Showing posts with label Weaver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weaver. Show all posts

October 8 - Happy Birthday, Sigourney Weaver

Posted October 8, 2020

There are some actors who are just famous-famous, not necessarily for one role or one kind of film, but just - well, movie stars! Other actors are clearly associated with a single role or maybe with a certain kind of movie.


Even though Sigourney Weaver has been in LOTS of different kinds of movies and lots of different kinds of roles, she is often associated with sci fi and adventure, and she is even thought of as a bit of a pioneer - because so many people assumed those genres to be the special province of men!



The 1979 movie Alien was Weaver's big breakout into fame. There have been other Alien movies, and Weaver was also featured in multiple Ghostbuster movies, in Galaxy Quest, and in Avatar. It hasn't been all sci fi all the time: Weaver played the scientist who lived with gorillas, Dian Fossey, and she became the honorary chairwoman of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

And she played the "bad guy" in Holes and the First Lady in Dave  (these two are definitely my favorite Weaver flicks!).

 



Did you know...?

Sigourney Weaver, who was born on this date in 1949, was named Susan Alexandra Weaver. She took the name Signourney from a character in The Great Gatsby. 

Weaver was 5 foot 10 and a half inches (178 cm) by the time she was 14! Her adult height is just a smidge under 6 feet tall.

At age 18, Weaver volunteered on a kibbutz in Israel for several months. She attended some really amazing universities: Sarah Lawerence, Stanford (earning her BA), and Yale (earning her Master's of Fine Art in the esteemed School of Drama). 

Weaver was the first person to win two acting Golden Globes in the same year. 


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April 19 - Happy Birthday, Kim Weaver

Posted on April 19, 2020


April 19, 1964: Kim Weaver is born in West Virginia.

April 19, 1969: Age 5, little Kim is impressed by photographs of planets, galaxies, and the Moon. She asks about the 300-foot antenna dish located nearby and is interested in the answer - it is listening to radio signals from space!


July 20, 1969: Still 5, Kim is thrilled to watch Apollo 11 crew land on - and eventually walk on! - the Moon.

She decides right then and there that she wants to be a scientist and work for NASA.

Flash forward about 20 years: Dr. Kim Weaver has graduated with a B.S. in physics and a M.S. and Ph.D. in astronomy.

And now: Weaver is an astrophysicist and professor. She works for NASA, just as she hoped, so long ago - mostly focusing on x-ray astronomy.



What, you may ask, is x-ray astronomy?

With ordinary telescopes, scientists study the universe via visible light, which is the most familiar part of the electromagnetic spectrum.





 Radio telescopes like the dishes that inspired Weaver as a child allow scientists to study the universe via radio waves, which have much longer wavelengths than those of visible light. 






X-ray telescopes are used to study the universe with x-rays, which have much shorter wavelengths. 




This is a comparison of M82 galaxy with visible light (left) and x-rays (right): 



Here is a photo of a neutron star in the Crab Nebula. The x-ray light is shown in purple, ultraviolet light in blue, visible light in green, infrared light in yellow, and radio light in red: 









National Library Week in the U.S. - April 19 through 25


(The 2020 theme of National Library Week is “Find Your Place at the Library” - a theme chosen long before anyone could imagine a global pandemic would close libraries-the-physical-buildings. However, libraries are still open for business online. 

 Here are some things you can access: 
"...ebooks, movies, music, video games, virtual storytimes and activities, and so much more — all from the the comfort of your home.")





(Third Saturday of April)

Plan ahead:


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March 2 – First Ballet in Britain

Posted on March 2, 2016



I am a bit surprised that the first ballet in Britain was in the 1700s. After all, ballet developed as a kind of performance dance in Italy in the 1400s and as a form of concert dance in France and Russia in the mid-1500s and 1600s. It seems surprising that it took centuries for the art form to reach Britain!

Apparently, most classical ballet up to and in the early 1700s lacked any sort of story. English choreographer John Weaver not only wanted to bring ballet to his nation but wanted to bring drama to ballet. He created a ballet based on a play, which in turn was inspired by Greek mythology; both the play and the ballet were called The Loves of Mars and Venus.

Drury Lane Theatre
Weaver attempted to portray the plot and the emotions of the play through dance – through movement, pantomime, etc. Nobody spoke lines; nobody even sang lines.

The ballet was popular enough to inspire a parody version by an influential producer.

On this date in 1717, The Loves of Mars and Venus premiered in Drury Lane Theatre in London.

Ballets that tell stories are so common now, I think of ballets that do NOT do so as experimental, but back in 1717, Weaver was the one doing the experimentation!






  • Wood TV tells how the Grand Rapids Ballet company tells stories – here about a World War II hero, and there about Beethoven.

  • ArtsEdge has a lesson about how to tell a story through movement, and SEDL offers another, similar three-session lesson. 




Also on this date:
























Peasants' Day in Myanmar







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