#lewis strauss icons

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Lewis Strauss - Oppenheimer, 2023

[rockislandadultreads]

Trending Now: Oppenheimer

Robert Oppenheimer by Ray Monk

Robert Oppenheimer was among the most brilliant and divisive of men. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis in the race to develop the first atomic bomb—a breakthrough that was to have eternal ramifications for mankind and that made Oppenheimer the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.” But with his actions leading up to that great achievement, he also set himself on a dangerous collision course with Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch-hunters.

In this volume, Ray Monk goes deeper than any previous biographer in the quest to solve the enigma of Oppenheimer’s motivations and his complex personality. Through compassionate investigation and with towering scholarship, Monk tells an unforgettable story of discovery, secrecy, impossible choices, and unimaginable destruction.

American Prometheus by Kai Bird

American Prometheus is the first full-scale biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, "father of the atomic bomb," the brilliant, charismatic physicist who led the effort to capture the awesome fire of the sun for his country in time of war. Immediately after Hiroshima, he became the most famous scientist of his generation-one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, the embodiment of modern man confronting the consequences of scientific progress.

He was the author of a radical proposal to place international controls over atomic materials - an idea that is still relevant today. He opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb and criticized the Air Force's plans to fight an infinitely dangerous nuclear war. In the now almost-forgotten hysteria of the early 1950s, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup, and, in response, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss, Superbomb advocate Edward Teller and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover worked behind the scenes to have a hearing board find that Oppenheimer could not be trusted with America's nuclear secrets.

American Prometheus sets forth Oppenheimer's life and times in revealing and unprecedented detail. Exhaustively researched, it is based on thousands of records and letters gathered from archives in America and abroad, on massive FBI files and on close to a hundred interviews with Oppenheimer's friends, relatives and colleagues.

J. Robert Oppenheimer by Abraham Pais

Award-winning biographer Abraham Pais introduces us to a precocious youth who sped through Harvard in three years, made signal contributions to quantum mechanics while in his twenties, and was instrumental in the growth of American physics in the decade before the Second World War, almost single-handedly bringing it to a state of prominence. He paints a revealing portrait of Oppenheimer's life in Los Alamos, where in twenty remarkable, feverish months, and under his inspired guidance, the first atomic bomb was designed and built, a success that made Oppenheimer America's most famous scientist. Pais describes Oppenheimer's long tenure as Director of the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton, where the two men worked together closely. He shows not only Oppenheimer's brilliance and leadership, but also how his displays of intensity and arrogance won him powerful enemies, ones who would ultimately make him one of the principal victims of the Red Scare of the 1950s.

J. Robert Oppenheimer is Abraham Pais's final work, completed after his death by Robert P. Crease, an acclaimed historian of science in his own right. Told with compassion and deep insight, it is the most comprehensive biography of the great physicist available. Anyone seeking an insider's portrait of this enigmatic man will find it indispensable.

The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Priscilla J. McMillan

On April 12, 1954, the nation was astonished to learn that scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer faced charges of violating national security. Why had the charismatic leader of the Manhattan Project— the man who led the team that developed the atomic bomb that ended World War II—been cast into overnight disgrace? In this riveting narrative, bestselling author Priscilla J. McMillan draws on newly declassified U.S. government documents and materials from Russia, as well as in-depth interviews, to present the truth about the downfall of America’s most famous scientist.

[denimbex1986]

'The day Christopher Nolan called Cillian Murphy about his new film, " Oppenheimer," Murphy hung up the phone in disbelief.

The Irish actor, though a regular presence in Nolan films going back almost two decades, had always been a supporting player. This time Nolan wanted him to lead.

"He's so understated and self-deprecating and, in his very English manner, just said, 'Listen, I've written this script, it's about Oppenheimer. I'd like you to be my Oppenheimer,'" Murphy, 46, told The Associated Press recently. "It was a great day."

For Murphy, it is never not exciting to get a call from Nolan. It's just hard to predict if he's going to. He knows there are some movies he's right for and some movies he isn't.

"I have always said publicly and privately, to Chris, that if I'm available and you want me to be in a movie, I'm there. I don't really care about the size of the part," he said. "But deep down, secretly, I was desperate to play a lead for him."

Murphy first met Nolan in 2003. He was brought in to screen test for Batman —not just the movie, the character. Murphy knew he wasn't right for the Dark Knight, but he wanted to meet the man who'd directed "Insomnia" and "Memento." They hit it off and Murphy got to tap into a sinister intensity to play the corrupt psychiatrist Dr. Crane/Scarecrow, who would go on to appear in all three films. Nolan would also call on Murphy to be the conflicted heir to a business empire in "Inception" and a traumatized soldier in "Dunkirk."

"We have this long-standing understanding and trust and shorthand and respect," Murphy said. "It felt like the right time to take on a bigger responsibility. And it just so happened that it was a (expletive) huge one."

Soon after the phone call, Nolan flew to Dublin to meet Murphy to hand him a physical copy of the script, which he devoured right there in Nolan's hotel room in September 2020. It was, he said, the best he'd ever read.

Then the scale of it started to sink in.

This would be a film about the charismatic and controversial theoretical physicist who helped create the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer and his peers at Los Alamos would test it on July 16, 1945, not knowing what was going to happen. Then several weeks later the United States would drop those bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing tens of thousands of people and leaving many with lifelong injuries.

As Nolan said last week in Las Vegas, "Like it or not J. Robert Oppenheimer is the most important person who ever lived."

"Oppenheimer," which opens in theaters on July 21, features a starry cast including Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer's wife Kitty, Matt Damon as Leslie Groves Jr., Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, Gary Oldman as Harry S. Truman, and many more rounding out the pivotal players in and around this tense moment in history.

"You realize this is a huge responsibility. He was complicated and contradictory and so iconic," Murphy said. "But you know you're with one of the great directors of all time. I felt confident going into it with Chris. He's had a profound impact on my life, creatively and professionally. He's offered me very interesting roles over and I've found all of them really challenging. And I just love being on his sets."

Murphy continued: "Any actor would want to be on a Chris Nolan set, just to see how it works and to witness his command of the language of film and the mechanics of film and how he's able to use that broad canvas within the mainstream studio system to make these very challenging human stories."

Over the years, Murphy has come to appreciate that with Nolan there's always something deeper to discover than what's literally on the page. "Dunkirk," he recalled, was only 70 pages and there wasn't much to his character, not even a name.

"He said, 'Look, let's figure it out together and you and me can find an emotional journey for the character. And we did it. We did it out in the water on that boat. That comes from trust and respect," Murphy said. "I'm really proud of that performance."

As with all Nolan endeavors, secrecy around "Oppenheimer" is vitally important. Murphy loves the "old-fashioned approach" that builds interest and anticipation.

The difference with "Oppenheimer" and other Nolan originals, though, is that this is rooted in historical fact. You can read the book it's based on, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin's Pulitzer Prize-winning "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer." You can watch the 1981 documentary "The Day After Trinity" on The Criterion Channel.

And you can try to parse Nolan's words for clues. He's talked about recreating the Trinity Test, the fascinating paradoxes, the twists, turns, and ethical dilemmas, and that the story is cinematic and both dream and nightmare. But ultimately, it's something that just needs to be seen.

"The question will be how Chris presents it," Murphy said. "I think people will be very surprised and wowed by what he does. Anything I say will just seem a bit lame as compared to seeing this in an IMAX theater."

The time for discussions will be after the movie comes out.

"There's an awful lot to talk about when we can talk freely," Murphy said with a smile.

He did offer up that they worked hard to get Oppenheimer's look right, from the silhouette to the pipe to the porkpie hat. The man, he said, "seemed aware of his own potential mythology." But, again, those conversations will have to wait.

"I'm really proud of the movie and I'm really proud of what Chris has achieved. This was, for sure, a special one, certainly because of the history with me and Chris. We were not walking around the set high fiving, but it did feel special." Murphy said. "It's an event every time he releases a film, and rightly so. Whether I'm in them or not, I always go to see his movies."'

[birdzflycom]

Nominations Announced for the 30th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®

Courtesy: sagaftra Nominations Unveiled for the 30th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® Exclusive Global Streaming of SAG Awards® Gala on Netflix, Feb. 24 Today, the contenders for the 30th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, recognizing exceptional individual, ensemble, and cast performances from the past year, were disclosed by Issa Rae (Barbie, American Fiction, Insecure) and Kumail Nanjiani (Welcome to Chippendales, The Big Sick) via Instagram Live. The announcement of outstanding stunt ensemble performances in films and TV was presented by SAG Awards Committee Members Jason George and Woody Schultz, featuring an introduction by SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher. Produced by Silent House Productions in collaboration with SAG-AFTRA, the 30th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be globally live-streamed on Netflix, on Feb. 24, 2024, at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT from the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall. To revisit today's revelation, follow the SAG Awards® on Instagram @sagawards. For a comprehensive list of nominations and quick facts, please explore the SAG Awards® Press Kit page: https://sagawards.org/media/newsinfo/press-kit. As previously disclosed, the iconic actor, singer, producer, writer, and director Barbra Streisand will be bestowed with the SAG Life Achievement Award for her career milestones and philanthropic contributions during the 30th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony. A pinnacle of the awards season, the SAG Awards annually applaud exceptional cinematic and television performances from the preceding calendar year (SAG Awards Eligibility Period: January 1, 2023 - December 31, 2023). Among the foremost accolades presented to actors, only the SAG Awards are determined entirely by the votes of performers' peers in SAG-AFTRA, boasting 119,515 eligible voters. The final voting phase commences on Wednesday, Jan. 17, concluding at Noon PT on Friday, Feb. 23. The Film Nominees are: Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role BRADLEY COOPER / Leonard Bernstein - "MAESTRO" COLMAN DOMINGO / Bayard Rustin - "RUSTIN" PAUL GIAMATTI / Paul Hunham - "THE HOLDOVERS" CILLIAN MURPHY / J. Robert Oppenheimer - "OPPENHEIMER" JEFFREY WRIGHT / Thelonious "Monk" Ellison - "AMERICAN FICTION" Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role ANNETTE BENING / Diana Nyad - "NYAD" LILY GLADSTONE / Mollie Burkhart - "KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON" CAREY MULLIGAN / Felicia Montealegre - "MAESTRO" MARGOT ROBBIE / Barbie - "BARBIE" MMA STONE / Bella Baxter - "POOR THINGS" Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role STERLING K. BROWN / Clifford Ellison - "AMERICAN FICTION" WILLEM DAFOE / Godwin Baxter - "POOR THINGS" ROBERT DE NIRO / William Hale - "KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON" ROBERT DOWNEY JR. / Lewis Strauss - "OPPENHEIMER" RYAN GOSLING / Ken - "BARBIE" Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role EMILY BLUNT / Kitty Oppenheimer - "OPPENHEIMER" DANIELLE BROOKS / Sofia - "THE COLOR PURPLE" PENÉLOPE CRUZ / Laura Ferrari - "FERRARI" JODIE FOSTER / Bonnie Stoll - "NYAD" DA’VINE JOY RANDOLPH / Mary Lamb - "THE HOLDOVERS" Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture AMERICAN FICTION ERIKA ALEXANDER / Coraline ADAM BRODY / Wiley Valdespino TERLING K. BROWN / Clifford Ellison KEITH DAVID / Willy the Wonker JOHN ORTIZ / Arthur ISSA RAE / Sintara Golden TRACEE ELLIS ROSS / Lisa Ellison LESLIE UGGAMS / Agnes Ellison JEFFREY WRIGHT / Thelonious "Monk" Ellison BARBIE MICHAEL CERA / Allan WILL FERRELL / Mattel CEO AMERICA FERRERA / Gloria RYAN GOSLING / Ken ARIANA GREENBLATT / Sasha KATE MCKINNON / Barbie HELEN MIRREN / Narrator RHEA PERLMAN / Ruth ISSA RAE/ Barbie MARGOT ROBBIE / Barbie THE COLOR PURPLE HALLE BAILEY / Young Nettie FANTASIA BARRINO / Celie JON BATISTE / Grady DANIELLE BROOKS / Sofia CIARA / Nettie COLMAN DOMINGO / Mister AUNJANUE ELLIS-TAYLOR / Mama LOUIS GOSSETT, JR. / Ol' Mister COREY HAWKINS / Harpo TARAJI P. HENSON / Shug Avery PHYLICIA PEARL MPASI / Young Celie GABRIELLA WILSON "H.E.R." / Squeak KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON TANTOO CARDINAL / Lizzie Q ROBERT DE NIRO / William Hale LEONARDO DICAPRIO / Ernest Burkhart BRENDAN FRASER / W.S. Hamilton LILY GLADSTONE / Mollie Burkhart JOHN LITHGOW / Prosecutor Peter Leaward JESSE PLEMONS / Tom White OPPENHEIMER CASEY AFFLECK / Boris Pash EMILY BLUNT / Kitty Oppenheimer KENNETH BRANAGH / Niels Bohr MATT DAMON / Leslie Groves ROBERT DOWNEY JR. / Lewis Strauss JOSH HARTNETT / Ernest Lawrence RAMI MALEK / David Hill CILLIAN MURPHY / J. Robert Oppenheimer FLORENCE PUGH / Jean Tatlock The Television Program Nominees are: Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series MATT BOMER / Hawkins "Hawk" Fuller - "FELLOW TRAVELERS" JON HAMM / Roy Tillman - "FARGO" DAVID OYELOWO / Bass Reeves - "LAWMEN: BASS REEVES" TONY SHALHOUB / Adrian Monk - "MR. MONK'S LAST CASE: A MONK MOVIE" STEVEN YEUN / Danny Cho - "BEEF" Read the full article

[n0hv6t]

PDF American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer BY Kai Bird

EPUB & PDF Ebook American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer | EBOOK ONLINE DOWNLOAD

by Kai Bird.

Download Link : DOWNLOAD American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

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Ebook PDF American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer | EBOOK ONLINE DOWNLOAD Hello Book lovers, If you want to download free Ebook, you are in the right place to download Ebook. Ebook American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer EBOOK ONLINE DOWNLOAD in English is available for free here, Click on the download LINK below to download Ebook American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer 2020 PDF Download in English by Kai Bird (Author).

Description

American Prometheus is the 1st full biography of J. Rbt Oppenheimer, "father of the atomic bomb," the charismatic physicist who led the effort to capture the sun's fire for his country in time of war. Immediately after Hiroshima, he became the most famous scientist of his generation-one of the iconic figures of the 20th century, an embodiment of modern man confronting the consequences of scientific progress. He was author of a radical proposal to place internat'l controls over atomic materials-an idea still relevant. He opposed development of the hydrogen bomb & criticized the USAF's plans for nuclear war. In the hysteria of the early 50s, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup, &, in response, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss, Hbomb advocate Edward Teller & FBI director J. Edgar Hoover worked behind the scenes to have a hearing board decide he couldn't be trusted with nuclear secrets. American Prometheus details his life

[janeaddamspeace]

Addams Author Eloise Greenfied is 2018 Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award #JACBA Newsletter 23Feb2018

The Coretta Scott King Book Awards

Eloise Greenfield is the recipient of the 2018 Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.

"Eloise Greenfield is a trailblazer whose extraordinary books of poetry and prose have influenced many and continue to resonate with children today. Her rich body of work inspires and enriches readers," said Award Committee Chair Deborah D. Taylor.

Read More

Paul Robeson by Eloise Greenfield 1976 Awardee

UC San Diego exhibition features work by 7 leading international women

The seven artists - Eleanor Antin, Barbara Kruger, Faith Ringgold, Martha Rosler, Miriam ... Substantiate Our Horror" (1985), Faith Ringgold's hand-stenciled quilt "Seven Passages to a Flight"...

Presented together for the first time, seven internationally recognized artists are featured in the UC San Diego exhibition "Stories That We Tell: Art and Identity," celebrating those who paved the way for greater inclusion by inventing new means to address issues of race and gender.

The seven artists - Eleanor Antin, Barbara Kruger, Faith Ringgold, Martha Rosler, Miriam Schapiro, Lorna Simpson and Carrie Mae Weems - have all been honored with major exhibitions at leading museums, recognized with prestigious awards and are all representative of the university's Department of Visual Arts.

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"Faith Ringgold: An American Artist" to open at the Crocker Art Museum

"In the exhibition Faith Ringgold: An American Artist, there is warmth, charm, and straightforward honesty in Ringgold's art," said Crocker Art Museum Associate Curator Kristina Gilmore. "It draws us in and disarms us, then often reveals powerful messages. Through her work, she speaks truths that are sometimes haunting and painful, but often joyful and heartwarming. It's quite inspirational."

Read More

Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky by Faith Ringgold 1993 Awardee

Exploring the Black Experience through the Art

"Create Dangerously - In this deeply personal book, the celebrated Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat reflects on art and exile, examining what it means to be an immigrant artist from a…

In this deeply personal book, the celebrated Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat reflects on art and exile, examining what it means to be an immigrant artist from a country in crisis. Inspired by Albert Camus' lecture, "Create Dangerously," and combining memoir and essay, Danticat tells the stories of artists, including herself, who create despite, or because of, the horrors that drove them from their homelands and that continue to haunt them. Danticat also suggests that the aftermaths of natural disasters in Haiti and the United States reveal that the countries are not as different as many Americans might like to believe.

Create Dangerously is an eloquent and moving expression of Danticat's belief that immigrant artists are obliged to bear witness when their countries of origin are suffering from violence, oppression, poverty, and tragedy.

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Mama's Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation written by Edwidge Danticat, illustrated by Leslie Staub 2016 Awardee

African-American history for young readers

Children's books on African-American history, they both said, are increasingly becoming part of mainstream curriculums.

"Just look at the American classrooms today," Andrea explained. "The majority have children of all kinds of races, nationalities and backgrounds. I think teachers and educators are realizing they have to serve these kids. These are the thought leaders, the teachers, the librarians, the illustrators, the writers and the decision makers of tomorrow."

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Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney 2011 Awardee

Sojourner Truth's Step-Stomp Stride, by Andrea Davis Pinkney & Brian Pinkney 2010 Awardee

Top 10 Diverse Nonfiction for Older and Middle Readers

"Danza! Amalia Hernandez and Ballet Folklorico de Mexico. By Duncan Tonatiuh. Illus. by the author. 2017. Abrams, (9781419725326). Gr. 2–4. The life and work of dancer and choreographer Amalia Hernandez...

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Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and her family's fight for desegregation, written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh 2015 Awardee

Black Power: 17 Children's Books on Black Activists, Innovators, and...

Schomburg, The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Eric Velasquez. Where is our historian to give us our side? Arturo asked.

The Legendary Miss Lena Horne by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon: Celebrate the life of Lena Horne, the pioneering African American actress and civil rights activist.

Radiant Child, The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat by Javaka Steptoe: Jean-Michel Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocketed to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art world had ever seen.

The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth & Harlem's Greatest Bookstore by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie: In the 1930s, Lewis's dad, Lewis Michaux Sr., started a bookstore in Harlem and named it the National Memorial African Bookstore.

Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Jamey Christoph: His white teacher tells her all-Black class, You'll all wind up porters and waiters. What did she know? Gordon Parks is most famous for being the first Black director in Hollywood.

Frederick Douglass, The Lion Who Wrote History by Walter Dean Myers, illustrated by Floyd Cooper: Frederick Douglass was a self-educated slave in the South who grew up to become an icon.

Sugar Hill, Harlem's Historic Neighborhood by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie: Take a walk through Harlem's Sugar Hill and meet all the amazing people who made this neighborhood legendary. Includes brief biographies of jazz greats Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sonny Rollins, and Miles Davis; artists Aaron Douglas and Faith Ringgold; entertainers Lena Horne and the Nicholas Brothers; writer Zora Neale Hurston; civil rights leader W. E. B. DuBois and lawyer Thurgood Marshall.

Coretta Scott by Ntozake Shange, illustrated by Kadir Nelson: Walking many miles to school in the dusty road, young Coretta Scott knew the unfairness of life in the segregated south.

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Birmingham, 1963 by Carole Boston Weatherford 2008 Awardee

New Shoes by Susan Lynn Meyer, illustrated by Eric Velasquez 2016 Awardee

Hot Day on Abbott Avenue by Karen English, with collage art of Javaka Steptoe 2005 Awardee

Now Is Your Time! The African-American Struggle for Freedom by Walter Dean Myers 1992 Awardee

Patrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam by Walter Dean Myers 2003 Awardee

Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Alexander Ramsey with Gwen Strauss and illustrated by Floyd Cooper 2011 Awardee

Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson 2012 Awardee

The Village That Vanished written by Ann Grifalconi and illustrated by Kadir Nelson 2003 Awardee

The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth & Harlem's Greatest Bookstore by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie 2016 Awardee

Books help build strong girls

"I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsberg Makes Her Mark" by Debbie Levy. (Ages 4-8) This biographical picture book about the notorious Supreme Court justice, tells her story through her famous dissents, or disagreements.

"The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba" by Margarita Engle. The award-winning poet paints a portrait of early women's rights pioneer Fredrika Bremer and the journey that transformed her life.

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I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark, written by Debbie Levy, illustrated by Elizabeth Baddeley, 2017 Awardee

Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal by Margarita Engle 2015 Awardee

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle 2009 Awardee

9 Children's Books to Raise Awareness of Civil Rights

The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, A Young Civil Rights Activist by Cynthia Levinson

We Shall Overcome: The Story of a Song by Debbie Levy

Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Doreen Rappaport

Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

...

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We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March by Cynthia Levinson 2013 Awardee

Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. written by Doreen Rappaport with artwork by Bryan Collier 2002 Awardee

Trouble at the Mines by Doreen Rappaport 1988 Awardee

Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges 2000 Awardee

Each Kindness written by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by E.B. Lewis 2013 Awardee

From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun by Jacqueline Woodson 1996 Awardee

I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This by Jacqueline Woodson 1995 Awardee

---

The Jane Addams Children's Book Award annually recognizes children's books of literary and aesthetic excellence that effectively engage children in thinking about peace, social justice, global community, and equity for all people.

Read more about the 2017 Awards.

[thotyssey]

Saturday (10.13.2018)

UPTOWN 

TRIAD: Burlesque / drag tribute to Grease starring Gina Tonic, Candy Applebottom, Bad Apple Boylesque, Twinky Boots, Munroe Lilly, Les Femmes Fatales & more (9pm)

BOXERS UES: TBA (9pm)

BOXERS WH: Zarria Van Wales with DJ Nesto (11pm)

SUITE: Octavia Anyae (11:30pm)

HELL’S KITCHEN

BOXERS HK: Poker with Butch Cordera (6:30pm);  CAFE CON CREMA Latin dance party (10pm) 

HARDWARE: Tina Burner (7pm);  QUEEN OF THE RIDE booze bus departure (9:45pm);  DJ 2Face with Ruby Roo & Lagoona Bloo (10pm)

BEECHMAN: The Sharon Needles Halloween Special (10pm)

RITZ: DJ Kitty Glitter (10pm)

ATLAS SOCIAL CLUB: DJ Xavier & Miss Ogeny (10pm)

POSH: DJ Kamil (10pm) 

THERAPY: DJ Scott Jones (10pm)

VSBU: Chaka Khanvict (midnight)

SHELTER: After hours with DJs Steve Travolta & Timmy Regisford (4am)

MIDTOWN / TIMES SQUARE

ROSEWOOD: BADBUI underwear launch with DJ Vito Fun (5-11pm)

EAST SIDE

MC 58 BAR: Sarah Glassman (8pm)

LIPS: “Glitz & Glamour” (5pm);  “The Dirty Show” (11:30pm)

UNCLE CHARLIES: Piano bar (8pm)

TOWNHOUSE: Live Doo Wop (9pm);   Gogo boys downstairs (10pm)

CHELSEA

REBAR: DJ Natazu (5pm);  RAM gear party (10pm)

BOXERS CHELSEA: TIGHT END Saturdays (9pm)

EAGLE NYC: Saturday party (11pm) 

WEST VILLAGE

ROCKBAR: ARCADE happy hour (3pm); THE DEN underwear party (9pm)

PIECES: Heidi Haux (5pm);  Bootsie LeFaris (11pm)  Gilda Wabbit with  Georgia Bea Cummings (5pm);  Tina Burner with Merrie Cherry & Jasmine Kennedie (11pm)

STONEWALL: Homo Erecutus Burlesque feat. Matt Knife, Le Petit Dumdum, Bella Noche & more (7pm);  RIOT feat. Ari Kiki with Catrina Lovelace, FiFi DuBois, Sucia & Robyn Banks (10pm) 

LE POISSON ROUGE: Bingo with Linda Simpson  Glace Chase (7:30pm) 

JULIUS: AFTER DARK (9pm)

MONSTER: DJ Guy Lewis & Kristy Blaze (10pm)

EAST VILLAGE

THE DL: FUZION NYC lesbian party (6pm)

CLUB CUMMING: Queer folk concert feat. Tenderfoot, Richard Cortez & Corey Ryan Matos (7pm);  Daniel Nardicio, Daphne Always, Zenobia &  Darlinda Just Darlinda plus DJs JoJo Soul & Darren Dryden (11:30pm) 

UNDER ST. MARK’S: Dandy Darkly's All Aboard (8pm)

WOW CAFE: HALLOWQWEEN feat. Michelle Shocked with Flower Tortilla, Cissy Walken, Trashbeast & more (8pm)

THE COCK: DJs Kindbud & Aaron Cobbett (10pm)

BEAUTY BAR: DJs Michael T & Twig the Wonderkid (10pm)

NOWHERE: KING SIZE QUEEN (10pm)

PHOENIX: VJ Tanner & Spacebabe (10pm)

BROOKLYN

3 DOLLAR BILL / SUTHERLAND: Stacy Layne Matthews & friends (6pm);  DJs Justin Strauss & Mike Swells (10pm)

BIZARRE:  The Brides of Burlesque with Miss Cherry Delight, Lucy Licious, Holly Ween & Qualms Galore (8pm)

METROPOLITAN BAR: DJs Reaubert (9pm);  Frankie Sharp’s METROSENSUAL feat. Maddelynn Hatter & Kandy Muse (10pm)

BRANDED SALOON: Switch N’Play (9pm)

ROSEMONT: DJ P_A_T with Sookie Sterling, Harajuku & more (10pm) 

DREAMHOUSE: OVA THE RAINBOW (10pm)

GOOD ROOM: The Carry Nation with DJs Justin Cudmore, Five & Eric Bloom (10pm) 

LOT 45: HOT RABBIT feat. Will Sheridan (10pm)

DEEP END: BEAR MILK feat. Devo Monique (10pm)

CLUB XSTASY: Latin dance party (10pm) 

TILT: PUTERIA feat. Issa Woman with Javie White, Tana Torrent, Shanita Bump, Jayse Vegas, Pauli Cakes & more (10:30pm)

MACRI PARK: Shiny Penny with Ms. Ter & Angelica Sundae (11pm)

CLUB LANGSTON: Urban party (11pm) 

QUEENS

ALBATROSS: Ruby Powers (8pm);  Sutton Lee Seymour  Sherry Pie (11pm)

MANHATTAN COCKTAIL LOUNGE: Karaoke with Chickie Chickie (5pm)

CLUB EVOLUTION: Latin dance party (10pm)

EL TRIO LOUNGE: Latin party & show (10pm)

ICON: Boudoir LeFleur Adriana Trenta with Honey Davenport (10pm) 

NEW JERSEY

PARADISE: Country line dancing (7pm);  Dance party (10pm)

TOPPS LOUNGE: VALE TODO Latin party (8pm) 

FEATHERS: Saturday party (10pm)

Full List Here 

[saltprogramlar]

The Usological Turn: An Interview with Stephen Wright

The film poster for Sergei M. Eisenstein, Bronenosets Potemkin [Battleship Potemkin], 1925

Onur Yıldız and Naz Kocadere of SALT Research and Programs interviewed Stephen Wright, the author of Toward a Lexicon of Usership (2013), following his talk ‘‘Usership: Tales of Life Onboard’’ held at SALT Galata on March 10, 2018. The discussion revolves around who entails the user, the nuances between usership and spectatorship, and how the art that is being used is different from the ‘‘useful art’’ in relation to the Arte Útil archive and SALT’s Office of Useful Art.

Naz Kocadere: Stephen, I would like to start by asking you where the title of your recent talk comes from.

Stephen Wright: A few years ago, I presented my research around usership at the Showroom in London. It was quite interactive. Instead of a Q&A at the end of each talk, presenters posted and exchanged a specific question, which I was supposed to read and comment on. Someone said: “Ok, this is all very well but what about the pirate ship?’’ It was then that I realized that there was a ship involved. Also, the last sentence of my book Toward a Lexicon of Usership is “Usership Potemkin,” which is one of the icons of the beginning of the Russian Revolution,  in reference to Sergei Eisenstein’s famous film Battleship Potemkin (1925). I have enjoyed comparing usership to the workings of some kind of a ship, so ‘‘tales of life on board’’ is basically life on board the usership.

Onur Yıldız: My question is about the term you coined, ‘‘usological turn.’’ It refers to a moment in the history of change. What is your reference point for this? What do you mean by the turn?

SW: I don’t use it ironically. I wink my eye when I talk about the usological turn. There is something performative here. I tend to discuss the current issues in usology as if it were referenced as an index of social science like sociology, though we may not be quite there yet. With the rise of social media, usership becomes a site of value and information production as well as that of content generation. Those things have emerged massively over the last fifteen years. At my talk yesterday, I mentioned that the value of big corporations like Google actually comes from the usership. Responding to various questions about algorithms, I suggest that users are actually the fuel and engine of algorithms, which are empty mathematical formulas with no subjectivity. I think that subjectivity is what I call usership. All of that is a part of the usological turn in the field of aesthetics. Like you Onur, I also consider the Office of Useful Art at SALT Galata as one of the best witnesses to this.

There has been a kind of shift away from disinterested spectatorship. More practitioners are dissatisfied with this kind of spectatorship and seek greater traction or use value. In other words, they do not simply orient their practices towards users and usership, but they are themselves a part of a broader usership in producing these works. Expert culture has recently come to be seriously challenged within the context of knowledge production. In my research prior to the Lexicon, I was very interested in the British handicapped peoples movement that took on the British medical establishment: the power of the expert. Their slogan or watchword was ‘‘We are the experts of our condition.’’ Without negating the value of expertise in medicine, it suggested that someone with a disability knows something about their condition that no specialist possibly can. Taking this even further, you could say that a drug user knows something about drugs that the best doctor advising the legislator whether to prohibit or authorise it, can never know. So those things have emerged a little bit earlier. There are traces of that in late Foucault and an interest in this new form of sideline subjectivity, which he calls ‘‘the usage’’ or ‘‘the user.’’ This is where I come from. Last but not least is the massive rise of intellectual property rights and ownership. Usership is one of the most effective tools with which one challenges this all encompassing regime. All of these elements comprise, what I call, the usological turn, in reference to the linguistic turn.’’

NK: You often talk about certain artistic practices wrapping up their scale of operation towards one-to-one scale. Could you explain this notion and how it is related to Arte Útil?

SW: I consider it to be a key criteria of Arte Útil. It was taken from the Lexicon itself and added to the list of criteria later on, which makes me proud. The notion of one-to-one scale practice comes from the book. This doesn’t have anything to do with the monumental scale. I consider Oldenburg’s works to be monumental, yet in line with the modernist regime of reduced scale art. They are bigger than useful objects like a bicycle or a shovel, but on a reduced scale with respect to utility. In La Pensée sauvage (The Savage Mind, 1962), Levi Strauss argues that art is inherently on the reduced scale. Strauss is kind of an anthropologist; he ontologised the idea that art must always be on a smaller scale than the thing itself, or what Arthur Danto would call “the mere real thing”. Drawing from “The Man in the Moon” in Lewis Carroll’s Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893) and Jorge Luis Borges’s 1946 short story ‘‘On Exactitude in Science,’’ maps can conceivably be expanded to the scale of one mile to one mile. Therefore, the land itself could be its own map. The one-to-one scale does not, so much, challenge what is called the crisis of representation, which conceals something more profound: the crisis of scale. So art practices utilizing this particular scale are simultaneously what they are and artistic propositions of what they are.

OY: Your book provides a list of words that needs to be retired as well as emergent concepts around usership. Why do you think the linguistic change is necessary as a linguistic intervention? How does your methodology of repurposing work in this intervention?

SW: I wouldn't say it is necessary but desirable. All of us intervene in language, and that is what speech actually is with respect to language. It is a kind of destituting moment towards the institutive power of language. Often times, deepest intuitions are inadequately expressed by the existent vocabulary, which are legitimated and authorized by expert culture. Or what I rather polemically refer to as the epistemocracy: the power of knowledge, governance through knowledge. It seems to me that one is never more than a co-author of one’s gestures and speech acts, even in the best case scenario. To be at least a co-author, one must really consider what kind of conceptual vocabulary s/he is operating with. For this, two gestures are necessary. The first one is to consider whether some terms have not been inherited from a different moment in time, to pull apart their history or potentially discard them. At the same time, other terms need to be put forward, which people often do spontaneously.

It seems to me that this book tries to tackle a kind of an epistemological conundrum. How do we discuss emerging practices with normalized vocabulary or non-normalized vocabulary that doesn’t sound so serious but might work better? It is a question of symbolic violence in some respect. I think language is symbolic violence. How can we engage with this violence in a meaningful way? Some words need to be retired, while others promoted almost like players coming in and out of the field. There is also a kind of subterranean set of terms and modes of usership that I try to give a kind of epistemic dignity to since they have never enjoyed that throughout their history. So notions like ‘‘gleaning’’ could refer to a popular practice for the ultra poor, who pick up the leftover fruits at a market place. But perhaps ‘‘gleaning’’ is also a way of understanding the mechanics of artistic production or the construction of ideas. While ‘‘poaching,’’ ‘‘hacking’’ and ‘‘loophooling’’ might sound silly, they are not more silly than ‘‘spectatorship’’ and ‘‘authorship.’’ In fact, they can be more appropriate.

NK: Has any user reached you or the team with feedback after publishing the Lexicon? Can you share some of the comments you have received so far as well as different words or ways of repurposing that were proposed?

SW: Well, there’s been a lot of feedback. But first I would like to say that Lexicon is a revisitation of the glossary, a minor literary genre. So it was kind of a literary move. The objective was not so much to establish and stabilize meaning as to break open this idea of a language we use and how it determines our work. Therefore, my intention is not to tell people how to question why they use the terms that they do. I don't want them to use my words without having considered other possible uses. Other words and other worlds are possible; sometimes they are even more plausible. In every public conversation, people come up with counter suggestions. I have actually been getting better at opening up some of the cracks in my own approach. The publication is an invitation for people to investigate their own idioms or natural languages, as well as their own idiosyncratic speech. This helps question what is self evident and explore what is less called upon.

OY: I would like to hear more about your perspective on usership and the notion of Arte Útil. What are some similarities and differences between the art that is being used and the ‘‘useful art’’?

SW: Well, that is like night and day or dusk and dawn. From a phenological point of view, they completely oppose each other. In my opinion, Arte Útil puts the cart before the horse. It creates an art which is, a priori, deemed to be useful, and it puts it out there for the user to use. But this is not how usership operates. Users do not expect someone to provide what’s useful for them in order to use it. They use whatever is available and in greatest proximity to them. This is the nature of usership as a dialectical form of relationality and collective subjectivity. I find this opportunistic character very interesting; it is a downside but also a strength. It is based on self-interest that’s what gives it so much power but also makes it cut in the other direction, making the users of Arte Útil weary and even afraid of it. So Arte Útil is opposed to art which is in-util: art that is not useful or doesn’t exactly engage usership. Users will use and misuse whatever is convenient. From the perspective of expert culture, use is always misused. Real use, I mean, genuine use. Otherwise, you’re passively following a protocol, which could also be executed by a machine. So, if there is true usership, there actually is the every instance the notion of predictability. You could say that this is not what happens at all; users are actually quite slavishly passive in many cases. Actually when usership produces information, content and value, that’s because it is doing something that had previously been unimagined.

In this respect, Arte Útil is somewhere to what its postulated opposite of spectator oriented art, which keeps the usership at bay and at constraint. As a philosopher, that’s the most important difference for me. It is to make way for usership in art, to establish protocols where users can make a robust use of things in a way that is not predetermined. That’s why I have been constantly asking you and your colleagues at SALT about what the SALT Research users want and how they use it. I must say that I have been very satisfied with the answers. If you asked some of the people behind Arte Útil, who are my friends, you would notice that they’re trying to produce something, which is excessively user-friendly as if they already knew what useful art would be. As a philosopher, I should add that the notion of useful art is philosophically indefensible. Because you would all too easily become cornered by the idea that you have instrumentalized art for some purpose. This is why I’m much more interested in the other translation of Arte Útil. But it is a very secondary translation as art as a tool. Art is a tool that cannot be taken up by spectators, who must remain at that disinterested distance, but by users who can use or misuse for their own purposes. This is also consistent with Arte Útil but I’m not sure if it is adequately expressed by the criteria or really evoked by its name.

NK: Drawing on these thoughts, what’s your perspective on The Arte Útil archive and how it can be used?

SW: Well, it is being used in a whole host of ways. It is by the statement of Arte Útil itself that is to be used as a tool on the one-to-one scale, and not as a representational device in order to merely gain access to these projects. Yet it does fulfill that function as well. How can it be used on the one-to-one scale? It is likely to have an infectious or contagious value. It must be used as a kind of a pry bar or a crow bar to crack in the existent conceptual edifice of art. It’s like prying open a door or a window to gain access. I have recently proposed that it would be purchased by a contemporary art collection in France. Now this is a very paradoxical and perhaps just a provocative suggestion because, no one really needs to buy this in order to use it. It is available by its very essence. A collection could use it at no cost. If the Lexicon were to be ever to be sold at a specific value, it would be an implicit recognition of the expenditure public money. This being a valuable part of the ‘‘usological turn’’ could provide a new way of conceiving art and keeping with contemporary ethos. It would be an act of generosity and commitment to support this new type of art. What makes Arte Útil archive effective is that it offers a diverse range of cases situating art as a tool. That would be a key use of it. Another use would be is to exhibit it for consultation. Yet mere display is not sufficient on its own because the real of use of the archive become secondary within an exhibition space. A potential challenge would be present if the archive, which users can access online, were to be exhibited in the huge imperial edifice or the crown jewel housing SALT Galata. Yesterday, an audience member at my talk referred to this. She said “Where is it? Where is the Arte Útil archive? I saw the sign, but where is it?” She then went over and began to delve into it. That’s an example of using it on a one-to-one scale.

NK: Finally, do you plan on expanding the content of Lexicon and work on a new publication or any other related projects?

SW: Couple of things implicitly changed ever since the book was first published. ‘‘Compatibility,’’ for example, has come up as an emerging concept. It is the key operator of these practices. I no longer feel that art has a specific ontology or believe that there is anything specific about art at all. But it is increasingly characterized by its compatibility with other avenues of human endeavor. This is the essence of its usership. It must be compatible, rather than specific, autonomous and removed. Double anthology also changes polarity, in the sense that having two anthologies may not be better than twice as of good. It might be twice as burdensome. There are several other terms like ‘‘the opportune’’ and “ruse” that I’ve also added to the book. I particularly like ‘‘ruse’’ in reference to Hegel’s ‘‘ruse of reason.’’ For the sake of repurposing and advancement, I hope to include a number of additions to the new edition or a future translation. There are also some projects for translation, which poses a lot of challenges. Translating a dictionary is one of the most paradoxical forms of translation one can ever image. I consider the translations as part of the book itself. So, it is like an expanding universe. The Lexicon is not really a dictionary but raises some of these issues. It is the holy doctrine, which can only be imperfectly approximated by its translations; it is merely the first in a larger series.

I’m very happy with the way that the book functioned amongst its readership and in the shadows of the attention economy. It’s available as a pdf and has been downloaded many times. I also had a reasonable print, which quickly ran out. It is kind of like the ‘‘fraught’’ that you find in Freud: ‘‘you see it, now you don’t,’’ or you see it as a rabbit and then a duck. I think the notion of usership always operates in the shadows rather than in the spotlight. The one regret I might have, which has been a very instructive point for me, is that I find the book to be political. Ultimately it is a publication about identifying an under-theorized yet powerful political form of subjectivity that is usership. The art world really has only been the in-vivo laboratory and not the in-vitro laboratory, where I’ve had the opportunity to discuss and converse about this category. At the same time, readers from a different life, activists who are familiar with the Lexicon, for example, enjoy it and give positive feedback. They might not consider it to be political, but see it as a radical theory of art. So, this impossible marriage between art and politics mirrors itself in this inverted reception between those two worlds. It is too political for the art world, which is perfect. If the art world had embraced it, I would have thought that it had failed because it would have obviously been formatted to their horizon of expectations. At the same time, it is too artistic for the world of activists. It is strange that the notion of ‘usological turn’ has not yet made its way into political theory, which was my point of departure. I mean that’s where I come from.

[thingsmissed-blog1]

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[denimbex1986]

'Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is poised to grab another record in its historic opening run at the worldwide box office, by becoming the highest grossing biopic in history after overtaking the 2018 musical film, Bohemian Rhapsody which told the life story of the iconic musician Freddie Mercury and, in a broader sense, the storied career of the legendary music group, Queen.

Bohemian Rhapsody grossed $910.8 million from an estimated $55 million budget—a staggering box office success by any measure. While Oppenheimer carried a meatier $100 million budget, it has now surpassed that box office gross and can claim the biopic title alongside various other accolates it has picked up on its enormously successful journey since it premiered on July 21.

Oppenheimer tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who served as the director of the Manhattan Project, which was based in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The Manhattan Project was a secret research group tasked with developing and putting into practice the very first weapon of mass destruction, with an eye on using it to conclude the Second World War. Cillian Murphy plays the eponymous Oppenheimer, alongside Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Matt Damon, Kenneth Branagh, Jason Clarke, Josh Harnett, Dylan Arnold, Benny Safdie, James D'Arcy, Tony Goldwyn, Olivia Thirlby, and Jack Quaid, to name a few.

The Rami Malek Cinematic Universe

Of course, the biggest winner in this battle is Rami Malek, who appears in both films, albeit in substantially differing roles when it comes to screentime. Malek, as everyone will remember, won the first Academy Award of his career for playing the lead singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury, in Bohemian Rhapsody. While his role in Oppenheimer amounts to a glorified cameo, it's a mighty few minutes he's on screen in the role of David Hill, one of the scientists who idolised the work of Oppenheimer and whose testimony uncovered the conspiracy wrought against Oppenheimer by Lewis Strauss (played by Robert Downey Jr. in the film), costing Strauss his nomination as the US Secretary of Commerce.

Filled with practical effects, combined with an outstanding musical score by Ludwig Göransson and stunning cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema, the film continues to pack IMAX theaters where it still plays, and will return later this year as a dual consequence of the ongoing strikes, plus audience demand. Regarded as Nolan's most mature work to date, the film leans into an ominous, dialogue-driven tone, diverging from the high spectacle he's typically associated with. Furthermore, Oppenheimer is positioned as a strong contender in the Oscar race for 2024, and may yet nab Nolan his elusive Best Director award at last.'

[denimbex1986]

'Paycheck is not always on the priority list for many A-listers, as for several actors, the chance of working with their favorite filmmaker often prevails over their desire of wanting a hefty amount. The same can be said for several A-listers, including Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr, who agreed to work alongside Nolan, even though many of them had substantially lesser screen time.

But this didn’t stop them from bringing their absolute A-game moving into the 3-hour long period drama, including the lead actor, Cillian Murphy, who went under extreme transformation for the role.

9 Prominent Stars Who Brought Their A-Game in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer

Cillian Murphy:

Being at the forefront of the 3-hour-long biopic, Cillian Murphy arguably delivers one of his best performances to date on the big screen, bringing Nolan’s vision to life. But one of the more impressive feats was the transformation he had undergone for the role, losing a substantial amount of weight in order to replicate J. Robert Oppenheimer’s physique. Although the exact number isn’t known, according to his costars, Cillian Murphy refused dinner invitations every night during the entire production, following his commitment to the job.

Robert Downey Jr:

Witnessing Robert Downey Jr. as something different other than Tony Stark was a breath of fresh air for the fans, and like Cillian Murphy, the Iron Man Star doesn’t pull punches and delivers his absolute best. Playing the role of Lewis Strauss in the film, the actor has delivered one of his best performances since playing Kirk Lazarus in Tropic Thunder. And fans are assured like his role in Tropic Thunder, his work in Oppenheimer too might land him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Matt Damon:

Although reports claimed Damon was reportedly taking a break from acting after Air as a negotiation with his wife during a couples therapy session, the chance of working with Nolan was too much to resist. Playing the Manhattan Project director, General Leslie Groves, the actor too doesn’t disappoint in bringing his charm to the character, and his chemistry with Cillian Murphy’s Oppenheimer was enticing to watch.

Florence Pugh:

As her first partnership with Christopher Nolan, Florence Pugh plays the role of Jean Tatlock in the movie, who is essential to the emotional core of the film. And like her co-stars, Pugh does an exceptional job with the material she is given, making every single scene she is involved in memorable.

Emily Blunt:

it didn’t take a lot of convincing on Christopher Nolan’s part to bring Emily Blunt on board, as reports claimed, after meeting the director in Los Angeles, she instantly accepted the role. In the movie, Blunt plays the role of Katherine Puening, who ties the knot with Oppenheimer, and she also delivers one of the most impactful scenes in the movie.

Tom Conti:

Throughout his brief scenes portraying the theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, Tom Conti partakes in some of the most gut-wrenching scenes in the movie. And the ending scene, involving the duo of him and Cillian Murphy’s Oppenheimer, it’s not a hot take to say that it will go down as one of the most iconic endings to a Christopher Nolan movie.

Rami Malek:

Following the long list of celebrity brief appearances in the movie, unlike many big-budget Hollywood flicks, every brief moment from these actors have a purpose, including Rami Malek’s David Hill. Although in total, the actor appears for less than 10 minutes in the movie, it doesn’t stop him from delivering his best, as his final scene ultimately decides Lewis Strauss’ fate.

Benny Safdie:

After doing a reference check with director Paul Thomas Anderson, Christopher Nolan picked Benny Safdie to play the father of the hydrogen bomb, Edward Teller. But besides doing a great job bringing the controversial figure to life, the actor was also asked by Nolan to not pluck his eyebrows for months for the movie. “I am proud to say that it’s all my eyebrows,” Safdie stated.

Kenneth Branagh:

It appears Kenneth Branagh is becoming the next constant in Christopher Nolan-led projects, as Oppenheimer marked the third collaboration between the two. Despite having a substantially lesser presence in the film, the actor shines as Niels Bohr in the movie.

Apart from these prominent stars, there are a plethora of other A-listers from the heavily star-studded cast, who doesn’t disappoint. But apart from everyone’s brilliance, Nolan deserves the utmost praise for his direction, as he succeeded in bringing the Cillian Murphy-led 3-hour period drama into the mainstream spotlight, which might not have been possible by any other filmmaker.'

[denimbex1986]

'How do you pick the best performance in a film defined by literally dozens of them? Christopher Nolan assembled a murderer’s row of talent for "Oppenheimer," his grand historical drama about the birth of the atomic bomb and the consequences of its power. It contains a veritable smorgasbord of leading icons, character actors, former child star favorites, and faces you forgot you love so much. There’s certainly a case to be made for so many among this ensemble: the steely-eyed determination and rattled conscience of Cillian Murphy in the title role; Robert Downey Jr.’s charisma shattered by the petulance of bureaucratic squabbles; David Krumholtz as the warm friend whose pragmatism punctures his ideals. However, the face you leave the film remembering for days afterward comes from an actor whose character isn’t even given a name.

Alden Ehrenreich plays a Senate aide, a figure who is one of the many government workers standing behind and to the side of the head honchos helping to grease the wheels of power. He has been tasked with guiding Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.) through Senate confirmation hearings on his nomination as Secretary of Commerce to President Eisenhower's cabinet. Ehrenreich is essentially a PR guy, a guide for Strauss and the audience through the tangled web of Cold War-era D.C. and the front-stabbing figures who have turned politics into a battlefield. He is, by design, not that important. Dozens of other nameless aides are waiting around the corner to do this job. Ehrenreich just so happens to be there at the right/wrong time.

Being an audience avatar is often a thankless role in any film, and it’s a trope that Nolan often struggles with. Discussions of process and ideas often weigh down his films and inserting a figure of relatable naivety into this risks disrupting the narrative flow. "Oppenheimer" often gets away with not having one during the glut of the story since it’s so heavily focused on conversations about science, ethics, and consequences. The scenes with Strauss and Ehrenreich are a break from this, an insight into a post-Oppenheimer world and how it has impacted the system that helped to create him in the first place. Ehrenreich is not unaware, nor is he expected to play catch-up with Strauss and company. Rather, he’s the constant reminder that scientists did not do what happened at Los Alamos alone. That he is unnamed and a fictional creation of Nolan (a sharp contrast to a film populated by real historical players) hammers home the disposability of such an aide. Ehrenreich’s job is to blend in, to keep a straight face against the peacocking Strauss. It’s a role that could, too, have disappeared into the background, but Ehrenreich knows that the best scene stealers are the ones who react to the carnage.

Ehrenreich, a character actor with the face of a 1950s leading man, has always excelled in parts where he tempers his natural charisma with a dash of something sharper. In "Hail, Caesar!," he steals the show from one of the Coen Brothers’ starriest casts as Hobie Doyle, the adorably clueless singing cowboy the studio tries to reinvent as a Noel Coward-esque debonair leading man. He’s the safe port of sincerity in a storm of Hollywood cynicism. As the younger brother of the tempestuous Tetro in Francis Ford Coppola's indie drama, he is appealingly innocent yet imbued with the abrasive arrogance that only a dolt of a teenage boy could truly possess. Even in "Solo: A Star Wars Story," the unfairly maligned prequel of the new Disney/Lucasfilm era, Ehrenrich’s Han is less concerned with traditional hero expectations. Audiences seemed furious that he didn’t look or act exactly like Harrison Ford. Still, Ehrenreich understood the giddy enthusiasm of the pre-jaded space cowboy and how the character doesn’t work if he’s always cool (which Ford never was in the original trilogy, something fans often overlook.) The best Ehrenreich performances allow him to dig into humanity's absurdities and petty mundanities, offering either the freaky flipside or a welcome dose of warmth. It’s never as interesting to be cool when you can be weird, dark, or earnest.

The Senate aide is clearly used to being the quiet man in the room, the punching bag against whom others launch their egos. His smile is halfway between charm and smarm, with Ehrenreich excelling with those side glances at Strauss as he enters another rant about his battle of attrition with J. Robert Oppenheimer. Everything the aide says feels loaded with subtext, the ruthless efficiency of a worn-down Washington professional. He’s also used to dealing with political players with more bluster than substance, most evident when he has to appease Strauss without rocking the boat. There’s a deadpan quality to him, as though he’s used to being a babysitter more than an advisor. When Strauss reveals his hand and his selfishness thoroughly exposed, Ehrenreich's subtle reaction most effectively conveys the weight of this moment. It’s not so much that he feels betrayed—he’s clearly too much of a D.C. man to have ever been optimistic—but rather, he’s underwhelmed that years of machinations and supposed patriotism have boiled down to the equivalent of a playground tiff.

And it is Ehrenreich who gets the best line in the film. As Strauss gets ready to face the scrum of ravenous press after the Senate rejects his confirmation, Ehrenreich subtly hides his pleasure, but reveals enough to let Strauss know his feelings on the matter. Strauss is consumed by the possibility that Oppenheimer turned the scientific community against him, including Albert Einstein. He repeatedly returns to a perceived conversation between the two that must have made Strauss Einstein’s enemy. Before opening the door to the wolves of the media, Ehrenreich says, "Maybe they were talking about something more important." Uttered with such casual devastation, the nail in Strauss’ coffin confirms how the fate of the world often means little in the face of one man’s petty grievances. It’s probably for the best that Ehrenreich chose acting as his profession because he would be far too good as a politician.

"Oppenheimer" is, indeed, about far more important things than a politician’s job interview and the concerns of his nameless aide. The Manhattan Project exacerbated humanity’s inevitable self-annihilation, but for rooms full of suits and cigarettes, it was just another day at the office, another tool to be wielded less for destruction than personal bartering. It’s the aide, the one without a name or background or tangible connection to Oppenheimer’s work, who exposes that reality with a crooked smile and killer one-liner. Like a great scene-stealing supporting player, the aide is the one who cuts through the crap to seek the truth. Ehrenreich has long been great at that, and "Oppenheimer" is a welcome new zenith of his career. Here’s hoping there will be many more in the future.'

[denimbex1986]

'Barbieheimer has taken the world by storm. Hot pink mushroom cloud t-shirts and internet memes abound...

Through the power of social media, the simple notion of Hollywood counter-programming has turned into a veritable phenomenon this summer. The shared release date of feminist daydream Barbie and expansive biopic Oppenheimer are creating a moment of hot pink box-office fusion. But now that it's finally here, should you actually do a Barbie-Oppenheimer double feature, even if more than 200,000 moviegoers already purchased tickets to do so? EW offers the results of our own investigation into the matter.

First off, please, absolutely see both movies. In a theater. On the biggest screen possible. Because they're worth the theatrical experience. But also we have the power in a single weekend to send Hollywood the message that movies like this — moviegoing events and fresh, original filmmaking — are what audiences want more of (a particularly important message to send studios amidst ongoing labor disputes).

Compare and contrast

Barbie and Oppenheimer are shining examples of the ingenuity and creativity of two sublime writer-directors, Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan. One of these movies is a subversive look at the damage wrought by the patriarchy, as well as an existential meditation on what it means to be human and the ways our own mortality can bestow meaning in our lives. The other is a biographical account of the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

All tongue-in-cheek quipping aside, the two films actually share many parallels, if entirely different approaches. Barbie and Oppenheimer are complementary experiences, their disparate trappings belying their shared themes and goals.

Barbie follows stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) as she blithely enjoys the plastic paradise of Barbieland, where life is perfect and Ken (Ryan Gosling) exists purely to be appreciated by Barbie. But when "irrepressible thoughts of death" send Barbie and Ken to our world to restore Barbie's bliss as an aspirational plaything, Barbie is shocked to discover that the feminist hallmarks of her world are flipped on their head. Her journey (and Ken's own descent into the temptations of the patriarchy and toxic masculinity) leads her to understand the juxtaposition between what Barbie stands for and the ways in which she's been twisted by the very system that created her. Barbie exists at the crossroads of the tension between creativity and commerce.

Oppenheimer faces a different crossroads, a taut ideological war between theory and practice, science and politics. It is aggressively less linear in its storytelling than Barbie, as it follows the adult life of physicist and father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) told in parallel to the Senate confirmation hearings of Admiral Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.). Oppenheimer weaves in and out of the title character's own hearings before the Atomic Energy Commission's Personnel Security Board as he recounts his days as a physics student abroad, his time at UC Berkeley, and the complex efforts of the Manhattan Project. It could play as a standard biopic, but Nolan has ensured it is anything but, in the ways he employs sound, image, and music to deconstruct an American hero. Nolan innately understands film as both a visual and aural medium, ratcheting up tension via their interplay.

Both films are about interrogating American icons, the cognitive dissonance of their aims and their existence. While Barbie believes she's a force for showing little girls that they can be anything, she learns that she's often a means of reinforcing sexist gender expectations. Oppenheimer hopes creating an atomic bomb will usher in a new age of peace instead of the arms race he ignites (or as he puts it, a chain reaction that will destroy the world).

Both Barbie and Oppenheimer have to grapple with their perceived intent and their reality, the world's blurring of their noble goals for morally suspect ends. And both, fittingly, think a lot about death — or perhaps, more aptly, mortality. While Barbie discovers that mortality and human complexity are what give life meaning, Oppenheimer wrestles with legacy and the ways in which creating a weapon of mass destruction informs his own. Barbie embraces humanity in all its chaos, while Oppenheimer confronts the fear that he has given humans the keys to their own destruction because of that very same chaos.

The films indict the patriarchy and the ways in which its systemic injustices and arrogance inform capitalism (Barbie) and patriotism (Oppenheimer). While Barbie names its interrogation of the patriarchy explicitly in its meta approach, Oppenheimer makes its own commentary implicit in its star-studded, heavily male cast and the backroom boys-club politics of everything from a physics laboratory to the Atomic Energy Commission to the Oval Office. With a creeping sense of existential dread, Gerwig and Nolan expose the underbelly of the systems that built Barbie and the atomic bomb. Barbie plays it mostly for satire, while Oppenheimer puts all its chips on grim realism.

They differ in their conclusions — with Barbie celebrating human messiness as an essential part of life's joy and Oppenheimer serving as a bleak cautionary tale. Gerwig is the Rousseau of summer movies, while Nolan is the Hobbes, though neither is perhaps as nihilistic as their movie's trailers might lead you to believe.

The movies are subversive in the ways they ask us to unpack our own choices, expectations, and contradictions through the lens of American ingenuity and commerce. Barbie and Oppenheimer are symbols, yes, but they're much more complicated and contradictory than the reductive, metaphorical box of such a status. Barbie and Oppenheimer, the films, invite audiences to explode that box to probe deeper truths about our systems, our morality, and our humanity — and they have surprisingly similar things to say, even if they draw different conclusions.

The verdict

All of this being said, we'd recommend you make a weekend of the Barbieheimer phenomenon. Both of these films are heady experiences that will leave a lot to ponder long after the final reel. Give yourself the breathing room to honor each as its own achievement rather than trying to shove both into a single double-feature day for the sake of a meme. Though, if you must, we stand by popular advice to do Oppenheimer first and Barbie second so that you can end the day on a more optimistic note. (Take it from this writer's Oppenheimer-induced insomnia.)

We can hear you screaming, "How dare you deny me the opportunity to see Ryan Gosling's Kenergy and Cillian Murphy's cheekbones and piercing blue eyes in the space of a single day?" But trust us, you want to give each its due.

Barbie and Oppenheimer amply deserve their mutual hype, but they also deserve to be savored as individual experiences. What a gift to have two massive summer movies that leave audiences with so much to unpack, ruminate on, and, yes, enjoy. While they're both bursting with dynamic ideas and philosophical quandaries, they also offer a sense of wonder and joy at the power and possibilities of cinema.

In a summer where franchise entries have disappointed at the box office, it's exciting to have two such fresh, visionary projects out on the same day. Barbie and Oppenheimer are a match made in movie heaven and the explosive reaction to their shared release date is thrilling. But the bombshell and the bomb both have a hefty blast radius, and audiences should let themselves find their footing in between their screenings to fully maximize their impact.'

[rockislandadultreads]

Libby Spotlight: New eAudiobooks

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (read by Meryl Streep)

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart.

American Prometheus by Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin (read by Jeff Cummings)

American Prometheus is a full-scale biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, "father of the atomic bomb," the brilliant, charismatic physicist who led the effort to capture the awesome fire of the sun for his country in time of war. Immediately after Hiroshima, he became the most famous scientist of his generation - one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, the embodiment of modern man confronting the consequences of scientific progress.

He was the author of a radical proposal to place international controls over atomic materials - an idea that is still relevant today. He opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb and criticized the Air Force's plans to fight an infinitely dangerous nuclear war. In the now almost-forgotten hysteria of the early 1950s, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup, and, in response, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss, Superbomb advocate Edward Teller and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover worked behind the scenes to have a hearing board find that Oppenheimer could not be trusted with America's nuclear secrets.

American Prometheus sets forth Oppenheimer's life and times in revealing and unprecedented detail. Exhaustively researched, it is based on thousands of records and letters gathered from archives in America and abroad, on massive FBI files and on close to a hundred interviews with Oppenheimer's friends, relatives, and colleagues.

Pageboy by Elliot Page (read by Elliot Page)

“Can I kiss you?” It was two months before the world premiere of Juno, and Elliot Page was in his first ever queer bar. The hot summer air hung heavy around him as he looked at her. And then it happened. In front of everyone. A previously unfathomable experience. Here he was on the precipice of discovering himself as a queer person, as a trans person. Getting closer to his desires, his dreams, himself, without the repression he’d carried for so long. But for Elliot, two steps forward had always come with one step back.

With Juno’s massive success, Elliot became one of the world’s most beloved actors. His dreams were coming true, but the pressure to perform suffocated him. He was forced to play the part of the glossy young starlet, a role that made his skin crawl, on and off set. The career that had been an escape out of his reality and into a world of imagination was suddenly a nightmare.

As he navigated criticism and abuse from some of the most powerful people in Hollywood, a past that snapped at his heels, and a society dead set on forcing him into a binary, Elliot often stayed silent, unsure of what to do. Until enough was enough.

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher (read by Jennifer Blom)

There's a princess trapped in a tower. This isn't her story.

Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?

But nothing with fairies is ever simple.

Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He's heard there's a curse here that needs breaking, but it's a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold…

[denimbex1986]

'Robert Downey Jr. and Ryan Gosling are the clear frontrunners when it comes to the Best Supporting Actor 2024 Oscar, but the fierce competition is getting tougher. While Downey Jr. is generally a leading man, he took a supporting role in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, playing Lewis Strauss. The role was very different from Downey's most recent movies, showing his dramatic range and giving a career-best performance. Similarly, Gosling took a backseat to Margot Robbie in Barbie, but the actor embraced Ken and the "Kenergy." Gosling's Ken has become instantly iconic.

While Gosling's nomination seems unlikely on paper given that it's a largely comedic role, comedy roles in outrageous comedies have been nominated for Oscars in the past, such as Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids and Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder. Considering Barbie's absolute success, having become the year's highest-grossing movie, the film will likely be showered with awards too. However, while Downey Jr.'s performance alongside the rest of the Oppenheimer movie cast and Gosling's role in Barbie are the obvious current contenders for the Best Supporting Actor award, a new major contender has just come into the equation...

Oscars 2024's Best Supporting Actor Race Is One Of The Most Exciting

With Sarsgaard, Downey, and Gosling all but guaranteed a spot on the list of nominees, there are two more places available, which could go to a number of heavyweight actors...

...ultimately, outside of Peter Saarsgard and Ryan Gosling, the biggest competition Robert Downey Jr. might face is from his costars. The Oppenheimer cast is stacked with incredible supporting performances, most notably Benny Safdie as Edward Teller, and more than one actor from the same movie can be nominated for the same Best Supporting Actor award.'

[denimbex1986]

'Alden Ehrenreich seems to have made a rare Hollywood comeback thanks to his role in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. The star-driven biographical drama has already earned over $400 million at the box office in just two weeks, surpassing Solo: A Star Wars Story — the film that should've shot Ehrenreich into stardom. Oppenheimer isn't just a major financial success; in addition to earning quadruple its budget, the film has received widespread acclaim for its ensemble's performances. In Oppenheimer, Alden Ehrenreich might play a small role, but he has some very memorable moments.

Acting opposite Robert Downey Jr., who plays Lewis Strauss, the Solo star plays an unnamed Senate aide. Despite his limited screen time, Ehrenreich has earned praise for his performance, which managed to be a standout in a film filled with more recognizable names and faces than most. The conversation surrounding the actor is reminiscent of the buzz that stemmed from Ehrenreich's role in Hail, Caesar!, the Coen Brothers' film that helped distinguish him as an emerging star. Given the success of Oppenheimer — and the actor's other 2023 projects — Ehrenreich's career seems promising once again, even after Solo's failure derailed him.

Alden Ehrenreich's Promising Career Was Slowed By Solo Bombing

When a huge movie bombs, it can tank the careers of even the most talented actors. Unfortunately, Alden Ehrenreich is a prime example of this ripple effect. From the onset, Solo: A Star Wars Story had major hurdles to overcome. After all, it recast an original Star Wars character, placing Ehrenreich in the boots of Harrison Ford's Han Solo. The choice was met with backlash: Han Solo isn't just one of the most iconic Star Wars characters of all time, but he's one of cinema's most beloved personalities. In the years since Solo's failure, Lucasfilm's Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that it was a mistake to recast Han Solo.

Alden Ehrenreich faced an insurmountable amount of pressure leading up to what could've been his breakout role. When Solo ended up bombing at the box office, it gained a reputation as one of the worst Star Wars films to date. Unfortunately, not every young actor can escape the shadow of their greatest film-industry failure. Talyor Kitsch, for example, saw back-to-back blockbuster bombs with his lead roles in Battleship and John Carter, which dimmed the rising star's chances of future success. Luckily, Alden Ehrenreich has put himself back on the map by giving impressive performances in supporting roles in several major motion pictures.

2023 Is A Big Year For Alden Ehrenreich - And Oppenheimer Is His Best Release Yet

After earning his first bit of recognition as a scene-stealer in the already star-studded cast of Hail, Caesar!, Alden Ehrenreich has finally returned to what worked best for him: playing small but crucial roles in large ensemble casts. Despite his limited screen time, Ehrenreich was fantastic in Oppenheimer. He also stood out in Cocaine Bear, delivering some of the film's funniest scenes. In early 2023, he appeared in an independent movie, Fair Play. After a successful premiere at Sundance Film Festival, the movie was picked up by Netflix for distribution.

Cocaine Bear and Fair Play were riskier choices that seemed to have paid off for Alden Ehrenreich. While those films generated buzz on social media and added to his overall acclaim, Oppenheimer has emerged as Ehrenreich's greatest success of the year, allowing him to showcase his talents in one of 2023's largest cinematic platforms. Five years after what should have been his big break, Ehrenreich's Oppenheimer success might be his ticket to starring in mainstream Hollywood films once more. Regardless, it's safe to say that the actor's 2023 choices have put him back on the right track.

What Alden Ehrenreich Is Doing Next After Oppenheimer

After Oppenheimer's popularity wanes, viewers can catch Alden Ehrenreich in a few other projects. So far, Netflix hasn't set a release date for Fair Play's streaming debut, though the film will undoubtedly offer the actor a chance to showcase his talent to an even larger audience. However, the biggest project on Ehrenreich's docket is Marvel's Ironheart, which is still set to release in 2024 as a miniseries on Disney Plus. While Ehrenreich's part in the MCU is still shrouded in mystery, his supporting role in Ironheart might just undo the negative associations viewers have when it comes to the actor appearing in Disney-backed franchises.'