| Maps inspire design, home decor
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Whether you are fascinated by the Old World or prefer a modern look, there's a map for your home.It's easy to find antique-inspired sepia maps of the world that are full of mountain ranges and place names and look as if they belong in your grandfather's study. But there are also more glamorous maps, streamlined of all topography and made of clear acrylic that seems to float when hung on the wall. Fully illuminated maps look like high-def televisions, techy enough to make a gadget geek swoon.But all maps share this: They transport us back in time to the places we have traveled, as well as to the places we dream of going. Maps represent who we are, making them good conversation pieces in the home, says Larry Compeau, associate professor of marketing at Clarkson University in New York and executive officer of the Society for Consumer Psychology.Maps also can signify who we wish we were."Those who haven't really traveled, who have a map displayed, want to convey that they're knowledge-seeking, intelligent people," Compeau says.
PS2 Makes You Study, Sort Of
We've all heard the basic story of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 before: An unsuspecting orphan is pulled from the comfort of his boring life into an adventure that will eventually lead to saving the world from a vast source of evil. Been there, done that. But Persona 3, released on Aug. 14 for the PlayStation 2, is far from a run-of-the-mill PS2 role-playing game, and not just because of the techno and rap that make up its soundtrack. Despite the cliché story (albeit with a modern twist), the gameplay mechanics are so quirky and innovative that one can't help but overlook Persona 3's many similarities to every other RPG ever. Persona 3's originality stems from the fact that it doesn't fit comfortably into just one genre. Half of the game is composed of traditional dungeon-crawling RPG fare, but the other half is a high school simulation, complete with gossipy girls, extracurricular activities, dating, and tests.
Laurie Metcalf
Right out of college, she and a group of Chicago friends started Steppenwolf Theatre, which grew into one of America's most distinguished companies. (Her 20-minute monologue in Lanford Wilson's Balm in Gilead is an off-Broadway legend.) Later, she picked up a little sitcom called Roseanne, which rewrote the rules of television comedy with its unblinking look at blue collar life. Now Metcalf is exercising her gift for being up to the minute on Broadway, co-starring in David Mamet's new comedy November. It's a Mamet play unlike any other, with the structure of a classic comedy in the Kaufman & Hart vein but filled with scabrous jokes on such hot-button topics as the torture of prisoners, campaign fundraising, the Middle East and gay marriage. Nathan Lane stars as a U.S. President willing to shake down the national turkey lobby to save his faltering re-election campaign, with Metcalf as his lesbian speechwriter, who's not above a little blackmail to get married on national television.
Radically visual
Two years ago, Ricardo Viera embraced the idea of an exhibition of snapshots with the typical gusto of a Cuban Falstaff. The director/curator of Lehigh University's galleries and museum operation relished the notion of a show of everything from family pictures to experimental collages. He knew it would neon-light his belief that photography is a level field, that a photograph is a flat world.
Viera made just one major proposal to the exhibit's proponents, Donald Lokuta and Robert Yoskowitz, arts professors and owners of large collections of snapshots. Why not, he suggested, pair pictures by amateurs with pictures of similar subjects by renowned photographers represented in Lehigh's collection? Why not invite visitors to debate who takes, and what makes, a better photo?
Organized by Viera, Lokuta and Yoskowitz, ''Vernacular to the Masters'' is a visual, intellectual hornet's nest.
|
