Arts & Culture
Arts & Culture
Dianne Durante on Monuments of Manhattan App
Joseph Kellard July 13, 2014
Dianne Durante has released an Android app based on her book Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan. The app, produced by Guides Who Know, features more than three hours of video on the fifty-four sculptures that appear in the book, including Continents by Daniel Chester French, Sherman Monument by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and the Statue of Liberty.
Arts & Culture
Nureyev Danced Free of Communism and Lived
Robert Begley June 16, 2014
Nureyev’s defection inspired other famous Russian dancers, including Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov, also to defect to the West, where they could flourish in their lives and careers. For example, now free, they could dance to the music of Prokofiev and the choreography of Balanchine, both of which were illegal in the Soviet Union.
Arts & Culture
Walter Mitty Learns to Love His Life
Ari Armstrong May 30, 2014
Rather than appreciate the joys and challenges of his work managing film negatives for Life magazine, ask a woman he likes out on a date, go on adventures, or stick up for himself when insulted or mistreated, Mitty frequently “zones out” and vividly imagines himself doing heroic things and going to interesting places.
Arts & Culture
It Really Is About Time
Ari Armstrong May 25, 2014
Imagine if you could relive yesterday. What would say that you did not say? What would you do that you did not do? Now imagine you could relive any day in your past until you made it a perfect day. That is the premise of the 2013 film written and directed by Richard Curtis, About Time.
Arts & Culture
Monuments Men Saved Master Artworks from Grip of Nazis
Ari Armstrong May 23, 2014
The Monuments Men saved such cultural treasures as The Adoration of the Lamb by Jan van Eyck and Madonna of Bruges by Michelangelo. Among many other operations in which the unit was involved, it assisted with the recovery of artworks stored by the Nazis in the Austrian salt mines of Altausee.
Arts & Culture
12 Years a Slave and Those Who Should Endure It
Ari Armstrong May 15, 2014
In its artistry, the film is hauntingly beautiful, with its lush landscapes, intricate costuming, heart wrenching performances, and ponderous direction. In its subject matter—it details the years that free-born Solomon Northup spent in slavery after he was kidnapped and sold into bondage—the film is horrific.
Arts & Culture
Frank Lloyd Wright Masterpiece Opens to Public for the First Time
Earl Parson May 10, 2014
The Johnson Wax buildings, as they are commonly called, offer a great example of how a company’s architecture can be integral to its identity. The S. C. Johnson company has always been extremely proud of its Wright-designed buildings, and the buildings’ design has helped shape the identity and culture of the company over the years.
Arts & Culture
Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades
Jason Letman May 9, 2014
Quiz shows such as Jeopardy! highlight the amazing capabilities of contestants to remember varied, esoteric facts and to recall them under enormous pressures of time limits and high-dollar competition. Viewers witness the power of the human mind to function at extremely high levels in a competitive setting, and many who watch draw inspiration to improve their own minds.
Arts & Culture
Heavy Metal-Classical Fusion for the Soul
Jason Letman April 25, 2014
What do you get when one of the world’s great classical guitarists, Thomas Valeur, teams up with the “Queen of Shred” heavy-metal guitarist, The Commander in Chief? Last year, the two collaborated on a reorchestration of Pablo de Sarasate’s Zigeuenerweisen. The result is an excellent performance by two talented musicians.
Arts & Culture
Olympic Skater Katarina Witt: “The Most Beautiful Face” of a Grotesque System
Joseph Kellard February 12, 2014
The Diplomat, an ESPN documentary about two-time Olympic champion figure skater Katarina Witt of East Germany (the former German Democratic Republic, or GDR), is released to video February 18. The film serves as a reminder—or a revelation—of the crushing grip communist dictatorships held on the people who “lived” under them.