tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73981393353660378882024-02-07T06:07:55.500-08:00State of the ArtUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger276125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-26153165505635095112015-02-26T10:05:00.001-08:002015-02-26T10:05:09.013-08:00The blog is moving....Hi, readers --<br />
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Thanks for following me at Blogger.com for the last three years. McClatchy, which owns The Charlotte Observer, has decreed that all its newspapers should have websites that look exactly alike and function in exactly the same way. So my blog posts will now run only within the Observer's website at <a href="http://www.charlotteobserver.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/state-of-the-art/">http://www.charlotteobserver.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/state-of-the-art/</a>. Hope to see you there.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-70486741912780055052015-02-22T18:13:00.002-08:002015-02-22T18:14:44.507-08:00Why you should've skipped the Oscars (Chita Rivera) Less than an hour ago, I was watching one of the great theatrical shows of my 50-year playgoing experience, as 82-year-old Chita Rivera and a three-piece band did a set at McGlohon Theater. To see her in action -- an opportunity I doubt Charlotteans will have again -- was to get a masterclass in how to hold an audience. She even did "Nowadays" from "Chicago," singing both her part and original co-star Gwen Verdon's. (She does a fine impression of Verdon.) As a refresher, here's what they looked like together on "The Mike Douglas Show," circa 1975:<br />
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Every performer has an ego; otherwise, none would get onstage. But the difference between Rivera and Jerry Lewis or Carol Channing (both of whom I saw in musicals in their 70s) is that she pours her energy into characters. Her memories are about her luck in having John Kander write "All That Jazz" for her or give her a great role as a weary mother in "The Rink." She didn't mention the Tony she won for the latter; in fact, she didn't mention a single award or accolade from any part of her career.<br />
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When I interviewed her a couple of weeks ago, she said she has always defined herself as a dancer. Perhaps that explains her work ethic and her outlook: Even great dancers usually take back seats to choreographers and, in musical theater, to directors and composers. We love them less for their personalities than their skill sets.<br />
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And she still has a skill set, more than six decades after her career began. She maximizes the physical and vocal ranges left to her and uses her face and upper body to convey details. She interacts cleverly with her talented trio: percussionist/music director Michael Croiter, bassist Jim Donica and pianist Michael Patrick Walker (yes, one of the composer-lyricists of "Altar Boyz"). She sings "Carousel" (from "Jacques Brel") almost without moving her lower torso and casts a spell.<br />
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She's magnetic and funny and has a rare star quality, the kind that doesn't say "Love me" or even "Look at me" but "Let me recreate great places I've been and great stuff I've been a part of along the way." If you skipped this show to watch Hollywood's orgy of self-congratulation tonight, you made the biggest error of the current arts season.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-1357658518625889232015-02-20T11:45:00.000-08:002015-02-20T11:45:41.891-08:00The 2015 Oscars offer one upset -- maybe<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-QoAZ2norMo" width="640"></iframe><br />
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In recent years, guessing who’ll win an Academy Award is about as tough as predicting who’ll become king at a coronation. Oddsmakers lay sophisticated betting lines, front-runners garner other awards in advance, the media begins to trumpet one candidate -- which feeds the frenzy of voters – and the tension on the big night is reserved for best sound effects editing and documentary feature.</div>
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Luckily, 2015 is different. Kinda. Three of the races, all dominated by veterans, seem to be over. The others? Still up in the air.<br />
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The three that hardly anyone has doubts about are best actress, supporting actor and actress. Fayetteville-born Julianne Moore (whose father was in the U.S Army Judge Advocate General's Corps at Fort Bragg) seems a lock as best actress; she’s not only playing the kind of role that wins awards (a woman suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s disease) but has been nominated five times.<br />
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J.K. Simmons is even more secure for best supporting actor. His appropriately showy performance as a sadistic teacher in “Whiplash” caught all eyes. Patricia Arquette will be best supporting actress, because she provided even more of the emotional core of “Boyhood” than the young actor at the center of the film.<br />
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The likeliest surprise of the night comes in the best actor category. Conventional wisdom leans toward Eddie Redmayne for “The Theory of Everything,” where he gives a body-contorting performance as Stephen Hawking, or Michael Keaton for “Birdman,” mainly because he has never been nominated before. (Both are good, of course.) I think Bradley Cooper may win on his third try: He’s tremendous in “American Sniper, which has become a massive hit ($300 million in North America alone), and he has the momentum at the moment – unless political controversy around the film drives voters away.<br />
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Best director and best picture have divided more often recently, but they won’t in 2015. Voters will reward Alejandro González Iñárritu for audacity in “Birdman” or Richard Linklater for tenacity in “Boyhood,” which he filmed over 12 years. I think they’ll want Richard Linklater and “Boyhood” – which happened to be my favorite film last year.<br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-37516049909283911442015-02-13T14:37:00.001-08:002015-02-13T14:37:36.903-08:00"Fifty Shades of Grey" -- an inspiration to us allMovie parodies appear nowadays as soon as trailers hit the Internet, sometimes even as soon as a film gets announced. But I have never seen people react as quickly and savagely as they have for "Fifty Shades of Grey," a picture that has triggered innumerable mashups and knockoffs. The one starring Steve Buscemi seems to have gotten ahead of the pack:<br />
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Or perhaps you'd prefer "Fifty Shades of Frozen:"<br />
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Or the take by Ellen DeGeneres, who does a lot of fake trailers for films:<br />
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There's also a short film called "Fifty Shades of Grey Gardens," in which Christian Grey tries to evict Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' relatives from a decrepit mansion on "Long Island." I'm still waiting for "Fifty Shades of The Grey," in which man-eating wolves chase the young lovers around until Liam Neeson saves them (thanks to my friend Matt Brunson for that idea) and "Fifty Shades of Gru," in which the hero of "Despicable Me" -- who is rich, domineering and generous, after all -- ties up female Minions and has his way with them. Or do Minions even have a gender?<br />
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The original movie, which opens today nationwide, is a turgid story of dominance and submission that doesn't raise the erotic temperature in the theater one degree. But anything that inspires wit in others, however witless it may be itself, can't be all bad.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-79979921793213302702015-02-02T13:11:00.002-08:002015-02-02T13:12:34.674-08:00Former Charlotte actor MacLachlan pays movie duesIf you want to find someone who's having a typical Hollywood career outside the star circuit, consider Angus MacLachlan. The UNC School of the Arts graduate, who acted for Charlotte Repertory Theatre in the late '80s and early '90s, shot a short film called "Tater Tomater" in 1990.<br />
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He kept acting and writing plays, but filmmaking called. He wrote the script for "Junebug," which introduced Amy Adams to fans 10 years ago and earned her the first of five Oscar nominations. Five years later, another script ("Stone") finally got made. Three years after that, he wrote the screenplay for the Norwegian psychological drama "Förtroligheten."<br />
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Finally, he made his writing-directing debut with "Goodbye To All That," which broke out at last year's Tribeca International Film Festival in April. Paul Schneider won the fest's prize as best actor by playing a man whose wife (Melanie Lynskey) startles him with her announcement that she wants a divorce; he embarks on ill-advised encounters with women his age (late 30s) and younger, while trying to keep the respect of his young daughter. Here's Angus (right) with fellow director Justin Weinstein at Tribeca:<br />
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The supporting cast included Heather Graham, Heather Lawless and Anna Camp. But in a crowded marketplace of first-run theaters, "Goodbye" more or less disappeared. IFC films gave it a limited release in late December; it hasn't played Charlotte theatrically, because the Regal and AMC chains (which own almost all the theaters here) prefer not to show films that have a simultaneous release on DVD or video, as this one did.</div>
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"So far we have about 15 markets," MacLachlan wrote me last month. "We've done NYC, L.A., Pittsburgh, Sante Fe, Winston-Salem" -- where he lives and shot the movie -- "and other odd, obscure ones: Coral Gables, Fla., Waynesville, N.C. Go figure.<br />
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"It is on all other platforms, and I think that's the way small indies are going. No one can make any money off of theatrical. It feels like in 4-5 years, this size film won't get any theatrical release at all."</div>
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By "all other platforms," he means Video on Demand, iTunes, Amazon and the usual suspects. And if he's right about his prognosis, 2020 will be a sad time in movie distribution. There should always be room for a heartfelt, gentle film about a person you or I might know -- or even be -- who's struggling to hit one of life's curveballs. We can't spend our entire entertainment-based lives watching aliens and sorcerers and teen boys or girls coming of age with mighty feats.<br />
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Or can we? More and more, movie distributors seem to think we can. </div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-50474837371475471262015-01-21T10:43:00.001-08:002015-01-21T10:46:22.636-08:00Elvis, Gandhi and 'Star Trek'I've been buried with work over the last two weeks, or I'd have taken time to notice three crucial January anniversaries.<br />
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First, Elvis Presley was born 80 years ago this month on January 8. Say what you want about his borrowings from black singers, country music and gospel: He remains one of the greatest entertainers of the last 100 years. As proof, here's an excerpt from "Jailhouse Rock:"<br />
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The ninth of January marked Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (Nonresident Indian Day), which commemorates the contribution of the overseas Indian community to the development of India. It celebrates the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to Bombay 100 years ago. Without his ideas about nonviolent protest, the life of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. might have been very different. We might not be wondering today if "Selma" was going to win an Oscar, because the march in that troubled Alabama town might have taken a very different turn.<br />
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And the third? The pilot episode of "Star Trek" -- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059753/">"The Cage"</a> -- was completed 50 years ago last Friday, with a very different leader of the Enterprise: Captain Pike, played by Jeffrey Hunter. NBC executives reportedly dismissed it as too slow and cerebral; the series debuted in 1966 with William Shatner commanding the ship as James T. Kirk, and this episode wasn't seen for two decades. Only Leonard Nimoy (as a more animated Spock than we came to know) and Majel Barrett made it to the series; she played "Number One" in the pilot under her real name, M. Leigh Hudec, but is best known as Nurse Christine Chapel to "Star Trek" fans. Here's the long-buried pilot in its entirety:<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-7821694591605065042014-12-18T15:07:00.000-08:002014-12-18T15:12:18.854-08:00'The Interview:' The faceless cowards win There's an emotionally stunted kid in every high school who thinks about calling in a bomb threat or pulling the fire alarm, then sitting in the bushes sniggering as people scurry out of the building. My high school had one, and I thought of him when I heard hackers had threatened Sony Pictures and theater owners if "The Interview" opened as scheduled on Christmas Day.<br />
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It never looked like a masterpiece to me, but it might have been funny. Here's the trailer:</div>
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As you see, it's about a tabloid show host and producer invited to meet North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, then assigned by the CIA to assassinate him. The announcement of its release prompted hackers to interfere with Sony's business affairs (including private internal communications) and threaten violence against movie chains that dared to show it. The film has been pulled everywhere, though I expect it to come out on DVD someday. That's where it would have made most of its money anyhow.<br />
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Commentators have correctly pointed out that a movie suggesting the death of a real person is in bad taste, even when he's a brutal swine. They've also mulled over the possibility that threats of real-world attacks were hot air (likely) and that further provocation of the still-unidentified hackers isn't worth the trouble (also likely, especially if the Chinese assisted the North Koreans).<br />
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Folks have also discussed whether this backing down by Sony will start a trend. Will ISIS threaten the same kind of reprisal if a movie makes the bad guys Islamic extremists? Probably not, unless someone declares open season on the prophet Muhammad -- we've seen that scenario play out in murder in Europe -- or ruthlessly mocks the Qu'ran. I'll be curious to see whether this incident triggers other kinds of reprisals, such as homophobic assaults on movies with gay themes.<br />
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Before the Internet, when bile was harder to spew anonymously and widely, people protested pictures in person. For example, the Catholic Church disapproved of the 1991 movie "The Pope Must Die," a comedy with no real people in it: A foolish priest was elected pope by mistake, arousing the ire of the Mafia and other villains. So church officials asked Catholics not to see it, to write letters of complaint, etc. Those protesters wanted demonstrations, not detonations.<br />
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Now the faceless cowards of the world call in their threats and hide in the bushes, laughing. We can't suspend them from school -- or from the Internet, for that matter -- so all we can do is weigh each menace and respond accordingly. No satisfactory solution has presented itself, and I don't think one will.<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-77066388627530514882014-12-05T13:05:00.000-08:002014-12-05T13:07:30.949-08:00Goya in Boston: An unmissable exhibitBefore I heard anything more than the words "Francisco Goya" and <a href="http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/goya?utm_source=google-grant&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=duringexhibit-1&utm_campaign=goya">"Museum of Fine Arts Boston,"</a> I knew where I'd be taking a mini-vacation this fall. Here's the scoop:<br />
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Goya remains unique in the history of western art. Over his 82-year-life, he evolved from rigorously formal paintings of the Spanish court to what could be considered the first "modern" art, surreal pieces that step out of time and come from some dark psychic place most of us don't dare go.<br />
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His brush gave us handsome princes and wizened witches, nabobs and nightmares, deeply religious pieces and savage attacks on corrupt clergy. This show has them all in 170 works culled from his six-decade career. (It represents about one-tenth of his output.) Yet at the end of the exhibit, you come upon a beautiful piece in which a physician comforts the aged Goya -- bringing him back from death, in the painter's estimation -- and you realize he never lost his ability to invoke optimism and hope.<br />
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You'd have to go to the Prado in Madrid to see most of the large paintings for which he's famous. But the curators for this show, reputedly the biggest Goya retrospective in America since the 1980s, have done an extraordinary job of revealing the whole man. They've grouped galleries according to topics (portraiture, sport, etc.) rather than chronology, so we can see how Goya thought and rethought about ideas. The show includes paintings, etchings and especially drawings, where he did some of his most unsettling work. Here's a famous example, "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters:"<br />
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Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes lived from 1746 to 1828. That span was marked by wars: The fight for American independence, the French Revolution and Napoleon's two attempts at conquest. In Spain, the latter took the form of the Peninsular War of 1808-14, when Napoleon installed his brother Joseph as king of Goya's native land.<br />
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Goya painted war like no one before him. A small drawing in the show depicts severed body parts hung on a tree like trophies, and no one until Civil War photographer Mathew Brady would make the battlefield seem so terrible. War was another form of "unreason," and Goya -- the greatest painter of the Age of Enlightenment -- spent his career attacking ignorance in politics, religion, social roles and the court.<br />
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If I had to take the collected works of one artist to a hermitage to study until I died, I'm not sure whom it would be. But if I took three, I know Goya would be one of them, and I would find something new every time I contemplated him.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-64363969831573723472014-12-01T13:11:00.003-08:002014-12-01T13:12:41.724-08:00Symphony Hall: Music like I've never heard itI heard the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the first time Saturday night, and my ears are still tingling.<br />
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Guest conductor Leonidas Kavakos led a program of Bartok, Haydn and Mussorgsky. He used the broadest tempos for "Pictures at An Exhibition" I've ever experienced, luxuriating especially in the massive brass chords. And though I've listened to that piece live and in recordings dozens of times, I really <i>heard </i>it for the first time.<br />
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Yes, having so many musicians onstage made a difference, especially when they're all first-rate. But the special difference was Symphony Hall. The program notes rate it as one of the three best halls acoustically in the world, along with the Musikverein in Vienna and Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. I haven't been to either, but it could be so: Every note, from low grumblings in the violins to the high whine of the oboe, came across with perfect clarity and projection. Here's a look at the hall in transition from a Boston Symphony to a Boston Pops set-up:<br />
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That's the sound you get when you build a hall specifically for an orchestra, which Boston did in 1900. As the program says, "The walls of the stage slope inward to help focus the sound. The side balconies are shallow, so as not to trap any of the sound, and though the rear balconies are deeper, sound is properly reflected from the back walls. The recesses of the coffered ceiling help distribute sound, as do the statue-filled niches along the three sides."<br />
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Contrast that with the Belk Theater, which has 500 fewer seats (2097 to 2625), is shorter front to back and has three tiers above the orchestra, not two. The overhang in the Belk is much closer to the stage, and the seats under it get diminished sound even during the best of mixes. The Belk's a fine all-purpose hall, useful for opera and dance and Broadway tours as well as symphony concerts, but it's not designed for one purpose alone.<br />
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Lest you think only the Boston Symphony can shine in Symphony Hall, check out this video of the University of Massachusetts Marching Band in the same venue:<br />
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Charlotte won't build another concert hall in my time at The Observer, maybe even my lifetime. So I'll have to fly to Amsterdam, Vienna or Boston to get a bead on the perfect sound.<br />
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P.S. Unlike the organ pipes in the Belk, which are as handsome and useless as a chiseled eunuch in a harem, the ones at Symphony Hall are actually connected to an organ console.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-18675401238230781102014-11-24T13:25:00.001-08:002014-11-24T13:28:51.345-08:00Obsession with The Beatles, 1964I was perusing a timeline from the year 1964, a watershed year in American and world history in so many ways. A military coup in South Vietnam pulled us into a decade-long war, the passage of a Civil Rights Act outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in the United States, Nelson Mandela went to jail and kicked off the ultimate transformation of South African politics.<br />
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And looking at the upcoming week, between the Roman Catholic Church replacing Latin with English in its prayer services and the Nobel Peace Prize being given to Martin Luther King Jr., I see this line: "Ringo Starr's tonsils are removed." (The 50th anniversary will be Dec. 2nd, should you want to plan an anniversary celebration.)</div>
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Here's an interview about that event:</div>
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People who complain rightly about our fascination with reality TV may have forgotten where this level of obsession first raised its ugly head: With the rise of The Beatles, who in 1964 were not only the most popular entertainers in the world but perhaps the most recognizable people in it, short of a president or pope. I am second to none in appreciation for their amazing music, but did we really need to contemplate the state of Richard Starkey's throat?</div>
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Movie magazines and the tabloid press had long carried stories -- most of them invented by publicists -- about stars, often purporting to say what they were "really" like. (As if they would then or now share their deepest secrets with journalists!)<br />
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But when The Beatles came along, audiences couldn't get enough information about their most insignificant habits: What they wore, ate, drank, read, smoked or slept on. The fact that Ringo sang in a clogged baritone (when the other three let him sing at all) didn't stop the media from contemplating the effect of the operation on his voice or the band's output.<br />
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Psychologists can speculate why people who eat this stuff up remain so attached to pointless minutiae. I just wanted to point out that my generation set the tone for an inanity that has now prevailed for half a century. </div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-58558173879453361662014-11-21T14:04:00.002-08:002014-11-21T14:06:44.379-08:00Auf wiedersehen, Mike NicholsThe obituaries for Mike Nichols, who died Wednesday at 83, rightly mentioned his status as an EGOT winner (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards). They praised his film and theater work over a 50-year career and recognized him as one of the few directors to succeed both on Broadway and in Hollywood -- and with both critics and audiences. Some even mentioned his early years as a performer, notably as a comedian teamed with Elaine May. Here's a sample:<br />
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But two of the most important things about him have been overlooked: English was his second language, and America was his second home.<br />
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The boy born Mikhail Pavlovich Peschkowsky grew up speaking German in Berlin. He emigrated to America in 1939 and became a citizen in 1944. Like a handful of European-born writers before him, Joseph Conrad and Tom Stoppard among them, he fell in love with the English language and made it his own.<br />
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He also had an immigrant's eye for American foibles. Think of the traits he skewered in movie after movie: The obsession with achievement in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," the corporate mentality in "The Graduate," the hollow lies we attach to patriotism in "Catch 22," our childish fascination with sex in "Carnal Knowledge."<br />
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Like Elia Kazan, who was born to Greek parents in Turkey, he came to love America but saw its shortcomings clearly. (Perhaps it's no coincidence that Kazan also had dual careers in film and theater. Both men thought verbally and visually and knew how to get the best from actors.)<br />
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I was lucky enough to see three plays Nichols directed on Broadway: Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" and David Rabe's "Streamers" and "Hurlyburly." I couldn't tell you why his direction worked: He did nothing showy or obviously clever. He simply elicited remarkable performances from people who had star quality (William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver) or were just hard-working actors (Paul Rudd, Dorian Harewood).<br />
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Nothing lay outside his ken. He directed or produced hit musicals ("Annie," "Spamalor") and heavy classics ("Uncle Vanya," "Death of a Salesman"). Nichols directed four Neil Simon comedies from 1963 through 1973, and all four were nominated for Tonys for best play. ("The Odd Couple" won.)<br />
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He was busy on Broadway as recently as last fall, directing a revival of Harold Pinter's "Betrayal." Nichols and Hollywood had long since fallen out. After directing an extraordinary version of "Angels in America" for HBO in 2003, he made just two movies in the last decade: "Closer" and "Charlie Wilson's War."<br />
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He still had the same cynically appraising eye for romance in the former and politics in the latter. Half a century on, he was proving that someone born to another culture may have the deepest insights into our own.<br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-24905174607580210442014-11-17T12:46:00.001-08:002014-11-17T12:48:08.272-08:00Dan Locklair has people singingCharlotte native <a href="http://www.locklair.com/wp/index.php">Dan Locklair</a> has darted all over the musical map: symphonies, chamber music (especially for brass), even a ballet and an opera. Here's a little taste of his style in an organ processional:<br />
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But he's probably best known for choral music, and a two-CD package issued by the MSR Classics label will show you why.<br />
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The longest piece on this <a href="http://www.msrcd.com/catalog/cd/MS1463">"Tapestries"</a> set owes its existence to Charlotte, specifically the Oratorio Singers and former director Mary Nell Saunders. "Windswept (the trees)" was dedicated to both and premiered by the Singers under guest conductor Catherine Comet 20 years ago; texts come from celebrated poet A.R. Ammons, a Whiteville native. The rest of the set ranges from Christmas motets to a brief mass. Here are some thoughts:<br />
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Even in a sacred text, Locklair's not afraid to syncopate. A "Te deum laudamus" may begin as a chant and end with a swing in its hips.<br />
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You can't always infer a composer's religion from his work -- Brahms wrote one of the great Requiems -- but a lot of this music has been set to Christian texts, almost all of them comforting.<br />
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He's not afraid of dissonance, though he never veers too far from tonality, and he writes for unusual combinations: "Windswept" uses a choir, woodwind quintet and piano. He can switch moods from drama to reflection quickly, as he does in these poems.<br />
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He's got moxie. Locklair reset the text we know as "America the Beautiful" to an ethereal wisp of a piece with only a mild climax, renaming it "For Amber Waves."<br />
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When he writes melodies, they're extended, rather than concise or catchy. "A Christmas Carol" repeats itself, as a traditional carol does from verse to verse, but it doesn't have a traditional hook.<br />
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He has a sense of humor: An inscription on a tombstone inspired his jaunty, 80-second "Epitaph."<br />
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He asks for patience. Literally so, in "Instant Culture," a piece mocking our obsessions with short-form events that deliver quick gratification. And metaphorically, in pieces that unspool slowly and require time to absorb. But then, he's a pipe smoker. I never knew a pipe smoker who rushed into anything.<br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-9365822964886151932014-11-14T12:47:00.000-08:002014-11-14T12:49:04.641-08:00How bad could 'Serena' be?<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/nqt1I1OL_Hg?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br />
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When "Serena" was announced three years ago, it sounded like a guaranteed Oscar nominee.<br />
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Stars Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper were en route to Academy Award nominations for "Silver Linings Playbook." (She won.) Director Susanne Bier had made the Danish film "In a Better World," which got the foreign film Oscar. Ron Rash's novel about the Lady Macbeth-style wife of a 1930s lumber baron had earned the 2009 PEN/Faulkner award.<br />
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North Carolinians took special note, because the story is set in our mountains. (Sadly, shooting took place in the Czech Republic. Shades of "Cold Mountain"!) And then...nothing.<br />
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The movie was supposed to come out at the end of 2012. Then 2013. Then, perhaps, the end of 2014. But every major distributor passed after seeing it. Now Magnolia has picked it up for a Feb. 26 release in 2015, during one of the dead spots in the filmgoing year. (The production company 2929 is a sister company, so perhaps Magnolia couldn't say no.)<br />
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The reaction of the British press and public may explain why. According to the snarky site <a href="http://www.crushable.com/2014/10/13/entertainment/serena-movie-terrible-reviews-jennifer-lawrence-bradley-cooper-terrible/">crushable.com</a>, these are actual lines from reviews after the film played the BFI London Film Festival last month:<br />
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"Have you ever wanted to punch a film right in the face if it, you know, actually had a face to punch? Well, that’s 'Serena' for you."<br />
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"Considering the chemistry Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper have – both as friends and frequent co-workers – they fail to fizzle here, and that’s down to the wafer-thin prose they have to spit."</div>
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Audiences spurned it, too: It opened on 185 British screens and earned less than $1,000 per screen. Naysayers suggest it'll go straight to video, though Magnolia generally releases its films for brief theatrical runs.</div>
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Now I want to see it even more, partly because I can scarcely believe so much talent would fail spectacularly and partly because I like an occasional cinematic train wreck. Bring it on!</div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-51963458656589481722014-11-12T12:28:00.000-08:002014-11-12T12:28:27.795-08:00If you're going to the mountains...No nature lover needs another excuse to visit the N.C. mountains in mid-November, even if the peak leaf weekends have passed. But if you're headed west, here are two arts events worth checking out. The first runs through early December in Boone; the second runs only this week in Tryon.<br />
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If you've never heard of Alsatian-born artist Carlo Demand, the two pictures above will show you the scope of his work: He illustrated for MAD Magazine (that's Alfred E. Neuman with ABBA) and was one of the greatest illustrators ever of aircraft, planes, dirigibles and other forms of moving machines. (When you see his work, you know he inspired the fantastical American artist Bruce McCall.)<br />
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Gastonia doctor Mark Moscowitz has mounted a retrospective of Demand's work at Appalachian State University's <a href="http://tcva.org/exhibitions/1456">Turchin Center for the Visual Arts</a>, where it runs through Dec. 5. Demand had an interesting life: This son of a French father and German mother was drafted into the German Army during World War II (when Alsace came under German control) but finished the war fighting for the French Army and the Allies. He retired from painting in 1991 and moved to the United States with his wife, dying here in 2000.<br />
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If music's more in your line, you'll want to be in Tryon for the opening of "The Joy of Bernadette" at <a href="http://tryonarts.org/index.php/box-office/event-calendar-detail/the-joy-of-bernadette">Tryon Fine Arts Center</a>. Writer-composer Sonja Karlsen relates the story of 14-year old Bernadette Soubirous, who saw an apparition in a grotto near Lourdes, France, in 1858. The apparition came to her 18 times; one visit led to the discovery of a pure spring which has become known worldwide for alleged healing powers and miracles.<br />
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The musical will run at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. The 45-person cast, crew and orchestra mix performers from the Carolinas, New York, Florida and Europe. Karlsen has held readings of parts of the work elsewhere and recorded 10 songs from it, but this will be the world premiere of the full-length version.<br />
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I'm not familiar with either of these personally. But if I were headed to the mountains, I would check them out.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-29417240648247917562014-11-05T14:08:00.001-08:002014-11-05T14:08:08.226-08:00Is the Atlanta Symphony going under?A deadline looms Saturday that could determine the future of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, which has been locked out since Sept. 7. You'll find the most recent story from last week's Atlanta Journal <a href="http://artsculture.blog.ajc.com/2014/10/28/aso-management-mulls-a-response-to-musicians-latest-contract-proposal/">here</a>, but the gist is this:<br />
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The musicians' ranks have been reduced over the years by retirement, deaths and departures to 76 contract players. Management wants to keep the number there for the indefinite future, with the hope (but no promise) that the total will rise to 90 over time. The musicians want a written commitment to increase the orchestra to a minimum of 88 by the 2017-18 season. Management has also offered a graduated 4.5 percent raise over four years; the musicians have proposed a raise closer to 10 percent.<br />
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So far, the ASO hasn't played a note of its season. Federal mediators have come and gone without finding a solution.<br />
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Apparently, this mess has been exacerbated by countless factors, including other financial moves made by Woodruff Arts Center management, the nonprofit parent group for the orchestra. I don't know all of those, but here are three thoughts:<br />
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1) Both sides probably have a point. For whatever reasons, management may not now be able to support an orchestra of the size to which players and audiences are accustomed. As far as I can tell, no ASO recordings have been issued for more than three years, so that source of income has dried up.<br />
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On the other hand, musicians are right to say they cannot play certain pieces properly -- Bruckner, Mahler, Richard Strauss -- without an adequate number of players onstage, and they won't sound the same if they consistently sub in per-service musicians. (Although the Charlotte Symphony imported two dozen people last week to play Strauss' "Ein Heldenleben," and it went well.)<br />
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2) The loss of an orchestra ripples throughout a community, not just a concert hall. Ballet and opera performances suffer. School groups don't get exposed to masterpieces. Outreach programs dry up. If this orchestra goes under, the people who buy weekend concert tickets represent a small fraction of the ones who will suffer from the fallout.<br />
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3) If this can happen in one of the nation's top dozen cities in population, it can happen virtually anywhere. The ASO has won 17 Grammy awards, mostly for its beautifully engineered recordings on the Telarc label, since the middle of the 1980s. Now its entire 70th season is in doubt.<br />
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Major cities with long-standing orchestras get used to having them around, as if they were parks or libraries. They're more like teeth: If you don't take proper care of them, they can decay quickly.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-72656439274492561842014-10-31T10:27:00.002-07:002014-11-02T13:37:26.198-08:00The curse of the standing 'ovation'Are you one of those parents who think each child in a competition deserves a special medal for taking part? Do you believe every employee in a workplace should get a raise, regardless of accomplishment? I think I saw you at the <a href="http://www.charlottesymphony.org/">Charlotte Symphony Orchestra</a> concert Thursday night.<br />
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You plodded dutifully to your feet at the end of Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto to applaud pianist Abdel Rahman El Bacha, who had played with staid competence. You didn't leap to your feet. You stood, zombie-like, and clapped long enough for him to return to the stage once, though barely long enough for him to get off again. </div>
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You do this with such regularity that neither I nor the longtime symphony fan next to me could remember the last artist who didn't get a standing O at the Belk. I thought back over 32 years in the Opera Carolina chorus and couldn't remember the last time <i>that</i> audience didn't stand.</div>
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Do you really think every performance deserves such a tribute? Performers, myself included, know better; we can tell when we've had a blah night. Do you think it's bad manners not to stand, because you're saluting a guest in our city? Are you trying to justify the cost of the ticket? ("I spent $89. This MUST be great!") </div>
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I'm not knocking El Bacha: You may have responded more strongly to his playing than I. But to rise at every concert means you can't distinguish between magnificent and mediocre performances or don't choose to.</div>
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If you're compelled to rise by playing far above the norm, more power to you. I do that myself: Wu Man's CSO appearance this month in a pipa concerto shot me out of my seat. But please don't do it as a ritual, because that devalues performances that really deserve a standing O.</div>
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To paraphrase country singer Aaron Tippin, you've got to stand for something special -- or you'll fall for anything.</div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-76600898785733173492014-10-29T11:53:00.001-07:002014-10-29T11:55:11.892-07:00Boo! Give me your money, sucker!"Ouija" earned $19.9 million Friday through Sunday, making it the top-grossing movie in America for its first weekend of release. This happened despite almost unanimously bad reviews (a 90% "rotten" rating on <a href="http://rottentomatoes.com/">rottentomatoes.com</a>) and negative word-of-mouth (a paltry 4.2 out of 10 from the notoriously easygoing voters at the Internet Movie Data Base). Observer entertainment editor Theoden Janes, a knowledgeable and avid fan of all kinds of horror, said he couldn't remember seeing a worse movie this year. A sample:<br />
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What can we deduce from this?<br />
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1) Horror audiences are so desperate and/or grateful for product that they will see anything at all. Literally anything, including a movie about a demonic spirit in a Ouija board that destroys people who use it. They don't wait to hear opinions from anybody else, including their friends: They bolt to theaters on opening weekend.<br />
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2) If you can make a movie for $5 million or less in this genre, you're virtually certain to get rich. The people behind "Ouija" have already quadrupled their investment before fans could circulate the word that the movie's a dud.<br />
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3) One key to box-office success with horror is a PG-13 rating. Would-be horror fans whose parents keep them out of R-rated movies demand tickets, boosting the take. Older fans may balk, believing the picture won't be terrifying enough, but younger ones will make up for them.<br />
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4) And the saddest conclusion of all: There's no need to make treasures if people will pay for trash. "Pan's Labyrinth," "The Orphanage," "Mama" and "The Others," my four favorite horror films of the 21st century, all scare me while making me feel something for the characters. (And all four come from Spanish-speaking directors. Hmmm....)<br />
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They don't rely entirely on bogeymen jumping out of dark corners, a fright so easy to achieve that any first-time filmmaker can manage it. They spook us by making us think about our own mortality, about what it means to risk death in a meaningful way. Nor does a film have to be deep to be good: "The Cabin in the Woods," another of my favorites, has plenty of screams but turns horror conventions on their heads.<br />
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I know I'm in the minority. "Pan's Labyrinth," which won three Oscars, took six months to gross less than the disposable "Ouija" will make in three weeks. As long as Americans are willing to buy junk, filmmakers and distributors will flood the market with it.</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-39184361289747753332014-10-27T13:18:00.001-07:002014-10-27T13:20:02.389-07:00Barry Manilow sings with dead peopleLet me begin by saying I'm a Barry Manilow fan, in a mild way. "Mandy" got me through all-nighters my senior year in college, when disc jockeys scheduled it incessantly, and I always let him play when I'm radio-surfing in the car and come across his songs. But his new album "My Dream Duets," which landed on my desk Friday, has me puzzled.<br />
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It consists entirely of duets with 11 people who have died, some as far back as the 1960s (Frankie Lymon, Judy Garland) and some as recently as 2012 (Whitney Houston, Andy Williams). Manilow was 70 when he made his contributions to these recordings, and even fans who admire his voice can admit it has a noticeable quaver.<br />
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Now I'm wondering if this is a trend. And if so, where does it stop? With Tom Cruise inserting himself alongside Humphrey Bogart in "Casablanca"? With a "pairing" of Jascha Heifetz and, say, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra? The idea seems pernicious to me.<br />
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In the first place, I'm not convinced Dusty Springfield or Mama Cass would have wanted to re-do "The Look of Love" or "Dream a Little Dream of Me" with Manilow or anyone else. Louis Armstrong might have agreed to a duet, but I wonder whether he'd have approved this strange overlapping medley of "What a Wonderful World" and "What a Wonderful Life."<br />
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People who control the estates of these artists did have to sign on to the project. But as Dr. Seuss' widow showed by green-lighting atrocious adaptations of his books -- see Mike Myers' film of "The Cat in the Hat" -- an heir's compliance is no proof the original artist would have said yes.<br />
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In the second place, some songs can't be improved. Williams' immaculate "Moon River" and Jimmy Durante's ebullient "The Song's Gotta Come From the Heart" (initially a duet with Frank Sinatra) don't benefit from tampering, however much Manilow's sentiments are in the right place.<br />
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The technology to do this has been around for a long time. I recall the bizarre union of Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline, who were both<i> </i>dead by 1981 when a remixed "Have You Ever Been Lonely?" went to No. 5 on the country charts. (They never recorded together but had each made solo versions before dying in plane crashes, Cline in 1963 and Reeves in 1964.)<br />
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Any artist might be tempted into a recording studio by the chance to "perform" with people he respected, and it's easy to do that when they no longer have any control over their music. But as my mom used to say, "Just because you <i>can</i> do something doesn't mean you should."</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-13681403764278335492014-10-24T10:30:00.000-07:002014-10-24T10:31:19.708-07:00It's never too late to declare your loveA couple of years ago, I wrote a profile of potter Herb Cohen and painter Jose Fumero, who were both in their 80s and living happily together in Charlotte after a long span in the N.C. mountains. (You'll find it here: <a href="http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/07/13/3380592/herb-and-jose.html">http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/07/13/3380592/herb-and-jose.html</a>.)<br />
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A friend e-mailed me this week to tell me that Herb and Jose surprised folks by getting married Monday at the house of a friend. Here's a photo, with Jose on the left:</div>
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I don't have anything profound to say about gay marriage being a good thing. I just celebrate two acquaintances who have finally been able to legalize a relationship that began decades ago and has brought both men joy.</div>
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You can love another human being openly or secretly, loudly or quietly. But if you mean to spend your life with that person, you want to declare your commitment to the world. As someone who knew his wife for 12 years before he married her, I know whereof I speak.</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-51711935526763580302014-10-22T13:04:00.002-07:002014-10-22T13:04:23.916-07:00Has plastic surgery helped ANY actress?The Internet seems to be abuzz about Renee Zellweger, who no longer looks as she did for the first 44 years of her life. Here are the old Renee and new Renee::<br />
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Zellweger has attributed the change to a healthier lifestyle, which pushes credulity past the breaking point. (A healthier lifestyle doesn't fundamentally change the look of your face, unless you were obese or rail-thin.)<br />
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I'm not interested in debating whether she should have had work done; she has the right to change her looks if her self-esteem depends on them. But I wonder whether <i>jobs</i> depend on them.<br />
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I'm aware that male Hollywood producers and actors think 45-year-old men can be rugged and sexy, while 45-year-old women have passed their primes. (I just saw a trailer for "The Gambler," starring 43-year-old Mark Wahlberg and 25-year-old Brie Larson. I don't think she's playing his daughter.)<br />
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I'm merely wondering whether plastic surgery has ever helped an actress' career. Has some producer said, "Wow, that 45-year-old used to be dowdy, but now I want her to star opposite Brad Pitt in my epic about the Revolutionary War"?<br />
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Jennifer Gray modified her Semitic looks after "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "Dirty Dancing" and headed straight for obscurity. Meg Ryan had work done a few years back and has appeared in just one feature film since: the upcoming "Ithaca," which she herself directed. I can't think of a single actress whose career became busier or more significant after noticeable plastic surgery.<br />
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Though I have mixed feelings about Renee Zellweger as an actress, I always thought she looked uniquely appealing. Now she looks generically attractive, interchangeable with other shiny blondes. (When I first saw the photo above, I thought she might be Kristin Chenoweth.) I wish her well, but what was the point?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-62227105523480844592014-10-20T14:27:00.002-07:002014-10-20T14:28:28.035-07:00Why no American studio would make "Pride"I saw just one movie last week on my vacation, the British import "Pride." I'd say Roger Moore, the critic we often use for wire-service reviews when I don't see a film, undervalued it a bit; I enjoyed this early-'80s tale, inspired by a real-life alliance between gay rights activists in London and Welsh coal miners. But the realization that struck me afterward made me sad: Nobody in America would have made this movie.<br />
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Why? Three reasons.<br />
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First, it shows obvious pro-union sympathies. We like to think of Hollywood power players as unregenerate leftists, but how often do they make films about labor movements? "Little man/woman takes on the system" stories are always popular. But a movie about striking miners being starved out by their government? Not bloody likely.<br />
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Second, one of the heroines is fat. And smart. And bold. In America, fat women in movies can be objects of hilarity, sassy best friends, maternal types or desperate loners. They can't be intelligent leaders who also have well-adjusted lives as moms or wives.<br />
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Third, the picture doesn't end with the lonely lesbian finding a girlfriend and the just-out-of-the-closet guy marching off to a happy future. (He's happier because he <i>is</i> out of the closet, but he's on his own and nearly broke.) Nor does the main bigoted character have an epiphany.<br />
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We don't deal in ambiguity in America; we like stories tied off with neat bows, with the virtuous people all rewarded and the wicked punished. Hollywood knows that and keeps them coming.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-21491651505810942902014-10-03T14:35:00.000-07:002014-10-03T14:36:28.948-07:00America's newest movie critic: Satan!Reviewers often end up in quote-filled ads, but this is the first time I've seen the Prince of Darkness weigh in on a film:<br />
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I personally don't want to see Nicolas Cage's "Left Behind," which opens today. I'm convinced that, after a decade of hilariously awful films interspersed with "National Treasure" sequels, Lucifer will be able to fill the Hell Plaza 12-plex exclusively with the likes of "The Wicker Man," "Drive Angry," "Season of the Witch" and other Cage mistakes.</div>
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But I'm fascinated that The Horned One chose this movie to criticize: not "The Passion of the Christ," "The Book of John," "Jesus" or countless other biblical movies. Apparently, this one will provide inarguable proof that some people will be taken to heaven during the rapture, while the rest will be dropped into the clutches of The Father of Lies. And if we see "Left Behind," we'll know that.</div>
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If you go to the film's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/leftbehindthemovie/photos/a.443366899063306.97223.410655045667825/704455939621066/?type=1&comment_id=704457639620896&offset=0&total_comments=605">Facebook page</a>, you find that Satan's pronouncement has stirred up hornets:</div>
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"Time is running out, but the good Lord will exhaust every opportunity for the lost. I think many will be saved. I plan to invite and pay for several people to come with me. Take that, Satan!"</div>
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Or this:</div>
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"It was signed "Satan". Meaning he doesn't want unbelievers to go! We are in the last days and he's doing everything he can to pull souls onto his side and creating havoc by destroying mankind!"</div>
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This isn't the first time a film distributor fabricated a critic's quote. Sony Pictures famously invented "David Manning" in 2000, inserting his fictitious comments (all raves) in its ads as if he actually worked at a media outlet. The hoax, exposed after a few months, forced Sony to refund $5 to anyone who claimed to have attended one of the movies because Manning extolled it.</div>
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But this is the first time anyone has snuck Beelzebub into a blurb, as far as I know. Who's next: Jehovah?</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-66617376744875766662014-09-30T13:26:00.000-07:002014-09-30T13:28:33.540-07:00Joe Green, the world's greatest opera composerThat's how my first music teacher referred to this guy, whose name (translated from Italian) is indeed Joseph Green:<br />
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And just in time for <a href="http://www.operacarolina.org/">Opera Carolina's</a> October production of "Nabucco" comes a new book from <a href="http://www.halleonardbooks.com/index.jsp?subsiteid=165">Amadeus Press</a> in its "Unlocking the Masters" series: Victor Lederer's "Verdi: The Opera and Choral Works."<br />
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I had already read "The Great Instrumental Works," M. Owen Lee's installment in this series, so I knew what to expect: A compact, lucid evaluation of all of Giuseppe Verdi's operas (including the obscure ones) and requiem mass, with whole chapters devoted to the most significant pieces.<br />
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Lederer separates Verdi's catalogue into major and lesser works (correctly, from my point of view), summarizes plots, indicates key arias and ensembles, and offers brief but pointed critical commentary. Even someone who thinks he's an expert on the composer might find insights here.<br />
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Most crucially, the book comes with a 79-minute CD of Golden Age performances of Verdi's arias. (No choruses, though. So no "Va, pensiero" from "Nabucco," the composer's first hit tune and successful show.) The oldest of these arias brings us tenor Edmond Clément singing "La donna e mobile" in French in 1904; the newest come from Bulgarian bass Boris Christoff and Italian tenor Mario del Monaco, both singing in Italian during the 1950s. If your grandfather droned on about the irreplaceable Claudia Muzio and Rosa Ponselle, you'll find out what he meant.<br />
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If you've never heard a note of opera, you'll want to start with a different overview of the art form. If you're already convinced that Verdi has no peer as a composer for the stage -- which I believe, Mozart fanatic though I am -- this will be a fine way to familiarize yourself quickly with Big Joe Green.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7398139335366037888.post-17958117718708042172014-09-26T14:30:00.000-07:002014-09-26T14:30:14.851-07:00Great young pianists come to Charlotte Technically, only one of them is coming in person; the other's arriving on disc. But both these guys knock me out.<br />
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I saw <a href="http://www.inonbarnatan.com/">Inon Barnatan</a> this spring at Spoleto Festival USA, where he played a revelatory version of Mendelssohn's First Piano Trio with violinist Livia Sohn and cellist David Ying. After 40 years of listening to classical music, I seldom hear performances that make me rethink a familiar piece of music deeply; this one did. I couldn't find a video of it, so here's Barnatan playing the first movement of a late Schubert sonata.<br />
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The Israeli pianist wasn't supposed to come to Charlotte. But when Mandy Patinkin cancelled his season-ending appearance with <a href="http://charlotteconcerts.org/">Charlotte Concerts</a>, the group snagged Barnatan and cellist Alisa Weilerstein (herself a Spoleto and Charlotte Symphony alum) for a duo evening. I can't imagine better fortune: We're getting one of the world's most in-demand cellists and the Israeli pianist who has become the New York Philharmonic's first Artist in Association, which means he has been booked there for three years' worth of concerts and recitals.<br />
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By the way, Charlotte Concerts opens its Halton Theater season Oct. 10 with a pair of pianists who reportedly cook up remarkable adaptations of the classics. I've never seen Anderson and Roe, except on YouTube. Here's their version of Astor Piazzola's "Libertango:"<br />
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And last but by no means least, the other keyboard whiz I've been listening to lately is Igor Levit, who's the youngest of the lot (27 to Barnatan's 35). I praised his late Beethoven sonatas in another post, and now I've been enjoying his set of Bach partitas. Here's a sampling of the first partita that shows his style: fluid, introspective, emotional (not a word I always associate with Bach, especially in the partitas) and warm:<br />
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The Russian-born, German-based <a href="http://imgartists.com/artist/igor_levit">pianist</a> plays nowhere closer to Charlotte than Cincinnati in the 2014-15 season, so I'll have to be satisfied with the two recordings he has made for Sony Classics.<br />
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When I was in college in the early 1970s, a piano fan told me we were living in a Golden Age: not just the last moments of Artur Rubinstein and Vladimir Horowitz but the rise of Murray Perahia, Maurizio Pollini, Alfred Brendel and many others. Another one seems to be on the way.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0