“Catch a glimpse of a relatively nearby star and you see it as it existed when, perhaps, Lincoln was president (if it’s 150 light-years away). … Stranger still, the sky we see at any moment defines not a single past but multiple overlapping pasts of different depths. The star’s image from 100 years ago and the [distant] galaxy image from 100 million years ago reach us at the same time.” And this principle holds true for much more than just the night sky.
Tag: 07.25.11
Swan Lake, Cantonese-Acrobat-Style
“It was the moment that launched a million YouTube hits: a ballerina, pretty as a snowflake, dancing a pas de deux from Swan Lake on her partner’s head.”
Madrid Begins Search For Remains Of Cervantes
“The project to seek Cervantes’ bones, which lie buried somewhere in the walls or floors of a convent in central Madrid, would allow forensic archaeologists to reconstruct the face of a man only known from a picture painted by artist Juan de Jauregui some 20 years after his death.”
Authenticity Killed The Pop Star
“It was impossible not to draw easy parallels between Winehouse’s art and her apparently tumultuous life. And while her fans ostensibly blanched at her mistakes, there’s little question that we also let it validate her work: Hey, she means it. She really means it.”
Books As Apps
“Book-apps aren’t just being made by traditional book publishers: independent app developers are also piling into the space, albeit often working with out-of-copyright content like nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Meanwhile entertainment brands like Disney – who have been involved in the books business before through licensing deals – are now publishing their own book-apps directly.”
MacMillan Publishers Fined $18 Million, Banned By World Bank
“Macmillan Publishers has been banned from participating in World Bank tenders for a minimum of three years after being ordered to pay more than $17.7m (£11m) for paying officials to win an education deal in South Sudan.”
Why Contemporary Art Is Getting Bigger
“With the growth of private museums, they have space to fill and the means to do so. They also want works with huge visual impact: contemporary art spaces, be they private or public, need to grip visitors, give them an ‘experience’ and send them away thinking ‘wow!’ Size is one of the ways of achieving this.”
Is 3D Sinking IMAX?
“Imax Corp. stock plummeted more than 11% after an analyst raised concerns that the company’s digital and large-format screens don’t have as much box-office mojo as previously believed.”
Bayreuth Finds New Director For Wagner Bicentennial Ring
‘Film director Wim Wenders had been an inspired choice to guide that production, but contract talks broke down, partially over Wenders’ desire to produce a 3-D movie of the operas at the same time.” The new choice is Frank Castorf, longtime director of Berlin’s Volksbühne theater and a man known for stagings that are radical even by modern German standards.
Filmmaker Michael Cacoyannis (Zorba The Greek) Dead At 90
“[He] was the first Greek film-maker to achieve international renown,” and he brought international exposure to great Greek actors such as Irene Papas and Melina Mercouri.