Evening's Entertainment Research Articles

Reading Performance Criticism

Fred Astaire once remarked of performing in London that he knew when the end of a play's run was approaching when he saw the first black tie in the audience. Perhaps this is an American's ironic representation of the snobbishness of pre-War London (though he was the American who sang the top-hat, white tie and tails into a part of his personal image). Perhaps it is merely an accurate (or nostalgic) picture of the dress code of the audiences of the period. The very appeal to such a dress code, however – in whatever way we choose to read the anecdote – inevitably relies on a whole network of cultural ideas and norms to make its point. It implies tacitly what is easily recoverable from other sources about the theatre of the period: the expected class of the audience; the sense of ‘an evening's entertainment’ – attending the fashionable play of the season, with all the implications of the theatre as a place not merely for seeing but also for being seen; the range of subjects and characters portrayed on the London stage of the period; the role of London as a European capital of a world empire (with a particular self-awareness of itself as a capital); the expected types of narrative, events, and language, that for many modern readers could be evoked with the phrase ‘a Fred Astaire story’. If we want to understand the impact of the plays of Ibsen or Brecht or Osborne or Beckett, it cannot be merely through ‘dramatic techniques’, but must also take into account the social performance that is theatre. Ibsen's commitment to a realist aesthetic is no doubt instrumental to the impact of his plays, but it is because his (socially committed) dramas challenged the proprieties of the social event of theatre that his first reviewers were so hostile.

Visiting two worlds: an excursion into the methodological jungle including an optional evening's entertainment at the Rigour Club

(1986). Visiting two worlds: an excursion into the methodological jungle including an optional evening's entertainment at the Rigour Club. Cambridge Journal of Education: Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 131-143.

ANOTHER WELSH ‘INTERNATIONAL’

A well‐established syllabus of fourteen 90‐minutes lecture sessions, over five days, plus practical laboratory demonstrations and discussion (to say nothing of first‐class evening entertainment), produced a full house for this year's Industrial Tribology Seminar at Swansea (September 16–20).

Confessions of a Medical Heretic

This is not a collection of confessions but rather a collection of opinions, only some of which are reliable. The book will delight many who view medicine as a nonsystem that is exploiting the public and will anger others who view medicine as being under unfair and damaging attack. Most physicians will find much in here with which to agree but also a great deal with which to take exception. It is an easy book to read, perhaps because one can dismiss so much of it as piffle; nevertheless it makes for an evening's entertainment and would shorten one four-hour airplane trip. The technique of describing one specific situation or case history and then generalizing to all situations or all case histories is a dangerous one, and such extrapolations are carefully avoided by all responsible scientists. However, this approach of Mendelsohn's supplies the grist for his mill— and its faulty

Turquerie and Eighteenth-Century Music

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, turquerie was in fashion. For an evening's entertainment, one might attend the theater to see the latest play or opera based on a Turkish theme or go to a masked ball wearing an elaborate Turkish costume.' At home, one might relax in a Turkish robe while smoking Turkish tobacco, eating Turkish candy, and reading an ever-popular Turkish tale. Authors, in their adventure novels and heroic dramas, frequently turned to Oriental subjects and substituted Eastern emperors, tsars, and sultans for the more traditional Western rulers. The treachery and fratricide of Turkey's past and the menace of the Ottoman Empire to Europe provided emotionally charged material, and the passionate tales of seraglio intrigue introduced a sensuality and luxuriousness that had been lacking in Western literature. (It was assumed that Orientals were inherently more amorous, more impulsive, and more indulgent than Europeans.) Under the influence of contemporary fiction, the ubiquitous tales of antiquity gradually relinquished their hold on operatic librettos, while heroic Oriental romances, involving violence, unrestrained desire, and religious conflict, came into prominence. A significant figure in operatic productions was Suleiman I (1520-1566), who was undoubtedly the most illustrious of the sultans; he led his armies to imposing conquests and was greatly admired by his subjects. Even without the customary fictitious embellishments, the events of his reign were melodramatic, for they involved passion, ambition, jealousy, and murder. Suleiman's wife, Roxelane, feared that her children would be murdered by Mustafa, the heir to the throne (son of

Health Aspects of the Urban Environment

IN SHREVEPORT, LA., there was a medical shingle reading Specialist. I think perhaps it should be my shingle, too, because working in field of I am constantly being tossed between being a specialist in one area and looking at general situation and total policy in anoither. As a general specialist, I diagnose current illness in our cities as urban stress disease, a sociological condition resulting from cultural changes within this nation in last few years. It is a disease of large populations crowded together, resulting in a stress condition with psychological and physical symptoms. With our present communication capabilities, no one is immune to t,he pressures created' by this urba,n syndrome. Through radio, television, and modern transportation even most isolated people are involved in problems, concerns, and conditions of urban revolution. Our clothes, cars, and evening entertainment reflect urban civilization. I am concerned with prevention and control of factors producing or contributing to urban problems. I do not believe that one of today's tangible evidences of stress-the riotcan be cured. However, we can prevent situation from getting worse. major mission of should be prevention and control of factors in advance of crises. This is basic philosophy of and treatment or other after-the-fact remedies should be regarded as failure to carry o-ut primary mission. This is not neces,sarily a univeirsally anecepted interpretation of health in phrase public health, but I am interpreting it in its broadest sense-as in World Health Organization definition-to include a state of positive wellbeing. Public, to me, implies being political irL Aristotelian sense-the science and art of policy. I believe that failure, of most seientists and professionals in field to work from this viewpoint is responisible to, some, degree, for present social unrest. Fortunately, trend among leaders is to, involve and befcome involved with groups and individuals from many backgrounds whio wlerei formerly not used. Accordingly, can offer a very effective tool to help persons of divergent interests and backgrounds determine future courses of' action in our cities. This tool is epidemiology. In11 public, heialth, epidemiology was concerned originally with kinds of epidemics-yello-w fever, simallpox, and like-considered to be visitations upon people. Though urban stress 'disease, is different, I believe it, can also be prevented and controlleid if technique's of epidemiology which help identify and pinpoint proba,ble sourices of disruption are applied. What is involved is a step-by-step tracing of forc,e;s that explain diseaise or or 'any condition. I use phrase the forces that explain because I want to avoid word cause. To, many people, cause alnd effeet is an overly simplistic 'approach to most problems. 'For example, course of many diseases, such as lung cancer, is affected, influenced, or Dr. Prindle is Assistant Surgeon General and director, Bureau of Disease Prevention and Environmental Control, Public Health Service. This paper is based on a speech given at a centennial symposium, The City as Environment: Biological and Social Implications, Wayne State University, Detroit, November 16, 1967.

THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF PHOTOGRAMMETRY

In the words of its retiring President, Mr. P. Mogensen, the VIIIth International Congress of Photogrammetry has now passed into history. For those who attended, about six hundred and fifty participants and about two hundred ladies representing 42 different countries, this Congress was most enjoyable and unforgettable. Our Swedish hosts went to prodigious lengths to ensure not only that everything was smooth running and efficient from the technical point of view, but also to provide for the entertainment of all. Nearly every day there was a sightseeing tour for the ladies—Stockholm has much of interest and beauty to show visitors in the summer—and there were technical tours to such diverse places as Esselte, which is a large commercial map printing organization, the Swedish Land Survey Board, the Geographical Survey Office, the City Surveyor's Office, and the Royal Institute of Technology (Divisions of Geodesy and Photogrammetry, the Board for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Optical Research). Whole day visits were made to the air base of the Geographical Survey Office, the Royal Observatory and Uppsala University, the latter being one of the oldest in Europe; in addition, tours up-country lasting several days were organized for those who could afford the time after the Congress had finished. Finally, in the evenings and over the week-end, our hosts had arranged a reception party, a midnight concert, a grand banquet in Stockholm's famous City Hall, a boat trip in the archipelago and a visit to Drottningholm Palace, with an open air performance of an “Opera Comique” in its famous ancient theatre. When one adds that there were some three hundred technical papers, many technical films and an absolutely first-class exhibition of photogrammetric instruments, not to mention other evening entertainment, it may be seen that no little stamina was required of the participants. The gale of July 29th provided a most undignified anti-climax to those who, like your reporter, had the misfortune to be caught in the North Sea at the time.

THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF PHOTOGRAMMETRY

AbstractAbstractIn the words of its retiring President, Mr. P. Mogensen, the VIIIth International Congress of Photogrammetry has now passed into history. For those who attended, about six hundred and fifty participants and about two hundred ladies representing 42 different countries, this Congress was most enjoyable and unforgettable. Our Swedish hosts went to prodigious lengths to ensure not only that everything was smooth running and efficient from the technical point of view, but also to provide for the entertainment of all. Nearly every day there was a sightseeing tour for the ladies—Stockholm has much of interest and beauty to show visitors in the summer—and there were technical tours to such diverse places as Esselte, which is a large commercial map printing organization, the Swedish Land Survey Board, the Geographical Survey Office, the City Surveyor's Office, and the Royal Institute of Technology (Divisions of Geodesy and Photogrammetry, the Board for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Optical Research). Whole day visits were made to the air base of the Geographical Survey Office, the Royal Observatory and Uppsala University, the latter being one of the oldest in Europe; in addition, tours up-country lasting several days were organized for those who could afford the time after the Congress had finished. Finally, in the evenings and over the week-end, our hosts had arranged a reception party, a midnight concert, a grand banquet in Stockholm's famous City Hall, a boat trip in the archipelago and a visit to Drottningholm Palace, with an open air performance of an “Opera Comique” in its famous ancient theatre. When one adds that there were some three hundred technical papers, many technical films and an absolutely first-class exhibition of photogrammetric instruments, not to mention other evening entertainment, it may be seen that no little stamina was required of the participants. The gale of July 29th provided a most undignified anti-climax to those who, like your reporter, had the misfortune to be caught in the North Sea at the time.

Laying the Ghosts in Pericles

HE study of Pericles involves many problems. An additional complication is that it is also haunted by a group of dancing ladies whose dim forms appear and disappear in edition after edition of the play. They have flitted about since the early days of Shakespearian scholarship, seen by one editor here, unseen by an editor there.' It is the intent of this paper to lay these specters once and for all with the hope that, once exorcised, they will vex us no more, and that the dim corner of the play which they once inhabited will then assume a more rational form and content. This shadowy corner is Act II, Scene iii. The outlines of the action in this scene are clear enough. Pericles, King Simonides, his daughter Thaisa, and several knights enter the banquet hall of the King's palace in Pentapolis. They have just come from a tourney in which Pericles, the unknown knight, has defeated all of the other knights at tilting. As a part of the evening's entertainment, two dances are performed. At the conclusion of the second dance the scene ends. The significance of the scene in general, and of the dances in particular, has apparently remained obscure; at least, none of the editors I know have attempted to explain the relationship of the dances to their context. This connection has been largely distorted by the ghostly ladies who sometimes take part in the second dance. Once the ghosts are banished, we will see that the scene becomes more coherent. The proper method for exorcising spirits is usually to seek the sorcerer or cause for the appearance of the ghosts and, by rendering his charm ineffectual, to destroy the specters at their source. Pursuing this course, we soon discover that the dancing ladies make their first appearance in the Edmond Malone edition of I790.2 According to the i609 and i6i9 Quartos and the Third and Fourth Folios, the stage direction at the beginning of the scene in question states, Enter the King and Knights from Tilting.3 Pericles is presumably one of the knights, and Thaisa also enters, as the following dialogue indicates. But there is no mention of other ladies being present. When the dances commence, each dance is preceded by the stage direction, They daunce. Malone evidently suspected that the nature of the dances was significant, for he made some silent emendations to the stage directions. Preceding the first dance he substituted the direction, The Knights dance. For the second dance he substituted the direction, The Knights and Ladies dance. Subsequent editors have either retained the non-

Industrial television and the Vidicon

TO THE AVERAGE person television means but one thing — the home receiver to which he and his family may repair for an evening's entertainment or instruction. And, indeed, the growth of the industry which serves this function has been so phenomenal that it may seem unreasonable to ask more of television than the dissemination of cultural values and relaxation through the medium of broadcasting.

Science in the Magazines

THERE are few articles of scientific import in the magazines received by us. By this we do not mean to say that science is unrepresented in magazine literature for June, but that the articles, while affording an excellent pabulum for the omnivorous reader, lack originality of thought. They are, in fact, more descriptive than suggestive. “In the year 1887” (writes Mr. Edison, as an introductory note to an article by Antonia and W. K. L. Dickson in the Century) “the idea occurred to me that it was possible to devise an instrument which should do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear, and that by a combination of the two all motion and sound could be recorded and reproduced simultaneously.” The development of this idea, and its practical realisation, are well described by the authors of the article on Edison's kineto-phonograph—this being the comprehensive term given to the invention that is able to record and give back the impressions to the eye as well as to the ear. Muybridge, Marey, Boys, and others have shown what can be done in the way of instantaneous photography, but the plan used by Edison to obtain pictures of movable objects appears to differ from any previously used. After many trials, a highly sensitised strip of celluloid one and a-half inches wide has been adopted for the production of negatives, each strip being perforated on the outer edge. “These perforations occur at close and regular intervals, in order to enable the teeth of a locking-device to hold the film steady in the nine-tenths of the one forty-sixth part of a second, when a shutter opens rapidly and admits a beam of light, causing an image of phase in the movement of the subject. The film is then jerked forward in the remaining one-tenth of the forty-sixth part of a second, and held at rest while the shutter has again made its round, admitting another circle of light, and so on until forty-six impressions are taken a second, or 2760 a minute. This speed yields 165,600 pictures in an hour, an amount amply sufficient for an evening's entertainment, when unreeled before the eye…. The advantage of this system over a continuous band, and of a slotted shutter forging widely ahead of the film, would be this, that in one case only the fractional degree of light comprised in the 1720th part of a second is allowed to penetrate to the film, at a complete sacrifice of all detail, whereas in the present system of stopping and starting, each picture gets one-hundredth part of a second's exposure with a lens but slightly stopped down—time amply sufficient, as any photograper knows, for the attainment of excellent detail even in an ordinarily good light.” The perforations in the film, referred to in the foregoing, are of assistance in establishing harmonious relations between the kinetoscope and phonograph, in making the action recorded by the one suit the word imprinted upon the other. Several reproductions of series of pictures obtained by the kinetograph accompany the article. In order that the subjects leaving their “passing moods” upon the kinetograph film may be brilliantly illuminated, a new kind of studio has been constructed. The building is pivoted at the centre, and is capable of being rotated so as to present any desired aspect to the sun. Another article in the Century, entitled “Field Notes,” by Mr. John Burroughs, contains some interesting notes on the habits ot a few common animals. This kind of contribution is very common in the magazines. “The Dog,” by Mr. N. S. Shaler, and “American Game Fishes,” by Mr. L. M. Yale, both in Scribner, belong to this anecdotal class.