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By Lori Stiles, University of Arizona News
Physicist
and performance artist Lynda Williams is bringing her nationally
acclaimed "Cosmic Cabaret" to Tucson March 26,
courtesy of the University of Arizona Steward Observatory
Public Evening Lecture Series.
A San
Francisco State University physics and astronomy teacher
by day, Williams morphs on stages around the country into
a professional dancer and singer known as the Physics Chanteuse,
presenting a multimedia MTV-style astrophysics revue with
original songs, parodies, and repartee.
Science
writer K.C. Cole of the LA Times said, "Every scientist
dreams of seducing people with the beauty and wonder of
the natural world. But few take it as far as Lynda Williams
- who puts her microphone where her mouth is."
A New
York Times reviewer described her as "the tall woman
in the silver lame jumpsuit, singing original love songs
to quarks and leptons in a voice that is somewhere between
Madonna and Eartha Kitt."
People
Magazine, Good Morning America, Scientific American, and
Discover are other media that have featured Williams, who
describes herself as "Bette Midler meets Carl Sagan,
with a touch of Tom Lehrer and Mae West added to the mix."
Formerly
media manager at the San Francisco Art Institute, Williams
began writing songs when a graduate student in physics at
San Francisco State University.
"Physics
is such a lyrical subject and I just naturally wrote songs
about it," she told the New York Times.
These
include "Black Hole Song" (to the Beatles' tune
"Blackbird"), a rap song titled "Player,"
"Hi Tek Girl" (sung to Madonna's "Material
Girl"), and, one of her big hits with physicists -
"Carbon is a Girl's Best Friend." Her greatest
hits are now available in her CD, "Cosmic Cabaret."
Williams
performs at planetaria and other academic arenas to audiences
ranging from school children to scientists who have included
Stephen Hawking. A declared feminist with a sense of humor,
she aims to inspire more women to careers in science.
Astronomers
are her favorite scientific audience "because astronomers
have a great capacity for fantasy and wonder," she
said.
The
Steward Observatory Public Evening Lecture Series has been
drawing public audiences since 1924. UA astronomer Tom Fleming
organizes the series, which is detailed on the web at http://viking.as.arizona.edu/~taf/pubeve/pub_lect.html
Web
site: http://www.scientainment.com
Cost: Free, with seating limited to about 240 people
Contact : Tom Fleming, Steward Obsv., 520-621-5049, tfleming@as.arizona.edu
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