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The Longmont Museum’s Thursday Nights will be taking us out of our world over the next two weeks. Following the theme of spheres and roundness, this week’s Stewart Auditorium showing (20th February) is of the classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Released in 1968, Stanley Kubrick directed the film based on a short story by science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke. And the year of 2001 seemed impenetrably far in the future at the time – anything could happen in the next thirty years, even computers with minds of their own.
An imposing black structure provides a connection between the past and the future, and astronauts are sent on a mysterious mission. Gradually their ship's computer system, HAL, begins to display increasingly strange behavior, leading up to a tense showdown between man and machine that results in a mind-bending trek through space and time.
As well as being a compelling story, the cinematic contrasts between this 1968 production and the latest Star Wars films are an amazing display of the advances in technology in the past 50 years. And compare the incredible John Williams’ score for the Star Trek films, with the classical pieces from Johann and Richard Strauss, and Aram Khachturian Kubrick chosen for 2001. This will be an incredible evening on so many levels.
And next week (27th February) promises to be an evening of equal fascination. The Thursday Talk is entitled Music of the Spheres: Intersection of Art, Science, & Faith. This evening will be in the form of a conversation, moderated by Michelle Gemma Cuthbertson, a Louisville-based psychotherapist and spiritual guidance counselor.
Artist Terry Maker is one of the participants, and I am sure she will describing the thoughts behind her works in the current Museum exhibit Because the World is Round. Terry is joined by composer Chris Pilsner, who is an established name in the contemporary classical world. Chris’ music has been performed by groups as diverse as professional ensembles, universities, high schools, all-state/honor ensembles, and even in Carnegie Hall. The third conversation participant is astrodynamicist Daniel Scheeres. He is a University of Colorado Distinguished Professor, the A. Richard Seebass Chair of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He even has an asteroid named after him.
So, an interesting and stimulating conversation is bound to be heard on 27th February at the Museum. Who would think that there could be common ground between an artist, a composer and a space scientist? But the world is round, and spheres share their commonality in many branches of intellectual life. Go online to book for either or both of these intriguing events at www.longmontmuseum.org, or telephone at (303)651=8374.
