News &Photography Entropy | 30 Mar 2010
In 1941, Ansel Adams was commissioned for a special project. Harold Ickes, secretary of the interior at the time (i.e., the federal department responsible for the management of federal land), asked the photographer to produce large-format murals of areas controlled by the department. The project was cut short with the attack on Pearl Harbor, and [...]
Violinist Robert Vijay Gupta joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the age of 19. He made his solo debut, at age 11, with the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. He’s got a master’s in music from Yale. But his undergraduate degree? Pre-med. As an undergrad, Gupta was part of several research projects in neuro- and [...]
Photography Entropy | 25 Mar 2010
Cloak™ Bag Travel Camera Bag The Cloak™ Bag is a SLR camera bag that doesn’t look like one, and you can take photos without getting the camera out of the bag. You’ll never hesitate to carry your camera around your neck – and never miss another good shot. The clever design of the Cloak Bag [...]
Books &Music &Photography Entropy | 20 Mar 2010
The Jazz Loft Project: Photographs and Tapes of W. Eugene Smith from 821 Sixth Avenue, 1957-1965 From 1957 to 1965 legendary photographer W. Eugene Smith made approximately 4,000 hours of recordings on 1,741 reel-to-reel tapes and nearly 40,000 photographs in a loft building in Manhattan’s wholesale flower district where major jazz musicians of the day [...]
Books &Economic Behaviour Entropy | 16 Mar 2010
In an era of ever-expanding choices, HOW WE CHOOSE addresses the simple-yet-mystifying question : How do we know what we want? The answers are strange, impressive, and profound. Sheena Iyengar, a Columbia University professor whose work on choice is widely recognized and cited looks into the heart of what we desire– and what we think [...]
Advice to writers Even if it keeps you up all night, wash down the walls and scrub the floor of your study before composing a syllable. Clean the place as if the Pope were on his way. Spotlessness is the niece of inspiration. The more you clean, the more brilliant your writing will be, so [...]