Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (1889–1977) is considered one of the first movie stars ever and made film history with his acting and his works. He is also one of the few artists who managed the transition from silent films to sound films.
Because of using archetypal imagery and symbols in his films, it is natural that the moon could also play a part somewhere. We found four references:
“Koyaanisqatsi” is a film by the American director Godfrey Reggio, which was made between 1975 and 1982. The term “ko-yaa-nis-qatsi” derives from the language of the Hopi tribe and means “life out of balance” or “life in turmoil”. The movie manages without words, conveys its message with powerful images and haunting music by Philip Glass. It is a critical film that serves as eye-opener for the dark side of our civilization through comparing of poetic impressions of nature and images of the consequences of human activity. “Koyaanisqatsi” is the first part of a trilogy, followed by “Powaqqatsi” (1988) and “Naqoyqatsi” (2002).
This article is for all lovers who are far apart from each other – maybe due to travelling, maybe because of personal circumstances.
Sometimes we have to learn not to experience geographical distance as inner distance. But although it is said, love surmounts time and space, one still has a longing for closeness, which is difficult to push aside, despite all sensible thoughts. A kiss over the phone is simply not the same as the moment when lips touch.
This classic of the surrealistic movie scene (the original in French »Un Chien Andalou«) by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, evoked mixed reactions when released in Paris, in 1929. Even from a current perspective, the movie polarizes, whereby its artistic value remains indisputable.
The approximately sixteen minute act consists of a series of individual sequences, which show different encounters of men and women. There are dream-like, symbolic, and partly absurd scenes that do not create a plot in the classic sense. Yet, the movie projects some sort of development, however, it remains incomprehensible.
More than 400 years ago, the German artist Adam Elsheimer (1578–1610) painted the picture »Flight into Egypt« (1609), where he depicted the well-known biblical scene of the escape of Joseph and Maria with the Christ Child. The special feature of this painting is, that it shows the full moon and night sky with such a richness of detail on a scale not seen before. Scientists – like for example Dr. Christian Sicka of the ›Deutsche Museum‹ Munich – have examined this work and come to the conclusion that this is possibly the first correct astronomical true to life depiction of the night sky in paintings. One can easily recognise the lunar maria on the Moon’s surface and also the Milky Way, moreover a clear graduation of brightness with the individual stars.
… this line from the poem “Evening Song” from 1778, by the poet Matthias Claudius (1740–1815), belongs to the best-known poems in German literature, not least of all because it was set to music many times; hence, it does not only remain in one’s memory because of its lyrics, but also because of its melody. Especially as a lullaby, everyone has surely heard it before or even sang it to the children:
Almost exactly 40 years ago, on 06.02.1971, Alan B. Shepard succeeded the furthest one-handed golf swing in history to date, as commander of the Apollo 14 mission. He did not accomplish this due to any extraordinary abilities as a golf player, but because he struck the golf ball on the moon. And because of the prevailing, scarce amount of gravity and the absent braking effect in the atmosphere, the ball flew extremely far.
Shepard had to strike the ball one-handedly, as the rigid space suit did not allow two-handed play. He undertook four attempts and struck two balls altogether. How far exactly they flew has not been documented, however, one can assume a couple of hundred metres. In the original audio material of NASA, you can hear Shepard saying jokingly, after his last tee off »Miles and miles and miles …«.
Maybe it lies within the plan of creation that we are so susceptible to everything that is bigger than what we already know or have already experienced. However, the following merely relates to heavenly bodies …
As we recently wrote in our article »Sun and moon the same size?« here in our full moon blog, the moon changes its distance to earth due to its unusual orbit and subsequently appears to be of a different size for the observer here on earth, depending on how close it is to earth at the time. Is the moon (or another heavenly body) as close to earth as possible, one speaks of perigee, and if it is the furthest away, it is called apogee. You can confidently forget these terms again, however, you may want to memorise that the moon can appear to us in different sizes.
Who believes to see a staggering Moon at night, has probably had a drop too much, although a staggering movement of the Moon actually exists in astronomy. This is called »libration«, but happens very slowly and is therefore only visible by the naked eye in time-lapse photography.
The Moon orbits around the Earth in a so called synchronous rotation. This means that it always faces one hemisphere towards the Earth, while the reverse side of the Moon is not visible from Earth. Due to certain physical conditions (relating to orbits, angular velocity, centres of mass, among others), what happens is that the visible surface of the Moon varies slightly during the course of the moon cycle, and there is a gentle change of inclination of the Moon’s axis or it appears to turn a little.
It’s been a few years ago, since we watched the TV series »Moonlighting« and could accompany Bruce Willis in the role of detective David Addison and Cybill Shepherd as the former top model Maddie Hayes, on a weekly chase of hoodlums. This was 1985, Bruce Willis’s start of his career, who had been chosen out of 1,000 applicants, and had already then an incomparably smug smile (and significantly more hair). The success of this series lies, next to the quick-witted dialogues, of course in the latent erotic relationship of the leading roles, who ingeniously never quite get it together.
When the sun light is reflected and diffracted in fine water droplets in the air, a rainbow arises. So what happens if the same occurs in the moon light, is there also going to be a rainbow? Well, we find the idea of a moon rainbow quite fascinating …
Let’s take a short detour into physics. What we recognise in a rainbow as an arched bow made of colourful light, are the spectral colours that develop when the “white” sunlight fans out in its different wavelenghts, which we perceive in different colours. This decomposition does also take place, when the light is sent through a glass prism.