Latest news with #1977
New York Times
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
When Robert Rauschenberg Found a Home in Dance
It's not common for the set of a dance to have its own title. But 'Tantric Geography,' the set for Merce Cunningham's 1977 'Travelogue,' isn't ordinary. For one thing, it moves. It's an odd sort of trolley with a row of wooden chairs for seats. These are fixed between upturned bicycle wheels that don't touch the ground. The dancers ride it as it rolls on hidden wheels, pulled by a rope. What's most significant about this set, though, is that it was designed by Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008). 'Travelogue' was a reunion, the resumption of a collaboration with Cunningham and his company that had been intensely close and extraordinarily creative in the 1950s and '60s. Two years later, in 1979, Rauschenberg started designing for a younger friend, the choreographer Trisha Brown, contributing to another string of masterpieces. These two artistic relationships — Rauschenberg and Cunningham (1919-2009), Rauschenberg and Brown (1936-2017) — are the focus of 'Dancing With Bob,' a program that the Trisha Brown Dance Company is taking on a national tour in honor of Rauschenberg's centennial. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Fleetwood Mac Reaches A New Career Peak With A Decades-Old Classic
Rumours made music history when Fleetwood Mac released the collection back in 1977. The pop-rock effort was heralded as a critical triumph at the time, as well as a commercial juggernaut, and it is now regarded as one of the greatest albums ever. In the decades since it dropped, the project has remained a behemoth — one that has enjoyed a second life once the music industry shifted from pure purchases to streaming platforms. Rumours and its many hit singles began performing well across all consumption metrics, as Americans keep buying the set in addition to listening to it on streaming sites. As the beloved title approaches its half-century birthday, it is still climbing to new highs on the Billboard rankings in the U.S. This week, Rumours appears on half a dozen Billboard charts dedicated to full-lengths and EPs. Its performance is mixed, and it only manages to climb on one of them – but on that roster, the set soars to a new all-time peak. On that one list, Rumours jumps from No. 35 to No. 30 on the Top Streaming Albums ranking, which focuses exclusively on the projects that rack up the most plays on platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and others. Fleetwood Mac has only sent one set to the Top Streaming Albums chart, so every time Rumours hits a new peak, the band does as well. The full-length pushes to its never-before-seen high point 34 frames into its time on the tally. Rumours is largely holding steady in the U.S., even as it climbs on the Top Streaming Albums ranking. This frame, it continues to appear on the Billboard 200, Top Rock & Alternative Albums, and Top Rock Albums lists, not budging an inch on any of them. At the same time, it declines — but only slightly — on both the Top Album Sales and Vinyl Albums charts. While Rumours has only spent a few months on the Top Streaming Albums chart, it has racked up years on every other list on which it appears. Fleetwood Mac's collection has spent the most time on the Billboard 200, where it's up to 634 stays. It has already passed more than 400 frames on all of the other rosters.
New York Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘The Sealed Soil': Modesty and Its Discontents
A hidden landmark from 1977, Marva Nabili's first feature, 'The Sealed Soil,' was made in secret in Iran under the Shah. It has never been shown there and although its qualities were immediately recognized in the United States, it has not been released here, until now. After a digital restoration by the Film and Television Archive of the University of California at Los Angeles and a flurry of recent festival screenings, Nabili's deceptively modest feature gets a weeklong run at Brooklyn Academy of Music. An opening quotation from Albert Camus, predicating an individual's maturity on even failed resistance to the status quo, heralds a leisurely shot of a young woman wrapping her chador. Eighteen-year-old Rooy-Bekheir (Flora Shabaviz) is engaged in a stubborn rebellion. Without explanation, she refuses her suitors. At the same time, she appears to silently oppose the construction of a modern town outside her village. The film's understatement mirrors that of its protagonist. Shot on 16-millimeter film, 'The Sealed Soil' is largely a series of straightforward middle-shots, many devoted to Rooy-Bekheir's daily chores. Lamps are lit, grain sifted and chickens fed, mostly within the confines of a dusty communal courtyard. The camera rarely moves. The post-dubbed sound is largely ambient, save for strange music that the solitary Rooy-Bekheir seems to hear when she nears the modern town. The girl's subjectivity is celebrated in the film's most mysterious scene. Resting in the woods and given a rare close-up, she languidly extends her hand to catch the soft rain. As it continues to fall, she undoes her chador and strips off her top. Face hidden, bare back to the camera she allows herself to be ravished by the elements. The village, however, wants her wed. Her mother, it is pointed out, had four children by age 18. Told that a new suitor is coming, Rooy-Bekheir uses her best dress to attack the chickens in the courtyard and is deemed to be possessed. The movie turns ethnographic, documenting an exorcism. Highly ritualized yet weirdly perfunctory, it evidently works. Nabili came to New York to study filmmaking in the 1970s, then returned to Iran to write and direct a television series based on classic Persian fairy tales. This project provided cover for 'The Sealed Soil' which, smuggled out of Iran, had its New York premiere in 1978, opening a Middle East Film Festival notable for including work by both Muslims and Jews. 'The Sealed Soil' was reported on in The New York Times and singled out for praise in the alternative press. Writing in The Village Voice, the Israeli film critic Dan Yakir compared it to Chantal Akerman's 'Jeanne Dielman,' which was both a blessing and a curse. Nabili, who will be present at several of the BAM screenings, has cited Robert Bresson as an influence, but 'The Sealed Soil' is not a would-be European art film. An act of clandestine resistance shot for a pittance at a two-to-one ratio with available light in six days and a cast of villagers (save for Shabaviz, who was married to the cinematographer), it is a triumph of what the Cuban film theorist Julio García Espinosa called 'imperfect' cinema. The film's pragmatism is intrinsic to its meaning.
The Guardian
25-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
The kindness of strangers: I thought my wages would be docked but the customer I'd overpaid returned
It was Christmas Eve, 1977. I was 20 years old and working on the desk at a credit union as a teller. Management thought it was a wise idea to offer our customers a glass of champagne with their withdrawals that day, so I had been helping myself to a small glass of bubbly as I handed the customers one. By the end of the day I was unsurprisingly a bit tipsy and, when I balanced up the till, I realised I was $20 short. At the time, $20 was almost a week's pay for me, or at least half a week's pay, so it was a decent amount of money. I was sitting there feeling quite distressed, because if the till was down you had to make it up from your own wages – that was the deal. It meant I would have no money for the Christmas period. Suddenly there was a knock on the window, and I looked up to see a man who seemed desperate to come in. We normally didn't let anyone in after we'd closed but the man kept knocking, so I eventually opened the door a crack to see what he wanted. When I did, he handed me the missing $20 note – he told me I'd overpaid him, so he'd spent half an hour travelling across town on Christmas Eve to return the money, knowing that my till would be out. It was a lovely thing to do, and it made a lot of difference to my outlook on life. It wasn't just the money, it was the fact that he had gone to such effort to make sure that I wasn't out of pocket, when it was entirely my fault anyway. The experience also meant that I'd never accept an accidental overpayment from anyone ever again. I know how much that money can matter to people working in retail. And I think if you've ever worked in the lowest end of jobs, you tend to have more empathy. It's been almost 50 years but I've not forgotten that man's act of kindness. I've learned in life that people do mean things to you sometimes but it's the kind things that really make the difference. From making your day to changing your life, we want to hear about chance encounters that have stuck with you. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. If you're having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here
RNZ News
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
The galaxy of the Star Wars universe stretches to infinity
media life and society 21 minutes ago The end to spin off stories from 1977's first Star Wars movie looks like being a galaxy far, far away.
