The Moon We Never See

From NASA, LRO and Arizona State University:

"No one, presently, sees the Moon rotate like this. That's because the Earth's moon is tidally locked to the Earth, showing us only one side. Given modern digital technology, however, combined with many detailed images returned by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a high-resolution virtual moon rotation movie has now been composed. The time-lapse video starts with the standard Earth view of the Moon. Quickly, though, Mare Orientale, a large crater with a dark center that is difficult to see from the Earth, rotates into view just below the equator. From an entire lunar month condensed into 24 seconds, the video clearly shows that the Earth side of the Moon contains an abundance of dark lunar maria, while the lunar far side is dominated by bright lunar highlands."  

In Defense of Max Richter

I know I'm on thin ice here, but I just read Alex Ross's critique of Max Richter in The New Yorker – The Doleful Minimalism of Max Richter – with which I disagree.

I'll confess I'm not conversant with arpeggios, ostinatos, and glissandos, but I know Max Richter's music has often brought me to meaningful and thoughtful places. For Ross to describe it as "inoffensive, impassive, deferential, and anonymous" seems dismissive.

In the late 70s, I worked for the Dia Art Foundation at their performance space at 6 Harrison Street in Tribeca which was dedicated to the Fluxus oeuvre of LaMonte Young. Young would perform his signature, 5-hour-plus work The Well-Tuned Piano on the historic, high-ceilinged trading floor of the former New York Mercantile Exchange. There were no chairs. We would remove our socks and shoes, step in a shallow footbath and dry off, and then sit or lie down on the scatter of dozens of oriental rugs on the massive floor. Pensive? You bet. Hypnotic and dreamy too.

I was also listening to Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and other minimalist and ambient musicians at that time. Erik Satie's Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes were also in the mix. All are referenced in Ross's article.

Here's one of Richter's more popular compositions – On the Nature of Daylight. It won't get your toes tapping but will get you thinking.

 

AI and Art

JooHee Yoon's riff on MC Escher's 1948 Drawing Hands. 

No Nips!

Residents and visitors to Martha's Vineyard are familiar with "nips," the small, empty, plastic, alcohol bottles strewn along the roads and sidewalks across the island. Our Road and Beach Trust Association mobilizes a clean-up every spring to pick up the winter's detritus; nips always lead the pack.

The Vineyard's towns held annual town meetings this week to vote on town budgets and long lists of warrants and articles. Among them was a ban on selling alcohol bottles of 100 milliliters or smaller. Similar bans on nips were passed on Nantucket and several towns on Cape Cod in recent years.

The ban passed quickly in Oak Bluffs, but almost didn't pass in Edgartown. According to the Vineyard Gazette:

"The night was largely absent of any major controversies, but did get off to a slow start as the town struggled to make its 210-person quorum. Town moderator Steve Ewing made a last-ditch phone call to The Wharf Pub for voters, finally calling the meeting to order about 30 minutes late."

Christ of St John of the Cross

Going West

About Time

Play Ball!

New rules!