Who: Martin Brodeur, the goaltender for the New Jersey Devils for the last two decades. It is a cliché of hockey that when a team wins handily, commentators say "the goalie stood on his head." Watch this, and you will see why.

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Why: For the fourth of my most beautiful team sports player pieces, I suppose you're shocked that I didn't pick a ( Read more... )

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What: "The Walls Came Down," The Call's declaration of war against the military-industrial complex off its 1983 album Modern Romans.

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Why: In 1983, just as now, the world looked like it was coming apart. As the Soviet Union and United States staked out their respective positions as evil empires in each other's eyes, the center could not hold. ( Read more... )

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What: 3 Dev Adam ("Three Giant Men"), a.k.a. Turkish Spider-Man vs. Captain Turkish America, a 1973 Turkish film featuring the long-awaited team-up of Captain America and Mexican lucha wrestler Santo against a surprisingly evil and overweight Spider-Man. Here it is in its entirety, without the burden of subtitles:

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What: Kai-lan, known as Chinese broccoli, a staple of dim sum restaurants and Chinese New Year celebrations.


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What: Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, the 1980 sequel to George Lucas's epic. The continuing story of our band of heroes tempted fans with this trailer:

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Why: Showing a humility and foresight few would have imagined, George Lucas sought out his old USC film school professor, Irvin Kershner, to direct Empire. Kershner had previously ( Read more... )

What: "Mandelbrot Set," Jonathan Coulton's fantastical tribute to mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot, whose contributions to fractal geometry were only slightly less legendary than the demon-slaying versions found in the song. Here's Pisut Wisessing's brilliant video to the song, though it doesn't use the complete lyrics. For that, listen to it on ( Read more... )