Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
The Australian Ballet for Sideshow Alley
One song. One take. Cinematically captured in the roads and alleyways around Melbourne (and occasionally, a New York City rooftop). With its own spin on raw, honest productions of local and international artists, Sideshow Alley explores a uniquely intimate experience with each unrehearsed performance in a distinctively high quality style. From Kimbra (♥) to the Australian Ballet, the creative collective challenges its mediums and dares to expect the beautifully unexpected.
For similar outfits, check out the London-based Black Cab Sessions and La Blogothèque's Take Away Shows (shot primarily in Paris).
Current Events | Renegade Craft Fair
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Image source: The Renegade Craft Fair |
The Renegade Craft Fair is coming to San Francisco for its annual summer marketplace of curated handmade goods. Come out and support your local artisans at Fort Mason, this weekend, Friday (July 26th) and Saturday (July 27th).
Current Events | Manhattanhenge
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| Image Source: Lee Byron |
Twice a year, the setting sun aligns perfectly with the grid of New York City, illuminating the city's streets in a rare and beautiful light. Fondly known as Manhattanhenge, its second appearance of the year can be seen this weekend, Friday (July 12th) and Saturday (July 13th). If you're in Manhattan, don't forget to stop and take a look down any crosstown street around 8:20pm.
If you'd like to know more about this unique urban phenomenon (you rock), Neil deGrasse Tyson and the American Museum of Natural History have you covered.
Product Placement | Field Notes at the National Portrait Gallery in London
I find myself in the unexpected position of having brought Field Notes to London’s National Portrait Gallery. My friend Humphrey Ocean has painted me several times, and one of my sittings (clean-shaven, post-Guatemala) is on display through September 1st at his NPG show “A Handbook of Modern Life.”
On seeing the painting several friends have said, “That’s a Field Notes in your shirt pocket!” They’re right. I thought the detail was too subtle to mention but they've made me promise to let you know.
I love knowing little details like this, don't you?
High five, U.S. Supreme Court
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| Image source: U.S. Supreme Court | Karissa Rosenfield |
In the landmark United States v. Windsor, by a vote of five to four, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Section 3 of the controversial federal Defense of Marriage Act to be unconstitutional, granting same-sex couples the equal liberty guaranteed to them by the Fifth Amendment.
For same-sex couples who wished to be married, the State acted to give their lawful conduct a lawful status. This status is a far-reaching legal acknowledgment of the intimate relationship between two people, a relationship deemed by the State worthy of dignity in the community equal with all other marriages. It reflects both the community’s considered perspective on the historical roots of the institution of marriage and its evolving understanding of the meaning of equality.
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy
In 3 Scenes | Mad Men's "In Care Of"
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| Roger slips into a little nihilism during a therapy session in the sixth season's premiere episode. With finale in hand, are the times finally a-changin' for Don and SC&P? |
The following contains spoilers if you have not yet seen the season six finale, "In Care Of."
At the close of its sixth and penultimate season that spanned perhaps the darkest and most turbulent year in recent American history, Mad Men did the unexpected.
It left us feeling a little hopeful.
As Judy Collins played us out, we were left to wonder just how Don's "both sides, now" will reconcile. Self-destruction aside, how does one come back from the heartrending chaos of 1968? A watershed year in American history, it was a time of vivid colors, startling sounds, and searing images that forever changed a nation. As a relentless cascade of events pummeled the world around them, people were left to find their own sense of solace (or distraction, at best). And when the haze cleared, many came out knowing that things would never be quite the same.
For all that it rendered, "In Care Of" could have been a series finale. The departures from New York and gravity of Don's exit from the agency, along with numerous callbacks to the first season (and even the pilot), all carried a strong sense of finality for many story arcs, as a number of characters charted out into the great unknown. Not to even mention, the figurative death of the show's protagonist, as Don sacrificed himself in the most inappropriate of places.
Of course, we can't trust any of it. Not yet, at least. The landscape has been rocked by great change in the past, only to have its impact neatly reversed in the end. And yet, this time feels different. As bound in their ways as many of its characters appear, the series has always been about looking forward. How the world carries on, while its players remain the same. If its final season rounds out the Sixties, Mad Men will have captured a decade of incredible upheaval and transformation for a nation and its people. A decade that saw its youth grab hold with both hands and venture out into a bold frontier that would never be quite like what came before it. To have a future in this brave new world, one has little choice but to evolve – or resume the downward spiral into obscurity (at best).
It could really be different this time. We may yet see a different Don, a different Roger, a different Peggy, or a different Pete (if it matters). For many, there's no turning back. Though directed at Pete, it's clear there are much further-reaching implications for Trudy's assertion that her estranged husband is finally "free" from all of the burden and responsibility he once had in his life. Even more clear, however, is how dissatisfied he is in this realization.
After all, isn't freedom just another word for nothing left to lose?
It left us feeling a little hopeful.
As Judy Collins played us out, we were left to wonder just how Don's "both sides, now" will reconcile. Self-destruction aside, how does one come back from the heartrending chaos of 1968? A watershed year in American history, it was a time of vivid colors, startling sounds, and searing images that forever changed a nation. As a relentless cascade of events pummeled the world around them, people were left to find their own sense of solace (or distraction, at best). And when the haze cleared, many came out knowing that things would never be quite the same.
For all that it rendered, "In Care Of" could have been a series finale. The departures from New York and gravity of Don's exit from the agency, along with numerous callbacks to the first season (and even the pilot), all carried a strong sense of finality for many story arcs, as a number of characters charted out into the great unknown. Not to even mention, the figurative death of the show's protagonist, as Don sacrificed himself in the most inappropriate of places.
Of course, we can't trust any of it. Not yet, at least. The landscape has been rocked by great change in the past, only to have its impact neatly reversed in the end. And yet, this time feels different. As bound in their ways as many of its characters appear, the series has always been about looking forward. How the world carries on, while its players remain the same. If its final season rounds out the Sixties, Mad Men will have captured a decade of incredible upheaval and transformation for a nation and its people. A decade that saw its youth grab hold with both hands and venture out into a bold frontier that would never be quite like what came before it. To have a future in this brave new world, one has little choice but to evolve – or resume the downward spiral into obscurity (at best).
It could really be different this time. We may yet see a different Don, a different Roger, a different Peggy, or a different Pete (if it matters). For many, there's no turning back. Though directed at Pete, it's clear there are much further-reaching implications for Trudy's assertion that her estranged husband is finally "free" from all of the burden and responsibility he once had in his life. Even more clear, however, is how dissatisfied he is in this realization.
After all, isn't freedom just another word for nothing left to lose?
As a courtesy, this is not my full review of the finale. Instead, here's a closer look into three scenes* which, at the expense of all others, would have been enough.
A Letter from Harvard | 1961
On June 21, 1961, Phyllis Richman received the above letter (sans notation) from Harvard’s graduate program, asking how she intended to balance her “responsibilities” to her husband with her desired career in city planning.
52 years later, she responded.
Two years after Harvard's reply, Friedan's The Feminine Mystique called into question the very fabric of such assumptions and helped launch women into the quest for true equality.
Citation | Zelda Fitzgerald
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In quoting a letter from Zelda Fitzgerald to her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald |
This compulsive (albeit tender) statement is featured in Baz Luhrmann's film adaptation of the Great Gatsby, despite not being found in the novel, nor even being penned by Scott.
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