September 10th, 2008 — Photography, Science
If you can see this, you’re probably a proton: Large Hadron Collider
Whether you believe that, today, the world ends, or, in a scientific sense, it begins, you’ll agree that it was because, on this day, the start button for the biggest machine ever made got pushed.
The Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, began operation today.
September 10th, 2008 — Journalism, Photography, Theater
Whether you love the theater or not, it remains one of the truly, cruelly most ironic dates in the history of the performing arts: Early on the morning of January 25, 1996, after that evening’s final dress rehearsal, Jonathan Larson, 35, the writer and composer of Rent, died in his West Village apartment of an aortic aneurysm.
The play was scheduled to begin its Off-Broadway run the next night, incidentally almost 100 years to the day after the debut of Giacomo Puccini’s opera, La Bohème, which inspired it.
Rent opened on Broadway’s Nederlander Theater quickly afterwards, in the spring of that year. As all now know, but Larson never would, Rent became an astounding success, was made into a film, won several Tony awards, and received the Pulitzer prize. It closed this past Sunday, after nearly 13 years and over 5,000 performances, the seventh-longest running play in Broadway history.
In this somber recollection, Sara Krulwich, who photographed Larson for The New York Times, only to receive the call from her editor as her film was being processed that the composer had died, talks about what she saw that night, as well as the day that Rent won the Pulitzer, sharing her memories of a great talent cut down far too soon.
September 9th, 2008 — Humor, Politics
Click on the pic, above: Is it me, or is Republican presidential nominee John McCain, in full view of his wife, Cindy, rear, checking out vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s behind?
[via BuzzFeed]
September 8th, 2008 — Fashion
Luxist, the blog of grotesquely conspicuous consumption, gets the credit for knowledging me to jewelry house Le Vian’s and designer Stuart Weitzman’s two-tootsied showcase for diamonds and tanzanite. (Tanzanite, of the mineral zoisite, comes from Tanzania.) Price: $2 million a pair.
They’re fashioned
in glistening silver leather embellished with over 185 carats of tanzanite and 28 carats of diamonds. Stunning ankle bracelets are set with museum quality tanzanite gemstones, painstakingly matched and cut by Le Vian’s master craftsmen, each crowned with a spectacular 16 carat, sparkling tanzanite drop which adorns the front of the foot. The shoes are balanced with a delicate diamond front strap that perfectly complements Stuart Weitzman’s timeless, elegant shoe design.
They’re also great for tossing at misbehaving kids.
September 5th, 2008 — NONFICTION, Work
Like a lot of people working in the corporatesphere, Pamela Skillings hated the work she did. As she says in a piece for The New York Times this past June, she had even begun to adopt a cruel piece of hamster-wheel logic in order to keep herself going into the office every day:
September 4th, 2008 — Food
Super-size me: A Mallomys giant rat, native to New Guinea
His Excellency Mr. Sea Kosai
Ambassador
Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Cambodia to the U.N.
866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 420
New York, NY 10017
USA
Dear Mr. Kosai:
Greetings. My name is Harry Allen. I run the MEDIA ASSASSIN blog, here at harryallen.info. I trust that you and your staff are well.
I’m writing to you because of the following news story, out of your country, last week:
September 4th, 2008 — Film, Politics
That’s the question Max Blumenthal, of The Nation, asks John McCain’s daughter and mother, above, as well as other G.O.P. operatives on the floor of the convention, in this short, Juno From Juneau. Way too short.
[Via HuffPo]
September 3rd, 2008 — Fashion, Music
Love jazz? Love Obama? Mutually satisfy those joint urges with this impeccable, 2 1/4″ lapel button (enlarged above) in the legendary Blue Note Records-styled color scheme. Now, declare the only thing better that the Democratic Presidential nominee: The Democratic Presidential nominee backed by a combo. $1.00, plus 2.95 shipping, or 6.75 for Priority, from Democraticstuff.com.
September 3rd, 2008 — Design
If you want to have a good day, look at what the Dutch are doing in design. Joris Laarman‘s Bone Chair, above, says W magazine, is a concept
that he developed on a computer and then cast in aluminum. For the form, Laarman relied on software that car manufacturers use to develop the most efficient shapes for auto parts. (The software was originally inspired by the biology of human bones, whose regenerative capacity allows them to add and subtract matter as needed.) The result is a delicately sculptural object that contains no superfluous or decorative matter yet is gorgeous enough to make people marvel. “It’s as if a tree just grew out of the ground to keep you propped up.”
So adds Paola Antonelli, senior curator in the Museum of Modern Art’s department of architecture and design. MoMA featured Laarman’s chair, and this polyurethane chaise version, right, in the museum’s Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit this past spring.
I first saw and was struck by Laarman’s work on Trendhunter and the indefatigable Dezeen. Yet his conceptual force is what gives his work its elemental power. As he notes in W, “Combining reason with emotion, that’s the most difficult thing to do—in design and in everything.”
Difficult, yes. But, clearly, there’s an even harder task at which Laarman excels: Making it look easy.
September 2nd, 2008 — Advertising, Film, Obituary
It’s weird to be writing twice in the space of a few hours about great voice talents, but, man, the giant has left the building. Don LaFontaine, whose low, gritty, rock-hard “In a world, where…” anchored so many of the over 5,000 trailers he voiced during his 33-year career—like this one for Tyler Perry’s upcoming The Family That Preys—passed away on Monday at the age of 68.
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