by Lidia Paulinska | Mar 29, 2016
On Saturday March 19, 2016, scores of fortunate movie-goers in hundreds of select theaters throughout the U.S. were treated to a one-day-only cinematic presentation by Fathom Events of ”Berlin Philharmonic: The Beethoven Project” featuring one of the world’s greatest conductors, Sir Simon Rattle, leading the incomparable Berlin Philharmonic, one of the world’s greatest orchestras.
Sir Simon has been the principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic since 2002 and prior to that, rose to international prominence as Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra where he served for 18 years. After the expiration of his current contract in 2018 with the Berlin Philharmonic, Rattle will become Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra. He is universally hailed as one of the greatest conductors of all time, and seeing him in action from our cinematic vantage point clearly confirmed that laudatory accolade.
The wonderful “up-close and personal” experience this filmed live performance afforded us, allowed a glimpse into Rattle’s very personal and intimate method of conducting — interacting with gesture and expressions of delight with each orchestra member — a wink here — a grin there — always reciprocated — always incredibly animated and dynamic … and always all-embracing. His love for his orchestra and what they are collectively creating informs and enhances every aspect of Beethoven’s genius.
“Berlin Philharmonic: The Beethoven Project” was divided into two parts, separated by a brief intermission.
Part I, “Living With Beethoven,” was a brilliantly informative documentary featuring on-the-spot backstage interviews with Rattle and members of the Philharmonic who explored the intricacies of Beethoven’s masterful symphonies and their approach to these masterpieces. One orchestra member for example claimed Beethoven demanded a lot of “”blowing, bowing, and banging,” whimsically reflecting on the vitality and power of the composer’s symphonies and the necessary creative effort it takes to reveal that power. Horns, fiddles and drums certainly, but most importantly, the musical genius to communicate what Beethoven was offering to all of us, and no group of musicians are better prepared to do that than the Berlin Philharmonic under the guidance of the legendary Sir Simon.
These candid interviews afforded us a wonderful introduction and understanding of the two complete symphonies that were to follow in Part II.
The first work on the program in the second half was the sunny and gracefully cheerful 4th Symphony in B-flat major. This popular piece in four movements is characterized by light instrumentation, not unlike that of Joseph Hayden with whom Beethoven had studied a decade earlier. Happily, in the documentary, Rattle’s piano demo of the adagio (“slow movement”) in the symphony’s intro to the first movement perfectly prepared us for what was to come.
Beethoven composed his 4th Symphony in the summer of 1808 and dedicated it to Count Franz von Oppersdorff who had incidentally offered him a great deal of money to compose a new symphony for him. Beethoven completed piece in one short month proving that cash is a great motivator … even among geniuses.
The second piece offered in Part II was one Beethoven claimed to be one of his best works: the 7th Symphony in A major which premiered in Vienna in 1813. He composed this work while recuperating at a spa in Teplice and dedicated it to his host, Count Moritz von Fries.
The second movement of the 7th, the allegretto (“a little lively”), is so enormously popular, it is often performed separately; it is known for it’s use of dance-like rhythms with a reliance on the string section, backed up by clarinets.
Overall it was memorable event. Too valuable to miss.
by Lidia Paulinska and Hugh McMahon
by Lidia Paulinska | Mar 22, 2016
On Sunday, March 13, 2016, Fathom Events presented a live cinematic performance of “Spartacus,” the Bolshoi Ballet’s signature piece, viewed by fortunate movie-goers for one showing only in 500 cinemas worldwide. This epic ballet premiered in Moscow in 1968, marking the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, and 48 years later it continues to exhibit all the energy, fervor, and raw brawn which has characterized the very essence of the Bolshoi’s male dancers ever since.
Staged by the legendary choreographer Yuri Grigororvich with an oddly cinematic but functional score by Aram Khachaturian, “Spartacus” is nothing short of spectacular in its display of space-devouring leaps and astonishing Olympic athleticism by its two principal male dancers: The incomparable Mikhail Lobukhin in the title role of Spartacus, leader of an unsuccessful slave revolt against the evil Roman ruler Marcus Licinius Crassus, powerfully performed by Alexander Volchkov. Both Lobukhin and Volchkov are the very personifications of the unbridled male energy and muscularity the Bolshoi has come to be known for, and accordingly, in the case of “Spartacus,” subtlety of expression is definitely not it’s strong suite. With successive decades and interpretations of this iconic work, we’ve come to expect nothing short of broadly expressed, passionate male heroism and this current production doesn’t disappoint; in the world of ballet, the role of Spartacus stands as the coveted tour de force piece for every principal dancer to aspire to.
Ably complimenting the merciless Crassus is his cunning and crafty courtesan, Aegina, performed seductively by the beautiful Svetlana Zakharova whose flowing, erotic movements contrast with the harsh, angular, war-like virility of the male dancers.
The fourth principal in this remarkable production is Anna Nikulina who plays the pure and virtuous Phrygia, wife of Spartacus, a role in absolute contrast to the vampish, glittering, and irrepressible Aegina. However, the contrast is so great, I feel Nikulina’s demeanor, and even her drab costuming depict her as a bit too bland, even considering her character’s “slave” status. Yet all is redeemed by her exquisite partnering with Lobukhin in their wonderful pas de deux, a breathtaking show-stopper with each successive lift more incredible than the former, and possessing a lyrical, subtle beauty so uncharacteristic of this muscular piece in general. The contrast works beautifully.
On balance, “Spartacus” is an historic treasure that has fortunately not become an historic artifact even after almost a half century. A dynamism prevails throughout, from the very first scene with Crassus in command of a gold-clad army, wielding shields and spears, dynamically lunge-jumping and forward leg kicking reminiscent of Fascism, to the horrific “crucifixion” of Spartacus in the final act, lifelessly impaled on the bloody tips of dozens of spears, held high above the heads of his victorious slayers. “Spartacus” intrigued us and held our attention.
by Lidia Paulinska | Mar 17, 2016
February, DEW 2016, Los Angeles – Margaret Czeisler, Chief Strategy Officer from Wildness, was talking about the characteristics of Generation Z. What the content creators and technology innovators need to know about that generation to serve better their needs?
What is unique about generation born after Millennials?
The age of the group is 21 and less. This is a generation that never has cable tv and they definitely had cut the cord or they are planning to do it. Generation Z lives in the times of fully embracing the social media – every minute 500 hours of videos are upload and shared to You Tube; half a million photos are upload to Snapchat. No wonder that 78% find branded or sponsored social media appealing, 77% find branded or sponsored You Tube videos appealing.
Generation Z is ready to rewrite the rules. They are transgender in the borders of gender, culture and race. It is not that they do not see race, but they are not judging on it – stated Czeisler based on her extensive research on Gez Z – They embrace differences in the way we have never seen in the past. Their approach to the culture is also very different and unique. They don’t consume the culture, they make it, create it. They are culture creators. They are catalysts of the culture revolution that we already experienced.
The opposite of Millennial, who hate failures and hide them, the Generation Z considers failure a natural part of living, an experience of life. Gen Z embraces the failure. (“Failure is a great thing. It teaches you what is good… what to do and what not to do. If you fail at this, then the next thing you know, you’ll find something else you can do better. You’re not going to fail at everything” – said Mira, 14). 91% of respondents said that failure is an important thing in life.
Gen Z is also well known as a generation of the shorten patience span.
by Lidia Paulinska | Mar 17, 2016
February, DEW 2016, Los Angeles – Digital Entertainment World is the conference that celebrates the visionary content creators and technology innovators who are creating the engaging products and experiences. But the key to successful outcome is to know the target group and its characteristics. Naseem Sayani, Vice President of Business Strategy from Huge presented to the audience the latest research on the generation of Millennials.
Who are the generation also known as “Generation Y”? How do we understand Millennials today?
There are no precise dates when this generation starts and ends; but most researchers use birth years from early 1980s to 2000. Sayani described them as the fearless generation. There is something the way they were raised that make them feel un-constrained by limitation or rules – she said – actually they set up their own rules and they have a passion around doing that. Often they disregard the instructions and do things their own way.
Sayani stated that Millenials are resilient in their pursuit of figuring out a system. There are no limits blocking their way. There is nothing that they can’t accomplish and nothing that cannot be done. They have grown up in the era of digital, not the transition from analog to digital. DVD was a standard, so they embrace You Tube naturally. They communicate through Snapchat and they are text savvy.
P.S. Let’s bring some other researchers founding of the Millennials characteristics on the top of Sayani presentation. Jean Twenge, the author of 2006 book Generation Me, attributes Millennials with the traits of confidence and tolerance but also identifies that they a sense of entitlement and narcissism. In 2008 Ron Alsop called the Millennials “Trophy Kids” That reflects a trend in competitive sports, where participation alone is frequently enough for a reward. Millennials have great expectations from the workplace so the employers are not necessary happy about them. They change their job frequently, always looking for something that is a better place and better salary. Sociologist Andy Furlong described them as optimistic, engaged, and team players.
by Lidia Paulinska | Mar 14, 2016
The redoubtable Metropolitan Opera of New York has done it again! A carefully crafted and finely balanced production of one of Giacomo Puccini’s twelve operas, Manon Lescault, a work in four acts composed in 1893, was offered for one night only on March 9, 2016 and shown simultaneously in 1,400 movie theaters in 50 countries throughout the world. It was an operatic gem not to be missed.
Puccini’s tragic love story is based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chavalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévos. In 1884, a French composer by the name of Jules Massanet had written an opera titled Manon, and although based on the same novel, it has never reached the international acclaim as has Puccini’s work. In addition, another French composer by the name of Daniel Auber had also written an opera on the same subject with the title Manon Lascaut in 1883, but like Massanet’s work, it too is considered to be inferior to Puccini’s enduring composition.
The story deals with the urgency of young love and is the tragic tale of a beautiful young woman, Manon, who is ultimately destroyed by her conflicting needs for erotic love and a life of opulence and luxury. She is obsessively pursued by her young lover des Geieux for whom she yearns while being held captive by Gerona, a wealthy old lech who offers her a loveless life of luxury she willingly accepts. In the end, this conflict of desire leads to her loss of riches, love, and finally life itself.
Puccini’s Manon Lescaut premiered February 1, 1893 at Teatro Regio in Turin. It was Puccini’s third opera and his first great success. It was first performed in New York at the Metropolitan Opera on January 18, 1907 in the presence of the composer himself with Enrico Caruso in the role of des Grieux and legendary Arturo Toscanini conducting.
Puccini’s next work following Manon Lescaut was La Bohéme which premiered in Turin in 1896, conducted also by Arturo Toscanini and remains one of the most popular operas ever written. Puccini’s next work after La Bohéme was Tosca (1900) followed by Madama Butterfly which premiered at La Scala in 1904.
This latest Metropolitan Opera production of Manon Lescaut, brilliantly staged by the incomparable Sir Richard Eyre, was wonderfully accessible in a crisp, clean modern style, set as it was in 1941 Nazi-occupied France; it was magnificently balanced, melding voice, orchestra, costume and set design into one unified organic whole. The compact cast was perfect, featuring soprano Kristine Opolais in the title role and tenor Roberto Alagna as her distraught lover des Grieux. The leads were ably complimented by baritone Massimo Cavalletti as Manon’s protective brother Lescaut, and the ever-villainous bass Brindley Sherratt as the lecherous old Gerona. The Met’s Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi expertly lead the stirring score.
This was a production not to be missed and through the unfailing production expertise of Fathom Events, it was made available to be enjoyed by audiences world-wide.
by Lidia Paulinska | Mar 9, 2016
March 2016, RSA, San Francisco – After hours spending on the show floor at RSA conference and the talks about security, vulnerability, encryption and authentication I stopped at the Gemalto booth in the North Hall of Moscone Convention Center to listen the presentation. Scott Meltzer from Gemalto was talking about the history of famous encrypting machine Enigma. The company also presented the real 1946 original Enigma machine (NEMA) at the booth. That was a Swiss, 4-rotor model with a movable reflector, built for the Swiss Army in 1946. 1 of 300 machines that are known to still exist today.
Here is the story that was presented.
The most common information that we hear about the Enigma code is that it was super-secret throughout WWII, and it took one man to invent but over 10,000 men to defeat.
Well, none of it is true.
The Enigma was invented in 1918 by Arthur Scherbius in Germany. The inventor was highly interested to share his “rotating rotors” encryption machine with the military but the WWI was just about to end and army wasn’t interested. So, instead he put his invention for commercial use and started the company. The first prototype called Enigma A came to life in 1923. Enigma D, the first commercial version, was produced in 1927 and sold in multiple countries to encrypt financial information, diplomatic communiques, and military messages. By 1928, both German Army and Navy were using customized and upgraded versions of those machines. In fact, the British government had actually purchased several first generation Enigma machines back in 1926.
So, what is the Enigma machine and how it works.
It’s a huge polyalphabetic substitution cypher. Each message is encrypted with its own unique key. Keys are around 17,000 characters long. There are non-repeating substitutions and no easily discernable pattern. The sender would press a key on the keyboard. This would advance the first rotor one step and send an electric signal from the keyboard, through the plug-board. This would be the first substitution in the cypher. Each rotor then introduced an additional substitution as that signal went through it. Another substitution at the reflector and then back through the rotors in reverse and out through the plug-board, with additional substitutions at each step. And finally the signal was sent to the lamp array to show the encoding of that letter. The genius of this electro-mechanical system was that the encoding was reciprocal. If you typed a “W” on one Enigma, and it came out a “B,” typing that “B” on another Enigma would reproduce the “W,” but only if their initial settings were the same. And because a rotor would move every time a key was pressed, the circuit created by the next key pressed would be completely different than the previous circuit and would generate a completely different substitution.
The Enigma was the most powerful and unbreakable code machine. Until 1932.
Just before Nazis came to power, three Polish mathematicians: Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Rozycki and Henryk Zygalski, successfully broke the Enigma. Poles were able to decrypt 75% of the German army’s Enigma-encrypted radio transmissions between 1933 and 1938. But once the war began in 1939, the Nazis upgraded their machines. They distributed 2 additional rotors, and they changed their procedures to plug several security holes that the Poles were exploiting. This didn’t stop the Poles from breaking some of the Nazis’ daily codes, but each success took much longer, and breaking the entire system would have required way more manpower than they had. They also knew from some of their decrypted messages that Hitler had set his sights on Poland and was planning his move within the next 6 weeks. So, five weeks before Nazis invaded, the Poles gave French and British codebreakers all their information, including working models of the Nazi’s military Enigmas they had reverse-engineered, along with the Cyclometers, Bombas and Zygalski decrytping sheets they used to decode them.
And this is when the more familiar story of breaking the Enigma code begins.
The story of The Bletchley Park Team – Dilly Knox, John Jeffreys, Peter Twinn and Alan Turing, along with over 11,000 others started to deliver their Ultra decrypts. “It was thanks to Ultra that we won the war” – said Winston Churchill to King George VI. BBC claimed that this team shortened the war by at least 2 years. The story was recently portrayed in the movie “The Imitation Game” starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley.
by Lidia Paulinska | Mar 2, 2016
Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody was written 40 years ago by Freddie Mercury. It is a song that put the band on the top of music arena. It has spent 14 weeks at number one, giving it the fourth longest stay at the top of the chart. Bohemian Rhapsody is in a list of the all-time best sellers, with 2.36 million copies sold. It is a six-minute suite of the style called progressive rock that abandons the danceable beat that defines earlier styles and is more likely to experiment with compositional structure, instrumentation, harmony, rhythm, and lyrical content.
As Fathom Event continues to search a unique content this time is bringing the legendary rock band to select cinemas nationwide in Queen: A Night in Bohemia, specially restored and re-mixed for the big screen on Tuesday, March 8. Commemorating the recent 40th anniversary, this special event showcases the first-ever live recording of the record-breaking song and includes a never-before-seen documentary featuring archive footage and interviews with all four members of the band. The screening captured Christmas Eve 1975 at the Hammersmith Odeon in London concert accompanying with documentary that deep into Queen’s archives to tell the story of iconic band.
Tickets for the event on March 8 can be found at Fathom Events at www.fathomevents.com/event/queen-a-night-in-bohemia
by Lidia Paulinska | Mar 1, 2016
Buffet, the storied French manufacturer of woodwind musical instruments, including oboes, clarinets, flutes, saxophones and bassoons, refreshed its name and look this year. At the NAMM show, visitors to their booth had a chance to see a name change as well as a new brand logo for Buffet Crampon USA. This is the first change to their iconic woodwind logo in over 170 years. The company decided to make its new look for the 190th anniversary of Buffet Crampon and 90th anniversary of Julius Keilwerth, the German saxophone manufacturer established in 1925 and now a part of the Buffet Group.
The changes were revealed at first in France at the beginning of this year where the family Buffet began manufacturing quality clarinets in 1825. The French musical instrument maker expanded its operations under the vision of Jean-Louis Buffet and his wife Zoe Crampon. Buffet Crampon started operating exclusively in France, and over the years augmented the production to facilities in Germany and China.
Now Buffet Crampon is quickly approaching its second century of operation with a new name and logo as well as a new line of products including new clarinet models for 2016. The product lines now include Tradition professional clarinet and Prodige student clarinet. Tradition establishes a third professional clarinet bore family (alongside the R13 and RC families) and features the first collaboration of European and North American Clarinet Artists in the design of new model. Prodige, on the other hand, sets a new benchmark for student clarinets with an all-new bore design that retains the tone of the Buffet Crampon heritage. Jerome Perrod, global president of Buffet Crampon and Francois Klok, president of Buffet Crampon USA talked with me about the challenges for the music makers in the development of the instruments.
For beginning musicians, the biggest challenge is how to keep the attention to the instrument and continuing playing if the first sound is not satisfactory? The most important thing is to keep the contact with the instrument. The big development for the new instrument was covering a little so the sound is still pleasing. Now, it sounds good right away. This is a big move as a person learns to play the instrument because he/she feels better about their ability to create good sounds. This feedback encourages beginners to continue to play more and study harder versus dropping classes and quitting. Klok, who is an oboe and double reed player reminisced that he was seven years old when he started playing oboe. My brothers and sisters hated me for doing that he stated with smile.
There is another challenge for beginning musicians. Parents are not willing to make a big investment to buy an instrument with the high risk that their son or daughter is going to drop it very quickly. On other hand, if a school buys the instruments, after a few months and multiple players, the instrument is used to much to be attractive any more. The Buffet Crampon presidents know how important ownership of is. Francois remembered that his first obo was lend to him from conservatory, and then his parents bought him a used instrument. He remembered his happiness and pride of owning his first instrument. He knows (and feels) how it is to say – this is my own oboe. Not my sister’s, not somebody else’s, but mine. It is important to make it affordable to young students.
With the new Prodige student clarinet, Buffet Crampon did a wonderful job in addressing these issues. The instrument sounds acoustically beautiful and would not stop music adepts from dropping playing it yet has an attractive price point for parents and schools.
The bottom line is – to create orchestral music we need to have an orchestra with all the variety of instruments.
by Lidia Paulinska | Feb 29, 2016
Kalray – a French designer and provider of low-power, high-performance processors – is looking at American market as new opportunity for its growth.
The French company was established in 2008 as a spin-off from CAE (Atomic Energy Commission) to create the processors for embedded critical application market. As this market is still strong in 2014 the Board of Kalray appointed the new management of the company and implemented the new more market oriented strategy. Eric Baissus, who founded OpenPlug in 2002, one of the most successful European embedded software companies in wireless domain, became Kalray’s CEO. Gilles Delfassy who is presently the President of the Supervisiory Board manages the operations. Eric Bantegnie is responsible for software technology area. This is a good match to the experience of the executive team.
The management team continues a relationship with CAE. The company decided to address the market of mission critical real time applications and determined that a many core processor to be a solution. The target market was data centers, which was a continuing opportunity. They also identified a new opportunity appears in self-driving cars. Now, with the product poised to serve those two markets: data centers and self-driving cars, Kalray sees the opportunity to also be used for a storage controller.
Kalray was presenting the technical aspects of their product at the Linley Data Center Conference that took place in Santa Clara at the beginning of February and is going to be showing it in application with customer products at upcoming RSA conference in San Francisco, February 29 – March 4.
by Lidia Paulinska | Feb 28, 2016
The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 film noir written and directed by John Huston which marked Huston’s directorial debut. His screenplay was based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammet, the great American mystery writer known for his hard-boiled detective stories and the creation of one of cinema’s most enduring characters, Sam Spade, the detective in The Maltese Falcon played by Humphrey Bogart. Co-starring with Bogart was Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet as Kasper Gutman, the “Fat Man,” who at 61 years old and 300+ pounds was making his film debut which won him a much-deserved Oscar nomination.
Interestingly, Bogart, Lorre and Greenstreet were to be reunited a year later in another Hal Wallis production: Casablanca. Ironically, Huston initially offered the role of Sam Spade to George Raft who turned it down because of the “inexperience” of the director.
And indeed as a director new to the craft, Huston made every effort to create an innovative, evocative and professional work on every level of production and he succeeded famously. For example, he planned every second of every shot to the most minute detail, shot-for-shot setups making sketches of every scene.* Much to Hal Wallis’ delight, the film came in on time and under budget and proved to be an instant success at the box office.
John Huston (1906 – 1987) of course went on to write the screenplays for the 37 films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. In addition to The Maltese Falcon he created The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Key Largo (1948), The African Queen (1951) and many others.
One of the outstanding innovations of The Maltese Falcon was the brilliant cinematography of Arthur Edeson who was influenced by German Expressionism brought to America by German cinematographers during the 1920’s, a production style which is apparent in Edeson’s use of below eye-eye-level shots (for example, the low angle shots of Sidney Greenstreet when discussing the Maltese Falcon) and strong angular compositions combined with low lighting to create menacing shadows, all in black, white, and shades of gray.
Another innovation and by-product of Expressionistic technique shared with Orson Wells’ Citizen Kane which also premiered in 1941, was the low camera shots showing for the first time the ceilings of rooms in which the action was taking place, a commonplace today, but revolutionary for its time. Alfred Hitchcock, who in turn influenced Francois Truffaut, was to employ many of these Expressionistic techniques in his seminal films.
Huston’s film is the third version of the novel, the first having been attempted in 1931 with the same title and the second, titled Satan Met a Lady, starring Bette Davis was offered as a light comedy. By common consensus, Houston’s “Falcon” justifiably stands out as the true classic and a lasting cinematic treasure.
by Lidia Paulinska and Hugh McMahon
by Lidia Paulinska | Feb 19, 2016
If there is company that perfectly finds the balance between technology and art, it is Polaroid. A few years ago, Polaroid introduced a life style web camera Cube that competed with GoPro. But unlike the competition, Polaroid gave their product a modern design enhanced with pastel, rainbow colors that have this optimistic and vibrant energy matching the life style of young generation. The people who want to take pictures and videos then immediately share them with friends.
The Cube Plus that was released recently is an updated, advanced version of original Cube and has a Wi-Fi capability. So it can be connected to a smartphone or to a tablet. That allows to use smartphone or tablet as your view finder and send videos and photos through an app. Both for Android and Apple devices.
It can take 8MP still pictures and 1440p/1080p/720p videos. The image stabilization function reduces the likelihood of taking blurry photos and videos that often take place with hand-holding cameras. The Cube Plus takes this headache away. The amateur photographers can also enjoy taking pictures/videos being away from the camera. Magnetic function on the top and the bottom allows to mount Cube on a helmet, on the bike, on the snowboard and supports any active, life style of the amateur photographers.
When video recording, the Cube Plus supports better sound recording than the original Cube. The new microphone captured, even by the small size device, sound that is powerful and allows to enjoy not just images but also dialogs and talks during the actions.
Overall it is great product for great price that can enhance our social media sharing of our active life style stories.
