The cylindrical windmill was located in the town of Wijk bij Duurstedein, south east of Utrecht on the north bank of the Lek river, a distributary branch of the Rhine river that flows into the North Sea at Rotterdam. Dutch Golden Age. Oil on canvas. On loan to the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam).
1844J. M. W. Turner
| National Gallery, London | art: painting
A steam train crosses Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Maidenhead Railway Bridge between Taplow and Maidenhead across the River Thames. The train is travelling west from London, while the abrupt foreshortening of the viaduct in the background suggests a high speed and the coming of a new age. Oil on canvas.
1882Vincent van Gogh
| Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo | art: painting
Vincent van Gogh lived near the Borinage coal regions in southern Belgium prior to becoming a painter. In his last letter from there to his brother Theo (Sep 24, 1880), he wrote “Wait, perhaps someday you will see that I too am an artist. I don’t know what I can do, but I hope I shall be able to make some drawings with something human in them...”
1884Vincent van Gogh
| Noordbrabants Museum, 's-Hertogenbosch | art: painting
Vincent van Gogh painted a number of mills, including the watermill at Kollen on Geldropscheweg along the river Kleine Dommel between his parents' home in Nuenen where he lived from 1883 to 1885 and Eindhoven. The Kollen watermill has two undershot mill wheels for pressing oil and grinding corn.
Historical drama about Thomas Edison and his invention of the first long-lasting incandescent light bulb in Menlo Park, NJ, on October 21, 1879 (stars Spencer Tracy). America’s favourite inventor uses all his legendary skill and determination to perfect artificial light: “Wow. Looks as if this one is going to last.” – Thomas Edison. (1:25:32/1:46:34)
A 60-year-old Huw Morgan (Roddy McDowall) looks back on his idyllic childhood in a small Welsh coal-mining town (fictional Gilfach Goch) before industrial pressures turn his world upside-down. Starring Walter Pidgeon as the idealistic Mr. Gruffydd, village pastor, and Maureen O'Hara as Angharad Morgan Allgood, Huw's beloved older sister. (118 minutes)
A harrowing and inspiring tale about workers’ and women’s rights during a strike over unsafe working conditions for Mexican-American miners at a New Mexico zinc mine, starring Rosaura Revueltas as Esperanza Quintero and Juan Chacón as her husband Ramón Quintero. "You can't win this fight without me." – Esperanza. (1:20:20/1:32:30)
Drama about the 1933 flooding of the Hiwasse River for the TVA (stars Montogomery Clift and Lee Remick). "I like things running wild like nature meant. There's already enough dams locking things up. Taming 'em and making 'em go against their natural wants and needs. I'm agin dams of any kind." – Ella Garth. (27:50/1:49:54)
Hastily snapped by Apollo 8's Bill Anders with a Hasselblad camera as the first crewed spacecraft to circumnavigate the moon reappeared from the dark side for the fourth time. The earth's atmosphere is visible (“beautiful blue halo”) as first seen by Yuri Gagarin. In 1991, Carl Sagan would direct Voyager 1 to look back at earth to capture our "pale blue dot."
A thriller based on the 1974 James Grady novel “Six Days of the Condor” (stars Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway). CIA analyst Joe Turner (Robert Redford) code name “Condor” is on the run: “This whole damn thing was about oil. Wasn't it?" – Joe Turner (1:40:11/1:52:25)
Ironic comedy film about life in a Yorkshire coal mine prior to a royal visit as the bosses organize a cleanup and the workers begrudgingly comply. Meet the People is the first part of a 2-part BBC production followed by a more sombre Part 2, Back to Reality. "Well. We'll try to get back to reality, eh." – Mr Forbes. (24:50/1:16:39)
A fascinating dramatic biography about the enigmatic Serbian inventor or as he preferred discoverer, from the brushless AC commutator to Niagara Falls. Some literary license over the battle between the pigheaded Edison and Tesla’s mental pictures: “Voices moving through the air without wires? -- is he a lunatic or a bunko artist?” [98 min]
A large glass cube of medical waste highlights throwaway culture that pretends not to see what is right in front of us. Hirst playfully asks if garbage is art and art garbage, reminding us that “out of mind" is not “out of sight." Indeed, waste may be the symbol of our times. Glass, steel, silicone rubber, wood, and medical waste. The Stedelijk, Amsterdam.
2016Cristina Lucas
| Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam | art: live feed
In this imposing 5-m-high installation, the periodic table is shown not by atomic number but value on the financial market (e.g., London Metal Exchange). The data is updated in real time showing fluctuating prices. Osmium and scandium are the most expensive while some have no commercial value. Lithium is trading at $37.92 and cobalt at $34.91/kg.
Oppenheimer is a Hollywood blockbuster about the building and detonation of the first A-bombs, which oddly doesn't show any consequences. The Strangest Dream follows the life of Joseph Rotblat, who left the Manhattan Project knowing the bomb would expand and not limit war. Rotblat and Pugwash won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995. [89 min]
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