Remember the movie Contact, starring Jodie Foster? She contacted aliens from a famous star that in the movie was pronounced “VAY-ga.” Well, that star’s name was spelled Wega for centuries, and spoken as “WEE-ga,” meaning a falling eagle in Arabic. It evolved to be spelled Vega and spoken as “VEE-ga” in the 19th century. And it remains “VEE-ga” today. Those who Latinize it as “VAY-ga” are getting it wrong.
Saturday, Feb. 15: At the Sankofa event, attendees can participate in the making of a strip-weave community quilt or learn the secrets of traditional basketmaking from three generations of Gullah Geechee women. Another workshop will teach natural dyeing of upcycled fabrics using local plants and West African techniques. Community loom-weaving will go on all day.
Jan. 31-Feb. 6: For most of us, even fairly serious cinephiles, the toughest categories tend to be short films, which don’t get wide distribution. But as always, Upstate Films is there to help fill in the gaps in your Academy Award nominee familiarity.
I rue the fact that the fans of tomorrow suffer in virtual isolation, and not in geographic and familial clusters of themed fur. Super Bowl LIV: San Francisco 49ers vs. Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, February 2, 6:30 p.m. at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, FOX-TV. Halftime show, featuring Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, will likely begin shortly after 8 p.m.
Gaiman will soon be back, resuming his teaching responsibilities at Bard, and the Conversations are back on. Jemisin’s work is lauded by her peers at least as much for its elegant writing and powerful worldbuilding as for its thought-provoking treatment of politically and sociologically relevant issues such as genocide and climate change.
Saturday, Feb. 1: With a new band in tow, and some formidable special guests, the Nathans are prepared to unveil Mach Two with full fanfare.
Saturday, Feb. 1: The award-winning Woodstock-based chorus will present a program titled Frets, Keys & Pipes.
When it opened in 1932, inmates at Wallkill Correctional Facility lived in four housing wings, each containing 42 cells, with bathrooms and recreation rooms on each wing, much like a college dormitory. They were allowed to keep the keys to their own rooms.
Monday, Feb. 3: In Yellow Earth, the site of Three Nations reservations on the banks of the Missouri River in North Dakota, Sayles introduces us to Harleigh Killdeer, chairman of the Tribal Business Council. “An activist in his way, a product of the Casino Era,” Killdeer, who is contracted by oil firm Case and Crosby, spearheads the new Three Nations Petroleum Company.
Millipedelike creatures called myriapods likely shared this forest ecosystem, but dinosaurs would not begin to evolve for another 140 million years.