Brain Pickings

The Ancient Book of Sex and Science

The alchemy of erotica, or what’s making Walt Disney blush in his grave.

This summer, four insanely talented Pixar animators — Scott Morse, Nate Wragg, Lou Romano, and Don Shank — got together and released a racy side project exploring, in broad color and evocative commentary, humanity’s most popular topic from the least likely of angles.

The Ancient Book of Sex & Science was born.

In 80 whimsical pages, the collection of vintage-inspired artwork is a voyage into the human mind, with all of its carnal obsessions and romantic mythologies.

The book traces the full spectrum of sex and science — sex and aliens, sex and robots, sex and math, sex and the tools of innovation, sex and the Atomic Age — with pure, playful whimsy that disarms any preconceptions of vulgarity.

As I began working on this book, I found myself heavily inspired by the cover artwork of old science books. A favorite series of mine is the “How and Why Wonder Books.” As I looked over the entire series, I thought to myself, “There is no Sex and Science issue.” This gave me the perfect excuse to create my own volume for the series. The end result is the long lost “Sex and Science” edition that was never published. ~ Nate Wragg for Nerve

The Ancient Book of Sex & Science is the second in a series grouped around themes the animators couldn’t explore in their regular work. The first, titled The Ancient Book of Myth and War, sold out in a matter of weeks and is now available — and priced — as a collector’s item.

Miraculously, Amazon still has this one.

The Pixar team is planning two more.

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Film Spotlight: Lemonade

Creativity, joblessness, and going from making a living to making a life.

UPDATE: Lemonade is now out on DVD — we highly recommend it.

Many see a job in the “creative industry” — design, advertising, production, you name it — as implicit validation of their inherent creativity. But what happens when the “industry” boots you and forces you do rely on your actual, raw, make-it-or-break it creativity?

Lemonade, a new film about the 70,000+ advertising professionals who have lost their jobs in “The Great Recession” so far, explores what happens when people who once made a living as “creatives” in advertising are forced to make a life creatively.

For us, the film strikes particularly close to home. Had we not exited the ad industry — albeit, in this case, voluntarily, Brain Pickings would’ve never happened. Nor would’ve a host of other creative projects and various exciting opportunities.

Lemonade, from writer Erik Proulx and director Marc Colucci, comes as a testament to the power of a creative mind over a creative job title.

via the wonderful Jawbone.TV

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Music Spotlight: This Must Be The Place

Axe-swinging, rope-jumping, or what David Byrne and Christian Bale have in common.

We love David Byrne. (Heck, he even has his own tag around here.) And we love remix culture. So, naturally, we’re all over actor-slash-singer Miles Fisher‘s electro-pop cover of The Talking Heads’ This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody), in the video for which Fisher recreates scenes from iconic film culture hallmark American Psycho.

The cover is a free download on Fisher’s site and comes as a promo for his self-titled EP, which compensates for its — we’re sorry to say — lack of depth with incredible catchiness of the can’t-get-it-out-of-your-head variety.

Not a bad trade-off on a hot summer day.