All posts tagged: Frank

Puppets of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Charles Dickens & Edgar Allan Poe Star in 1957 Frank Capra Educational Film

Puppets of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Charles Dickens & Edgar Allan Poe Star in 1957 Frank Capra Educational Film

Published by José

Pro­duced between 1956 and 1964 by AT&T, the Bell Tele­phone Sci­ence Hour TV spe­cials antic­i­pate the lit­er­ary zani­ness of The Mup­pet Show and the sci­en­tif­ic enthu­si­asm of Cos­mos. The “ship of the imag­i­na­tion” in Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s Cos­mos reboot may in fact owe some­thing to the episode above, one of nine, direct­ed by none oth­er than It’s A Won­der­ful Life’s Frank Capra. “Strap on your wits and hop on your mag­ic car­pet,” begins the spe­cial, “You’ve got one, you know: Your imag­i­na­tion.” As a guide for our imag­i­na­tion, The Strange Case of the Cos­mic Rays enlists the humanities—specifically three pup­pets rep­re­sent­ing Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dick­ens, and, some­what incon­gru­ous­ly for its detec­tive theme, Fyo­dor Dos­toyevsky, who plays the foil as an incu­ri­ous spoil­sport. The show’s host, Frank Bax­ter (“Dr. Research”) was actu­al­ly a pro­fes­sor of Eng­lish at UCLA and appears here with Richard Carl­son, explain­ing sci­en­tif­ic con­cepts with con­fi­dence. The one-hour films became very pop­u­lar as tools of sci­ence edu­ca­tion, but there are good reasons—other than their dat­ed­ness or Dr. Baxter’s expertise—to approach them crit­i­cal­ly. At times, the degree of spec­u­la­tion indulged …

A Tour of the Final Home Designed By Frank Lloyd Wright: The Circular Sun House

A Tour of the Final Home Designed By Frank Lloyd Wright: The Circular Sun House

Published by José

Some remem­ber the nine­teen-nineties in Amer­i­ca as the sec­ond com­ing of the nine­teen-fifties. What­ev­er holes one can poke in that his­tor­i­cal fram­ing, it does feel strange­ly plau­si­ble inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Cir­cu­lar Sun House. Though not actu­al­ly built until 1967, it was com­mis­sioned from Wright by ship­ping mag­nate Nor­man Lykes in 1959, the last year of the archi­tec­t’s life. Almost dat­ed though it may have looked by the time of its com­ple­tion, super­vised by Wright’s appren­tice John Rat­ten­bury, it would have accrued some retro cachet over the sub­se­quent decades. Then, in the ren­o­va­tion-mad nineties, the house­’s own­ers brought Rat­ten­bury back out to do a thor­ough update and remod­el. The result is a kind of hybrid fifties-nineties aes­thet­ic, which will suit some tastes bet­ter than oth­ers. But then, so do all the res­i­dences designed by Wright, of which the Cir­cu­lar Sun House in Phoenix, Ari­zona, is the very last. In the Archi­tec­tur­al Digest video above, post­ed when the house went on the mar­ket in 2021, real estate agent Dean­na Peters points out a few of its …

38 Photographs of 1940s Paris by Robert Frank Acquired by MFA Boston

38 Photographs of 1940s Paris by Robert Frank Acquired by MFA Boston

Published by skeptic

A total of 38 photographs by Swiss-American photographer Robert Frank (1924-2019) was acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), the institution announced in a statement last week. The acquisition includes 34 photographs donated by the June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation, and four works that were purchased using donated funds from the former Citibank chief executive John Reed and his wife Cynthia. The 38 images were made while Frank was in Paris in 1949. Some offer glimpses of street scenes such as children watching a blind street performer and a “circus” trolley car. Though Frank is primarily known for his highly influential 1958 book ” Related Articles The Americans, which captured post-war American society, the recently acquired photographs were taken when he returned to Europe after living in New York for two years. “We are thrilled to add these important photographs to the Museum’s collection which give insight into Frank’s career while contributing to our ability to tell the story of artistic transatlantic connections,” said Kristen Gresh, Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh Senior Curator of Photographs …

House of Frank by Kay Synclaire

House of Frank by Kay Synclaire

Published by skeptic

Kay Synclaire’s debut novel “House of Frank” is a richly imagined fantasy that delves deep into the heart of grief while maintaining an atmosphere of whimsy and wonder. The story follows Saika, a witch who has lost her magical powers and carries the heavy burden of her sister’s death. When she arrives at the mysterious Ash Gardens to fulfill her sister’s final wish, she discovers much more than just a magical sanctuary—she finds a chance at healing and belonging. Narrative Style and World-Building Synclaire’s prose is both elegant and accessible, crafting a world that feels both familiar and fantastical. The author excels at creating atmospheric scenes, particularly in her descriptions of the magical arboretum where trees grown from the ashes of the dead create a haunting yet beautiful landscape. The writing style strikes a delicate balance between emotional depth and lighthearted moments, making the story both moving and enjoyable. Character Development and Relationships One of the novel’s greatest strengths lies in its diverse and well-developed cast of characters: Frank – The beast who owns Ash …

Take a Tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House, the Mansion That Has Appeared in Blade Runner, Twin Peaks & Countless Hollywood Films

Take a Tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House, the Mansion That Has Appeared in Blade Runner, Twin Peaks & Countless Hollywood Films

Published by José

There are more than a few of us who’d enjoy the oppor­tu­ni­ty to live in a house that appears in Blade Run­ner; there are rather few of us who would val­ue that oppor­tu­ni­ty at $23 mil­lion, the ask­ing price giv­en in the 2019 Archi­tec­tur­al Digest video on Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1924 Ennis House above. Yet even beyond the Wright pedi­gree and the Blade Run­ner pres­tige, the house has also appeared in a host of oth­er films, a screen résumé that begins nine years after its con­struc­tion, when it made its screen debut as the man­sion of a lady auto tycoon in Michael Cur­tiz’s Female. In the decades that fol­lowed, it went on to pro­vide set­tings for pic­tures — usu­al­ly genre pic­tures — like The House on Haunt­ed Hill, The Day of the Locust, The Replace­ment Killers, and Rush Hour. “The Ennis house appar­ent­ly tran­scends space and time,” says the nar­ra­tion of Thom Ander­sen’s doc­u­men­tary Los Ange­les Plays Itself. ” It could be fic­tion­al­ly locat­ed in Wash­ing­ton or Osa­ka. It could play an ancient vil­la, a nine­teenth-cen­tu­ry …

Private Snafu: The World War II Propaganda Cartoons Created by Dr. Seuss, Frank Capra & Mel Blanc

Private Snafu: The World War II Propaganda Cartoons Created by Dr. Seuss, Frank Capra & Mel Blanc

Published by José

Pri­vate Sna­fu was the U.S. Army’s worst sol­dier. He was slop­py, lazy and prone to shoot­ing off his mouth to Nazi agents. And he was huge­ly pop­u­lar with his fel­low GIs. Pri­vate Sna­fu was, of course, an ani­mat­ed car­toon char­ac­ter designed for the mil­i­tary recruits. He was an adorable dolt who sound­ed like Bugs Bun­ny and looked a bit like Elmer Fudd. And in every episode, he taught sol­diers what not to do, from blab­bing about troop move­ments to not tak­ing malar­ia med­ica­tion. The idea for the series report­ed­ly came from Frank Capra — the Oscar-win­ning direc­tor of It’s a Won­der­ful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Wash­ing­ton and, dur­ing WWII, the chair­man of the U.S. Army Air Force First Motion Pic­ture Unit. He want­ed to cre­ate a car­toon series for new recruits, many of whom were young, unworld­ly and in some cas­es illit­er­ate. Capra gave Dis­ney first shot at devel­op­ing the idea but Warn­er Bros’ Leon Schlesinger, a man who was as famous for his hard-dri­ving busi­ness acu­men as he was for wear­ing exces­sive …

Frank Lloyd Wright Thought About Making the Guggenheim Museum Pink

Frank Lloyd Wright Thought About Making the Guggenheim Museum Pink

Published by José

Image via The Frank Lloyd Wright Foun­da­tion Archives Seen today, the Solomon R. Guggen­heim Muse­um, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, seems to occu­py sev­er­al time peri­ods at once, look­ing both mod­ern and some­how ancient. The lat­ter qual­i­ty sure­ly has to do with its bright white col­or, which we asso­ciate (espe­cial­ly in such an insti­tu­tion­al con­text) with Greek and Roman stat­ues. But just like those stat­ues, the Guggen­heim was­n’t actu­al­ly white to begin with. “Few­er and few­er New York­ers may recall that the muse­um, in a then-grim­i­er city, used to be beige,” writes the New York Times’ Michael Kim­mel­man. “Robert Moses thought it looked like ‘jaun­diced skin.’ ” Hence, pre­sum­ably, the deci­sion dur­ing a 1992 expan­sion to paint over the earth­en hue of Wright’s choice. Not that beige was the only con­tender in the design phase. Look at the archival draw­ings, Kim­mel­man writes, and you’ll find “a reminder that Wright had con­tem­plat­ed some pret­ty far-out col­ors — Chero­kee red, orange, pink.” The very thought of that last “leads down a rab­bit hole of alter­na­tive New York his­to­ry,” …

Lawrence Frank calls Clippers season another ‘lost opportunity’

Lawrence Frank calls Clippers season another ‘lost opportunity’

Published by skeptic

The 2023-24 season ended in disappointment yet again for the Clippers and now they will turn their attention to next season and how they can reach their goal of winning an NBA championship with a core group that’s getting older. It’ll start with Lawrence Frank, the Clippers’ president of basketball operations, his front-office staff and owner Steve Ballmer having to make some decisions on the best path forward. The Clippers and Paul Gerorge were unable to reach a contract extension during the season, which means he can become a free agent if he opts out of a contract that would pay him $48.7 million next season. James Harden, who made $35 million this season and whom the Clippers acquired from the Philadelphia 76ers in October, will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. Russell Westbrook has a player option for next season of $4.027 million. Along with a healthy Kawhi Leonard, Frank said the team would like to bring back the entire group, along with giving Clippers coach Tyronn Lue an extension. First, the Clippers …