).
In recent years, the eminent British philosopher A.C. Grayling has been a respectful and emphatic voice within the New Atheist movement. During his distinguished career, he’s celebrated ideals of human rationality and progress, arguing for humanism as a powerful, practical alternative to religion. The author of more than 30 books, including What Is Good?, The God Argument and The Age of Genius, Grayling has articulated these values with academic rigour and eloquence. In this talk, Grayling defines humanism and outlines its roots in the philosophy of classical antiquity. He’ll make a case for a universal ethics – one that honours human individuality, freedom and dignity – that can overcome the shortcomings and restrictions of organised religion. Part lecture, part discussion (with Krystal Evans) – spend an hour with this exceptional philosopher for an invigorating perspective on what it means to be human, and humanist.
Yuval Noah Harari, renowned historian and author of “Nexus,” explores the indelible impact of AI on human society. We discuss his iconoclastic views on information networks, the inextricable link between technology and political systems, and actionable ways to navigate our rapidly changing world.
The state of the human consciousness is a very relevant and popular theme in our shared experience of our world in modern times. Sparky presents here a regularly updated selection of conversations from YouTube and other platforms in video, audio or text formats. Delve in or find in search your topic of interest.
Huberman Lab
244,176 views Jun 5, 2023
In this episode, my guest is Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, EdD, professor of education, psychology and neuroscience at the University of Southern California and director of the Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education, who has done groundbreaking research on emotions, self-awareness and social interactions and how these impact the way we learn and change across our lifespan. She explains how an understanding of emotions can be leveraged to improve learning in children and in adults, and how the education system should be altered to include new forms of exploration and to facilitate better learning and to include more diverse learning (and teaching) styles. This episode ought to be of interest to anyone interested in how we learn, human development in children and adults, as well as those generally interested in education, psychology or neuroscience.
Psyche is a digital magazine from Aeon that illuminates the human condition through psychology, philosophy and the arts.
Browse, scroll and navigate through the two sites within Sparky, or visit and/or subscribe safely to Aeon at psyche or aeon directly.
As with Aeon, Psyche disseminates knowledge from a wide range of expert perspectives. Psychology and philosophy are key, but Psyche also draws on history, anthropology and other disciplines. Psyche recognises that the human condition has always been illuminated by the imagination as much as by reason and practical knowledge, and will showcase poetic and artistic voices and perspectives.
Psyche is organised into three sections. Therapeia provides expert insights and practical help in dealing with emotional and psychological challenges. Eudaimonia focuses on the perennial puzzle of how to live well in our complex world. Poiesis explores the imaginative, artistic and transcendent facets of life.
Psyche has three content channels: Ideas (short articles of 1,000-1,800 words) from experts and writers; Guides, which provide in-depth, expert-written, practical know-how; and Films, which showcase immersive short films. New content is published every weekday.
Explore our most popular Guides, Ideas and Films on our Popular page.
We work hard to bring you the most trustworthy, expert, and up-to-date information on psychology and mental health in our Guides. You can learn more about how we ensure our Guides are reliable here.
The need to elucidate the human condition is a universal one; the avenues to do so are endless. With a dedication to pluralism and openness, Psyche will seek out and share the most revealing perspectives wherever they might be found.
Psyche is published by not-for-profit, registered charity Aeon Media Group Ltd which is endorsed as a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) organisation in Australia and registered as a 501(c)(3) charity in the US through its affiliate Aeon America.
In this episode, producer & author Burt Wolf (PBS’ Travels & Traditions, Burt Wolf’s Table, A Taste for Travel), along with art and gastronomic scholars, look at food in photographs by some of the world’s most celebrated photographers, including Philippe Halsman, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bernice Abbott, and Cindy Sherman. From Marilyn Monroe eating a hamburger to the drive-in diner, these images are a visual feast.
In WHAT MAKES ART GREAT, art world luminaries discuss great works and the lives of the legendary artists that made an indelible mark in history. Delve deeply into the stories behind the works and how they remain immensely relevant throughout time.
Presented by Artrepreneur. Showcase your artful career. Express your love of art & design. Buy and sell original artwork, find your creative job, apply for opportunities, and learn about the business of art. Be an Artrepreneur.
The Whole Earth Catalog (WEC) was an American counterculture magazine and product catalog published by Stewart Brand several times a year between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. The magazine featured essays and articles, but was primarily focused on product reviews. The editorial focus was on self-sufficiency, ecology, alternative education, “do it yourself” (DIY), and holism, and featured the slogan “access to tools”. While WEC listed and reviewed a wide range of products (clothing, books, tools, machines, seeds, etc.), it did not sell any of the products directly. Instead, the vendor’s contact information was listed alongside the item and its review. This is why, while not a regularly published periodical, numerous editions and updates were required to keep price and availability information up to date.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation … It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along. It was idealistic and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Then at the very end of this commencement speech Jobs quotes explicitly the farewell message placed on the back cover of the last 1974 edition of the Catalog (#1180 October 1974 titled Whole Earth Epilog[1]) and makes it his own final recommendation: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”[2][3][4]
Origins
Stewart Brand in 2010
The title Whole Earth Catalog came from a previous project by Stewart Brand. In 1966, he initiated a public campaign to have NASA release the then-rumored satellite photo of the sphere of Earth as seen from space, one of the first images of the “Whole Earth”. He thought the image might be a powerful symbol, evoking a sense of shared destiny and adaptive strategies from people. The Stanford-educated Brand, a biologist with strong artistic and social interests, believed that there was a groundswell of commitment to thoroughly renovating American industrial society along ecologically and socially just lines, whatever they might prove to be.
Andrew Kirk in Counterculture Green notes that the Whole Earth Catalog was preceded by the “Whole Earth Truck Store” which was a 1963 Dodge truck. In 1968, Brand, who was then 29, and his wife Lois embarked “on a commune road trip” with the truck, hoping to tour the country doing educational fairs. The truck was not only a store, but also an alternative lending library and a mobile microeducation service.[5]
Kevin Kelly, who would edit later editions of the catalog, summarizes the very early history this way:
‘Here’s a tool that will make drilling a well, or grinding flour, easier,’ Brand would tell [the hippies,] pointing it out in his catalog of recommended tools. But his best selling tool was the catalog itself, annotated by him, featuring tools that didn’t fit into his truck.[6]
The “Truck Store” finally settled into its permanent location in Menlo Park, California.[7] Instead of bringing the store to the people, Brand decided to create “accumulatively larger versions of his tool catalog”[6] and sell it by mail so the people could contact the vendors directly.
Using the most basic typesetting and page-layout tools, Brand and his colleagues created the first issue of The Whole Earth Catalog in 1968. In subsequent issues, its production values gradually improved. Its outsize pages measured 11×14 inches (28×36 cm). Later editions were more than an inch thick. The early editions were published by the Portola Institute, headed by Richard Raymond. The so-called Last Whole Earth Catalog (June 1971) won the first U.S. National Book Award in the Contemporary Affairs category.[8] It was the first time a catalog had ever won such an award. Brand’s intent with the catalog was to provide education and “access to tools” so a reader could “find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested.”[9]
J. Baldwin was a young designer and instructor of design at colleges around the San Francisco Bay (San Francisco State University [then San Francisco State College], the San Francisco Art Institute, and the California College of the Arts [then California College of Arts and Crafts]). As he recalled in the film Ecological Design (1994), “Stewart Brand came to me because he heard that I read catalogs. He said, ‘I want to make this thing called a “whole Earth” catalog so that anyone on Earth can pick up a telephone and find out the complete information on anything. … That’s my goal.’” Baldwin served as the chief editor of subjects in the areas of technology and design, both in the catalog itself and in other publications which arose from it.
True to his 1966 vision, Brand’s publishing efforts were suffused with an awareness of the importance of ecology, both as a field of study and as an influence upon the future of humankind and emerging human awareness.
Contents
From the opening page of the 1969 Catalog:
Function
The WHOLE EARTH CATALOG functions as an evaluation and access device. With it, the user should know better what is worth getting and where and how to do the getting.
An item is listed in the CATALOG if it is deemed:
Useful as a tool,
Relevant to independent education,
High quality or low cost,
Not already common knowledge,
Easily available by mail.
CATALOG listings are continually revised according to the experience and suggestions of CATALOG users and staff.
Purpose
We are as gods and might as well get good at it.[10] So far, remotely done power and glory—as via government, big business, formal education, church—has succeeded to the point where gross defects obscure actual gains. In response to this dilemma and to these gains a realm of intimate, personal power is developing—power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested. Tools that aid this process are sought and promoted by the WHOLE EARTH CATALOG.
The 1968 catalog divided itself into seven broad sections:
Understanding Whole Systems
Shelter and Land Use
Industry and Craft
Communications
Community
Nomadics
Learning
Within each section, the best tools and books the editors could find were collected and listed, along with images, reviews and uses, prices, and suppliers. The reader was also able to order some items directly through the catalog.
Later editions changed a few of the headings, but generally kept the same overall framework.
The Catalog used a broad definition of “tools”. There were informative tools, such as books, maps, professional journals, courses, and classes. There were well-designed special-purpose utensils, including garden tools, carpenters’ and masons’ tools, welding equipment, chainsaws, fiberglass materials, tents, hiking shoes, and potters’ wheels. There were even early synthesizers and personal computers.
The Catalog’s publication coincided with a great wave of convention-challenging experimentalism and a do-it-yourself attitude associated with “the counterculture,” and tended to appeal not only to the intelligentsia of the movement, but to creative, hands-on, and outdoorsy people of many stripes. Some of the ideas in the Catalog were developed during Brand’s visits to Drop City.
With the Catalog opened flat, the reader might find the large page on the left full of text and intriguing illustrations from a volume of Joseph Needham‘s Science and Civilization in China, showing and explaining an astronomical clock tower or a chain-pump windmill, while on the right-hand page are a review of a beginners’ guide to modern technology (The Way Things Work) and a review of The Engineers’ Illustrated Thesaurus. On another spread, the verso reviews books on accounting and moonlighting jobs, while the recto bears an article in which people tell the story of a community credit union they founded. Another pair of pages depict and discuss different kayaks, inflatable dinghies, and houseboats.
For more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Catalog
50 years ago, Stewart Brand launched the Whole Earth Catalog — one of the cornerstones of the American counterculture. The evening program of The Whole Earth Catalog 50th Anniversary Celebration was held on October 13, 02018, and featured conversations between Whole Earth Catalog contributors and contemporary wave-makers as they discussed the legacy of the Catalog and what the next 50 years might hold. Speakers included Ryan Phelan, Danica Remy, Rusty Schweickart, Kevin Kelly, Simone Giertz, Howard Rheingold, Chip Conley, Stephanie Mills, Stephanie Feldstein, Stewart Brand and Sal Khan. The event was sponsored by the San Francisco Art Institute, WIRED, The Long Now Foundation, Ken and Maddy Dychtwald, Peter and Cathleen Schwartz, Stewart Brand and Ryan Phelan, Juan and Mary Enriquez, and Gerry Ohrstrom. You can learn more about the Whole Earth Catalog 50th Anniversary Celebration at: http://wholeearth50th.com Watch Whole Earth Flashbacks, a documentary that profiles the creators of the Whole Earth Catalog and the community they inspired: https://vimeo.com/294878432 The evening program was given as part of Long Now’s Seminar Series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world’s leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can: Subscribe to our podcasts: http://longnow.org/seminars/podcast Explore the full series: http://longnow.org/seminars More ideas on long-term thinking: http://blog.longnow.org The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions. Become a Long Now member to support this series, join our community, and connect with our ongoing work to explore and deepen long-term thinking: http://longnow.org/membership
