by Lidia Paulinska | Mar 23, 2017
Fathom events, March – On Sunday, March 19, 2017, Fathom Events and Pathé Live broadcast a thrilling and historic program to hundreds of select cinemas throughout the country; and it was a rare treat indeed. “A Contemporary Evening,” a triptych of works dedicated to modern choreography, featuring some of the world’s greatest dancers, direct from the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow.
First on the program, and new to the Bolshoi’s repertoire, was “The Cage,” by masterful American choreographer, Jerome Robbins, followed by the young Russian-American choreographer Alexei Ratmansky’s colorful and folklore-inspired “Russian Seasons.” And finally, “Études” by the Danish choreographer Harald Lander which is considered to be an homage to classical ballet training.
Jerome Robbins’ (1918-1998) ground-breaking “The Cage” is set to Stravinsky’s Concerto in D for chamber orchestra and had its premiere at the City Center of Music and Drama in New York on June 10, 1951. In a 2003 New York Times review it’s viewed as a “sardonic take on Male-female relationships;” and indeed two male creatures are stomped to death and have their necks broken between the knees of a female insect whose web they unfortunately wandered into. AnotherTimes review of Robbins’ ferocious ballet from 1982 opines: “Ostensibly set in a matriarchal insect society in which males are killed after mating, the ballet follows the life of one of the insects, referred to as the Novice, from her birth to her murderous adulthood.” Mr. Robbins has devised a wide variety of astonishing movement motifs for his collection of insects, including body undulations, brushing of legs, repeated lunging at the floor, stabbing arm motions, and silent screams to create the sense of non-human predacious creatures . The Bolshoi dancers are certainly up to the challenge and Ekaterina Krysanova as the predatory Novice is both lithe and menacing in the role. Mr. Robbins’ underlying theme of male-female relationships may be a bit dated, but the vitality and immediacy of his choreography is as fresh today as it was 66 years ago, and as always, the magnificent Bolshoi is up to the task. Mr. Robbins choreographed works for the New York City Ballet and is best known to popular audiences for his Broadway gems, “West Side Story” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”
The second work on the “Contemporary Evening” program, “Russian Seasons,” by Alexei Ratmansky (b. 1968), premiering at the Bolshoi Theatre, June 2006, and could not be more different from “The Cage” in style, tone, theme and intent. In a 2012 New York Times review by Anna Kisseldorf of this work when presented by the New York City Ballet states, “The ballet touches on many of Mr. Ratmansky’s inclinations: traces of folk dance are given modern makeovers as strange bursts of humor and pathos erupt like tiny fireworks all over the stage. Unison is less of a choreographic conceit than a way to show how a tribe moves with one pulse.” Mr. Ratmansky’s use of the ballerina is a pleasure to watch. In a vibrant and vital work choreographed for 12 dancers, 3 of the 4 leads are women and refreshingly, they aren’t relegated to “arm putty for tricky partnering or objects to be admired or violated.” The colorful costumes in red, green, blue, violet and burgundy red (uncredited in the movie program notes) become an integral compliment to the spirited movement of the piece and shimmer in stark contrast to the minimalist mise en scene. From 2004 to 2008 Mr. Rtmansky was the director of the Bolshoi Ballet and as of April 2014 he is artist-in-residence at the American Ballet Theatre in New York.
The final ballet of the evening, “Études,” was choreographed by Harald Lander (1905-1971) and premiered January 1948 at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen with the Royal Danish Ballet for which Mr. Lander served as artistic director and ballet master. This exquisite work is a marvel of balletic continuity, visually chronicling as it does the progression of the dancer’s training from emergent student through corps de ballet, and finally to prima ballerina. As a reverential homage to classical ballet, it moves from the ballet studio with students at the barre diligently performing routine pliés then finally to beautifully executed excerpts from the classical ballet repertoire, including performances like the solo “dying swan” scene from “Swan Lake” and other vignettes. The ballet is performed to “piano studies” for music students composed by Carl Czerny which thematically compliments the opening scene of “Études” (“a short, musical composition for practice”) which focuses on ballet students at practice. “Études” is considered an homage to classical ballet training, beginning with students at the barre and ending with spectacular classical virtuosity.
All three works in this superb program are “modern” by definition, but performed by the exquisite classically trained Bolshoi Ballet, they sparkle with classical precision and stunning bravura.
by Lidia Paulinska | Mar 23, 2017
HardwareCon, March 2017 – HardwareCon, the 2-day conference devoted to helping hardware startup founders & CEOs take their startup to the next level takes place this Friday and Saturday March 24th-25th at the Zero Net Energy Center in San Leandro, CA. In it’s third year, the show boasts a packed agenda filled with keynotes from Mark Hindsbo the CMO of ANSYS, who will be presenting their new innovative simulation tool for digitizing hardware prototyping and a fireside chat with Euan Thomson the Head of Johnson & Johnson’s medical device team who will discuss how large corporations and startups can work together to advance innovation.
Hardware entrepreneurs will have an opportunity to meet & learn from industry veterans and have their toughest business & engineering questions answered during one of their many breakout sessions. Some panels will focus on how to optimize your manufacturing for scale, how to create a defensible hardware product using software & data and online and brick & mortar retail strategies for consumer product businesses. Attendees will also have the opportunity to learn from our panel of thought leaders around the world about what is happening in their local hardware communities including the the surge of interest in hardware from their local governments and investors.
“We’re pleased to be able to include more international entrepreneurs and companies in this year’s HardwareCon event,” said Greg Fisher, co-founder of HardwareCon. “Our Hardware Massive partners are bringing in attendees, startups and experts from their 26 chapters around the globe and this brings even more insights and opportunities to our participants.”
HardwareCon will also be featuring a wide array of local & international hardware startups on Hardware Blvd. On the final day of the conference 5 hardware startups will compete to win the 24k grand prize package. These startups went through qualifying rounds at Hardware Massive’s chapter’s around the world and we’re carefully selected by the conference delegation. The 5 finalists are:
- AXIS – AXIS Gear is the first ever retrofit smart device to motorize and automate your existing window shades.
- MendUX – keeping cognitively impaired seniors safe from wandering while maintaining elder care facilities bottom line through prevention
- BBQbot – Good barbecue is amazing to eat, but very difficult to make. BBQbot allows anyone to easily make competition quality barbecue by converting their cheap barbecue grill into a smart, automated, professional quality barbecue smoker.
- Lumos – The world’s safest commute backpack
- PhysioCue – Consumer digital health and therapy device company that empowers people with high blood pressure conditions to live healthier, happier and longer lives. PhysioCue has developed a completely new approach for hypertension management that combines the latest bio-sensor (PPG & ECG) technology.
by Lidia Paulinska | Mar 15, 2017
Bright Blue Innovations’ coverage of the 2017 Winter NAMM Show included interviews and product announcements that were aired on Comcast, AT&T & Ustream by it video production partner Roadway.Media in February 2017 on Bright Blue Innovation.
Bright Blue Innovation with host Lidia Paulinska, continues their coverage of the Winter 2017 NAMM show in Anaheim, CA. With the assistance of M&E Tech’s Music Editor Peter Chatterjee, the show interviewed several executives and industry leaders in the music industry. This included executives from Gibson, Cakewalk, PRS Guitars, Roland, OWC, Sennheiser, and Neumann. The interviews also included musicians Dr Epiphone, Andy Summers, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis who received recognition from Roland.
The episode can be found at Roadway.Media as Bright Blue Innovation S2 Ep3
by Lidia Paulinska | Mar 15, 2017
In the era of electronic presentations and global collaboration via video conferencing the office environment has been changing rapidly and need more better suitable tools. Not that long ago the laser pointer was broadly used by the presenters but had some flows. The main one was – it could not be seen by other parties in shared video calls or on conference room flat screen monitors. Now this problem is solved. Logitech has introduced a new presenter tool named Spotlight that has advanced pointer system that’s better than a laser. Spotlight not only is better by putting the highlighting function into the image created by the computer before it gets to the display, but also more stylish and more functional.
Magnify Capability in New Logitech Spotlight Presenter
Stylish – three buttons and one large one in the 3 different colors bodies – gold, black and silver. Functional – It has a long range of 30 meters (100 feet) so a presenter can walk freely in the room while giving a presentation. It has 3D cursor to play videos and open links. It manages time by giving vibration alerts. It charges fast! Only 1 minute for 3 hours of presentation. When is fully charged a battery last up to 3 months.
The functions are programmable and can be customized to a user needs.
The details: it supports slides and presentations integrated with AV, slides can be send forward and back and control with the gestures; a volume can be raise on embedded media. Spotlight runs on both Windows and Mac for programs including Powerpoint, PDF, Google Slide and more. It operates by the Bluetooth connectivity or 2.4GHz USB wireless connection. A presentation is enable by a software that is new on the market. The software has three modes if item focus on the screen. Spotlight – circular highlight on the screen while the rest of a picture dims; Magnifier – that changes the spotlight to magnifier to show the details of the image; and the third mode that changes the circle area of the magnifier to an outline circle.
by Lidia Paulinska | Mar 5, 2017
Fathom events, March – The Metropolitan Opera’s magnificent production of Antonin Dvorák’s 1901 opera Rusalka was enjoyed by audiences world-wide on Saturday, February 25, 2017. It was viewed in hundreds of cinemas throughout the world through “The Met: Live in HD” series, an invaluable cultural treasure presented by Fathom Events.
The New York Times had hailed this stunning production as “a shockingly dark, sexy drama,” an unlikely description of an opera, especially one based upon “The Little Mermaid” fairy tale. The Times goes on to observe, “the mysterious look of the production, fantastical and ominous, combines with sensual singing by a handsome cast to create a romantic energy rare at the Met — or at any opera house.”
The visually rich production, the work of Mary Zimmerman, is indeed fantastical, with shimmering sea-green flowing costumes on the water nymphs against a background of a huge harvest moon projection and the huge Met stage dominated by an ominous giant snake-like Monterey pine which seems to quietly terrorize like a monstrous atrophied boa constrictor.
The superb cast is lead by the Lovely Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais who offers us a vocally lustrous and beautifully rendered performance as Rusalka, the water nymph who longs to become human and makes the mistake of falling in love with a handsome human prince, played by the compelling tenor Brandon Jovanovich. The vocally and physically imposing American bass-baritone Eric Owen powerfully commands the role of Rusalka’s father, the Water Gnome. The wonderful cast is completed by the performance of Jamie Barton as the evil witch Ježibaba who interprets the villainous role to perfection. There’s a theatrical tradition that occasionally calls for a villain to display hints of humor and irony, and Mr Barton doesn’t disappoint.
Conducting the Met orchestra was the renowned maestro Sir Mark Elder who interpreted Dvorák’s Romantic score with much spirit and passion.
Rusalka at the Met was delightful and a memorable operatic experience not to be missed.
