At Saturday’s benefit concert, “Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World,” the Foo Fighters took the stage and performed “Back in Black” with AC/DC’s Brian Johnson. It’s a tantalizing taste of the world to come, if we all do our part…

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Digital filmmaker Garren Lazar gives us a creative parody video and a badly-needed mental health break. Enjoy.

To watch previous Peanuts parodies of songs by Queen, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Journey & more, click here.

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via LaughingSquid

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This week, the Bank of England announced that it will feature Alan Turing on its £50 banknote, thus completing the political rehabilitation of the English mathematician, computer scientist and code breaker. The new note will go into circulation in 2021. Find more at The Guardian.

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75 years ago today, the Allies launched the D-Day invasion in Normandy, which marked a critical turning point in World War II–the beginning of the freeing of Europe from Nazi control. Above, actor Bryan Cranston commemorates the anniversary by reading a letter that Pfc. Dominick “Dom” Bart sent to his wife. A 32-year-old infantryman, Bart took part in the harrowing first wave of the massive amphibious assault. Below, we also hear Cranston reading the words of Pfc. Jim “Pee Wee” Martin, describing “his first taste of battle as a paratrooper in the D-Day invasion.” As Cranston reads, you can watch “never-before-seen restored high-resolution 4K footage from Omaha Beach.”

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Free Audio: Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad Star, Reads First Chapter of The Things They Carried

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Don’t miss the very end. And don’t miss The Who on tour this summer…

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Over the years, we’ve talked a fair share about electronic music–from the earliest days of the genre, through contemporary times. Now, we give you a chance to make your own electronic sounds.

According to Synthopia, a portal devoted to electronic music, “Full Bucket Music has released ModulAir 1.0 – a free polyphonic modular synthesizer for Mac & Windows.” (For the uninitiated, a polyphonic synthesizer–versus a monophonic one–can play multiple notes at once.) The ModulAir “is a modular polyphonic software synthesizer for Microsoft Windows (VST) and Apple macOS (VST/AU), written in native C++ code for high performance and low CPU consumption.” Watch a demo above, and download it here.

via Synthopia

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In our tribute to Stephen Hawking earlier today, we discussed the intellectual legacy of the departed physicist, paying particular attention to his groundbreaking work on black holes. The video above is a bit lighter. It just lets you watch Hawking in a comedic exchange with his compatriot John Oliver. If I’m not mistaken, around the 3:46 mark, you can even see him crack a smile. Enjoy.

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The doctor breaks the news. You have terminal cancer, and you might have only a few months to live. How would you spend those final days? That’s a question that Eric Sun had to confront when doctors told him he had a glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, in 2016. Only 32 years old, Sun had studied computer science and economics at Stanford, then went to work at Facebook in 2008. Everything was on track. Until it wasn’t. Then big decisions had to be made.

Last month, the New Yorker published a poignant profile on Sun, documenting how, facing mortality, he found refuge–and maybe some kind of deeper meaning–in music. The related video above, “Finding Meaning in Music,” lets you see Sun returning to his lifelong passion–playing violin–and getting ready for his final performance. In the end, it’s art that nourishes the soul.

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