Blizz

Old French Fairy Tales – a public domain novel written by the Comtesse de Ségur and illustrated by Virginia Sterrett

If you're a fan of good triumphing over evil, of love conquering all and happily afters then you will love this charming little book written by the Comtesse de Ségur and illustrated by Virginia Sterrett called Old French Fairy Tales. It was published in 1920 and is now part of public domain. In it are five timeless fairy tales and eight breathtaking full page color illustrations dotted with smaller (but no less dramatic) black and white drawings for children of all ages - or even just children at heart.

Entertainment For The Brain Dead “Seven (+1)” EP – a melodic treat

Entertainment For The Brain Dead is the one-woman band of Julia Kotowsky. Only 21, Julia is based in Cologne, Germany, recording her songs with a USB microphone connected to a PC. She writes, composes, and records her own music and even makes the album covers by hand (available only on demand). She has released three albums so far, the latest of which is "Seven (+1)", a charming, whimsical acoustic album accentuated with ukulele strains, the sound of hollow paper bins, and even pepper mills.

[TEDTalk] Golan Levin makes art that looks back at you

Golan Levin is an artist and an engineer. Wait, what? Artist and engineer? Isn't it kind of an odd mix? Well, Levin realizes that and revels in the fact. The man has worked as an academic at the prestigious MIT as well as a computer technology and software engineer. Nowadays though, he spends a lot of his time as a performance artist, using his background as an engineer to fuse technology and art in his amazing work. Levin's philosophy is pretty straightforward: art should be a way for us to discover ourselves. One way to go about it is to create art and interact with it using one's body and voice.

America Del Sur – a self-titled surfer/rock/punk/jazz album from Florida

America Del Sur (or America of the South) was an indie band with Phil Cardona and Taylor Ross at the helm. Both are high school friends based in Jacksonville, Florida who distributed their music through the net label Rack & Ruin Records. Their style is an eclectic mix of jazz, post punk, indie rock, and teenage surfer twang which gives them a distinctive sound that is - however hard to categorize - quite pleasing to the ear. You'd have to listen to them to understand exactly what I mean.

The Dada Weatherman “EarthQuakes and Failed Mutations” – a blues and country album licensed under Creative Commons

Delicious acoustic and piano ballads characterize The Dada Weatherman’s second offering, “EarthQuakes and Failed Mutations”. The album is an interesting mix of blues, folk, and pop rock with soothing melodies. It’s perfect for easy, laid-back listening on gloomy days when you just don’t want to think about the rest of the world. Influences range from Bob Dylan, Arthur Rimbault, Leonard Cohen, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson, Nick Drake, Django Reinhardt, and newer artists like like Devendra Banhart, Conor Oberst and Elliott Smith.

The Last Man On Earth (1964)

Many of you have probably seen the box office hit I Am Legend (2007) starring Will Smith. If you found the entire premise fascinating - a post-apocalyptic world dominated by vampiric zombies infected with a nasty virus - you should watch its predecessor, The Last Man On Earth starring Vincent Price and directed by Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow. It was released way back in 1964 and is now considered a classic film in the science fiction/ horror genre, influencing a host of popular films today such as Night of the Living Dead.

Signals To Aircraft “Pilot Tracks” – German indie band’s debut album doesn’t disappoint

"Pilot Tracks" is Signals To Aircraft's debut album released only last December. The 11-track album has an interesting collection of lighthearted, upbeat songs for easy listening and slow, moody ones with heavy riffs to set a more serious tone. The songs can only be described as "passionate and melodic", with a lot of replay potential. This isn't a huge surprise since Signals To Aircraft's style is quite similar to The Pavement and The Weakerthans'. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, of course. Signals To Aircraft has their own unique sound that sets them apart from their counterparts.

Knockout – get a taste of Italian hard rock with the band’s self-titled debut album

Fans of old-school rock will appreciate Knockout's four-track demo album. Rhythm is tight, lead guitars are beautifully executed, and vocals are faithful to the 90's hard rock tradition. A song can start out slow and then build up momentum, lose it, then build it up again for an electrifying finale. Knockout's demo album is perfect for those rock-on moments when you're in the mood to do some serious head-banging.

Code Rush – documentary by David Winton on AOL’s takeover of Netscape and the Mozilla Foundation

"Code Rush" is a 1998 documentary directed by David Winton. It follows the lives of a group of Netscape engineers in Silicon Valley as they struggle to save their company from impending financial doom. The film shows them spending sleepless night after sleepless night, forsaking their family and friends while they labor to release the open-source code of Mozilla, which one of today's most popular browsers, Firefox, is based on. Netscape was also on the verge of being taken over by AOL, a company that even geeks do not find cool. This was another source of conflict for the employees of Netscape.