Wednesday, December 30, 2009
The Known Universe
This digital animation is based on the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. An exhibition entitled Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe will be on display at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Arnold Stang, Voice of Top Cat, Dies Age 91
This has been a tough year for iconic entertainers of my childhood. Soupy Sales will never take another pie in the face and now comes word that Arnold Stang, voice of Top Cat in the 1960s cartoon series and also the spokesman for the candy bar Chunky, died on Dec. 20th, 2009.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Jacques d'Amboise
Jacques d'Amboise has been recognized as one of the great American dancers of the 20th Century. Mr. d'Amboise has also been honored for his contributions to arts education (e.g., the 1990 MacArthur Fellowship, the Capezio Award, the Producer's Circle Award for public service, the Governor's Award for outstanding contributions to art and culture, the Paul Robeson Award for Excellence in the Field of the Humanities and the American National Medal of the Arts awarded in 1998 by the National Endowment of the Arts). At age 75, Mr. D'Amboise continues to be an inspiration as an artist and a teacher.
At the age of fifteen Jacques d'Amboise dropped out of school to dance with the New York City Ballet. By the age of seventeen Mr. d'Amboise was promoted to principal dancer. In 1954 Mr. d'Amboise took a brief leave from the NYCB to appear in the film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Mr. d'Amboise returned to the NYCB where, for over 3 decades, he was one of America's most-loved dancers (although he did take another brief leave to appear in the film version of Carousel in 1956). As a dancer, Mr. d'Amboise is best known for his roles in such distinctly American works as Western Symphony (1954), Stars and Stripes (1958), and Who Cares? (1970), with many ballets choreographed for him by George Balanchine. During his time at the NYCB, Mr. d'Amboise also began to choreograph (The Chase in 1963 and Quatuor and Irish Fantasy in 1964). In 1976, while still dancing with the NYCB, Mr. d'Amboise founded the National Dance Institute, bringing dance into the NY public schools. NDI has since expanded into other cities and internationally. Mr. d'Amboise's efforts with NDI were documented in He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin', which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1984.
How to contact Jacques d'Amboise:
National Dance Institute
594 Broadway, room 805
New York, NY, 10012
e-mail: info@nationaldance.org
www.nationaldance.org
Friday, December 4, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Adam's Apple Ad circa 1978
When I arrived in NYC in 1978, this ad defined a certain vision of decadent nightlife. I never went to the Adam's Apple, but remember the ad (the girl with the Farrah Fawcett hair and the swelling disco music under scenes of artificial East Side revelry) from late-night TV.
This all came back to mind this week because the 90 year old former owner of the Adam's Apple was murdered (apparently a 30 year old former sexual partner arranged a violent robbery) in his East Side apartment. The story that has emerged would make for an interesting film. In many ways the life and death of Guido Felix Brinkmann defines a century. According to the NY Times and the NY Daily News, Felix Brinkmann was a Latvian born Nazi-sympathizer who was sent to the death camps when it was discovered that he had a Jewish mom. After surviving Auschwitz and marrying a woman he met while imprisoned, Brinkmann dropped the final "n" from his name and moved to NY in 1948. In the city, Brinkmann set about making a small fortune in the free-wheeling club world. In the 1960s Felix Brinkmann managed the Audubon ballroom where Malcolm X was assassinated and in the 1970s he founded the Adam's Apple disco where the hustle dance craze was born. As an elderly widower, Felix Brinkman managed real estate and "regularly brought young women back to his apartment for sex." It may have been a hooker who arranged the robbery that left Brinkmann dead.
To read more, here's another reference to the recent argument where Brinkmann allegedly pulled a gun on a 26 year old man, here is a link to a compilation of news reports about Brinkmann's murder and to see a photo of the suspect click here.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
"Birthers" and the Republicans (Liz Cheney) Who Defend Them
For a Huffington Post produced montage of "birther" rage, click here.
On Aug. 05, 2009 Salon published a guide to refuting the Birthers by Alex Koppelman. The documentary proof marshalled by Salon probably won't have much impact on the 28 percent of Republicans who don't believe President Obama was born in the U.S. Maybe the other 30 percent who "aren't sure" should read the article.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Lee Ving
The performance above features Lee Ving in December 2007. Lee Ving is a legendary LA-based musician and actor.
The performance above features Lee Ving fronting Fear in Penelope Spheeris's punk rock documentary, The Decline of Western Civilization (1981), circa 1980.
And here's a link to another Lee Ving country performance, Two Wheels to the Wind, recorded in 2003.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Duck Amuck
This 1953 Chuck Jones directed cartoon (with music by Carl Stalling) is on my list of all-time best Warner Brothers cartoons - a comic masterpiece that acknowledges how films are made as it deconstructs what happens inside the frame and on the soundtrack. Duck Amuck lifts its star out of a traditional story and even out of the carefully constructed illusion that is the film. It's for these reasons that Duck Amuck has been called a great postmodern film, mentioned in the same breath as the work of Godard and Brakhage.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Wedding Entrance Dance (followed by the Divorce Dance)
And, of course, every great entrance deserves a great exit.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Finally, Your Chance to Be In the Movies! Yoostar Offers a Home Green Screen Machine that Does for Classic Movies What Karaoke Does for Music
Variety reports on a $169 system being offered soon (July 2009) by start-up YooStar:
"Five studios -- Paramount, Universal, MGM, Warner Bros. and Lionsgate -- have partnered with the company, as have the National Basketball Assn. and Sesame Workshop's "Sesame Street" franchise. The package will ship with 14 clips (11 from films, one from "Sesame Street" and two "moving backgrounds," which allow users to improvise a scene).
Included are single scenes from pics as old as "Double Indemnity" (1944) and "Sunset Boulevard" (1950) and as recent as 2006's "Rocky Balboa" and "Employee of the Month." The original "Terminator" and "Beverly Hills Cop 2" are also in the starter pack."
According to the promotional materials, hundreds of other scenes can be purchased.
Here's a demo of sample scenes (starring Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro) that was premiered at CES in January 2009:
Thanks to Scott Kirsner for making me aware of YooStar.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Martyr?
The young woman whose apparent death in a Tehran street protest can be viewed on YouTube has been identified (in a hastily constructed wikipedia entry) as Neda Agha Soltan.
I won't link to the troubling video (I want kids to be able to view this blog) but her death (if accurately reported) and sacrifice must not be forgotten.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
The Struggle for Voting Rights: Iranian Police Disperse Protestors in Shiraz, Compare How American Authorities Denied Voting Rights
This (remarkable) video which apparently depicts students in Shiraz being beaten by uniformed police was posted to YouTube on June 20, 2009.
In Iran the police and the militia are apparently using brutal force to put down what is essentially a protest for voting rights. In the United States, violence also marked the struggle for voting rights. See the video that follows:
In Iran the police and the militia are apparently using brutal force to put down what is essentially a protest for voting rights. In the United States, violence also marked the struggle for voting rights. See the video that follows:
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Peaceful Protest in Iran June 17th, 2009: Regime Change Done Right
The protestors in these videos are demonstrating great courage. For example, Reuters reported today that Mohammadreza Habibi, the senior prosecutor in Iran's central province of Isfahan, has warned demonstrators that they could be executed under Islamic law.
Meanwhile, voices are being raised in peaceful resistance. The woman in the following video (which documents cries of "God Is Great" that are apparently being shouted each night from the rooftops across Iran in protest) is reportedly saying "they can take our phones, our internet, all our communication away, but we are showing that by saying "allaho akbar" we can find each other." The video ends with this unnamed Iranian woman saying that tonight they are crying out to god for help.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
Paul Scofield as Salieri in Amadeus
A modern master at work. Thanks to Chris Fields for making me aware of this clip.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Keith Olbermann Goes After Congressman Vern Buchanan on MSNBC
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Here's a link to the Washington Examiner article that claims Republican-owned car dealerships, like the one owned by Florida Congressman Vern Buchanan, are being singled out for harsh treatment in a government ordered restructuring. Of course, Vern Buchanan (and all other Congressional Republicans) voted against any auto industry bailout (preferring to let all the dealerships fail?). It's difficult to see a partisan plot in dealership closings (even if some Republican-owned dealerships are closing) when, as Keith Olbermann points out, at least some Republican-owned dealerships are being saved by the government bail-out. Even for ideologues, some is still better than none.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Obama and Hitler
Nothing that happened from January 2001 - January 2009 was the President's fault, but everything that doesn't go right for President Obama will be because he is the anti-Christ or Hitler.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Unusual Suspect | ||||
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Obama and Hitler | ||||
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Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Two Different Views (both from the Right) of President Obama's Feb. 24th, 2009 Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the Republican Response
In response to President Obama's address to both houses of Congress and the Republican response by Louisiana's Governor Bobby Jindal, Rush Limbaugh defended Governor Jindal and attacked President Obama:
But David Brooks, a conservative commentator, described Governor Jindal's argument (government is incapable of dealing with the current economic disaster, using as his example the Bush administration's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina) as "insane."
But David Brooks, a conservative commentator, described Governor Jindal's argument (government is incapable of dealing with the current economic disaster, using as his example the Bush administration's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina) as "insane."
Monday, February 23, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
How Many Ways Can Ben Stein Be Wrong?
Obama Speech reminds Ben of Hitler
In Jan. 2008, Ben Says We're in a Huge Economic Boom etc.
Aug. 2007 Ben Refutes Predictions of A Stock Market Collapse Due to Mortgages...
In Jan. 2008, Ben Says We're in a Huge Economic Boom etc.
Aug. 2007 Ben Refutes Predictions of A Stock Market Collapse Due to Mortgages...
Friday, January 9, 2009
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