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Dawn machine: Confetti System
(Added 28 August 2010)
Image: gold – homepage from Confetti System online
With his Dawn Machine (1668?), Gianlorenzo Bernini created the impression of a dazzling sunrise as part of a theatrical event (Read more about Leisure performance: Bernini’s Spectacles here).
In a contemporary series of ephemeral installations; glittering walls, tasseled garlands and shining piñatas, the Brooklyn based duo, Confetti System seems to be channelling Bernini’s shimmering radiance. Creating exhibitions, sets, as well as a line of accessories and festive objects, Confetti System, “transforms simple materials such as tissue paper, cardboard, and silk into interactive objects that create a point of focus, where memories are made and a spontaneous collaboration with the viewer is sparked.”
Read Dawn machine: Confetti System
Les Vampires: with great suede wings
(Added 22 August 2010)
Image: Les Vampires, directed by Louis Feuillade, 1915
Of the moonless nights they are kings,
darkness is their kingdom.
Carrying death and sowing terror
the dark Vampires fly,
with great suede wings,
ready not only to do evil… but to do even worse
-Unknown Newspaper, November, 1915
Read Les Vampires: with great suede wings
Diaghilev's Les Noces
(Added 18 August 2010)
Image: Rehearsal of Les Noces on the roof of the Théâtre de Monte-Carlo, 1923. Bronislava Nijinska Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress (045.00.00)
Digital ID# br0045
Les Noces premiered on June 13, 1923 at the Théâtre de la Gaïté-Lyrique, Paris, with music by Igor Stravinsky; sets and costumes by Natalia Gontcharova, choreography by Bronislava Nijinska.
For Diaghilev’s production of Les Noces (The Wedding), Nijinska insisted on simple scenery and dark colors for the costumes to emphasize the seriousness of the theme, which centers on a young peasant girl who leaves her family for the unknown world of marriage.
Restlessness: Claude Jutra's "Wow"
(Added 16 August 2010)
Image: WOW, 1969, 94 min 41 s
Director: Claude Jutra
With English subtitles
Prompted by the filmmaker, nine teenagers individually act out their secret dreams and, between times, talk about their world as they see it. Babette conceives of herself as an abbess defending her fortress, a convent; Michelle is transported in a dream of love where all time ceases; Philippe is the revolutionary, defeating all the institutions that plague him, and so on, through all their fantasies. All the actual preoccupations of youth are raised: authority, drugs, social conflict, sex.
See an excerpt of this film on the NFB online
Read Restlessness: Claude Jutra's "Wow"
Last days of summer: Explorer Roses are fading all over Canada
(Added 16 August 2010)
‘Tis the last rose of summer
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
No rosebud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
To give sigh for sigh.
-Thomas Moore, 1805
Agriculture Canada began a rose breeding program in the 1960s at Morden Research Station in Manitoba, under the direction of breeder Felicitas Svejda. Her objective was to use roses from Europe to create a hardy and disease resistant series of roses to withstand harsh conditions across Canada. The resulting roses were named “ The Explorer Series” with rose cultivars named after Canadian Explorers such as Champlain, Cabot and Henry Kelsey.
Read Last days of summer: Explorer Roses are fading all over Canada
Leisure summer reading: Georges Vanier Library
(Added 14 August 2010)
Image: Detail of the English language book section of Bibliothèque Georges-Vanier in Little Burgundy, 2450, rue Workman, Montréal
The recent Leisure propensity for mystery novels may have something to do with a new library card for Bibliothèque Georges-Vanier. Situated in a restored firehall across from a park and wading pool, Georges-Vanier library is a perfect leisure reading haunt. The library is meticuolously shelved and and visually annotated by theme (see photo above for the visual key for mystery).
Read Leisure summer reading: Georges Vanier Library
Leisure summer reading: Agatha Christie
(Added 13 August 2010)
Image:Vintage Agatha Christie from the World’s Smallest Bookshop, 1966, 1969 Book Club Editions, Third Girl jacket cover design by Salem Tamer
Whether portraying dedicated sleuths like the foppish mustachioed Belgian dandy M. Poirot, or amateur observers of human nature like the deceptively muzzy Ms. Marple, for adventure with charm and subtle social commentary, Agatha Christie (15 September 1890 –12 January 1976) does not disappoint. In the words of American mystery writer Hugh Pentecost, “Like good wine, Agatha Christie improves with age. When she writes formula, it’s the best formula; when she writes off the track, she keeps you, skillfully, from seeing around the curves.”
An excerpt from Third Girl dust jacket description and Chapter 14 below: