Monday, February 19, 2007

People :

Around 1300:

  • Dante Alighieri Florence, (1265-1321)
  • Marco Polo, Venice (1254-1324).
  • Giovanni Boccaccio, Florence (1313-1375)


Around 1400:

  • Geoffrey Chaucer, London (c.1343-1400)
  • Jeanne d'Arc. France (c.1412-1431)

Around 1500:

  • Leonardo da Vinci, Vinci (1452-1519)
  • Niccolo Machiavelli, Florence (1469-1527)
  • Raphael, Florence (1483-1520)
  • Christopher Columbus, Italy and Spain (1451(?)-1506)

Around 1600:

  • William Shakespeare, London (baptised 1564, d.1616)
  • Galileo Galilei, Pisa (1564-1642)
  • René Descartes, France (1596-1650)
  • Pierre Gassendi, France (1592-1655)

Around 1700:

  • Isaac Newton, England (1643-1727).


Snippets:
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Music: 8/13/06: Caffe Vivaldi, 32 Jones St (Off Bleecker Street Near Seventh Ave) NYC: 1.) Brianne Chasanoff. Singer. Rather quiet. 2.) Amy Laber. Folk singer. Quiet.
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Weather: National Weather Service and National Snow Analysis.
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Philosophy: Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655): French philosopher, scientist, astronomer/astrologer, and mathematician. Disputes with Descartes.
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Movie: Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others, 2006) . Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. w/ Sebastian Koch (Georg Dreyman), Ulrich Mühe (Captain Gerd Wiesler), Martina Gedeck (Christa-Maria Sieland). in the GDR around 1985, a successful writer and his girlfriend, a popular actress, are wire-tapped by the secret police because he is suspected to oppose the regime. But the officer in charge of the operation becomes infatuated with their lives. Clearly defined roles for each character, which sometimes makes the movie too static. Devastatingly realistic though. Overall rating: 7 out of 10.
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DVD: Bird (1988). Directed by Clint Eastwood. w/ Forest Whitaker (Charlie 'Bird' Parker), Diane Venora (Chan Parker), Michael Zelniker (Red Rodney). Life of jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker (1920-1955), his creativity, drug addiction, family (common-law wife Chan Parker) and the music of his time. Great music! In 1945, Bird was about 10 years ahead of his time. Overall rating: 7 out of 10.
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Jazz: Baroness Pannonica (Nica) de Koenigswarter (1913-1988). Considered one of the most important patrons and friends of modern jazz musicians in NYC in the 1950s and 1960s. Charlie Parker died in her suite at the Stanhope (995 Fifth Avenue, across from the Metrolopitan Museum) in 1955. Was also close to Thelonious Monk and his family. In October 2006 the French company Buchet Chastel published Nica's book 'Les musiciens de jazz et leurs trois vœux' (The Jazz Musicians and their Three Wishes). Compiled between 1961 and 1966, it is a book of interviews with 300 musicians in which she asked each for their "three wishes", and is accompanied by her Polaroid photographs. The book was edited for publication by her granddaughter Nadine de Koenigswarter.
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Photography: Joe Brown. Includes a guide to Zion National Park with photos.
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Art: Bauhaus: Art and architecture school in Germany, 1919-1933 (U.S 1937-1938). Existed in four different cities: Weimar 1919-1925, Dessau 1926-1932, Berlin 1932-1933, Chicago from 1937 to 1938). Important members: Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Henry van de Velde, Lyonel Feininger, Johannes Itten, Josef Albers, Paul Klee (starting 1921), Wassily Kandinsky (starting 1922) und Oskar Schlemmer (staring 1921). Wanted to emancipate the arts from industrialism and revieve crafts, opposing the aesthetics of Historism ('an organic succession of developments') of the late 19th century in which various styles were mixed and crafted ornaments were simply repeated by industrial manufacturing. The Bauhaus Dessau is a building designed by Gropius that housed the school. Partly destroyed in 1945. Reconstructed in 1976.
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Art: Albert von Keller (1844-1920). Swiss painter. Worked in Munich. Society painter. Known for painting elegantly clothed ladies. Can be viewed at the Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany.

Albert von Keller-Die Frau des Kuenstlers, 1900


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Art: Online Exhibition: Gothic Nightmares. Fuseli, Blake, and the Romantic Imagination (at the Tate Britain Feb 15 - May 1, 2006). Explores the work of Henry Fuseli and William Blake in the context of the Gothic – the taste for fantastic and supernatural themes which dominated British culture from around 1770 to 1830.
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Sunday, February 11, 2007

Snippets:
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Shopping: DealTime. Prince engine like Froogle.
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Video: Brainstorm (1983). 106 min. Directed by Douglas Trumbull. w/ Christopher Walken (Dr. Michael Anthony Brace), Natalie Wood (Karen Brace; The Searchers, Rebel without a cause), Louise Fletcher (Dr. Lillian Reynolds; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). A team of researchers has developed a method to record thoughts and emotions. The government quickly becomes interested to use the technology for military purposes including torture and brain washing. After the project leader Lillian dies from a heart attack and records her death, he colleague Michael almost dies when he watches it. The tape is locked away and Michael becomes obsessed with finishing to watch the tape as well as to destroy the technology. He gets help from his wife Karen. Great idea for a movie. Some scenes are B-movie-like, however. The production almost stalled when Natalie Wood (wife of Robert Wagner) drowned in an accident in 1981. Overall rating: 7 out of 10.
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Travel: Motel.com: Search engine for motels. Allows Map Search.
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Music: Alice Coltrane: Journey in Satchitananda (1971). Satchitanada is a devanagari compound of three Sanskrit words, Sat, Chit, and Ananda, meaning True Being, Pure Consciousness and Bliss, respectively. The expression is used in Yoga and other schools of Indian philosophy to describe the nature of Brahman. Satcidananda is also a monastic name for a number of Hindu gurus, sadhus and ascetics of different Hindu philosophical schools and lineages, e.g., Swami Satchidananda (1914-2002), 'father' of Integral Yoga.
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Life: Bits and pieces of 'smart' conversations: Overheard in NY, Overheard in the Office and Overheard on the Beach. As funny as real life can be!
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Travel: Public Routes. Directions for using public transportation. Has many ads and is not very user friendly at this point. UPDATE 6/14/08: Interface improved.
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Philosophy: tai chi - do: free resource related to tai chi. Includes a tai chi netguide with explanations of forms.
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DVD: Rebel Without A Cause (1955). 111 min. w/ James Dean (Jim Stark), Natalie Wood (Judy), Sal Mineo (John 'Plato' Crawford). Directed by Nicholas Ray. Rebellious young man seeks friends in his new home town and falls in love with rebellious young woman. Film has typical 50s feel. Probably important for its generation, but no real surprises. Sometimes pseudo dramatic. Overall rating 5 out of 10.
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Art: MoMA, NYC, 2/10/07: 1.) Doug Aitken (b. 1968): Sleepwalkers. Featuring Tilda Swinton, Donald Sutherland, Chan Marshall (Cat Power), Seu Jorge, and Ryan Donowho. The artist's first large scale exhibition in the U.S. 2.) Josiah McElheny (b. 1966): Projects 84: Alpine Cathedral and City-Crown. Model-scale landscape of two abstract, crystalline structures, comprised of hollow glass modules. Follows the theme of Paul Scheerbart (1863-1915) and Bruno Taut (1880-1938), who believed in the spiritual qualities of glass and envisioned a brave and perfect new world of glass buildings illuminated in color. Scheerbart was a visionary Expressionist architectural writer and inventor engaged in avant-garde circles, Taut was an architect. 3.) Vik Muniz (b. 1961): Narcissus, after Caravaggio, 2005. Photograph. New MoMA acquisition. Arrangement of pieces of junk to mimic a painting by Caravaggio.


Vik Muniz: Individuals, 1998
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Saturday, February 03, 2007

Snippets:
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Philosophy: Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) wanted knowledge for practical purposes ('Knowledge is power'). He also advocated to make knowledge public.
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DVD: Ninotschka (1939). w/ Greta Garbo (Nina Ivanovna 'Ninotchka' Yakushova), Melvyn Douglas (Count Leon d'Algout). Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Prude Russian envoy is sent to Paris to arrange for the sale of jewels, but falls in love and begins to fancy Western life. Praised for Garbo's performance in the transition from 'poor' communist comrad to a lady with a sense of humor. Film was probably important in its time, but seems schmaltzy, obvious and predictable today. Overall rating 4 out of 10.
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DVD: United 93 (2006). Directed by Paul Greengrass. Real time account of the flight that was hijacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001. When passangers became aware via phone contact with relatives on the ground that the plane might be targeted to fly into the building, they decided to regain control and attempted to land it. In the course of the struggle, the plane crahed into a field in Pennsylvania. Important movie, realistic, but therefore also has stretches of little activity. Overall rating 7 out of 10.
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Literature: Laurence Sterne (1713-1768). English novelist, best known for his novels 'The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman', a book that in its style and humor was far ahead of its time, and influenced many subsequent writers. Also wrote 'A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy'.
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Art: Exhibition: Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Nov. 17, 2006 - March 28, 2007. Paintings arranged not by time period, but by subject, allowing comparisons of the various periods.
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Life: New Years Eve Cruise with Atlantica NY Yacht Cruises. Royal Princess: 3-deck yacht, up to 200 people for sit-down, open-air deck.
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Life: New York City Blog: Gothamist.
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Life: Placeblogger: Directory of local blogs around the world. E.g. Blogs in NYC and Hoboken, NJ.
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Maps: 1.) Microsoft Live Maps. Analogous to Google Earth. Includes locations of businesses and live traffic. Has 3D feature. 2.) Wikimapia. Can link personal events to a map.
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Web: Open Culture Podcast Portal: Includes listings from universities.
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DVD: The Searchers (1956). 119 min. John Wayne (Ethan Edwards), Jeffrey Hunter (Martin Pawley), Natalie Wood (Debbie Edwards, older; Brainstorm). Directed by John Ford. 10-year search of a lone racist war veteran for his little nice who was kidnapped by Comanches in 1868. Typical John Wayne movie. Filmed in Monument Valley, UT, that was discovered for movies by Ford. Commentary gives hints on Ford's signature, such as moving the camera and designing beautiful shots of the landscape. Need to pay attention to detail, especially in non-dialogue scenes to appreciate the work. Overall rating 6 out of 10.
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Video: The Big Trail (1930). w/ John Wayne (Breck Coleman), Marguerite Churchill (Ruth Cameron). Directed by Raoul Walsh. Scout, who is friends with the Indians, leads the wagon trail to Oregon, falls in love with a girl on the way, and avenges the murder of a couple of old friends. Story is straightforward. Some of the scenes remind of the times of silent movies. Some spectacular scenes for the time, e.g. when wagons are lowered over a cliff or river crossings. Overall rating: 6 out of 10.
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History: George Armstrong Custer (1839-1876). First a soldier in the Civil War, later an officer in the fight against Indians in the Northern Plains. Died at the hands of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors at the Battle of the Little Bighorn (today southeast part of Montana), after attacking an Indian village. It seems that overall he was a mediocre military man, but a myth created around his persona made him a well-known figure in American history. Little Bighorn was the pinnacle of the Indians' power and their greatest victory. Custer is also a town in the Black Hills in soutwest North Dakota (population 1860 in year 2000), near Mount Rushmore.
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History: Ghost Towns in the U.S. amd Canada. Catalog of deserted human settlements Includes photos and directions.
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Physics: Satyendra Nath Bose (1894-1974): Bengali Indian physicist, specializing in mathematical physics. Quantum mechanics in the early 1920s. Provided foundation for Bose-Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose-Einstein condensate.
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Psychology: Gustave Le Bon (1841-1931). French social psychologist, sociologist, and amateur physicist. Studies, among others, herd behaviour and crowd psychology. Book: 'The Crowd: Study of the popular mind' (1896)
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DVD: My Darling Clementine (1946). 96 min. w/ Henry Fonda (Wyatt Earp), Victor Mature (Dr. John 'Doc' Holliday), Cathy Downs (Clementine Carter). Directed by John Ford. Earp takes a job as a sherrif in Tombstone to find the murderer of his little brother, and falls in love with the former girlfriend of Doc Holiday. Movie culminates in the shootout at the O.K. Corral. Partly filmed in Monument Valley. Film has multiple factual errors (e.g. dates; Doc Holiday did not die at the O.K. Corral). Some errors (e.g., year on James Earp's grave) were introduced when producer Darryl F. Zanuck edited, re-cut and re-shot certain scenes of the film in the absence of John Ford to improve quality. An Alternate Pre-Release Version (work-in-progress version) of the movie and explanations to changed scenes is available on the DVD. Sometimes amusing, but a classic. Overall rating: 7 out of 10.
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Francis Parkman (1823-1893): The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life. Text at Project Gutenberg. HTML-Version. Parkman was an American historian who followed on the trail in 1846.
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History: National Register of Historic Places: List of cultural resources worthy of preservation. Administered by the National Park Service, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The National Register Information System (NRIS) is a database that contains information on places listed in or determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
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Video: The Oregon Trail. (1992). 120 min. Includes: Beginnings; Across the Plains; Through the Rockies; Final Steps. By Mike Trinklein and Steve Boettcher. PBS documentary about the history of the Oregon trail. Relates the experiences of its travellers using live action re-creations, archival materials and visits to important sites along the trails (including Scott's Bluff, Fort Laramie, and the nearby trail ruts). Also contains discussion of the rigors and dangers of the journey west. Shows the trail today and also uses interviews with historians, still photos, maps, drawings, and excerpts from emigrant diaries. Tells, among others, the story of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, who were probably the first emigrants to make the journey in 1836. The origin of the name 'Oregon' is still controversial today. More info on the Oregon Trail from Idaho State University. Some good historic facts, but sometimes confusing. Reenactment is partly repetitious. Overall rating 5 out of 10.
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