Okay, here are my sweet 16 picks for tonight:
Syracuse over Wisconsin
Louisville in an upset over Michigan State
Ohio State over Cincinnati
Marquette over Florida
Book Review:
Douglas Kennedy's The Big Picture isn't a great thriller, but it is entertaining and compulsively readable (which I'm learning is a trait of Kennedy books), no doubt about it. (It was made into a film in France, starring Romain Duris and Catherine Deneuve.) The story: an unhappy Wall Street yuppie (this reader got tired of his whining, but alas) murders his wife's lover and then steals his identity, re-locating to small-town Montana and realizing his dream of being a photographer. He starts a relationship with his photo editor/boss at a local newspaper and then is thrust into the spotlight when he, after a night of passion at her woodsy cabin, takes a series of photos of a raging forest fire. (Got all that?) The photo tugs him into the national spotlight, which brings out-of-towners into his Montana burg - more specifically, the ex-wife who thinks he's dead.
I generally liked Kennedy's wry, sour observations on American culture in the 90s and he knows how to work a plot. He's a smart writer, but unfortunately I thought the story was hampered by too many implausibilities and tidy coincidences in its last act (and the final few pages felt rushed) to really work. Still, though, a decent read. (***)
There are only two movies of any note opening this weekend - perhaps you've heard of one of them.
The Hunger Games The good news for the billions of fans of Suzanne Collins' beloved series is that the first movie is getting splendid, across-the-board good reviews. Which is almost besides the point, because the movie will make a fortune regardless of what even the few critics who matter say. The story, if you don't know by now: The Capitol of the nation of Panem punishes each of its twelve districts (which tried to unite and revolt years ago) by having each district select two of its children to participate in the title sporting event, a nationally-televised fight-to-the-death brawl in which each of the fighters, known as "Tributes," must hide and hunt and kill until there is only one left standing. The book was terrific, and I knew Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence (as Katniss, who elects to take the place of her younger, weaker sister in the Games) would be good, but the rest of the cast looks promising too: Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Josh Hutcherson (Laser in The Kids Are Alright), Toby Jones, Wes Bentley, and Lenny Kravitz. Directed by Gary Ross, who last helmed Seabiscuit.
The Deep Blue Sea Destined to make less money than The Hunger Games, this is nevertheless earning some wonderful reviews. Based on a play by Terence Rattigan (whose work has made for some interesting films in decades past - The Browning Version - Julia and I liked the version starring Albert Finney - and The Winslow Boy but two of them) and directed by the always-creative Terence Davies. We're in Post-War England, and Rachel Weisz (at her best) stars as a free spirit trapped in a loveless marriage. She seeks erotic autonomy, fulfillment of every quality she thinks she needs to be happy in a troubled Royal Air Force pilot (played by Tom Hiddleston, of War Horse and Midnight in Paris, where he appeared all-too briefly as F. Scott Fitzgerald. Looks good.
History lesson:
Should this be a daily feature?
Yes, I think so too.
Today's history lesson occurred to me as I was "putting in my eyes" this morning. I wondered, who came up with the idea for contact lenses?
DaVinci did, that's who! Well, he was the first one to sketch out an idea of them. 124 years later, in 1632, Descartes too suggested the idea of a corneal contact lens which could be placed in the eye.
It was the work of two men, though, who made the sketches and ideas a reality: The first was the English astronomer John Herschel (incidentally, the man who discovered the planet Uranus), who, in 1827, suggested making a mold of the wearer's eyes so that a glass contact lens could then be ground and shaped in order to perfectly conform to the eye's surface. So Herschel (a mathematician as well, also a studier of astigmatism, and an important player in the early days of photography) not only suggested molds of the eye but also contorting and shaping the contact lens to fit it.
In 1884, anesthesia was developed, which led to our second figure coming onto the scene, German glassblower F.A. Muller, who created the first glass contact lens. Muller's transparent lens was meant to be seen through and tolerated, though it was heavy and meant only for a couple hours' wear, for it caused it excessive eye redness and tear production.
Thanks to: http://www.coloredcontact-lenses.com/history.html
http://www.eyetopics.com/articles/18/1/The-History-of-Contact-Lenses.html
http://www.firstscience.com/SITE/editor/042_ramblings_06022004.asp
Later years and decades, of course, would the see the development of soft and hard contact lenses, etc. But this is how it all kinda began!
Edward Weston (#16)
I'm surprised he's this low on the list. Who hasn't heard of Weston? (Well, I guess...) Here's a recap:
Born: 1886, Highland Park, Illinois
Childhood: Chicago
First studio: Tropico, California
Style at this time: Pictorialism - soft-focus, painterly, high-key portraits, dance studies, concerned less with the subject than the artistic quality of the image; in order to achieve Pictorialistic style, the photographers manipulated the negative (scratching it, painting over it)and used gum bichromate, which lessened the detail and produced a more artistic image
Renounces Pictorialism: 1922, when he begins paying more attention to resolution and detail, though he focuses on abstract forms
1992-1923: meets Georgia O'Keeffe, Diego Rivera, Alfred Steiglitz, Jose Orozco, Charles Sheeler; opens studio in Mexico City
1927-1930: lives in California, creates work for which he is now renowned for:
Monumental close-ups of seashells, peppers, and halved cabbages; he was entranced by their sculptural forms.
1932: One of the founding members of photography group f/64 with, among others, Ansel Adams
1936: series of nudes; receives first ever Guggenheim Fellowship awarded to a photographer
Thanks: http://www.edward-weston.com/edward_weston_biography.htm
Okay, and here's a good example of a Pictorialist image, by Henry Peach Robinson:
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