Sep 05 2022
Film director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, actor, and novelist Werner Herzog was born on this day September 5, 1942 in Munich, Germany. Herzog is well regarded as one of the greatest film-makers of our time, best known for the films Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Fitzcarraldo, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Grizzly Man, and Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Earlier …
Aug 04 2022
Today is the birthday of American Modernist artist Charley Harper, born August 4, 1922 on a farm in Frenchton, West Virginia. He is best known for his unique self-described “minimal realism” artistic interpretation of American wildlife. After growing up on the farm, he went to the Art Academy of Cincinnati, where he met his wife, Edie Mckee, …
Jul 17 2022
Today is the birthday of Aleksandr Petrov, the Russian animator born July 17, 1957, in the village of Prechistoye. He is known for his unique technique of creating animations from pastel oil paintings on glass, using his fingertips to paint for added texture. Petrov’s first animation was made in 1988, Marathon, and was a tribute …
Jun 27 2022
The first image that comes to mind when anyone mentions Tiki to me, is the famous Walt Disney Enchanted Tiki Room. There are three such rooms. One is located in Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and the other is located at Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida, and the third is located in Tokyo, Japan at the Tokyo …
Jun 25 2022
Joseph Eichler was born on this day, June 25, 1900, in New York City. He lived in a Frank Lloyd Wright home in Hillsborough, California for a while, and was so inspired by Wright’s new naturalist designs, that he founded a company that eventually created modern, innovative housing for the Greater San Francisco Bay and Greater Los Angeles areas, …
Jun 22 2022
The Scarlet Flower (Аленький цветочек, Alenkiy tsvetochek) is a popular Russian folktale based on Sergey Aksakov’s rendition of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. Similar to the traditional tale, it begins when a merchant father, Stepan Yemelyanovich, asks his three daughters what gifts they would like from his travels. The oldest daughter, Gordeya, wishes for …
Jun 08 2022
Speaking of great architects with June 8 birthdays, in addition to Bruce Goff, Frank Lloyd Wright also has a birthday today. Wright is one of America’s most influential architects, defining the Organic Architecture movement which incorporated natural designs into homes. He was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, on June 8, 1867. Wright’s best known work …
Jun 08 2022
Architect Bruce Alonzo Goff was born in Alton, Kansas on June 8, 1904 and passed away on August 4, 1982. He was a brilliant child with a talent for drawing, and in 1915, his parents moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he was later made an apprentice at the Tulsa architectural firm of Rush, Endacott and …
Jun 01 2022
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, and much like Norstein’s animation Tale of Tales, Mirror (Зеркало, Zerkalo) is another stream of consciousness film that strings together memories. The film is not meant to symbolize anything, but rather uses intuition as a means of expression. The main character, loosely based on Tarkovsky himself, is a dying poet contemplating his …
May 28 2022
Happy birthday, Small World! 🎈 The colorful “It’s a Small World” attraction first opened in Disneyland on this day, May 28, 1966, following its successful showing at the New York’s ’64-’65 World’s Fair UNICEF salute at the Pepsi-Cola pavilion. In the opening ceremony, children from around the world in traditional costumes joined Walt Disney. Water that …
