Elstree 1976

Actors and extras reminisce about their time on the set of Star Wars and how making the film affected their lives

Keith Waldrop - Below the Earth

My first glance takes in
an army, tens of thousands ready
armed. As a mirror reflects
indistinctly and with a feeble
light, so it cracks and
soon fades. From its surface a clear
image of the beholder.
In these paintings: harbors, promontories,
shores, rivers, fountains,
fanes, groves, mountains, flocks, and of
course shepherds. Sometimes mythological
episodes, figures of the gods, the
battles at Troy, wanderings of Ulysses.
Scorned in these days of bad taste.
Now we have frescos of mon-
strosities, candelabra supporting
shrines, stalks with human heads.
Malachite green, Armenian
blue, red earths in
abundance, vermilion like a drug.

The making of '1979'

Here's the making of the 1979 music video. This was filmed in Santa Clarita, CA, in January 1996. Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. This was the 2nd Mellon Collie music video. ©1995 Virgin Records.

D.H. Lawrence - In A Boat

See the stars, love,

In the water much clearer and brighter

Than those above us, and whiter,

Like nenuphars.

Star-shadows shine, love,

How many stars in your bowl?

How many shadows in your soul,

Only mine, love, mine?

When I move the oars, love,

See how the stars are tossed,

Distorted, the brightest lost.

—So that bright one of yours, love.

The poor waters spill

The stars, waters broken, forsaken.

—The heavens are not shaken, you say, love,

Its stars stand still.

There, did you see

That spark fly up at us; even

Stars are not safe in heaven.

—What of yours, then, love, yours?

What then, love, if soon

Your light be tossed over a wave?

Will you count the darkness a grave,

And swoon, love, swoon?

All The Way

HBO Films presents All the Way, starring Bryan Cranston as Lyndon B. Johnson, Saturday, May 21 at 8pm on HBO.

Dan Witz - Mosh Pits (Human and Otherwise)

Influenced by the work of Renaissance painters Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel, his large-scale oil paintings of rampant crowds embody a rebellious and provocative nature that’s heightened by a stunning hyperreal aesthetic. He elaborates:

“I’m an academic realist painter, but I’m living in the 21st century, so I’m not going to be painting Roman soldiers invading, or some gothic baroque composition…The highest aspiration of an academic realist painter are these big group figure paintings, and I’m using the hardcore scene as my subject.”