Move Your Story Right Along: The Elements of Style Rap

“Here to teach you how to put the pen down right.”

In 1918, William Strunk penned The Elements of Style, which his former student E.B. White revised in 1959, more than a decade after Strunk’s passing. This expanded edition became one of the most influential nonfiction books ever written and went on to sell more than 10 million copies. Nearly a century later, Columbia grad students Jake Heller (“Strunk”) and Ben Teitelbaum (“White”) pay homage to the iconic style manual, delivering what’s easily the most delightful take on the classic since Maira Kalman’s illustrated edition.

Behold the Elements of Style rap.

And with lines like…

…always write with intent / each word precious / like Benjamins that you spend…”

…what’s not to love?

HT @flavorpill

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25 Celebrated Saul Bass Title Sequences in 100 seconds

Supercutting the visual legacy of the greatest graphic designer of all time.

To celebrate the release of the highly anticipated and altogether fantastic Saul Bass monograph, one of the 11 best art and design books of 2011 and among the most important design books ever published, Art of the Title editor Ian Albinson put together this brilliant brief visual history of Bass’s most celebrated work, which influenced generations of designers, animators, and visual storytellers alike.

The featured films, in order:

Carmen Jones (1954)
The Big Knife (1955)
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
Vertigo (1958)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
North by Northwest (1959)
Spartacus (1960)
Psycho (1960)
Ocean’s Eleven (1960)
West Side Story (1961)
Walk on the Wild Side (1962)
Nine Hours to Rama (1963)
It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
Bunny Lake is Missing (1965)
Seconds (1966)
Not with My Wife, You Don’t! (1966)
Grand Prix (1966)
That’s Entertainment, Part II (1976)
The War of the Roses (1989)
Goodfellas (1990)
Cape Fear (1991)
The Age of Innocence (1993)
Casino (1995)

On a related note, don’t forget this wonderful 2-minute history of film title sequence design.

via Doobybrain

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Onward to the Edge: Another Symphony of Science Remix Gem

A mashup ballad for the mystery of the universe.

As a general believer in remix culture and a particular fan of John Boswell‘s Symphony of Science mashup series, I’m all over Onward to the Edge — his latest brilliant installment, featuring the auto-tuned voices of rockstar particle physicist Brian Cox, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, and planetary scientist Carolyn Porco, mashing up material from Tyson’s My Favorite Universe video course, Cox’s BBC series Wonders of the Solar System, Porco’s TED talk, and scenes from National Geographic‘s A Traveler’s Guide to the Planets. It’s exquisite — enjoy:

Grab a download of the audio here, free or for a pay-what-you-will price, in which I too am a believer.

via Open Culture

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