Flipping the mute button of life

Brandon Blatcher — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 11:18:16 -0800

Silent retreats’ rising popularity poses a challenge: How to handle the quiet.

"Cats are a part of our life, they amuse people, and make a nice atmosphere for us."

quin — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 07:04:07 -0800

The Hermitage Museum sits on the Neva River in St. Petersburg, it houses millions of works of art by the great masters, and since the 18th century, it has been protected by cats.

Dozens of cats roam the grounds of the Hermitage, living in the museum's gardens and labyrinthian basement, cared for by a designated staff. They've lived here for centuries, first brought in by the imperial family to rid the Winter Palace of rats, and for the last 10 years cared for by the office of the director of the Hermitage. "We joke that if [our director] permits us to have 50 cats, so we [technically] have 50 cats. But really we have around 60 cats," says Maria Khaltunin, the director's assistant and head of the cat program. Tsarina Elizabeth, daughter of Tsar Peter the First, first demanded cats in 1774 to keep the palace's rats and mice in check. Legend has it she sent a special transport to the city of Kazan to bring back these cats, supposedly especially good hunters. The love of -- and need for -- cats got passed down from one generation of the imperial family to the next. During the siege of Leningrad (St. Petersburg's former name) during World War II, all the cats died. They were brought back to the museum soon after the blockade ended to cull the vermin population that had exploded over three cat-free years.

[via]

"If cinema is sometimes dreamlike, then every edit is an awakening." -Roger Ebert

filthy light thief — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 11:25:11 -0800

The long take, an uncut, uninterrupted shot in film, is seen by some as the counter to CGI, the last great field for cinematic art. The linked page features six clips from 1990 on, plus the opening shot from Orson Welles' 1958 film, Touch of Evil. Alfred Hitchcock's film from a decade earlier, Rope, took the long cut further, with the whole film shot in eight takes of up to 10 minutes each, a decision shaped by the limit of the physical recording media. With digital media, the long take could be pushed further, as with Russian Ark, from 2002. The movie was shot in one long take, with the narrative working through the history of Russia, set within The State Hermitage Museum, and captured in one day on the 4th take. If the long takes are a tad long for you, try the "short" long takes that are one-shot music videos [videos inside] Movies on YouTube: Rope: part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (end); and the 2001 documentary, 'Rope' Unleashed: part 1, 2, and 3. Russian Ark with English subtitles: part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (end); and the 2003 documentary In One Breath: Alexander Sokurov's Russian Ark: part 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 Related, previously: Take One Museum Music Videos: Music videos by Michel Gondry (M. Gondry videos, collected previously) * Lucas - Lucas With The Lid Off, 1994 * Cibo Matto - Sugar Water, 1996 (two one-shot videos in one!) * Radiohead - Knives Out, 2001 * Kylie Minogue - Come Into My World, 2002 * The White Stripes - The Denial Twist, 2005 * Gary Jules - Mad World, 2006 Other Examples * Split Enz - Message to My Girl, 1984 * Tommy Shaw - Girls With Guns, 1984 * John Fogerty - The Old Man Down The Road, 1985 * Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush - Don't Give Up, 1986 * Los Prisioneros - Sexo, 1986 * Bruce Springsteen - Brilliant Disguise, 1987 * Pixies - Velouria, 1990 * Vaya Con Dios - Nah Neh Nah, 1990 * Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy, 1991 (directed by Baillie Walsh) * Guns N' Roses - Garden of Eden, 1992 (directed by Andy Morahan) * Primus - Mr. Krinkle, 1993 * U2 - Numb, 1993 * Die Krupps - To The Hilt, 1994 * Gin Blossoms - Allison Road, 1994 * Nine Inch Nails - March of the Pigs, 1994 * Tom Petty - You Don't Know How It Feels, 1994 * Lisa Loeb - Stay (I Missed You), 1994 * Weezer - Undone - The Sweater Song, 1994 (directed by Spike Jonze) * Wax - California, 1995 (directed by Spike Jonze) * Madonna - Love Don't Live Here Anymore (HD), 1996 (directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino) * Alanis Morissette - Head Over Feet, 1996 * Spice Girls - Wannabe, 1996 * The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony, 1997 * Ben Folds Five - Kate, 1997 * Green Day - Redundant, 1997 * The Tea Party - Babylon, 1997 * Tic Tac Toe - Bitte küss' mich nicht, 1997 * Die Ärzte - Rebell, 1998 * Semisonic - Closing Time, 1999 (two continuous shots playing simultaneously) * Smashing Pumpkins - Ava Adore, 1999 * D'Angelo – Untitled (How Does It Feel) (may be NSFW), 2000 * Coldplay – Yellow, 2000 * Green Day - Macy's Day Parade, 2001 * Hawksley Workman - Jealous of Your Cigarette, 2001 * R.E.M. - Imitation Of Life, 2001 * Utada Hikaru - Hikari, 2002 * Ayumi Hamasaki - Daybreak, 2003 * Ayumi Hamasaki - Heaven, 2003 * Christina Aguilera - The Voice Within, 2003 * Jack Johnson - Sitting, Waiting, Wishing (and reversed), 2005 * Wir sind Helden - Nur ein Wort, 2005 (forwards and backwards) * Gimma - Superschwiizer, 2006 * OK Go - Here It Goes Again, 2006 * Sportfreunde Stiller - '54, '74, '90, 2006, 2006 * Feist - 1234, 2007 * Feist - My Moon My Man, 2007 * Kaiser Chiefs - Love's Not a Competition (But I'm Winning), 2007 * Linkin Park - Bleed It Out, 2007 * The Matches - Salty Eyes (making of and choreography the video), 2007 * Melanie C - The Moment You Believe, 2007 * Miley Cyrus - Start All Over, 2007 * Red Hot Chili Peppers - Desecration Smile, 2007 * Spoon - Underdog, 2007 * The Weakerthans - Civil Twilight, 2007 * Dana Nalbaru - Tu (and making of the video), 2008 * Duffy - Warwick Avenue, 2008 * Feist - I Feel It All, 2008 * Janet Jackson - Rock with U, 2008 * The Last Shadow Puppets - Standing Next to Me, 2008 * Lil Wayne - A Milli, 2008 (one-take shot with post-production stutter-cuts) * Pigeon. Horse. Sex. Tennis. - Bottle of Wine, 2008 * Vampire Weekend - A-Punk, 2008 * Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma, 2008 * The Vines - He's a Rocker, 2008 * Young Righchus and Max Berry - Ridin', 2008 * Metric - Gimme Sympathy, 2009 * Myriam Fares - Ayam El Shety, 2009 * Electric Indian - Kids These Days, 2009 * Dilated Peoples - Back Again, 2006 * Roller Coaster - Prospect Hill, 2009 * OK Go - WTF, 2009 * Air - So Light Is Her Footfall, 2010 * Die Roten Punkte - Burger Store Dinosaur, 2010 * Erykah Badu - Window Seat, 2010 * J. Cole - Who Dat, 2010 * Liam Frost - Good Things Are Coming Our Way, 2010 * OK Go - White Knuckles, 2010 (previously) * Säkert - Dansa fastän, 2010

Far, Far, Away

phrontist — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:01:48 -0800

Get aw ay fr o m i t a l l . Nauru has been linked before, but I feel its worth mentioning in the context of this post.

De Hermitage Amsterdam

the fire you left me — Tue, 16 Mar 2004 19:07:28 -0800

De Hermitage Amsterdam. In the early 1990s Professor Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg was considering the possibility of having satellites of the museum in the West. The Nieuwe Kerk and the Hermitage had already established a strong relationship through the organisation of major exhibitions, and Ernst Veen, director of the Nieuwe Kerk, suggested that Amsterdam would be the ideal location for a branch of the Russian museum, given the historical links between the two cities over the past 300 years.

MetaFilter posts tagged with Hermitage

Flipping the mute button of life

"Cats are a part of our life, they amuse people, and make a nice atmosphere for us."

"If cinema is sometimes dreamlike, then every edit is an awakening." -Roger Ebert

Far, Far, Away

De Hermitage Amsterdam