Beginning on March 14, Quad Cinema in New York City is presenting a 31-film retrospective of Al Pacino movies. They include his biggest hits, like Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Scarface, Scent of a Woman, and two Godfather films, plus some of his favorite flops, a couple he directed, and some new films. Ahead of the event, Pacino talked with David Edelstein about his long career, starting when he was a 16-year dropout of the famous High School of the Performing Arts, and running through his most important roles.   

Here’s what Pacino wants you to take away from the retrospective, especially if you think he’s often the same in every role onscreen — if you always say, “Oh, that’s Al”: “It’s an overview of an acting artist from the Village, really,” he says, and suggests looking at his four gangsters, Michael Corleone, Tony Montana in Scarface, Carlito from Carlito’s Way, and Lefty Ruggiero in Donnie Brasco. They couldn’t be more different. Pacino’s Montana is huge and burns like a filament, a purposely two-dimensional character in a film that the director, Brian De Palma, called a “Brechtian opera” — and Pacino loves how Tony became a cultural icon, however cataclysmic the trajectory. Carlito, on the other hand, is a man who gets out of prison and wants to put his life in order — the opposite of Montana, who manufactures chaos. Lefty is a Mafia middleman, a second-rater striving to rise in the ranks but brought down by a surrogate son who turns out to be an undercover FBI agent.

Sometimes, Pacino says, he goes overboard, sometimes underboard.
“But as Lee Strasberg used to say, ‘Don’t do what you can do. Do what you can’t do. That’s how you learn.’ ”   

Read more about the life and times of Al Pacino in his own words at Vulture.

How long is a coastline? That depends. Do you measure around all those rocks jutting out from the beach? Do you measure the inside of a harbor? Do you take shortcuts when the coast is really jagged? And what about islands? It comes down to the "coastline paradox," in which the length of coastline can vary widely depending on how it's measured. The smaller units you use, the longer the coastline becomes.

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But that's not the only problem in measuring a coast. The shoreline changes every day with the tides. It changes over time due to erosion, geologic activity, and human construction. It changes due to climate change. The problem, which you probably never thought about before, is explained in great detail in this video from RealLifeLore. The last minute is an ad. -via Laughing Squid

There are people who cannot survive without their phone or tablet available at all times. If you find yourself getting very dirty because you can't bear the thought of missing out on something while taking the time to shower, help is here! The iPad Mount Clear Shower Curtain Liner Tablet or Phone Holder (or screenholder for short) is a clear shower curtain with pockets to hold your phone or tablet. The pockets are on the outside, at different heights for different people -even children! This product is ...thought-provoking.

1. Better have a good lock on your camera, unless you really want to broadcast your ablutions.

2. If you must be constantly connected, how do you sleep?

3. Who has enough hot water to be doing anything in the shower besides washing?

On further thought, I can see someone watching a movie while taking a long relaxing bath. It might also be handy for elderly people who could call for help if they fell. Still, the marketing for this product seems a bit nuts.

-via Boing Boing

The Broccoli Tree on lake Vättern in Sweden was made famous by Patrik Svedberg, who saw that its beauty was worth sharing. But sharing something means running the risk of losing it. Here's the story from the Vlog Brothers.

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Jason Kottke said,

Oscar Wilde once wrote that “Each man kills the thing he loves”. I don’t know exactly what Wilde meant by that, but our collective attention and obsession, amplified by the speed and intensity of the internet & social media, tends to ruin the things we love: authors, musicians, restaurants, actors, beloved movies, vacation spots, artists, democracies, and even a tree that became too famous to live.

-via Metafilter

Know Your Meme is an invaluable reference for those who live and work in internet culture. When an idea goes viral and appears everywhere at once, Know Your Meme has already determined the original source and tracked its growth and evolution. Websites and sources come and go, but the database serves as a historical archive. The site began when a group from Rocketboom began noticing that brands were using internet content without crediting the originators. It started as a video series, but the database that soon followed is what makes it so useful. Now Know Your Meme is marking its tenth anniversary, so it's a good time to learn more about it.

Know Your Meme set itself apart by approaching memes with journalistic integrity and rigor long before most people thought they deserved such treatment — or even knew what they were. The website has since become the go-to encyclopedia for internet culture, an ever-expanding library of memes and other internet phenomena that gets cited by publications like The Atlantic and The Washington Post, and receives fact-checking calls from The New York Times. Though much of the content it’s called upon to explain is silly, heinous, or both, it has built a reputation as one of the very few reputable sources on the machinations of the most important and little-understood invention of our lifetime: the social web. Nobody knows more about lols and GIFs, the mechanics of a viral goof, or the life and times of Pepe the Frog. Nobody has dug deeper into the cesspools of 4chan or the acid-trip wonderland of Tumblr. Nobody has seen this much shit.

The Verge talked to the founders and the current editors of Know Your Meme about the site's history, the importance of memes, and how internet culture has changed over ten years. That's the depressing part. -via Digg

The bottom of the world is the coldest place on earth, and is not conducive to human habitation. But people live there anyway, although not permanently, and not in the way we are used to. For one thing, what time is it? For another, what country are you in? And most important, how do you keep warm?

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No one is "from" Antarctica, and no one can go there without a reason and great planning. Getting there is an adventure in itself. Wendover Productions explains the ins and outs of living in Antarctica in detail, and makes it all interesting.

Update: Matthew Heyns brought up Emilio Palma, who was born in Antartica. I found out there have now been eleven people born on the continent! 

Don't Call Me Oscar is a Tumblr blog that contains a collection of photographs from a family who recreates scenes from Oscar-nominated films. Sophia, Sadie, and Sloane and their friends are adorable in each one. This year's Best Picture nominees are there, but since they didn't do The Shape of Water, you'll want to delve back into previous year's images.

They've been doing this with movies since the 2011 nominees were announced! Check out all of them at Don't Call Me Oscar. -via Everlasting Blort 

The idea of keeping a tick around is bad enough, but a nervous one? Especially when it's ruining your poker game! You could probably tell where this comic was going long before the punch line. Still, we are suckers for a good pun. This is the latest comic from Chris Hallbeck at Maximumble.

Here's a low-cost alternative for people who want to see Disney World, but can't afford the trip. Google and Disney announced today that all U.S. Disney theme parks and resorts are on Google Street View. They feature 360-degree panoramic views of attractions from Disneyland to the ESPN Complex to the water parks.

To create the 360-degree imagery at Disney Parks, Google used Street View Trekker, a wearable backpack with a camera system on top. The Trekker is worn by an operator and is moved through walkways and structures, automatically gathering images. Imagery is then stitched together to create the 360-degree panoramas you see today.

That's a lot of walking. I hope they used more than one operator. The entrance portals to all eleven attractions can be found at the Google Blog. Yes, you'll still have the crowds. -via Boing Boing

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.

The talkie revolution had been steadily rising in motion pictures since the late 1920's. Charlie Chaplin, the world's most famous and beloved movie figure, had resisted joining the growing revolution with his most recent film City Lights in 1931.

Chaplin's follow-up film, Modern Times, was originally planned and scheduled to be Chaplin's first full-length talkie. Charlie had written an entire sound script and it looked like Chaplin's world famous persona, "the little tramp," would finally be speaking in a movie, in this, Chaplin's 77th motion picture. But after giving the idea second thoughts, Chaplin shifted gears and decided to go back to the idea of a silent film. The little tramp, he reasoned, was a universal figure, and with the first words he spoke, he would lose much of his worldwide audience.

Production on Modern Times (the film's working title was The Masses) began on October 11, 1934. Modern Times would tell the story of Chaplin's tramp being caught up in the ever-growing industrial world and how he coped with it.

Marvel gave us a superhero movie in which Thor got a haircut and the audience got some laughs. And they loved it. Screen Junkies did, too, but still found plenty to poke fun at in the third Thor film, Thor: Ragnarok.   

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Thor and the Hulk take on quite a variety of opponents, including Thor's family, the bad guys, complete strangers, and an actual demon. At least that's what I got from the Honest Trailer. One more reason I need to get a Blu-ray player.   

Netflix will reboot the TV series Lost in Space beginning Friday, April 13th. Will it be anything like the original? Uh, no. In this series, we will hear that catchphrase, "Danger, Will Robinson!" But it doesn't come from the trusty robot that accompanied the space family Robinson. It comes from an alien that Will finds on an unfamiliar planet -who looks like a robot.

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However, the biggest difference I can see is that this story is not a sitcom. We can't tell from the trailer if there's a Dr. Zachary Smith character, but if there is, he won't be one to laugh at. Another observation: this trailer follows the exact formula of all modern movie trailers, down to the beats.

Chobi is a long-haired dachshund just trying to get through this water bottle maze his human left in the hallway. When he comes to a part he's not so sure about, there's a real problem backing up, because his body is too long to just turn around!

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What's amazing is how this little doggo even tries to get through without toppling the bottles. My dog would just crash through without a thought, while Chobi honestly looks sad about the few he accidentally knocked over. Luckily, the next maze was easier.



You can see more of Chobi at Instagram. -via Tastefully Offensive

The only time I ever watched Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman was when I was visiting my mother-in-law, who loved it. Something about the description of "wholesome family drama" made it sound boring, like Walker, Texas Ranger or Little House on the Prairie, which she also loved. But Brandon Hardesty of No Small Parts manages to make one story from the series sound particularly interesting as he tells the tale while critiquing it at the same time.

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What's most interesting is that Fred Rogers guest-starred in this episode. It was the only time he "acted," meaning he played a character that wasn't himself. He nailed the small part, since the character was close enough to his own personality. In other words, he was typecast. Anyone who was a fan of Mr. Rogers will get a kick out of this deep dive into one unique role. -via Laughing Squid

A volcanologist is a scientist, usually a geologist, who studies volcanos. How cool would that be? Well, "cool" might not be the best word, because the subject is hot. And necessary, as more than 600 million people live near one of the world's 1500 or so active volcanos. What volcanologists learn can help them to stay safe. Mental Floss talked to several volcanologists about their work. For example:

9. IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE THE MOVIES.

One thing field volcanologists almost never use: those clichéd silver flame-proof proximity suits. "They're heavy, and since you usually have to walk hours to get to your field site, no one wants to carry all that weight," Soldati says. Besides, "heat is almost never the hazard that matters in the situations in which we work," writes Aaron Curtis, a volcanologist working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (You have a greater chance of "being hit by ballistics, or getting gassed," he notes.) "The reason you see those suits so often is that they look really cool on TV."

So what do they wear? Jessica Ball, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the U.S. Geological Survey, writes that "sturdy boots, hard hats, work gloves, rip-resistant clothing with long sleeves, and sunglasses or safety goggles are pretty standard, and I will add a gas mask if I’m going to be in an area with lots of fumes. Also, sunscreen is always important, because I’m often out in the sun all day."

There's a lot more about the work of a volcanologist at Mental Floss. 

(Image credit: Flickr user Yortw)