November 28, 2012
Del Close (1934 – 1999) is one of the premier influences on modern improvisational theater. He was also an actor appearing in a number of films and television shows.
He was a co-author of the book ‘Truth in Comedy,’ which outlines techniques now common to longform improvisational theater and describes the overall structure (he named ‘Harold’) which remains a common frame for longer improvisational scenes. His favorite framework for comedic storytelling was the structures of Wagner’s ‘Ring Cycle.’
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November 28, 2012
Sergei Eisenstein (1898 – 1948) was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the ‘Father of Montage.’
He is noted in particular for his silent films ‘Strike’ (1924), ‘Battleship Potemkin’ (1925), and ‘October’ (1927), as well as the historical epics ‘Alexander Nevsky’ (1938) and ‘Ivan the Terrible’ (1944).
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November 9, 2012
Will Shortz (b. 1952) is the long-time crossword puzzle editor for ‘The New York Times.’ Shortz was born and raised on an Arabian horse farm in Indiana. He is the only person known to hold a college degree in enigmatology, the study of puzzles.
Shortz achieved this feat by designing his own curriculum through Indiana University’s Individualized Major Program. He also earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law (1977), though he forewent the bar exam and began a career in puzzles instead. Shortz began his career at ‘Penny Press Magazines,’ then moved to ‘Games’ magazine for 15 years, serving as its editor from 1989–1993.
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November 7, 2012
Pablo Ferro (b. 1935) is a graphic designer and film titles designer. Born in Cuba, he was raised on a remote farm before emigrating to New York with his family as a teenager. Ferro taught himself animation from a book by Preston Blair.
Ferro worked on films as diverse as Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Dr. Strangelove’ to the split-screen montage of the original ‘The Thomas Crown Affair.’ He was a pioneer of quick-cut editing, multiple screen images (the first in film and television in 1963). Ferro’s visual style has influenced many in film, television, animation, commercials, novels and children’s books.
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September 26, 2012
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (1911 – 1986), better known as L. Ron Hubbard and often referred to by his initials, LRH, was an American pulp fiction author and the founder of the Church of Scientology. After establishing a career as a writer, becoming best known for his science fiction and fantasy stories, he developed a self-help system called ‘Dianetics’ which was first published in 1950. He subsequently developed his ideas into a wide-ranging set of doctrines and rituals as part of a new religious movement that he called Scientology. His writings became the guiding texts for the Church of Scientology and a number of affiliated organizations that address such diverse topics as business administration, literacy, and drug rehabilitation.
The Church of Scientology describes Hubbard in hagiographic terms, and he portrayed himself as a pioneering explorer, world traveler, and nuclear physicist, with expertise in a wide range of disciplines, including photography, art, poetry, and philosophy. His critics have characterized him as a liar, a charlatan, and mentally unstable. Though many of his autobiographical statements have been proven to be fictitious, the Church rejects any suggestion that its account of Hubbard’s life is not historical fact.
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September 13, 2012
Ron Fricke is an American film director and cinematographer, considered to be a master of time-lapse photography and large format cinematography. He was the director of photography for ‘Koyaanisqatsi’ (a film consisting primarily of slow motion and time-lapse footage) in 1982 and directed the purely cinematic non-verbal non-narrative feature ‘Baraka’ (1992). He designed and used his own 65 mm camera equipment for ‘Baraka’ and his later projects.
He also directed the IMAX films ‘Chronos’ (1985) and ‘Sacred Site’ (1986). His most recent work was as cinematographer for parts of the film ‘Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith’ (he was hired to shoot the eruption of Mt. Etna in Sicily for use in scenes of the volcanic planet Mustafar). The sequel to ‘Baraka,’ ‘Samsara,’ premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011. Fricke writes about his work: ‘I feel that my work has evolved through ‘Koyaanisqatsi,’ ‘Chronos’ and ‘Baraka.’ Both technically and philosophically I am ready to delve even deeper into my favorite theme: humanity’s relationship to the eternal.’
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September 12, 2012
Hanna Rosin is an American Journalist. Rosin was born in Israel and grew up in Queens, New York where her father was a taxi driver. She graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1987. She graduated from Stanford University, and is married to ‘Slate’ editor David Plotz; they live in Washington, D.C. with their three children. She is a co-founder of ‘DoubleX,’ a women’s site connected to ‘Slate.’ She is also a writer for ‘The Atlantic.’ A character portrayed by actress Chloë Sevigny in the movie ‘Shattered Glass’ about Rosin’s colleague at ‘The New Republic,’ Stephen Glass, was loosely based on Rosin. Rosin has written a book based on her 2010 Atlantic story, ‘The End of Men.’
In the past she has specialized in writing about religious-political issues, in particular the influence of evangelical Christians on the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign. She is the author of ‘God’s Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America,’ published in 2007. Based on a ‘New Yorker’ story, the book follows several young Christians at Patrick Henry College, a new evangelical institution that teaches its students to ‘shape the culture and take back the nation.’ Rosin’s portrayals of the students are part of a larger attempt to chronicle the cultural and political history of the modern Christian right.
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September 8, 2012
Paul Bacon (b. 1923), is an American book and album cover designer and jazz musician. He is known for introducing the ‘Big Book Look’ in book jacket design, and has designed about 6,500 jackets and more than 200 jazz record covers. His first big hit came in 1956 with ‘Compulsion,’ a novel by Meyer Levin.
This cover also marked the inception of the ‘Big Book Look’ that Bacon became known for. This look features a large, bold title, a prominent author’s name, and a small conceptual image. Instances of this ‘look’ include ‘Catch-22’ by Joseph Heller, ‘Visions of Cody’ by Jack Kerouac, and ‘Bullet Park’ by John Cheever, along with countless others.
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September 8, 2012
George Dantzig (1914 – 2005) was an American mathematical scientist who solved two unsolved problems in statistical theory, which he had mistaken for homework after arriving late to a lecture of UC Berkeley statistician Jerzy Neyman. Dantzig was the Professor Emeritus of Transportation Sciences and Professor of Operations Research and of Computer Science at Stanford.
Born in Portland, Oregon, George Bernard Dantzig was named after George Bernard Shaw, the Irish writer. His father, Tobias Dantzig, was a Baltic German mathematician and linguist, and his mother, Anja Dantzig (née Ourisson), was a French linguist. Dantzig’s parents met during their study at the Sorbonne, where Tobias studied mathematics under Henri Poincaré.
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September 8, 2012
Jody Christian (b. 1985), best known by his stage name RiFF RaFF, is an American rapper and performance artist from Houston. He is signed to the Mad Decent record label. He is best known for his initial associations with Soulja Boy, and being a member of the comedy super group Three Loco with Andy Milonakis and Simon Rex.
Riff Raff started his social media involvement as a rapper on Myspace, using the name ‘Kokayne Dawkinz.’ His first public appearance was not as a rapper, but as a contestant on the 2009 MTV reality show From ‘G’s to Gents’ (season 2). Though he was eliminated from series on the second episode, he used this exposure to publicize his career as a rapper. Two years later, he was said to be signed to the Soulja Boy’s Stacks on Deck Entertainment label in 2011, and added ‘SODMG’ to his name for a period. This was later said to be false in an interview by Soulja Boy.
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August 31, 2012
Ron Geesin (b. 1943) is a British musician and composer, noted for his quirky creations and novel applications of sound. He is probably best known as the orchestrator and organizer of Pink Floyd’s ‘Atom Heart Mother’ in 1970, after the band found themselves hopelessly deadlocked over how to complete it.
Geesin first collaborated with the band’s Roger Waters (the two shared a love of golf) on 1970’s unconventional film soundtrack ‘Music from ‘The Body,” sampling sounds made by the human body. Ron Geesin played piano with The Original Downtown Syncopators, a Dixieland band emulating the Original Dixieland Band during the 1960s. The band was based in Sussex, UK.
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August 24, 2012
Evgeny Morozov (b. 1984) is a Belarusian writer and researcher who studies political and social implications of technology. In 2009 he was chosen as a TED fellow where he spoke about how the Web influences civic engagement and regime stability in authoritarian, closed societies or in countries ‘in transition.’
Morozov expresses skepticism about the popular view that the Internet is helping to democratize authoritarian regimes, arguing that it could also be a powerful tool for engaging in mass surveillance, political repression, and spreading nationalist and extremist propaganda. He has also criticized what he calls ‘The Internet Freedom Agenda’ of the US government, finding it naive and even counterproductive to the very goal of promoting democracy through the Web.
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