| BMW Films Wow. Art and commerce give each other a hearty bear hug in this hybrid promotional effort from BMW. The German automobile company has enlisted the talents of big name directors John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-Wai, Guy Ritchie, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Amores Perros), to make five short films that prominently feature their cars. Our hero is Clive Owen (from Croupier, and who has to be a strong contender for the next James Bond) who outwits gun-toting thugs in his trusty silver 540i. Five car chase scenes from five hip film directors. What more could you ask? |
| Black Shoals Stock Market Planetarium Gaze up at the starry heavens of the international finance. Here's the setup -- this perfectly natural-looking night sky is in fact a real-time representation of the world's stock markets. Each star represents a publicly traded company, and industries tend to clump together in star clusters. So if the automobile industry is hot, its constellation in the night sky will light up bright and shiny. Asteroids, pulsars, and red dwarfs haven't been addressed yet, but we could easily suggest a likely sector for a black hole... |
| Center for the Public Domain From Napster to DNA patents -- the debate over intellectual property, copyrights, and the public domain has kept pace with the rise of the Internet and electronic media. The Center for the Public Domain is a nonprofit foundation that hopes to cultivate a vibrant, accessible public domain through support for nonproprietary projects across many disciplines. Whether or not you believe that information wants to be free, you'll find well-informed resources here that advocate the unfettered sharing of knowledge. |
| Gigposters.com Rock-concert poster art bloomed during the heyday of Haight-Ashbury, and has since shattered into hundreds of distinct visions, from the horror-show cartoonery of Frank Kozik to the gothic illustrations of Derek Hess. This fine collection of over 1,200 posters features some of the top names in rock art, as well as dozens of buzzing message boards. For most artists this is a labor of love: "The art of gig posters, flyers, and handbills showcases the aspiration of the music as well as the talent of many artists who see little to no profit for creating gig posters." |
| Leaves of Gold: Treasures of Manuscript Illumination Dig into some masterworks from the golden age of book publishing by hand. The Philadelphia Museum of Art presents this beautiful exhibit of illuminated manuscripts -- "hand-produced books that include drawn, painted, and gilded decoration on pages made of vellum, a specially prepared and polished animal skin." Most of these pieces were created by monks during the Middle Ages, hence the preponderance of devotional material. But you'll also find a number of popular reads for the newly literate public -- the rough equivalent of 13th-century John Grisham novels: morality tales, adventure stories, and good old-fashioned bodice rippers. |
| The Cleopatra Costume on Stage and in Film In seven richly annotated pages, C. David Claudon provides a thorough look at the clothing of fictional Cleopatras. From Shakespeare's original all-male production of Antony and Cleopatra to Sarah Bernhardt's 19th-century staging of Victorien Sardou's Cleopatra to Elizabeth Taylor's spectacular turn as the Queen of the Nile in 1963, Claudon illustrates how actresses and costumer designers have dressed the character in ways "that say more about their own time period than that of Cleopatra's." Included in this site is a complete list of famous Cleopatras on stage, film, and TV from 1606 to the present day. |
| Star Wars: Designer Edition "It is a period of stylistic banality. The rebellion is looking dowdy and the evil Galactic Empire has grown too fond of industrial finishes. Dull grey is the 'in' color." So begins an epic journey to the farthest reaches of time, space, and fashion sense. From the new-Beetle-inspired AT-AT Walker to Jabba the Hut's Ghery-designed palace, you'll be amazed at how today's designers have managed to spruce up the galaxy. Say goodbye to dull earth-tone robes and passé pastel light sabres. |
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