Month: February 2017

The last time the entire Sistine Chapel was photographed for posterity, digital photography was in its infancy and words like pixels were bandied about mostly by computer nerds and NASA scientists.

Now, after decades of technological advances in art photography, digital darkrooms and printing techniques, a five-year project that will aid future restorations has left the Vatican Museums with 270,000 digital frames that show frescoes by Michelangelo and other masters in fresh, stunning detail.

“In the future, this will allow us to know the state of every centimeter of the chapel as it is today, in 2017,” said Antonio Paolucci, former head of the museums and a world-renowned expert on the Sistine.

Michelangelo’s ceiling frescoes include one of the most famous scenes in art – the arm of a gentle, bearded God reaching out to give life to Adam.

The Renaissance master finished the ceiling in 1512 and painted the massive “Last Judgement” panel behind the altar between 1535 and 1541.

The last time all Sistine frescoes were photographed was between 1980 and 1994, during a landmark restoration project that cleaned them for the first time in centuries.

The new photos were taken for inclusion in a new three-volume, 870-page set that is limited to 1,999 copies and marketed to libraries and collectors.

The set, which costs about 12,000 euros ($12,700), was a joint production of the Vatican Museums and Italy’s Scripta Maneant high-end art publishers.

Post-production computer techniques included “stitching” of frames that photographers took while working out of sight for 65 nights from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m., when the chapel where popes are elected is closed.

The project was known to only to a few people until it was unveiled in the chapel on Friday night.

The set includes the entire chapel, including the mosaic floor and 15th century frescoes by artists who have long languished in Michelangelo’s giant shadow.

More than 220 pages are printed in 1:1 scale, including ‘The Creation of Adam’ and Jesus’ face from the Last Judgement. Each volume weighs about 9 kg (20 pounds) and fold-out pages measure 60 by 130 cm ( 24 by 51 inches).

The old photos taken during the last restoration were done with film.

“We used special post-production software to get the depth, intensity, warmth and nuance of colours to an accuracy of 99.9 percent,” said Giorgio Armaroli, head of Scripta Maneant.

“Future restorers will use these as their standards,” he said, adding that each page was printed six times.

Brush strokes are clearly visible as are the “borders” delineating sections, known as “giornate,” or days. Since frescoes are painted on wet plaster, artists prepare just enough for what they can complete in each session.

The photographers used a 10-meter-high (33 feet) portable scaffold and special telescopic lens. The results are now stored in a Vatican server holding 30 terabytes of information.

($1 = 0.9450 euros)
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The late Country music star Merle Haggard will be honored a year after his death with an all-star concert featuring his longtime friend and duet partner Willie Nelson as well as Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, John Mellencamp and more.

 

“Sing Me Back Home: The Music of Merle Haggard” will be held in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on April 6, which would have been the songwriter’s 80th birthday.

 

Additional performers include Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams Jr., The Avett Brothers, Alison Krauss, Dierks Bentley, Ronnie Dunn, Warren Haynes, Jamey Johnson, Kacey Musgraves, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Lucinda Williams, Ben Haggard, John Anderson, Connie Smith and Bobby Bare. Tickets go on sale March 3.

 

Keith Wortman, CEO of Blackbird Presents, which has produced tributes to John Lennon, Kris Kristofferson and Gregg Allman, said Nelson originally came up with the idea for a tribute concert and Haggard’s wife, Theresa, and his son, Ben, helped select the artists to be included. Haggard and Nelson recorded several albums together, including “Pancho & Lefty,” and Haggard’s last released album, “Django and Jimmie,” in 2015.

 

Haggard died April 6 on his 79th birthday after a career spanning five decades and dozens of iconic hits, including “Okie from Muskogee,” “Mama Tried,” “Hungry Eyes,” “Today I Started Loving You Again” and such blue collar chronicles as “If We Make It Through December” and “Workin’ Man Blues.”
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Not even an honorary National Book Award kept Ursula K. Le Guin from being surprised by her latest tribute: membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

 

“My reputation was made as a writer of fantasy and science fiction, a literature that has mostly gone without such honors,” she told The Associated Press recently.

 

Known for such classics as “The Left Hand of Darkness” and “The Dispossessed,” Le Guin has won numerous science fiction and fantasy awards, but only in recent years has she received more literary recognition, notably a National Book Award medal in 2014. The arts academy, an honorary society with a core membership of 250 writers, artists, composers and architects, once shunned “genre” writers such as Le Guin. Even such giants as science fiction writer Ray Bradbury and crime novelist Elmore Leonard never got in.

 

Academy member Michael Chabon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, advocated for Le Guin.

 

“As a deviser of worlds, as a literary stylist, as a social critic and as a storyteller, Le Guin has no peer,” he wrote in his recommendation, shared with the AP, that she be admitted. “From the time of her first published work in the mid-1960s, she began to push against the confines of science fiction, bringing to bear an anthropologist’s acute eye for large social textures and mythic structures, a fierce egalitarianism and a remarkable gift of language, without ever renouncing the sense of wonder and the spirit of play inherent in her genre of origin.”

 

The 87-year-old Le Guin is one of 14 new core members, the academy told the AP. Others include fiction writers Junot Diaz, Ann Patchett, Amy Hempel and Colum McCann, former U.S. poet laureate Kay Ryan and fellow poets Henri Cole and Edward Hirsch. The academy also voted in the artists Mary Heilmann, Julie Mehretu and Stanley Whitney, architect Annabelle Selldorf and composers Melinda Wagner and Julia Wolfe.

 

Three foreign honorary members were added: authors Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Zadie Smith and composer Kaija Saariaho.

 

The arts academy was founded in 1898, with members since ranging from Henry James and William Dean Howells to Chuck Close and Stephen Sondheim. The new inductees will be formally welcomed at a ceremony at the New York-based academy in May, where academy member Joyce Carol Oates will deliver the centennial Blashfield Foundation keynote address. Previous speakers have included Helen Keller, Robert Frost and Robert Caro.

 

Patchett, author of the acclaimed “Bel Canto” and most recently “Commonwealth,” said she had tears in her eyes after learning she had been selected. Years earlier, she had been given a prize by the academy, presented to her by John Updike.

 

“They could have just given me the Getting-To-Eat-Lunch-With John-Updike award and that would have been the biggest thrill of my life,” she told the AP. “This is an institution where all of my heroes gather. I am very moved that they’ve invited me in.”

 

Diaz, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his novel “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” told the AP that he was surprised to get into the academy, in part because he was informed in an old-fashioned way – by letter.

 

“No one sends letters anymore,” he wrote recently in a more prevalent form of communication, email.

 

Le Guin lives in Portland, Oregon, and will not be attending the May ceremony. For a time, she didn’t even know she had been chosen. Blame it on the risks of sending paper letters.

 

“[T]he academy’s written invitation never got to me,” she said, adding that she feared comparisons to Bob Dylan, who took more than two weeks to personally respond to winning the Nobel Prize for literature. “I found out they’d been waiting days or weeks for a reply. I thought: ‘Oh, no, they’ll think I’ve been pulling a Dylan on them!'”
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The Oscar awarded to a documentary about the daily lives of volunteers of a Syrian search and rescue group called the “White Helmets” shows people care about its mission to help civilians caught in Syria’s civil war, the group said on Monday.

The White Helmets operate a rescue service in rebel-held parts of Syria, which have been subjected to fierce bombardment by the government and Russia’s air force during the country’s civil war that has leveled whole city districts.

Syria’s government under President Bashar al-Assad has accused the group of being a front for al Qaeda and of faking footage of the aftermath of air strikes for propaganda purposes, charges the White Helmets deny.

“I am absolutely delighted that we won an Oscar — it show us that people care about us and the people we serve,” said Khaled Khatib, a volunteer and cinematographer on the film, which won an Oscar for best short documentary at Sunday’s award ceremony.

“We are honored that ‘The White Helmets’ film has received an Oscar,” Raed Saleh, head of the Syria Civil Defense, said in a statement posted on Twitter early on Monday. “But we are not happy to do what we do. We abhor the reality we live in,” he added.

The 40-minute Netflix film, directed by British documentary-maker Orlando von Einsiedel, follows volunteers as they conduct search and rescue operations in Aleppo and undergo training in Turkey.

But members of the “White Helmets” could not attend the awards ceremony in Los Angeles because of passport issues and air strikes in Syria, the group said in a statement.

Both Saleh and Khatib were given visas by the United States for the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles.

However, in a statement early on Sunday, the White Helmets said Saleh would not be able to leave his work because of the high intensity of air strikes while Khatib could not attend because Syria’s government had cancelled his passport.

“We hope this film and the attention helps move the world to stop the bloodshed in Syria,” Saleh said.

The nearly six-year-long conflict in Syria has killed at least 300,000 people and displaced millions, according to groups that monitor the war.
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It’s a rare sight. Girls in Nigeria playing rugby. And in northern Nigeria’s Kano state, the girls in the Basic College secondary school are defying cultural norms.

“A girl is expected not to be involved in all those masculine games, because they believe rugby needs strength,” said Rahilat Umar. “So they believe, as a girl, I’m just supposed to face my studies, leave all those games. I believe that what a man can do, a woman can do better.”

 At 13 years of age, Umar is one of the youngest players on this all-girls high school rugby team. The team captain, Janet Emmanuel, is a star player. Janet says she has learned to ignore what people say about girls playing rugby.

“We are not weaklings at all,” Emmanuel said. “We’re doing good in rugby.”

‘Here to crack rocks’

The team has been getting ready for Nigeria’s largest rugby tournament, and Coach Stanley Uka is working hard to prepare them as much as he can on the field.

 

 

 

 

“To let them know that they’re coming here to crack rocks,” said Uka. “Not just coming here for child’s play.”

Off the field, the coach knows that some of his players are facing challenges.

Umar comes from a conservative Muslim family. Her father is strongly against her playing rugby.

“I sent her to school to learn, not to be playing rugby,” said her father. “As a Muslim and a girl, I don’t think it will be very wise, I allow her to play rugby. If I decide to stop her, I will do that.”

Game day is here

But Umar said she hopes her parents will eventually come around. The next day is game day, and the team is ready.

At the Kano State Youth Rugby Championships, only two of the thirteen competing teams are made up of female players. Umar’s parents are not coming. But she doesn’t dwell on that for long. Coach Uka is counting on her.

“Rahilat as a player is one of the fantastic players I have,” said Uka. “When it comes to games, Nigeria … was nowhere to be found when it comes to the females. But presently, the females are coming up; they are beating the imaginations of so many people.”

This is the second time the tournament takes place. It was put together by the Kano State Rugby Association and the Barewa Rugby Club. U.K. national Martin Crawford moved to Kano 13 years ago. He grew up playing the sport, and these days, he’s passing it on to Nigerian youngsters.

“When we started, we focused on the senior secondary [students] and we realized that was a mistake,” said Crawford. “Because if you catch the kids when they’re 12 or 13, they’re with you till 13, 14, 15, 16. They leave secondary school, by that time, they’re die-hard rugby players. They play rugby for the pure pleasure of it, in fact, they’ll walk over hot coals.”

Coach is proud

They try their best, but by halftime, no one scores. And Coach Uka is not happy. They try again. But it’s a scoreless draw. In the end, both female teams win a trophy. Uka said he is proud of his players.

“Nigerian females are coming up and not just crawling,” said Uka. “They are really coming up, and I believe they’re going to make the world proud some day. With the cooperation and the understanding of her parents, Rahilat is moving somewhere, and I know for sure she will get somewhere. The sky will not just be her limit, but her starting point.”

Umar is disappointed that they didn’t score, but that doesn’t dampen her spirits.

“I tried my best,” said Umar. “I put all my effort in it.”

These female players from Basic College secondary school represent change and gender equality.
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The Oscar for Asghar Farhadi’s “The Salesman” energized many of the filmmaker’s fellow Iranians, who saw the win for best foreign film Monday as a pointed rebuke to the Trump administration and its efforts to deny them entry into the U.S.

Farhadi refused to attend the Academy Awards, announcing after the temporary U.S. travel ban was initially imposed last month for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries that he would skip it even if an exception was made for him. Iran was one of the seven countries affected by the measure, which has since been blocked from being carried out by a federal court ruling.

“The Salesman” – about a couple performing ArthurMiller’s “ Death of a Salesman” and their attempts to find peace and justice after the wife is attacked at their Tehran apartment – had become a rallying cry for immigrant rights after the travel ban.

The six nominated directors in the foreign language category had put out a joint statement ahead of the award decrying what they called the climate of “fanaticism” in the United States and dedicating the award to the promotion of “unity and understanding” regardless of who won.

Film critic Esmaeil Mihandoost, who wrote a book about Farhadi, told The Associated Press that thanks to the boycott, the film director has now “more influence on public opinion than a politician.”

“It created an exceptional opportunity for criticism” of Trump’s policy, he added Monday.

The award was the second Oscar for Farhadi, after his film “A Separation” won in the same category for 2012.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he saw the prize as taking a stance against Trump’s executive order. “Proud of Cast and Crew of “The Salesman” for Oscar and stance against #MuslimBan. Iranians have represented culture and civilization for millennia,” he tweeted in English.

Vice President Ishaq Jahangiri praised Farhadi both for the award and for boycotting the ceremony, calling it a “priceless action.”

State radio and television briefly reported on Farhadi’s Oscar, while Tehran film daily Banifilm ran an op-ed saying that Trump had “probably never imagined what contribution the travel ban would have for Farhadi’s film.” The trade paper said the executive order had likely propelled “The Salesman” to victory.

Trump’s victory has prompted concern among many in Iran, particularly in the wake of a 2015 nuclear deal with the U.S. and other world powers that led to the lifting of crippling economic sanctions. The Trump administration earlier this month said it was putting Iran “on notice” after it test-fired a ballistic missile.

Many Iranians learned of the Oscar win from social media.

“I am proud of this,” Mahbod Shirvani, a 19-year-old music student said outside the campus of Tehran University. “It shattered the U.S president’s stance on Muslim nations. It showed that American people and artists are against Trump’s policies.”

Davood Kazemi, 21, who studies painting, said the “award showed Trump cannot stop international figures and he cannot thwart artists’ solidarity that has formed, regardless of race, nationality and religion.”

Iranian news websites published cartoonist Bozorgmehr Hosseinpour’s sketch depicting Farhadi playing chess and using a small Oscar statue to knock out an unseen opponent’s last chess piece, a figure resembling Trump.

In a statement read out at the Oscars ceremony on his behalf by Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-American astronaut, Farhadi said the empathy filmmakers can foster is needed today more than ever. Ansari was joined onstage by another accomplished Iranian-American, Firouz Naderi, a former NASA director.

“I’m sorry I’m not with you tonight,” Farhadi’s statement read. “My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S.”

“Dividing the world into the ‘us’ and ‘our enemies’ categories creates fear,” it said.
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And the red carpet goes to … the women in red, for one, with equal accolades for shiny and shimmery gold worthy of the Oscars, this and all years.

 

Long sleeves and belts played major roles Sunday in Los Angeles at the Dolby Theatre, along with a beautiful Janelle Monae, transformed in Elie Saab Haute Couture into a busy but fabulous fashion city of black tulle, birds, lace, feathers, sequins, crystal stones and a head piece that served as the perfect topper.

 

There were some midnight blues, including Meryl Streep’s sparkly Elie Saab with trousers, and a smattering of blah black. Among the night’s trends were velvet, worn Old Hollywood style by Taraji P. Henson, Brie Larson and Michelle Williams, and metallics, including a fierce Charlize Theron, Emma Stone and Jessica Biel.

 

All in all, the clunkers were few.

 

Some highlights:

The Reds

 

Viola Davis rocked the color as she picked up a best supporting actress Oscar for her role in “Fences.” She wore silk Armani Prive in vermillion, with the perfect halter neck falling into a pleated capelet effect off the shoulders. Her short hair with bangs swept to one side let the dress shine and she kept jewelry to a minimum.

 

“It was a perfect shade of red on her,” said Adam Glassman, creative director for O magazine and a special correspondent for Extra TV. “The color red was a symbol of hope and optimism. We are living in dark times, and perhaps by choosing red she is symbolizing HOPE. The gown was sensual and elegant at the same time. The draped capelet detail was so flattering on her. Her body looked amazing in it. It was stylish without trying too hard.”

 

Ruth Negga wore her red Valentino Haute Couture by Pierpaolo Piccioli with a blue ACLU ribbon and Irene Neuwirth jewelry featuring Gemfields responsibly sourced Mozambican rubies. Her jewels included a head piece not all could pull off, but she did so effortlessly. The gown included a high lace collar and skimmed the ground, her makeup a perfect match on eyelids and lips.

 

“It proves you don’t have to be plungy and show lots of excess flesh to look sexy and beautiful,” said Avril Graham, the executive fashion and beauty editor for Harper’s Bazaar U.S. “The fact that she wore those rubies played into that sustainable trend and were a great modern take.”

 

Auli’i Cravalho, at 16, killed her first Oscars performance, singing “How Far I’ll go” from “Moana” in, yes, another standout red gown.

 

The Golds

 

Stone led the pack in a custom Givenchy Haute Couture by Riccardo Tisci. It was a long dress in all-over embroidered nude lace with fishnet detailing and gold and bronze crystals. It had tiers of fringe that lent a tad of flapper without going overboard. Her red lip color and swingy, matching earrings from Tiffany and Co. went a long way.

 

She was “finished with Old Hollywood worthy waves,” said Kerry Pieri, the digital fashion and features director for Harper’s Bazaar. “This was glamour at its best, finished with a subtle Planned Parenthood pin.”

 

Dakota Johnson took one of the night’s biggest risks. She wore a long-sleeve, strong-shouldered sweeping silk gown with a waist tie. The dress was Gucci and paired with a vintage Cartier necklace. “And it paid off,” Pieri said.

 

Gold turned Champagne hewed on Nicole Kidman, in Armani Prive, and Felicity Jones, in princessy Dior Haute Couture. Amy Adams wore plunging gold as a presenter.

 

Theron “knocked it out of the water, as always. The metallic moment was amazing,” Graham said.

 

Theron was Grecian Goddess meets Glamazon” in her pleated Dior Haute Couture that plunged at the neck and was set free to flow below the waist, Glassman said. And that’s not a bad thing.

 

“Charlize OWNS the red carpet,” he said.

 

Fashion and style expert Hal Rubenstein found Theron’s huge Chopard drop earrings in connecting pear and heart shapes distracting, and the dress a little much.

 

“There was almost six yards too much fabric in that dress,” he said. “It’s impossible for her to look bad but that was an awful lot of dress and an awful lot of jewelry.”

 

Jessica Biel was the definition of gold statuesque in a KaufmanFranco gown that hugged her body and included a metallic fringe-looking collar and liquidy train.

 

“She really scored well. It was cut really vavoom and close to show off her figure,” Graham said. “This was not frothy. This was a way of wearing metallics and sequins and embellishment in a contemporary way.”

 

Stone was on top of Rubenstein’s best-dressed list.

 

“For me it’s not about this being a fashion show. It’s about celebrating the movies and who looks like a movie star. They should look like Lauren Bacall and Lana Turner and people like that,” he said. “Emma looked the most like that. She looked sexy without being overt or redundant or trashy.”

 

The Confections

 

Hailee Steinfeld pulled one off. It was sheer white with back pleating and huge red and purple and blush floral embellishment. It had a heavy train and a dainty belt. It had a high collar. It was by Ralph & Russo, and it was one of those young-girl coups that might not have worked otherwise, not unlike Dakota Johnson’s look.

 

Speaking of confections, but with a fierce bite, Monae made her usual fierce fashion statement in Elie Saab Haute Couture. Her Forevermark jewels were valued by the company at $1.5 million and included multiple diamond rings.

 

“It wasn’t my favorite. I always like sleek lines,” Graham said of Monae.

 

Kirsten Dunst looked a bit swallowed-up by her black Dior Haute Couture. She was strapless with a corseted bodice and asymmetric hem that fell at the ankle at the front with a voluminous train behind.

 

“It was big, black, wide, sort of 18th century,” Graham said. “I just didn’t like the proportions.”

 

 Just Taraji

 

Henson, a co-star with Monae in “Hidden Figures,” earned praise from many for her deep navy blue Alberta Ferretti. It fell off the shoulder and her Nirov Modi diamond necklace pointed the way to ample decolletage. Henson left her hair loose with a sexy side part.

 

“From head to toe she was sophisticated, elegant and glamorous,” Glassman said. “The neckline was perfect for the Academy Awards. The navy velvet was so on point for the season and her hair was soft and cool. It was a modern take on the Old Hollywood look. Every detail worked on her.”

In Photos: Red Carpet Arrivals
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It was a big night for actress Viola Davis, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in “Fences”. Her crowning achievement comes after a long and illustrious career filled with numerous awards and three Oscar nominations. Her win also highlights Hollywood’s growing interest in complex minority characters. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
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It was a big night for actress Viola Davis, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for “Fences”. Her crowning achievement comes after a long and illustrious career of numerous awards and three Oscar nominations. The Oscar nod also highlights Hollywood’s interest in complex minority characters.

For those who watched Denzel Washington’s film drama “Fences”, about the intricate family dynamics in a 1950’s African American household, it is difficult to forget Davis’ powerhouse performance. She plays Rose, the introspective wife who stands by her man, aware of his imperfections. She perseveres next to him not with deference but with dignity. She is the balancing act between her explosive husband and her brooding son, and when her philandering husband, played by Denzel Washington, brings home a baby, she accepts it not because she has to, but because she chooses to.

This is not the first time Davis fleshes out complex characters; but, her Oscar win underscores the movie industry’s commitment to such characters.

 

Another example is Mahershala Ali, who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as Juan, a drug dealer in a poor Miami neighborhood, in the indie drama “Moonlight”. Juan finds himself taking care of a boy abandoned by his own mother, a drug addict. In this role,  Ali is both criminal and nurturer.

Giovanna Chesler, director of George Mason University’s film school, says this recognition was years in the making.

“I don’t think it’s an issue of there’s more films representing black experience in America. I think it’s great films that represent the black experience that are being pushed to the fore finally and being recognized,“ she says.

Chesler attributes the trend in part to audiences who, “were starving” for stories like that, she says. She also notes that actors and filmmakers such as David Oyelowo and Ava DuVernay who rolled out great work in previous years – but were not part of the Oscars conversation – laid the groundwork for this year’s awards.

DuVernay, who made the film drama “Selma” three years ago, and David Oyelowo, who starred as Martin Luther King, Jr., did not win accolades, but their work has passed into the annals of great acting and movie making. Now, DuVernay, who also directed the acclaimed documentary “13th” about incarceration in America, has been tapped by Disney studios to direct a big budget fantasy drama.

And then there is Oscar winner Denzel Washington. In a class of his own, Washington has for years been part of Hollywood’s mainstream, but still tries to push the envelope with contentious characters and projects. He directed and adapted August Wilson’s theater play Fences for the big screen, and portrays Rose’s conflicted husband, Troy.

When asked by VOA to analyze his character – a blistering man, dubious husband and unforgiving father – Washington replied, “Who is Troy? He doesn’t know. He’s working it out. That why there is great drama because it is drama, ’cause all the questions are not answered when the curtain goes up.”

And who didn’t love the film “Hidden Figures”, a heartwarming hit drama about three African American women who helped NASA in the ’60s send the first American into space and then on the moon? The movie has won the hearts and minds of fans, a reminder that audiences crave stories with non-formulaic characters in unconventional situations.

When these characters and stories win, we all do, because such narratives become the catalyst of equality in popular culture. So, the more such roles are awarded, the more the film industry is encouraged to push the envelope in casting.

WATCH: Penelope’s video report
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