November 29, 2017
Restoring Rothko
"Filmed over 18 months, this is the story behind the restoration of Mark Rothko's 'Black on Maroon'."
And then: Rothko's original conception for the work became increasingly sombre. He later said, "After I had been at work for some time I realised that I was much influenced subconsciously by Michelangelo's walls in the staircase room of the Medicean Library in Florence. He achieved just the kind of feeling I'm after ..."
In the abstract: "Tate Modern's Rothko: five other artworks that could be improved."
Chinsekikan (which means hall of curious rocks)
The Japanese museum of rocks that look like faces.
She Past Away - Kasvetli Kutlama
all colors have faded
(tüm renkler soldu)
in a pitch black hole
(kapkara bir çukurda)
all voices are quiet
(tüm sesler soldu)
suddenly
(bir anda)
all spirits have rotted away
(tüm ruhlar çürümüş)
gloomy celebration
(kasvetli kutlama)
upon all the fake faces
(tüm sahte yüzlerde)
leather masks
(deri maske)
and again
(ve yine..)
within nothingness!
(hiçlikte)
my existence drowning
(boğuluyor benliğim)
in the depths
(derinlerde)
November 28, 2017
Behind the Scenes: The Restoration of Isabella de' Medici
Faked, Forgotten, Found: The Restoration of Isabella de Medici from Carnegie Museum of Art on Vimeo.
"Learn how curators and conservators discovered a portrait of Isabella de' Medici attributed to Alessandro Allori beneath the surface of a work repainted in the 19th century, or how to tell the museum’s genuine painting by Francesco Francia of the Virgin and Child apart from later imitations and copies. The exhibition offers a behind-the-scenes perspective on the intersection of art and science taking place in the museum every day."
Ross Sea Party
"For the past 100 years, a box of never-before-seen negatives has been preserved in a block of ice in Antarctica. Recently, Conservators of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust came across the 22 exposed, but unprocessed, cellulose nitrate negatives during an attempt to restore an old exploration hut."
November 27, 2017
Brutalist Washington Map
"The guide features 40 leading examples of Brutalist architecture from the Hirshhorn Museum and the J. Edgar Hoover Building (FBI HQ), Dulles Airport and Georgetown’s Lauinger Library to lesser known buildings like the the Woman’s National Democratic Club Annex, National Presbyterian Church and Reston’s Lake Anne Plaza. Details for each building and metro station, include the location, date and the architect or practice responsible."
November 26, 2017
Judge Judy | Full Q&A | Oxford Union
"Judge Judy is an American lawyer, former judge, television personality, producer, and author. Since 1996, Sheindlin has presided over her own successful Daytime Emmy Award–winning reality courtroom series, Judge Judy."
Judge Judy Before TV - A Profile of Judith at Work (1993)
"Judge Judith Sheindlin is known in New York City Family Court for her testy attitude and harsh lectures. But she says there's a reason she's so tough: She is determined to improve the lives of the families she encounters. Includes rare footage of Judge Judy in court."
Judge Judy interview on her Life and Career (2009)
"In her two-hour interview, Judge Judith Sheindlin discusses in detail her transition from being a New York Family Court judge (where she was known as 'America's toughest judge') to becoming a phenomenal television success as 'Judge Judy.' She chronicles her rise to notoriety, which peaked when she was featured on 60 Minutes. From that appearance, she soon was offered the opportunity to bring her 'no excuses' judicial philosophy to the small screen. Judge Sheindlin talks about Judge Judy's flawed pilot and how the show found its footing early-on. She also discusses her courtroom demeanor (including her famous 'Judy-isms") and talks about the production details of the show."
November 25, 2017
Stevie Nicks - Blue Lamp
From the Bella Donna recording sessions.. as included on the Crystal Visions bonus DVD.
November 24, 2017
CBC Marketplace - Outlet Sales / Time Bomb / Winners
"Many people flock to outlets for deals on their favourite brands. But are you always getting the same quality that you get at retail stores? And we look at the 'compare at' price at Winners, and find out if their discounted prices are the real deal."
November 23, 2017
The Mystery of the Modigliani Masterpiece (2016)
"t’s a painting created by one of the great masters that went missing for over fifty years. A Modigliani that may have been looted in Paris during the Nazi occupation. Then, it resurfaced at a Christie’s auction in London.
"The grandson of a Jewish art dealer from Paris says the painting -- called 'Seated Man With a Cane' -- was stolen from his family during the Nazi era and is now in the possession of the influential family of art dealers, who deny the claim. Now the case is before the courts while the masterpiece remains in a Geneva warehouse with other treasures.
"Frederic Zalac travels across Europe with some of the greatest art detectives to try to crack an enduring mystery – to whom does the $25 million dollar 'Seated Man With a Cane' belong?"
November 22, 2017
November 21, 2017
People City: Toronto’s Lost Anthem (2017)
People City: Toronto's Lost Anthem (2017) from Retrontario on Vimeo.
"In 1972, Moses Znaimer commissioned singer-songwriter Tommy Ambrose and ad-guru Gary Gray to create a love song about Toronto which would be used as the theme music for a new local UHF Television station called Citytv.
"The result was “People City”, an ode to Toronto’s burgeoning multicultural fabric and character, championed by then Mayor David Crombie as a possible official song for the city itself.
"The Toronto which “People City” forecast came to exist, but sadly the song ebbed into history. 45 years later, Moses Znaimer, Tommy Ambrose, Gary Gray and David Crombie reflect on the era, the song, and its bittersweet legacy."
November 19, 2017
You have to be obsessed
Susan Sontag on being a writer.
1. The nut, the obsédé
2. The moron
3. The stylist
4. The critic
1 supplies the material; 2 lets it come out; 3 is taste; 4 is intelligence.
A great writer has all 4—but you can still be a good writer with only 1 and 2; they’re most important.
- from Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963
November 18, 2017
Harry Potter: A History of Magic (2017)
"It is 20 years since JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone first cast its spell on readers across the globe. But Rowling's fantastical creation wasn't entirely make-believe.
"In the run up to the exhibition Harry Potter: A History of Magic, JK Rowling ventures behind the scenes of the British Library, revealing the real-life counterparts to her fantastical world. From shrieking mandrakes and Elizabethan invisibility spells to the mystery of ancient Chinese oracle bones and the real life search for the Philosopher's Stone, it is the start of a warm, playful and inventive journey round some of the most magical places in the land - from wizarding wandmakers in the English forest to the beguiling witchcraft of Boscastle, Cornwall.
"The film features readings by actors from the Harry Potter films, including David Thewlis, Evanna Lynch, Warwick Davis, Miriam Margolyes and Mark Williams, while Rowling's illustrator Jim Kay illuminates her imaginary world. Narrated by Imelda Staunton."
November 17, 2017
The Red Book and The Red Book: Jung, Tolkien, and the Convergence of Images
"In 1913 two men in Western Europe, of different age and unknown to each other, began to undergo a highly unusual experience: C.G. Jung and J.R.R. Tolkien both stepped across a threshold and entered into a realm of imagination, into the realm of fantasy. For Jung this process, which he called active imagination, took the eventual form of the Liber Novus, also known as The Red Book, that became the seed from which nearly all his subsequent work flowered. For Tolkien this imaginal journey revealed to him the world of Middle Earth, whose stories and myths eventually led to the writing of The Lord of the Rings, a book also named, within its own contextual history, The Red Book of Westmarch. Although working in different fields—namely psychology and philology—there are many synchronistic parallels between Jung's and Tolkien's "Red Book periods": the style of their artwork, the nature of their visions and dreams, and a similarity in world view that emerged from their experiences are all indications that they may have been treading, at times, the same paths through the archetypal realm.
"Becca Tarnas is a doctoral student in the Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion program at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she also received her MA in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program. She received her BA from Mount Holyoke College in Environmental Studies and Theater Arts, and was educated at the San Francisco Waldorf School for thirteen years. Her current research is on ecology, imagination, and archetypes in relation to the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. More of her work can be found at beccatarnas.wordpress.com"
Dinosaur time
"But let’s unpack some of that scenery. Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, Allosaurus, Stegosaurus and their neighbors roamed western North America about 150 million years ago. This slice of time falls in the latter portion of the Jurassic. The traditional representatives of the latest Cretaceous scene—Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops—did not evolve until about 67 million years ago. By themselves, these dates are just labels, but think of them falling along evolution’s timeline. About 83 million years separated Apatosaurus from Tyrannosaurus and Allosaurus from Triceratops. The so-called Age of Mammals—which began when the non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out—has been going on for about 66 million years. Less time separates us from Tyrannosaurus rex than separated T. rex from Stegosaurus."
November 16, 2017
Métal Hurlant Chronicles
"Métal Hurlant Chronicles is an English-language Franco-Belgian television science fiction anthology series based on the popular comics anthology magazine Métal Hurlant, known in the United States as Heavy Metal and in Germany as Schwermetall. Each episode is a self-contained story taking place on a different planet with a different cast, and the episodes are linked together only by the idea that an asteroid, the 'Métal Hurlant', passes the planet in question during the events of the story."
November 15, 2017
What if the Martian Invasion of 1938 was all just a radio drama?
"October 30th, 1938: The first Martian Cylinders land in England, New Jersey, & other places. Total domination seemed imminent, but Earth's diseases wiped the invading force out.
"But what if this wasn't the case? What if it was all a Halloween prank? How would the 20th century & beyond be different without the United Republic of Earth or the Second Martian War of 1969?"
November 14, 2017
November 13, 2017
WORTH IT - LIFE$TYLE S2 • E4 - $1,700 Apartment Vs. $40,000 Apartment
November 12, 2017
Dear Ian Simpson (architect),
Why does the Beetham Tower hum?
November 11, 2017
Special Air Service (SAS) - The Falklands Conflict
"When Argentina invaded the Falklands in April, 1982, Britain dispatched a large Naval Task Force to recapture the Falklands. Steaming south with the British fleet were D and G Squadron of the SAS, with supporting signals units."
November 10, 2017
When Eight Bells Toll (1971)
"When Eight Bells Toll is a 1971 action film set in Scotland, based upon Scottish author Alistair MacLean's 1965 novel of the same name. Producer Elliott Kastner planned to produce a string of realistic gritty espionage thrillers to rival the James Bond series, but the film's poor box office receipts ended his plans.
"British Treasury secret agent Phillip Calvert (Anthony Hopkins) is sent to investigate the hijacking of five cargo ships in the Irish Sea, tracking the latest hijacked ship—the Nantesville, carrying £8 million in gold bullion—to the Scottish Highlands and the sleepy port town of "Torbay" on the "Isle of Torbay" (patterned after Tobermory, on the Isle of Mull)."
November 09, 2017
Pylos Combat Agate
"Two years ago, archaeologists excavating an ancient grave at Pylos in southwestern Greece pulled out a grime-encrusted object, less than an inch and half long, that looked like some kind of large bead. They put it aside to focus on more prominent items, like gold rings, that also were packed into the rich grave.
"But later, as a conservator removed the lime accretions on the bead’s face, it turned out to be something quite different: a seal stone, a gemstone engraved with a design that can be stamped on clay or wax."
November 07, 2017
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade - Celibidache, RSS (1982)
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Hans Kalafusz, violin
Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart
Sergiu Celibidache, conductor
Recorded live at the Studio Villa Berg, Süddeutscher Rundfunk, Stuttgart, November 1982
Slavoj Zizek - Blade Runner 2049: A view of post-human capitalism
"How are capitalism and the prospect of post-humanity related? Usually it is posited that capitalism is (more) historical, and our humanity, inclusive of sexual difference, more basic, even ahistorical. However, what we are witnessing today is nothing less than an attempt to integrate the passage to post-humanity into capitalism. This is what the efforts of new billionaire gurus like Elon Musk are about; their prediction that capitalism 'as we know it' is coming to an end refers to 'human' capitalism, and the passage they talk about is the passage from “human” to post-human capitalism. Blade Runner 2049 deals with this topic."
Comprehensive spoilers: Blade Runner 2049, capitalism.
November 06, 2017
November 05, 2017
Wonder Woman (1974)
"Wonder Woman's first broadcast appearance in live-action television was a movie made in 1974 for ABC. Written by John D. F. Black, the TV movie resembles the Wonder Woman of the 'I Ching' period. Wonder Woman (Cathy Lee Crosby) did not wear the comic-book uniform, demonstrated no apparent super-human powers, had a "secret identity" of Diana Prince that was not all that secret, and she was also depicted as blonde (differing from the black hair established in the comic books). This 1974 film follows Wonder Woman, assistant to government agent Steve Trevor (Kaz Garas) as she pursues a villain named Abner Smith (Ricardo Montalban) who has stolen a set of code books containing classified information about U.S. government field agents."
November 04, 2017
November 02, 2017
November 01, 2017
Translucency
"The late 19th century Armenian-Russian painter Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky created some truly spectacular paintings of seascapes that capture the beautiful, shimmering essence of the tumultuous waters. The marine artist gained recognition for his impeccable ability to recreate the expressive quality of oceans with over half of his 6,000+ paintings from his lifetime being devoted to the subject."