Black People In Business – World Wide

By STUART FERGUSON

Winter Park, Fla.

In the Morse Museum of American Art’s jaw-dropping 12,000-square-foot wing devoted to Laurelton Hall, Louis Comfort Tiffany’s huge estate on the North Shore of Long Island, there are layers and layers—of materials, of meaning, of history. A walk through the first-floor galleries (upstairs are offices and an expanded library) with museum curator Jennifer Perry Thalheimer made clear how Tiffany’s blue-and-white dining room—the original seated 150—with its marble mantle, unadorned except for its three built-in clocks telling the hour, day and month, related to the outdoor Daffodil Terrace, which in turn connected the house with its gardens, whose pond, pools and streams were fed by water from inside the house.

Laurelton’s three-story reception hall was the fountain court, seemingly right out of the Alhambra. Liquid pouring from the mouth of a tall, narrow vase into its basin—continually changing hues thanks to the rotations of an underwater pair of lead, brass and glass color wheels—was the source for elaborate hydraulics that sent a stream flowing through a rill that pierced the exterior wall to feed outside water features of the 580-acre estate, itself overlooking Cold Spring Harbor. The main house was built from 1902 to 1905 and had 84 rooms, including a smoking room where Tiffany could puff away under a mural depicting an opium dream. There also were accommodations for student artists; greenhouses; a bowling alley; a working farm; and a lighted, cork-lined tunnel leading to the beach on Long Island Sound.

Tiffany (1848-1933), son of the founder of the famous jewelry store, began his career as an Orientalist painter. His travels in North Africa inspired the smokestack-disguised-as-minaret at Laurelton Hall, the detailed architect’s model of which survived the 1957 fire that gutted the mansion, as did those color wheels in the fountain. So, too, did an elaborately carved pair of massive teakwood doors that granted entrance to the estate’s art gallery. They came from India, and were imported by the decorating firm Tiffany operated with the artist and furniture designer Lockwood de Forest. In all, more than 250 art and architectural objects associated with the estate are on view in the Morse’s new wing.

Having already designed the interiors of Mark Twain’s house in Hartford, Conn., and Chester A. Arthur’s White House (not to mention his own residences in New York City), Tiffany knew the effects he wanted inside Laurelton Hall. Of course, Louis Comfort Tiffany is most famous for the stained-glass windows and lighting featuring his patented opalescent glassmaking techniques. Among the examples here from Laurelton Hall are the wisteria transoms in the dining room; the living room’s “Maiden feeding flamingoes in the court of a Roman house” window; and the earthy “Pumpkin and beets,” depicting those humble root vegetables with a rich, jewel-like intensity. While the show includes lampshades and chandeliers galore, along with vases, furniture and architectural drawings, it’s the 1898 glass-and-bronze, scarab-shaped reading lamp, green and glowing on Tiffany’s living-room work table, that would have tempted Salvador Dalí to larceny.

Period photographs and watercolors executed by Laurelton Hall’s visiting artists evoke the place in its heyday. “We tried for enough context so the galleries help interpret the material but aren’t period rooms,” said the Morse’s director, Laurence J. Ruggiero, who explained how Winter Park ended up with the world’s most comprehensive collection of Tiffany works.

The museum is named for Charles Hosmer Morse (1833-1921), a Chicago industrialist who first spent winters here in the 1880s. Morse’s granddaughter Jeannette Genius and her husband, Hugh McKean, were both talented painters who had attended nearby Rollins College. In 1930, McKean won a fellowship to stay at Laurelton Hall with Tiffany and then returned to Rollins to teach art, later becoming the college’s president. In 1942, Genius (who was a professional interior designer) had founded the Morse Gallery of Art on the Rollins campus and made McKean its director. The couple, who married in 1945, had the vision and means to collect Tiffany when he was very much out of style. In 1955, Genius curated the first museum exhibition devoted solely to Tiffany, but that was just the beginning.

Recalling their 1957 visit to the ruins of Laurelton Hall, McKean said his wife vowed to “buy everything that’s left and try to save it.” And so they did. But their gallery wasn’t large enough to display all the treasures, so Genius designed and opened a Winter Park restaurant, La Belle Verriere, festooned with her Tiffany glass. It operated from 1976 to 1990. In 1978, the McKeans gave Laurelton Hall’s monumental garden loggia to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it’s now part of the courtyard of the American Wing.

The Morse Museum opened at its current location in 1995, displaying Tiffany’s creations as well as work by John La Farge, Daniel Chester French, John Singer Sargent and Frank Lloyd Wright plus Arts and Crafts furniture and pottery. A 1999 addition houses the magnificent Byzantine-Romanesque interior of the chapel Tiffany created for the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition. Thanks to the McKeans’ well-endowed estate, the Morse does not take public funds, and even in this time of museum retrenchment it was able to complete the Laurelton Hall galleries.

Today the center of the Morse is Laurelton Hall’s 32-by-18-foot Daffodil Terrace. Originally attached to the south side of the house, it now looks out at the museum’s garden courtyard through walls of glass. Its triple-bayed pergola rests on eight marble columns 11½-feet high, each crowned with a capital of glass daffodils. When it was in Cold Spring Harbor, a pear tree grew from the terrace level and up through the opening in the middle of the pergola. At the sides of the opening are small panes of opaque blue glass, joined so as to resemble a trellis. Each pane is embedded with green glass in the shapes of leaves and stems. The flanking bays have Moorish-style ceilings of coffered tiles, painted to resemble wood. Ms. Thalheimer, the curator, explained that the cedar planks (stenciled with rectangles and six-point stars) surrounding the tiles were probably painted by Jane Peterson, who spent several months with Tiffany painting views of his house and gardens.

The Daffodil Terrace is an amazing structure, its tiles and glass seeming to shimmer and change with each step taken under it. When it was finally brought out of storage in preparation for a 2006-07 exhibition at the Metropolitan, it took two years to clean, restore and assemble its 600 parts. Mr. Ruggiero told me of visiting the New York exhibition with the Morse’s trustees: “When we’re all standing there looking at this magnificent terrace, we can’t just put it back in the box.”

Mr. Ferguson is writing “Ladies of the House: The Rossetter Sisters of Florida,” to be published by the Florida Historical Society.

Por JOHN W. MILLER, de Detroit

Para compreender o que a indústria siderúrgica tem que enfrentar para dominar o mercado automobilístico, considere os sete cubos exibidos pela ZF Friedrichshafen AG, gigante alemã das autopeças, no Salão do Automóvel de Detroit, que terminou domingo. Cada cubo representava um material importante usado hoje para fabricar peças automotivas — um mercado de US$ 1 bilhão no qual as siderúrgicas vêm predominando desde os tempos do Ford Modelo T.

Dos sete cubos, o mais pesado era de aço. O mais leve era uma moldagem por injeção. “Estamos mexendo cada vez mais com todos os tipos de metais e de plásticos para cada peça”, diz Dieter Eulenbach, diretor de vendas e engenharia da ZF, empresa com faturamento anual de US$ 20 bilhões. “Sempre tentando encontrar o equilíbrio certo entre custo, peso, durabilidade e plasticidade.” Um estande enorme na exposição mostrava os 11 materiais distintos usados para fabricar o corpo do Cadillac ATS, incluindo magnésio e espuma acústica. Décadas atrás, o aço predominava.

Os fabricantes de alumínio, plásticos e esponjas estão correndo para alcançar as siderúrgicas, alegando que seus produtos são mais leves e mais maleáveis — considerações fundamentais para a eficiência no consumo de combustível e o design de um carro.

Em resposta, as siderúrgicas estão desenvolvendo uma nova forma de aço, o “aço avançado de alta resistência”, que emprega uma abordagem semelhante à culinária “fusion”: alterar os métodos de cozimento e resfriamento, em vez de usar ingredientes caros, para modificar a composição química do aço.

A fabricação se baseia em uma linha de produção conhecida como “recozimento contínuo”, onde o aço é submetido a sucessivos tratamentos a quente e a frio, modificando sua microestrutura e, assim, sua flexibilidade e resistência.

O novo aço representa a terceira onda siderúrgica para o setor automobilístico. Durante a maior parte do século XX, o aço era fabricado fundindo minério de ferro e carvão juntos e depois misturando calcário e outros ingredientes.

Em 1975, quando a crise do petróleo acelerou a demanda por carros mais leves, a indústria desenvolveu um novo tipo de aço, acrescentando uma quantidade cada vez mais complexa de elementos, como nióbio ou vanádio, que tornaram o aço mais leve, sem diminuir sua força.

“Esses aços microligados ajudaram a compensar os desafios apresentados pelas fábricas de alumínio e a atender aos padrões cada vez mais elevados de eficiência no consumo de combustível e normas relativas a acidentes”, diz Ron Krupitzer, vice-presidente de aplicações automotivas do Instituto de Desenvolvimento do Mercado do Aço, entidade dos Estados Unidos.

Uma terceira fase de inovação do aço, que está em desenvolvimento há uma década, baseia-se menos em novas ligas e mais no processamento térmico.

Ao aquecer, resfriar e reaquecer o aço em diferentes estágios, as siderúrgicas podem produzir um metal ao mesmo tempo duro e flexível, diz David Matlock, metalurgista da Escola de Mineração do Colorado, nos EUA, que já trabalhou em várias montadoras e siderúrgicas.

A ArcelorMittal SA, a United States Steel Corp e a Severstal OAO têm suas próprias versões do novo tipo de aço. Em Leipsic, no Estado americano de Ohio, a U.S. Steel, em uma joint venture com a Kobe Steel Ltd., do Japão, está construindo uma linha de produção de US$ 400 milhões para o aço automotivo de alta resistência, a ser inaugurada em 2013.

No ano passado a Severstal, sediada na Rússia, anunciou planos para fabricar um tipo de aço automotivo que chamou de revolucionário. Os engenheiros da Severstal disseram que a nova linha em sua fábrica de Dearborn, no Estado americano de Michigan, que fornece para a Ford Motor Co. e outras montadoras, baseia-se em uma fórmula secreta de recozimento contínuo do aço, que envolve resfriar o aço com água – ou seja, temperá-lo – e logo em seguida reaquecê-lo.

Isso, diz Severstal, criaria um aço de alta resistência mais avançado, com índice de alongamento de mais de 40% — ou seja, ele pode alongar-se a mais de 40% do seu tamanho atual — e uma força de até 2.000 Megapascais, uma medida científica da rigidez de um material. A maioria dos tipos de aço tem resistência máxima de 1.000 Megapascais.

A empresa solicitou e recebeu aprovação condicional de um empréstimo de US$ 730 milhões do Departamento de Energia dos EUA, com a justificativa de que a nova linha de produção não existe em nenhum outro lugar. “Não existem nos EUA fabricantes de chapa de aço que produzam esse tipo de aço avançado de alta resistência de terceira geração”, diz Christopher Kristock, vice-presidente de engenharia avançada da Severstal.

A ArcelorMittal argumentou que o processo não é novo, que outras siderúrgicas, incluindo ela própria, o utilizam também, e pressionou, com sucesso, o Departamento de Energia para retirar o empréstimo.

“Nossas três linhas automotivas de recozimento contínuo na América do Norte, assim como algumas de nossas linhas de galvanização contínua, são capazes de produzir os aços avançados de alta resistência terceira geração que apresentam resistência de mais de 1.000 Megapascais com boa ductilidade”, diz Blake Zuidema, diretor de aplicações para produção automotiva na ArcelorMittal.

Analistas independentes dizem que esses desenvolvimentos representam, provavelmente, uma evolução, e não uma revolução.

“As siderúrgicas continuam fazendo grandes esforços para mostrar que estão progredindo gradativamente”, diz Chuck Bradford, analista de metais da Bradford Research Inc. em Nova York. Ele pede ceticismo: “A definição de Terceira Geração é bem ampla.”

Enquanto isso, os fabricantes de automóveis ainda não desejam emitir opiniões.

“Estamos acompanhando os fatos relativos ao aço avançado de alta resistência de terceira geração, mas ainda é muito cedo para oferecermos uma perspectiva sobre as expectativas e as possíveis aplicações”, diz Bill Grotz, porta-voz da General Motors Co.

Hoje um carro médio contém apenas cerca de 80 quilos do novo aço avançado de alta resistência, mas espera-se que essa quantia dobre até 2020, segundo a consultora Ducker Worldwide. Já a quantidade de aço comum que um carro médio contém deverá diminuir de 694 quilos para cerca de 440 quilos.

“This isn’t me,” says the 17-year-old heroine of “Pariah,” a remarkable debut feature, by Dee Rees, that opens today in national distribution. One of the two things she’s talking about is a dress her mother wants her to wear to church. The other is an essence of self—an irreducible Me—that she has already identified but can’t yet declare. Alike—she pronounces her name ah-LEE-kay—is a black lesbian living in Brooklyn. She’s played by Adepero Oduye, who gives a performance, first heartbreaking and later thrilling, that swings between the darkness of spiritual isolation and the incandescence of self-discovery, with quiet interludes of affecting earnestness. Alike’s religious mother, Audrey (Kim Wayans), refuses to credit the evidence of her eyes and heart. “I know God doesn’t make mistakes,” she insists. But there’s no mistaking the nature of Alike’s struggle, or the abundance of talent that’s gone into the making of Ms. Rees’s semiautobiographical film. (Bradford Young did the fine cinematography.)

“Pariah” is genuinely original, even though the theme of a gay person’s coming out is familiar, and the title, along with the setting and milieu, suggests a similarity to “Precious.” The similarity, though, is barely skin-deep. Unlike the illiterate, obese and inarticulate Precious, this heroine is vivacious, attractive and constantly out there seeking love and acceptance. (Alike is also portrayed as such a gifted writer that the film’s resolution feels like a bit of a cheat.) The originality lies in the details, and the dramatic energy that sustains almost every scene.

Watch a clip from the film “Pariah,” starring Adepero Oduye. Video courtesy of Focus Features.

Charles Parnell is seductive and obtuse as Alike’s father, Arthur, an NYPD detective who, in an abject failure of detection, insists on seeing her as daddy’s little girl. Pernell Walker is her best friend, Laura, and Aasha Davis is Bina, the supposedly straight daughter of one of Audrey’s co-workers. It’s not fair to say that Ms. Davis steals scenes—one of the movie’s strengths is its ensemble cast—but she supercharges every scene she’s in.

‘Swastika’

The description on Amazon reads like a bizarre joke: “Swastika, starring Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun, Josef Goebbels et al.” It’s bizarre, but no joke. Hitler, his mistress and some of his henchmen are the real-life subjects, if not the stars, of Philippe Mora’s controversial 1973 documentary. The film was denounced when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival almost four decades ago, then was banned in Germany for 37 years; only this week has it become available on DVD. Some of the scenes, intercut with Nazi propaganda films and ominous newsreel footage of the Nazis’ rise to power in the 1930s, were shot by Braun in 16mm color. They’re home movies, with all the cheerfulness and awkwardness the term implies, except that the home is Obersalzberg, Hitler’s Bavarian mountain retreat, where Hitler is seen giving a persuasive—unless you pay close attention—impression of a full human being.

That appearance of humanity—not just on the part of the Führer, but of Goebbels, Martin Bormann, Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler and lesser monsters appearing briefly—is at the root of the controversy. And it’s a fascinating question. Is our understanding of history served well or ill by the spectacle of Hitler playing with dogs, making nice with bright-faced children, chatting up his secretaries, posing stiffly in various uniforms, deploring Göring’s shooting of a boar (“What kind of courage is that? He should go into the forest with a spear”), admiring a visitor’s Bolex movie camera (“Ah, color film,” he says, “the future belongs to color film”), or talking amiably with guests about “Gone With the Wind”?

(Braun, in her turn, picks flowers, does gymnastics, cuddles a bunny, muses about Clark Gable—he’s “clever as well as handsome”—and smiles wood-nymphishly in scenes shot by someone else using her camera, which was loaded, we are told in the DVD’s accompanying material, with Kodak Ektachrome film that was available in Nazi Germany only with a special import license.)

The film makes a preliminary case for itself in an eloquent preface: “If the human features of Hitler are lacking in the image of him that is passed on to posterity, if he is dehumanized and shown only as a devil, any future Hitler may not be recognized, simply because he is a human being.” But it makes a better case with the scorching ironies of its substance.

A harvest festival, staged for the newsreel cameras with insistent joy, is intercut with scenes of Nazi thugs smashing the windows of Jewish-owned shops. One notably noxious moment in which a fawning Hitler sits an adorable little girl on his lap is juxtaposed with a Nazi soldier kicking a pregnant woman. The triumphalism of the propaganda films produced by Goebbels’s ministry gives way to particularly horrific scenes of death-camp corpses, and seemingly endless vistas of a Berlin reduced to rubble by Allied bombing. And just in case those ironies aren’t strong enough, a couple of music cues are troweled on: Helen Morgan singing “What Wouldn’t I Do for That Man?” over shots of an ardent Braun, and Noël Coward singing “Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans” as the camera pulls up, Google Earth-like before its time, from an aerial photograph of Berlin that widens into a panorama of all of Europe.

Paying close attention to the Hitler of these home movies gives one a deepened sense of who he was. His smile is mirthless. His gaze is unsteady, or furtive. His eyes are dead, as if he’d been filmed in the sort of cheap motion-capture animation that turns faces into glove puppets. He smoothes his hair with a repetitiveness that amounts to a tic. He gives children ritual pats on the cheek, but reveals his emotional detachment during a 1938 Munich “celebration for dead comrades” when, confronted by a girl convulsed with grief—presumably for her dead father—he administers a pat that amounts to the kind of whack one would give a playful dog. And when a group of puppies first surround him and then ignore him, he seems puzzled and put off. “They don’t appreciate a friend,” he says to no one in particular. With a friend like Hitler, the puppies must have sniffed something in the wind.

‘It’s About You’

MPI Media Group

John Mellencamp (with a photo of the ‘Million-Dollar Quartet’) in ‘It’s About You.

As an advocate of seeing feature films on a big screen, I try to practice what I preach—seeing movies for review in screening rooms rather than on DVD screeners, even though I have a flat-panel display in my living room that transcends anything I could have imagined before these gorgeous megagizmos became as common as, well, flat-panel displays. That said, I have a confession to make. I watched “It’s About You” on a screener, and justified doing so by the fact that this documentary about John Mellencamp was shot on blurry Super 8 film; blowing it up to fill a theatrical screen could only make it look worse. I must also confess that several times during the first few minutes I reached for the remote to turn it off. Yet my finger never hit the stop button.

“It’s About You” was made by the noted photographer Kurt Markus with his son Ian. Its ostensible—and often actual—purpose was to follow the unquenchable Mr. Mellencamp on his 2009 tour and document the making of his album “No Better Than This” in historic locales. The main thing that put me off was the use of Super 8. This struck me as an affectation in the digital age, and one that imposed a practical penalty: no accurately synchronized sound (though the filmmaker’s son did, in fact, record the music digitally).

But the Mellencamp band was also using relatively primitive equipment—an old mono tape recorder from the 1950s and a single microphone. Soon I realized that the real subject of this film, with its philosophical voice-overs by the filmmaker and its haunting shots of decayed American downtowns, is the passage of time and the toll it takes. The effect of the Super 8 is to give present moments historical weight by making them look primitive; it’s a kind of instant oldening that seems to pause time if not to stop it. “It’s About You” is an odd and touching little film. I’m glad I stuck it out.

Write to Joe Morgenstern at joe.morgenstern@wsj.com

By NANDO DI FINO

Reuters

Miami Dolphins running back Ronnie Brown has been a one-man house of horrors for his fantasy team owners.

It’s an ages-old horror movie trope: a teen approaches a dark, abandoned house. We know the bad guy awaits. The kid is about to get killed. It’s the “Don’t go in there!” moment.

The same thing happens in fantasy football. Every year, we see certain players, we sense there might be something wrong, but we take them anyway. Almost every time, they get us right in the gut. Here are this year’s main culprits, and our take on whether you should run away while you still can or hobble up the steps anyway in the hopes that things might improve:

Jamaal Charles, RB, Kansas City

Don’t go in there!: In March, the Chiefs signed Thomas Jones, who had rushed for 1,402 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2009 with the New York Jets.

We went in the house anyway because:
Veteran backs in crowded backfields typically fade away in favor of younger runners. It happened to Larry Johnson, Brian Westbrook, Marshawn Lynch and Justin Fargas this year. This could have legitimately been the case with the oft-injured 31-year-old Mr. Jones.

I told you not to go in there!: Although Mr. Charles is averaging over 100 yards per game in total offense, Mr. Jones was the first to reach 100 yards rushing in a game and has double the touchdowns (two to one) on the season.

Should I run away?: No. Mr. Jones has a history of injury problems, and Mr. Charles is younger and fresher. If he takes over the full-time job, he’ll have plenty of energy stored up to give your team some big numbers toward the end of the playoffs.

Jerome Harrison, RB, Cleveland/Philadelphia

Don’t go in there!: Even though Mr. Harrison finished 2009 with games of 286, 148 and 127 yards, the Brows seemed reluctant to fully commit to him as their every-down back.

We went in the house anyway because: He finished 2009 with 286, 148, and 127 yards in his last three games. And because his biggest competition in the backfield, Peyton Hillis, had 54 total yards rushing over 14 games last season.

I told you not to go in there!: After largely sitting on the shelf in Cleveland, he was eventually traded to Philadelphia, where he sat out the first game as a healthy inactive while still learning the system. In other words, he remains an iffy play.

Should I run away?: At this point, it might be wise to hold onto him for another week, and monitor Eagles running back LeSean McCoy’s injury. Harrison has shown that he can put up big numbers in a game, and he just needs the opportunity. Philadelphia might be his best chance.

DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, RBs, Carolina

Don’t go in there!: Carolina began the season with a relatively unknown quarterback in Matt Moore and only one big-play receiver, Steve Smith. It was pretty much telegraphed that the Panthers would continue to run the ball, and defenses would eventually catch on.

We went in the house anyway because: Carolina ranked third in the NFL in total rushing in 2009 and 2008. This was one of those rare backfields where either RB could bring back value any given game.

I told you not to go in there!: Carolina is averaging just 99.6 yards rushing per game. Total. The only teams scoring fewer than their two total touchdowns on the ground this season are Dallas, Buffalo and Miami.

Should I run away?: Yes. Try to trade on their name recognition and shield potential partners from the fact that with Mr. Smith out again, Carolina’s receiving corps this weekend consists of two rookies and then two receivers who haven’t been with the team for more than a month, which most likely means defenses keying in on the running backs even more.

Marques Colston, WR, New Orleans

Don’t go in there: This was one of those shockers that nobody sees coming. Mr. Colston has yet to score a touchdown on the season, while putting up games of 53, 36 and 25 yards.

We went in the house anyway because: It was all clear. Mr. Colston was coming off his third 1,000-yard receiving season, with nine touchdowns and a Super Bowl ring.

I told you not to go in there!: The 32nd overall pick in ESPN Fantasy leagues, Mr. Colston currently ranks 98th in fantasy points and needs to average at least 66 yards the rest of the way to hit 1,000 yards receiving again.

Should I run away?: No. With Reggie Bush set to return, Mr. Colston will most likely have less attention on him and will probably find himself more free to catch balls and score touchdowns. If he hits that 1,000-yard mark again, his owners from this point on will benefit.

Ronnie Brown, RB, Miami

Don’t go in there!: Mr. Brown has been sharing the Miami backfield with Ricky Williams since 2005. He has just one 1,000-yard rushing season in his career.

We went in the house anyway because: It was raining…?

I told you not to go in there!: Mr. Brown has averaged 59.8 yards per game rushing this season, with just one touchdown.

Should I run away?: Yes. Mr. Brown is a fantasy Freddy Krueger. He’ll kill your team while you sleep.

C.J. Spiller, RB, Buffalo

Don’t go in there!: The Buffalo backfield already was crowded with Fred Jackson and Marshawn Lynch on the team.

We went in the house anyway because: Rookies are a chic pick every draft season because the ones that break out make owners look like they knew something. Plus, Mr. Lynch’s status with the team was iffy – indeed, he was traded to Seattle on Oct. 5 – and many fantasy players viewed Mr. Jackson’s success last year as a fluke.

I told you not to go in there!: Mr. Spiller has 80 rushing yards and no touchdowns on the season.

Should I run away?: Even if you want to argue that he set a career high in rushing last week, it was still just 31 yards. If you have a hardcore Buffalo fan in your league, now might be the time to dangle Mr. Spiller in a trade.

Write to Nando Di Fino at nandodifino@yahoo.com