New Florence. New Renaissance.

Google – 2013 Zeitgeist

The final entry in my scan of 50+ magazines for the best of 2013. Technically, not a magazine, but it is a daily read :)

Its annual Zeitgeist, based on most searched terms showed top 10 searches were

1. Paul Walker

2. Boston Marathon Bombing

3. Nelson Mandela

4. Cory Monteith

5. iPhone 5s

6. Government Shutdown

7. James Gandolfini

8. Harlem Shake

9. Royal Baby

10. Adrian Peterson

National Geographic: Year in Review

Stunning gallery covering of 2013 topics

 

Popular Science Best of 2013

“Each year, the editors of Popular Science search all corners of the material world—cars, skyscrapers, drones, phones—to find the 100 innovations (including the 5 minute folding Oru Kayak) that are reshaping the future right before our eyes.

Best of What’s New winners make our world and our lives safer, more efficient, and straight-up better than we thought possible. These innovations make the stuff of science fiction—restoring sight to the blind, conversing with computers—the stuff of reality. “

Time: 2013 Best Movies

I have read Richard Corliss’s movie reviews for decades. So, his 2013 list deserves inclusion in this end of 2013 series. This list is eclectic from American Hustle to Fast and Furious 6 to other less mainstream entries from Indonesia and Italy.

The Economist – 2013 Country of the Year

Instead of a Man of the Year, The Economist discusses several country nominations and decides on one

“But the accomplishments that most deserve commendation, we think, are path-breaking reforms that do not merely improve a single nation but, if emulated, might benefit the world. Gay marriage is one such border-crossing policy, which has increased the global sum of human happiness at no financial cost. Several countries have implemented it in 2013—including Uruguay, which also, uniquely, passed a law to legalise and regulate the production, sale and consumption of cannabis. This is a change so obviously sensible, squeezing out the crooks and allowing the authorities to concentrate on graver crimes, that no other country has made it. If others followed suit, and other narcotics were included, the damage such drugs wreak on the world would be drastically reduced.

Better yet, the man at the top, President José Mujica, is admirably self-effacing. With unusual frankness for a politician, he referred to the new law as an experiment. He lives in a humble cottage, drives himself to work in a Volkswagen Beetle and flies economy class. Modest yet bold, liberal and fun-loving, Uruguay is our country of the year.”

New Yorker – 2013 Best Cartoons

The special issue (sub required) is worth getting your hands on

“A great new feature highlights five of the cartoonists who have done our daily online cartoon:  David Sipress, Christopher Weyant, Danny Shanahan, Mike Twohy, and Emily Flake.

Each selected four favorite efforts from his or her month-long sprint, and then, in a little essay to accompany these selections, whines about how the switch from the relatively leisurely pace of weekly cartoons to the more frenetic pace of a daily forced him or her to forego sleep, food, and family obligations, just so that you, Mister and Missus Cartoon Aficionado, could get your daily dose.”

Of course, it has plenty of digs on our tech enriched lives including couple below

Plating

Whether smeared and swirled across a white plate, stacked beneath a tower of flowers in a ceramic bowl, or strewn like debris atop the surface of a log, the way the food is laid out reflects an aspect of a chef’s craftsmanship that can be just as crucial as the ingredients in the dish.

We’re talking here about plating, gastronomic jargon for how a chef arranges the food before it is served. Naturally, every cook has to think about that, whether at Le Cirque or the Cheesecake Factory. But some think about it more than others.

New York Times

Boulder, CO – startups over the decades

Inc magazine has a nice gallery on how the Gold Rush, IBM, space and nuclear programs, Celestial Seasonings, Amgen, and now the Pot economy have shaped the town with “the most high-tech start-ups per capita in the nation”

Photo Credit

Food & Wine’s Best Restaurant Dishes of 2013

Food & Wine’s top 10 including the Lobster Chawan Mushi at Yusho’s of Chicago

“It wasn't just because of the skewer of seared lobster meat brushed with yakitori sauce; it was also the crispy kale, sesame brittle and lobster oil.”

Digital Cirque

This time of the year the Ringling Circus invariably comes to town. With the kids in town from college I asked them if they wanted to go, and got a groan. Not that one, the one in Orlando. No animals at this circus, but plenty of clowns like Balthazar and Serge and trapeze, trampoline and other acrobatics. Ann Paladie in Cirque du Soleil’s PR group offered discounted tickets for a holiday showing of La Nouba there and the family jumped at the offer.

You have likely caught a Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas or on its growing tour schedule around the globe . You have probably seen Worlds Away, James Cameron’s 3D medley film on several of the shows.  But there is something special about going to the Sceno Plus designed Cirque Theatre in Downtown Disney in Orlando.

From ground to top of mast is a height is 150 feet and some of the equipment is stored in the ceiling. That allows the 25x60 foot trapeze net, for example, to be lowered without stage hand involvement and no tethering to the ground.  The stage floor hides five fast moving elevator lifts which can each move loads of 3,000 lbs each at a foot a second up to a max of 16 feet and allow for a wide variety of set effects. Given that most of the show is above ground and even the orchestra is elevated, it is ideal that the this auditorium is not handicapped by proscenium arches which dominate most stages.

One of the best sequences in the show is the aerial ballet where performers wrap and fly around in columns of silk (the male performer uses the red columns around 0.45 in video below). The bright costumes are nicely accented by the lighting designed for seating in a 180º semicircle around the stage and we were seated right behind the sound technician and I kept squinting to get a glimpse at all his controls. Read more about the sound and light technology here

Before we drove to Orlando, I checked out Cirque’s digital assets. The mobile app has a very nice preview video on every one of the shows. As early as 2010, Cirque ran augmented reality technology at local malls to promote the La Nouba show. Guests with the Layar app could point their smart phones to designated areas within the mall and characters became visible on the screen.  If they pointed toward the ceiling, they saw a trapeze artist.  If they pointed it in between buildings, they saw a tight rope walker.

Overall, stunning evening, and maybe I can get the kids interested in the Ringling show as well :)

Photo Credit - Wikipedia