Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick’s final masterpiece, is probably best known for its spectacular ritual/orgy scene which serves as the movie’s centerpiece. The ceremony stirs something altogether pagan within the soul and its mood is largely set by the soundtrack, scored by Jocelyn Pook. The song “Masked Ball” for example, features dark organ chords over which priests chant backwards in Romanian.

After the movie’s release, there was a renewed interest in Venetian masks and ritualistic parties.

One company, Castle Events has capitalized on this theme, organizing colorful gatherings in European locations.

Now, before you get too excited, it seems the company has strict guidelines for proper behavior at such events… Still, its nice to know that there are such interesting things going on in the world…

So if you find yourself crashing one of these parties, don’t forget the magic word! …Fidelio…

Proust Was A Neuroscientist

Science and art have long been at each other’s throats. Scientists declare that all life can be reduced to its fundamentals and, in so doing, be understood; while artists are adamant that the only way to approach an understanding of life is to analyze it creatively through the lens of an artistic medium rather than a microscope.

In his first book, Proust was a Neuroscientist, Jonah Lehrer argues compellingly for an ultimate truce between the two sides of this debate. His method is simple; with the subject of neuroscience as a battleground, he one-ups science over and over using a variety of artists and their own innovative discoveries about the mind. Lehrer claims that science shouldn’t be too quick to judge art and its merits, when, in the case of neuroscience, artists have intuited certain truths about the brain and its workings that scientists only discovered and made concrete years afterward. (more…)

In one of the all-time classic Simpson’s episodes, Homer, in an attempt to hide from his hirsute sisters-in-law, stumbles through a portal and into the third dimension….holy macaroni!

Only when the scene cuts back to the family’s 2D living room does it hit us how much an extra dimension changed how Homer saw his new and unfamiliar world.

Imagining past the 4th is hard enough for most people, but how about a 10th? Rob Bryanton’s book “Imagining the Tenth Dimension: A New Way of Thinking About Time and Space” attempts to do just that. According to superstring theory, what we think of as reality is actually made up of one dimensional strings vibrating in the 10th dimension. WTF?

Bryanton’s book has come under fire for being an astrophysics for dummies kind of read, and inferior to the works of others, such as Brian Greene. But, if you feel like your brain needs a workout, reach for your reefer and watch away!

Ambigram Tattoos

I first heard about ambigrams after reading Dan Brown’s pulpy religothrilla Angels and Demons. The novel is a prequel to the monster hit The Da Vinci Code and showcases many of the same themes that made the latter so popular: a shady secret society (The Illuminati), conflicts with the Catholic Church and mysterious symbols aplenty.

The main character, a delightful fellow, murders 4 cardinals in ironic ways and completes his nefarious deeds by branding ambigrams of the 4 elements into the victims’ chests…

These beautiful calligraphic creations can be read either right side up or upside down due to their clever stroke patterns :

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A Rage to Live: A Biography of Richard and Isabel Burton
By: Mary Lovell

Sir Richard Burton has lived easily one of the most fascinating lives ever–several times during the reading of this biography you’ll stop and wonder if this is all just fiction. No life could ever be this full, you’ll think…

The book opens with Burton’s early life in various locations around Europe. Following this is a chronicle of his time as a young soldier in India and growth into one of the leading Orientalists of his time.

richard burton - a rage to live

Two of the explorer’s main adventures are dealt with at length. The first, his pilgrimage to Mecca (more…)