All posts tagged: Culture

World’s largest blanket fort built at Las Vegas community center

World’s largest blanket fort built at Las Vegas community center

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. The classic blanket fort is a simple structure. Entry level hideouts often only require a bedsheet and a couple of chairs, and it doesn’t take much effort to expand the floorspace to accommodate guests. Constructing an intimidatingly expansive blanket enclave is a much bigger feat of engineering, however. At least, that’s what it looks like from photos showcasing the newest Guinness World Record holder for the largest blanket fort. The current champions? Local residents and high schoolers in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fort needed to be tall enough to allow inhabitants to sit comfortably inside it. Credit: Robert Edward / Clark County, Nevada Robert Edward At 14,103-square feet, the billowy project overshadows the previous record holder (12,291-square-feet) that was built in South Carolina …

Humans really did move Stonehenge’s six-ton centerpiece

Humans really did move Stonehenge’s six-ton centerpiece

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. Stonehenge is so much more than just a monumental feat of ancient engineering—it’s also a logistical marvel. Multiple generations of Neolithic designers relied on communal teamwork and clever construction techniques to precisely place each of the site’s gigantic megaliths about 5,000 years ago. Two primary types of stone known as sarcens and bluestones make up the formation. Paleoarchaeologists previously traced most of the sarcens to about 15 miles away to present-day Marlborough, England, while many of the bluestones originated in Wales. The famed Altar Stone is far more perplexing, however. The central, six-ton sandstone megalith likely came from a region in Scotland about 400 miles away. How a prehistoric society managed to scoot the boulder so far without complex tools or transportation methods …

A cutural stroll through Paris with musician Alice Taglioni and pastry chef Jessica Préalpato – Paris des arts

A cutural stroll through Paris with musician Alice Taglioni and pastry chef Jessica Préalpato – Paris des arts

Published by Sam Flores

This week on Paris des Arts, meet two artists who refuse to be put in a box. Actress Alice Taglioni shares her love of the piano, and Jessica Préalpato, named the world’s best pastry chef in 2019, reinvents afternoon tea in four different courses. Alice Taglioni is best known for her roles on the big screen, but she’s stepping into new territory with her debut classical album, DNA. The piano has been part of her life since childhood, a passion she’s never let go of. “People often project what they imagine me to be,” she says, “based on an image, on the roles I’ve played. With this album, I’m delivering who I actually am, even if it’s in a very unconscious way. I think it’s inevitably tied to a sensitivity that’s entirely my own.” Jessica Préalpato grew up around pastry, her father being a baker, but it was her years in the kitchens of haute cuisine that sparked her desire to do things differently. Working alongside Alain Ducasse, she developed the concept of desseralité: desserts …

‘The Vampire Lestat’ Turns It All the Way Up

‘The Vampire Lestat’ Turns It All the Way Up

Published by Jenni Sidey

“It’s the best, but it’s full-on,” says Anderson. “You don’t really get a lot of rest. And it’s dense writing, so you’re putting your whole body and brain into it.” “We’re all hyperaware that it’s a dream job,” Reid adds. “You get to do everything that you could possibly ever want to do as an actor in one single show. It’s quite stressful with how fast we move and how much they want to do, but if you don’t pinch yourself every day and go, ‘Wow, how fun is this?’ then you’re wasting your time.” The original Vampire Chronicles novels by Anne Rice have sold over 80 million copies, while the iconic 1994 film starring Hollywood juggernauts Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt grossed more than $200 million worldwide. The AMC TV show had, as showrunner and producer Rolin Jones tells it, much to live up to: “It was a remake of that thing from the ’90s, and the expectations are low.” And yet his Interview With the Vampire exists entirely outside the formidable shadows of …

The New James Bond? In ‘007 First Light,’ It’s You

The New James Bond? In ‘007 First Light,’ It’s You

Published by Jenni Sidey

“Earn the number,” says the promotional tagline for 007 First Light, the first major James Bond video game released in well over a decade. 007 Legends—the last major release to feature everyone’s favorite martini-swilling superspy—came out in 2012. It featured the likeness of Daniel Craig, whose five-film tenure as James Bond would hit its apex later that year with Skyfall—then and now, the only 007 film to hit the fabled $1 billion threshold at the box office (though Amazon, the franchise’s newest steward, surely has its sights set on eclipsing that number). Here’s another way to think about it: When 007 Legends was published, Barack Obama had just been reelected president of the United States, and Donald Trump was still incoherently ranting about his birth certificate. Neither Theresa May, nor Boris Johnson, nor Liz Truss, nor Rishi Sunak, nor Keir Starmer had ever been prime minister. The “Brexit” referendum—which led to the United Kingdom isolating itself from the rest of Europe, no Bond villain required—was nearly four years away. The Covid-19 pandemic, which rattled the …

The ‘Backrooms’ Ending Is a Trippy Nightmare

The ‘Backrooms’ Ending Is a Trippy Nightmare

Published by Jenni Sidey

The following article contains major spoilers for Backrooms, including its ending. Backrooms stormed the box office over the weekend, anointing its 20-year-old director Kane Parsons as a wunderkind auteur to watch. (He is the youngest-ever filmmaker to debut at number one.) The film is a real trip, to say the least: it’s essentially the feature-length adaptation of a series of viral YouTube videos created by Parsons when he was a teenager. They were eerie found-footage-style shorts exploring an endless, liminal parallel dimension—a labyrinthine mass of knotted corridors with urine-colored walls and flickering fluorescent lights, designed like a dreary office workplace from the ’90s. The movie extends what was once a spooky internet meme into a full-on, feature-length horror flick, one that is variously surreal, bizarre, and at points, completely terrifying. And the craziness keeps going right up until the end. In the film, we’re introduced to Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a depressed furniture store owner—and failed architect—who, following a brutal divorce, spends much of his downtime with a bottle in his mouth, watching a steady stream …

Alice Walton—Walmart Heir, Art Collector, Rancher—Has Done it Again With the New Crystal Bridges in Arkansas

Alice Walton—Walmart Heir, Art Collector, Rancher—Has Done it Again With the New Crystal Bridges in Arkansas

Published by Sam Flores

On Saturday night outside Crystal Bridges—the Bentonville, Arkansas, museum founded by Walmart heir Alice Walton—I spotted a whole lot of security wearing dongle earpieces and five-point lapel pins. This wasn’t your normal museum gala security. That’s right: Secret Service. Given the presence of the first family of American consumerism, the Waltons, and a number of high-profile guests expected to attend, the gala was always going to be well-staffed. After 64 years, the Waltons still have a controlling share of Walmart, which earlier this year cracked the trillion-dollar threshold on its market cap. That’s not to mention the art on the walls. Crystal Bridges has on view masterpieces by Jackson Pollock, Norman Rockwell, and Kerry James Marshall, as well as Kindred Spirits, the Hudson River School gem by Asher Brown Durand that many consider the most important American landscape produced in the country’s artistic infancy. Alice Walton bought it for a reported $35 million in 2005, when the work was deaccessioned by the New York Public Library. There’s a Georgia O’Keeffe that Walton bought in 2014 …

How Disneyland became SoCal’s unlikely gateway to tiki culture

How Disneyland became SoCal’s unlikely gateway to tiki culture

Published by Sam Flores

Tiki, an offshoot of the Midcentury Modern movement, flourished in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, but began to experience a decline in the ’70s. Thus, by the ’90s, there were concerns at Disney that the Enchanted Tiki Room — the pivotal 1963 attraction that pioneered audio-animatronics — was no longer in vogue, its singing birds, totems and flowers a relic of another era. The company explored some early concepts to remake the Enchanted Tiki Room. One idea was to transform it into an ecological, save-the-rainforest show. Another was to redesign it with a “Lion King” theme. “Let me tell you, we hated it,” says artist and designer Kevin Kidney of the latter concept. Kidney, who worked in Disneyland’s art department in the ’90s, says he and his longtime collaborator Jody Daily were “terrified” the Enchanted Tiki Room would disappear, so much so that they began making fliers to advertise the show and putting them up all over L.A., in restaurants, bars and museums. “We started an underground movement to save the Tiki Room even while …

Mexican designer blends soccer and pre-Hispanic culture ahead of the World Cup

Mexican designer blends soccer and pre-Hispanic culture ahead of the World Cup

Published by Sam Flores

MEXICO CITY (AP) — It’s no coincidence that Hugo Rosas’ jersey designs ahead of the World Cup resemble some of Mexico’s most iconic decorations. His work fuses soccer and Mexican identity to showcase his country’s culture beyond its borders. His latest collection is called “Calados del Alma” or “Cutouts of the Soul.” It draws inspiration from ancient Mexican beliefs and papel picado, the delicate cut-paper ornaments commonly used during local celebrations and holidays. “We try to create concepts that resonate with us and convey traditions that make Mexicans feel proud,” said Rosas, who has run a workshop with his brother Andrés near Mexico City since 2022. “The country’s best is reflected in papel picado, colors and town celebrations.” The first jersey sketched by the brothers portrayed Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent deity revered by several pre-Hispanic civilizations. That garment remains Andrés’ favorite to date. “Quetzalcoatl represents a balance that sees the world as a system, not as something extractive that human beings can simply benefit from,” said Andrés, who oversees the brand’s marketing. “I connect with …

What Reading Martha Moxley’s Haunting Diary Reveals Now

What Reading Martha Moxley’s Haunting Diary Reveals Now

Published by Sam Flores

Because “there” was not simply a house. It was the center of the social world available to her. To stop going over there would not have meant avoiding one uncomfortable interaction. It would have meant partially withdrawing from the infrastructure of her own adolescence. The entries do not describe panic. They describe calibration. A 15-year-old girl trying to maintain social equilibrium while managing the emotional volatility of boys around her. Read now, more than 50 years later, “I really have to stop going over there” sounds like a decision. In the geography of Belle Haven in 1975, it was closer to a recognition. The Moxley case has effectively been told three times across three different American vocabularies. First in 1975, as a shocking murder inside a wealthy enclave. Then in 2002, as a courtroom drama about guilt, privilege, and reasonable doubt. Then again in the streaming era, as a cold case refracted through decades of procedural controversy and public obsession. At no point was the story told primarily inside the language that would allow Martha’s …