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The Chelsea Hotel in all its Fading Glory

Last night both Julia Calfee and Ed Hamilton took  to the mini stage at McNally Robinson to talk about the Chelsea Hotel. Julia showed slides from her luscious book Inside: The Chelsea Hotel. The 81 black and white unposed photos from her book are all shot in natural light and printed the old fashioned way, in a darkroom. Even though the photos have been taken within the past four years, they seem to capture a bygone era--possibly the hotel's last gasp of bohemian glory.

Ed read a chapter entitled The Truth About Those Fancy Hotels from his gem of a book, Legends of the Chelsea Hotel. He told me later that he likes to read that story because it conveys the craziness of the hotel.  The audience had questions about the artistic energy that pervades the hotel, the "millions of dollars worth of artwork" on the walls, and the photo of Rose Wood.  My favorite question was when someone asked Julia and Ed if they were ever worried that the lack of sanitary conditions would put their health at risk.  Ed said he had worried more about the junkies, but now it's the new management that concerns him.--Sherry Mazzocchi

World Science Festival

Hats off to Brian Greene and Tracy Day for organizing the supremely successful World Science Festival.  Greene, professor of physics at Columbia University and author of The Elegant Universe and Fabric of the Cosmos, wrote an op-ed in Sunday's New York Times saying we have failed children because science is boring.  We've stressed the details--the mind numbing drills, solving equations and learning all of the parts of the cell.  These things are all important, but we are missing the bigger picture.  The fundamental reason that science is so profound is because we search for answers to questions like where did we come from and why is the universe the way it is.  When you pursue science with a sense of wonder and curiosity instead of drudgery and drill, children will want to be scientists.  In essence, we have taught science backwards.  Inspire and captivate first, then present the details.

But instead of merely bemoaning that we do a lousy job of inspiring children and adults to take a greater interest in science, he has actually done something about it.  He and Tracy Day put together this hugely successful festival with experts from a wide array of fields, including a hefty amount of Nobel Laureates.  Over 40 events with 22,000 attendees were completely sold out.  The science street fair for children in Washington Square Park was attended by over 100,000 people.  Not only that, if you missed the festival entirely, you will be able to watch nearly everything on the website within the next few days.

In one of the events, Greene said that while the ideas of quantum mechanics are not widely absorbed by the public, our culture has freely adopted its language.  We all use the technology made possible by physics--televisions, cell phones and iPods, but most of us don't have a clue why these things work.  We live in a world shaped by science.  Solutions to the biggest problems we face--climate change, fossil fuel dependence, health care, aging infrastructures and scarce resources--all require science.  Greene said that science is the greatest of all adventure stories.  We need the most adventuresome of souls to conquer these problems.--Sherry Mazzocchi