Here’s some utterly non-political awesomeness with which to launch the weekend:
My regret: the strandbeests came to Massachusetts last fall — the MIT campus even! — and I didn’t manage to see them in action.
Anyway…Enjoy!
And consider this a random and campaign-free open thread.
bystander
I know this doent make the nightly news, but shouldn’t we be discussing a sitting Senator who prays for President Obama to die in office?
Trollhattan
Love! For you leftcoasters, you can see these in Disneyland for Grownups ™ at the Exploratorium.
Shell
Do they really only move thru wind power.? There was one that didn’t have any sails.
amygdala
Cool and kind of spooky at the same time. Thanks!
Here’s some Yo-Yo Ma. The Music of Strangers, a documentary about his Silk Road Project, is in now theaters. I caught it at a film festival last year and enjoyed it immensely. The musicians are such talented, generous, interesting people, and there’s footage from all sorts of interesting places.
LAO
Artists like this make me wish I was creative. I can’t fathom how he thought up these seemingly magical “creatures” and then made them real.
Major Major Major Major
Tom Levenson
@bystander: Yes, and I’ll throw up a post on this later. But not here.* Just enjoy.
*An exhortation, obviously. Not the law of the blog…
Mike J
@bystander: Completely ignored Romans 13:1 too.
lamh36
Been a long day at work (comment coming up about this in a minute)
But first, watching my DVR recording of the Ali funeral/memorial.
ESPN has been showing it all day. TVONE also.
NBC national is showing it now as well.
If anything else, that should tell you the impact that Muhammad Ali had on folks internationally.
The all inclusive public ceremony was planned by Ali and his family for almost 10 years, according to reports. Ali apparently thought of it as an “educational” experience it’s multicultural, multi-faith, multi-political affair. Ali understood that this occasion may just be watched by millions and was an opportunity to teach.
SiubhanDuinne
@bystander:
It is definitely news here in the sitting Senator’s home state of Georgia. I’ve heard at least three reports this afternoon on the local NPR station alone, and of course all my various Georgia Democrats FB pages are incandescent with outrage. Don’t know how much play it’ll get elsewhere, though.
Joe Falco
Just checked into a hotel after the end of a 7 day cruise from Seattle to Alaska and back again. This has been the best weather I ever had for a vacation. It’s sunny in Seattle!
Going back to Atlanta in the morning and then it’s time to decompress.
SiubhanDuinne
@amygdala:
Looking forward to seeing that. I feel as though I heard (but I might be misremembering) that Yo Yo Ma will be interviewed about the doc tomorrow morning on NPR Weekend Edition Saturday. I have quite a few of the Silk Road Ensemble CDs, and the music they do is very innovative and, of course, meticulously performed.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Here’s a sample of the comments from the ATL paper:
Mnemosyne
Malia Obama graduates from high school today, may be why Bill Clinton is speaking at Muhammad Ali’s funeral today and not the president. Ali loved his own daughters deeply, so I’m sure he would have approved.
Also, I love how the president makes sure to give credit to his mother-in-law for helping the family get through the last 8 years. She seems like a really great lady.
Brachiator
If anyone is thinking about going to the movies this weekend, I recommend Whit Stillman’s “Love and Friendship,” an adaptation of an early Jane Austen novella, “Lady Susan,” and starring a delightfully naughty Kate Beckinsale. Here’s how one review describes it:
But it’s not your typical tea and drawing room Austen adaptation. The sets, costumes and production design are beautiful (using stately houses in Ireland, I believe), but the tone of the piece is biting and more modern. Lady Susan is out for a benefactor for herself, a husband for her daughter, and protection for her friends, but she is the wittiest and the most delightfully conniving operator, without any hit of scruple about what she wants or how she will go about getting it.
The main fun is in seeing her set her traps and reel in her prey. The obvious weakness of a story like this, and something that Austen clearly improved upon in her later, more mature works, is that Lady Susan is clearly smarter than any other character, which might make her victories seem hollow and soap opera-ish. But the level of the acting and the film making gleefully skirts these shortcomings. Best of all is the performance of Tom Bennett as Sir James Martin, one of the funniest amiable dolts to appear on screen in a long time.
All and all, a nice alternative to political drama.
lamh36
just fully watched that you tube video of Muhammad Ali on Candid Camera with the kids and it was lovely :-)
schrodinger's cat
An awesome Ganesha song from Any Body Can Dance (ABCD). The movie had no known stars and one of the main dancers Lauren Gottlieb was one of the finalists On So You Think You Can Dance and was directed by Remo D’souza.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
It’s just sick. And I suspect that comment may be among the milder ones. I refuse to wander into that slime swamp.
And it makes my eyes prick with tears even now, after so many years of witnessing the hatred and bile directed at this good, decent man and his family. I honestly cannot fathom how the Obamas manage to keep their composure and dignity in the face of the never ending onslaught from … what’s the word again? … oh yeah, the Christians.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
And it’s Sasha’s 15th birthday! If only she was Messican instead of Kenyan Mooslim, she could have a nice quinceañera.
Emma
never mind.
SFAW
I took my son to see the exhibit at the Peabody-Essex Museum. It was pretty neat, plus they had a demo. Glad I went.
@Shell:
For some of them, perhaps all of them, they need to get pumped up before being operated. As in, there are chambers that get pressurized, and that air pressure is the main propulsive force for the machine. I can’t remember if the wind can be used to pressurize (but just takes a whole lot longer), and I’m too lazy to look it up.
germy
@Emma: This is from his page:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYGJ9jrbpvg
lamh36
Today on As The Lab Turns..
So I don’t know how much y’all know about the Micro lab but our specimens are basically Petrie dishes that are stacked in racks to be read.
So I’m at my bench reading and then I hear this crash and “oh shit”. I look over and that new, rude, unprofessional supervisor lady had dropped her plates. ok it happens but you just pick them up quickly and put em back.
But this bish walks away to presumably to put something up right quick…AND DOESNT COME BACK.
I swear I sat there for a good 3 min trying to see if the bish was coming back. When she didn’t immediately come back I got up looked to the front of the lab and noticed she was fuqn talking to another tech cool as you please…and the plates were just sitting on the floor! BITCH!
I swear to y’all I was gonna be Petty as fuq and leave them right on the floor…but then another tech came up and was “whoa, what happened” and started picking them up…so I went ahead and helped start picking up the plates.
So we ended up picking them all up, and this bitch comes strolling from the front (mind u it had to be at least 10min after she dropped the plates) and literally looked down at the floor and just started talking!!!! Bitch didn’t say Thank you or “Boo the fuqn first” (that’s a NOLA saying, btw. no idea where it came from ?) just started back at her damn bench!!!
YALL!!! YALL!!!
I left for the day 2 1/2 hrs early. Finished my bench and “flexed” some time… got a 3 day weekend coming up and I was too through with that place for the next three days!
YALL!!!!!!!
amygdala
@SiubhanDuinne: I’ve been lucky enough to see them live several times. The range of pieces from central Asian folk tunes to music written specifically for the Ensemble is so fantastic.
I’ll be interested in what you think of the documentary. He talks about his motivations for assembling SRP (by complete coincidence, not long before 9/11, after which the idea of bridging cultures along the Silk Road seemed much more urgent). He found himself wondering what more he should be doing in the world, besides music. All I could think was, “You’re Yo-Yo friggin’ Ma–that’s plenty!”
But it’s cool that he’s trying to use his music for even greater goals. One of the Ensemble’s clarinetists is Syrian. He decided to gather up simple instruments and take them to the camps with other musicians, to teach kids to play, so that they’d have a small escape from the horror. He wondered if it was pointless and naive, but was at a loss for what else to do. Despite the grim conditions, the kids’ curiosity prevailed. No end in sight, though. Sometimes we really suck as a species.
SiubhanDuinne
@Tom Levenson:
So sorry, Tom. I responded to bystander (and then raven and I traded comments) before I saw your comment. Apologies for derailing this nice thread. (Edit: And feel free to delete my comments if you wish; I won’t be at all offended.)
I do love the Strandbeests! Have never seen them in person, and would cherish the opportunity, but I have watched numerous videos of them over the past few years. They are not only nifty engineering design, but there is something just so darned cute and appealing about them. Thank you for putting up this post.
Shell
I think its their insect-like movements that first give pause. But they are amazing.
Side note- wonder what breed is that little dog thats in the video. He seems very adept at not getting trod upon.
SFAW
@Emma:
Not a documentary, but a brief CBS News item
And here’s something from the P-E-M site
raven
Billy Crystal, “you had to BE of his time”!
Miss Bianca
@lamh36: With regard to this gif and your bitchy boss…
have you tried turning her off and then on again? ; )
raven
@Tom Levenson: Sorry Doc.
Baud
@raven: Billy is good. I hope he speaks at my funeral.
MomSense
Happy weekend everyone!
Baud
@MomSense: You too!
amygdala
@Trollhattan: Wow–thanks! I’ll have to check it out. And to think, a mere hour ago, I had never heard of the Strandbeests.
raven
Bryant Gumbo!
lamh36
@raven: that really was a great eulogy from Billy Crystal
Hope folks see that part…but the entire thing was good
https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/741383909812756481
schrodinger's cat
@raven: For you, bhangra from Jab We Met (when we met), with Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor (not related to each other, AFAIK).
lamh36
@Miss Bianca: Bah..I wish..she’s a trip…
I just booked it out there soon as I possibly could…
raven
@lamh36: I wish his wife hadn’t had that hat over her face. She was really good but it was distracting.
raven
@schrodinger’s cat: thx!
bystander
@SiubhanDuinne: Me too, but it is an open thread and my outrage is wide open, too. But sorry, Tom.
Mike E
@lamh36: bounce TV too, for those who only fly an antenna
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
It’s amazing how a crappy supervisor can ruin work that you otherwise like, isn’t it?
Emma
@germy: Thank you! I’m glad you saw my first message before I deleted it to replace it with some over-the-top-language about that verruckten senator. Which I then deleted too. *sigh*
schrodinger's cat
@schrodinger’s cat: Another cool thing about this song, is how it switches between languages so organically. Five according to my count, Punjabi, Hindi, English, Sanskrit and Marathi.
amygdala
@Mnemosyne: In case you missed this hilarity from LMM, from earlier today. Laughed my ass clean off.
Trollhattan
@Joe Falco:
I knew nothing of this Seattle of which you speak when growing up there. What has happened to The Cloud?
Trollhattan
@amygdala:
We’re going to make the pilgrimage this summer, no matter what. My kid will go “But daddy” the whole way, but I’m expecting utter amazement at the sight.
Baud
Big dog is up.
Joe Falco
@Trollhattan: Obviously I brought my Sun Belt with me on this trip!
SiubhanDuinne
I’ve been updating my 2016-17 calendar, plugging in all those Live in HD / direct to the cinema cultural events I so enjoy attending (MET Opera, Bolshoi Ballet, various theatre companies, classic films on the big screen, art and architecture documentaries, etc.) and suddenly realised that — by coincidence, I’m sure — there are three different versions of “Romeo and Juliet” on the schedule. The Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company is doing the original Shakespeare play on July 7; the San Francisco Ballet is doing Prokofiev’s version on August 9; and the Met will transmit Gounod’s opera on January 21. I’ve long been fascinated by the myriad ways Shakespeare translates to other media, so this is catnip for me :-)
lamh36
@Mnemosyne: the woman is a disaster. Never should have been hired and now I guess they can’t fire her, but she’s driving everyone crazy…smh.
Mnemosyne
@amygdala:
I admit, I also larfed. You never know how an emotion is going to come across in a photo!
CONGRATULATIONS!
@raven: This is great. The guy’s been miserable for nigh on eight years while his imaginary God scoffs as his desires.
But I don’t know where these people get the energy. 24/7 hate. I can’t be pissed about anything for five minutes without needing to take a nap.
Like everyone else here, I wasn’t George Bush’s biggest fan. But I never thought “damn it’d be great if that dude died in his sleep today” or “damn, I wish someone would drop that fucker” – I mean, he wasn’t a nice guy and if he’d been arrested and pulled out of the White House, awesome. But wishing him, seriously, dead? I don’t and couldn’t go there. I’m just not cut out like that, more the kind of guy where if someone handed me a pistol and a bad guy and says “do some justice”, I’m just going to dump the bullets on the ground and walk off. And I bet almost everyone else here is like that too.
I’m an atheist and I don’t need a God to tell me that wishing someone’s death is wrong to the core. And yet, somehow, I’m the guy who needs the morality lecture.
ETA: strandbeasts – I could watch them for hours. That guy is a fucking mechanical/engineering genius.
amygdala
@Trollhattan: The new Exploratorium is pretty cool. Even though it’s in a shiny new site on the Embarcadero, with gorgeous views of the bay (fog notwithstanding), they somehow managed to preserve the dusty mad scientist vibe of the old Exploratorium. Whoever’s responsible should take a bow.
redshirt
Cool wind sculptures.
I need some. I live on the side of a mountain and the wind is a very big thing. Everything I do outside has to factor in the wind. Just yesterday the wind destroyed two robin’s nests, for the third year in a row – get a hint, robins!
I had a couple of ornamental windmills that got chewed up by the wind, so I need something substantial. Anyone know of any good sites for wind ornaments, let me know.
The Golux
@efgoldman:
I’m only two hours away and I love Quincy Market/Faneuil Hall, but it’s tough to get away when there’s so much to do in the garden. Especially since last weekend was wiped out by a trip to Philly.
The Golux
@amygdala:
We visited the old Exploratorium in ’89, when our kids were 4 and 6. I doubt they remember any of it, but I was blown away. Glad they got the new one right.
amygdala
@Mnemosyne: It’s so interesting what’s funny, generally and at a given moment. I seriously had to put down my laptop and walk away for a few minutes this morning, because I could not stop laughing. Even hours later, that pr0n music parenthetical makes me chortle.
lamh36
@Baud: I gotta say, I didn’t mind the talking on ESPN…yeah there was commercials, but I did like the folks who talked and shared stories.
There is only so much watching you can do of a hearse driving down the road.
I appreciate hearing how Ali impacted him
Also if anyone watches ANY part of it, check out Billy Crystal’s eulogy.
Ultraviolet Thunder
I picked a stupid beef at work today and caused trouble for an ally who supports me. I’m an asshole and I need to check my attitude. I was in the right, but being a jerk about it rather than calm and cooperative. Better use this weekend to calm the f down and start playing nice.
amygdala
@SiubhanDuinne: Forgive me for not remembering where you live, but in case Yo-Yo & company might be in your ‘hood.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@lamh36:
I heard it in the car and it made me feel unworthy, which I am. Plenty of people hated Ali but he seemed to love them all. Whatever his religion, he was a highly spiritually evolved human being.
Trollhattan
@Joe Falco:
You should sell those things. (sun belts, that is) Think of the sales in some markets.
amygdala
@efgoldman:
It reaccumulates fairly quickly.
Alas.
Miss Bianca
@efgoldman: Sounds like the Nahum Tate version of King Lear, where Lear and Cordelia live, and Cordelia marries Edgar at the end, because OF COURSE those two goody-goodies are totally a couple!
bystander
@efgoldman: I don’t think I could make it through R&J just to hear Je veux vivre. And if I have to sit through the opera version of Hamlet, Ambroise Thomas over Gounod every time.
lamh36
Very moving memorial and tribute ceremony for Muhammad Ali. It’s a great thing the family did to allow fans and friends to share one final moment with their husband, father, grandfather…etc
Planned or not…family’s still can get the last word even against deceased wishes.
RIP Muhammad Ali
Joe Falco
@Trollhattan: Yeah but I always lose them on the whole triple digit degree weather and humidity.
Trollhattan
@Joe Falco:
We don’t get the humidity here but triple digits have already descended this year–104 in fact. So not ready. Picked my first tomato this morning, though.
PurpleGirl
@Trollhattan: Many years ago when IBM opened the office building at Madison Ave and 57th St they had an art museum space and conference room in the basement. The first exhibit they had was pieces from SF’s Exploratorium. I loved it, just loved it. I visited it so many times, I lost tracked of the number. (They had various other shows over the years and I was regular visitor. I was very upset when they began selling the corporately owned art work and then when they rented the space to non-IBM stuff.
I love Dale Chihuly’s glass work. When he had an exhibit at the NY Botanical Gardens, I never managed to get there to see it. One of my bucket list items is to see Chiculy’s work space in Seattle. Especially the swimming pool he had built — at the very bottom of the pool he installed a bunch of his sea forms, then some water was put in (I believe0 but then they put in a glass ceiling/floor for pool. And when anyone swims in pools, they get to see the art glass below them.
SiubhanDuinne
@amygdala:
Metro Atlanta. It seems to be opening here July 9. I’ll add it to the calendar, thanks very much!
Emma
@efgoldman: Happened on the other side of the pond too. I read somewhere that at one point a London staging of Macbeth was given musical interludes. Now where did I read that?
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
The LA Symphony Orchestra is doing a program of “Shakespeare music” at the Hollywood Bowl this summer — basically, selections from the various operas.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
I’m not sure whether this will be the same production they’ve had in the past several years, but if so it will be the proper (e.g., tragic) ending.
Origuy
@PurpleGirl: I didn’t see his workspace in Seattle, but the Museum of Glass in Tacoma is amazing, and the Tacoma Art Museum is good, too. My sister used to work at the Indianapolis Art Center; he was there while the piece he did for the Children’s Museum was being installed. She said he was an asshole, but a lot of geniuses are.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Also, too, 19th century Paris has a lot to answer for. I am actually quite fond of much of the interpolated ballet music on its own, but it generally plays merry hell with the musical and dramatic flow of the opera.
Trollhattan
@Origuy:
At least he looks like a pirate. God, I hope he drives a Yarrrrris.
SiubhanDuinne
@bystander:
The Met did the Ambroise Thomas Hamlet a few seasons ago. I had never heard it, and liked it very much. Great drinking song!
Mnemosyne
@Emma:
Depending on when it was, there used to be a weird regulation in London that only certain theaters were allowed to perform straight drama, so it was common for musical numbers to be added so the theater owners could do drama and stay on the right side of the law. I think that changed in the mid-1800s.
Emma
@PurpleGirl: I have a similar passion. Chilhuly in Seattle and Chilhuly in Miami.
I had very little time in Seattle as I had to be back for a working lunch. I’m always thinking of going back.
SiubhanDuinne
@PurpleGirl:
Come to Atlanta this summer and see Chihuly at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. If you do, let me know and we’ll arrange a BJ Meetup for you.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
There are so many! Not to mention song cycles, ballets, incidental music, symphonic poems, film scores, Broadway musicals, jazz, and, well, pretty much every musical genre you can think of.
Do you have a link to the LA Phil program? I’d love to see what they have planned. (I assume this is Dudamel’s baby? A few years ago he did an entire program of three Tchaikovsky Shakespeare tone poems: Hamlet, R&J, and The Tempest. It was the one season in which they broadcast live to cinemas.)
Emma
@Mnemosyne: I wonder if that was it. Dayum — now it’s going to make me crazed until I find the reference.
PurpleGirl
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
I’m an atheist and I don’t need a God to tell me that wishing someone’s death is wrong to the core. And yet, somehow, I’m the guy who needs the morality lecture.
I’m sort of an agnostic, mixed in with a little wicca and you get someone who holds by the “law” of threefold return: Whatever you do to another, comes back to you three times.
PurpleGirl
@Trollhattan: I heard him speak once when I was a member of the American Craft Museum. The museum has gone through any number of changes in 30-odd years. At one point they a building on 53rd St. and a Chihuly hanging in space of the 3-floor staircase.
Anyway, some people seem to like to romanticize his eye patch. Sorry to have to tell them that he lost the eye in auto crash and his depth perception. As a result he sketches out the ideas for glass work, colors them as cartoons and then his hot room staff make the actual piece.
Mnemosyne
@Emma:
It was in one of my many Regency era reference books, but damned if I know which one.
redshirt
@PurpleGirl: Who/what enforces the “law”?
Tom Levenson
@bystander: Ask and ye shall receive.
Tom Levenson
@Trollhattan: Too cool! I’m taking my son back to the land of my birth in a week or so, and we’ll definitely check it out.
PurpleGirl
@redshirt: Sort of self-enforced restriction on one’s own actions. It’s a view of spirituality that guides one’s own life. That’s why I put law in parens.
redshirt
@PurpleGirl: So there’s no external power enforcing the “law”, but rather the psychology of the individual?
Would you define “karma” the same way?
PurpleGirl
@redshirt: Yes, it’s more of a psychological thing. Karma could be described in a similar way.
redshirt
@PurpleGirl: Interesting. So does a person subconsciously act against their interests to counter bad behavior?
PurpleGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: That’s a great idea. I’ll do a little research and I’ll let you know.
PurpleGirl
@redshirt: No quick answer for you. I gotta think about it. Good thought to reflect on.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Here’s the link.
Kropadope
OMG, my dad got a little one of those machines that walks kind of like a crab. So freakin cute.
Hunter
The Strandbeests were here from the beginning of February to the beginning of May. I saw them twice.
Verrry interesting.