The tube looks as if it was constructed out of the inner part of a huge roll of paper towels, but it is one of two surviving telescopes Galileo used in Florence in the 17th century, when he reshaped the cosmos with meticulous observations and startling interpretations.
There is, however, a startling new interpretation of the period which makes another viewing of "Shoah" necessary not as an immersion in sorrows but as a fresh experience.
I had expected startling differences in interpretation from these very different actresses, whom I saw play both parts in back-to-back performances.
But there is edgier stuff, including a Sex Season in August with dance group BalletBoyz performing "a quite startling" Kama Sutra interpretation, drama documentary Erotic Adventures of Anais Nin set in 1930s Paris and Edith Bowman uncovering the Top Songs to have sex with.
Still, Murray and Millett have synthesized the massive body of operational studies and, although their clear, levelheaded chronicle offers no startling revelations or novel interpretations, they ably illuminate the differences between the popular understanding of various issues and the scholarly consensus.
WHEN Fabio Luisi conducted Strauss's "Elektra" at the Metropolitan Opera in December, he illuminated startling subtleties in his exciting interpretation of the score.
"She gave a startling, most dramatic and effective interpretation which could jolt an audience out of its complacency anywhere," he marvelled.
A few days later, Meeropol returned to the club to hear Holiday sing his masterwork: "She gave a startling, most dramatic and effective interpretation of the song which could jolt the audience out of its complacency anywhere.
But both interpretations elicit a startling psychological complexity from its barbaric title character.
He filmed the dancers in excerpts from four of her longer pieces, including the startling "Café Müller" (1978) and her interpretation of "The Rite of Spring".
