LONELYPOND PRESENTS

Because that’s what you’re here for, right?

Robots: my friend @kristynburtt, the creator and host half of my friends @TheWebFiles (@SPWrite the director + producer half) is in Texas at the Texas State Fair running across robot + bird sculptures. So, of course, someone helped her solve the mystery + we have a link to The Traveling Man.

Shakespeare + Sarah Hemming, because those two names seem to go together, here and in The Financial Times. This past weekend she interviewed Mark Rylance, director, actor and theatre extraordinaire type. The interview made me nostalgic for The Tempest, which I swore I would never direct again (just read Act I, scene ii and you’ll know why — Shakespeare should have just written a prequel titled The Duke of Milan instead of that scene.) The actress playing Biondello this summer told Gayle she wanted us to do it + now I’m getting the urge again. We far exceeded our reach for the second year of a program + I got to put magic tricks in — remind me to tell you sometime about a half ton trunk, small children dressed as dogs and why they should never be combined in the same scene. Or about the 15′ tall mast that was magnetically attracted to swimming pools or the producer who had to hold down half our set by clinging to a rope thrown down from the stage…The Tempest seems conducive to epic stories, as the Rylance article reminded me. Hmmmm……

This afternoon’s alternate office discovery (thanks to Wired magazine): How about The Elements — yes, of the Table of Perodic fame. Theodore Gray has written a book about them and it looks great.

And @flyingmonkeyair linked to the site he did for Mizna, the Arab American arts journal/events promoter, where I found a book I must track down, The Night Counter.

What else…Great Vanessa Friedman article about fashion, Rio, Paris runways, no more one liner designs and everything else.

That should keep you busy for a bit. Bon soir.

Go here + watch the periodic table PARTY — great video promoting science careers.

Yes, with no show + nothing scheduled, I zinged through my FT Weekend yesterday. Here’s some fun links for you.

Vanessa Friedman on Twitter as a communication accessory — I like the analogy, Twitter goes with everything I own.

From the House and Home section, an article on 12th century design and redecorating the medieval stone keep at Dover Castle.

Sarah Hemming (yes, at it again) profiles Brian Friel…oddly enough, I recently had a Friel conversation with a friend looking for a play to direct. I would love to see a good production of Translations; I’ve always been fascinated by how the language issues would play out on stage.

Harry Eyres ponders Galileo, his telescopes and the reach of science.

And today, an update on robots assisting with care of the elderly in Japan.

Yes, that’s all I’m hearing at the moment but the rebroadcast of the Apollo 11 mission is happening and all the cool space cadets are tracking it on the site launched by the JFK Presidential Library and on Twitter: @AP11_Spacecraft, @ap11_capcom, + @ap11_eagle.

The landing is scheduled to happen (again) on Tuesday evening at 10:26 p.m. from what I can figure out.

You can download a widget to follow the countdown, sequences and recent tweets from MySpace, FaceBook and/or on your desktop. 89 H 02 M 45 S…

Europe + Robots

Levitating Robots

Cyclops Robots

I have asked the oracle at Twitter for robot news and this is the response (most probably not directly in response, but I’ve put the robot thought out there and now everyone’s seeing the darn things):
@nicolaz: Cyborg.

@guardiantech: Ant based robot.

@flaneur: seeing robots everywhere.

Robot fish video (a little creepy) and the Reuter’s article explaining why they’re on our side (sorry FT, your online article had no pictures).