If you start in Albany, you’d end up really wet, far off the coast of Australia.
Check out http://www.antipodemap.com/ to see where you’d end up from other places in the world.
Here’s how the Antipodes Map website explains it:
In geography, the antipodes of any place on Earth is its antipodal point; that is, the region on the Earth’s surface which is diametrically opposite to it. Two points which are antipodal to one another are connected by a straight line through the centre of the Earth.
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ALBANY — Aaron Sorkin earned his claim to fame with quick and punchy dramas such as “A Few Good Men” and “The West Wing.”
The Albany Civic Theater’s production of Sorkin’s “The Farnsworth Invention,” which opened Friday night, nails his trademark speed with a gripping and satisfying tale of two self-made men whose powerful intellects set them on a collision course.
Philo Farnsworth, a precocious self-taught inventor in Utah, came up with the idea of transmitting live images over the air in real time — while still a teen. Yes, the play doesn’t stint on using correct terminology — electrons and dissector tubes, for example — but his invention is repeated enough that all audience members should get a basic understanding of the science as well as its importance.
David Sarnoff, meanwhile, was an immigrant who taught himself English, started as an office boy at Commercial Cable Company and later led RCA and NBC, because he was able to pursue the idea that radio transmissions (and, later, television) could be used to communicate not from just one person to another, but from one person to a mass audience.
Part of the fiction of the play is that Farnsworth and Sarnoff, who never met in real life, trade off duties of telling each other’s stories — and they often argue about the tales. The drama at the center of their lives is not just the pursuit to create a workable television, but also a patent lawsuit to determine who gets the credit — and the financial reward — for inventing television.
Isaac Newberry as Sarnoff stands out for his strong and convincing performance as a smart and charming, though sometimes smug, executive. He is well matched with Tom Templeton as Farnsworth, who captures the manic joy of brilliance set loose on a quest of discovery.
Director Aaron Holbritter deserves much of the credit for this production, for getting his cast of 17 (most playing multiple players) to maintain the play’s demanding pace. Also of note is his sound design, with music and effects that enlarge the space and intensify the drama.
Among the ensemble, Ken Goldfarb (as Zworykin and a radio announcer in particular), Briavel Schultz (as Betty) and Adam M. Coons (Crocker) stand out for being consistently engaging.
One of the big criticisms of the play (it ran on Broadway in 2007) was how much Sorkin reworked the facts. Spoiler alert: Perhaps the biggest reworking is that Farnsworth lost the patent dispute and died penniless, drunk and obscure; whereas in real life, he won and RCA had to pay him royalties.
Is the art worth such sacrifices of truth? The Albany Civic Theater’s production seems to be a resounding yes; however, an uneasiness lingers in the irony that an inability to work with the truth comes from a writer whose most famous line, from “A Few Good Men,” is: “You can’t handle the truth!”
Perhaps Sorkin was talking to himself?
Theater review
“The Farnsworth Invention”
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Continues: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday; through May 20
Where: Albany Civic Theater, 235 Second Ave., Albany
Length: 2 hours with one 15-minute intermission
Tickets: $15
Info: 518-462-1297; http://www.albanycivictheater.org
Citizen Action NY (a group looking to introduce publicly funded elections in New York) will be hosting a free screening of PRICELE$$ in Albany, NY at the Spectrum 8 Theaters on May 2nd, 7:00pm.
Director Steve Cowan will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A with Rep. Paul Tonko.
PRICELE$$ is a 60-minute documentary produced and directed by Steve Cowan of Habitat Media.
RSVP Required: http://fairelectionsny.org/pricelessalbany
So I just wrote that headline, and though it is about making movies and money, it sounds like a boring way to begin.
My apologies to the panelists and the moderator, who happens to be my boss, Rex Smith.
At 10 a.m. Thursday, May 3, at the UAlbany’s Performing Arts Center (on the campus at 1400 Washington Ave.) Craig M. Hatkoff, co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival, will speak at a Town Hall meeting about expanding film production opportunities in the Capital Region.
The panelist will be
• Deborah Goedeke, Albany County Film Commissioner
• Pat Swinney Kaufman, Executive Director of the Governor’s Office for Motion Picture and Television Development
• Philip Morris, CEO of Proctors
• Heidi Philipsen, writer/actor/director
Here’s how the PR for the free event describes what’s happening:
The event will also launch UPSTATE.N.Y.SCREENS, an initiative joining together humanities, cinema arts, and economic development in the Capital Region. The University at Albany Foundation in partnership with the Center for Humanities, Arts, and TechnoSciences (CHATS), the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Albany Convention and Tourism Bureau are incubating the UPSTATE.N.Y.SCREENS initiative.
The launch announcement will provide details regarding a regional cinematic exposition offering master classes and workshops, screenings, and a celebration/retrospective of an iconic filmmaker whose work will be the centerpiece and focus of the events.
UPSTATE.N.Y.SCREENS is currently developing a documentary film, “The Albany Mummies: Unraveling an Ancient Mystery” by UAlbany Associate Professor of English Mary Valentis and retired English professor William Rainbolt. The film is expected to make its debut in late 2012.
To register for the May 3 Town Hall, please RSVP to events@albany.edu or call (518) 442-5373.
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation announced today that 21 performing artists will share $5.7 million in grants.
Each recipient gets a multiyear grant of $225,000. They’ll also receive up to $50,000 for retirement savings and audience development.
Among the awardees are dancer-choreographer Wally Cardona, who will be performing Friday and Saturday night at EMPAC at RPI in Troy; theater and opera director Anne Bogart, who founded the SITI Company, which holds its summer residency at Skidmore in Saratoga Springs; and performers who have appeared regularly in the greater Capital Region, such as jazz pianist Vijay Iyer, choreographer-dancers Eiko & Koma and choreographer Reggie Wilson.
(more…)
Albany
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s concert Monday night at Times Union Center started nearly an hour late, but all was forgiven once the 16 musicians took the stage and gave the packed house a night of power, emotion and showmanship.
Highlights included a video tribute to saxman Clarence Clemons, who died last June; the many sax solos by Clemons’ nephew Jake Clemons, which often left Springsteen’s face beaming with pride in classics such as “Thunder Road”; Springsteen’s solo performance of his rarely played “Janey, Don’t You Lose Heart,” an outtake from 1983’s “Born in the U.S.A.,” which began with his tentative finger picking on his guitar, as if trying to relearn the song; the dueling guitar leads between Stevie Van Zandt and Springsteen during “Murder Incorporated”; hits such as “Badlands,” “The Promised Land,” and the evening ending string of “Born to Run,” “Dancing the Dark” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”; and 62-year-old Springsteen’s amazing energy and connection with his fans, pulling three people out of the audience to dance or sing with him.
Wow. And did I even mention Springsteen pouring a fan’s bottle of water down his back, then downing another fan’s beer before diving into the crowd and letting himself be carried back to the stage? (more…)
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Call her the original Hollywood cougar.
Long before Demi Moore or the Courtney Cox TV show, Norma Desmond sunk her claws into the young struggling writer Joe Gillis in Billy Wilder’s classic noir film “Sunset Boulevard.”
Andrew Lloyd Weber’s version of “Sunset” opened Thursday night at Cohoes Music Hall in a solid production directed by Jim Charles that captures the musical’s creepy psycho-sexual tension that veers more toward the Gothic than the noir. (more…)
The Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan is known for descriptive language and delicate narratives, dealing with history, exile and return.
Zaqtan, who is also a novelist, playwright and newspaper editor, is slated to discuss “Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me,” his first collection of poetry published in English. Zaqtan, however, hadn’t yet arrived in the U.S. by Thursday afternoon. The local appearance is part of a two-week tour, originally scheduled to begin Tuesday in California, that is co-sponsored by groups hosting his readings and underwritten by the Poetry Foundation.
The New York State Writers Institute announced on its Facebook page that the PEN American Center and the ACLU are pressing the State Department to grant the poet a visa. The organizations have suggested that the visa is being held up for political reasons.
Don Faulkner, director of the Writers Institute, says Zaqtan’s work has a political component, but he is generally considered uncontroversial and has been involved with numerous … conferences and seminars.
“What we’ve gleaned is by all estimations he’s very much seen as a a bridge-builder,” says Faulkner. “He’s regarded, at least in intellectual community in Israel, as a very positive force.” The Writers Institute has received no complaints about booking Zaqtan, Faulkner says.
If all goes as planned, Palestinian-American poet Fady Joudah, who translated “Straw Bird,” will appear with Zaqtan.
If Zaqtan can’t make it, Joudah, who recently won the Yale Younger Poets Prize for his own work, will still appear 4:15 p.m. seminar, 8 p.m. reading; Tuesday. Free. Standish Room, Science Library, UAlbany, 1400 Washington Ave., Albany. 442-5620; http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst
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In his new work, “(glowing),” onstage at EMPAC Friday, Japanese choreographer Kota Yamazaki creates minimalism out of information overload.
His inspirations include, in no particular order: an essay by author Junichiro Tanizaki on the Japanese aesthetics of darkness and shadows; the moody, slo-mo dance form known as butoh; Japanese home design; traditional African dance; and contemporary and classical movement.
In Friday’s premiere, Yamazaki’s ethereal-looking dancers will be joined by dancers from Senegal and Ethiopia. The choreographer studied fashion design in Tokyo before segueing into the dance world, and won a Bessie Award in 2007 for his work with the Senegalese company Jant-Bi.
He’s now based in New York City with his company, Fluid hug-hug.
On Saturday, March 31, Yamazaki and his dancers led a free public dance workshop at EMPAC that featured both traditional African dance and butoh.
At a glance
KOTA YAMAZAKI/FLUID HUG-HUG: “(GLOWING)”
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Where: EMPAC, 110 Eighth St., Troy
Tickets: $18
Info: 276-3921 or http://empac.rpi.edu
